“He didn’t just tell stories; he sculpted memory.” A curatorial reflection on Nigerian writer and filmmaker Biyi Bandele, his theatre legacy

In the late 1980s, Lagos theatre was alive with defiance. While others sought glamour or applause, one group rehearsed revolution. They called themselves Collective Artistes, a theatre company born in 1988 under the direction of Professor Chuck Mike. Their goal was simple but bold: to use performance as a mirror, a weapon, and a way of healing. Hakeem Shitta was there. With his camera pressed against the pulse of that decade, he captured faces, sweat, laughter, and silence: t