The Christening II

This painting is a reflection on loss, drawn from a personal story that has shaped my understanding of grief. It speaks about my cousin, who died as a new recruit in a university cult during the early 2000s, a time when cultism in Nigeria was at its height.

The scene captures his last moments with us at a family christening ceremony, where my mother who is praying for him in the painting, offered words of counsel and hope. Not long after, that hope was shattered. I remember the week of his death vividly, not in detail, but in feeling: my mother’s tears. It was the first and only time I saw her cry, rolling on the floor in anguish for her beloved nephew.

For me, as a child barely four years old, laughter turning suddenly to sorrow altered the way I would come to understand death, loss, and the fragile thread that binds families together. This work is both memory and monument, an attempt to hold onto a life, a moment, and the lesson that grief teaches us.