Laraba MUREY
The Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Juan Sell, has said that his country will continue to strengthen the cordial relationship between both countries.
Sell, while expressing delight at fostering people to people relations, said “that is one of my main objectives as the new ambassador of Spain to the country. This is my first cultural activity. It gives me great pleasure on the occasion. I’m very happy I arrived to see that we have very long standing relationship with many Nigerian cultural institutions”
The ambassador made this known during a press briefing, last week, organized to create awareness on a project the embassy was embarking on in collaboration with the African Artists and Lagos Photo Foundation.
The project tagged “Unpacking the Suitcase” is based on locating a Nigerian photojournalist, 60years after, who is believed to have been working with the Ministry of Information in Lagos, in the 1960’s, travelled from Lagos to study in art school Escuela Massana in Barcelona.
Prince Adewale Emmanuel Oyenuga, who is married to Elizabeth Oyenuga, had two kids moved to London but left behind his suitcase with Luisa Guadayol, Ana’s mother that contained different social and cultural moments in the history of Nigeria and beyond: The Nigerian Civil War; The Cultural Ties Between Two Countries.
Guadayol passed away in 2016, her daughter is now on the quest to return the suitcase along with its contents to Nigeria or any surviving member of Oyenuga’s family.
Ana Briongos explained that Oyenuga left the suitcase case in her mother’s custody with the instruction that it should not be opened but when her mother who was 96 years old and there was need to relocate her to an old people’s home, upon clearing her apartment they found the suitcase.
Their family tried to contact Oyenuga but they never got a response three years later her mother passed on but she continued to search for ways to return the suitcase that was when he contacted the Lagos photos.
However, Ana said, “for now we have been able to find someone in Lagos, who gave us a number but the person lives outside Lagos.”
Also speaking, director, Lagos Photo Foundation, Azu Nwagbogwu, “my interest as a curator it’s about how we can tell stories. I received an email from Anna and I knew instinctively from the way Anna described herself and the letter that it was something special. Prince accumulated archives from 1967 and 1970 it was the exact period of the Nigerian Civil War the archive tells so many incredible stories.”
