Lagos is full of monuments and statues.
In 2016, I became interested in statues and how they live in urban spaces in cities throughout Africa.
Statues came to Africa through the colonizers from Europe who used them to mark their territories and immortalize themselves. When I began to question this practice of memory, it led me to consider the connections between colonialism, power, time, and space.
These photographs were made in different spaces on the continent and also represent people who have lived in historical periods throughout Africa. They have wielded power in one way or another. In other words, they are ideas of memory. They remind us of someone or something. Yet, the most interesting aspect for me is that these public artworks emerged from postcolonial movements.
After European colonizers left Africa, leaders and communities adapted this cultural practice and began erecting statues of themselves in public spaces.
Read more:https://monumentlab.com/bulletin/colonialism-and-the-persistence-of-memory
