By Reena Sadiq
At the opening of a recent exhibition in Kigali, a Rwandan woman walked up to Babatunde-Tribe Akande, a Nigerian non-binary artist. With tears in her eyes, she confessed that the artist’s craft on exhibition reminded her of a spiritual practice from her grandmother that had been nearly forgotten.
“She told me it felt like getting permission to remember,” Tribe recalls her saying.
Babatunde-Tribe Akande—often called Tribe—is part of a growing movement of African artists reclaiming memory as a form of resistance and restoration.
Their work confronts the long shadows of colonisation using painting, sculpture, augmented reality and film. They also portray a vision of cultural dignity rooted in indigenous knowledge.
Raised in Lagos, Tribe traces their artistry to their childhood years in their grandmother’s home, where they typically made sketches with charcoal from cooking fires. Today, they recall those playful sketches as early attempts at preserving culture.
“I grew up surrounded by ritual—language, clothing, silence. But I also saw how much was being lost or shamed,” they say.
For Tribe, art became their resistance against the steady decline of indigenous tradition. Their resolve hardened after a visit to a colonial-era site in their late teens in which they confronted the ruins of imperial legacy.
The encounter spurred them to dig through precolonial history and create art that explores the resilience of African women or indigenous spirituality.
“Indigenous wisdom isn’t primitive. It’s prophetic,” Tribe notes. “It’s how we survived colonisation. It’s how we’ll survive climate collapse.”
Tribe’s work also focuses on environmental justice and the postcolonial African experience.
These themes are evident in Ephemeral Unity, their 2024 solo show in Kigali, which invites viewers to follow the aftermath of colonial trauma by interacting with digital artefacts layered over physical installations.
“I don’t just create to express. I create to remember—because forgetting is a luxury many of us can’t afford.”
Their encounter with the Rwandan woman at the exhibition spurred a broader movement called #RestoreOurRitual to encourage Africans to document and revive traditional practices as a form of communal healing.
In 2024, Tribe served on a UN visual jury committed to reframing Afro-descendant identity. For the artist, it was “an exercise in unlearning the Western gaze,” they said.
They have also partnered with organisations such as the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, The Sahara Centre, and Goethe-Institut Nigeria, including several grassroots art collectives in Lagos.
On the world’s stage
Their influence continues to expand, with exhibitions across Geneva, Milan, Nairobi, and Atlanta. In 2025, Tribe received the Bertha Foundation Artivism Award, cementing their role as a cultural architect shaping what activist art can do.
Tribe’s work demonstrates how art can move beyond protest to build new cultural infrastructure. In addition to exhibitions, they host workshops, mentor emerging artists and collaborate on community-led archiving projects that position young Africans as stewards of their own histories.
“We deserve more than preservation,” Tribe says. “We deserve celebration.”
Babatunde-Tribe Akande, a Nigerian non-binary artist known as Tribe, is part of a movement reclaiming African memory and culture through art. During a Kigali exhibition, a Rwandan woman was moved by Tribe's art, which reminded her of nearly forgotten spiritual practices, sparking a broader movement called #RestoreOurRitual to revive traditional practices for communal healing. Tribe's art, including works like "Ephemeral Unity," addresses themes of colonial trauma, indigenous resilience, environmental justice, and the postcolonial African experience, inviting interaction with digital and physical installations.
Raised in Lagos, Tribe's artistic roots trace back to their childhood experiences with indigenous culture and rituals in their grandmother's home, which they now regard as preservation efforts. Their resolve to resist cultural decline intensified after encountering colonial-era ruins and further motivated them to delve into precolonial history. Tribe's work, showcased globally and recognized with awards like the Bertha Foundation Artivism Award, aims to go beyond protest to shape new cultural infrastructures. They also engage in fostering young African artists and exploring identity unstripped of Western influence through partnerships with global organizations and community projects.
