
Northcote Thomas’s anthropological photographs reworked by Chiadikobi Nwaubani
Chiadikobi Nwaubani talks about his efforts to find, restore, and publish photographs from the colonial archives of West Africa. He also talks about his work re-interpreting these photographs using art and photo-manipulation.

Momo Samura, Sierra Leone, 1914. Described as ‘Susu Boy’ in Northcote Thomas’s Anthropological Report on Sierra Leone (1916)

“Susu Boy,” by Chiadikobi Nwaubani, 2018.

Mooku, a Nigerian girl from Mgbakwu (1911). Colorized by Chiadikobi Nwaubani from an original photograph by Northcote Thomas.
Nwaubani has created an online historical archive of photographs called Ụ́kpụ́rụ́. He has also contributed to the [Re]entanglements project which retraces and reinterprets the journeys of British anthropologist Northcote Thomas during his surveys of Nigeria and Sierra Leone in the early 1900s.

Chiadikobi Nwaubani
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