The team

Regina was born in Ihiala 1965 (Anambra State – Nigeria).

Beyond her handicap, Regina Ubanatu overcame personal and human challenges, which she narrates in her autobiographical narrative book : her autobiographical narrative « La Petite fille qui dansait dans sa tête » (prefaced by B. Kouchner, former French Foreign Affairs minister) – Archipel Editions

A graduate in Executive Master in Human Resources from Sciences-Po, Paris, Regina lives and works in the business district of La Defense. She is the founder of both the non-governmental organization (NGO) “Never Forget Biafra” and former Chair of the French association RIFH (Réponses Initiatives Femmes Handicapées) which works for the recognition and rights of disabled women.

Francoise Ugochukwu, an Africanist born in Valence (France) in 1949, is currently affiliated to the Open University (UK) after 25 years at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where she retired as a Professor. Her research field focuses on Igbo language, culture and literature, and Nollywood. She closely followed the twists and turns of the Biafran war in the late 1960s before moving to Nsukka in 1972 and witnessing the immediate post-war period. HDR, she authored several research books, two of them on the Biafran war, and many book chapters and scholarly articles. She is also a writer, a translator, a storyteller and a published poet; her novels for children and young adults are on school curricula in West Africa. Her pioneering work in the field and her longstanding contribution to the strengthening of cultural and educational ties between France and Nigeria awarded her the national distinction of Chevalier des Palmes Académiques in 1994.