Bridging memory and momentum: The art of vision at WAES 2025
* ‘Creative economies are not sidelines—they are frontlines‘
By Mudiare Onobrakpeya
AT the beating heart of West African Economic Summit (WAES) 2025, amidst policy papers, economic forecasts, and diplomatic handshake diplomacy, something extraordinary unfolded. In the cavernous halls of the International Conference Centre, Abuja, a different kind of power was on display—the power of the creative spirit. The exhibition, aptly titled ‘West Africa’s Creative Economy’, became the summit’s soul, a living archive of memory and momentum rendered in pigment, wood, cloth, bronze, and ink.
Here, more than 20 artists from across ECOWAS member states gathered not to showcase products but to awaken presence—to remind a region, and a continent, of its boundless inheritance and creative capital. It was not an exercise in nostalgia, but a bold act of cultural positioning. At a time when numbers and markets often dominate, this exhibition dared to insist: our stories, our symbols, and our artists are infrastructure too!
Ludovic Fadairo and Bruce Onobrakpeya: Echoes and Architects
IF there was a spiritual centre to this exhibition, it pulsed in the works of two masters whose names carry the weight of legend: Ludovic Fadairo of Benin Republic and Bruce Onobrakpeya of Nigeria. Fadairo’s works stood like relics from a sacred timeline—earth-toned, symbol-rich, and unapologetically African in their cosmology. In his paintings, one glimpses maps that do not chart land but meaning. He paints as though decoding an oral history whispered across centuries. Forms emerge and dissolve like spirits in transit. His palette—ochres, indigos, crimson smudges—recalls rituals older than colonization, older than the borders that divide the continent. Fadairo does not just represent West Africa; he interprets it.
Meanwhile, the elder statesman of Nigerian art, Onobrakpeya, offered works that were as commanding as they were transcendent. His deep relief prints and installations spoke in the syntax of time. One did not simply view his pieces—they conversed with you, layered with decades of experimentation, cultural resistance, and spiritual insight. A founding member of the Zaria Art Society and a torchbearer of the Nigerian modernist movement, Onobrakpeya has long seen art not as ornament but as oracle. His contributions here reminded viewers that African modernism does not imitate Europe; it carves its own language in the bronze, the mask, the myth.
Together, Fadairo and Onobrakpeya represented not just mastery, but legacy as practice. Their presence cast a long shadow—one of affirmation, of authority, and of future possibilities for younger artists standing in their light.
Mr. Matthew Oyedele (left); Director-General of National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Mr. Obi Asika; art historian, Dr. Mudiare Onobrakpeya; Mr. Farouk and Mr. Nduwhite Ndubuisi at WAES 2025, Abuja — Feature image: ‘Sahelian Masquerade’ by Dr. Bruce Onobrakpeya
Art as Diplomacy, Art as Economy
THE curatorial framing of West Africa’s Creative Economy was clear: the past is prologue. Guided by Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and aligned with President Tinubu’s cultural diplomacy agenda, the exhibition functioned on multiple levels—as art show, as regional statement, as policy provocation. It was, in every sense, a cultural intervention.
Beyond aesthetics, it marked a political pivot. The African Union and the EU-Africa Creative Industries initiative both underscored the same truth: creative economies are not sidelines—they are frontlines. From the stitching of Kente cloth in Accra to the video art emerging from Lagos and Dakar, the summit boldly asked: What if we treated these expressions not as soft culture, but as sovereign assets?
A Chorus of Contemporary Voices
THE exhibition’s strength also lay in its breadth. From Mali to Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire to Guinea Bissau, artists presented works that spanned genres and generations. Nigerian talents such as Mufu Onifade, Peju Layiwola, Gerald Chukwuma, and Jacqueline Suowari stood tall alongside their regional peers, each voice distinct, each contribution vital.
Suowari’s ink portraits breathed life into silence. Chukwuma’s sculptural assemblages channeled resistance and regeneration. Layiwola’s materials reclaimed ancestral memory, while Onifade’s araism brought Yoruba cosmology into dialogue with modern form. It was, in all, a chorus—not always in unison, but always in resonance.
The Future Sounds Like This
WAES 2025 will be remembered not only for the policies discussed in plenary sessions, but for the art that illuminated what policy alone cannot touch: the imagination of a people. It taught us that cultural capital is not simply symbolic—it is structural. And in the deft hands of our artists, that structure becomes shelter, map, and call to action.
In the end, it was the quiet wisdom of Fadairo’s brush and Onobrakpeya’s etched lines that lingered longest. Their work whispered not just of heritage, but of destiny. When the exhibition lights dimmed and the corridors emptied, their visions remained—humming, waiting, building a bridge between memory and the world yet to come.
* Dr. Onobrakpeya contributed this piece from WAES 2025 held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja on June 21, 2025
