Nigeria’s artistic legacy has never lacked brilliance — from the Dufuna Canoe to Nok, from Ife to Igbo-Ukwu to Benin, our creations sit in the world’s greatest museums, catalogued and insured within documentation systems more robust than our own. The real crisis has never been recognition; it has been documentation. While Nigerian art is celebrated, its histories, lineages, and creators often remain fragmented, scattered, or lost entirely. The story of Gani Odutokun — influential painter and mentor whose students are globally archived while his own papers remain dispersed — captures the cost of this gap. When documentation fails, legacy breaks.
Art in Nigeria: Documentation determines who controls value
