A Nife Omi By Nigerian Gothic

Daniel Obaweya, aka. Nigerian Gothic, is a visual researcher and creative director from Lagos, Nigeria. A student of Art History with a keen eye for aesthetics, his Instagram (@nigeriangothic) is a visual diary of his ever-expanding pool of reference, bringing together diaspora narratives from global culture around the world with the stylish flair of his immaculate curatorial eye. For this year’s Browns X Homecoming event, he partners with Joy Matashi to create artworks which reflect on the theme of “A Nife Omi” - meaning “we love water”, a celebration of African beach culture. Below, he tells us more about the collaboration.

When I was asked to be a part of this project, I wanted to focus on something that was not only relevant to the theme of this year's Homecoming, but also something that was personal to me, which is why I centred these artworks around the theme of beaches and beach culture. I feel like African beach culture encapsulates everything that Homecoming represents, and is a culture that I have lived and still live.

Africa is undeniably at the forefront of cultural conversation right now with our artists, both new and old, being referenced everywhere. Our music is played everywhere and foreigners are constantly visiting different parts of this beautiful continent (and rightfully so.)

When you visit the continent, most of the major attractions are our countries’ beautiful sandy beaches with their amazing crystal waters. Countries like Tanzania and Mauritius have monetized this, and over the past couple of years these areas have seen a big boost to the tourism industry.

The beach has become more than a place to relax, get wet or even have sand all up in your crevices. It’s now evolved to become a social hub that may even rival nightclubs. Girls put on their best one-pieces and bikinis, showing off the body that they’ve worked all year to get, whilst guys show off the definition in their arms, abs and legs in amazing shorts.

It’s almost like the new place to showcase your style. If you know Africans, you know we go ham with our fashion. We love our prints and vibrant colours, and that’s what you see with a lot of swimwear trends now. Anyone who has visited cities like Accra, Cape Town, Lagos or Dakar cannot leave those cities without visiting the beach once or twice.

As I was doing my research for this piece, I noticed that the documentation of beach style in Africa had been going as far back as the 60s with Drum Magazine, a South African magazine and photographers like James Barnor and Malick Sidibe photographing youth in Accra and Mali respectively. Today a lot of young African photographers use the beach as the backdrop for their images.

For this project, I got my friend, multimedia artist Joy Matashi, to create a collage using images I had sourced during my research, alongside some images from mine and my friends’ beach adventures. I hope you have as much fun viewing as I had while creating.

Artwork by Joy Matashi