Ms. Chimamanda Adichie, Professor Osita Okagbue, Professor Paul Basu ,Ms Ego Ahaiwe, Mr Nathan Richards, Ms. Kelly Foster, Mr Brian Ezeike, Ms. Vivian Ogbonna, Mr Emeka Ed Keazor, Ujuaku Akukwe-Nwakalor

Date:21 April 2018 

Venue: Brunei Gallery Room: Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre

Type of Event: Conference

This one-day international conference provided a platform to discuss Igbo heritage studies and modes of documenting the past. The ‘Memory, Culture and Community’ conference seeks to promote the creation, management and use of records and archives, highlighting the need to preserve the archival heritage of people of Igbo descent around the world, through the sharing of experiences, research and ideas. During the course of the day, the conference put on a series of workshops providing members of the public with the skills to compile and collate content on Igbo culture and heritage through the medium of film, photography, oral history and writing.

The central output of the conference was the development of an online Igbo digital archive through harnessing the knowledge and cultural resources of the community.

The 2017 conference centered on ‘Legacies of Biafra: Reflections on the Nigeria-Biafra war 50 years on’, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Nigerian civil war. The ‘Legacies of Biafra’ conference launched the “Know Your History” initiative which seeks to create physical and digital spaces for learning and knowledge exchange centering on Igbo history, whilst also serving the development and population of the digital Igbo studies archive.

The speakers for the 2018 ‘Memory, Culture and Community’ conference included

Ms. Chimamanda Adichie . Professor Osita Okagbue . Professor Paul Basu . Ms Ego Ahaiwe . Mr Nathan Richards . Ms. Kelly Foster . Mr Brian Ezeike . Ms. Vivian Ogbonna . Mr Emeka Ed Keazor.
Award winning Filmmaker Ujuaku Akukwe-Nwakalor screened her latest film: Harvest of Pride: Iri Ji. This feature length documentary centres on the significance of the New Yam Festival in Igboland. The film screening was followed by a Q and A with Ujuaku and a discussion on the way they have approached the documenting of the most famous annual event in Igboland.

A video trailer of this documentary can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKwJoTEMcyA