News

IFRA-Nigeria and the National Museum Onikan Lagos are proud to invite you to the grand opening of our exhibition "Beyond the classical: unveiling the unsung". Join us on 5 May at 11am to be the first to discover the forgotten artifacts of the Museum's archives, and discover a whole new perspective on Nigerian cultures!

This event is part of our Nigerian Alternative Heritages project, financed by the French Embassy Fund. Scroll below to learn more about this one of a kind event! 

The exhibition will be open to the public from 5 to 13 May, only at the National Museum Onikan Lagos.

(French below)

We're proud to announce the publication of the latest Cahiers des UMIFRE, the journal of France's international research institutes! This year's theme, "What does the question of gender reveal about societies?" includes our Life After Trafficking project, highlighted through the article Une étude transnationale de la traite des êtres humains du Nigéria vers l'Europe, written by its coordinators, Elodie Apard and Precious Diagboya . IFRA-Nigeria's Director, Barbara Morovich, also features for her December 2023 dialogue with architect Demas Nwoko on "Architecture for the people" at the Alliance Française in Lagos (the full conference is available on our YouTube channel).

For French speakers, you can find the Cahier on the UMIFRE's website. 

Nous sommes fiers d'annoncer la publication des derniers Cahiers des UMIFRE, la revue des instituts de recherche internationaux français ! Le dossier central de cette année, «  Ce que la question du genre dit des sociétés ? » inclut notre projet Life After Trafficking, mis en lumière par l'article Une étude transnationale de la traite des êtres humains du Nigéria vers l'Europe, écrit par ses coordinatrices, Elodie Apard et Precious Diagboya . La directrice de l'IFRA-Nigeria, Barbara Morovich, est également présente pour son dialogue de décembre 2023 avec l'architecte Demas Nwoko sur « L'architecture pour le peuple » à l'Alliance française de Lagos (l'intégralité de la conférence est disponible sur notre chaîne YouTube).

Vous pouvez accéder au Cahier sur le site des UMIFRE.

On 15 April, we welcomed Dr Sa'eed Husaini from the Centre for Democracy and Development in Abuja  for our latest Methodological Seminar "On glass-eating priests and political party structures in Nigeria". Reflecting on his PhD research in Zaria and most of all Ekiti states, he highlighted how to manage positionality as a researcher in contact with political parties. Describing more specifically his own work, he also encouraged the attendants to question the dominant discourses of academia, which may not be as neutral as it appears.

Scroll below for a full summary of Dr Husaini's presentation.

On 3 April, Ibadan came alive with music and dance as a vibrant parade made its way through the city — the National Museum of Unity's rally, offering a creative and engaging way to promote awareness of the museum’s activities. This celebration of culture was organized as part of IFRA-Nigeria's Alternative Heritages project, recipient of the French Embassy Fund (FEF). Scroll to see some pictures of this lively event!

Between 8 and 9 April,  IFAS-Research in collaboration with IFRA-Nigeria, the History Workshop of Witwatersrand University, the University of Lille and the Worker's Museum of Johannesburg, organized a two-day workshop on the theme "Alternative Archives: Methods and objectives. Conversations between South Africa and Nigeria". This event brought together a diverse group of voices to engage in meaningful discussions about archives—both digital and non-digital—and their role in shaping history. More specifically, they focused on how to preserve non-institutional archives, non-colonial, and recovering forgotten or suppressed narratives.

Three of IFRA-Nigeria's collaborators also shared their work on archival preservation. Olushola Patrick Babalola, our documentalist and archivist, presented his efforts in training archivists in new techniques, alongside his own digitisation projects. In addition, two coordinators of our Alternative Archives Project highlighted their preservation initiatives, both within the project framework and through their individual research. Femi Olanrewaju showcased his work on preserving traditional architecture in Ibadan, while Dr Sa'eed Husaini discussed his project focused on the digitisation of militant archives. Scroll below to see pictures of this great event!

Visit the IFAS website to see the full program and the complete list of speakers.

Between 19 and 27 March 2025, IFRA-Nigeria's Deputy Director Delphine Manetta, was on a mission at Uppsala University in Sweden. There she met with the anthropological department of the University and participated in two events.

We had the pleasure to welcome Dr Abiola Ayodokun for a Methodological Seminar on 8 April, on the theme "Ethnography of gender in charcoal production". Dr Ayodokun presented the work she carried out for her PhD presentation, and the challenges she had to face to be accepted in the traditional communities she studied. She described how she needed to account for cultural sensitivities, religion and the use of working with a research assistant who could open doors.

This Seminar was a very interactive one, with fellow researchers and students sharing their questions, experiences and opinions on the topic of positionality and how to adapt to different cultural norms. You can scroll to read a full summary of Dr Ayodokun's presentation.

The newest issue of Sources is out! Enjoy free access to this interdisciplinary, multilingual, open-access peer-reviewed journal.

This ninth volume titled “Varia” invites us to follow empirical approaches and the collection of material leading to original research on African societies.

Read it now!

Scroll below for more details

The two open-access, peer reviewed journals Sources and Revue d'Histoire Contemporaine de l'Afrique are planning a special double issue on the theme “Return(s) to Africa”, to be published in October 2026.

This topic is particularly relevant at a time when the African Union has placed the year 2025 under the banner of “justice for Africans and people of African descent through reparations,” and when African states are discussing and adopting laws to facilitate access to nationality for Afro-descendants. This issue aims to center the often implicit and little documented dimension of these mobilisations, that of the migration of Afro-descendants to Africa, commonly referred to under the expression Back to Africa.

Deadline for submission of proposals: 15/05/2025

Download the ToR in English   /   Téléchargez les TdR en français or check the Sources website!

IFRA is proud to announce that we are co-organizing the International Symposium "Working with Masculinities" in collaboration with the Institut des Mondes Africains (IMAF) and Tampere University. This exceptional event is taking place on 26-27 March 2025, at IMAF in Aubervilliers. 

IFRA’s own deputy director, Delphine Manetta, will be the moderator for the “Workers, Spaces, Cultures and (Post)Colonial Orders” panel!

 Open to researchers with sound field experience, this symposium aims to reassess the place of masculinities in contemporary economies, whether through a reflection on work, on men's participation in household-making, or on the lifestyles associated with conceptions of masculinity. By taking a cross-disciplinary approach, this symposium will shed light on the entangled material and symbolic dynamics that shape contemporary masculinities in postcolonial contexts.

 You can scroll below to see the full program, or to download it!

We are excited to announce our upcoming event with the National Museum Onikan Lagos, the “Beyond the Classical: Unveiling the Unsung” Conference. This high-profile gathering for academics, culture and heritage professionals, and more will take place on 2-3 June 2025 at the National Museum Onikan Lagos.

This is the latest event of our Alternative Heritages Project, made possible by the French Embassy Fund (FEF).

We invite you to submit abstracts and present your research papers, innovative practices and/or case studies at this important event.

Deadline for submission: 20 April 2025

Read/download the full terms of reference below.

On 18 March, IFRA-Nigeria hosted the literary translator Mona de Pracontal for a one-of-a-kind event for IFRA-Nigeria: a translation workshop! Students and French-speaking professionals got to enjoy Mona's extensive insights in translation, based on her experience translating many authors into French, including many of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's books and most recently The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma. The workshop gave the participants hands-on French into English translation experience, and introduced them to French literature through the graphic novel Broderies of French-Iranian writer Marjane Satrapi.

Click below to read a more detailed account of the workshop and see pictures of this event!

On 28 February 2025, a workshop on "Digital transformation and integration of archival materials" was organized by IFRA Nigeria. The training workshop was carried out by an archivist from IFRA Nigeria, Mr Shola Babalola, supported by an archivist from the National Archives of Ibadan, Mr Austin Otigbu.

Twenty professionals were selected from different information centers like Libraries, Archives and Museums to participate.

The purpose of the workshop was to introduce and discuss the significance of transforming paper-based archival materials to digital contents and to look at the possibilities of integrating archival materials from different institutions into a specific platform for easy retrieval of information. The workshop also aimed at collaborating and creating an information sharing map  where archival resources could be access and shared remotely.

The participants had the opportunity to explore some of IFRA's archival resources and practice using the Institute's equipments. This event was a great moment of learning and capacity-building for Nigerian professionals working on archive and digitization.  

Click below to see some pictures of the event!

On 27 February, IFRA-Nigeria and IAS were proud to welcome Professor Sanya Osha (African Studies Centre Leiden & ZMO Berlin) and Dr Philip Ademola Olayoku (University of Ibadan) as his discussant for an exploration of the philosophy of decolonialism on the theme "Decolonial approaches in Africana espistemologies of the global South". Prof. Osha presented a historical overview of decolonialism in philosophy, emphasizing its African roots alongside its Latin American development. His discussion centered on three influential African philosophers—Kwasi Wiredu, Paulin Hountondji, and Olabiyi Babalola Yai.

He first talked of Wiredu, who is often regarded as the greatest African philosopher of his generation, and his theory of ‘conceptual decolonization', inspiring comparisons of Western and indigenous philosophies through epistemological and linguistic analysis. His contemporary, Hountondji, was a critic of the relativism of ‘ethnophilosophy' and sought to reconcile universalism with local knowledge through the concept of 'endogenous knowledge.' Finally, Prof. Osha discussed the work of a man he worked with extensively on the UNESCO's epistemological forum project, Olabiyi Babalola Yai. In his final words, he also touched on Afro-Brazilian intellectual traditions shaped by the transatlantic slave trade.

The event concluded with a discussion between Dr Philip Ademola Olayoku and Professor Osha on language, modernity, and power dynamics in decolonialism, followed by a Q&A session on the future of decolonial thought. Click below to read a detailed summary of this seminar!

Professor Osha's full talk in now available on YouTube!

On 22 February 2025, IFRA-Nigeria, in coordination with New Culture Studio in Ibadan, organized a showing of the stage play Òṣùpá Alẹ́, written and directed by Emmanuel Orisunmibare, and produced by Fasiat Busari. The play was entirely in Yoruba and offered a beautiful celebration of Nigerian heritage and culture! It was also a moment of festivity, as there was game and music before and after the event.

This event was held as part of the French Embassy Fund (FEF) "Nigerian Alternative Heritages", which is an instrument of the French Embassy in Nigeria seeking to support Nigerian civil society actors.