WATER NO GET ENEMY:
COUNTER-CARTOGRAPHIES OF DIASPORA
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        ‘Water No Get Enemy: Counter-Cartographies of Diaspora’ aims to develop a model of resistance to neo-colonial practices of crude oil extraction and ecocide in the Niger Delta. By learning from indigenous epistemologies archived in Nigerian masquerade, the project proposes a new masquerade: a method of cartography that critiques harmful extractive practices by bringing multiple diasporic sites into dialogue through performance. ‘Water No Get Enemy’ proposes an innovative method of analysing resource relations between extractors and sites of extraction. This is a call to rethink our relationship to resource use, the role that previous extractive architectural technologies have played in this space and the potential of a renewed relationship to indigenous knowledge as a serious form of spatial practice.


I intend to develop this project further with Disembodied Territories, by advancing the short film I have already created into a more detailed ethnographic study. I will go into more depth regarding the colonial cartography that has abstracted the land for the purposes of extraction. In addition to further exploring the indigenous cartographic practice of Kalabari masquerades that resists this extraction, through performance, costume and conversation which are spatial technologies of analysis, projection and recreation.




Remi Kuforiji is a spatial practitioner and researcher based in East London. He completed the BA Architecture course at the University of Westminster, before working at HawkinsBrown. Recently graduating from the MA Architecture course at the Royal College of Art, his research focuses on the intersections between the politics of race, coloniality, cartography, and performance. His thesis project ‘Water No Get Enemy’ positions masquerade as a method of cartography to critique the neo-colonial extraction of the Niger Delta’s resources. Currently, Remi is working with Cooking Sections, a London based duo examining the systems that organise the world through food.