Waja

Babajide Olusoji Ololajulo
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology

University of Ibadan
Email: [email protected]

Abstract: The Oke-Afa Memorial Arcade in Lagos, Nigeria was
built in honour of victims of the 2002 armoury explosion in Ikeja
military cantonment in the heart of Lagos city. This article,
following ethnographic study of the memorial site, examines the

element of neocolonial development praxis that embed in the Oke-
Afa project, and argues that the arcade to the extent of its

incompatibility with local consciousness about death and
memorialisation, provokes in Nigerians limited memory of victims
of Ikeja bomb explosions. The article focuses on the enactment of
colonial modernity suggested from the limited interaction with the
site. Specifically, it elaborates on how the relationship that the state
and the citizenry bear with the arcade produces the site as an
extraneous cultural artefact. The article concludes that public
memorials in Nigeria occur within the impulsiveness that birthed
many projects implemented by governments in Nigeria.
[Keywords: Public memorials, commemoration, collective
remembrance, honour, disaster monument, Ikeja bomb explosions]