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“You said you will
be here by 10am but you are just coming when I’m almost set to return
to Ibadan,” founder of the African Heritage Research Library and
Cultural Centre (AHRLC), Bayo Adebowale says in mock anger as the
‘okada’ (motorcycle) brings me into the complex in Adeyipo, a village
in Lagelu Local Government Area of Oyo State. I had underestimated the
time it would take to reach the village, some 18 kilometres from
Ibadan. It is nearly midday.

Occupying about 10
acres of land, AHRLC is a charming resort in rural Adeyipo. It was
originally conceived as an Africana library for researchers but has
since incorporated culture and heritage into its mandate.

Sowing the seed

Mighty oaks from
little acorns grow. This holds true for the centre, conceived in 1987
in reaction to a disparaging article on Africa and Africans in a
foreign magazine. “The writer was saying all sorts of things about the
capability of the average African and I was tickled. I said these
people must be proved wrong, they must be convinced that not all of us
run after what to eat and drink. So, I hit on the idea of floating a
library or an international magazine. I toyed with the two ideas but I
finally picked floating an Africana library to begin to project Africa
in its true colours to the outside world,” Adebowale explains as we set
out on a tour of the centre.

The former deputy
rector of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, started collecting books on all
disciplines around March 1988 at the College of Education, Ila Orangun,
Osun State where he was then teaching. He started with about 500 books
he used at college and in the university before the centre blossomed.
He recalls, “We kept on expanding and contacting the world, intimating
them with the idea that we want to float an Africana library. Some of
them rallied round us while some discouraged us. In six months, the
collection had grown to about 10,000, 12,000 and 15,000. By the time we
left Ila Orangun, the collection had grown beyond 25,000.” Since its
movement to Adeyipo in 1993, AHRLC’s collection has grown to over
100,000 volumes on all disciplines.

Though Adeyipo is
his birth place, it is not what made Adebowale site the centre there.
“We had a limitation of finance. To purchase acres of land that will
take all this will cost a fortune. When you realise we are just an NGO
with no subvention from anybody, you will realise that a library like
this should be located where land would be donated. The people of
Adeyipo were ready to donate land to us to establish the centre; the
serenity of the countryside is another factor.”

There is an
improvement at Adeyipo since I last visited three years ago. The
landscaping is better and there is an ongoing electrification project
Adebowale is excited about, because of what it portends for the centre.
He is also happy with the various sections — Ayan Agalu African
Talking Drum Museum, Research Library, Music of Africa Auditorium,
African Orchard, guest chalets, Labalaba Flower Garden and Community
Services Building— that comprise the centre.

Of all the
sections, only the writers’ enclave named in honour of Nobel Laureate,
Wole Soyinka is still under construction. The author of ‘The Virgin’
however has lofty dreams for the enclave. “What we will be doing in the
enclave is to give African writers some sort of residency programme
which will enable them do serious writing on all aspects of
literature.” A library that will stock the works of Nobel Laureates and
others will be part of the eight-room bungalow.

The Orchard

There are some
elderly people under the shade of the mango and almond trees in the
African Orchard as we approach. “The community people relax, drink
palm-wine, play, sing, dance and settle quarrels under the trees,”
Adebowale offers as we greet them. Behind the orchard is the Labalaba
Flower Garden, introduced to further enhance the aesthetics of the
centre.

Home for bibliophiles

The research
library is a haven for bibliophiles; books and journals on different
disciplines line the shelves. Long essays, PhD theses, and masters’
dissertation from Nigerian universities are also available as are
autobiographies by Muhammed Ali, Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere,
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Thomas Sankara and Nnamdi
Azikiwe, amongst others. “All together, we have over 100,000 volumes of
books in the library,” Adebowale reiterates.

The serial section
is no less riveting. There are old editions of ‘Spear’, ‘Drum’,
‘Flamingo’, ‘Prime People’, ‘TSM’, ‘Lady Love’, ‘Newswatch’ and
‘African Guardian’. There are also copies of ‘Ebony’, ‘New Yorker’,
‘Broad Street Journal’ and a strong collection of ‘Tell’. “Tell
Magazine gives us free subscription every week as a token to the
development of this library, they send bound copies of six months at
times,” Adebowale explains.

Home of music

The Music of Africa
Auditorium, named after highlife maestro, Victor Olaiya, contains long
and short playing records of yesteryears. A turntable sits on a shelf
while works of African musicians on the continent and in the Diaspora
are still being collected. “We are proposing to get a gramophone
player,” Adebowale informs as he shows me works by Dauda Epo Akara,
Odolaye Aremu, Tatalo Alamu, Ogundare Foyanmu and Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
Also represented are Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Nat King Cole and
James Brown. Magazines and newspapers on African music are part of the
mix. “They are there for a purpose. Students from colleges of music
come here to do research; polytechnic music department students come,
they spend days researching because they have abundant materials for
writing their long essays and term papers,” he offers.

There are also
works of late great musicians including Adeolu Akinsanya, Ayinde
Bakare, Orlando Owoh, Rex Jim Lawson, ET Mensah and Tunde Nightingale.
I sight two albums by Danny Wilson, works of Orlando Julius – he sent a
collection of his works to the centre recently – and Tunji Oyelana.
Adebowale says Oyelana was surprised to see his ‘Unlimited Liability
Company’, a collaboration between the musician and Wole Soyinka, at the
centre. Albums of Fuji musicians including Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and
Kollington Ayinla line a shelf in the auditorium. Almost all genres of
Yoruba music are in the hall; there are albums of the late I.K Dairo,
Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Ade, Dele Abiodun, Suberu Oni, Kayode Fashola
and Prince Adekunle. There is also a sprinkling of apala and sakara
music of Yusuf Olatunji, S. Aka and Haruna Isola.

A collection of
different musical instruments including talking drums, agidigbo
(African thumb piano), and agogo – are neatly arranged in the Ayan
Agalu African Talking Drum Museum.

Preservation

The founder admits
that preserving the structures and collections has been an issue. “We
fumigate to control termites from time to time but it’s an ongoing
battle. Termites did havoc when we had not started fumigating but now
that we have started, they are going.”

The distance of the
centre from Ibadan, the Director, Centre for Foundation Education,
Bells University, Ota, notes, does not stop people from coming. “We are
not left alone at all. This place is a beehive of activities at regular
intervals. Researchers come and spend weeks here. Even the community
people come to do research work.”

He also has no
worries over security. “There is a club of hunters around us, they keep
vigil in the night all over the villages and especially our centre.
There has never been an incident of pilfering or robbery since we
started. The people see the projects as theirs. They are always
protecting it, watching over it day and night.”

Assured future

The author of
‘Village Harvest’ has no fears about the future of the centre after his
demise. “We have a board of advisors comprising eminent personalities
from all over the world running this centre. In case of any
eventuality, board members will be ready to take over. We are trying to
establish a Friend of the Library Club; we will include people from
different communities around the world who are already showing interest
in what we are doing and are willing to continue after we have gone.
Incidentally, the children are also showing interest, they want to
continue with the work the parents are doing.”

A tree does not
make a forest. AHRLC has benefitted from people’s generosity over the
years. Individuals, companies and institutions have lent helping hands
in the area of books acquisition and physical development.
“Institutions all over Europe, America, Asia, Pacific and the
Caribbean, donate books to this library. We also enter into exchange
programme with libraries all over the world,” Adebowale reveals. Other
benefactors of the centre include Mobil Unlimited, the American
Embassy, the late philanthropist, Nathaniel Olabiyi Idowu, the lawyer
Afe Babalola and banks. Though the Oyo State Governor, Adebayo
Alao-Akala promised in 2007 to rehabilitate the six kilometre road from
Olorunda to Adeyipo and sink a borehole, AHRLC is still waiting.

“They couldn’t get the palm wine I promised but our pounded yam is
waiting. Let’s eat before we return to Ibadan,” Adebowale says as we
end the tour. I oblige.

In a bid to make
the youths embrace their cultural heritage, the National Museum Lagos
has celebrated this year’s International Museum Day with a Miss Museum
Beauty Pageant. The pageant, held in the museum’s premises in Onikan,
Lagos on May 14, 2010, was established to select a beautiful but also
intelligent young lady conversant with Nigeria’s cultural heritage, and
who can represent the museum internationally.

The pageant started
in 2008 as an in-house event involving staff only, won by Temilade
Ibrahim. With Lagos State setting the pace for other Museums around the
world, the Miss Museum pageant was approved and recommended by the
International Council of Museums. Fascinated by the idea as a platform
to showcase the beauty of the African woman, the international council
included it in their programmes and recommended the pageant for all
affiliated museums worldwide.

Ibrahim reigned for
two years, because the National Commission for Museum and Monument in
Abuja celebrated last year’s international Museum Day, in Lagos. That
made it impossible to hold a Miss Museum Pageant last year. The need to
hold another Miss Museum pageant became necessary in order to get a
representative for the Lagos-based Museum at the International Museum
Expo in China.

This year’s pageant
started out with a four-day camp at Jabita International Hotels in
Ikeja, where the contestants were taught about the Museum and
artefacts. They received self improvement skills like catwalks,
personality development, etiquette, and ideas they could develop for
pet projects during their reign. They also went on a tour of the
Museum, and were introduced to Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage. As
future cultural ambassadors, the contestants who were picked from the
humanities and the social sciences, represented fifteen of Nigerian
ethnic groups: Afemai, Benin, Egun, Efik, Fulani, Fulade, Hausa, Ibo,
Igala, Ijaw, Itsekiri, Ile-Oluji, Nupe, Tiv, and Yoruba.

After much scrutiny
on poise, confidence, carriage, beauty, expression and how to represent
the museum, Joy Iruobe (Miss Efik) emerged winner. With a 100,000 cash
prize amongst other gifts, she will be representing the National Museum
in China in October. The runners-up also count as winners and will
represent different arms of the museum. Miss Museum Tourism is Miss
Nupe, the pageant’s first runner-up and the second runner-up
representing Ile-Oluji is Miss Museum Education. Relishing her victory,
Iruobe said, “I was overwhelmed, excited. I was weak and nervous and I
didn’t expect it.” For her pet project, she said, “I want to create a
journal and a newsletter to inform the world about the Nigerian
traditional culture and also invite secondary school students to a
competition on how well you know your culture; and roots and the
student with the most cultural knowledge goes home with a prize.”

The Curator of the museum, Ibironke Ashaye, expressed gratitude to
everyone who contributed to the success of the pageant. “The
celebration doesn’t end here, we also want to show the world that there
is ability in disability, so we are bringing the (physically
challenged) to the museum (Monday, May 17).” The Curator, who expressed
her faith in the youth of this generation, said, “we must try as much
as possible to see that our youth are well grounded in culture, so that
when we leave, we would be at peace that we are leaving people that are
very intelligent and can move the Museum forward.”

Why Art?

Art was one of the
subjects in which I excelled and derived maximum joy right from
childhood. Art was everywhere around me [in] the totality of my
childhood experiences. Music at home, in the church and at school;
storytelling, moonlight performances, communal living, craft traditions
of my people and our general outlook and ways of doing things. All
these, if you put them together, are art. I think I was destined to
become an artist; because I was not the only child raised in the
environment I mentioned but I was the only one who tapped into the
abundant resources to become an artist.

Training

I was fortunate to
attend primary and secondary schools (Methodist Primary School, Ayedun
Ekiti, Christ’s School, Ado Ekiti and Federal Government College
Ilorin) where art was taken seriously and taught. While in the junior
classes I would visit these senior art students who were usually
scattered over the entire beautiful Christ’s School landscape, painting
scenes either for assignments or exams.

Whereas my training
in the arts had been limited to drawing, painting and design, in (the
University of) Benin other areas such as sculpture, ceramics, textile,
performing arts, metal design, materials and methods, art history,
visual aesthetics, art education were added.

Benin was a fine
experience under the tutelage of artists/scholars/administrators such
as S.I. Wangboje, Clarry Nelson Cole, Doris Rogers, Ademola Williams,
Oseha Ajokpaezi, Dr Chris Ebighgbo, Osi Audu, Austine Onwordi etc.

After graduation,
after stints as practising and exhibiting artist, art teacher,
journalist, cultural activist and advocate, I found my way back to
school for a post graduate degree in Visual Art History at the
University of Lagos.

Medium

I work in the areas of painting, drawing, mixed media, and cartooning, curating, writing and cultural advocacy.

Influences

My Yorubaness, and
a whole lot of artists across the globe whose works I have seen and
have appreciated, have influenced me. Artists such as Professors Yusuf
Grillo, Uche Okeke, Kolade Oshinowo, Clarry Nelson Cole, Muraina
Oyelami, Boye Gbenro, Dotun Gboyega, Bayo Odulana, Kunle Filani, Nkiru
Nzegwu etc have all influenced me.

Inspirations

Peaceful mind,
clean environment and the flurry of socio-political happenings
globally. Also, I get inspired by reading, listening to good music and
thinking positively. There is a realm where I believe all artists get
into to receive their ideas. I get intuitive and psychic promptings
from sources I cannot explain but which further confirm that artists
have patron muses.

Best work so far

I have no such work
yet, every work is a unique experience. What you classify as your best
may not be considered so by others. Art does not belong to the artist
only, the artist according to a school of thought is just a vessel used
in communicating society’s collective ethos. The search for my best
work continues.

Least satisfying work

It is also
difficult to say which work is the least satisfying because I have done
numerous works. I have had exhibitions where works grudgingly included
will be the ones to receive the most accolades and may be the earliest
to be bought. I am a perfectionist though, it takes time for me to
append my signature to an art piece, and any one so appended has
fulfilled my requirement of a good art work.

Career high point

My exhibitions are
so far my high points, especially my solo exhibitions. Through them I
render accounts of how well I have spent my time and life. My
exhibitions are usually my happiest moments because they are summations
of my experiences, being, hopes, joy and all. I

Favourite artist living or dead

I particularly
venerate Michelangelo, he was wonderful. So also Leonardo, Raphael and
many other artists of the Renaissance period. Also, P.P Reuben,
Rembrandt, Van Gogh, the Impressionists, post impressionists, Picasso,
Matisse etc. Back home I admire the anonymous traditional artists for
their wonderful legacies. The Onabolus, Lasekans, Enwuonwus,
Onobrakpeyas, Grillos, Oshinowos, Jegedes, Yusufs etc. I owe a lot to
inspirations derived from these artists.

Ambitions

To become a great
artist, one of the greatest of all times who will be remembered long
after I might have gone not just as a painter but one whose
contributions bestride different genres of the art profession.

I can’t quite pin
down who sang the pop music hit ‘Respect Yourself,’ or when it made the
charts. I do know that Aretha Franklin’s monster hit ‘Respect’ released
in the late 60s, won the hearts of even hardcore avant-garde jazz
purists like pianist Cecil Taylor, for its soul rhythms as well as its
strong, demanding lyrics. The bottom line was basically what good
parents are supposed to drum into the ears of children quite early in
life, that you first earn then demand respect.

It would sadly seem
that this simple lesson in good social behaviour is entirely lost on
the majority of ‘younger’ press photographers on the scene today. As
for their freelance counterparts – those regarded with rightful disdain
as ‘kpa kpa kpa photographers’ – bad social behaviour is their stock in
trade; hence press photographers worth their salt usually keep a
spiteful distance away from them when they appear, usually uninvited,
at events. Maybe it is the patronage they enjoy and the open display of
cool good cash being offered them by their ‘customers’ at social events
in exchange for their ‘instant portraits’ that has infected press
photographers and made them abandon decorum for rowdiness and unethical
behaviour.

Local paparazzi

‘Kpa kpa kpa
photographers’ have never earned and, will never earn respect. It is
not in the nature of their genre of photography which thrives on a
dog-eat-dog philosophy. Hence they swoop on their victims and potential
customers in a pack and then jostle and block their fellow photographic
tribesmen, just to get the first and best shots. They then rush out to
print (temporarily pawning their cameras to the laboratory owners) and
offer to their potential customers at the venue, while the event is
ongoing. That they are desperate is an understatement. That they are
our local version of ‘paparazzi’ hunting down celebrity preys is
investing them with too much respect and intelligence. They most times
don’t care or know who their ‘victims’ are. They are solely driven by
the instinct that their victims are vain egomaniacs in love with their
faces and current fashion statements! They are usually right in that
they are patronised by an ever-growing class of people who want to
publicly show off, our socialites, as the gossip papers label them.

Unruly photographers

My concern about
how ‘younger’ press photographers have decided to lower themselves and
their genre of photography to the base level of ‘kpa kpa kpa
photographers’ was triggered by two items in the Arts and Culture
section of Next on Sunday, May 16, 2010; and observations I had
previously made in Media Review about the unruly behaviour of press
photographers at important events.

First, I was happy
about the photograph (courtesy of Newswatch) chosen to illustrate my
tribute to Matthew Faji. Dressed in a natty suit and tie was a smiling
Faji fondly holding in each hand SLR cameras fitted with medium and
zoom lenses. We behold the picture of a master photographer, properly
dressed for any occasion and venue and, very professionally equipped
with the right tools, especially the lenses. Faji demonstrates that he
has earned the respect that will smoothly open doors for him, be it at
UN Headquarters, the White House and our own State House/Dodan Barracks!

In the same edition
is a story on the Award ceremony for the Soyinka Prize in Literature
worth a cool 20,000 US dollars. To quote from Aderinsola Ajao’s report,
‘(Soyinka) gave an insight into dealing with obtrusive photographers
who proceed to plant themselves in the audience’s view, leaving their
“backsides” as the only entertainment available to the viewer. A few
pricks of the fork on the “soft backsides”, he said would instantly
deal with “this insensitivity to audience.”’

What Soyinka kindly
describes as insensitivity I bluntly regard as bad manners and
unethical behaviour on the part of press photographers! From my
article, Profile and Ethics (Media Review, June 2009), I offer some
quotes. ‘Where once you had press photographers like Sunmi Smart-Cole
and Felix Elijah (to name a few) wearing suits on assignments, and many
others always smartly and appropriately dressed, we now have many young
press photographers scruffily dressed in branded T-shirts, wearing
sandals and roaming around the venues of events without professional
comportment. Why would they not be disrespected and, why would the
security forces and political thugs not harass and push them around?”

Herd mentality

At the unveiling
(shown on satellite TV) of the mascot for the 2009 FIFA Under-17
Championship in Abuja, ‘Nigerian press photographers put on a very
embarrassing display of poor professional ethics. Hundreds of press
photographers and television cameramen (many unsuitably dressed) rushed
on to the stage and completely blocked the view of all the invited
guests who were seated at their dinner tables. After more than five
minutes the MC was forced to call them to order for unruly
un-gentlemanly behaviour.’

Then Vice-President
Jonathan, governors and top FIFA officials were at that Abuja ceremony.
Soyinka (who refused a call to the high table) was at the Awolowo 100th
Anniversary ceremony at Muson Centre, Lagos in early 2009; when press
and kpa kpa kpa photographers rushed on stage to grab shots of Ma Awo,
Governor Fashola and other VIPs on the high table!

‘This herd
mentality,’ I later wrote, ‘which drives press photographers; all in
the name of looking for exclusive close-up shots, has become the norm
as they crowd high tables at events and turn themselves into a public
nuisance. That they are usually verbally and physically abused for
their bad manners has not dissuaded them so far.’

Faji’s style

I wish our current
crop of press photographers will learn from Faji’s photograph on the
need to be always properly dressed and equipped with the correct lenses
to get their shots without interfering with the audience and other
photographers. It is bad enough that press photographers are still
viewed as poor cousins to the editorial staff in the newsrooms and on
editorial boards of Nigerian media organisations. Their newly-acquired
added minus of poor social decorum further diminishes their social
profile.

Journalists in
Nigeria fought hard and long to stop our so-called big men – the
military and all grades of politicians including Presidents – from
viewing and calling them ‘press boys’. The editors and senior
journalists who still crave for and accept ‘brown envelopes’ have
definitely tarnished the new and established image of our strong and
fearless press men. I wonder how our press photographers feel when all
manner of people shout out at them “hey foto-grapher, come here!”

The kpa kpa kpa brigade doesn’t care. For them, “Oga, madam, you want foto?” is a ‘professional’ prelude for quick cash!

Filmmaker Femi
Odugbemi’s ‘Bariga Boy’ on Wednesday, May 19, won the AfroPop Prize for
Best Film at the 5th Real Life Documentary Festival in Accra, Ghana.
The award is the third honour the film on Segun Adefila and the Crown
Troupe of Africa has won recently. It won the Best Documentary Prize at
the 2010 AMAA Awards in April and won in the same category at the Abuja
Film Festival.

Eminent academics,
literary, film and art personalities attended the award ceremony held
at Goethe Institut, Accra. They include Manthia Diawara, professor and
head, Literature and African Studies, New York University, who launched
a book on African cinema at the occasion; Ed Gurrero, professor of Film
Studies at New York University; filmmakers Christine Choy, Yeman
Demissie from Ethiopia and Stephanie Black.

Chair of the
ceremony, the poet Kofi Anyidoho, noted that the festival “is dedicated
to documentary films based on the histories, peoples, heroes, cities
and locations of African and diasporic communities. It brings together
filmmakers, scholars, students and film enthusiasts to one of the
greatest historic Pan-African cities in the world – Accra.”

Anyidoho added that
the festival is on its way to becoming Africa’s major forum for the
production, cataloguing and exhibition of documentary film records of
African and African-diasporic subjects in global history because of the
dedication of its founders, Lydie Diakhate and Awam Amkpa.

The winner of the
AfroPop Prize sponsored by the National Black Programming Consortium
(NBPC), United States, paid tribute to Adefila and the Crown Troupe in
his acceptance speech. He noted that Adefila is a model worth emulating
by other youth because of his passion for advocating social change with
his works despite operating in a hostile environment. Odugbemi
reiterated that, “for Africa to catch up with the world
infrastructurally, politically and economically, artists of all shades
must stand up to be counted. Our talent must speak out to challenge
power and inspire change.”

Co-founder and
co-director of the festival, Diakhate lauded the Nigerian filmmaker’s
win. “I am very happy that Femi Odugbemi got the AfroPop Prize. He did
a beautiful work and I really enjoyed the way he portrayed a young
gifted Nigerian artist and his neighbourhood.”

She added that,
“The awards are for me very important because it is a great opportunity
for the festival to give recognition to contemporary African visual
productions.”

Other awards
presented at the festival which started on Sunday, May 16 and ended on
Thursday, May 20 were the Walter Mosley Prize worth $5,000 won by
Yemani Demissie and Joe Ampha Prize which carries a cash prize of
$1,000. Young Ghanaian student filmmaker, Elizabeth Coleman, won the
prize for her short film ‘Camp Healing’.

Several documentary
films including John Akomfrah’s ‘The Genome Chronicles’; Senegalese
Ousmane Mbaye’s ‘Mere Bi’ and Claus Wischmann and Martin Baer’s
collaboration, ‘Kinshasha Symphony’ were screened at the festival.
‘Twilight Revelations’ by Ethiopia’s Yemane Demissie and ‘Africa Unite’
by Stephanie Black were also shown.

With this win, Odugbemi’s ‘Bariga Boy’ will likely be shown on
‘AfroPop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange’, a US based public TV show
featuring independent documentaries and short films about life art and
culture from the contemporary African Diaspora. The show is hosted by
actor Idris Elba and the winner of the AfroPop award is offered a
three-year contract worth up to $8000.

Standing tall on
Ayobola Street in the Alagbado area of Lagos is a building that is
architecturally sculptured in metal designs. The aesthetics will cause
any passer-by to stop and wonder who could have thought so creatively
in designing the house. It is not very surprising to learn that the
house belongs to Adeola Balogun, sculpture lecturer at the Yaba College
of Technology (YABATECH).

No sooner than I
entered the artist’s studio in the house that he started talking about
an art work he is working on. Balogun’s phone beeped and he answered.
“Give me like an hour,” he told his caller. “Boy, I have only 30
minutes to spend here, I need to meet a client,” he said after
receiving the call. That made me realise how busy Balogun is even when
he is not teaching. “I thought today is a Sunday and you are supposed
to be having your rest,” I noted. “Rest”? He asked. “You can’t eat your
cake and have it. Do you think business and pleasure go together?”

Artistic foundation

Born on November
17, 1966 in Otta, Ogun State, Balogun grew up in Lagos. The academic
moved back to Otta, a city known for Egungun festivals in 1979, in
pursuit of education. That childhood exposure to masquerades’
ornamented attire would later influence his works.

Balogun, son of
Muslim parents, attended Quranic School (known locally as ‘Ile-Kewu’)
early and was forbidden from Oke’de, Otta, where masquerades performed.
This stimulated his interest in religion and faith, and made him
research Egungun later in life.

Balogun was
influenced to study art from childhood by his environment, and by a
teacher who noticed his innocent drawings. He learnt his trade formally
at Yabatech where he bagged the Best Student Award in the Department of
Fine Arts; and was retained as a lecturer for his brilliance after his
youth service. The artist still thirsted for knowledge, and proceeded
to obtain his Masters degree in Fine Art (MFA) from the University of
Benin in 2004.

Art of used tyres

Balogun’s new solo
exhibition titled ‘Infinite Patterns and Forms’, features works made
from used and abandoned tyres. Okada (motorcycles) tyres feature
prominently as a medium in the new artworks. Why used tyres?

His answer: “It’s
like a metaphor; I am relating the lifestyle of typical civil servants
in Nigeria to that of used and abandoned tyres. When I buy tyres for my
cars, I go to the extent of polishing them virtually every week after
washing them with black-gold patina to give them the sheen. Whenever I
see them, I feel happy because they appear beautiful. After a period,
the tyres get worn-out and they don’t appeal to one again.

“What follows is
that one finds a way to dispose them. The irony of this is that these
are tyres that served me for long but now that they are old, I need to
dispose them. This could be [compared] to the lifestyle of civil
servants in the country.

“In this part of
the world, when workers are in active service, the government takes
care of them. But immediately they are not useful again, probably
because they have attained the retirement age, government does away
with them.

“These one-time
heroes don’t get paid on time; most of them die before their benefits
are paid. Those who do not die probably become burdens to the society
and to their immediate family – like abandoned tyres which litter the
streets and block drainages during flood. This is the perspective I
have thought and [it] really inspired me to pass the message across.”

Art of masquerades

The artist also explained why masquerades, which have fascinated him since childhood, are represented in this exhibition.

“In reality,
masquerades’ attires are made by people and are beautifully adorned
with several ornaments. Immediately the masquerades come out to
perform, they become an idol and people turn them to gods by singing
their praises while worshipping them, whereas they are empowered by the
same people.

“This scenario has
been critically looked into and likened to that of a politician. Before
election, they eat, dine and wine with colleagues, but as soon as they
hold the staff of office they turn to something else.

“These are
ensembles that cost much to design and elections that nearly emptied
our treasury. At the end, what do we get from it? Nothing. “What I
advocate for is that power belongs to individual and not the other way
round,” he added.

Art and Nigeria’s economy

Making positive
comments is also a focus of ‘Infinite Patterns and Forms’. “For
instance, we all know that in Nigeria, the power supply is epileptic.
Why don’t we channel our energy positively towards how can we better
what we have, rather than just seeing things in negative directions?

“Let us shift our
attention from lack and not allow what is going on in our society to
subdue us. Because the more we think about the problem, the more we get
into it. So, what am advocating through my works is that we should take
our minds off the problem and shift them on the solution.”

Balogun has held
solo and group exhibitions within and outside Nigeria. He facilitated
at the recently concluded Harmattan workshop in Agbarha Otor, Delta
State.

‘Infinite Patterns and Forms’ opens on May 29 at the Nike Art Gallery, 2 Elegushi Street, 2nd Roundabout, Lekki Phase I, Lagos.

Many adults can
imagine the horrible lifestyle of a Lagos street kid, but would hardly
want to live it. The impact of this hits home harder after you‘ve seen
Michelle Bello’s ‘Small Boy,’ a film about 10-year-old Sunny Agaga who
finds himself struggling to survive on the Lagos streets.

Set in a Lagos
slum, ‘Small Boy’ is, however, not another ‘Slumdog Millonaire’ yarn.
Sunny’s journey begins after a dispute between his mother, Aina (Najite
Dede) and father Sunmi (Akin Lewis). It is the final act of spousal
abuse that opens his mother’s eyes to the need to flee for her life. At
their borrowed lodgings, Aina transfers her aggression to young Sunny
(AMAA-winning child actor, Richard Chukwuma) and accuses him of theft.
He runs endlessly into the night. So begins life on the streets.

What ensues is a
depiction of the lad’s picaresque existence, echoing scenes from ‘Les
Miserables’, ‘August Rush’ and ‘Oliver Twist’.

Sunny makes friends
with Deola, played by Agbolade Gbolahan, who nearly steals the show
from Chukwuma. Deola and his gang of urchins – one of whom is named
Dragon – all fall within Sunny’s age-range and work under the
supervision of the Fagin-like Oyi, played by Toyin Oshinaike.

Nobert Young in a
cameo role as the drug peddling ‘Presido’ unwittingly sets Sunny on the
journey to finding himself. Some might be surprised to find out the
kind of job these boys do when they are on the run. For the
uninitiated, it is at this point that you might feel concerned that
‘Small Boy’ is actually based on a true story.

The film does not
go into the politics of this, but it becomes obvious that society is
not handling the problem of juvenile delinquency effectively.
Especially when elected lawmakers break all laws, including those that
should protect children.

‘Small Boy,’
however succeeds at not being preachy or excessively didactic. The
script by Makinde Adeniran, who also handled the casting, is an
original in the realm of Nollywood scriptwriting. Using the power of
imagery and few words, Michelle Bello’s style and approach to directing
is forward-looking in terms of storytelling. Acquiring the viewer’s
eye, Bello showed more than she told.

A carving on the
wall in the Agaga household ironically reads “One love keeps us
together” when that is not the case in the family. As Sunny’s mother
and brother embark on a frantic search for him, a road sign points out
‘Murtala Mohammed Way’ and ‘Herbert Macaulay Way.’ Sunny could have
gone anywhere in a million and one places. Their search has only just
begun.

Note: there’s
hardly any romance when you consider many characters in this film are
brutes of some sort. But what little romance there is, is key to the
unfolding of ‘Small Boy’s plot; a very effective type of cause and
effect.

Aiding imagination

It is however
unfortunate that we neither get to see Sunmi again nor does a love
affair bloom between Aina and Ade (played by Wale Macaulay also in a
cameo role). Maybe it works better that we get to imagine.

Also aiding
imagination was the use of sound. Like all good film scores should, the
‘Small Boy’ score heralded the ominous and the joyous, pre-empting the
audience’s emotions and reactions.

Thankfully, the
music in this film is not distractive. The music by Robb Williamson and
Justin Horsford is a lesson in film music for Nollywood practitioners
who are usually content with slamming hits straight off the charts into
their hastily-done movies.

Through Bello’s
deft use of almost every angle available to a director, we see Sunny’s
sorry sojourn side by side his mother’s torment at losing him. This is
not the repetitive, melodramatic dross served up in Nollywood. It’s not
all serious, heavy stuff though. A few comic spots light up our faces
especially when the young ones make good their threat to ‘show’ a man
for parking his rickety car at their meeting point.

Getting the best of
child actors has never been easy, especially in a film studded with
older stars. But the young ones get a grip of the screen minutes into
this work and the viewer is the happier for it because these kids
really can act. If all we see of Sunny is the wacky goal-scoring
celebration he does at the start of the movie, that’s enough proof.

‘Small Boy’ has
gone on to make its mark in Nigeria and beyond, winning two AMAA awards
in 2009, including one for Best Art Direction; and garnering
nominations at the 2008 American Black Film Festival.

Anyone who sees
‘Small Boy’ – a gripping tale of child abuse – is likely to end up
taking a new look at all those other Sunny-like small boys who roam the
streets, especially in Lagos: they might not just be beggars or
windscreen cleaners. When ‘Small Boy’ comes to town you don’t want to
miss it.

‘Small Boy’ premieres at the Silverbird Cinemas, Lagos, on May 27.