Conference : Green or Grey Urban Jungles : What Place for Plants in Nigeria's Cities?
On the 7th of June, The French embassy in Nigeria in partnership with IFRA-Nigeria organized a conference titled: “Green or Grey Urban Jungles : What Place for Plants in Nigeria's Cities?»” featuring Jomi Bello (director of WAFFLESNCREAM), Emilie Guitard (Anthropologist at CNRS/ coordinator of INFRAPATRI, a project about knowledges and attachments to urban plants in Sub-Saharan Africa), Folu Oyefeso (photographer, member of « Save Our Green Spaces Ibadan » group), Théo Lawson (architect and founder of Freedom Park), Iyabode Aboaba (Manager of Freedom Park). Tabia Princewill acted as a moderator.
On the 30th of May, a conference organised by IFRA-Nigeria titled “Religious Landscapes: Isese, Islam and Christianity in the Urban Space of Ibadan” on the 30th of May 2024 took place at the Museum of Unity of Ibadan. The conference hosted Professor R.O. Olaniyi of the Department of History, University of Ibadan, Professor Olufunke Adeboye also of the Department of History, University of Lagos and Mr Fatosin Awosola.
Between the 15th and the 17th of May 2024, the closing event of IFRA’s 2022-2024 FSPI (Solidarity Fund for Innovative Projects) program which aimed at furthering Nigerian Heritage Digitisation Program took place. The event was titled: “The now and the future: Digital technology at the service of Nigerian heritages”. In 2022, the Embassy of France in Nigeria and IFRA-Nigeria have been awarded funding to support efforts by Nigerian researchers and professionals, from partner institutions, to develop their ideas and projects on the conservation of Nigerian Heritage and Patrimony.
On the 2nd of May 2024, Beatrice Touchelay, History Professor at the University of Lille, presented a seminar on "What counting means. Gender and statistics in twentieth-century Nigeria". Beatrice currently leads a research project titled “Counting and classifying in French-speaking Africa from the origin to the XXIth century: Cameroon, Madagascar and Senegal, genesis of a continental network”, she also works in Nigeria. This methodological seminar was an opportunity to discover her methods and her work.
On the 25th and 26th of April, two study days, coordinated by Dr Barbara Morovich and Dr Ayo Adeduntan, took place at the Institute of African Studies. The first day was organized around hybrid conferences while the second one around a workshop. These two days, focused on digital humanities, aimed at fostering conversations regarding the epistemic predicament of inadequate documentation, compounded at the digital turn by the limited visibility of even documented African knowledges that are not born-digital.
On the 24th of April, Erwan Dianteill (University Paris Cité) gave a conference titled “from medieval geomancy to the church of Ifa (Nigeria, Republic of Benin): history and anthropology of a divination system". Femi Jegede (University of Ibadan) was a discutant in this conference. Prof. Dianteill’s presentation highlighted the history of Ifa and what the worship entailed, the relationship with other Yoruba Orisas (Esu, Sango, etc), the reason for syncretism and formation of the Ifa church, the geographical location of this practice and the globalization of the ifa practice itself. He also reviewed the differences and the similarities between the Ifa practice and the Ifa Church.
Between April 22 and May 3, 2024, in continuation on the execution of Earthwork conservation project of the Edo Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) and IFRA-Nigeria. A community engagement fieldwork was carried out within the three communities (Ugbowo, Iyaro and Oria) that agreed to participate in the project.
On the 17th and 18th of April 2024, IFRA-Nigeria in collaboration with the Edo Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in the ongoing IFRA-Nigeria FSPI project organized a two-day workshop Earthwork Conservation. The theme of the workshop was Rebuilding Conservation Monitoring Capacity.
The Nigeria Watch team, IFRA, the Department of African Studies of the University of Ibadan, IRD and the Institute for Peace organized the third Peace and Security in Nigeria (PASIN) conference between the 11th and 15th March 2024. During this period the Nigeria Watch team set up a training workshop on the methodological challenges of conflict studies in Nigeria with 25 Master and PhD students of the University of Ibadan. The students attended several lectures given by Nigeria Watch fellows such as Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos, director and founder of Nigeria Watch, Vitus Ukoji Nwankwo, project manager, Dr. Victor Chinedu Eze and Dr. Abiola Victoria Ayodokun.
Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique (French Institute for Research in Africa Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan), IFRA-Nigeria, invites consultants based in Nigeria to apply for the opportunity to undertake an evaluation exercise on a digitization project, halfway between research, arts and actions, which has run between 2022 and 2024. This project has been funded by a grant called Fonds de Solidarité pour les Projects Innovant (FSPI) from the Embassy of France in Nigeria.
On the 1st of March, following a research trip in South Africa, Barbara Morovich participated in a conversation with Judith Hayem held at 
On the 28th of February, Mutiat Dr Titilope Oladejo, in a conversation with Dr Seun Olutayo, presented her recent work on the role of women in the textile industry in Nigeria and The Gambia since the thirties. Dr Oladejo’s work is derived from fieldwork from Nigeria and The Gambia, where she tried to understand the textile industry in indigenous and modern forms through oral interviews, ethnographic work, and field observations. Specifically, Dr Oladejo presentation focused on her work in southwest Nigeria and Latrikunda in The Gambia.
On the 22nd of February, in Yemoo Multipurpose Hall (Ife, Nigeria), the Ife Sungbo team in collobaration with the National Museum Ile - Ife and the AG Leventis Museum of Natural History organized a workshop on Heritage Conservation awareness. The event was sponsored by IFRA-Nigeria. The workshop was structured as a roundtable which aimed at fostering exchanges between stakeholders that all relate to the Ife Urban Archeological Heritage in different ways.
Between February 19 and 20, 2024, Delphine Manetta, Deputy Director of IFRA-Nigeria, and Femi Olanrewaju, coordinator of the IFRA-Nigeria's project on the preservation of Ibadan's religious architectural heritage, took part in Scientific Days on Afro-Brazilian Architectural Heritage in West Africa (Benin, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria) and Brazil at the John Smith International Cultural Meeting Center in Ouidah, Benin. The theme of the event was 'Restoring lost links: preserving Afro-Brazilian architectural heritage as a cultural bridge between Benin, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria and Brazil'.
On the 15th of February, Pauline Guinard Associate Professor in Geography at the École Normale Supérieure de Paris gave a presentation titled " For a moving geography Reading urban transformations through emotions in the Greater Paris and Lagos”. During her exposé, Pauline talked about her academic path from viewing art as an object of study to art as a research method. She presented her current research on how residents experience urban change in Lagos and Greater Paris using a creative and participatory method and how art can be seen as a tool for taking into account the emotional dimension of people’s relationships with spaces.
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