Don’t Call Them Beggars – A Bold Artistic Intervention Rewriting the Narrative on Street Survival
Don’t Call Them Beggars – A Bold Artistic Intervention Rewriting the Narrative on Street Survival
Performed at Afropolis Lagos, Nigeria – 28 October 2024.
In a time when the global conversation around poverty, human dignity, displacement, voluntary and forced migration grows louder, a compelling new project from Lagos dares to ask: What if we stopped seeing them as beggars and started seeing them as human beings?
‘Don’t Call Them Beggars’ by Ọlọ́runjedálọ Productions led by Babatunde Ọlọ́runjedálọ Goodluck is a socially engaged art project that merges storytelling, live performance, and visual media to humanize individuals living on the fringes of society—those who rely on alms not by choice, but by necessity. First staged at Afropolis Lagos in 2024 as one of the Emergence projects curated by Goodluck Babatunde, the piece received mentorship from acclaimed artist Qudus Onikeku, igniting conversations that continue to ripple across communities and cultural spaces.
At its core, Don’t Call Them Beggars is an act of restoration—of names, of dignity, of voice. Through interviews with street dwellers, immersive public performances, and live sound exhibitions, the project unearths stories that society often chooses to ignore. Each performance blurs the boundary between spectator and subject, challenging audiences to confront their assumptions and recognize the humanity behind each outstretched hand.
Our aim, says the project creator, Jedalo, is not just to provoke empathy, but to cultivate understanding—and more importantly, to spark action. These individuals are not props in the background of our cities. They are storytellers, survivors, and citizens.
Following its Lagos debut, the project now prepares for a new phase—scaling up through international collaborations, community workshops, and advocacy initiatives that intersect art and social justice.
Don’t Call Them Beggars seeks to build partnerships with arts, cultural institutions, private and public institutions, and civic organizations that believe in the transformative power of art to drive change. By challenging narratives and centering lived experience, the project offers a radical, human-first alternative to how we engage with social imbalances in our cities.
Babatunde Ọlọ́runjedálọ Goodluck the director and founder of Ọlọ́runjedálọ Productions is an inspired drummer, young and gifted performance Artist. His works are basically focused on societal developments, not neglecting his homeland and global political crisis.