Medium: Mixed Media
Artist: Tunde Olanipekun (LANNPEX)
Status: National Collection
By Tunde OLANIPEKUN
Conscience Bombed is a powerful artistic protest against the brutal murder of Dele Giwa, the fearless Nigerian journalist, editor, and founding editor-in-chief of Newswatch magazine, who was killed by a letter bomb on October 19, 1986, at the prime of his life and career.
Through this evocative mixed-media work, I captured the tragedy of a brilliant mind violently silenced, a courageous voice cut short, and a conscience of the nation shattered by an act of calculated violence. The image of a journalist destroyed in the very space where he pursued truth through his typewriter becomes a haunting metaphor for the assault on press freedom, the suppression of dissent, and the dangers confronting those who dare to speak truth to power.
Created decades ago as my artistic response to this heinous crime, the painting goes beyond mourning an individual. It questions the conscience of a nation and challenges the forces that seek to silence truth through intimidation, violence, and fear. The title, Conscience Bombed, carries a double-edged meaning: the physical destruction of a man through a letter bomb and the moral explosion that occurs when the conscience of society is attacked.
Although the circumstances surrounding Dele Giwa’s assassination have remained a subject of controversy, his death continues to symbolise the vulnerability of journalists and the high price that may accompany the pursuit of truth.
For me, art is not merely an exercise in aesthetics; it is also a medium of social commentary, historical documentation, and moral interrogation. With Conscience Bombed, I transformed my outrage and grief into a visual statement of protest—a reminder that while a life may be violently extinguished, the questions raised by injustice cannot be so easily buried.
Decades later, the painting remains a solemn reminder that when truth is bombed, the conscience of the entire nation is wounded.
