Nigeria Imaginary

Months ahead of this issue, we had been discussing with the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) about collaborating on producing several art-focused essays ahead of the 2024 Venice Biennale, where MOWAA organized the Nigeria Pavilion. Speaking to Aindrea Emelife, MOWAA’s curator of contemporary and modern art, and the curator of the Nigeria Pavilion, this collaboration was part of a larger MOWAA project, ‘to connect the exhibition with its contextual place of genesis.’ With that in mind, we set out to produce essays that would allow readers to critically engage with the Pavilion as well as its themes of Nigerian thought, identity and culture. We also jointly developed a design contest, giving emerging Nigerian artists the opportunity to transform our front cover and showcase their own vision of Nigeria. Sarah N. Kanu, an Abuja-born and Texas-based artist won the contest. 

My interview with Emelife headlines this issue. ‘My personal considerations of what “Nigeria is today” is not the sole view that informed the curatorial vision,’ Emelife told me. ‘It was clear from the beginning that there should be a community consultation, to capture the many varying views and perspectives of Nigeria today. A project like this would suffer from individualism... The Nigeria Imaginary is dialogical. I ask questions, the artists ask questions, you should leave, hopefully, with even more questions.’ 

And now for the essays.  

In producing our three cover essays, we wanted to platform discussions not only of the Nigeria Pavilion but also of the significance of the exhibition for Nigerian art and Nigerians at large. Prioritizing deep, critical studies of individual artists over surface-level surveys, we commissioned essays on Toyin Ojih Odutola, Ndidi Dike and Yinka Shonibare CBE RA. These essays, while not necessarily artist profiles, use each focus artist as a window into the Pavilion as well as wider discourse on Nigerian and African art.  

‘Within the context of the Biennale, Ojih Odutola’s probing of space, bodies in motion, and containments, extends,’ Kéchi Nne Nomu writes. ‘Place becomes, more than a means of homing the body, a way to reimagine and contain evolutionary history or myths of creation.’ In this regard, Nomu explains, ‘Ojih Odutola shares common ground with Fatimah Tuggar, also a part of the showcase, whose Tubali architectural façades and calabash animatronic sculptures, reanimate the lived-in space. Both artists ask: how much telling can a striation, line mark or wooden fragment do?’ 

‘Dike’s art, and that of her co-exhibitors, are instrumental to the extensive vision of a liberated future such as Nigeria Imaginary projects,’ Chimezie Chika notes. ‘Each one of their works bears demonstrable similitude to the contemporary concerns of Nigeria: from the decadence of history to a utopia of the future; they are at times intriguing and emotional, though ultimately inspiring.’ 

‘Through Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, the Nigeria Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale presents a Nigeria that is more about routes than roots,’ Mobólúwajídìde Joseph explains. ‘A Nigeria that diagnoses its struggles with intricately imagined jokes while holding up a mirror to structural violence and broken promises. And a Nigeria that allows its children to return again and again in an ever-expanding array of visions and alternative futures.’ 

In line with our new format, this issue features authors writing on topics ranging from arts & culture to politics & security. Our Arts section includes ‘Birdwoman’ a short story by ’Pemi Aguda from her newly released collection, Ghostroots. This section also includes an essay by Ancci on recent debates (and a possible breakthrough!) in Nigerian literature; along with an extended essay on M.I, Jessie Jagz and the creative landscape of Jos by Emmanuel Esomnofu.

In our extended edition, the Arts section also includes: Ijedike Jeboma on the lasting significance of Buchi Emecheta’s Destination Biafra; Ernest Nweke on the resilient boldness of Chinua Achebe’s The Trouble With Nigeria; Zainab Kuku on the rise of Afrobeats; Boluwatife Akinro on the contemporary photographers disrupting the historical representation of Africa.  

In Business, Oyindamola Depo-Oyedokun reports on the rise and evolution of Mavin Records, which announced investment interest from Universal Music Group earlier this year. ‘The deal, which is expected to be closed by the start of the third quarter of the year pending regulatory approval,’ Depo-Oyedokun writes, ‘will see UMG own a multi-million-dollar majority stake in Mavin while leaving CEO, Don Jazzy and chief operating officer, Tega Oghenejobo, at the helm of management.’  

In our extended edition, the Business section also includes Ayoola Oladipupo’s profile of Alhaja Fausat Adebayo whose 50-year-old Iya Eba restaurant, he writes, ‘has contributed to the history of Lagos, one plate at a time.’   

In Culture, Republic senior associate editor, Yusuf Omotayo, travels to Ibadan, where the Akinkunmi family are still waiting for the state funeral they were promised for Taiwo Akinkunmi. Akinkunmi was the man who designed the Nigerian flag. According to Omotayo, it took the Nigerian government 51 years to formally honour him. ‘Now, months after his death, his body remains in a morgue as his family awaits a state burial.’  

In our extended edition, the Culture section also includes: Osivue Itseumah and Khalid Oshogwemoh on the potential of basketball in Nigeria; Sada Malumfashi on the history of Hausa feminist writings; Elizabeth Iwunwa on the pivotal role of religion in the Nigerian public life. 

Our extended edition also features a History section that includes Ezenwa Olumba’s problematization of the narrative that Mungo Park ‘discovered’ the Niger River. Additionally, Republic associate editor, Chukwudi Ukonne, writes on the complicated legacy of post-independence political leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo; and Ogechukwu Okonkwo examines the making of modern Nigeria from the era of British imperialism till date.

In Interviews, travel writer and author of Black Ghosts: A Journey into the Lives of Africans in China, Noo Saro-Wiwa, reveals the book that made her explore travel writing. When Saro-Wiwa read Martin Fletcher’s Almost Heaven, a book about the author’s journey around the backwoods of America, ‘it was the first time I encountered reportage that was literary and not connected to headline news. It opened my mind to the possibility of non-fiction writing.’ 

Our extended edition ends with a Politics section that includes: Chioma Okafor, Dr Olajumoke Ayandele and Dr Olubukunola Oyedele on the politics of feminist protests in Nigeria; Baba Aye on the legacy of the June 12 1993 election; Chris Ngwodo on what the government must do to secure a progressive Nigeria.  

Since our last issue, The Republic has received funding from the Open Society Foundations (OSF), which will go towards expanding our Black Atlantic column. OSF funding also supported the production of this issue. We have also won the Google News Initiative’s Innovation Challenge. Support from MOWAA contributed towards the production of this issue. Additionally, Google’s award will go towards helping us to build ATLAS, a photo discovery and licensing platform.  

As usual, we encourage our readers to engage with our essays and articles and to provide insightful comments. Readers may send their views directly to the Editor by addressing emails (of no more than 700 words) to wale@republic.com.ng, with the subject, ‘Comment on Xyz Essay’, or ‘Letter to the Editor’ as applies. Comments and letters will be archived and, depending on the quality of the arguments presented, we may reach out to assist in developing your letters and comments further for publishing in the magazine.  

At The Republic, we will always prioritize the meaningful exchange of ideas. We commit to pressing forward: on the most critical of social, political and economic issues; by innovating through knowledge gaps; and by providing guidance through thickets of opinion, ignorance and misinformation—three key features of our time—in search of glades of insight⎈