The road to Katangua is fast and wet. Afolabi Tomiwa, known to all within his community as Iná, sits comfortably in the front seat of our taxi, clicking his fingernails on his knee in anticipation of the day. Rigo, born Etemarigo Israel, sits next to me in the back, gazing outside of the car window in thought. Aware that I am uninitiated in the world of Lagos thrifting, Iná takes his time to explain the process to me, preparing me for the rigorous day we have ahead of us at one of Nigeria’s largest bend-down - or second-hand - markets. “What we do is actually painstaking stuff,” Iná says. “It’s like bespoke shopping. We go and filter based on the fact that we’re a styling a brand. For that, you have to see every store.”

Once we reach the edge of Katangua, nestled in Abule Egba on the Lagos mainland, the two move quickly and efficiently, weaving through the stalls and narrow pathways until we reach a pile of shoes. Here, Rigo squats. “As you can see, there’s a lot of trash here, so this is where the work is. You have to pick through everything,” he says.

This is what Iná and Rigo thrive at doing: meticulously sifting pre-owned fashion for prized pieces and selling them to expectant buyers within the network of their radical collective Bohofunk. Drawing its name from bohemian nonconformity and the swagger of 70s funk, the collective - born only this year - curates pop-up events with shopping, music and photography as mediums to foster creative community in Lagos. However, fashion is the group’s central organising force.

Besides building Bohofunk, Iná works as an image consultant and fashion designer, Rigo as a musician with a nostalgic, avant-garde sound. Iná routinely styles for clients such as Lady Donli, The Cavemen, and Jameson as well as building his self-titled clothing brand Iná, while Rigo performs at places such as the esteemed Lagos Alté Fest and his own shows. It’s their mutual passion for clothing - as well as their care for creative quality - that consistently brings the two together.

This much is clear as I watch them traverse the unending expanse of Katangua. Even so early in the morning, the market is teeming with activity: countless shops sprawled across cement with shoes and shirts swinging from their rafters, sellers animatedly advertising ‘Any colour, any size, any design!,’ Igbo gospel blaring from speakers, shopkeepers adjusting umbrellas and makeshift roofs to shield products from rain. Even in the face of Katangua’s daunting possibilities, Iná and Rigo rifle through the mounds quietly, only breaking silence to share details about an item, to weigh options. They negotiate firmly, and laugh sporadically. It’s in the middle of one of these moments that Iná tells me just how he and Rigo’s journey to Bohofunk - and the world of fashion at large - began.

“I used to thrift for survival while I was at uni. There were other thrifters in school, but I tended to sell faster. Because while they go and buy plenty stuff, I just pick a couple and come. I'm actually selling a service, not clothes. What I'm doing right now is styling. So, the person feels like, oh, this is treasure.” Iná landed at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife in 2010, where he met Rigo. “We used to be in the same hostel, and I discovered that he liked fashion. In fact, he had a big influence on how I evolved. I used to wear things that are slim fitted, but Rigo is like that person who had flair. He could basically wear anything. So over time, he rubbed off on me, and I rubbed off on him.”

These days the pair have honed what they do a fine art and a philosophy, as Iná notes. “I always say that style is not just clothes. Style is your decisions; your choice of vocabulary, the kind of colours you like, the way you design your apartment, the music you like. Clothes are just expression of that intrinsic personality that you have. Your authenticity is that inside person, clothes are just an expression of that.”

He and Rigo’s dress sense certainly make them stand out in the marketplace today: their clothes loose fitting, totes slung across their shoulders, Iná with one set of fingernails painted black, the other plain. Some passers-by call out, “Americanah!”, others, “onye ocha”- meaning white person. They are undoubtedly regarded other in this environment, but it’s this very otherness that drives them to carve out a space for themselves, their fashion, and others looking to freely express themselves. “We complained about how the creativity pool in Nigeria is suffering - that the world class appeal wasn’t there,” Iná reflects. “So, we decided to just start a change. And that’s where Bohofunk came from. It’s trying to grow ourselves and support ourselves. Bohofunk is a community, and the community is more than just the fashion.”

We continue to a portion of the market where women sell jewellery. Iná and Rigo begin to sort through a tray of rings, one by one. “Nigeria thinks there's a problem with thrifting,” Iná continues. “This ‘bend-down collecting,’ Yoruba people call it ‘bosi’koro,’ like ‘enter corner.’ Part of the service Bohofunk gives to people is minimising their shame of having to go to the market by themselves. Because we don’t see it that way, we can take that stress off you and bring it to you.”

Iná and Rigo are passionate about demystifying fashion and democratising style. While the mass “dump” of second-hand clothing in Africa often speaks to an exploitative relationship between the West and the continent, Iná and Rigo use pre-owned threads as a means of equalisation, a medium through which Nigerians can express themselves. “In Nigeria, since the way you dress is a big part of how you're perceived, I feel like the thrift market has helped people because you're buying high fashion items for five times cheaper,” he says. “But the Nigerian fashion industry cares more about glamour and that's why thrifting isn't even thriving. That's why vintage shops aren't around. So that's why Bohofunk is coming in - so we can tell people that thrifting is actually even for the coolest of people!”

The implication of this is clear: that style is for everyone and that “cool” is a birth-right. This deep-seated sense of inclusivity and warmth - the very essence that fuels Bohofunk - insistently pursues us throughout the day, even in a space as unending as Katangua. One shop owner jokingly asks why we didn’t bring shawarma for her; another jests with Iná and Rigo like old friends. In watching them, it isn’t difficult to understand Bohofunk’s emphasis on community, how the act of thrifting can bring us all together. There's a common saying in the thrift market: 'Na mumu dey go boutique’ - Only a foolish person goes to the boutique. Bohofunk know that, and want others to understand it too.

With a long walk, a keke ride, and another taxi order, we finally leave the market. Reaching Iná’s house, where he and Rigo take turns frying plantain for us, he begins to tell me about Bohofunk’s first pop-up earlier this year. “We’d been expressing what we think people would like, but we hadn’t had a platform to showcase it. With the help of [creative agency and events space] A Whitespace Lagos, we were able to bring it to life. It was a dream come true; it was so beautiful. People were saying that it was the best fashion experience they’d had in Lagos.”

Their recent second pop-up in partnership with Nigerian bank Eyowo, offered a curated selection of their thrifted finds alongside clothing sets from Iná’s clothing brand. Coupled with Rigo’s arresting music performance, personal styling sessions, and libations to elevate spirits, it was a transformative space allowing guests to be a truer version of their creative selves. “Whilst we’re fighting for the country to get better, the little we can do is impact the world, one person at a time,” Iná continues. “Like, if you can teach people to not try to feign anything, to search within themselves and express that out, then you just know it feels original. That’s part of the reason we have Bohofunk – we want to make certain knowledge more public. Enlighten the country at large.”

This is the primary mandate of Bohofunk, then: to be yourself, to share resources, and to be kind. It’s really quite simple. Watching Iná and Rigo thrift together and hearing of their vivid prospects for the future, it seems certain that the visions they hold dear for Bohofunk are destined to become a reality.