The selection of the Director General of the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), Aisha Adamu Augie, for the 2026 Yale Directors Forum marks a significant step in Nigeria’s efforts to deepen global engagement in cultural heritage preservation. As one of 12 cultural leaders chosen for the prestigious fellowship, her participation offers CBAAC an opportunity to expand its international networks, strengthen institutional capacity and further project Nigeria and Africa’s rich cultural legacy on the global stage. Chiemelie Ezeobi writes
The Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC) is taking another significant step in positioning Nigeria’s cultural heritage on the global stage, with its Director General, Aisha Adamu Augie, selected among 12 cultural leaders for the 2026 Yale Directors Forum (YDF), an international fellowship convened by Yale University’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (IPCH).
Augie is one of two Nigerians and one of six African women selected for the second cohort of the 12-month fellowship, which brings together cultural heritage leaders from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Her selection places CBAAC, the institution entrusted with preserving and promoting Africa’s arts, history and civilisation, within an international network of practitioners working to protect both tangible and intangible heritage.
For CBAAC, the significance goes beyond an individual leadership recognition. It provides an opportunity for the Nigerian institution to deepen its engagement with global heritage networks, exchange knowledge with institutions across the Global South and strengthen its capacity for innovation, conservation and cultural exchange.
Why Aisha Adamu Augie Made The List
Yale describes the 12 fellows as accomplished leaders working to preserve, protect and share cultural heritage in both tangible and intangible forms.
The range of expertise represented in the cohort is broad. It covers artworks, photographs, archives and other cultural collections, while also extending to living traditions such as cuisine, music, textiles and practices passed from one generation to another.
Augie’s inclusion reflects the role of CBAAC as an institution dedicated to preserving the arts, history and culture of Africa and the Diaspora.
Under her leadership, the institution’s mandate intersects directly with the central objectives of the Yale Directors Forum: strengthening cultural institutions, expanding professional networks, improving approaches to preservation and creating opportunities for international knowledge exchange.
Her selection also gives CBAAC a seat at a table that includes leaders of museums, archives, libraries, community-based heritage sites and practitioners preserving cultural traditions across different regions.
Yale’s Director of International Programs, Charlotte Ashamu, said the cohort reflected “the breadth and depth of leadership shaping the cultural heritage sector globally.”
According to her, the fellows represent institutions ranging from community-based heritage sites and cultural centres to leading museums, as well as practitioners sustaining traditions in areas such as cuisine and textile design.
The diversity, she noted, would enrich the exchange between Yale and cultural leaders worldwide.
Carrying The FESTAC Legacy Forward
For Augie, the fellowship is also an opportunity to reconnect contemporary cultural preservation with one of Nigeria’s most significant contributions to global cultural diplomacy: the 1977 Festival of Arts and Culture, popularly known as FESTAC ’77.
In her statement following the selection, she placed CBAAC’s work within the context of preserving the historical and cultural identity of Nigeria and Africa.
“Every artefact, photograph, and recording in CBAAC’s care tells the story of who we are as Nigerians and as Africans,” Augie said.
She explained that through the Yale Directors Forum, she intends to strengthen CBAAC’s capacity for innovation, conservation and cultural exchange.
“Our goal is to ensure that the torch lit by Nigeria through FESTAC ’77 a Pan-African festival of global significance continues to burn brightly as we carry its legacy forward into the next fifty years,” she said.
That objective gives the fellowship particular relevance to CBAAC, whose institutional mandate is closely connected to the preservation and promotion of African arts and civilisation.
FESTAC ’77 remains an important reference point in Africa’s cultural history, bringing together artists, intellectuals and cultural representatives and placing African and Black culture at the centre of an international cultural conversation.
With CBAAC continuing to steward that legacy, the Yale fellowship creates another avenue for the institution to engage with international cultural heritage leaders and explore how historical collections and living traditions can be preserved for future generations.
A Global Network of Cultural Leaders
The 2026 Yale Directors Forum brings together 12 leaders from nine countries spanning Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
From Nigeria, Augie joins Fu’ad Lawal, founder of Archivi.ng, which develops digital archives preserving Nigerian newspapers and historical records for public access.
Other African fellows include Ghana’s Sylvia Arthur, founder of the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora; Kenya’s Iona McCreath, Director of Special Projects at KikoRomeo; Democratic Republic of Congo’s Jess Kilubukila, founder of Kilubukila Cultural Projects; South Africa’s Batana Vundla, Executive Director of Eyethu Heritage Hall; and Wandile Mabaso, founder of Les Créatifs.
Togo is represented by Silvia Rosi, archivist at the Dans les Yeux de Chantal Kponton Lawson Association, where she preserves the photographic archive of Togo’s first female photographer.
The Caribbean cohort includes Jamaica’s Kirt Henry, Director of the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica/Jamaica Memory Bank, and Faith Anderson, Director of Liberty Hall: The Legacy of Marcus Garvey.
Latin America is represented by Brazil’s Raquel Barreto, Chief Curator of the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, and Panama’s Ana Elizabeth González, Executive Director of the Museo del Canal Interoceánico de Panamá.
The breadth of institutions represented means that Augie will be engaging with professionals dealing with different dimensions of cultural preservation, from national collections and museums to photographic archives, textiles, culinary traditions and community heritage.
Building Institutional Capacity
The Yale Directors Forum is not structured simply as an honorary recognition. It is a 12-month fellowship designed to build expertise and institutional capacity.
Through convenings, workshops and engagement with Yale faculty and fellow participants, the fellows are expected to deepen their knowledge of cultural heritage leadership while expanding their professional networks.
For CBAAC, this presents an opportunity to bring new ideas and approaches into an institution responsible for safeguarding important cultural collections and advancing understanding of Africa’s arts and civilisation.
The programme also places emphasis on strengthening institutions’ capacity to care for collections including photographs, artworks and historical documents.
This is particularly significant at a time when cultural preservation increasingly requires institutions to combine traditional conservation approaches with innovation, digital access and wider international collaboration.
Yale’s Expanding African Partnerships
Augie’s selection comes as Yale continues to expand its engagement with cultural heritage institutions and practitioners across the Global South.
The second cycle of the Yale Directors Forum builds on Yale’s broader Africa initiative and its commitment to strengthening long-term partnerships, knowledge exchange and collaboration across Africa.
The fellowship also strengthens links between Africa and the African Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean.
That emphasis creates a wider context for CBAAC’s participation. As an institution concerned with African arts and civilisation and their connections with the Diaspora, its participation allows Nigeria’s cultural heritage perspectives to become part of a wider conversation involving countries and communities linked by shared histories and cultural traditions.
Yale IPCH was established in 2011 at Yale University and is dedicated to advancing cultural heritage preservation through art, science and human connection.
Its mission is to preserve and promote cultural heritage through interdisciplinary research, conservation and educational opportunities across Yale’s campus and around the globe.
From Fellowship to Cultural Legacy
The Yale selection also adds to the growing international network of cultural heritage professionals connected to the programme.
To date, the programme has had 16 fellows, trained more than 80 professionals and supported the establishment of eight conservation centres across Africa.
The second cohort therefore represents more than the addition of 12 names to a fellowship programme. It is an expansion of a network intended to encourage sustained relationships between cultural institutions and practitioners across regions.
For CBAAC, Augie’s participation offers the prospect of translating that network into institutional value. Her challenge, ultimately, will be to convert the knowledge, partnerships and exposure gained through the 12-month programme into stronger conservation practices, greater cultural exchange and renewed approaches to keeping Nigeria and Africa’s heritage relevant to future generations.
And at the heart of that assignment is the legacy Augie herself identified: ensuring that the torch lit by Nigeria through FESTAC ’77 continues to burn brightly.
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