Blue is the Color of Love
Nigerian artist Nike Davis-Okundaye works with blue pigments to show cutural significance of blue in Nigeria
Meet Nike Davis-Okundaye
Chief Nike Monica Okundaye, popularly known as Mama Nike, was born in May 1951 in the village of Ogidi-Ijumu in Kogi State of Nigeria. She an accomplished professional artist: a painter, a textile artist, weaver and embroiderer with national and international awards.
Supporting young creatives
Okundaye is the founder and managing director of Nike Center for Art and Culture in Osogbo, where she offers free training to Nigerians in various forms.
The Female Drummer/Àyánbìnrin (2020) by Nike Monica OkundayeDesign Indaba
Nigeria and the significance of blue
The color blue in Nigerian indigenous cultures is the colour of love. Before a king ascends the throne, he often has to wear the royal indigo blue. In Yorùbá, this is called “ẹtù”. In Northern Nigeria, the colour is also used for the chief or the king.
In the North, they sometimes even pound the blue into the turban when they marry a new wife. The whole face is sometimes blue to show love to the new bride. During their Durba, they sometimes wear the shining blue colour into the turbans to show love to the people at the festival.
“The Female Drummer/Àyánbìnrin”
In a new painting, Mama Nike has worked with blue as a way in which to express the ''the love desperately needed in this time of the coronavirus lockdown.'' She has depicted the emotion shared between a Yoruba drummer and her lover.
Drumming and meaning
In Yorùbá societies, the talking drummer is usually at the front of the palace sending messages to the king through the medium of the drum — messages that the visitor themselves might not understand.
Turning gender roles upside down
The unique thing about this painting, done during the lockdown, is the use of the female drummer instead of the typical male ones seen in traditional Yorùbá art.
My work involves female empowerment — I have trained disadvantaged women, widows, and young women for many years on fabric art — so I am always happy to put women at the forefront of my artistic philosophy. — Mama Nike
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