Illustration by Ekundayo R. Baiyegunhi / THE REPUBLIC.
THE REPUBLIC INTERVIEWS
Making the Museum of West African Art
Illustration by Ekundayo R. Baiyegunhi / THE REPUBLIC.
THE REPUBLIC INTERVIEWS
Making the Museum of West African Art
Museums should be about living practice and not just works with past, static lives,’ Ore Disu, the director of the institute at the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), thought on a humid afternoon in Benin, Edo State. It was the second day of the two-day preview the museum had organized in early November 2024. The preview, tagged ‘Museum in the Making’, had invited artists, scholars and cultural practitioners from across Nigeria, Africa, and the broader diaspora to the MOWAA campus—a sprawling active construction site—that is set to officially open in 2025. Among the campus’s facilities was a nearly finished ‘main building’ that housed an auditorium, along with a range of technical rooms, including climate-controlled collections stores, labs for material testing and art conservation, facilities for field archaeology, and a library. ‘We have had events in the past, but it is the first time we’ve hosted in Benin City, on this scale,’ Disu, who I spoke with both in Benin during the preview—we shared a panel—and days later on a Zoom call, said. According to Disu, ‘Opening our doors when the building isn’t quite finished, the conversations, the workshops—all of these geared towards this notion of museum building as a collective, evolving endeavour.’
For over a decade, Disu has been mapping a unique journey through the field of heritage management. After working as a freelance writer and researcher, in 2012 she founded the Nsibidi Institute (Nsibidi). It was a cultural think tank and, according to her, ‘a direct response to what I perceived as a dearth of reflective spaces in Nigeria outside of politics.’ Nsibidi had its challenges and its ground-breaking moments, all of which contributed to Disu’s interest in non-conventional approaches to thinking about African heritage. Presently, as director of the institute at MOWAA, she recognizes and invites discourse surrounding the problematic legacies museums have had in Africa. Additionally, she sees an opportunity to reimagine the museum, not simply as a place where knowledge is held or contained but as an active contributor to local knowledge systems.
Under Disu’s guidance, MOWAA embraces an expansive view of heritage beyond the historical objects the West value and stole from Africa to include natural environments such as rainforests. While such natural heritage is still present in our local communities, they are rapidly being lost due to a lack of information, weak regulatory systems, and unchecked, rapacious capitalism. ‘Our starting point,’ she explained, ‘was to revisit how we define cultural value, focusing on precolonial African perspectives, geographical boundaries and religion before Eurocentric values shaped these definitions.’
As such, central to MOWAA’s mission is disrupting and reversing colonial paradigms in museum practices. ‘Why can’t [the flow of objects] be reversed … through loans, exchanges and traveling exhibitions?’ Disu asked, insisting that MOWAA must ‘serve as a conduit for African institutions to be more active in global practice.’
MOWAA, it is evident, cannot be an ordinary museum. A $100-million-dollar project (of which MOWAA has raised 20 per cent), MOWAA is uniquely positioned to lead knowledge creation and heritage management, not just in Benin City but across Africa at large. Like many, I wondered about the decision to identify as a museum but, according to Disu, there are obvious, practical advantages. For one, she explained that the museum label ‘provides a more direct way for people to immediately understand what you are referring to, leaving the details of what kind of museum you are up to the space, experiences and contents you emphasize.’ It reminded me of the novelist, Chinua Achebe, who was often asked why he chose to write in English—like English, the museum was a colonizing instrument. Once, Achebe responded: ‘Let no one be fooled by the fact that we may write in English, for we intend to do unheard of things with it.’
When MOWAA officially launches in 2025, it will launch without a collection. Not starting with a collection, Disu explained, ‘is an opportunity to disrupt notions of a museum being defined tightly around a collection. We’re disrupting the notion of museums as exclusive domains for experts, embracing broader sectoral and community participation.’ MOWAA, following Achebe, seems poised to do ‘unheard of things’.
During our conversation, Disu and I discussed her vision for MOWAA; MOWAA’s ongoing and forthcoming initiatives, including its sensitive work with Western institutions such as the British Museum; and its learnings from active African institutions such as Red Clay Studio in Ghana, Raw Material Company in Senegal, and the Guest Artist Space (G.A.S.) Foundation in Nigeria; and MOWAA’s ambitions to disrupt the global cultural landscape as we know it. Our full interview continues below.
WALE LAWAL
Thank you, Ore for speaking with me and for giving us the opportunity to discuss MOWAA. Of course, we are discussing MOWAA because of the preview that happened in November, ahead of the scheduled launch for 2025. To start with, let’s go back to the preview. What was going on in your mind as you saw the guests, the dignitaries, the people and the community trooping into the MOWAA campus?
ORE DISU
Thanks for having me. Firstly, it was seeing the numbers. People came in diversity. This was a moment of reckoning, where you feel as though you have had your head focused down, driving conscientiously over the last couple of years, and suddenly you look up and you’re surrounded by a strong contingent of players who are here to celebrate with you and to see what you have done. Museum practitioners, artists, creative producers, writers, agency heads, our donors, local businesses—the convening created a really special moment. We have had events in the past, but it is the first time we’ve hosted in Benin City, on this scale. What that said to me was, firstly, we have demonstrated that Africans do have the capacity in the cultural sector to build something that attracts gatherings of this kind. But also that Benin City can complement, if not rival, cities like Lagos, Accra and Dakar as an emerging cultural capital for West Africa. Those were some of my immediate thoughts.
From day one, it was important that our first building preview should not be the usual ribbon-cutting exercise marked by self-congratulatory messages. Our objective with Museum in the Making was for communities and visitors to understand the function of the building and experience it first-hand. But it is also very important that we invite others into an ongoing conversation about how museum practices can be more relevant for people and institutions on the continent, and can be a powerful means of reconnecting with diaspora artists and practitioners. Opening our doors when the building isn’t quite finished, the conversations, the workshops—all of these geared towards this notion of museum building as a collective, evolving endeavour. That museums should be about living practice and not just works with past, static lives.
WALE LAWAL
I have been following your work as early as your founding of the Nsibidi Institute, and I wondered if you could tell me a bit more about that experience and how it shaped your interest in culture and heritage preservation. I also wondered how these interests have developed since then.
ORE DISU
The Nsibidi Institute was an experimental platform and collective exercise set up in 2012—a way to explore questions percolating in the societal ether. It was a direct response to what I perceived as a dearth of reflective spaces in Nigeria outside of politics. Even now, much of mainstream media—with rare exceptions like The Republic—is dominated by political and corporate narratives. While important, these stories are just a subset of a broader conversation to be held about how our spaces and cultural products are shaped by history and economics, and how they, in turn, influence our identities and futures.
At the time, I was a freelance writer and researcher and wished to create an interdisciplinary space for discourse with links to actual practice and policy. That’s exactly what we did—we hosted workshops, had meaningful conversations, and developed quasi-guerrilla style projects centred on topical themes such as urban practice, community development, environmental stewardship, and the role of archives as collective memory. One standout initiative, the ‘Memory Project’, aimed to crowdsource personal histories—recorded stories, photographs, letters and memorabilia—as resources for collective memory and cultural production.
Running Nsibidi taught me several lessons. Funding was a constant challenge, with most of our support coming from European cultural agencies. Even the most liberal of organizations come with their own agendas, with few willing to provide general operational funding, which inevitably influenced what we could produce. Not having all the funds at once forced us to be creative. Over time, good ideas, well-implemented, generate magnetism for collaborators and donors alike.
Another challenge was the duplication of efforts. Back then, the creative scene was dominated by small, grassroots initiatives usually led by individuals without much formal structure, which hindered scalability and disincentivized collaboration. On top of that we struggled with the lack of infrastructure. Without proper spaces for archives, exhibitions or gatherings, it was hard to move projects forward.
MOWAA tackles several of these challenges head-on while still valuing the contributions of independent practices. I often think about how much further Nsibidi could have gone if an institution like MOWAA had existed then. Unfortunately, the absence of targeted funding and structural support curtailed our progress, underscoring the need for institutions that prioritize enabling rather than implementing grassroots initiatives.
WALE LAWAL
Earlier you made a point about your wish that MOWAA was around when you were working on the Nsibidi Institute. I am interested in knowing what you imagine the difference would have been. But before we get to that, you started Nsibidi in 2012; now, just over decade later, you are the director of the institute at MOWAA. What does the role mean and what is your vision for MOWAA?
ORE DISU
As the director of MOWAA Institute, I focus on developing our programming and partnerships, as well as work closely with MOWAA’s leadership to cultivate our foundational policies and strategy. My role spans all our departments—from archaeology, heritage management, curatorial, collections conservation and education—where I work closely with programme leads, as well as with other research and cultural organizations in Nigeria and abroad. Most people don’t realize that museums are more than display spaces. Behind-the-scenes, there’s a whole machinery in place and significant work to safeguard cultural heritage, engage communities and generate new knowledge—whether through research, care or public programming. Ultimately, we are building a repository of materials, knowledge and practice.
For MOWAA to succeed, it is not just enough to showcase West African heritage at home. Our ambition is to serve as a conduit for African institutions to be more active in global practice—confronting ‘villagization’ and segregative practice. Frankly speaking, the current flow of objects mostly moves from Africa and to collections in the West, and more recently to Asia and the Middle East. Why can’t this be reversed—as much by restitution efforts as through loans, exchanges and travelling exhibitions? This is not just about objects. It’s about accelerating cultural mobilities for people, ideas and scholarship. Africans shouldn’t have to travel abroad to see a high-quality exhibition with our works sitting alongside those from other cultures. These should be accessible here, closer to home, and more affordable.
Beyond that, MOWAA has a staunch commitment to support viable careers and offer real value addition for artists, scholars and cultural practitioners. How can else can we redefine what decolonized African thought or society looks like?
When the British imposed their imperial power and governmental structures in Nigeria, they disrupted a way of life and patronage for artists. Imagine that we are able to revitalize parts of society—especially in cultural practice and creative work—that have struggled to recover, not just from colonial rule but from the more recent economic strain, limited funding and inadequate policy guidance. If MOWAA achieves its aims, we will have viable careers for community-based and diaspora practitioners. We will have another centre for scholarship and thought leadership here on the continent, regularly producing research and publications. We will expand public life with a broader range of offerings—entertaining and enjoyable, yet educational and expansive.
WALE LAWAL
One of the things that has really struck me about the museum, the campus and the project overall is this idea that MOWAA is not just concerned with the repatriation or preservation of traditional objects. Rather, MOWAA takes a more expansive view of what heritage means—to even include the natural environment. And here, I am speaking about projects like the Rainforest Gallery that is going to be hosted on the MOWAA campus. I wondered if you could share more about the thinking behind this expansiveness. What is it that motivates MOWAA to hold such an expansive view of heritage?
ORE DISU
Our starting point was to revisit how we define cultural value, focusing on precolonial African perspectives, geographical boundaries and religion before Eurocentric values shaped these definitions. For example, if you examine what was taken during punitive expeditions and colonial-era transfers, it’s clear that there was hierarchy of materials, such as ivory, bronze and gold, with ceramics and textiles accumulated to a lesser extent; the external commodification of what is valuable within the African setting and useful for the purposes of the British empire’s expansionist agenda. Let’s take that further. Once we start really situating ourselves within our histories and identities, then we must broaden our scope to look at skills, technology, architecture and nature as equally significant elements of cultural heritage; to think about philosophy and even spirituality as not archaic relics of a dark past, but prisms through which to unlock inter-generational knowledge. Yet in doing so, we must also embrace the tools of modern science and redirect concerted efforts towards their preservation and study.
The MOWAA Rainforest Gallery and wider gardens are some of such responses of reclamation and revaluing. In the fourteenth century, the Benin empire would have been surrounded by dense tropical rainforest of predominately indigenous flora. Not just in the Benin empire, but also across historic Yorubaland, where forests have held significance and spiritual value for centuries. Sacred groves afforded balance to the seen and unseen aspects of society. Forbidden places reinforced social controls while foraging zones provided the resources for wide-ranging productive practices, from medicine and tools to art itself. At MOWAA, we aim to replant a demonstrative rainforest right in the centre of our campus to inspire these conversations of the interconnectedness of our ecological and cultural inheritance. Many artworks from Benin, for instance, draw from local materials and motifs of natural life found near rivers and forests, highlighting the co-dependency between nature and art. By exploring this relationship, we hope to foster sustainable practice in contemporary art and architecture, as well as art conservation and exhibition production.
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WALE LAWAL
Given the co-dependency between the arts and rainforests, why do you think objects have tended to receive more attention than our rainforests in heritage-related conversations? From your experience, have there been any reasons why rainforests and the natural environment have tended to be overlooked in these conversations? Or perhaps they are not being overlooked—but maybe not as amplified in the media or in public conversations as much as the attention that has been placed on objects?
ORE DISU
It often comes down to who determines cultural value. If you place an object in a museum, it becomes more notable. To conduct an art auction, you have to ascribe an opening value. When you publish the work of an artist, its selection and narrative accord a value to it. Objects are easier to highlight—they can be photographed, put on a pedestal, auctioned, and passed on from one owner to another. Objects lend more easily to enhancing individual and institutional status. In contrast, natural landscapes introduce the notion of land ownership and worth. It’s harder to frame something that is living and constantly changing; you can’t put in a box. Yes, we can counter with plantations and notions of land as a commodity, but within the heritage framework, its conceptually more difficult to quantify and define it.
Climate change may well force us to refocus on the commons, and sustainability as a non-negotiable. This creates an opportunity to revisit traditional stories and practices that helped societies coexist with nature. We were once told not to go into the forest because of certain malevolent spirits and forces. These truths and stories were—amongst other things—social engineering devices, in turn fostering forest preservation and respect for nature. Now, as we are faced with resource limitations, we must consider our balance with the natural world, making these conversations central, not just to heritage management but societal advancement.
WALE LAWAL
You and I were both on an interesting panel about decolonizing histories through African–led practice. A moment that stood out to me on that panel was when you brought up the topic of why MOWAA refers to itself as a museum, especially considering the troubled historical relationship between Africa and Western museums. Could you share more of your thoughts on how MOWAA will problematize or even disrupt the very meaning and function of museums?
ORE DISU
‘Museum’ is a loaded term; it carries weight. That can be a good or a bad thing. As a typology, ethnographic museums, in particular, are tied to the history of dehumanization and ‘othering’. Yet, as a linguistic device, they provide a more direct way for people to immediately understand what you are referring to, leaving the details of what kind of museum you are up to the space, experiences and contents you emphasize.
MOWAA is still developing its own museum practice. Yet it is clear that we will focus on cultural practice—as something that is living and that is lived. The MOWAA campus is designed to prioritize space for making and a space for exchange; we also will not limit ourselves to just the physical boundaries of the museum itself. Not starting with a collection is an opportunity to disrupt notions of a museum being defined tightly around a collection. We’re disrupting the notion of museums as exclusive domains for experts, embracing broader sectoral and community participation. This inclusivity might involve people from non-traditional fields—chemistry, horticulture, business—to be part of expanding museum practice, to be more relevant to those on the continent and in the diaspora. My aim is to make museums relevant and accessible, while safeguarding irreplaceable cultural materials.
WALE LAWAL
I did say this on the panel—that MOWAA museum practice does often remind me of that thing that Chinua Achebe said about why he published novels in English, given the difficult relationship that English has had in many colonized regions. Achebe said something along the lines of, ‘don’t be fooled by the fact that we write in English, because we intend to do things unheard of with it.’ And I do think that is a kind of similar situation that MOWAA finds itself in. That we call ourselves a museum, but we want to do something unheard of here with it. I also want to stay to the subject of names. Up until last year, MOWAA was known as the Edo Museum of West African Art; what motivated that name change?
ORE DISU
Growing up in Lagos, the most common question I got asked was: ‘Where are you from?’. When I took up my post at MOWAA, another dimension was added: ‘Why are you investing so much time and effort here if you are not from Benin?’. While these are not intrinsically unreasonable questions, the underlying bias stems from a strong, persisting, ethnic-based perspective and kinship evident in Nigeria, typically whipped up for political gain.
One reason we changed our name was to encourage a move beyond a rather limiting view of a museum defined by just one ethnicity. Historically, people would shorten the name to ‘Edo Museum’, ignoring the regional scope the latter half of our name was meant to convey. How do we fix in people’s mind that this was not just about Edo, but that whether you are in Lagos, Accra, Abidjan or Sao Paulo, there was something here for you to come and see and to connect with?
On the international front, there was sometimes a little bit of confusion about whether ‘Edo’ referred to the Japanese dynasty. It also lends itself to future-proofing the organization. If in ten years, we decide that we want to have an outpost in Dakar, having it called the Edo Museum of West African Art in Dakar is a little bit clumsy. The name change gives us more flexibility and enables us to communicate our scope in a more direct—and hopefully precise—way.
WALE LAWAL
We know that the museum is scheduled to launch next year. What will some of MOWAA’s early initiatives be? In the first year, for example, or in the first three years, depending on how you have mapped out the schedule. Is there anything that you can share regarding what its main initiatives, programs or contributions will be?
ORE DISU
It is important to note that although the Institute officially opens next year, MOWAA has been active since 2021, focusing on construction, but also on archaeological research, training, outreach and conservation. With more robust infrastructure now in place, we are expanding our operations to host exhibitions, with our major seasonable programming anchored in May and November.
As director of MOWAA Institute, one of my first priorities is to establish archives and collections, supported by climate-controlled facilities designed to safely store at-risk materials from the continent, starting locally. In parallel, we will deploy conservation and collections management practices that respond to our tropical climate. The aim is to draw, where possible, indigenous traditions of care and develop practical, sustainable and shareable protocols. If we truly want to support other museums and existing collections, we must get the fundamentals right. We are currently in discussions with Nigeria’s National Gallery of Art and the Centre for Black African Arts and Civilization, with a view to offer both space and specialist care, ensuring notable works are preserved for future generations. In time, we plan to offer professional courses for art conservation and eventually host ‘collections clinic’ as part of targeted restoration projects. Underpinning all of this will be the development of reference material collections of leather, wood, metals, painting, ceramics and more, so our conservators can develop treatments and protocols specific to West African environments and collections. These are significant and ongoing projects for any conservation centre.
Another key focus is the launch of a residency programme to support living artists and artisans, fostering global cultural exchange in Benin City. With funding from the US-based Mellon Foundation, we’re developing studios and live-work accommodation. This will allow us to host more artists and strengthen exchanges with other African and international residency programmes. We are inspired by the exponential energy and successful initiatives across the continent, spanning from Ibadan to Dakar.
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WALE LAWAL
In Benin, I was privileged to get a tour of the main building, and I wondered if you could share more about the other buildings and facilities the MOWAA campus will feature.
ORE DISU
I’m glad you were able to go on the tour! Much of my time over the last two years has been spent supporting the development of our bespoke art conservation facility and consulting with advisors on our advanced scientific labs. In simple terms, the Institute is where we keep materials of important cultural value, study them and develop practices to ensure they are here for future generations. We have 4,300 square metres of state-of-the-art space dedicated to do this. This includes climate-controlled collections stores, labs for material testing and art conservation, and facilities for our heritage management and field archaeological units. On the more public-facing side, the Institute also features two purpose-built galleries, a library, shared workspaces, and a 100-seater auditorium which will be geared towards our educational and public programmes.
In essence, the Institute serves as MOWAA’s intellectual heart—the anchor for our inquiry, learning and exhibitions. We intend for our exhibitions to be highly dynamic, featuring loans, donations and commissioned works from living artists and artisans—alongside historical and archaeological pieces. In the initial phase, our focus is to support regional efforts to address at-risk collections, leveraging our conservation facilities to meet local needs. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work this will take; for example, collating a broad range of art material samples and undertaking research, which in time will serve as a point of reference for the restoration of artworks on the continent.
MOWAA takes a quite expansive idea of not limiting our museum practice to one building. As you noted, it is a ‘deconstructed museum’ articulated as a campus, with our exhibitions and research stations punctuated by performance areas, cafes and gardens. We started with the Institute—the scholarly core and programming anchor for the rest of the campus. We will soon begin preparations for the MOWAA Garden Studios, with the aim to launch our artist residency program in second half of 2025. This will include another modest gallery, studios, a café and outdoor gathering spaces. Next, we’d like to commission the MOWAA Rainforest Gallery—a 1,100 square-metre dedicated exhibition space and curatorial lab—and the Art Guesthouse, a boutique hotel. This largely depends on funding. Our thinking is both to provide a vibrant experience for our guest collaborators and visitors but, critically, to be financially sustainable in the long run. Given the state of research and arts funding in Africa, we can’t depend on grants and donations alone. Even legacy Western institutions are increasingly pushed to evolve away from being major cost centres.
WALE LAWAL
That is a very comprehensive overview that a lot of people who will be reading this interview and have not yet seen the MOWAA campus will find very useful. I also wanted to talk a bit more about something you mentioned earlier—which were skills and human resources—and the way that MOWAA has been thinking through its human resources. Of course, all of this impressive development of the MOWAA campus is happening in a very economically challenging time in Nigeria. It is a challenging time especially for cultural practitioners, and with people emigrating a lot, technical skills are becoming more difficult to find and retain. In Benin, I was very impressed with the team that I met. How is MOWAA navigating these challenges? More importantly, what do you think the Nigerian ecosystem can learn from how MOWAA is attracting, developing and retaining the right technical skills?
ORE DISU
One of MOWAA Institute’s primary objectives is to provide training and professional development for cultural practitioners, addressing the scarcity of technical expertise in the field. Many individuals with relevant skills lack full-time opportunities or specialist projects, leading some to leave the sector or migrate abroad, contributing to the ‘japa’ syndrome. It is definitely a tough space, and I do sympathize— or rather empathize—with other organizations who face the same challenges as ours. While MOWAA cannot employ everyone we train, we aim to build a core permanent team to manage collections and labs, while offering shadowing opportunities and special projects to foster growth.
But MOWAA has also had to bear the brunt of the pull for practitioners outside of the country. The reality of comparative global opportunities presents challenges. For instance, in our early partnership with the British Museum, most of the graduate archaeologists who started with us ended up pursuing PhDs abroad. While we’re proud to have supported their growth, this highlighted the need for recalibrated hiring and retention strategies. We see value in being a ‘revolving door’ for talent. We are developing a fellowship program and technical pool system to balance this, ensuring that training and research investments benefit both practitioners and the organization. It’s important to have clear expectations and time guards to ensure we can deliver on our commitments and build a stronger skill base year-on-year.
To remain competitive, we’ve invested in high-spec lab equipment, a fully equipped conservation lab and consistent project funding. This approach allows us to retain a permanent team while creating pathways for cultural practitioners to advance their careers—whether locally or globally—and contribute to the growth of African museum practice.
WALE LAWAL
I wanted to talk a bit more about MOWAA’s fundraising experience but I think, just before we talk about that, I wanted to briefly talk about your ongoing projects with the British Museum. Of course, this is an area anyone paying attention to this interview will pick up on. The British Museum doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to conversations around African heritage repatriation, and I wondered if there is anything that you could share about how MOWAA has been able to navigate that experience. If there are any distorted facts—maybe that are out there in the mainstream—that you feel like there is an opportunity to correct, in terms of how MOWAA has been working with the British Museum to make this project happen. Of course, there is a narrative out there about how the British Museum is holding all of these artifacts. A lot of people who know cultural or heritage work know that the conversation is a lot more layered, more complicated. But I wondered, from MOWAA’s own perspective, of course, as an institution that is being set up to lead and take charge of the heritage conversation in Nigeria—the broader African region—what has that relationship been like? What can you share about the ways in which MOWAA is charting this sort of new era of museum relations, particularly between Nigeria, West Africa, and the West vis-à-vis the British Museum?
ORE DISU
I’ll start by affirming my support for open, critical debates that raise the bar as to what constitutes ethical practice in relation to cultural properties. After all, this dynamic is what my early career work sought to establish. Concerns within and around the impetus and motivations of our collaboration with the British Museum are broadly related to the restitution agenda. Even with institutions that are returning works, in some instances the conversation around restitution has really become less about the wronged and more about whitewashing. What MOWAA and a few others have done is adopt an expanded, future-facing definition about repatriation. Let’s think about providing skills and opportunities for the descendants of the artists, artisans and families impacted by the loss of these works and the broader actions imperial Europe took. How do we ensure reinvestment into these spaces? Shouldn’t those who have arguably benefited the most from hosting these objects not contribute and ensure that we can preserve and revive these practices? It is taking a more nuanced and expansive notion on how we provide for more sustainable and more strategic developments in a broader framework of restitution and in a new era of African leadership in museum practice.
There is a hidden associated cost of restitution that goes well beyond the return of the works themselves; the upkeep of these materials and subsequent work of reuniting with material properties that were left behind. With the British Museum, our focus has been around safeguarding the materials that do remain in Nigeria. Working with them and the National Commission for Museum and Monuments, we have focused on pre-construction archaeology as a skills-building intervention. In simple terms, this means making sure you record and, where possible, retrieve materials that typically would be destroyed during the construction of new buildings or roads. In our case, we have aligned the development of MOWAA Institute and the future MOWAA Rainforest Gallery with global best practices for cultural preservation. If we focus exclusively on objects, we are once again feeding into a narrative that places Western museums in the limelight; this could end up being a much more skewed and narrow agenda.
WALE LAWAL
At least, from what has been available publicly, we know that MOWAA is a $100–million project, and that the museum has successfully raised $20 million so far. Could you tell me a bit more about MOWAA’s fundraising journey? Also, given that you had mentioned much earlier, from your experience at the Nsibidi Institute, how difficult fundraising had been, what stood out to you as the major difference in the fundraising journey this time around?
ORE DISU
Fundraising is not an easy endeavour. It requires trust and time. This has been a shared effort largely driven by Philip Iheanacho, who is the executive director and chair of the MOWAA board of directors. Fortunately, from the start of our journey, MOWAA got a lot of global attention and goodwill. Even now, we have more partners vying to work with us than we can even handle and have to be disciplined to take things at a manageable pace.
Africans are generous. However, we’ve found that in the arts and culture space, local corporates oftentimes will wait until a foreign investor ‘validates’ our efforts before putting their own skin in the game. Of the $20 million we’ve raised thus far, a significant majority was generated from foreign governments, arts institutions and private foundations. Speaking frankly, foreign capital is more readily inclined towards structured giving and philanthropy in the art space. Only a handful of African individuals and corporates have stepped up. As we move into the next phase of our fundraising strategy, we hope to build greater balance.
The tide has been turning more recently, as more high-net-worth individuals and local firms have seen the progress made on the MOWAA Institute building. We have demonstrated not just that we do what we said we will do, but a willingness to manage funds in a transparent and accountable manner. Hopefully, this will build up the confidence of other Nigerian and African individuals and organizations to say ‘this is something that we want to back.’
People want to see demonstrated effort—but demonstrated effort also takes time. We’ve had to be patient and pragmatic while also providing ways for people to feel connected to us. We are incredibly grateful to our angel investors. As we go forward, we hope for a diversified portfolio of players to join, and work alongside with them to realize MOWAA’s vision.
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WALE LAWAL
You hinted at this earlier, when you talked about the decision behind the name change; everyone I met and spoke with at the preview had the impression that a project like MOWAA will not only serve Edo or Benin City, but actually has the capacity to serve the entire continent. I wondered, in what ways, is such a view in line with your vision?
ORE DISU
It is incredibly critical for me that MOWAA is not an inward facing, isolated entity, but positions itself to energize the broader ecosystem. MOWAA should be a convening point—a supercharger that supports other institutions do better and achieve their own goals, affording access to our facilities and exchanges with resource persons. Beyond the continental endeavour, we are interested in linking our programmes to other Black and diaspora communities and their initiatives.
Having a functioning, modern conservation lab will be a game changer, enabling more collections preservation and conservation science research to be undertaken in-country. With residencies, artists and scholars will be able to come into our facility, access excellent collections, archives and libraries over time, and use this to enrich their own projects within their own institutions and independent practice. I’d like MOWAA Institute to be an anchor knowledge repository and base to propel scholarship and the exchange of knowledge on the continent. This spans from cross-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary research, but it could also be posed as conferences and seminars. Just last week, for example, we hosted over 40 archaeologists, heritage practitioners and community custodians in Benin City for the second edition of our Futures of Archaeology seminar, with support from the British Museum and the German Archaeological Institute; it is a space for practitioners to share recent initiatives and findings. We are also collectively looking critically at how to redefine African practice such that it sustainably impacts local careers, increasingly stems ‘helicopter’ science, and integrates ethical, professionalized and participatory standards in heritage management.
WALE LAWAL
We talked earlier about the British Museum but are there any other museums or cultural projects that you could say MOWAA is or will be in direct conversation with—or that you have drawn inspiration from as you are thinking about programming and ideas for the museum?
ORE DISU
MOWAA’s emergence coincides with an era of maturation and expansion of the arts scene on the continent, evidenced by the compelling array of initiatives to be inspired by. Collectively, they are setting the bar higher. We are seeing more refined, focused practices. There are new and long-standing residencies, more independent galleries and temporal projects, such as public art, art tours and discursive initiatives. Even public museums are repositioning themselves with younger leadership, revamped exhibitions, and generally being more open to collaborations and creatively sourcing alternative funds. There’s a really strong sense that this is a special moment. One marked by possibility, energy and an unwavering confidence.
Personally, I’m quite inspired by artist-led residencies, such as Ibrahim Mahama’s Red Clay Studio in Tamale, Raw Material Company in Dakar, and Yinka Shonibare’s G.A.S. Foundation in Ijebu-Ode. Each one of these have really strong practices that are socially aware and contextually nuanced, yet quite distinct in their interrogation of topical issues and development of art practice. I’m also starting to see more of an interest in artists collaborating with traditional artisans or integrating craft-based materials into their work; Nengi Omuku and Adeju Thompson come to mind.
As an institution, we’ve been having exploratory conversations with several public institutions in Nigeria with large archival holdings to see how we can collaboratively address preservation needs and get works that have been less researched or rarely exhibited into public view. For us, it’s important that we take a strong critical thinking and evidence-based approach to the rearticulation of African narratives. This need not be limited to our historic works and archaeology, but should also be applied to contemporary art as well.
More resource-heavy research and conservation fronts are also picking up, though not with the same pace or degree of visibility. But here again, we are seeing more digital preservation efforts, more monument protection grants, and an expanding interest in indigenous conservation practices and material knowledge. This is one of the spaces I believe MOWAA Institute can really offer value, to collate this knowledge and guide future methodologies.
WALE LAWAL
For you, personally, as director at MOWAA, what have you found to be some of the most prominent, earliest challenges that you have faced and how have you been able to overcome these?
ORE DISU
The breadth of what MOWAA is trying to achieve is incredibly inspiring. It’s been enriching to expand on my expertise—in research management, policy advisory, social practice and education programming and to bring these to bear in how MOWAA defines not just its strategy but delivers on high-impact collaborative projects with our partners. MOWAA’s broad scope has pushed me into unfamiliar areas like archaeology and conservation science, requiring on-the-job learning. I’ve overseen key aspects of a multi-year archaeological research project and supervised the development of our conservation science facilities. This involved closely monitoring budgets and planning well in advance for lab work in our post-excavation phase—given our ambition to conduct as much of the scientific analysis locally—as well as linking communities into our practice, which requires balancing their experience quality with research technicalities and timelines. I’ve benefited from the guidance of colleagues and advisors who have helped me navigate these technical fields and operating environment; from Professor Shadreck Chirikure at Oxford University to our honorary Nigerian Charles le Quesne, my adopted big brother Victor Ehikhamenor, and several others who have really demonstrated a rare humility in thoughtful debates and our close working relationship.
One of our deep challenges has been dealing with the misinformation out there about what MOWAA’s intentions are. MOWAA Institute is a research, training and conservation centre working with multiple practitioners and institutions—we are not seeking to position ourselves as the battleground for Benin bronzes. Communicating MOWAA’s mission clearly while addressing scepticism is a constant focus. We continue to shed light on our functions and programmes in a simple and palatable way. I am a firm believer in not dumbing down things or infantilizing laypersons, and finding ways to get them more directly involved in the work that we are doing in responsible and enriching ways.
Generally, we have been on the receiving end of goodwill and intentions for MOWAA. But as with all things novel and transformative, we are sometimes approached by people with preconceived notions as to what we should be doing. I am constantly aware of the honour to reposition and address some of the long, deep-seated challenges that African institutions face. Who defines the research questions or the scope? Who manages the pot of money used to deploy these collaborative relationships? How do we ensure decision-making practices are balanced and informed by the practical realities of rolling out programmes in an African context? Do joint governance structures and reporting requirements balance the time and investment of working within bureaucracies for smaller organisations? It is a co-learning process. Most of the partners are highly self-aware and receptive. We have to balance mostly minor re-alignments with being aware that as a new institution, there is a lot to learn from pre-existing foreign and local organizations. The fundamental thing is being open and practical, and to recognize the differences between structural and personal traits.
WALE LAWAL
As you look ahead, what excites you the most about MOWAA and the evolving cultural landscape ahead of you and your team?
ORE DISU
There is just this explosion that is happening right now, and The Republic has been writing and thoughtfully building the archives of our times. Almost every other month, I learn about a new residency programme or a new boutique exhibition space or a new archival project or artisan-centred collaboration. These are mostly being driven—not by visiting artists—but by returning diaspora and rooted practitioners, together generating a renewed sense of cultural pride. That is really what inspires me to keep going—because it is hard work, and the path is not always straightforward. But knowing that you are—to use a biblical phrase—surrounded by a crowd of witnesses who are actively complementing your efforts and rooting for you, it does make it feel less of a singular endeavour and more of a robust network of initiatives that will add up in a much stronger ecosystem. This is what it means to take ownership of the narrative; to have more African voices and players standing and saying, ‘This is what our creativity looks like. This is what our conservation practice can be. This is how we are expanding storytelling and curating our heritage for the world to come and interact with on our terms. This one is ours.’ This momentum gathering and constellation of energies are what keep me going⎈
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