Black Speakers Series: Nigerian History on Trial: Thinking Through Transitional Justice
In collaboration with the African Studies program and the History Departments, this lecture will explore the politics of historical reckoning in light of the recent clamour for the dememorialization of the legacies of indigenous slave owners in Nigeria. This call started against the background of the desecration and toppling of historical statues and heritage properties that occasion the Rhodes Must Fall protests in South Africa and the Black Lives Matter movements in the United States and parts of Europe.
In this lecture, they will highlight the dangers associated with the activation of a politically charged discourse around the legacies of slavery in a volatile context like Nigeria, a federation of competing (if hardnosed) histories. They will argue that it is difficult to dismantle national monuments honouring the legacies of historical actors without inflaming the ethnic and religious sensibilities of Nigerians and opening the floodgates of historical crimes and injustices.
Location: Arts Building, Room TBA
