When People Know Your People Echoes from deeper connections por Inês Valle
Inês Valle is a Portuguese curator, who has spent the last eight years working in Europe and West Africa. She produces socio-political art projects that emphasise oral and traditional knowledge whilst also drawing on written sources. In this essay, she reflects on her personal experience of visiting Nigeria for the first time and the impact this had on both her professional work and her understanding of the shared history of Portugal and Nigeria.
Figure 1: Saltcellar: Portuguese Figures (ca. 1525– 1600) by the Edo peoples, Nigeria. Ivory. 19.1×7.6×8.3cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection.
“The artworks I saw in Lagos and in the UK bear witness to the long relationship between the Edo People (Benin Kingdom) and the Portuguese, which dates back to the 15th century.”
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