Kamal Atiku: Making Art His Point-of-No-Return

Yinka Olatunbosun

Badagry- a histo-cultural destination- is not just a reference point in Nigerian and indeed West African colonial heritage, it is a place where authentic artworks are constantly emerging, giving voices to young artists. One of them, Atiku Kamaldeen Sewanu, has shown commitment to reinforcing his cultural identity through his pieces.

A native of Badagry, Atiku couldn’t relate with any other life as a young child. Before his father embraced Islam, rituals were essential to their worship. As with many others in their community, water was more than just a source of rehydration; it was meant for spiritual cleansing.

Although the same water was a means of transporting slaves in the 16th and early 17th century, it is now a source of inspiration for this young artist who makes painstaking effort to capture the reality of his environment and the shared experience of his people.

As a child, he watched his father with his islamic prayer beads that he would make and sell to the people in their community.

“I love it and I used to ask myself what I could do that’s a little different from my granddad. But since I was five years old, I started playing around with wood and eventually I was making small drums- the type used during Christmas. We call it karita,” he said.

Asides making avatar-like pieces, Atiku added his own ingenuity to his craft with his use of discarded cans buoyed by parental approval.

“My mom and my dad supported me. I find it easier to do art than anything else. I couldn’t read and write well. But I found art easy. Art came to me naturally.”

Art thus became his point-of-no-return. In 2015, he began displaying his works at Adeline Gallery and Sachs Gallery. From 2020 to the present, he has travelled to several African countries, including Ghana, Benin Republic and Togo, for art workshops, exhibitions, and residencies.

“I have also participated in numerous exhibitions within Nigeria, such as the LVI Art Gallery and Cultural Nexus Art Exhibition 2022,” he added.

From attending exhibitions locally and internationally, he has built his will to create statement works that are eye-catching and embedded with lasting cultural value.

A case in point is his Sato drums. Massive and imposing, these wooden sculptures accentuate the relevance of drums as ritual symbols of the Egun people in Badagry. The Sato drums are used during festivals and ceremonies with a minimum of two persons dancing round the drums and jumping to beat them at intervals.

On his Sato drums, he etched patterns alluding to the cultural symbols; affirming his ancestral heritage. His paintings are layered; with filmic textures. Using texts as background in some of his paintings, his half-mockery of colonial education is rather subtle.

Once, Atiku collaborated with the art master, Dotun Popoola and the energy was infectious. Atiku is also aware of the need to stand for something. He revealed how his cultural identity as Egun has been a major topic in his headspace. It is common for people to use the word ‘Egun’ as a synonym for a dimwit. He knew he had to correct that using his art as the vehicle for public reorientation.

“I try to use my works to show who the true Egun person is and what we do as a collective,” he explained further. “We are the same as other humans. Most of my paintings hinge on that- abstract sometimes. I look at the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat. We, Eegun people, are educated and well-traveled. I talked about the Sato drum that united the people.”

A full-time studio artist, Atiku sometimes sleeps in his workspace just to make sure a project is completed. With the improved road infrastructure, Atiku is open to collaborating with art galleries on the island to showcase his phenomenal works.