Japa

Info

• Title : Japa

• Year : 2022.

• Medium : Craftbeer.

Details

Japa is a stout beer conceived as a gustatory artwork exploring migration, displacement, and cultural exchange through taste. Developed in close dialogue with the Nigerian community in Houston, Texas, the project translates lived experiences of movement, adaptation, and belonging into a sensory form.

The beer’s flavour profile – spicy, smoky, and subtly sweet – reflects how Nigerian culture has woven itself into Houston’s food, fashion, and music scenes, as described by members of the local community. Rather than approaching flavour as a purely technical choice, taste becomes a narrative material, carrying memory, place, and collective experience.

As part of the research process, Nigerians and other Houstonians were asked to describe the city of Houston as a single flavour. These responses were compiled and analysed, and the resulting taste notes directly informed the development of the beer’s recipe, translating collective perception into a drinkable form.

The name “Japa” comes from Nigerian Pidgin English, derived from the Yoruba words ja (to run) and pa (to intensify action). In contemporary usage, to japa refers to leaving swiftly, often to escape hardship, but more broadly signifies emigration. The term has become a shared expression among Nigerians at home and in the diaspora, encapsulating the urgency and complexity of movement.

Japa extends Ogboh’s ongoing exploration of migration through the gustatory, using taste as a medium through which stories of movement, adaptation, and belonging are encountered.

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