Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP)
Prof. Christian Onyeji,
Department of Music,
University of Nigeria,
Nsukka Enugu State,
Nigeria.
christian.onyeji@unn.edu.ng
Institute of International Education (IIE), AfricanDiaspora@iie.org
UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA, SELECTED TO HOST CARNEGIE AFRICAN DIASPORA FELLOW
Collaborative Project will focus on Music/Collaborative Research in Music, Motherhood and
Transnationalism and mentor Graduate Students in music
Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program to Support Projects at Universities across Africa
Nsukka, May, 2023 – August 2023.
University of Nigeria, Nsukka was selected by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP)
to host an African Diaspora scholar from the United States to work with on a collaborative project on
women’s music relating to motherhood and transnationalism of such music in addition to providing
relevant research workshop for graduate students in Department of Music. Arts Faculty member/Host
Fellow, Professor Christian Onyeji, will lead the Project, together with Dr Ruth Opara, the Diaspora
Fellow from Syracuse University in USA.
The two-pronged project would involve a collaborative research on indigenous women’s music in Nigeria
with specific interest in music and motherhood, and mentoring of graduate students in music at the
University of Nigeria. In collaboration with the Diaspora expert, our focus on music, motherhood, and
women’s role in the Nigerian Civil War Nigeria would complement and give focus to scholarship on
music and women’s roles in Nigeria to expand the breadth of the research in the department and result in
innovative and collaborative papers. Quite clearly, women’s music, particularly motherhood and women’s
role in the Nigerian Civil War have largely been under-reported/researched. Scholars have not paid
congruent attention to the musical responses and productions of women as strong contributors to
indigenous music productions, and to understand their critical musical roles during the Nigerian Civil
war. This project seeks to deliberately engage in the research, documentation and discourse of the musical
contributions and roles of women during the Civil War through transcriptions, analysis and discourses to
mitigate the total disappearance of such music that are threatened by extinction. These are intended to
culminate in book and journal article publications. This project keys into the strategic vision of my
university to engage in cutting edge research for quality and high-impact publications in various
disciplines. This project also seeks to provide graduate students needed training, through workshops and
mentoring, on various aspects of music research and scholarship as well as opportunities for possible
research collaborations with international experts and scholars. This project is expected to make strong
contributions and impact on the scholarship and research activities of the staff and students of University
of Nigeria, Nsukka, the host institution, and the collaborating scholars in the immediate and long-term
basis. The research collaboration being motivated by the need to explore an inchoate area of music and
motherhood, will drive several discourses and publications that would enrich existing literature on
women’s music globally, impacting resources on the subject area in general.
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, project is one of 63 projects that will pair African Diaspora scholars
with higher education institutions and collaborators in Africa to work together on curriculum co-
development, collaborative research, graduate training and mentoring activities in the coming months.
The CADFP, now in its tenth year develop long-term, mutually-beneficial collaborations between
universities in Africa and the United States and Canada. It is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New
York and managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in collaboration with the Association
of African Universities (AAU). Nearly 600 African Diaspora Fellowships have now been awarded for
scholars to travel to Africa since the program’s inception in 2013.
Fellowships match host universities with African-born scholars and cover the expenses for project visits
of between 14 and 90 days, including transportation, a daily stipend, and the cost of obtaining visas and
health insurance.
See the full list of newly selected projects, hosts and scholars.
Please direct all questions related to the application process to AfricanDiaspora@iie.org.
Connect with the CADFP:
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