The True Source of Ladi Kwali's Genius

For decades, the potter on Nigeria’s twenty-naira note was considered the product of British colonial art instruction, but this viewpoint denied a crucial truth: that Ladi Kwali’s art came from a Gbagyi worldview in which clay, labour and the female body were sacred, inseparable and hers alone.

Written by Chimezie Chika

Mar 22, 2026

Illustration by Shalom Ojo / THE REPUBLIC.

This story appears in our print issue, ‘100 Years of Ladi Kwali: Stories from Another Nigeria’. Buy here.

Once upon a time in a rotund house in Suleja, Niger State, a slim woman in a headgear prepared and kneaded a lump of damp ochre clay. She scooped a long strip of clay and placed it on her side-positioned other hand, coiling it around to the end, before slapping on another similar strip of clay, pinching it into position following a circular pattern, then another and another. And as she kept up this routine, her hand rising with each layering, a roundish shape began to emerge. It was still rough, like an ancient stone-hewn wood, not much of any smoothness except at its tapering near the top. She paused to look upon it—or we can suppose she did, because of the practice where she came from—and when she examined it with the hindsight of experience, throwing her head back, she saw that what she had made was good and, nodding, continued her work.

That was Ladi Dosei Kwali, and what we can suppose was her typical workday. For many Nigerians, Kwali’s story is limited to a now almost forgotten vestigial aspect of our legal tender, the twenty naira. Long captivated by the image of the woman on the back of the note since its introduction in 1977, Nigerians, by many accounts, however, know nothing about her beyond the fact that she was a supposedly famous potter, a condition that explains Kwali’s unique place in Nigerian heritage conversations: that of obscure renown.

While many may argue that an engraving on the national currency is immortalization enough, there is often some feeling, especially within the art world, that she had neither been properly explicated nor her art properly understood—until recent times, that is. Yet the recent reappraisals of her work in international exhibitions temper its wholesome ethnic origins with colonial affectations.

It is doubly important then to put anyone under no illusions as to the originality of Kwali’s art; more so as Nigeria’s first internationally renowned and recognized potter and ceramist. That art had emerged from the oft-dissimulated Gbagyi (or Gwari) culture that gave her identity. And what that background reveals about the nature of Kwali’s art is endlessly interesting.

You’ve Reached Your Limit of Free Reading.

The Republic is a Nigerian media-tech company dedicated to explaining our time—through deeply reported journalism on power, culture and society.

Ad-Free Reading Experience

Focused consumption without interruptions.

Unlimited Access to Exclusive Archives

Years of reporting at your fingertips.

In-Depth Deep-dive Reporting

Long-form journalism that matters.

This story features in our print issue, '100 Years of Ladi Kwali'.

Create a free account to continue reading this month and access more of our work.

About the Author

Chimezie Chika

is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. A runner-up for the J. F. Powers Prize for Fiction (2024), Chika was a 2021 Fellow of the Ebedi International Writers’ residency in Iseyin, Nigeria. He currently resides in Nigeria.

Comments

SHOP THE REPUBLIC

The ‘Electronic Imam’ Who Rewrote Nigerian Islam

In the 1970s, a Nigerian radio cleric built a pipeline between northern Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, sending young men in search of a purified Islam. The returnees would go on to transform how millions practised their faith and unsettle the society around them.

—May 24, 2026

A Bird in Flight

The father held the form four ZIMSEC results several months later, reading and re-reading the neat set of A’s and B’s with great deliberateness…‘If only you were a boy,’ said the father. ‘Good job. Whoever marries you had better be rich. This is no small investment.’

—May 24, 2026

Good News

Emeka has no business dying now. He and Afuajuba still have unfinished business. She wants to know why. What was so broken in their relationship that he needed to have an affair?

—May 24, 2026

Reclamation Across the Atlantic

A trip to Brazil did not teach me that Yoruba indigenous religions are beautiful; it showed me that their beauty had been systematically obscured.

—March 22, 2026

Osaze Amadasun’s ‘Ladi Kwali’

Visual artist and graphic designer, Osaze Amadasun, reimagines Ladi Kwali, reclaiming the full legacy of a cultural icon beyond her portrait on the 20 naira note.

Subscribe to our free newsletter

You're in — welcome to The Republic

Complete your onboarding

Read

Connect

Apps

More

Read

Connect

Apps

More

The True Source of Ladi Kwali's Genius