Before war came, I had never seen so many people in one place. My village had only one hundred people. Now I was in a moving village with thousands of boys.

Like me, the other boys were away from their villages tending their cattle when war came. The adults and girls had stayed behind.

Some of the boys were only five years old. The oldest boys were not more than fifteen. We were children, not used to caring for ourselves. Without our parents we were lost. We had to learn to take care of one another.

The Return, 1978, Bayo Iribhogbe. Oil on board, private collection.

Critical Viewing: Perspective Why might the artist have chosen this view to show a “moving village”?