On a wall of London’s Tate Fashionable, a big photograph from 2012 depicts a seated Nigerian king, sporting a inexperienced beaded hat and a lavish gown with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II printed on the entrance.
Shot by George Osodi, it’s {a photograph} of a “very previous king,” the Nigerian photographer stated just lately by telephone, who was one of many monarchs who welcomed Queen Elizabeth II when she visited Nigeria for the primary time in 1956.
On the identical wall, one other photograph has its king wearing glistening crimson apparel and sitting on an identical velvet throne with gold adornments. Taken in 2022, this photograph is of a more recent Nigerian king, who got here to energy on this millennium, Osodi stated.
These pictures — titled “HRM Agbogidi Obi James Ikechukwu Anyasi II, Obi of Idumuje Unor” and “Pere of Gbaramatu. His Imperial Majesty, Oboro Gbaraun II, Aketekpe, Agadagba” respectively — are among the many works from Osodi’s ongoing “Nigerian Monarch” collection presently on view right here till Jan. 14 as a part of “A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography.”
In response to its curator, Osei Bonsu, the exhibition goals to steer away from typical Western imagery related to African cultures, which tends to be superficial or stereotypical, he stated.
As a part of this effort, Bonsu chosen works from artists exploring programs of energy in Africa outdoors of Western colonialism, he stated. This contains spirituality, as in Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s 1989 collection “Our bodies of Expertise,” depicting Black males performing Yoruba rituals, and conventional roles for ladies, explored in Kudzanai Chiurai’s collection “We Dwell in Silence,” from 2017, which reimagines numerous historic narratives with African girls at its heart.
Work by Osodi and the German-Ghanian artist Zohra Opoku, in the meantime, considers the up to date function of monarchies of their nations.
Within the late nineteenth century, a frequent consequence of European colonialism in West Africa was the merging of quite a few ethnic teams — many with their very own monarchies — to type a single nation, as within the case of Nigeria, stated Olutayo Adesina, a historical past professor on the College of Ibadan, in Nigeria, in a latest interview.
In nations taken over by France, the French “tried to abolish the tribal establishment,” Adesina added, however elsewhere, completely different areas proceed to have monarchies, now with ceremonial roles fairly than constitutional powers, representing the teams that existed earlier than the continent was colonized.
“They maintain an extremely necessary function inside their society as custodians of cultural heritage,” Bonsu stated.
Up to date monarchs usually assist their authorities in an advisory function, Osodi stated, noting that, like several system that places folks in positions of energy, these roles might be abused, and never all titles are handed down a line of inheritance.
“Some are appointed as a result of they’re wealthy or as a result of they fought for the group, however even an armed robber can turn into a king,” Osodi stated, including that worry can play a consider these choices.
Whereas queens rule much less usually, particularly within the conservative north of Nigeria the place it’s banned, there are a variety of exceptions. In a single 2012 {photograph} by Osodi titled “HRH Queen Hajiya Hadizatu Ahmedu Magajiya of Knubwada,” the Queen of Kumbwada sits in a protracted darkish crimson robe and straw hat. In response to information shops within the nation, a curse relationship again greater than 200 years prohibits males from taking over the throne in that space.
For Opoku, the German-born artist, exploring up to date African royalty has meant specializing in her personal heritage. When Opoku’s father, Chief Nana Opoku Gyabaah II of Asato, within the Volta area of Ghana, handed away, he left behind household pictures and Kente fabric, a textile historically worn by Ghanaian royalty.
In Opoku’s 2017 work “Queens and Kings,” on present on the Tate, pictures she took of her relations sporting secondhand T-shirts are screen-printed onto recycled supplies, with leaves protecting their faces and Kente fabric patterns seen elsewhere within the piece.
The artist stated the paintings was impressed by her first go to to Ghana in 2003, when she discovered copious quantities of garments “donated” by numerous European charities being bought in native markets.
Each month, 60 million gadgets of used garments arrive in Ghana, in keeping with a 2021 report from the Tony Blair Institute for International Change. Forty % of those clothes find yourself as waste, inflicting an ongoing environmental disaster.
“What occurs to our identification when the garments are modified?” Opoku, who now lives in Ghana, stated she is asking in “Queens and Kings.” In a society the place garments can function each standing and cultural image, photographs of a Ghanaian royal household sporting garments discarded from the West present how the identification of a spot and folks can turn into “blurry” when the tradition round garments is now not related to heritage, she stated.
When Osodi pictures his topics, he stated, the monarchs “wish to look good and stylish, and I give them that freedom.”
Documenting these up to date monarchs was a solution to “have a good time the varied wealthy cultures in Nigeria,” Osodi stated.
He added, “Seeing folks dressed in numerous regalia and clothes in these completely different cultures is one thing we ought to be pleased with.”
