> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Author:: Ayobami Ogungbe > Reference:: https://garlandmag.com/article/badagry/ > Date:: 2025 > Tags:: #warp/article #Africa/Nigeria #Africa/Benin > WeftLinks:: > - [[Cultural value of craft]] > - [[Peace and justice value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Locally handmade objects provide friendly expressions of cultural identity in international exchanges]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > Ayobami Ogungbe returns to his hometown of Badagry, weaving photographs and water reed into community installations that hold colonial history and cultural survival. ### Highlights > Ayobami Ogungbe makes art in his hometown Badagry using photos and local water reed. His work honours the Ogu people's culture and history, which was hurt by colonial borders. He collaborates with the community to create installations that connect past and present. > Everything, the culture, has receded, further towards the shore. > When the four days elapsed and I told them we had to bring it down, they were like, "No, no, no, people have been visiting our community to look at the installation. People from other villages." They took photographs on their phones and posted them on their Facebook groups, and it attracted a lot of people from the neighbouring communities. They advocated that I leave it there for three more days. > We shared the coast of the Atlantic together, and we have a lot of semblance in our shared histories. It felt like something to gift to them to resonate with the whole idea of return. > Right now in Benin, there is a narrative of having to return the artifacts and the bronze sculptures that were looted. But in Badagry, it's the people who are returning. > The community we are working with to weave these public installations currently doesn't have clean drinking water. We're trying to use the installation to make their voices heard and hopefully raise some money to erect a borehole for clean drinking water.