23-24 September 2004, University of Leeds, UK

The aim of this Seminar is to review a moment in the postcolonial, situated in the city space of Ibadan, Nigeria. It reviews the work of that moment in art, history and literature, but should also interrogate why a particular post-colonial moment operates to bring forth particular forms of cultural productivity, and analyse those forms.

Ibadan is the major city of the Western region of Nigeria, aside from Lagos. It is a city with a particular place in Yoruba history, being the fulcrum of the late Oyo empire. However, this seminar is concerned not with the particularity of the city as Yoruba but rather with a moment within which there could be said to be a renaissance in cultural and academic production. Ibadan in the 1960s was the arena within which a number of international careers developed. Three main areas seem to be worth consideration here; literature, art and history. Within each particular themes and agendas emerged, but I would argue the three areas also encouraged and were encouraged by each other and by the milieu of the immediately post-colonial.

Speakers include:

• Lalage Bown (Emeritus Professor University of Glasgow) – ‘Cultural Radio Mast – Ibadan and Outreach in the Arts and Literature’
• Dele Layiwola (University of Ibadan) – Title TBA
• Martin Banham (Leeds University Centre for African Studies) - 'Being in Ibadan, 1960'
• Molara Ogundipe (University of Arkansas) – 'Recte Sapere Fons: Legacies of the Intellectual Culture of University College Ibadan - 1958-1983'
• Isidore Okpewho (State University of New York, Binghamton) - 'Present at the Creation: My Roots in Nigerian Publishing'
• John Picton (School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London) - 'Ibadan dun (Ibadan is sweet)'
• David Richards (The Ferguson Centre, The Open University), Title TBA

Fees: Full: £20 and Concessions: £7.50