Nigeria’s history now has a safer and more reliable home.
On 27 February 2026, Nigeria became the first African country to deposit data in the Arctic World Archive. Located in Svalbard, Norway, the storage facility is designed to preserve records,ranging from cultural practices to historical events for up to 2,000 years.
The collection was initiated by historian Nze Emeka Ekeazor after his appointment as chair of Piql’s first African office in Lagos in 2022. Piql is a Norwegian technology company that specializes in ultra-secure, long-term digital data storage designed to last for centuries. It uses a specialized photosensitive film, known as Piql film, to store data offline, offering a migration-free, tamper-proof, and environmentally sustainable gold standard for archiving.
The Nigerian records comprise a mix of social and cultural history, as well as archives from the country’s creative industries. These were drawn from 12 Nigerian organizations to encourage broader efforts in record preservation. The institutions include Lagos Art Gallery, Bloom Art, the Asaba Monument Trust which memorializes the 1967 Asaba massacre,the Nsibidi Institute, a social research organization run by Ekeazor, the Umuchieze Community Legacy Project, and the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library.
“It is important to me that Nigeria is remembered, because my work is about building cultural infrastructure,” says Ugoma Ebilah, founder of Bloom Art. “Nigeria has produced some of the world’s brightest and most creative people. It’s not a coincidence that in the same year this archive deposit was made, the Grammys finally decided to acknowledge the contributions of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, awarding him a Lifetime Achievement Award.”
In Nigeria, where libraries and museums are often underfunded and largely paper-based, research and historical documents can easily be lost or remain buried.
Aware of the fragility of public records, Dr. Chima Korieh, an expert in West African social and economic history at Marquette University, led a project to help the Umuchieze community in Imo State preserve its stories. These include accounts of cultural practices, rites of passage, and records from precolonial Nigeria. The Arctic World Archive deposits include manuscripts on the history of the Umuchieze people, as well as reports detailing the community’s judicial and political systems.
“I can tell you that from 1960 onwards, most of the public records that should be in Nigeria’s archives are not there,” says Korieh. “Some of the materials that exist today are in danger of being lost because they are not well preserved.”
It is not just written history that is at risk of disappearing. According to a 2024 Pew Research Center study, 38% of webpages created between 2013 and 2023 no longer exist, meaning a significant amount of information and history has already vanished. The Arctic World Archive grew out of a research project aimed at finding a secure way to store data long-term. “The world is becoming increasingly aware of how fragile data storage is. Each time you need to migrate it, it can change,” says AWA co-founder Katrine Loen.
Nigeria’s deposit in the Arctic World Archive is a practical and important step forward. With many public records at risk of being lost due to poor preservation and the rapid disappearance of digital content, securing the country’s historical and cultural records in a facility built to last 2,000 years makes clear sense. By being the first African country to take this step, Nigeria is ensuring that its history remains accessible and intact for future generations.
