There is nothing new about our present: Photo Series

On 2 July 2026, I was given access to a rare event for our times. The Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, summoned the priests of his kingdom to place a curse on anyone in Benin involved in kidnapping now or in the future. A reminder of the Oba's authority over the unseen.

It got me thinking about how little is new. The mask of the kidnapper continues to reinvent itself. At some point in our history he was the paid hand turned on his own for a wage. Now it's a ransom.

I see a self-perpetuating loop of colonial violence that goes as far back as 1897, when a force drawn in large part from peoples the British would later force into one country was instrumental in the capture of Benin.

Courage too is not new. Our obscured history is rich in resistance but our anti-colonial heroes are little known.

One such was Ologbosere, one of Oba Ovọnramwẹn's war chiefs. He led the ambush that triggered the invasion, then fought on for two years after the city fell.

He was captured through the betrayal of his own people, never beaten in open war. Hanged in 1899. Conquered by Africans paid by Britain. Ologbosere is an unsung anti-colonial hero.

This series retells their stories in new photographs, so their courage can arm us.

Colonial violence has outlived the coloniser. The war is not over. The Oba's authority over the unseen still holds.

There is nothing new about our present. Opens 2027.