In his performance Afamako, Nigerian artist Jelili Atiku will make use of e-waste materials from his home country to enact the socio- economic conditions of Nigeria. It is a durational and processional performance where the artist’s body becomes a warehouse for the e-waste and integrating the surrounding space and the interaction with the audience.

In the 1970s in Nigeria, when the country entered into an era of oil boom as an important producer of fossil fuels in the world; there were socio-economic conditions which portended the vulnerability of working class families to social insecurity and difficulties. The working class thus referred to the conditions as “AFAMAKO” – a term that was coined to give meaning to their prevailing working condition that subjected them to absolute poverty and attracted little satisfactions and fewer benefits such as medical insurance, pension, etc. Although the term is no longer visible in the social and economic vernaculars in the country, the conditions of reference still prevail and there is clearing instance of socially inferior groups of working classes who are struggling to survival in a capitalist system; hence their consumption abilities are incapacitated. The developed countries exploit this situation by proliferating e-waste into the countries. The performance has been developed as part of an ongoing artistic research project on e-waste together with the Dutch artist and researcher Dani Ploeger.