Meeting in Badagry

Olukemi Lijadu



Archival pigment print on fibre paper
8 x 22 in.



Meeting in Badagry is a limited edition print of a still from visual and sound artist Olukemi Lijudu’s film Feedback (2026), a major work commissioned by Spike Island and developed through research undertaken in Chicago, Lagos, and Bristol. Drawing on the phenomenon of audio feedback—where sound loops between input and output, amplifying itself—Feedback explores the circulation of rhythm, memory, and cultural transmission across the African diaspora. Moving between sites central to Black musical and cultural histories, the film traces the influence of West African rhythmic traditions on contemporary electronic music and sound system culture.

The image functions as a self-portrait, featuring Lijadu standing in front of a monument in Badagry, the “point of no return”—a historic haunting site on Gberefu Island in Lagos, Nigeria, and the final departure point for enslaved Africans before being shipped across the Atlantic Ocean. Badagry was the site through which everything was materially stripped. The sonic resonances could not be contained and continue to reverberate throughout the music we hear across the diaspora today. 

The quote, “and watch the sun kiss the night into day,” is spoken by the artist’s grandfather, Yemi Lijadu, in First World Festival of Negro Arts (Meeting in Dakar), a 1966 documentary that follows the making of drums ahead of the festival. The line reappears as audio in Feedback, where it takes on particular resonance for the artist: the drum as music technology, and time travel that repeats and continues to fold into itself even into the context of her lineage. The title of the work pays homage to her grandfather’s echoes both sonically within the film and more broadly in her vocation as an artist. 

This limited edition was produced by the artist during her Spring 2026 Residency with the generous support of Smokestack. All proceeds directly support the artists and SITE’s onward programming and administrative costs.

Prints are sold unframed but please get in touch should you require assistance with framing.


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