CALL FOR PROPOSAL- LAGOS CONFERENCE

November 27, 2024 Bilqis Alayaki

The Lagos Conference on Lagos

Theme: Our Lagos, Their Lagos: Autochthony, Conflicted Identity and Structures of Power in 21st Century

25th - 27th September, 2025

Concept Note

Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria is considered a melting pot of diverse ethnic groups that cuts across the West African subregion and the African diaspora. In the last few centuries (between the 1400s and now), Lagos has grown from what historians referred to as a small fishing village and/or a camp of the Benin Empire warriors, to a vast metropolis of over 23 million people in Nigeria. Lagos has become an urban centre that has grown steadily into a vast metropolis, wielding extensive economic, political and cultural influence on Nigeria and the West African sub-region.

The expansive nature of Lagos has transformed the city into a multi-form nature whose political and economic geography as well as its identity is constantly being defined and redefined. At the same time, the influence of Lagos—historical and political—is not limited to what we know as the Lagos metropolis today but encompasses a diaspora with links to Freetown, Sierra Leone and Salvador-Bahia in Brazil. The diaspora networks have played very significant roles in shaping the identity and heritage of Lagos in ways that have made the city/state a global centre of historical, economic and political contestation. The conference plans to bring together scholars, practitioners, social activists, government and business leaders to interrogate what we call Our Lagos, Their Lagos.

Central questions germane to the conference are: What is it that is shaping new identity formation in Lagos and its diaspora? How is it that Lagos has become a centre of heritage contestations? How are new forms of urbanization reshaping the ways in which different ethnic groups imagine Lagos? How have different sociolinguistic praxes contributed to the indigeneity and citizenship structure of cosmopolitan Lagos? How are property ownerships redefining the Lagos of the 21st Century?

Panel proposals can focus on any of the following areas of Study on Lagos, but not limited to:

Autochthony, Historical Flows and Heritage
Urbanity, Urbanization and new communities
Contemporary Connections, Indigeneity and Identity(ies) Formation.
Lagos: Past, Present and the Future, Pre-colonial, Colonial and Post-Colonial Lagos
Media and New Technologies
Nollywood
Creatives and Creativities – Music, Arts, Photography
Lagos Connections, Remittances and the African Continent
Industrializing Lagos in the 21st Century
Lagos and its Diaspora
Modernity, “Lagoses” of Lagos and Lagos Divisions (IBILE)
Language and Sociolinguistic Engagements
Migrations and Integrations in Lagos
Politics of Politics and Governance
Lagos and Education
Socio-economic Landscape, Economic Spatialities, Class Aspirations
Transportation, Traffic, Park/Garage Lout (Agbero)
Cuisine, Diet, Dishes
Religion and Spirituality in Lagos
Lagos and The History of Cities

The conference is organized by the Institute of African and Diaspora Studies, University of Lagos. The conference is scheduled to hold at the campus of the University, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos State.

Please submit your abstracts, not more than 250 words, to Lagos lagosconference@iads.unilag.edu.ng Note that you can submit abstract for a closed panel session, with the names of speakers for a complete session.