Halimat Somotan is a social historian who studies the overlooked contributions of everyday urban dwellers in making cities more livable. Her current book manuscript, The Decolonizing City: Popular Politics and the Making of Postcolonial Lagos, 1941-76, explores how tenants, women traders, and homeowners struggled against colonial planning laws like urban renewal from the end of colonial rule to the rise of military rule in Lagos, Nigeria. The Decolonizing City draws from wide-ranging archival sources and oral interviews to unearth urban residents’ unrealized visions and protests that informed Lagos’ postcolonial governing structure and laws. Somotan is an Assistant Professor of African Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service where she teaches courses on urban history, archival methods, West African history, and the history of decolonization. Her work has appeared in The Journal of Urban History, Time Magazine, and The Conversation. Born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria, Somotan earned her Ph.D. in history from Columbia University and her B.A. in history and theater arts from Fairfield University.
The Lagos Market Women’s Association, International Activism, and the Struggle for Decolonization
Halimat Somotan
206 Ingraham Hall
@ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
https://africa.wisc.edu/event/the-lagos-market-womens-association-international-activism-and-the-struggle-for-decolonization/