Anne Grynberg and George Alao return from a cooperation mission in Nigeria
The mission was particularly interesting and fruitful, and enabled the structuring of joint teaching and research projects.
Often dubbed "the giant of Africa", the Federal Republic of Nigeria brings together the continent's largest population, with over 195 million inhabitants in 2017. According to UN forecasts, it will be the third most populous country in the world by 2050. With an estimated GDP of $445 billion in 2019, Nigeria - part of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) - is the leading economic power on the African continent and the 29th largest in the world. After several years of recession, due in particular to the fall in world oil prices, of which Nigeria is Africa's leading producer, and to the deterioration in the exchange rate of the naira (Nigeria's official currency since 1973), the trend has been reversed and Nigeria has returned to growth. The country's leaders opted for a proactive policy of economic diversification, notably by increasing the contribution of the mining sector.
"Overall, Nigeria's mining sector is diversified in terms of mineral resources, reads tresor.economie.gouv.fr/Pays/NG. In all, the country boasts nearly 44 solid minerals across more than 500 listed sites. Of these, only 13 are currently being extracted and processed, often illegally, unregulated and on a small, almost artisanal scale. The sector's share of GDP has remained constant over the last decade, never exceeding 0.3%. Some 43.5 M tonnes of solid minerals weré extracted in 2016, 35% of which in Ogun State. As for utilization, Nigeria's mineral resources are generally classified into five major groups: industrial minerals (barite, kaolin, gypsum, feldspar, limestone), mostly in the east of the country; energy minerals (coal, bitumen, lignite, uranium); metallic minerals (gold, cassiterite, columbite, iron ore, lead-zinc, copper), mostly in the north of the country; construction minerals (granite, gravel, laterite, sand), mostly in the south of the country; precious stones (sapphire, tourmaline, emerald, topaz, amethyst, garnet). "
The mining sector is expected to account for 5% of Nigeria's GDP by 2020. The authorities have just announced the awarding of mining contracts to a dozen companies, including Thor Exploration, a gold mining company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and Symbol Mining, which specializes in zinc mining. Other incentives have been introduced, such as an increase in the budget of the supervisory ministry.
It is also worth recalling the importance of Nigeria's natural gas reserves, estimated at 5,153 billion cubic meters, or a third of the African continent's resources. In 2015, Nigeria was the world's 5th largest exporter of liquefied gas, but due to a lack of infrastructure and insecurity in the Delta region, it continued to flare the gases associated with oil extraction.
Nor should we forget the spectacular growth in services, with the expansion of the telecommunications sector, banking networks and the film industry ("Nollywood").
Nigeria is also a major exporter of liquefied gas.
Let's not forget the country's cultural wealth, the cradle of the Nok civilization, whose vestiges alone would justify an active tourism development policy. Artistic and memorial tourism, as the port of Badagry was one of the sad sites of the slave trade.
However, the political instability that has prevailed for several decades and recurrent insecurity (whether due to inter-ethnic tensions, terrorist acts by the Boko Haram group in the north of the country, or kidnappings and other common crimes) are slowing the pace of Nigeria's economic progress and hindering its full development, at the same time curbing the diplomatic and military influence that the country is able to exert both in Africa and internationally. Moreover, a very high percentage of the population lives well below the poverty line.
"The latest World Poverty Clock report contains disturbing data on Nigeria. Africa's demographic giant is said to have 86.5 million people living in extreme poverty. These figures represent around 50% of the Nigerian population, and more importantly put this West African country at the top of the sad ranking, ahead of India, which has 71.5 million extremely poor people for a population seven times that of Nigeria", writes Carole Kouassi on the africanews.fr website.
With over 3 million inhabitants, Ibadan - located around 140 kilometers west of Lagos - is today Nigeria's third-largest city in terms of population and the country's largest city.
The city's very rapid population growth from the 19th century onwards and its spectacular commercial success were accompanied by a very significant investment in education. The University of Ibadan (UI), founded in 1948, is Nigeria's first university. It initially had the status of a college of the University of London, but severed these links in 1962 and became an independent university in its own right.
Today, the University of Ibadan attracts an ever-increasing number of students from English-speaking West Africa, in the most diverse fields, as it now boasts sixteen faculties: from medicine to law, from humanities and social sciences to agriculture, from education to environmental management.... Other academic units have also been created, including the Institute of African Studies, the Institute of Child Health, the Center for Mental Health, the Center for Educational Media Resources Studies, the African Regional Center for Information Science (ARCIS), the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies (CEPACS), the Center for Petroleum, Energy, Economics and Law Studies (CPEEL). A business school (UISB) is planned for next year. Research activities are also booming, helping to make the University of Ibadan one of the flagships of higher education in Nigeria. For several decades, the UI has played a significant role in the country's cultural, economic and political development. Remember that the writer Wole Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, was a student at the University of Ibadan in the 1950s, where he notably conceived and theorized the concept of "tigritude" - in opposition to Aimé Césaire's "négritude".
Eager to develop its international partnerships, the University of Ibadan has had an agreement with Inalco for some ten years, giving rise in particular to an annual exchange of teachers in the fields of language and linguistics, humanities and social sciences (UI teachers come, for periods of varying length from a few days to several weeks, to teach courses at Inalco and/or take part in workshops and round tables ; Conversely, two language teachers and a social science teacher based at Inalco travel to Ibadan to give courses and lectures, carry out research and take part in various scientific events.
Until now, this cooperation has mainly involved the Linguistics and African Languages and History departments, as well as the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan, and the Africa department at Inalco. However, a common desire to expand the existing collaboration has been expressed on both sides for over a year. During our mission, meetings were held with representatives of several other departments in the faculties of arts and social sciences: archaeology and anthropology, classical studies, Islamic studies, European foreign languages (including French), international relations, theater and music, information and media, Institute for African Studies. Following these meetings, a forum was set up by Pr. Ademola Omobewaji Dasylva, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, to exchange ideas and proposals. He immediately demonstrated great dynamism, with a clear desire on the part of UI's teaching staff to give the cooperation with Inalco a new impetus and greater ambitions.
This desire is fully shared by Inalco, which plans to extend the partnership with UI beyond its Africa department, in both teaching and research: Arab Studies department, International Professions stream, Language Didactics stream...
The first objective, already partly achieved, is to identify matching and/or complementary teaching at both establishments, themes to be strengthened where necessary, and methodological tools to be developed. These include: African Sociolinguistics; Sociolinguistic Context in Africa and the Indian Ocean; Sahara/Sahel Geography; Geopolitics of Africa; History of the Western Sahel-Sudan Area; Cultural Anthropology of Africa and the Indian Ocean; Societies and the Environment in Africa; History of Contemporary Nigeria.
In addition, the new syllabuses drawn up by Inalco for the 2019-2024 period include the following undergraduate courses: Africa, Diasporas, Identities; Arts and Music in Africa; African Cinemas, which correspond to fields at least partially covered at the University of Ibadan and are in line with the joint research project drawn up by the two establishments: Migrations d'Afrique de l'Ouest and Diasporas en France: projet d'enseignement et de recherche sur le Nigeria.
Within two or three years, it is planned to set up double degrees - followed by cotutelle theses for certain students.
As regards language learning, in particular Yorùbá at Inalco and French at the UI, the exchange of teaching materials and the pooling of certain courses (at least at a distance in the first stage) are underway.
At the same time, from the start of the next academic year, it is planned to extend the "SpeakShake" language platform set up by the Institut Français to the African languages spoken in Nigeria, with which Inalco already has a "pilot" partnership for various languages (Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew). The aim is to formalize, on the fundamental principle of reciprocity, these exchanges between native speakers of French on the one hand, and Nigerian languages on the other - students from Inalco, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU - a university located in Ilè-Ifè, Osun State, Nigeria) and the UI. They are helped to carry on a regular semi-guided conversation in both languages, alternating between the two, to improve their oral practice and, where appropriate, also to exchange in writing (for more details on the tools made available, see: www.inalco.fr/actualite/speakshake-echanger-locuteurs-natifs).
In the field of research, the project is to carry out a medium-term study of exchanges between Nigeria and France, from a resolutely multidisciplinary perspective: migratory movements, integration, linguistic and identity issues, historical and cultural inter-knowledge, images and representations, intergenerational transmission and memories... Exchanges between teacher-researchers from the two institutions involved in the project, both directly and through the forum created for the purpose, have revealed a number of common issues. It was decided that each of these would be led by a small group of volunteers already identified.
The director of the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA), Elodie Apard, has expressed her keen interest in this research project.
The two partners are convinced that, faced with the challenges posed to Africa and Europe by migratory flows and the refugee issue, the authorities of the two countries concerned, as well as non-governmental organizations and associations working in this field, could also benefit from the contribution of this joint work in order to better understand the characteristics of the Nigerian "diaspora", which is still largely unknown.
The second university with which we wished to develop our cooperation is that of Ilè-Ifè, Obafemi Awolowo University, with which Inalco signed an agreement many years ago.
Here too, the welcome from our colleagues was warm and several projects were discussed in concrete terms in several teaching and research areas: African linguistics and languages, foreign languages (including French), human and social sciences, archaeology, anthropology, international relations...
We visited the very interesting natural history museum installed on the university site where terracotta statues, jewelry, traditional tools... are on display. and discussed the possibility of integrating members of his team into the Erasmus Mundus project with which Inalco is associated around the theme of "History, memory and heritage in the public space".
Returning to Lagos, we were received at the French consulate by Mr. Aurélien Sennacherib, attaché de coopération et d'action culturelle. Through him, we came into contact with Mme Leïla Mathieu, attaché for scientific and academic cooperation based at the French embassy in Lagos, with whom we discussed our various projects.
Through A. Sennacherib, we had the good fortune to meet Robin and Hugh Campbell, a Canadian couple settled in Nigeria for over thirty-five years, collectors of Yorùbá art and co-directors of the Suzanne Wenger Foundation, which works to preserve the sculptures of the Osun sacred forest, listed as a World Heritage site. A joint event with Inalco is under consideration.
Given the richness of this mission, the dynamism of the contacts made and the quality of the projects envisaged or already implemented, and at a time when Nigeria occupies a central place in France's policy in English-speaking Africa - as the President of the Republic explicitly emphasized in the speech he delivered on July 3, 2018 in Abuja, the Nigerian capital - Inalco undoubtedly has a leading role to play in the development of university cooperation with this country.
Anne Grynberg
also vice-president of Inalco, delegate for international relations
and George Alao
HDR lecturer in Yorùbá language and literature in the Africa department
