Invisible Labors! Thank you! Lagos Studies Association (LSA).
My PoP calls invisible labors the “backside of better.” "Backside" or "invisible” are things, grinds, and people that may not be in plain sight but contribute to transforming what we see. Think of invisible labor as all the effort you put into your life, career, and family that makes it seem easy to others, but you know the "unseen" labor you put into it. When you think of invisible labor, think of the people who work in the kitchens of high-end restaurants, often without being noticed and seldom getting tips. The agricultural workers who ensure we have varieties at the mall.
It’s been nine (9) years of LSA conferences since the first one held at Barnard College in 2016, with the invisible intellectual labor of men and women who thought of home even when they were abroad. Professor Saheed Aderinto Professor Abosede George, and Professor Ademide Adelusi-Adeluyi. These are scholars who, along with others, realize the intellectual development of the continent and its people and the future of academia depend on symbiotic relationships between those at home, abroad, and in between. In addition, integrating practitioners into the academy to close the town and gown divide.
To my mind, LSA runs as it does because of many invisible laborers who write grants and lobby their organizations to give LSA money to run free conferences in a knowledge world where accessibility, affordability, and availability of knowledge are still unequal. It runs because of the invisible labor provided by both past and present individual and institutional donors. LSA has become one of the global intellectual hub in African studies because of the invisible labor of past and present board of directors
Invisible labor of LSA volunteers, some of whom I sometimes refer to as interns because of the knowledge they gain in organization, planning, and logistics alongside free six nights of hotel, 15 meals, and access to a man who leads with heart and mind.
LSA is LSA because Professor Saheed Aderinto runs it with unparalleled zeal, zest, and gusto, more like a full-time job. It runs because of his creative, innovative, and disruptive approach to conferencing and intellectual community building that does not (re)produce everything we complain about in the academy, whether at home or abroad.
LSA has thrived and continues to set the pace and create new paths because of the invisible labor of Professor Carli Coetzee, who carries LSA like her lastborn.
Personally, I appreciate the visible and invisible labors that make this intellectual Ìta lawà a success!
To all other invisible laborers not mentioned, on behalf of many like me who have benefitted and many in years to come who will benefit from your labor, we say thank you.
The conference is over, but our intellectual growth and development continue till we see you next year!
Returning to my Midwest USA time zone after the conference altered it. Only LSA can try that, sha. Lagos Studies Association
Always
Ololade's Daughter
