In 2014, the Gerda Henkel Foundation initiated a scholarship programme supporting young humanities scholars from Africa in honour of the foundation's founder, Lisa Maskell. It is the largest international support programme for PhD students in the history of the Foundation. The Lisa Maskell Fellowships aim to strengthen universities in the partner countries, to counter the outflow of qualified young scholars and to ensure the doctoral students enjoy excellent academic training.
In this dossier, L.I.S.A. publishes interviews with Lisa Maskell Fellows, in which they talk about their research projects as well as their experiences during their academic career and the Lisa Maskell fellowship.
Today, we welcome Olatunde Taiwo from Nigeria. After graduating from the Olabisi Onabanjo University with a B.A. as well as from the University of Ibadan with an M.A., he started his PhD in History with the thesis The Deportation Question in Nigeria, 1900–1966 at the University of Ghana in 2022.
“Gap of a counter-narrative to the incessant and dominant narrative of the deportation of Nigerians”
L.I.S.A.: What is your PhD project about and what got you interested in the chosen topic to begin with?
Olatunde Taiwo: The evolving title of my topic is ‘The Deportation Question in Nigeria, 1900-1966”. It is about deportation(s) within and out of Nigeria from 1900 to 1966. It is driven by the gap of a counter-narrative to the incessant and dominant narrative of the deportation of Nigerians, particularly from the global North. Other factors have over the years underlined my interest in the topic. These are: the considerable records on the topic at archives in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, Ghana and the United States of America; the recent allusion by Fury that the social history of deportation involving Nigeria covering the topic’s period is long overdue; and my conversations with contemporary stakeholders in the rehabilitation of deportees received by Nigeria. The interesting feedback that I received on the topic from Professors Toyin Falola, Adeshina, Insa Nolte, and Lynn Schler also fired my interest in this topic from the very outset.