Nigeria

Lagos, Nigeria – A woman in an elegant red dress walks down a hallway, turning to take in her surroundings. A large painting catches her eye, and she steps into the booth for a closer look.

Around her, visitors move between 15 partitioned exhibition spaces, pausing to study the artworks. Thousands have gathered to admire, connect with and collect works from across the world.

It is the third day of ART X Lagos, West Africa’s premier and largest art fair, held from November 5–8 as the centrepiece of Nigeria’s annual art week. This year’s programme features exhibitions, installations, music, discussions and film screenings at the Federal Palace Hotel on Victoria Island. Galleries and museums across Lagos are also hosting exhibitions.

Together, the exhibitions explore cultural erosion, migration and belonging, examining how art can preserve collective memory and reconnect people with their heritage. They also reveal a cultural side of Lagos that extends beyond its reputation for commerce, traffic and relentless hustle.

The past in the present

Ndidi Dike, a contemporary sculptor and multidisciplinary artist, is among those exhibiting. Her installation, Residues of Past Encounters II, features a wooden canoe suspended above a glass surface, with sand arranged around its edges. Above it hangs fabric in the Adire style, associated with Yoruba women of southwest Nigeria,  bearing silhouettes of tightly packed people.

The sound of waves crashing against the shore plays softly in the background, evoking the Atlantic coastline at Badagry, a historic Nigerian town that was once a notorious transit point for enslaved West Africans. The sand and sound were sourced from the town.

Dike’s installation explores the intertwined histories of the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism, memory and migration. The reflective surface beneath the canoe evokes absence, remembrance and the passage of time.

“The sound of the waves makes you contemplate, makes you think deeper, and then you begin to imagine, perhaps, how those who have left our shores under various circumstances must have been feeling mentally, the prospect of leaving home and never, perhaps, seeing it again,” Dike told Al Jazeera.

The work draws a connection between historical displacement and contemporary migration. Centuries after the transatlantic slave trade, many young Africans still undertake dangerous journeys to Europe, crossing the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea. Some die along the way, while others face exploitation and trafficking.

“I find that there is a correlation between slavery and what is happening now. It’s always the best of our demographic that are taken or who decide to go abroad. For me, I think it’s good to look at that correlation between the historical and contemporary circumstances,” she said.

Beyond the vessel

Now in its 11th edition, this year’s fair takes the theme ‘A New Chapter, A New Decade’, drawing inspiration from the pioneering generation of Nigerian artists, architects, educators and thinkers who helped shape modernism in the country.

ART X founder Tokini Peterside said the older generation demonstrated that innovation need not mean abandoning cultural inheritance. Instead, it can emerge from a deeper understanding of identity and the confidence to interpret it in new ways.

“For me, the thread connecting these presentations is the idea that our histories are not simply things to preserve or look back upon. They are living sources of knowledge that can inform what we create next,” Peterside told Al Jazeera. “While the exhibitions are distinct, collectively they reveal a creative landscape that is increasingly self-assured, intellectually ambitious and deeply engaged with the world around it.”

One artist whose legacy is being celebrated is Ladi Kwali, a Nigerian potter and ceramicist. Her work features in an exhibition titled Beyond the Vessel. Beside a large photograph of Kwali at work, her handcrafted pots and ceramics display motifs of scorpions, lizards and butterflies, alongside intricate patterns.

Kwali came from a long line of Gbari women potters in the village of Kwali, near Abuja. Pottery was part of everyday life in the community, but her talent took her from local recognition to international acclaim. Her work has been exhibited and collected by museums and galleries around the world. Her portrait has also appeared on Nigerian currency.

Jareh Das, curator of the exhibition, said preserving Kwali’s legacy would remind future generations of her achievements and inspire young artists, particularly in a country where documenting and maintaining cultural heritage can be challenging.

“Culture is not always outside, but looking at what exists within and how you can draw from that, how you can rise above immediate challenges … through something as familiar as pottery,” Das said.

Art and a new generation

Barbara Barungi, dressed in Adire, moves between booths in search of new works. At Afriart Gallery, a Kampala-based space exhibiting Ugandan art, she finds a painting by Daniel Atenyi made with coffee.

“It is very Nigerian and it also just shows you the vibe of Lagos, but it creates a safe place to just relax to forget the hustle and bustle out there,” she said of the fair.

Barungi jokingly described it as Nigeria’s ‘Met Gala’, comparing the fashion on display with the annual fundraising event in the United States known for its celebrity outfits.

The fair also aims to widen access to art, particularly for younger generations. Its educational programme welcomed more than 750 schoolchildren, introducing them to contemporary art and the stories behind the works.

“For many of these children, visiting ART X Lagos may be one of their earliest encounters with contemporary art. That experience can be transformative. It allows them to see creativity not as something distant or inaccessible, but as something they can participate in and contribute to,” Peterside said.

Adeniyi Adewole’s Breath Beneath the Waters, a fibreglass sculpture, reflects his personal struggles with depression, which kept him indoors and unable to work for a time.

“When I came back to work, I started creating work on how I have been able to move away from that blue period to a period of peace,” he said. He hopes viewers will experience sombre reflection, calm and peace when they encounter the work.

Beyond the main fair, Mercy Imiegha’s group exhibition, Every House Remembers, brings together four artists exploring how bodies, objects and domestic spaces preserve memory, history and spiritual identity. The Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation, a Nigerian-founded artist residency programme, is also organising a citywide art tour, extending the programme across Lagos.

Memory, loss and belonging

Joel Benson’s feature-length documentary, Mothers of Chibok, explores the lives of three parents and a woman abducted and later freed during Boko Haram’s 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from their dormitory in Chibok. Amnesty International reported in April 2024 that 82 girls remained in captivity. The film follows relatives still grieving the absence of their daughters.

“It is important to tell this type of story because it is more convenient to forget and just move on,” Benson said. The film prompted conversations about insecurity and attacks on girls in Nigeria.

Despite more than a decade of grief, Benson said, the parents have continued to navigate life through laughter, humour, pain, tears and faith. He hopes the film will move audiences and authorities beyond empathy towards action that can shape policy and improve security.

As the afternoon sun gives way to dusk, more visitors arrive in bold Afrocentric fashion. Some browse art books in the fair’s library, while others discuss the works that have caught their attention. Outside, people gather beneath umbrellas in the cafe area to eat, relax and network.

“I hope the fair offers a space for discovery and connection, and that visitors leave with a deeper appreciation of the richness and complexity of artistic expression from Africa and its diaspora, as well as a desire to continue exploring the histories, ideas and perspectives they have encountered,” Peterside said.

Maiduguri, Nigeria – For more than 15 years, Kashim Mohammed has hoped that his younger sister, Falmata Mohammed, is still alive.

Falmata disappeared in 2011 while travelling with her mother from Maiduguri, the capital of northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State, to Port Harcourt in the south. According to Kashim, the two women were abducted by unidentified gunmen.

Years later, a man approached Kashim at Baga Road Market in Maiduguri with news that briefly revived the family’s hopes of finding the women. He claimed Falmata had been found in Benin and was searching for her relatives.

But the man disappeared without leaving contact details. Kashim said he has never been able to establish whether the information was genuine.

“From then until now, nobody knows anything about the man who brought the information,” he said.

Kashim, 39, chairs the Association for the Well-being of Displaced and Missing Persons’ Families, a community organisation based in Bolori II, Ngarnam ward, Maiduguri. He said years of violence have torn his family apart.

“As a result of the violence, I lost my sister from the same father,” he said.

Their father, Mohammed Kolo, worked at Maiduguri’s State Specialist Hospital. Kashim said his father died at 60 from an illness he attributed to high blood pressure without learning what had happened to his daughter.

Kolo had refused to abandon hope that she would return.

“Our father always said, ‘Wherever she is, I believe my daughter is alive,’” Kashim recalled.

A brother still searching

For Muhammad Alhaji Bashir, the disappearance of his elder brother, Adam Muhammad Bashir, known as Bakura, has left a similar void.

Muhammad, 29, said Bakura went missing around 2012 or 2013 when Muhammad was about 14. His brother, then believed to be in his early 20s, sold cosmetics in a Maiduguri market and was studying civil engineering at Ramat Polytechnic, according to Muhammad.

“I sincerely lost my brother as a result of the Boko Haram crisis,” Muhammad said.

Boko Haram’s armed rebellion began in northeastern Nigeria in 2009. The conflict has devastated communities through attacks, abductions and displacement, leaving families searching for relatives whose fates remain unknown.

Muhammad said Bakura’s family searched across Maiduguri. A rehabilitation centre offered them some hope.

“Whenever we heard that rescued people had been brought to the rehabilitation centre in Bulumkutu, we went there with Bakura’s pictures, but unfortunately, nobody recognised him,” Muhammad said.

Muhammad said his father and stepmother, who was Bakura’s mother, later died from illnesses the family attributed to hypertension. He and other relatives continue to search, without confirmation of whether Bakura is alive or dead.

Thousands of families, thousands of questions

The two families’ experiences reflect the uncertainty facing relatives of people who have disappeared during more than a decade of conflict in northeastern Nigeria.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), working with the Nigerian Red Cross Society, has supported efforts to trace missing people and reconnect separated families.

Local advocates for missing people cited an estimate of 17,000 people missing across northern Nigeria, many of them linked to the conflict involving Boko Haram and its aftermath. Kashim said his association’s records indicated that about 10,000 people are missing in Borno State alone. He added that many families have yet to register their missing relatives.

The sources for the estimates cited by advocates and the association, their geographical coverage, reporting periods and methods of compilation have not been independently established for this article.

Behind the estimates are families who have spent years searching, parents who have died without learning what happened to their children and children growing up without a parent.

Some people reportedly disappeared during attacks on their communities. Others became separated from relatives while fleeing violence or travelling between towns. Families search hospitals, displacement camps and centres receiving people rescued from conflict areas, often following leads that prove impossible to verify.

Even when names, photographs and personal details are submitted to organisations involved in tracing missing people, locating relatives can take time.

An association born out of loss

Kashim said his search for Falmata helped motivate him and other affected families to establish their association in 2023. He said the organisation obtained registration with Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission in 2025.

Members meet monthly to share information and discuss their circumstances. Some families have reported losing eight or nine relatives, according to Kashim.

“In our community of Bolori II, we have many families who lost their relatives as a result of years of violence that ravaged northeastern Nigeria,” he said.

Kashim said the group sometimes receives notices from the Red Cross containing names and details of missing people. These can give families leads to pursue although they do not necessarily mean a relative has been located.

The association also supports children affected by the disappearances. Kashim said it was assisting about 600 orphaned children from affected families. Some attend school while others have dropped out because their relatives cannot afford to pay for their education or other basic needs.

“We are now suffering because of the harsh living conditions,” he said, adding that the ICRC had distributed relief items to some families.

When a missing person is a parent or breadwinner, relatives must cope with lost income while trying to provide food, shelter and schooling for children. The association’s work has consequently expanded beyond tracing missing people to helping families manage the hardships their disappearances leave behind.

Floods add to the losses

The search became harder for some families after devastating floods struck parts of Maiduguri in 2024.

Kashim said floodwaters submerged parts of Ngarnam and destroyed photographs that families had kept to help identify missing relatives.

Photographs can be vital when families try to identify people who have been rescued, displaced or found in unfamiliar communities. Without them, relatives must rely on names, physical descriptions and memories.

Kashim said some families now have little beyond remembered details and surviving records to help identify their relatives.

The floods added another obstacle to searches already complicated by years of conflict, displacement and uncertainty.

Waiting for an answer

For Kashim, finding Falmata would resolve a question that has haunted his family since 2011. His father died believing she might still return, and the family has never established whether the report of her discovery in Benin was true.

Muhammad’s search for Bakura continues without the parents who once helped him look for his brother.

Both families are appealing to anyone who may have information about their missing relatives. For them, finding an answer would mean more than ending a search: It would establish what happened to someone whose absence has shaped their lives for years.

Kashim’s message to his sister remains a plea for a reunion that his family has waited years to see.

“Falmata Mohammed, if you are alive anywhere in this world, we are the family of late Mohammed Kolo in Bolori II, Ngarnam. We are waiting for you,” he said.

Nigerian police say a large group carried out the attack on Binnari village in Taraba State.

Gunmen have killed at least 10 people in an attack ⁠⁠on a village in eastern Nigeria, police said, as the country continues to battle banditry and armed groups in several parts of Nigeria.

Nigerian police said on Saturday that 10 bodies had been recovered as of Friday evening after a large group of gunmen on motorcycles attacked Binnari village in Taraba State.

According to police, the attackers also looted food from shops.

Survivors told the AFP news agency that at least 20 people were killed, while human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement on Saturday that the death toll was 40.

Amnesty International also said that while police ⁠had earlier confirmed the killing of 10 people, more bodies were recovered later on Saturday.

The gunmen opened fire just after Friday prayers, residents said.

“After the attackers left, we counted more than 20 bodies, and some people were still missing,” Binnari resident Sa’idu Nuhu told AFP.

Resident Isiyaku Musa also gave a death toll of at least 20.

Malam Abubakar Saifullahi, a community leader, told AFP that the attackers arrived on about 50 motorcycles, two men apiece, before raiding the village.

“They looted shops and took cash, foodstuffs and other provisions. They also took motorcycles abandoned by people fleeing the attack,” Saifullahi said.

Amnesty International criticised the Nigerian authorities, saying they “continue to leave rural communities in some parts of the north at the mercy of gunmen that are repeatedly committing atrocities with impunity”.

Banditry problem

Banditry has become a growing issue in northwest and central Nigeria, with powerful gangs battling overstretched police and military across hard-to-reach, rural locations.

Taraba, a central-eastern state, also faces the non-ideological threat of “bandit” gangs.

Bandits raid villages, kidnap people for ransom, and levy “taxes” on farmers or miners in rural areas of Nigeria with little state presence.

Nigeria has also been fighting an armed rebellion since Boko Haram’s 2009 uprising.

Separately, on Saturday, the Nigerian military said it had killed 15 “terrorists” in northeastern Borno state in an air strike.

Until now, the virus was considered non-transferable to humans, making the patient the first documented human case.

French authorities have confirmed that a patient who died at a Lyon hospital earlier in October was infected with the Shamonda virus, the first such report of the virus in a human.

In a statement on Thursday, the French Ministry of Agriculture stressed that there were no identifiable health risks to the general population at this time.

Shamonda is an orthobunyavirus – a group of viruses primarily carried and spread by insects – transmitted to animals, mainly cattle, by biting midges of the genus Culicoides.

It was first detected in Nigeria in the 1960s, but has since been reported sporadically in East and Southern Africa, as well as Japan.

Until now, the virus was considered non-transmissible to humans, making the patient in France the first documented human case.

The French announcement said the leading hypothesis was that the patient was infected in eastern France, where the virus had circulated among animals this spring and summer.

“Clinical, biological and epidemiological investigations are continuing in conjunction with expertise in human, animal and environmental health,” the statement added.

Shamonda was first confirmed in Europe in late July after genomic tests on sick cattle in southern Germany, Switzerland and eastern France.

A report from France’s ‌weekly animal health surveillance bulletin said the virus had also been detected in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom’s Jersey.