ARCHIVE

The Nigerian
Creative
Archive.

Photography

A portrait from the back.
A record of a changing country.

Hair, as architecture.

Rear view of Brush Eko Bridge, photographed by J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere in 1973
Brush Eko Bridge 1973
First archival view of Fro Fro, photographed by J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere in 1970
Fro Fro 1970
Artist
J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere
Series
Hairstyles
Place
Nigeria
J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere · Hairstyles · © J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere / MoMA

In 1968, Ojeikere began documenting the hairstyles of Nigerian women. The braids became a record of taste, ingenuity, and a country in motion.

Music

Jazz, highlife, and a rhythm
that Lagos made its own.

A country, on record.

    Fashion

    A new silhouette.
    With Nigerian cloth at its centre.

    The cloth, and the cut.

    Back in Lagos, Shade Thomas-Fahm reworked the ìró and bùbá for the women of a changing city.

    An indigo àdìrẹ cloth with blue and white resist-dyed patterns, dated 1960–64
    1971 fashion advertisement for Shade’s Boutique, illustrated by Kemmer
    Shade’s Boutique · Kemmer · 1971

    Design

    Before the needle touched the groove,
    the sleeve had started talking.

    The image is part of the message.

    Album artwork for Fela Kuti’s Beasts of No Nation, painted by Lemi Ghariokwu in 1989
    Beasts of No Nation album artwork, 1989. Artist: Lemi Ghariokwu. Artwork via Fela Kuti’s official Bandcamp.

    Faces, lettering and political caricatures. Ghariokwu gave Fela’s music another voice, one you could hold in your hands.

    Source

    What are you
    looking for?

    5 objects in this collection

    Sources &
    credits.

    ARCHIVE is a fictional digital museum made for a design competition. The people and objects in its collections are real.

    The opening and closing illustrations are contemporary visual interpretations, not historical documentation. Historical photographs and objects retain their credited authorship. Visual direction inspired by Shopify Editions, Winter ’26 .