The Archives of the Oyo State Council for Arts and Culture is a digital heritage initiative dedicated to preserving, documenting, and providing access to the political, administrative, and cultural history of the former Western Region, Western State, and present-day Oyo State of Nigeria.
Housed within the Oyo State Council for Arts and Culture at the Cultural Centre, Mokola, Ibadan, this archive serves as a repository of historical records that document decades of governance, cultural development, public administration, education, infrastructure, diplomacy, and institutional transformation in southwestern Nigeria.
The archive emerged from the project Alternative Heritage, an intervention supported by the Fonds Équipe France (FEF) of the French Embassy in Nigeria and implemented by IFRA-Nigeria (French Institute for Research in Africa) in collaboration with the Oyo State Council for Arts and Culture. The project was established in response to the discovery of thousands of neglected archival records that had remained uncatalogued and vulnerable to deterioration within former government offices and storage facilities in Ibadan.
Through a comprehensive programme of archival rescue, preservation, cataloguing, digitisation, and capacity building, these endangered records have been recovered, organised, and preserved for future generations. The collection includes official correspondence, reports, policy documents, committee records, institutional files, administrative papers, and cultural records spanning various ministries, departments, agencies, educational institutions, public corporations, and governmental bodies.
More than a repository of historical documents, the archive is conceived as a living centre of memory and knowledge. It provides valuable resources for researchers, students, historians, journalists, cultural practitioners, policymakers, and members of the public interested in understanding the political and cultural development of Nigeria. The records offer unique insights into postcolonial governance, regional politics, public administration, cultural policy, educational development, labour relations, infrastructure planning, and the everyday workings of government institutions.
This digital platform serves as the public gateway to the collections. Through ongoing digitisation and documentation efforts, we aim to make historical records more discoverable, searchable, and accessible while maintaining the highest standards of archival preservation and stewardship.
By preserving these records today, we contribute to safeguarding the historical legacy of tomorrow.

Adekunle Agboola (General Manager, Oyo State Council for Arts and Culture), Femi Olanrewaju (Researcher and FEF Coordinator), Dr Pauline Guinard (Director, IFRA-Nigeria), Dr Delphine Manetta (Deputy Director, IFRA-Nigeria), Mr Abraham, Archivist, Adejoke, Adetoro (Historian and Researcher) and the “alternative archivists” of the Cultural Centre.