The unpublished papers reproduced here and the published papers listed below reflect the research which Dr. Watts conducted while she was a researcher and lecturer in Geography at the University of Ilorin in the 1970s and 1980s.

The papers reproduced here are geographical studies, not directly related to the study of the history of slavery and its aftermath in the Ilorin area. I asked Dr. Watts for permission to reproduce them in The Dr. Ann O’Hear Archive because they contain a great deal of material, much of it otherwise unavailable, that is of interest to students of the lives of people located in Ilorin and its environs (with special reference to the Metropolitan Districts). I am grateful to Dr. Watts for permitting me to reproduce them.

Note on citations: The unpublished works reproduced here are included by kind permission of Dr. Susan J. Watts. They are not to be quoted or cited in whole or in part without the permission of the author(s). Please contact Dr. Susan J. Watts at sjwatts1964@gmail.com.

Dr. Susan J. Watts: Published Papers on Ilorin and Area

“Marriage Migration, A Neglected Form of Long-Term Mobility: A Case Study from Ilorin, Nigeria.” International Migration Review. vol. 17, no. 4 (Winter, 1983-1984), pp. 682-698. Published by Sage Publications, Inc., on behalf of the Center for Migration Studies of New York, Inc.

“Rural Women as Food Processors and Traders: Eko Making in the Ilorin Area of

Nigeria.” Journal of Developing Areas, vol. 19, no. 1 (Oct., 1984), pp. 71-82: www.jstor.org/stable/4191318.“A Model of the Rural Settlement Process: The Rural Community and Population Mobility in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria,” TESG (Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geographie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society) vol. 76, no. 3 pp. 216-222 (1985).

“Morphology, Planning and Cultural Values: A Case Study of Ilorin, Nigeria.” Third World Planning Review, vol. 8, no 3 (August 1986) (with Sheldon Watts).

“The Changing Spatial Structure of the City of Ilorin.” Centrepoint (University of Ilorin), vol. 2, no. 2, ISSN 0331-1988.

Michael A. Adedoyin and Susan J Watts. Child Health and Child Care in Okelele: An Indigenous Area of the City of Ilorin, Nigeria.  Social Science & Medicine,  Vol. 29, no. 12, 1989, pp. 1333-1341: https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(89)90233-5.

Dr. Susan J. Watts: Autobiographical Notes

I am by training a geographer, which is a marvelous discipline as it allows me to do more or less whatever takes my fancy, and call it geography – all you need to ask is where on the planet did the activities you chose to explore take place – place and landscape are two of my favorite words. Two other key terms which have stayed with me through a life of travel and research are “water” and “health”: studying and writing about schistosomiasis (aka bilharzia) in Egypt and dracunculiasis (aka guinea worm disease) in Nigeria. I later spent seven amazing years working for the World Health Organization in Cairo on the social determinants of health, and health policy.

One of my great heroes is Alexander von Humboldt, who travelled widely in south America and in east Asia. He later visited Thomas Jefferson at the White House and took the opportunity to chastise him for owning slaves. He was a true geographer, a wonderful writer in tune with the world through the soles of his boots. I too have travelled, living in Uganda, Nigeria and Egypt, and now settled in the northern boreal forest of Minnesota with my husband and traveling companion Sheldon, a medical historian.