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Iheanyi Igboko

@coolfinesse

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Museum Director| Storyteller| Heritage Management Professional
Exec. Director @centreformemories
CoFounder/COO @inspark_ng
Curator @tedxasata

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What does rain mean to you? For the Igbo people, as Iheanyi Igboko from the Centre for Memories in Nigeria explains, it’s a blessing #CNNAfricanVoices by @coolfinesse

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a year ago

Spotlighting some of our faves who showed up in NzapiApparel at The preview experience of Things Fall apart. by @coolfinesse

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2 days ago

"Today, Things Fall Apart stands as one of the most influential book ever written out of Africa.

More than a story about colonialism, it became a landmark work that challenged how Africa was portrayed in literature and gave millions of readers a new understanding of the continent's history, traditions, and humanity.

Its title, as many of you know, was borrowed from the Irish poet W. B. Yeats and his poem "The Second Coming": things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. So it is fitting, and we are delighted, that the Embassy of Ireland in Nigeria @irlembnigeria will be supporting the prizes for this year's @things_fall_apart_festival Essay Competition. A line written in Ireland found its answer in a novel written in Igboland, and tonight that dialogue continues with Ireland standing beside us.

Which brings me to the place from which we do this work. At the Centre For Memories @centreformemories, our work spans Igbo memory preservation, public history, museum education and public engagement, restitution advocacy, and archaeological documentation. Essentially, our whole work is to defend a right: the right of a people to hold and tell its own past, document its present and determine its future. This book is the best proof we have that it can be done.

And what do we want from all this? Honestly, we want the Festival to become a place where we practise defining ourselves in public, in our own words, together, and not once a year only. The 2026 edition invites you not only to revisit Achebe's text, but to insist, together, on the enduring right to name ourselves."

Thank you to @nzapiapparel and the @thepreviewexperience #ThePreviewExperience, who caught on with the idea of the Abuja pre-festival event and hosted us at the @kolanutgallery. Thank you to the entire team led by the incredible @MrOhdee.

Join us in Enugu for the main festival from 18 - 24 October, 2026 as we focus on the theme - Named, Unnamed, Renamed: Power, Identity and the Right to Self-Definition.

#ThingsFallApartFestival taken in Asokoro, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria by @coolfinesse

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9 days ago

From Aba to Tulsa to Abuja, the conversation continues.

On Saturday in Abuja, we gathered for the final pre-festival event of the 2026 Things Fall Apart Festival, under the theme Nke Anyị Amaka.

It is a simple truth that is easy to forget. Our names, our languages, our stories, and our ways of seeing the world carry a beauty that needs no outside approval.

In Abuja, we asked the questions Chinua Achebe’s world still asks of us: Who names us? Who tells our stories? And what do we choose to remember?

Thanks to Nzapi Apparels and The Preview Experience for helping bring this evening to life, and to everyone who came, listened, and spoke honestly.

Now, the journey comes home to Enugu.

Join us at the Things Fall Apart Festival 2026, 18 to 24 October, at the Centre for Memories.

We look forward to welcoming you!

#TFAF
#TFAFestival
#ThingsFallApart
#NamedUnnamedRenamed by @coolfinesse

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13 days ago

Chapter 39.

And I find myself less interested in counting the years than in sitting quietly with what they have made of me.

This year brought new partnerships, new challenges, new responsibilities and new possibilities. Some of it I understood only in hindsight.

I am increasingly convinced that my life's work is about one simple but profound question, one I find myself returning to more with each passing year:

What do we choose to remember, and what do we leave behind for those who come after us?

I am grateful for the people who have walked with me, challenged me, believed in me, opened doors for me, and sometimes simply stayed, even when there was nothing dramatic to stay for.

I am grateful, too, for the mistakes that taught me, the disappointments that strengthened me, the opportunities that stretched me, and the work that continues to give my life meaning, quietly, day after day.

I have spent another year doing work that I have come to understand is much bigger than a job. Through the Centre For Memories, I continue to research, document and preserve the history and culture of Ndị Ìgbò; to create spaces where stories can be told, memories can be recovered, and difficult histories can be encountered with honesty and dignity, even when honesty costs something.

My boss, Mr. @Pokigbo3, had written a lot around the vision and inspiration behind the establishment of the Centre. You can read the article below:

https://substack.com/@pokigbo3/note/c-333106158?r=1o5cha

But beyond reflection, we are doing something. We are raising funds for the permanent home of the Centre for Memories. Every kobo counts, and this is my birthday wish.

Join us on the climb, and donate to our cause.

Account Name: The Centre For Memories Ltd/Gte

Account Number: 4520012937

Bank Name: Fidelity Bank

Pictures: @Pjshotsonline @Pjcreatesonline taken in University Of Nigeria Nsukka by @coolfinesse

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a month ago

Pictured here at the historic Smithsonian Castle in Washington, D.C.

Officially known as the Smithsonian Institution Building, the Castle is the oldest home of the Smithsonian and has stood since 1855 as a symbol of memory, knowledge, research, culture, and public education.

What struck me most was not just the beauty of the architecture, but the vision behind it. This was a place built with the ambition to preserve stories, deepen learning, and shape how generations understand themselves and the world around them.

The Smithsonian Castle became more than a building. It became a national symbol.

As I stood in front of it, I could not help but think about the future of the @centreformemories.

I imagine a time when people from across the world will stand in front of the Centre, take photographs, and write about it with the same sense of awe, pride, and cultural reverence. A time when the Centre becomes not just a museum space, but a global reference point for the preservation, documentation, and celebration of Ìgbò history, memory, resilience, and identity.

Institutions like these do not emerge by accident. They are built by visionary men and women who choose to invest in ideas larger than themselves. They are sustained by people who understand that memory is infrastructure, and that culture deserves permanence.

Every enduring institution once began as someone’s conviction.

Perhaps someday, generations after us will tell the story of how this vision was nurtured, supported, protected, and built into something that outlived all of us.

And maybe, just maybe, they too will stand in front of the Centre For Memories and say: “This place helped preserve who we are.” taken in Smithsonian Castle by @coolfinesse

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4 months ago

On August 2, I marked five years as Executive Director of the @centreformemories.

Interestingly, it took a reminder from one of my brothers to make me realise the milestone had even arrived. We get so immersed in the work that sometimes we forget to pause and acknowledge how far we have come.

Five years ago, the Centre was little more than a conviction: that Igbo memory deserved the same rigour, the same institutions, and the same seriousness we so readily extend to other heritages. Today, that conviction has grown into a body of work I could not have mapped out in advance — a documentation practice that has taken us into archives and oral histories across Igboland, a conservation commitment to the history, culture, practice that defines us and partnerships with institutions I once only studied from a distance.

There is a saying among us that a single hand cannot tie a bundle of yam.

Nothing here was built alone. From the Trustees and Board who set up this vision and platform long before I arrived, to everyone who had led and worked with the Centre from its inception; this has always been a collective undertaking, carried forward by hands before mine. Add to that an incredible team that showed up before there was infrastructure to support the ambition, development partners, grantors and media who took a chance on an idea still finding its shape, and a community of custodians - villages, leaders, artists, historians, archaeologists, and a host of knowledge holders; whose memory is the actual archive we are stewarding.

Looking back at these five years is deeply fulfilling. There is so much to be grateful for in what we have built together, but perhaps even more exciting is what lies ahead.

Five years in, and I still feel like we are only getting started. taken in Enugu, Nigeria by @coolfinesse

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2 months ago

We had the honour of receiving the Director of @centreformemories Mazi Iheanyi Igboko @coolfinesse. Giving his goodwill message, he resounded his support to Studio Omeni. We can't wait for the collaboration that lies with TLC, Studio Omeni and Centre for Memories.

#StudioOmeni #studiolaunch #creativespace #podcasting #podcaststudio by @coolfinesse

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24 days ago

The official Things Fall Apart Festival 2026 merch is here!

How do you show up for a festival without the festival wear? 😉

Step into Things Fall Apart Festival 2026 in style. Our official festival merchandise, curated by Nzapi Apparels, designed to celebrate the spirit, identity and energy of this year’s festival, is now available to order.

The collection was unveiled over the weekend at the Abuja Pre-Festival Experience by the Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Chief Obi Asika.

Get yours from our online store: www.nzapi.ng

As we count down to Things Fall Apart Festival 2026, happening 18–24 October at the Centre for Memories, Enugu, make sure you have your festival fit ready.

Wear the story.
Wear the festival.
See you at TFAF 2026!

#TFAF
#TFAFestival
#ThingsFallApart
#NamedUnnamedRenamed by @coolfinesse

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9 days ago

“𝘞𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺.”
— 𝘈𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘳 𝘎𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘵, 𝘌𝘜 𝘈𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘊𝘖𝘞𝘈𝘚

This week marked a defining moment for the creative and cultural ecosystem. We witnessed the European Union @euinnigeria take a bold step toward strengthening Africa–Europe collaboration through culture.

At the @madhousebytikera, University of Lagos, the Africa–Europe Partnerships for Culture (AEPC) Nigeria cluster was formally launched, an initiative that signals new possibilities for creatives, institutions, and cultural practitioners across the region.

The Director of the Goethe-Institut Nigeria, Dr. Nadine @enitpine, reaffirmed what many of us in the sector already know: Nigeria’s creative industry is powerful, diverse, innovative, and increasingly recognised on the global stage.

The €30 million EU-funded project, implemented by the Goethe-Institut, aims to strengthen the entire arts and culture value chain. It will reshape cultural cooperation, support co-creation and exchange, and deepen mutual understanding between Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.

AEPC Nigeria cluster coordinator, @Nimi_lane, shared insights into the work already underway across six West African countries, with festivals as an early focus.
“What we are trying to do with this is unite the cultural creative ecosystem,” she noted.

The AEPC initiative is ambitious:
• 250 cultural professionals to be trained
• 450 artists to be supported
• 48 festivals to be connected across West Africa

For us in the sector, the message was clear. This is a commitment to stronger collaboration, meaningful capacity building, and increased global visibility for Nigerian creatives. It opens the door for networks to grow, skills to deepen, and our stories to travel further.

It was inspiring to exchange ideas with industry leaders such as @adukegomez, @chief.ehondor19, amongst others. Conversations like these reaffirm the immense potential of sustained Africa–Europe cultural engagement.

#AEPC taken in University of Lagos by @coolfinesse

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a year ago

Today, I celebrate my brother in all seasons — the kind of brotherhood that time cannot weaken, distance cannot diminish, and life can never replace.

Iheanyi, Nwannem, you are an embodiment of greatness, character, competence, kindness, empathy, sacrifice, and unwavering commitment. You carry a rare combination of strength and tenderness — a builder who doesn't just create things, but builds people, relationships, dreams, and family.

Thank you for always showing up — for me, for our family, and for everyone fortunate enough to be connected to us through you. Thank you for your generosity of heart, your loyalty, your counsel, your care, and for being that dependable brother who stands firm whether the season is good or difficult.

Some people are brothers by blood; you are a brother by blood, by choice, by sacrifice, and by every definition that truly matters.

I am grateful for you, proud of the man you are, and even more excited about the man you are becoming.

May life continually reward your heart, enlarge your influence, strengthen your hands, and give you reasons to smile as deeply as you make others smile.

Happy birthday, my brother. My Nwannem. My guy. My brother in all seasons.

Greater heights, greater grace, greater impact. Always. ❤️ by @coolfinesse

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a month ago

Swipe! 💫

Mr. Iheanyi Igboko @coolfinesse , happy birthday! 🤍

For years, you’ve been feeding the world’s community through @centreformemories — one wholesome step at a time, and holding artists and creatives close to your heart.

What you’ve built isn’t just a centre. It’s family. A home for stories, culture, history and care.

May your strength keep multiplying, and may joy keep finding you.

Had to make sure I celebrate you through ☎️ @goodys_surprisecall today too ✨ by @coolfinesse

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a month ago