In Art, an Artist Finds His Point-of-No-Return 

Yinka Olatunbosun

As a historical-cultural attraction, Badagry is more than just a site to reference colonial West African and Nigerian history; it’s also a place where original artworks are continuously appearing, offering budding artists a platform. Among them, Atiku Kamaldeen Sewanu has demonstrated a dedication to using his works to strengthen his cultural identity.

Being a native of Badagry, Atiku had a hard time understanding other people’s lives when he was younger. Their worship relied heavily on rituals before his father converted to Islam. For them, as for many others in their community, water served a purpose beyond simple hydration—spiritual purification. This young artist uses the same water that was used to transport slaves in the 16th and early 17th centuries as inspiration. He works very hard to depict the realism of his surroundings and the common experiences 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,” he said. “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.”

Apart from making avatar-like pieces, Atiku added his own ingenuity to his craft with the 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 the Adeline Gallery and Sachs Gallery. From 2020 to the present, he has travelled to several African countries, including Ghana, the 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. 

Through 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 people dancing around 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 dimwit. He knew he had to correct that by using his art as a vehicle for public reorientation. 

“I try to use my work 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, the Eegun people, are educated and well-travelled. 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.