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Nike Davies-Okundaye
Nigerian textile artist and cultural icon who turned her own story of survival into a movement. She runs free arts education programmes that have trained over 3,000 Nigerian women and children. Her galleries in Lagos and Osogbo house one of the largest collections of Nigerian art in private hands. She is simply known as Mama Nike.
Biography
Nike Davies-Okundaye was born in 1951 in Ogidi-Ijumu, Kogi State, Nigeria. Her childhood was marked by hardship. She was married off very young in an arrangement she did not choose, and spent years in extremely difficult circumstances before she was able to leave and build an independent life. She had been trained in traditional Yoruba crafts including adire (resist-dyed cloth), stitching, and weaving from a young age, and it was these skills that gave her a path forward.
She began making and selling textile art. She developed her own distinctive style, combining traditional Yoruba techniques with her own designs. Her work attracted buyers in Nigeria and internationally, and her reputation grew.
She married the artist Twins Seven-Seven in the 1970s and was deeply immersed in the art world that had developed around the Osogbo art movement, a major 20th-century African art movement that emerged from the sacred Osun Grove in Osogbo, Osun State.
She established the Nike Art Gallery in Lagos, and a second gallery and arts centre in Osogbo. Together they house tens of thousands of pieces of Nigerian art and craft work, one of the most significant private collections in the country.
What She Fought For
Nike Davies-Okundaye has fought for traditional Nigerian art forms to be treated as serious art and not dismissed as craft or ethnographic curiosity. She has also fought for women and young people from poor backgrounds to have access to artistic education and a way to earn a living through their creativity.
Her arts education programmes are free. She has trained over 3,000 women and children, many of them from economically vulnerable backgrounds, in weaving, batik, embroidery, painting, and other traditional crafts. The goal is always the same: give people skills, and give them economic independence.
She has also been a vocal campaigner for the preservation of Nigerian cultural heritage and has spoken out against the loss of traditional craft knowledge as younger generations move toward urban wage employment.
Major Achievements
- Founded the Nike Art Gallery in Lagos, home to one of the largest private collections of Nigerian art
- Established the Nike Centre for Art and Culture in Osogbo
- Trained over 3,000 women and children in traditional Nigerian art forms through free programmes
- Recognised internationally as a master artist in Nigerian textile traditions
- Recipient of multiple national and international awards for cultural preservation
- Appointed as an Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) by the Nigerian government
Her Impact Today
Nike Davies-Okundaye has spent her adult life giving away the thing that saved her: art skills and the freedom they bring. Her galleries preserve what might otherwise be lost. Her free training programmes give women the same exit from poverty and dependence that she had to find on her own. She is one of Nigeria's most important cultural figures, and she is still working.
Sources: Wikipedia (Nike Davies-Okundaye), Nike Art Gallery, The Guardian, BBC Africa
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