Editor's Note: (Ed Keazor is an historian, writer and documentary film-maker, on the subject of African history. He is the author of the work '120 great Nigerians we never knew', 'The Lagos-Hamburg line.')
7 artists to see at LagosPhoto Festival
A Kwayam girl in the Dalori nomadic community. Northern Nigeria has become synonymous with car bombings, kidnappings and forced child marriages in the wake of Boko Haram. Born and raised in Maiduguri, 30-year-old Fati Abubakar has been capturing residents living under the Islamic militants shadow. Her Instagram account
@bitsofborno aims to document everyday life in Borno State, an area known for frequent Boko Haram attacks. While acknowledging the fear and violence that Boko Haram has caused, her images focus on hope and resilience.
A vintage 1962 Rolls Royce in the Emir of Kano's fleet. Emirs are rulers of the Fulani region. "A lot of my work has been finding beauty in unusual places," she told CNN. "I always strive to show that beauty is everywhere and that Africa and Africans are beautiful resilient people who thrive anywhere."
A girl at Kayace, Abuja. Her new series Faces, are portrait shots of people living in and around her community. There are now 2.2 million internally displaced Nigerians as a result of
Boko Haram with Maiduguri having doubled in size from the
influx of displaced people.
"With this series," says Abubakar. "It is a collection of people who are to me, living in abject poverty but thrive, and still live despite everything around them."
Close up of a Yoruba woman wearing garments given as part of her marriage dowry. Akpo's intimate photographs of his grandmother reflect on the ancestral dowry among Yoruba people living in the Republic of Benin and Nigeria. Born in the Yopougon, Ivory Coast, the 33-year-old currently lives and works in Cotonou, Republic of Benin.
"The [series] essential is invisible to the eyes explores the marriage dowry and the memory of my grandmother through the remaining objects of her dowry," Akpo told CNN. The photographer is interested in how the dowry has changed over time, especially through the changing status of women in the region. It's about "what could be the dowry of the future", he says.
As part of the 2013 Urban Connections program at the French Institute in Paris, Akpo looked at street food venues within Porto Novo, the administrative capital of the Republic of Benin.
"Photography" he says, has been a way to "explore, to see the world."
Afrocyberpunk by Njenga. 31-year-old visual artist and filmmaker Muchiri Njenga is the founder of Studio Ang, a Nairobi-based art collective, creating adverts for some of the world's biggest companies including Google, Visa and Guinness. In this image, his sci-fi character KIII treks across a burned-out factory landscape.
Run KT run by Njenga. Many of Njenga's short films feature a young boy with a TV as a head, a commentary on media and its effects on young people. In KIII the Kenyan born visual artist questions, "What happens when futuristic technologies meet magical realism under an African sun?"
Photograph from a series titled, Are You Ok? Ogunbanwo's lens often focuses on West Africa's high-end fashion industry. His series on men's hats in Nigeria was featured in Vogue earlier this year. The images pictured here push the country's conventional views on taste and decency by photographing Nigerians dressed in traditional garments but combined with fetish wear.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, 29-year-old Ogunbanwo's wants to explore modern ideas considered "to be at odds with African culture," he writes in his statement for LagosPhoto. The erotic undertones, he insists, "isn't for these elements to look jarring together but for the combination to come off as regular... because in reality it is."
A young woman wears handmade clothes woven from raw materials using traditional basket weaving techniques. The images by Keyezua question how developed Angolan design is today? It's about "inviting the viewers to think further than African prints as identity" writes Keyezua, as these "are often produced in Europe by European designers and sold to Africans."
"Old Angolan weave masters" she writes, "were never challenged to reconstruct and revive traditional crafts made with materials found and further developed in Angola." The Angolan born artist is known for her previous work -- a series of digitally collaged women -- created in support of Artists Against FGM.
As more on the continent become digitally connected, problems arise on how to effectively dispose electronic waste. Born in Maputo, Mozambique, Mario Macilau's images show the four-year-old Maputo Municipal open pit dumpsite.
"You can find a group of more than two thousand people who make a living out of the e-waste," writes Macilau in a statement to LagosPhoto. "Either by separating and selling recyclable goods such as TVs, computers, tablets and [cellphones] or by living out of whatever they find to be useable."
A boy plays behind a discarded TV frame. Electronic waste is burned at the site, explains Macilau, releasing hazardous chemicals into the environment.
The highly conceptual 'Broken things' series aims to tell a visual story on two flawed characters that eventually lean to embrace their imperfections. The Cape Town based photographer has also been documenting his depression through,
Abstract Pieces, a tumblr he set up, to create a visual story around mental illness in black communities.
(CNN) Thousands of colorfully dressed people marched through the ancient streets of the proud city of Benin.
Streets that had for almost a millennium been trodden by illustrious ancestors and unwelcome intruders alike.
Warriors clad in black, royalty, chiefs and noblemen, clad in red and white, and ordinary citizens, in all colors, joined a teeming, powerful procession.
At the front of the throng was the man previously referred to as Prince Eheneden Erediauwa, the Edaiken n'Uselu.
At either side of him stood two chiefs, who gently led him along by his arms to the sacred site of his coronation, across the Omi River.
Tradition, 700 years old
For the people of Benin this ceremony is of the utmost importance, as they see the king or "oba," as next only to the creator.
Kingship as an institution is much more than a ceremony hence the kingdom's strict and largely uncompromising adherence to ancient customs and traditions.
This is symbolized by the fact that many of these ancient ceremonies have been passed down from generation to generations of kings for almost 700 years.
Although there have been minor changes the coronation of Prince Ehenden Erediauwa could have taken place 500 years ago.
The prince's journey to the throne started several months earlier, when he started 'emwin n'ekhua'- the traditional process of ascension after hearing of his father's passing, but the final phase began twelve days prior at the prince's palace.
Performing sacred rites
Postcards from Benin Kingdom
"I am constantly referencing my village. From there I expand to the world because it's from that source that I see the world," says Nigerian born Victor Ehikhamenor. The artist is considered one of the most important contemporary African artists to emerge from Nigeria.
A villager in Udomi-Uwessan, a small town in Edo State, southern Nigeria. Award-winning artist Victor Ehikhamenor shot the portraits. He wanted to document their lives before residents died and were superseded by a younger generation seeking cultural markers from the new world.
The portraits are juxtaposed with his series American Invasion showing teenagers donning western clothing something he felt was bizarre, considering "there was only about maybe three or four people that have a TV in the village."
"It was kind of interesting to look at that cross referencing of cultures," says Ehikhamenor.
The visual artist who lived in the US at that time, wanted to photograph Benin residents as a way of preserving their history "in an art form".
"I realize that every time I travel back and visit my village, one person has died," he says. "A lot of them don't even have pictures so I decided just to do a portraiture of as many of them as I could titled before they leave."
The town stands just outside of Benin City, which once served as the seat of the old Benin Empire -- a kingdom dating back to the 11th century.
The city is revered by Nigerians who see it as the birthplace of the country's modern civilization.
"It's a documentation and freezing of memory for me," explains Ehikhamenor.
The artist's works are peppered with Nigeria's colonial past -- 1929 Girls of Aba Riot --conceptually recounts the "Women's War" a period in Nigeria's history where women in the provinces of Calabar and Owerri rioted against colonial rule.
'Oba Ovoramhen' is a large installation piece showcased at the 2016 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London. The artist's work is a representation of the invasion of the Benin Empire with its King Ovoramhen exiled to Calabar, southeastern Nigeria. "This is a representation of that King being sent to exile," says Ehikhamenor. "I'm referencing politics, colonialism and human injustice."
At Dak'Art 2016 his colossal installation The Prayer Room was a much talked about main feature of the Biennale.
He believes a lack of formal art education in Nigeria is holding the country back. "How do we create a solid future for the next generation to stand on?" asks Ehikhamenor. "If you're not thinking about that then you are closing the door."
"Creativity is the greatest job provider in our country at the moment," he says. "We have to figure out a way to harness this and make sure we don't lose that traction and we don't have people being discouraged."
Next year, he hopes to set up a space in Lagos, Nigeria to mentor young artists. Through greater art awareness, he hopes to inspire younger generations to start using art as way of documenting lived experiences.
During a series of both ceremonies spanning twelve days, ancient sacred rites were performed as the prince journeyed across the kingdom, mostly on foot.
One of the most important stops on this journey was to Use village, where one of the most important ceremonies took place-- the choosing of the name or title of the new king.
After this, the coronation ceremony was performed by the High Chief Oliha, the head of the Benin chiefs.
The final part of the journey led the prince to the ancient town of Isekhere, the procession crossed the Omi River Bridge, sacred rituals were performed and the prince made the short journey to the final station at the the Urho-okpota Hall. It was here that Oba Ewuare II, ascended to the throne of Benin.
As is customary with coronations there was a glittering array of dignitaries ranging from the Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, to traditional rulers such as the Ooni of Ife, but for the thousands of fiercely loyal and proud citizens of the ancient city, there was only one focus- their newly crowned king.