In September 2024, we announced the launch of the first edition of The Archivi.ng Fellowship to the world.

It was a call to curious people to pitch us projects that enhance the world’s understanding of Nigerian history. We wanted historians, journalists, technologists, researchers, writers, filmmakers, content creators, and anyone interested in helping people make sense of Nigerian history by digging into the archives for new, meaningful perspectives.

We weren’t expecting to receive as many as 1,438 applications from all over Nigeria—and even beyond—but we read every single one. After weeks of painstaking reviews, we’ve selected five fellows for the inaugural cohort of The Archivi.ng Fellowship. 

We assembled a small team to design a framework, review all the applications, and select the fellows.

Two of the people in that process were Samson–that’s me–and Fu’ad; below, we discuss how we screened the applications and decided on our final list.

Samson: I remember very clearly in one of our first conversations about the fellowship, you mentioned you were expecting 100 applications. How did you work out that math?

Fu'ad: Honestly, I thought, “Oh, we’ll get 100 applications, shortlist fifteen, and pick five.” I worked with the hundred percentile and took it literally, but I’m not sure I believed it’d be that few. I also felt people might be interested, but I didn’t think many would. Assuming people wouldn’t be interested also forced us to put our best foot forward, planning to create scenarios where we got a lot of applications. 

Samson: We announced the fellowship around 6 pm on September 10 and received 33 applications by midnight. So we quickly learnt that projection was off, but I’m curious if there was anything else that surpassed your expectations once we started receiving applications.

Fu'ad: It wasn’t about the volume of applications; it was where they came from. Within the first week, I got an email from a professor saying he wanted to apply. That was the first thing that struck me.

Samson: You didn’t factor in professors as applicants? What applicant profile did you have in mind?

Fu’ad: I just assumed mostly young people. I also wasn’t shocked by the professor bit; I just didn’t think about it as a demography that would want to apply.

Samson: Yeah, a librarian emailed to ask if she was eligible to apply because we didn't clearly state that in our range of profiles. It was interesting because we cast a wide net and listed nine profiles in our call to application, but it felt like many people were buzzed about submitting.

Fu’ad: Not only did we get applications from every state across Nigeria, the range of topics was interesting. Generally, I was excited that people have stuff to say and ideas they want to see in the world.

Samson: But then the problem with that—it’s a good problem—is you have a headache deciding who to select for the fellowship. And the real work here was working out a strong rubric for deciding the best applications to make the final cut.

Fu'ad: That’s why we accepted that we wanted not only good applications but those that fit right now in the context of The Archivi.ng Fellowship. We worked with a few parameters, including rigour, alignment, use of archival materials and feasibility within the fellowship window.

Samson: The methodology was rigorous enough to make the process fair. But what was the most important component you wanted to see in each application?

Fu'ad: Rigour. If you’re trying to convince anyone to take you seriously, rigour is the gate fee. Applications with no real rigour were the first to go. Part of the rigour is also knowing how to use ChatGPT. I don’t think using ChatGPT is the problem, but how much of their thinking people outsource to it can create frustrating results. It’s so obvious often when someone has outsourced all their thinking to ChatGPT. 

For example, when you ask ChatGPT to give you a roadmap or timeline, it uses the same format every time, and if you see that across 70 applications, it’s stressful to deal with. For a moment, I felt like a teacher marking scripts and realising everyone copied from the same source.

Samson: I even screened some applicants who copied and pasted the ChatGPT prompt questions in their applications, and that’s just immediately a red flag because you’re not paying attention. Then, a few applicants did that thing secondary students do when they don’t know a question. So it’s writing something like, “Please ma, I forgot this and that, but dash me marks anyway. God bless you and your family.” It was wild. But once we cut through all that, we had a big pool of interesting applications to decide on.

Fu’ad: That was the hard part. We had almost three to four dozen good ones but spoke to the strongest 15. The discussions with them were largely about alignment. Everything came down to, “How well does this application fit our scope (within the timeframe of the fellowship), and can we support this work properly?” What separates what we selected from what we didn’t select is the quality, scope, and scale of the output.

We liked some applications but couldn’t accommodate them for this first cohort—I wish we could take all of them. For the people we really liked but couldn’t select, we’ll try to shop around and find potential people to back them as an Archivi.ng project.

Samson: That reminds me of a question more than a few curious people have asked me. How can Archivi.ng afford to finance the fellowship?

Fu’ad: We received funding from Luminate, and I like how they described it: “to ensure easy access to historical information, stimulating debate around key themes, and ultimately contributing to a healthy information ecosystem.” So, we closed a grant to support a bunch of projects within Archivi.ng, and one of them is this Fellowship. 

Samson: And then there were five fellows. Four of them submitted their applications on deadline day, which feels validating for me as someone who procrastinates about applications. In general, how are you feeling about the people we selected?

Fu’ad: To be honest? Excited. Because they have real aspirations for what their work is. They’re making things that matter deeply to them. But I also feel a genuine sense of responsibility because we have a job to create the environment they need to help them create their best work.

Samson: How are you thinking about making sure each fellow succeeds? 

Fu’ad: First of all, I think it’s a huge responsibility to select fellows and ensure they succeed. Part of ensuring they grow is that, over the next few weeks, we’re looking for partners to help them succeed.

Those fellows will get at least one mentor and an organisational partner. The perfect Fellow-Partner fit right now is Shalom Kasim as a fellow and Kola Tubosun/Olongo Africa as critical fellow support. Kola is a Culture Leader and one of Archivi.ng’s oldest friends. However, the most relevant part of Shalom’s work is that Olongo Africa began a project called The Black Orpheus Revisited.

I’m actively exploring these types of partnerships for each of our fellows, and we’ll announce them over the next few weeks. 

Samson: In six months, when the fellowship is over, what do you hope to see the most?

Fu’ad: Work the fellows will be proud of and proud of for a long time. I’d also like to see their work find the people who care about it and start genuine conversations with them. 

Ultimately, we’re experimenting. What happens when you bring people together who have a keen interest in Nigerian history and want to create stuff that matters to them and other people from it? 

I’d love to be able to answer this question at the end of this first edition.