“Art and material culture offer a way to erase colonial boundaries and place histories in relation to one another. A single bead shows us how trade and innovation thrived across West Africa long before European demarcation,” explains Ore Disu, cultural strategist and founding director of the Institute of the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA).

Themes of memory, belonging, and cultural autonomy are explored in the new season of Dreaming in Color, a podcast by The Bridgespan Group. In Episode 6, Disu reflects on Nigeria’s resurgence as part of a broader continental movement—one that champions African stories told in African voices, honoring complexity over spectacle and legacy over loss.

This sense of reconnection is at the heart of a movement to revive and recontextualise cultural assets—not just through the repatriation of artefacts, but by rebuilding the ecosystems around them. Infrastructure, education, funding, and platforms for artists are essential to ensuring that creativity continues to flourish and evolve within context.

In Benin City, the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) is emerging as a cornerstone of this cultural revival. Though located in Nigeria, MOWAA is conceived as a regional institution—one that centres West African art and heritage in all its diversity. More than a repository of artefacts, it is a living space where traditional practices, local voices, and global conversations converge. Here, young curators are trained, communities engage deeply with their histories, and international visitors are invited into an ongoing dialogue about belonging and meaning.

Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of Bridgespan.

• Episode 1: Semhar Araia, Eritrean-American activist and CEO founder
• Episode 2: Leila Ben Gacem, social entrepreneur and general director, Tunistoric (Tunisia)
• Episode 3: Legketho Makola, chief operations officer, The Market Theatre Foundation (South Africa)
• Episode 4: Tom Osborn, co-founder and CEO, Shamiri Institute (Kenya)
• Episode 5: Nwabisa Mayema, social entrepreneur (South Africa)
• Episode 6: Ore Disu, founding director, the Institute of the Museum of West African Art Insittute (Nigeria)
• Episode 7: Madji Sock, co-founder and president, Haskè Ventures (Senegal)
• Episode 8: Feven Teshaye, founder, Chakka Origins (Ethiopia)
• Episode 9: Farah Mami, president, Tunisia Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization
• Episode 10: Tijan Watt, co-founder and managing partner, Wuri Ventures (Senegal)

Learn more about Dreaming in Color: https://www.bridgespan.org/dreaming-in-color