Women on the move: in Nigeria and Beyond. Mobilisations of Women, Mobilisations of Ideas

IFRA Nigeria/Institut Français/IAS conference

Friday 21st October 2016, Draper’s Hall, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan

IFRA was delighted to organise the public lecture “Women on the Move: in Nigeria and Beyond. Mobilisations of Women, Mobilisations of Ideas” jointly with the Institut Francais of Nigeria and the Institute of African Studies. The event took place in Draper’s Hall at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. We had the pleasure to host a multifarious and plentiful audience comprising academics, activists and many school children. We were happy to have Adejoke Rafiat Adetoro, master student at the History Dept, as our moderator.

The day began with a presentation by Sara Panata, doctoral student at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in France on woman collective mobilisations in South-Western Nigeria in historical perspective. A second year PhD student in history currently hosted by IFRA-Nigeria, Ms. Panata has been conducting regular field research in the Yorubaland on woman mobilisation from the early 1940s to the 1980s.

From left to right: Adejoke Rafiat Adetoro, Sara Panata, Dr Olutayo and Dr Falquet

Ms. Panata’s address was followed by Dr. Seun Olutayo’s presentation. Dr. Olutayo is a lecturer at the Gender Studies department of the University of Ibadan. Her interests include political economy and feminist movements in contemporary Nigeria. Dr. Olutayo addressed woman political participation in Nigeria nowadays and gave a perceptive overview of forms of African feminisms, including Womanism, Stiwanism and Negro Feminism.

Dr. Jules Falquet then gave a keynote speech about her research in the Global South and the consequences of neoliberal policies on woman conditions in Latin America. Dr. Falquet is a lecturer in sociology at the University Paris 7 Diderot. She has carried out extensive fieldwork in Latin America (Salvador, Mexico and the Caribbean countries), with a particular interest on social movements, revolutionary processes and neoliberal governance.

The Q&A session ensued with a number of comments and questions from a very enthusiastic audience, composed of academics and students from UI, high school students and feminist activists, which crowded the Draper’s Hall.

Dr. Jules Falquet accompanied by high school students from Ibadan

After the refreshment break, we screened the 2012 TeDx Euston talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie titled “We Should All Be Feminists”, which also sparked series of reflexions from our audience.

The day ended with the screening of the Oscar-nominated film War Witch by Kim Nguyen (2009), jointly with the Thursday Film Series movie club, which narrates the moving story of a young African girl forced to join a rebel group as a child soldier.