Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
From a controlling polygamous marriage to founding one of West Africa’s largest art galleries, renowned Nigerian artist Nike Davies-Okundaye has built a cultural landmark that attracts art lovers from around the world.
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She founded the Nike Art Gallery not only to collect and preserve Nigerian art and culture, but also to empower women by teaching them how to make Adire - a traditional Yoruba fabric whose name translates as “tie and dye”.
“It’s very important to preserve the culture and the technique of Adire… it’s our heritage and we must not allow our heritage to die,” she says.
Making the textile is a laborious process. It involves growing all the ingredients, from the cotton used to make the cloth to the vegetables used for the dyes. It takes months to produce a few metres.
Today, she has trained more than 10,000 people - many of them women facing hardship - helping them to earn a living through art and build independent futures.
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From a controlling polygamous marriage to founding one of West Africa’s largest art galleries, renowned Nigerian artist Nike Davies-Okundaye has built a cultural landmark that attracts art lovers from around the world.
Subscribe to our channel 👉🏽 bbc.in/3VyyriM
She founded the Nike Art Gallery not only to collect and preserve Nigerian art and culture, but also to empower women by teaching them how to make Adire - a traditional Yoruba fabric whose name translates as “tie and dye”.
“It’s very important to preserve the culture and the technique of Adire… it’s our heritage and we must not allow our heritage to die,” she says.
Making the textile is a laborious process. It involves growing all the ingredients, from the cotton used to make the cloth to the vegetables used for the dyes. It takes months to produce a few metres.
Today, she has trained more than 10,000 people - many of them women facing hardship - helping them to earn a living through art and build independent futures.
----------------
This is the official BBC World Service YouTube channel.
If you like what we do, you can also find us here:
Instagram 👉🏽 instagram.com/bbcworldservice
Twitter 👉🏽 twitter.com/bbcworldservice
Facebook 👉🏽 facebook.com/bbcworldservice
BBC World Service website 👉🏽 bbc.co.uk/worldserviceradio
Thanks for watching and subscribing!
#BBCWorldService #WorldService #nigeria #lagos #nigerianartist #yoruba
