The Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), in collaboration with the European Union Institutes of Culture (EUNIC), Nigeria cluster members, including the Goethe-Institute, British Council, Embassies of Spain and Ireland, together with the National Troupe of Nigeria and the Institute of African and Diaspora Studies (IADS), University of Lagos, has officially unveiled ‘Roots & Roofs: Pan-African Indigenous Skills Development’ programme (PAID).
The project is one of seven initiatives selected of the 36 applications across Africa to benefit from the 2025 Grant for Africa–Europe Partnership for Culture, under the framework of the Spaces of Culture Programme of the European Union.
The grant of €50,000, domiciled and administered by CBAAC and the Goethe-Institute Nigeria, will support the implementation of PAID, themed, ‘African-Inspired Interior and Exterior Architecture’.
The programme initiative is designed to safeguard and revitalise Africa’s indigenous architectural and artistic traditions while empowering a new generation of creative innovators through equitable Africa–Europe cultural partnerships.
It seeks to equip young Africans with hands-on training in indigenous architectural design thinking, sustainable practices, and cultural documentation, while exploring the dynamic relationship between built environments, performance, and storytelling, through workshops, apprenticeships, and community-based projects.
Over the next year, the programme will engage young Nigerians aged 25–35 across the 36 States of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, focusing on inclusivity, gender balance, and regional diversity. Participants will undergo intensive training in traditional architectural design thinking, storytelling, and digital innovation, culminating in community-based projects that promote rural development, cultural entrepreneurship, and heritage preservation.
Director General of CBACC, Aisha Adamu Augie, speaking on the programme, said, “we thought of how to create jobs and add value to the economy, we discovered we don’t have enough spaces that allow people to grow and one of the spaces we connect with physically is architecture, when you get to a place, the things that tell you if its South Africa, Tanzania or Nigeria. We have a lot of these things that are lost in translation with the rest of the world and we thought that we should look at the people who have existing skills.
Director, Goethe Institute Nadin Siegert hopes that the project will not just produce the knowledge and documentation but also produce wonderful designs that people can have in your house, offices, clothes, or whatever comes out of it.
“It is not only about documentation of this rich knowledge but bringing into knowledge the Gen-Z or Gen Alfa who are already waiting for their turn because they are the ones who connect the culture with not only the digital space but also with fashion with design.”
The director at the Institution of Africa and Diaspora Studies, University of Lagos, Dr Akinmayo Akin-Otiko said with this programme, the world will not just hear what they said about Africa but “Africans begins to speak Africans. We will be training and retraining and you do not do that without a curriculum, that’s where we come in.”
