In Lagos, for centuries, there has been a struggle against dispossession architectures, framed by the ever-present colonial encounter. Naluwembe Binaisa is immersed in ethnographic research in Nigeria that seeks to understand the intersections between photography and political imagery. The title quote comes from Jide, a Lagos youth activist, and highlights the guiding principle of those who live in these areas and try to tell their own stories through photography and video. The restoration of their right to the city is invoked through the lens of indigenous cosmologies, offering different forms of interpretation. Many have lost their homes and livelihoods due to the destruction of the excavator, while others live under the imminent threat of being excluded from their ancestral heritage. In this case, the photographs are considered to “always speak” and favor the alternative lines of view of the resistance to reveal the long duration of the response within the claims of rights and restitution. (Intervention in English with simultaneous translation into Spanish).

Naluwembe Binaisa is an interdisciplinary researcher and creator, and her work focuses on the intersections of mobility, belonging and citizenship through generational and gender dynamics. His work questions racial capitalism and focuses on indigenous cosmologies and epistemologies. Naluwembe is part of the PHOTODEMOS collective, dedicated to the project “Citizens of Photography: the Camera and the Political Imagination”.