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Lagos State Records and Archives Bureau (LASRAB) hosted its inaugural Community Symposium, titled “LAGOS: Bridging Knowledge & Unraveling History,” at the Balmoral Convention Centre, Ikeja, Lagos.

On Thursday, September 12, 2024, the Lagos State Records and Archives Bureau (LASRAB) hosted its inaugural Community Symposium, titled “LAGOS: Bridging Knowledge & Unraveling History,” at the Balmoral Convention Centre, Ikeja, Lagos.

The Symposium explored Lagos’ historical significance, stressing the importance of understanding its past beyond colonial accounts and fostering collaboration between academia and the local community in preserving the city’s history. Discussions covered Lagos’ origins, the role of indigenous communities, and the city’s impact on Nigeria’s commerce and economic development.

Resolutions

  1. LASRAB need to be saluted for starting a worthwhile agenda and the initiative must be sustained to drive towards an authentic and authoritative history of Lagos
  2. A people’s history is an essential part of their cultural identity. Hence, revisiting histories is imperative to enhance visibility and speak to their realities. Therefore, there is a very urgent need to re-introduce the teaching of history in our institutions of learning.
  3. A people’s history is a journey and an unending dialogue that must be re-visited often. As the hub and repository of history and culture, LASRAB must continue to drive the process of codifying the authentic historical origins of Lagos.
  4. Lagos is certainly not a no man’s land and the indigenous peoples of the community must be well-recognised and given their entitlements. This recognition should not just be a matter of courtesy but a critical agenda that the governments of Lagos must continue to be sensitive to.
  5. Lagos must continue to accommodate settlers in the recognition that there is great value in cooperation with non-indigenous residents if it must sustainably meet its complex challenges and fully embrace the opportunities of its future.
  6. Lagos owes it a duty to initiate a national conversation and drive the efforts towards the repatriation of Nigerian national documents and archives carted away by the British colonialist under the secrets scheme codenamed operation legacy.
  7. There is a need to revitalize the culture of record keeping in Lagos State to serve as the base for archiving, which is being viewed in post-colonial studies, as a process rather than as a site of knowledge production.
  8. Lagos must continue to engage and seek the collaboration of private-sector stakeholders in record and archives funding since record keeping should be a community attitude.
  9. A Lagos history committee should be re-established to partner with archives to set a framework for better archiving sources for a more sustainable history of Lagos.
  10. As a people, we must begin a conscious effort at retracing our steps, dig deep into our cultures and revamp them to build our authenticity. Indigenous peoples of Lagos begin to revisit land sales which have been one of the ways of taking Lagos’ heritage off the real owners.

The symposium concluded with a call for unity, mutual respect, and collective responsibility to ensure Lagos’ continued prosperity.

 For more insights from the speakers and panelists, please visit >> https://youtube.com/live/6jT1VV8Y2cI?feature=share

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