In Africa, whenever an elder dies, a library burns down.
Amadou Hampâté Bâ
Inspired by the aphorism “In Africa whenever an elder dies, a library burns down”, attributed to West African philosopher Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1901–1991), the group exhibition Embodying the Sacred seeks to examine the different modalities of knowledge conservation, activation and circulation of heritage from the perspective of West African artists and communities through the lens of the archive.
Throughout large parts of their histories, West African societies have produced original forms of mediation between the spirit, the material and the living. Expressions are inherited and transmitted from one generation to another through oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, arts, festive events, knowledge concerning nature and the universe or the skills production of traditional crafts. We refer to this embodied know-how as intangible archives. This thinking led to the choice of exhibition title, taken from the publication Embodying the Sacred in Yoruba Art.
In this chapter of The Sun Never Sets, artists and artisans from Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon address the notion of intangible archives. They do so through diverse mediums such as culinary traditions, performance, digital art, indigenous praise poetry, and textile dyeing and embroidery. Their works highlight our bodies as reservoirs of embedded cultural and ancestral memory that can witness and document, becoming viable sites for history-making.
In her book Cloth in West African History, Colleen E. Kriger showed a deep appreciation for the place of craftspeople in West African history, noting that their labours have not been fully recognised by historians. A reason for this lack of recognition is that textiles and the tools that produce them are often composed of less durable materials, which makes them difficult to trace historically.
Kofar-Mata Dye Pits Association
In her book Cloth in West African History, Colleen E. Kriger showed a deep appreciation for the place of craftspeople in West African history, noting that their labours have not been fully recognised by historians. A reason for this lack of recognition is that textiles and the tools that produce them are often composed of less durable materials, which makes them difficult to trace historically.
After thorough consideration of museum objects found in collections in Britain, Europe and North America, as well as descriptions of objects that can be found in the published literature, Kriger concluded that there is in fact “a paucity of written archival evidence prior to the 20th century concerning cloth, especially from the perspective of local producers and consumers”.
Kofar-Mata Dye Pits Association
Kofar Mata Dye Pits Association
Rigan-Saki 1
2024
139 x 177 cm
Kofar Mata Dye Pits Association
Rigan-Saki 2
2024
139 x 177 cm
Kofar Mata Dye Pits Association
Rigan-Saki 3
2024
139 x 177 cm
The artisan community at the Kofar-Mata Dye Pits Association was commissioned to respond to a handwoven, embroidered and dyed gown that is now held in the collection of the British Museum. The gown (pictured left), is called a Tobe or Rigan-Saki in Hausa. The acquisition register records this Rigan-Saki as “a complete Hausa costume” bought by the donor (Brig-Gen A P Garnier) between 1911–12 at Zungeru, a seat of the former British colony in northern Nigeria. The quality of the cloth and design of the embroidery gives a high probability that this gown was originally made by artisans in Kano.
The Kofar-Mata Dye Pits Association has produced three versions of this Rigan-Saki. One of the works is a direct replica of the gown found in the British Museum collection, and the remaining two are variations on the design as it continues to be created today in Kano. By foregrounding the labour of the communities that continue to uphold this tradition of dyeing and embroidery design, we can counter the archival evidence that only privileges colonialist narratives and concerns. It is important to show that it was the labour alongside the visual and tactile acumen of African artisans and local consumers that shaped the market for fabrics, yarns and trimmings into which European and Muslim traders endeavoured to enter during the pre-colonial and colonial period.
Image 1 & 2 (left): Hausa Rigan-Saki/Tobe, c. 1911. Hand-woven from hand-spun cotton, 127 x 239 cm. Image courtesy and © The Trustees of the British Museum
Kofar-Mata Dye Pits is one of the oldest in West Africa, located in the heart of Kano city in Nigeria. For over 500 years, the artisans at Kofar-Mata have been able to preserve their age-old tradition of indigo dye, cotton weaving, tailoring and embroidery making. The practice is transmitted through a system of apprenticeship from one generation to another within a network of families who continue to run the business. This work of indigo cultivation, yarn making, weaving, embroidery decorating, sewing and the embellishing of patterns on cloth is a labour-intensive process that takes the artisans weeks to achieve.
Recognising the pervasive nature of ageism and its impact on society, Malik Afegbua decided to use his artistic talents to challenge stereotypes and reshape perceptions of ageing. He embarked on a creative journey to showcase seniors in a different light, aiming to celebrate their wisdom, vitality, and contributions to society. Afegbua’s breakthrough came with The Elder Series, an AI art project that reimagined elderly figures in vibrant, empowering contexts.
Malik Afegbua
Recognising the pervasive nature of ageism and its impact on society, Malik Afegbua decided to use his artistic talents to challenge stereotypes and reshape perceptions of ageing. He embarked on a creative journey to showcase seniors in a different light, aiming to celebrate their wisdom, vitality, and contributions to society. Afegbua’s breakthrough came with The Elder Series, an AI art project that reimagined elderly figures in vibrant, empowering contexts.
Using innovative technology, he created striking visuals of seniors walking down an imaginary fashion runway, challenging traditional notions of beauty and vitality associated with youth.
Malik Afegbua
Malik Afegbua
Storylines 1
2024
Dimensions variable
Malik Afegbua
Storylines 2
2024
Dimensions variable
Malik Afegbua
Storylines 3
2024
Dimensions variable
Malik Afegbua
Storylines 4
2024
Dimensions variable
Malik Afegbua
Storylines 6
2024
Dimensions variable
Malik Afegbua
Storylines 7
2024
Dimensions variable
The parchment heart, a
canvas etched with years,
no longer smooth, but
etched with joys and fears.
Each line a story,
whispered, worn, and wise,
a roadmap etched by time
across the eyes.
These furrows hold no
malice, just the weight
of battles fought, of triumphs
sealed by fate. A lover’s
touch, a child’s endearing
tear… The sting of loss,
the laughter ringing clear.
For stories are the
wrinkles of the soul,
a constellation
of moments, making us
whole. They speak of
journeys, paths both long
and brief, of lessons
learned, of solace found in
grief.
Don’t fear the lines,
the cracks that time imparts,
they are the whispers
of a thousand beating hearts.
A testament to living,
deeply, truly, madly,
each wrinkle earned, a badge
worn proudly, gladly.
So let your story
etch its path untold,
each line a chapter,
worth more than purest gold.
For in the creases,
wisdom finds its voice,
a symphony of moments,
a life, a human choice.
Malik Afegbua is a Nigerian contemporary artist, virtual reality curator and film director. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Surrey and is the lead visionary and Chief Executive Officer of Slickcity Media, an innovative media production company with expertise across the entire media value chain including film/tv production, documentaries, VR, films, commercials, corporate videos, visual marketing, media technology and publishing.
Afegbua’s notable exhibitions include the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival in South Africa, where he showcased his work with Meta, and Meta’s African XR Creators Showcase. He also produced and directed the Netflix original documentary Made By Design. In addition, Malik has been recognised in top publications such as Vogue, Stirworld and Tuko where his digital fashion show The Elder Series made headlines.
To address the notion of intangible archive, I have created sounds that represent encoded information which are relevant to the Igbo people and which can speak to a global audience as classical music with notes on what the sound is saying. Therefore, I explored “Speech Surrogacy”, using Igbo-African musical instruments that traditionally talk. For this composition, functional and performative art was the focus.
Gerald Eze
To address the notion of intangible archive, I have created sounds that represent encoded information which are relevant to the Igbo people and which can speak to a global audience as classical music with notes on what the sound is saying. Therefore, I explored “Speech Surrogacy”, using Igbo-African musical instruments that traditionally talk. For this composition, functional and performative art was the focus.
Sounds from musical instruments can be beautiful, cultural and creative, but for this project, the functionality of the sounds is important as well. This “music that talks” therefore is an active reality, evoking the spirit of Christopher Okigbo, representing the symbols around his life, and inviting all people to an immersive and contemplative experience about the life of a renowned post-colonial Nigerian poet.
Gerald Eze
Tribute to a Postcolonial Poet
To address the notion of intangible archive, I decided to create a sound that has encoded information. I explored “Speech Surrogacy”, using African musical instruments that traditionally talk. As I reflected on Amadou Hampâté Bâ’s words that “In Africa whenever an elder dies, a library burns down”, I thought of Christopher Okigbo, a post-colonial Nigerian poet. His death has remained unbearable to me; the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe himself noted in several essays how irreplaceable Okigbo is. In the sound, I am speaking to the spirit of this man, Okigbo, and in particular making social commentaries on his most renowned poem, Mother Idoto. The piece also pays homage to the water deity Idoto, and follows all the sections of this poem.
So the composition is music on one hand, encoded messages on the other; social commentary on one hand (as tribute to the post-colonial poet Christopher Okigbo and the water deity Idoto), and a sonic interpretation of a poem, Mother Idoto, on the other. I find this exciting because Okigbo as a post-colonial poet is of the conviction that he is not an Igbo poet or an African writer. He is a writer, period. He pointed out clearly that he loves classical music and draws inspiration to look into his culture from everywhere he finds sophisticated art; a major example he gives is the music of the French pianist Claude Debussy. One thing I did in my score was to bring in sonic paintings that follow the contour of Debussy’s piano music (not his music in particular, but an adaptation of the contour of his music), and I scored this for the African thumb piano, Ubo-aka.
– Gerald Eze
Oke Oja, 2024, Traditional musical instrument. Image courtesy the artist
Big Udu, 2024, Traditional musical instrument. Image courtesy the artist
Uboaka, 2024, Traditional musical instrument. Image courtesy the artist
Small Udu, 2024, Traditional musical instrument. Image courtesy the artist
Ekpili, 2024, Traditional musical instrument. Image courtesy the artist
Ekwe, 2024, Traditional musical instrument. Image courtesy the artist
Etiti Oja, 2024, Traditional musical instrument. Image courtesy the artist
Nne Oja, 2024, Traditional musical instrument. Image courtesy the artist
Nne Oja, Etiti Oja, and Oke Oja, 2024, Traditional musical instruments. Image courtesy the artist
Pipilo, 2024, Traditional musical instrument. Image courtesy the artist
Gerald Eze is a Nigerian music educator, academic researcher and performing artist from the Igbo-speaking ethnic nationality in southeast Nigeria (a region popularly referred to as the “Land Of The Rising Sun”). He holds a BA in Music and an MA in Ethnomusicology from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria. For ten years, he dutifully studied under indigenous Igbo musical maestros and has mastered a multitude of traditional Igbo instruments under threat of extinction, particularly the Oja and the Ubo-aka.
Eze recently founded the Ichoku Academy, where young people are educated on Igbo folk music and are taught to master indigenous instruments. His recent solo performances include: The Creative Showcase, British Council, Lagos (2024); Story Telling, GOETHE Institut, Lagos (2024); The Omniverse Summit, Lagos (2024); Igbo Rising: A Performance of Nigerian Traditional Music, in collaboration with Njideka Akunyili Crosby, David Zwirner Gallery, New York (2023); and the Afro Punk Festival, Brooklyn (2022).
In bygone eras, birds were commonly targeted for hunting, sustenance, or sacrificial rituals. However, my ancestors took a different approach, embracing these creatures as ornithophiles, allowing them to thrive alongside humans. A pivotal moment arose when the community faced a significant ordeal, necessitating the assistance of a bird to transport a substantial sacrifice to Ikole Ile. The community’s request for aid did not specify the type of bird required.
Adebukola Adelere
In bygone eras, birds were commonly targeted for hunting, sustenance, or sacrificial rituals. However, my ancestors took a different approach, embracing these creatures as ornithophiles, allowing them to thrive alongside humans. A pivotal moment arose when the community faced a significant ordeal, necessitating the assistance of a bird to transport a substantial sacrifice to Ikole Ile. The community’s request for aid did not specify the type of bird required.
Driven by their affinity for birds, they beckoned to various avian species for help in carrying out the task. Despite their efforts, only Igunlari emerged as the chosen bird, ordained by the divine forces
for this crucial mission.
Adebukola Adelere
Igunlari gracefully bore the sacrifice to Ikole Ile, ushering in a period of tranquility and harmony within the community. This profound event birthed a Yoruba proverb that resonates through the Yoruba generations: “Ba o ba rigunugun, a o gbodo sebo, ba o ri akala magbo a o gbodo soro”. This proverb serves as a reminder of Igunlari’s significance, that the absence of the Igunugun bird forewarns against performing sacrifices, just as the absence of Akalamagbo advises against engaging in the oro, a midnight masquerade ritual.
Yoruba Oshe Sango, c. 1959. Wood, 50.5 x 28.8 x 7 cm. Image courtesy and © The Trustees of the British Museum
Yoruba Ibeji Figure, c. 1959. Wood, 25.6 x 6.9 x 5.3 cm. Image courtesy and © The Trustees of the British Museum
Yoruba Egungun Staff, c. 1959. Wood, 67.5 x 13.2 x 6.1 cm. Image courtesy and © The Trustees of the British Museum
The tale of Igunlari not only underscores the bird's pivotal role in restoring peace and order but also underscores the interconnectedness of nature, spirituality, and human affairs. Through this story, we witness the enduring impact of Igunlari's actions on the community's beliefs, traditions, and cultural practices, showcasing the profound influence of a single avian hero in shaping the fabric of collective memory and societal norms.
Adebukola Adelere is a Yoruba indigenous sound artist, composer and dancer, who grew up in her native town Iseyin, Oyo state. Growing up in this traditional environment made her discover her talent at a tender age through her lineage, rooted in the Yoruba philosophical cosmos of eulogy and theatre. After a decade of chant and dance as hobbies, she started her professional career in 2019 with the Oworo Dance Community in Lagos. She believes that preserving histories through oral culture is a way of immortalising events, communities and humans who have influenced a given time of existence.
This project serves as a preliminary step in my research on food as an element that sustains us and preserves our cultural traditions. For me, cooking is an act closely linked to the concepts of home, community and sustenance. Cooking speaks to us of connection – to stories, people, places, lives, ingredients… Cooking brings us closer to who we are. It brings us safety and comfort amidst so much uncertainty.
Agnes Essonti Luque
This project serves as a preliminary step in my research on food as an element that sustains us and preserves our cultural traditions. For me, cooking is an act closely linked to the concepts of home, community and sustenance. Cooking speaks to us of connection – to stories, people, places, lives, ingredients… Cooking brings us closer to who we are. It brings us safety and comfort amidst so much uncertainty.
Cooking is also a form of time travel, bringing ancestral wisdom into re-imagining futures through our tastebuds. At the same time, cooking (and eating) are acts that require a lot of presence. This project understands cooking as the capacity to experiment, the accumulation of connections and “possibilities of”, as well as the stories that can be told in the process. I am interested in working with photographs, videos, objects and ingredients, as well as text, generating confluences of organic and inorganic elements. The result highlights the power of each to define one’s own identities, histories and communities.
Agnes Essonti Luque
Agnes Essonti Luque
Spoons of Nostalgia 1
2024
70 x 50 cm
Agnes Essonti Luque
Spoons of Nostalgia 2
2024
70 x 50 cm
Agnes Essonti Luque
Spoons of Nostalgia 3
2020
70 x 50 cm
Agnes Essonti Luque
Spoons of Nostalgia 4
2024
50 x 70 cm
Agnes Essonti Luque
Njama-Njama
2023
Video, 4:33 min
I created this video piece as part of the Taym we Taym bi bin Taym project with the intention of highlighting complex ideas surrounding culture, tradition and identity. My aim was to focus on the interconnectedness and interdependence inherent in every thought, emotion, individual and place – a network woven with clarity. Simultaneously, the joys of food-as-medicine, sustenance and care are present in the piece, encapsulating the full circle of life – wherein a dish is meticulously prepared and ultimately returned to the earth in a symbolic act of burying it on the ground. The inclusion of pidgin in the title, consistent in most of my work, serves as both a commentary on the brutal oppression of African languages by colonial powers and a recognition of pidgin’s resilience and its ability to hack existing structures. Rather than viewing pidgin as broken, I perceive it as a dynamic, evolving and poetic language.
Agnes Essonti Luque, 'Spoons of Nostalgia 1' (detail), 2024, Photography, printed on Hahnemühle paper, 70 x 50 cm. Image courtesy & © the artist
Agnes Essonti Luque is an artist based in l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain. She has a Diploma in Photography from the Kensington & Chelsea College in London, a PgD in Culture and Thought of Black Peoples from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, a PgD in Social and Share Economy from Universidad Pompeu Fabra, and an MA in Photography from Blank Paper. Her practice focuses on exploring crucial issues such as Afro-diasporic identities and cultures.
Luque’s work has been exhibited extensively, most recently including Generación, La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2024); Something Else, The Citadel, Cairo (2023); Fragmentos en Bozal, CCE Bata, Equatorial Guinea (2023); Taym we Taym bi bin Taym, Bombon Projects, Barcelona (2023); and Foodscapes, Spanish Pavilion, Biennale Architettura, Venice (2023). Part of her artistic practice includes performance and in 2023 she performed her works La Bissaperie in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and Bayam Sellam in the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, both in Madrid.
Pitaya (2021) is an ephemeral archive. Set in front of the dilapidated remains of a colonial edifice in São Tomé City, it traces triangulations of African migration within the textures of a single, mundane moment. The African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe was established in the late 15th century as critical colonial entrepôts, trading in sugarcane, goods and abducted humans – many of whom were enslaved at the ports of Elmina, in Ghana’s central region, where both of my parents were raised.
Ama BE
Pitaya (2021) is an ephemeral archive. Set in front of the dilapidated remains of a colonial edifice in São Tomé City, it traces triangulations of African migration within the textures of a single, mundane moment. The African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe was established in the late 15th century as critical colonial entrepôts, trading in sugarcane, goods and abducted humans – many of whom were enslaved at the ports of Elmina, in Ghana’s central region, where both of my parents were raised.
Ama BE
As a visually permeable work, Pitaya pictures migration as a force of disorientation, disembodiment and reconfiguration. Its layered geographies, gestures and soundscape pull at the frays of time and presence. Sitting on the decrepit façade, I perform a subtle absurdity – eating pitaya (red dragon fruit) from a teacup, hailing the gaze of resident passersby. I invite the presences of my Fante ancestors and sonic fauna of Virginia, a third point in colonial transit, into a porous moment to draw attention to our commingled lineages and our lived experiences as an ephemeral archive.
Ama BE, 'Pitaya' (detail), 2021, Single channel video, 7:40 min
Ama BE is a Ghanaian-American transdisciplinary artist who explores African relationships to land cultivation, labour and migration. She works with botanical materials, many of which carry antithetical ties to hegemonic trade, violent labour migrations, spirituality and holistic remedy. Her practice probes at porous spaces between time, materiality, sentience and memory to propose nuance in the performance of African cosmologies and embodiment of African futurity.
She has exhibited work internationally in Ghana, Cape Verde, Miami, New York and Washington, D.C. and will be included in the 15th Dakar Biennale in Senegal in 2024.
Oyindamola Faithful & Emmanuel Ndefo
A Curatorial Conversation
Exhibition curators discuss and situate the meaning of the archive within the historical and cultural context of West African traditions.
Online project
The Sun Never Sets
An expansive online project exploring the aftermath of the British Empire from the perspectives of curators, artists and writers from its former colonies.
Oyindamola (Fakeye) Faithful is the Executive & Artistic Director of the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, where she previously co-founded the Video Art Network Lagos in 2009. She has worked on various exhibitions and projects, including Identity: An Imagined State (2009), the first video art exhibition in Nigeria. She co-curated the Lagos Biennial II (2019), titled How to Build a Lagoon With Just a Bottle of Wine, alongside Tosin Oshinowo and Antawan Byrd. Emmanuel Ndefo (b. 1991, Kano, Nigeria) is an artist-researcher who uses his body as a tool for his creative process, to imagine how performance can contribute to wider contemporary conversations. He has an MA in Dance, Research, Heritage and Practice from Choreomundus Masters of Dance, a joint programme across four universities in France, UK, Hungary and Norway.