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IFRA_Nigeria is pleased to announce the upcoming Alternative Heritage and Vernacular Architecture Conference, a premier gathering and a foundational dialogue for academics (confirmed, young PhD and Master students), culture and heritage professionals, architects, heritage conservators, art historians, archaeologists, …, taking place on 13 August 2025 in Ibadan. Two main sessions will involve an academic conference and a round table with different stakeholders cordially invite you to submit abstracts to participate and present your research papers, groundbreaking methodologies and practices, and case studies at this important event. The proposition will be chosen on the basis of an original perspective and fieldwork. Purely theoretical and second-hand abstract will not be considered as relevant.

Conference Theme: Alternative Heritage and Vernacular Architecture - A Foundational Dialogue

IFRA-Nigeria and the Institute of African Studies are pleased to invite you to another session of the "Critical Decolonialities: Afro-global perspectives" seminar series scheduled for 31 July 2025. This session will feature Linda Chernis, GALA Queer Archives, University of the Witwatersrand, who will present on “Queer Archiving – a decolonial practice? The experiences of the GALA Queer Archive”.

Linda Chernis will discuss ways in which queer histories and archives can be used to challenge dominant perceptions of history and traditional archives, including methods for ‘activating’ the archive, and making it more accessible and inclusive. Being an independent, activist archive that focuses on marginalised voices, she will invite us to constantly rethink how we work and how we add to and adapt from the traditional concept of an archive. In current tumultuous context, it is more important than ever to preserve queer voices, past and present, from the drive towards silencing and erasure that is sweeping large parts of the world.

On 25 June, IFRA-Nigeria, in collaboration with the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, hosted Dr Mutiat Titilope Oladejo (Department of History, University of Ibadan) and Dr Ayo Adeduntan (Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan) for another edition of the “Critical Decolonialities” seminar series. The session, titled “(De)Colonial Dynamics of Science-Based Research at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria), 1962 - 1983,” explored the evolution of science-based research at the University of Ibadan (UI) through the dual lenses of colonial legacies and Afrocentric renewal.

Originally established as part of the British "civilizing mission" in Africa, UI has since emerged as a vital space for interrogating and reshaping the production of scientific knowledge. 

On 11, 13 and 16 June, IFRA-Nigeria organized a practical research workshop titled “Observe, survey, map and draw relations with nature(s) in Ibadan Campus.” Its goal: introduce 20 master’s students to original methods of doing research, in particular anthropology and urbanism, and, most of all, to give them the opportunity to practice them within the campus.

Three researchers hosted this workshop: Dr François Nowakowski (National School of Architecture Strasbourg, France), Professor Aderemi Suleiman Ajala (University of Ibadan) and Dr Barbara Morovich (director of IFRA-Nigeria).

On June 2 and 3, 2025, the National Museum Lagos hosted the "Beyond the classical: unveiling the unsung" conference. A collaboration with IFRA-Nigeria, as part of the Nigerian Alternative Heritages project, made possible by the French Embassy Fund. A follow-up to the exhibition of the same name in May, it shared its objective to highlight the forgotten aspects and people of Nigerian heritage. This conference was a unique meeting of academics, archivists, documentalists and specialists of the topic. This event marked the completion of our first year of collaboration.

Each day, we welcomed two keynotes speakers: Dr Ayo Adeduntan who spoke on "Heritage Power and the Production of the Unsung" and Dr Oluwatoyin Sogbesan on "Alternative Heritage: Redefining Heritage Boundaries in Nigeria." Following a call for abstracts held by IFRA-Nigeria and the Lagos Museum, 12 papers from 13 researchers were selected to be presented at the conference.

See the full program.

On 18 June, Janet Ogundairo, assisted by Director Barbara Morovich and Deputy-Director Delphine Manetta, organized a panel on "Living at the Margins : Survival, belief, care and belonging among stigmatised groups in Africa".

Following a call for abstracts, Janet Ogundairo selected five papers on the subject of stigmatised groups in Nigeria to be presented at this session. She started by introducing her own work and the panel, before giving the floor to the panellists.

From left to right: Dr Barbara Morovich, Feyisitan Ijimakinwa, Cynthia Olufade, Janet Ogundairo, Joel Abah, Dr Bolarinwa Ogundeji and Dr Delphine Manetta.

On 17 June, 2025,  IFRA-Nigeria had the chance to present a panel at the 2025 Lagos Studies Association (LSA) Conference "Continuities and Discontinuities in African Studies", to present our activities, opportunities for researchers, publications, our resource centre and the work of our colleagues at Nigeria-Watch.

The panel included Director Barbara Morovich, Research Project Manager Marie Lureau, Deputy-director Delphine Manetta, Documentalist Olushola Babaola, and Nigeria Watch Information Retrieval Specialist Abiola Victoria Ayodokun.

The IFRA-Nigeria, as a partner of LSA, sent a delegation from 17 to 19 June, who had the opportunity to attend several panels, and the keynote lecture by Segun Adefila.

New Culture Studio organised the performance of the play "Law for Sale" written and directed by Emmanuel Orisunmibare and produced by Fasiat Busari, on 31 May. This event is a result of the collaboration with IFRA-Nigeria as part of the French Embassy Fund project, Nigerian Alternative Heritages. Thi stage play is a witty drama and satire on the decadence of the rule of law in society. It follows the life of a chief judge, who sells the law to the highest bidder. His inability to control his desire to amass wealth by selling the law led to a catastrophic revolt from the people.

Scroll to see some pictures

On June 11, 2025, IFRA-Nigeria and the National Museum of Unity hosted the latest event of their partnership within the Nigerian Alternative Heritages project “Giving ‘Hands’ to Overlooked Objects”. The event was centered on so-called minority groups and objects of shared heritage.

The National Museum of Unity, among its 2,500+ object collection, holds not only objects from so-called major groups in Nigeria but also from ‘non-major’ groups, exemplifying the shared heritage of Nigerian peoples. Specifically, the mask collection at the museum is evidence of the shared cultural heritage and objects of minority groups across different geopolitical zones in Nigeria. For this event, facemasks from the communities of the Igala, Ibibio, Uhrobo, and Idoma people were showcased. While these masks serve different functions and have varied shapes and meanings, they also share commonalities in religious significance and features associated with cultural festivals.

On 10 June 2025, Dr Mofeyisara Oluwatoyin Omobowale held a methodological seminar on "Doing Market Space Research: Auto-ethnographic Reflections" at IFRA-Nigeria Resources Centre. A Senior Research Fellow at the Social and Behavioural Health Unit of Institute of Child Health, College of Medicine at the University of Ibadan, she studies anthropology, public health, gender studies, child and adolescent health. She is a laureate, among other honors, of the American Council of Learned Societies-African Humanities Programme Doctoral Fellow in 2012 and Short Term Scholar, Brown International Advanced Research Institute (BIARI), Brown University (USA) in 2013.

On 5 June, Dr Sara Panata, Dr Segun Ogunsheye and Olushola Patrick Babalola, IFRA-Nigeria documentalist, held a training on digitalisation and the creation of metadata at the Ogunsheye Foundation. It was organised as part of the Women's and Labour Movements, Adult and Higher Education in Nigeria project, of which IFRA-Nigeria is a partner. Its goal: to digitize the collections of Professor Felicia Adetowun Ogunsheye, women's rights activist and first female professor in Nigeria, and Professor Ayodele Ogunsheye, businessman and adult education professor. 

This training was the first step in allowing team members to begin working on the digitalisation of the large quantity of valuable materials kept in the Ogunsheye Foundation. Scroll to see some pictures of the event.

On 4 June, IFRA-Nigeria Director Barbara Morovich and IFRA-Nigeria team went to visit the Ogunsheye Foundation for the official start of the Women's and Labour Movements, Adult and Higher Education in Nigeria project. They had the opportunity to meet all the project team, including the three team leads : Dr Sara Panata (Laboratoire des Afriques dans le Monde), Dr Segun Ogunsheye (Ogunsheye Foundation) and of course Felicia Adetowun Ogunsheye, the first female professor of Nigeria. 

After a visit and presentation of the two sets of archives, those of Professor Felicia Ogunsheye and of Professor Ayodele Ogunsheye, they got to observe the work of digitization of the archives. Scroll below to see some pictures of our visit.

IFRA-Nigeria and the Institute of African Studies are pleased to invite you to the latest seminar of our "Critical Decolonialities : Afro-global perspectives" series on 25 June. We welcome Dr Mutiat Titilope Oladejo, who will talk to us about "(De)colonial dynamics of science-based research at University of Ibadan (Nigeria), 1962-1983".

Universities in modern Africa evolved in the twentieth century as a colonial invention to fulfil the European civilisational agenda. Scholars have justified the establishment of universities as a project that exudes modernity and produces scientifically valid knowledge for human advancement. However, Africa has its rich human civilization that subsists over time in spite of modern sciences. With colonialism being an episode in African history, the African knowledge heritage suffices and also evolves with modern changes. Therefore, to what extent are Afrocentric considerations factored in the making of impactful scientific research at the University of Ibadan. Invariably, the University is taken as a site of research that exists in the frameworks of colonialism and decoloniality. The dynamics of (de)coloniality is unraveled in scientific-based research from 1962, when the University was relieved of its ‘special relationship’ status with University of London to 1983 when foreign funding interests declined.

IFRA-Nigeria, in collaboration with the National Museum of Unity, Ibadan, presents a special event as part of the Nigerian Alternative Heritages Project (made possible by the French Embassy Fund), celebrating Nigeria’s rich cultural diversity. It will feature a lecture by Prof Rasheed Oyewole Olaniyi an expert in Economic & Social History from the University of Ibadan, a mask-making workshop with sculptor Adebayo Adeleye Ajepe (Bayo Arts) and a roundtable discussion. Come to discover the shared heritage of non-major groups in Nigeria, explore the significance of masks, and learn the art of carving.

Practical information:

Date & time: 11 June 2025, 9am (immersion session) and 10am (main event)

Location: National Museum of Unity, Ibadan

Attendance: free and open to all, no registration needed

This series of articles focusing on the 2023 general elections in Nigeria stems from an initiative launched in 2022 by Dr Barbara Morovich, IFRA-Nigeria director, and Dr Cyrielle Maingraud-Martinaud: the Elections Observatory. Through it Nigerian researchers documented the concrete organization and experiences of elections in Nigeria. 

By choosing a variety of locations and foci from which to examine the 2023 elections, the articles that follow offer a view “from the inside” and from a local perspective in South-Western Nigerian localities and states. Adedeji Adebayo examines the strategies used by political parties to mobilize voters, both in political party secretariats and at polling stations in Ikere, a Local Government Area in Ekiti state. Working on the Iwajowa Local Government border area, Oyo State, Okechukwu Livingstone Ikefuama investigated how local conceptions of belonging, sometimes instrumentalized by candidates and political parties, can influence political participation to the extent of including non-Nigerian citizens in the electorate. Finally, Olasupo Olakunle Thompson studied the role played by central actors of the electoral process: the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ad-hoc collation officers in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Dr Sa’eed Husaini and Dr Delphine Manetta, are the coordinators of this Working Paper n°60.