My Life Has Many Uses
A man’s contentment surprised me. This was Cable Point, a little part of Asaba on the bank of the Niger. This was a street where hustle unfurled—where, for instance, a man named Mamadou said, [...]
Month: May 2016
Asaba: Is this not your father’s face?
1. Maybe the first thing to understand is that you cannot outrun the blood coursing through your body. It is alive in your veins. You cannot end your blood without ending your body, without [...]
Who Will You Meet Along the Way?
Finding scars has not been easy. On this trip, I have seen scars from car accidents, hot water, kerosene explosions and surgeries. There have been a lot of heavy no’s and dismissals hiccuped between [...]
The Roadside Intellectuals #2—”Let us wait and see what the head of this child will bring.”
In this episode of The Roadside Intellectuals, we continue a conversation on the recording of history. The first voice you hear is Zainab O. Odunsi’s, saying, “God, give me one woman on this list.” [...]
In True Form
On Mr. Asuen Zaynab: I admit that when I met the Asuen family that lives on the same street that Majek Fashek was born I was most interested in the 58-year-old [...]
Let us wait and see what the head of this child will bring
Trouble always carries its own stool… We sit in the living room of my father’s house in Asaba. The story he tells, of his experience of the Nigerian Civil War and the Asaba Massacre, [...]
Warri: A Two-Part Portrait
At the timber market yesterday, I met a man named Jewel with smooth black skin that was endless and unbreakable in its sheen. As the sun perched on a strip of his bare shoulder, [...]
Exploring the Process of Re-learning Bodies
It’s going to be a long process. I have been exploring physical awareness and the process of recognising a new body as your own.Through my photography, I hope to address a few thoughts. What [...]
You Cannot Take Photographs Here
1. In a book I read a long time ago, the author spoke of history as if it were a clothe woven from many fabrics. I think now of this book. The title [...]
Thought Shots (1): Benin to Warri
Those framed by our privilege will one day revolt and breakdown the walls erected around them by our excesses. 2. Conviction: the confine within which one is comfortable and contented with ignorance? [...]