Allegra Otsaye Ayida received a BA in History from Wesleyan University,  and an MA in World History from Kings’ College London and an Mphil in African Studies from Cambridge University.

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Allegra is currently a PhD student in History at Yale University, where she also works as a Graduate curatorial Intern in African Art at Yale University Art Gallery. 

 

A strong advocate for the push against the Eurocentric nature of the writing of African history as told through the lens of European conquest and domination, her personal connection as a diasporic Nigerian fuels her passion for the history of the Warri Kingdom which is located in the Niger delta region of Nigeria.

 

She aims to centre Itsekiri perspectives in her writing with a focus on oral traditions and oral history interviews. Her current projects include the writing of a school textbook on the early history of the Warri kingdom

In addition, she is a founding member of Museum of Ode-Itsekiri Initiative (MOII), an online repository that aims to collect, collate, preserve the history and cultural heritage of the Itsekiri people.

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Her current research focuses on the environmental history of coastal West Africa.. This includes maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and port cities along the coast of Nigeria. She is interested in the history of shipping and trading and how international trade of commodities shapes the modern world. 

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