Ed Cross is delighted to present Jápa, a solo exhibition by Professor Jerry Buhari. This series is a meditation on migration and endurance, set against the backdrop of Buhari’s reflections on his personal history, the future of his family, and a national zeitgeist of movement in post-colonial Nigeria.
Jápa, derived from the Yorùbá word meaning “to flee” or “to escape,” has evolved into a widely used slang term in Nigeria, especially among younger generations. Popularised by the 2018 track of the same name by British-Nigerian artist Naira Marley, jápa signifies the desire of Nigerians to leave behind oppressive conditions in search of greener pastures through new opportunities abroad. Buhari reflects on this phenomenon not as a passing moment, but as part of a larger history of dislocation and search for freedom. Through the Jápa series, Buhari interrogates migration as a markedly political yet deeply complex emotional and physical phenomenon. For Buhari, his paintings are “multi-layered texts…in one sense, the journals of a migrant” writes Ayọ̀ Akínwándé in the essay that accompanies the exhibition.
