By Ebunoluwa Sessou

The Curator of the Hakeem Shitta Photo and Cultural Archive (HSPACA), Ms Esther Oladimeji, has called on Nigeria to urgently preserve its arts and cultural heritage, warning that poor documentation threatens the nation’s memory, identity and global relevance.

Oladimeji made the call on Monday in Lagos during an interview with journalists, where she highlighted the immense historical value of the Hakeem Shitta Archive, a vast collection that documents Nigeria’s cultural, political and social life between 1981 and 1995.

She described the late Hakeem Shitta as an artist, photojournalist and cultural archivist whose work predated digital media and social platforms, capturing Nigeria’s artistic renaissance and political transitions long before the internet age.

“Between 1981 and 1995, Hakeem Shitta meticulously documented Nigeria’s cultural evolution. His archive is a living record of who we were before the age of social media,” Oladimeji said.

According to her, the archive spans 180 theatre productions, 81 concerts, 67 exhibitions and 326 human-interest situations, including festivals, regattas, everyday street life and visual documentation of the 1993 presidential election period.

She said HSPACA contains over 6,000 images of Nigerian poets, actors, dramatists, visual artists, dancers, filmmakers, essayists and journalists, describing it as a crucial historical record of Nigeria’s creative memory.

“It is important to understand the specific, high-value offerings the archive has today in 2025. Based on official HSPACA records, this is not just a collection of old photos but a foundational piece of Nigeria’s creative memory,” she said.

Oladimeji urged government institutions, scholars and researchers within and outside the country to collaborate with the archive to ensure the preservation of Nigeria’s arts and cultural history.

She noted that HSPACA offers over 6,000 exclusive cultural portraits documenting the evolution of Nigeria’s most accomplished creatives—from their breakthrough moments to their educational backgrounds.

“Beyond photographs, the archive preserves original stage posters, rare newspaper clippings, including Arts Illustrated Weekly, and event programmes that provide context images alone cannot offer,” she added.

She also disclosed that the archive houses Shitta’s hand-drawn artworks and paintings depicting everyday Nigerian life and cultural imagination, positioning HSPACA as a centralised research portal for curators, filmmakers and scholars seeking verified historical data.

Describing the archive as a functional necessity rather than a passive museum, Oladimeji said its relevance has grown with the global rise of African cinema and documentaries.

“In 2025, filmmakers need authentic visual history. Government and producers should use HSPACA to ensure historical accuracy in their sets and stories. Universities should also adopt it as a primary source for African Studies and Art History,” she said.

On theatre and performance, she said Shitta documented defining moments at the National Theatre and other major stages across Nigeria, preserving productions that would otherwise have disappeared. These include Kongi’s Harvest, The Lion and the Jewel and The Trials of Brother Jero by Wole Soyinka; Kurunmi and The Gods Are Not to Blame by Ola Rotimi; Marriage of Anansewa by Efua Sutherland; Midnight Hotel by Zulu Sofola; Moremi; Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare; and Things Fall Apart, adapted from Chinua Achebe’s novel.

She added that The King Must Dance Naked by Femi Osofisan was also captured, with over 50 major productions spanning indigenous, modern and international theatre preserved in the archive.

On music, Oladimeji said Shitta documented major concerts featuring icons such as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Femi Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Sir Shina Peters, KWAM1, Queen Salawa Abeni and Christy Essien-Igbokwe. Others include Majek Fashek, Evi-Edna Ogholi, Charley Boy, Tunji Oyelana and Tony Okoroji, alongside international artistes like Dizzy Gillespie, Burning Spear, Miriam Makeba and Yvonne Chaka Chaka.

She said the archive also holds rare images of literary and intellectual figures including Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, J.P. Clark, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Cyprian Ekwensi, Ola Rotimi and Biyi Bandele Thomas, as well as activists and scholars such as Tai Solarin, Gani Fawehinmi and Zulu Sofola.

According to her, theatre and film pioneers such as Hubert Ogunde, Baba Sala, Chief Zebrudaya and James Iroha were captured, alongside Nollywood trailblazers including Jide Kosoko, Liz Benson, Joke Silva and Olu Jacobs.

On politics, Oladimeji said the archive documented national figures such as Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Alex Ekwueme, Augustus Aikhomu, Ebitu Ukiwe and former Lagos State Governor Lateef Jakande, as well as culturally significant funerals like those of Orlando Martins and Hubert Ogunde.

She described HSPACA as an irreplaceable national treasure and urged federal and state ministries of arts and culture to collaborate in preserving what she said does not exist anywhere else in the world.
Oladimeji also advised journalists and photographers to emulate Shitta’s discipline, warning that undocumented work would be lost forever, reinforcing why African histories are often dismissed globally.

She recalled that the news photography prize at the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) is named the Hakeem Shitta Memorial Prize for News Photography, while the iREP International Documentary Film Festival in 2017 described him as Nigeria’s “Alternative Archive.”

“Culture is transient. What we have must be cherished, documented and preserved for future generations,” Oladimeji said.