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The winner of the
Lagos Black Heritage Festival/Caterina de Medici painting competition
was unveiled on April 8, during an award dinner at the Civic Centre in
Lagos.

Kelani Abass
emerged winner out of 30 artists, who had been selected as part of a
competition themed ‘Lagos, City of a thousand masks.’ The competitors’
works had been exhibited earlier in the day at the Lekki-based, Nike
Art Gallery.

The Steve Rhodes
Orchestra dished out soul lifting and body soothing jazz tunes and
played at intervals for the duration of the occasion, much to the
delight of the audience.

The Lagos State
governor Babatunde Fashola, his deputy Sarah Sosan, visual artist Ondo
State Commissioner of Culture Tola Wewe, African-American scholar Henry
Louis Gates Jr, and filmmaker Tunde Kelani – were some of those at the
event.

From Italy with love

The annual
painting competition, which began 2002 in Florence, Italy, came to
Nigeria for the first time this year in honour of the festival. A
Nigerian, Olubunmi Ogundare had participated in the first Caterina de
Medici painting competition and was adjudged one of the best 10 artists
in the world.

African
representative of the Caterina de Medici Foundation, Foluke Michaels,
said during her speech that Nigerian artists participate actively on
the international level and are a force to reckon with. Samuel Ebohon,
winner of the 2009 Caterina de Medici international painting award was
also a Nigerian, Michaels noted.

She disclosed that
the 30 shortlisted artists were selected out of 108 who had indicated
interest in this Festival-based edition of the competition.

Chair of the 2009
award jury and also a consultant to this year’s Black Heritage
Festival, Wole Soyinka, had more to say about the judging of last
year’s entries. “The jury was totally different from those that conduct
the Nigerian elections,” he said. This was his way of saying he neither
influenced nor rigged the decision of the jury, which had comprised
people of diverse nationalities.

Behind the mask

Soyinka said some
people had come up to him asking why he chose to title the competition
‘Lagos, City of a thousand masks.’ He however explained that he had no
particular reason for the title but that it was just an expression.

“People say: Eko
gb’ole o gb’ole (Lagos makes space for the thief and the lazy) and I
think it is because Lagos wears so many masks. Like all works of art,
Lagos is a mystery.”

Commodore Sottani,
who started the Caterina de Medici competition in 2002, spoke next,
after a stimulating performance by female drummer Ara and her band.

Speaking in
Italian, with the assistance of an interpreter, Sottani was full of
praise for Soyinka and Michaels, who he became acquainted with at the
formation of the international painting competition.

Sottani said it
was his second time in Lagos. “I am happy to be in Lagos and I would
like that everyone here visit the beautiful city of Florence, Italy,”
he said. Sottani’s pronouncement and praise for his home country had
many in the crowd dreaming while others sniggered loudly, obviously
thinking of the tedious process of getting an Italian visa here in
Nigeria.

Sottani thanked
the organisers for the opportunity to present an award to renowned
painter and textile artist, Nike Davies-Okundaye, in appreciation of
her contribution to Nigerian art at home and abroad.

The interpreter,
however, said Sottani was grateful for the award Davies-Okundaye was
giving to him – leading to some raised eyebrows in the audience.
Soyinka also received an award for excellence.

And the winner is…

The Nike Cultural
Troupe performed a beautiful Bata dance sequence, it was then time to
put down the wine glasses and applaud the winning artist.

Visual artists
Jerry Buhari and Ndidi Dike were in the jury that selected the 2010
LBHF/ Caterina de Medici award winner for Painting. The final 30 works
were displayed at various points in the large hall, with the
participating artists all eager to know if theirs would be the winning
artwork.

The fifth place
winner, Osagie Aimufia received a silver medal and a cash prize of
$5,000. Moses Zibo came fourth with a cash prize of $7,500 and a silver
medal. Folarin Razaq was happy as he ran upstage to receive his $10,000
prize and silver medal as the third place winner while the second place
winner went home with 15,000. Other participating artists took home
medals.

Kelani Abass, who
emerged the winner of the LBHF/ Caterina de Medici 2010 Painting Award
carted home a cash prize of $20,000 and the lone gold medal.

Abass had words of
thanks tumbling from his lips while two female ushers took the winning
painting round the hall for guests to get a good look.

“It was a tough competition and I am still amazed that my painting was selected as the winning work,” said the joyful winner.

Obi Nwaegbe’s art
exhibition, ‘Tainted Visions: Nomad Series’, opened at the Omenka
Gallery on April 16. On display were about 25 paintings and drawings,
which the young artist was inspired to produce during his service year
in Northern Nigeria.

In the brochure,
the University of Nigeria-trained fine artist said that the “exhibition
as illustrated by the works on display, is a realistic approach to
documenting the lives of ordinary people living in a society basically
at subsistence level.”

Breaking news of the poisonous Chinese Milk scandal influenced the title ‘Tainted Visions.’

Remaining productive

Speaking at the
opening event, the artist said the Fulani nomads, who are the focus of
his exhibition, have a bold way of expressing themselves. “For me as an
artist, I think it was something that is worth putting down,” he said.

Capturing their
daily existence through sketches and photography “was not a very easy
process,” Nwaegbe admitted. After his service year in Nassarawa State,
the artist spent time in Kebbi State observing the Fulani nomads in
their natural habitat, something he described as “a really good
experience.”

The Fulani people, their cultures and their environment form the nucleus of his Nomad Series.

Some of the images
show the herdsmen at work, or at play. Others show women attending to
their daily chores or to their physical appearance. It also shows the
migrant group across generations. Nwaegbe’s featured works were in
Conte, Acrylic, and Charcoal media.

Commenting on how
he managed to be productive in unfamiliar surroundings, Nwaegbe said,
“If you are waiting for the muse, you are not going to paint in a long
time.” The resulting works are a mix of reality and his imagination.

Investing in art

Recounting his
recent experience at the Africa Now Art Auction in New York, Frank
Okonta, who chaired Nwaegbe’s opening, said he was impressed to see
artworks by many Nigerian artists featured prominently at the auction.

“Don’t give up,”
the president of the Art Galleries Association of Nigeria (AGAN) said,
encouraging the artists to remain dedicated to their profession.

As an art
collector, Okonta advised the audience to invest in art. “There’s
plenty of money to be made from art. It’s good for you to start
collecting now,” because the value goes up, he said.

Bisi Silva, director of the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), could not help adding, “And you make a lot of tax-free money.”

Art patron Rasheed Gbadamosi and gallery owner Biodun Omolayo were also at the opening.

Nwaegbe’s message
for all who viewed the week-long exhibition was simple: “If you don’t
travel around, you don’t understand how different we are. There’s a
need for us to interact and understand each other.”

‘Tainted Visions’ (Nomad Series) was at the Omenka Gallery on Ikoyi Crescent till April 23.

Why Art?

Art is a calling. I
had good grades in school and could have had my pick of courses at the
tertiary institution. Art was the last course people expected of me
with my grades but from a tender age I had always been inclined to the
arts. Though I had to embark on hunger strike as a 16-year- old before
my parents allowed me to study art, it was worth it then and to the
present. I simply followed my calling.

Training

I studied Arts and
Design at Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State. I specialised in painting and
illustration. The same year I was offered admission to study art at
Auchi Poly, the University of Benin also offered me admission into
their Geography and Regional Planning department from where I could
have moved to the Architecture department.

Medium

Oil, acrylic,
watercolors, charcoal, and pastel, there’s none I can’t work with, but
now I tend to use oil more. I had 40 works on display in a recent
exhibition, 28 of these were in oil paint and the rest, mixed media.

Influences

I really had no one
to look up to as a little boy but I had once read about a Russian
artist who lived in America and how he arrived at his own exhibition in
a private jet. The success story of Picasso also helped me make up my
mind about being a good artist. In Auchi, I became acquainted with the
likes of [Kolade] Oshinowo and others but they were basically teaching.
Yet I maintained this silent conviction in me that the story of the
Picassos of this world could also be mine.

Inspirations

A mood or a song, a
message from the pulpit may also inspire me to do an artwork.
Generally, things that happen inspire me but it takes those moments
that are so fleeting to get me going. I’m very concerned about the
content of my work though. And though I ensure that my works look good,
they might not be very beautiful. Nevertheless, art is like a woman,
you just don’t look at the beautiful face, you look at the inside too.

Best work so far

Each work to me is
like my child, my soul is in every work. I put a lot into my every work
and I like to think that is why my works sell.

Least satisfying work

There was this
particular work I did for a certain Alhaji Mohammed. I got a loan from
the bank to facilitate the making of the work, yet he took such a long
time to pay that the interest piled up. That is the only work I can
think of as a least satisfying project.

Career high point

I’ll say my first
solo exhibition held at Didi Museum, Lagos in 1991, my graduation from
art school with the best result and winning all the available prizes.
My first exhibition abroad and the fact that my work was well accepted
as far back as then make up my career high points for now. I still
believe I’ve not started though.

Favourite artist living or dead

In Nigeria, Ben
Enwonwu and Kolade Oshinowo. I respect both of them; Enwonwu for his
consistency and Osinowo for his paternal approach. Whenever we meet, he
will whisper to me, “I am proud of you.” Outside Nigeria, I once had an
exhibition with a German artist named Ted; I can’t pronounce his
surname, but I like his works and his person.

Ambitions

I want to get to the pinnacle of my profession and be known wherever
man lives. Yes, I want [to get to] the Picasso, Da Vinci and
Michelangelo level.

There is a saying
that old soldiers never die. Rather, they simply fade away. Old
musicians also never die. The best of them mellow like very good wine
and, their music; as they grow older, can be quite intoxicating to
genuine fans. They pack so much experience, loaded with a storehouse of
emotions that span many decades, to overwhelm listeners and solicit
their heart-felt appreciation. One such musician who perfectly
demonstrates this reality of musical longevity and acumen is trumpeter
Afro John Odigwe.

Born of a Benin
mother and an Agbor father, his musical career started in 1957, after
his primary school education; at St. Paul’s Seminary in Benin City
where he was taught music by Irishman Father P. J. Kelly (later
Bishop), the then Head of the Seminary Diocese. The young John Odigwe
became a member of the church band. His initial ambition was to become
a Catholic priest but “diverted to become a teacher.” He also
literarily abandoned church music “because it was not paying and I
wanted to earn money as a professional musician.”

Now 71, Afro John
Odigwe, a seasoned Highlife-music trumpeter, leads his band in live
performance every Thursday night at the Hexagon Entertainment Centre
along Golf Course Road in Benin City. He has been at the Hexagon for
just over two years in a long musical career that has now clocked 41
years. You name them and trumpeter Afro has played with them – the best
Nigerian Highlife bandleaders across the country – and he enjoys the
pride of having been a member of their bands when they recorded the
mega-hits usually associated with them.

Fela and Rex Lawson

He started off with
Fela Ransome Kuti in Ibadan in 1967 during the Civil War; and moved to
Lagos with Fela’s band that included Henry Koffi on three-membrane
congas, Tony Allen on drums, Igo Chico on tenor saxophone, Lekan
Animashaun on baritone saxophone, amongst others. He recalls that Fela
who then was still playing the trumpet as well as the keyboards, taught
him “some keys on trumpet.” Strangely, they were not paid salaries, but
were given accommodation and fed. He left Fela in 1968 and joined
Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson as the second trumpeter and stayed until 1971,
again learning more about the trumpet from Lawson.

Not surprisingly,
he still holds these trumpeters and bandleaders in high esteem. “Of the
many trumpeters in Nigeria then, both were top trumpeters and
outstanding,” he recalls, adding that, “Jim Lawson was a raw highlife
specialist while Fela was an Afrojazz-Highlife specialist.” His musical
legacy with these bandleaders is that he recorded mega-hits like ‘Water
No Get Enemy’ with Fela and, ‘Love Adure’, ‘Mama Dey For Kumba’,
‘Udaja’ with Lawson and his Rivers Men Band.

Celestine Ukwu and Victor Uwaifo

Another unique
Highlife musician and bandleader Afro is proud to have played with is
xylophonist Celestine Ukwu and his Philosophers Band, based in Enugu.
“Celestine Ukwu was the lead singer and I learnt how to play and sing
his numbers. Celestine, Lawson and Fela were great and gifted original
composers, that is why they had so many hits that are still evergreen
today. I recorded the hits ‘Ijenu’ and ‘No Condition is Permanent’ with
Celestine Ukwu. They were simply the best composers because they were
very original. There used to be a lot of competition amongst Highlife
musicians and Rex Lawson came out first. Lawson’s ‘Love Adure’ was a
gold disc while Ukwu’s ‘Ijenu’ was a silver disc.”

Afro John Odigwe
can also be classified as a musical journeyman. He has played with
Victor Uwaifo, played on the same bill with the great Ramblers and
Black Beat bands from Ghana; and his last gig was with Eno Louis.

Highlife survivor

That Afro John
Odigwe plays the trumpet and sings sitting is as a result of a horrific
accident when Eno Louis’ band was travelling to fulfil a booking.
Invariably we get around talking about the occupational hazards of
Nigerian musicians as they zigzag across the country. “Celestine Ukwu
died in an accident at nine-mile in Enugu, Rex Lawson died in an
accident at Uronigbe near Agbor and Erasmus Jenewari died in an
accident in his new car at Obigbo. God knows why and I thank him that I
survived,” he observes philosophically.

What is his take on
the state of music today? “Most musicians who know the quality of music
have died,” he laments. “The present bands are involved in obituary
music. They play for obituaries and not in clubs anymore. That is why
the profession has collapsed.” He is not happy about the welfare of
musicians today. “Music is getting worse because most people that are
able to form their bands are not able to take care of their musicians
like hotel and club proprietors do – Bobby Benson in those days and
Omoregbe Erediauwa of Hexagon now.”

Highlife lives

Is Highlife dead?
“Highlife is not dead. If you go to civilised places like Ghana,
Highlife is still recognised and respected because Nkrumah had a School
of Music and, he gave prominence to Highlife. People in Nigeria are not
able to cope with the standard of the old seasoned musicians. People
now play Kokoma music which is a watered-down version of Highlife. Some
have diverted. I bring back memories of music on which older people
were brought up. Young people are not interested in Highlife. Even if
they can play instruments they cannot compose; and because of their
inexperience they only go for the music that is in vogue to earn money!”

Sadness and joy

Afro John Odigwe’s
band at the Hexagon has another old timer; 68-year old drummer Joe Uba,
a fantastic energetic drummer with vast experience including a stint
with Eddie Okonta. His ace guitarist, Splendour, has grown in the mould
of great Highlife guitarists like O.K.Jazz Otaru and was formerly with
Lagbaja. He attributes the fact that his band is tight and very
knowledgeable about the Highlife genre to the fact that “they have been
coached.”

Odigwe believes
that it is no accident that most of the Highlife greats “sang and
played in their personal language and rhythms. Rex in Ijaw, Uwaifo –
Edo, Celestine – Ibo, Olaiya – Yoruba and Fela started in Yoruba.
Everybody is playing in their dialects; Ghanaians too, although a few
Nigerians and Ghanaians sing in English.” Although he has composed at
least half-a-dozen songs he is yet to record them. At the Hexagon he
takes his listeners down the memory lane of Highlife’s golden age.
“They want us to play the old Highlife exactly as it was played
especially on the hit records. Some people might cal us copycats but
they still appreciate how well we play the old Highlife because we were
part of the bands that recorded these hit Highlife songs.”

Any regrets? “I regret I have no band because I cannot afford
instruments. I regret because I should have been better known.” However
when Afro John Odigwe raises his trumpet to his lips or sings into the
microphone, he continues to produce sounds of joy!

The grand finale
of this year’s Anioma Festival held on April 5 at the Arcade Ground,
Asaba, attracted thousands of residents in the Delta North Senatorial
district of the state.

The Organisation
for the Advancement of the Anioma Culture (OFAAC), organised the
seventh edition of the annual celebration themed ‘Promoting Cultural
Tourism for Sustainable Development’. It featured dances, music,
fashion, food fair, and other arts peculiar to the people.

Opening glee

Members of a group
which appeared unable to contain its excitement left their seats as
gaily costumed troupes poured into the venue. They paired and showed
off their dancing skills to onlookers before the formal commencement. A
traditional flutist welcomed people while the MC, Tony Emordi,
acknowledged the royalty present.

Traditional title
holder, the Omu of Anioma, Obi Martha Dunkwu, arrived in style. A
traditional flutist trailed her while an older woman in her entourage
of seven women shrieked intermittently. Governor of Delta State,
Emmanuel Uduaghan, who was expected, failed to show up. Secretary to
the state government, Ifeanyi Okowa, who is from Anioma, was however
part of the celebration. He led guests on the high table to view the
display of local foods, beads, Akwa-Ocha woven cloth, and artworks
mounted in an exhibition in the course of the programme.

Surprise winner

Troupes from
primary schools were the first to present their dances and they awed
the audience with their dancing skills. Though they knew they were
competing for a prize, they chose to enjoy themselves and entertain
guests while at it.

Donne Foundation
School, Kwale, and Abuano Primary School, Ogwuashi – Uku, were
outstanding in their costumes and dances, so much so that people
assumed one of them would win the primary school category. The Santa
Maria school troupe, Kwale, which arrived late, however carried the
day, while Abuano School and Donne Foundation came second and third
respectively.

Dances and masquerades

Professional
cultural troupes that vied for honours at the festival were from nine
of the 25 local governments of Delta State inhabited by the Anioma
people. Some groups from Enugu State also participated. Though the
Omadu Boys Dance Troupe danced vigorously, the crowd was more
interested in the antics of the troupe’s masquerade – a male that
dressed and behaved like a beautiful lady.

The Ebubedike of
Ashaka Dancing Troupe’s masquerade however, beat the Omadu masquerade
in the showing off stakes. Though not as good as the Omadu masquerade
in sashaying, the Ebubedike ‘female’ masquerade got familiar with some
students in the audience. A young boy looked the masquerade in the eye
and called out “Fine boy.” It rewarded the cheeky boy by shaking its
raffia skirted buttocks at him.

The second
masquerade of the Ebubedike group commanded the greatest attention. It
was a big scary one that sent little children fleeing into the safety
of their mother’s arms. It also won for the Ebubedike Troupe, the prize
in the masquerade dance category.

The dance
performance that appealed most to the mature members in the audience
was the Agwuba Royal Dance, performed by the Anioma Cultural Troupe.
The stately dance steps were mirrored by philanthropist, Newton
Jibunoh, his wife Elizabeth, and Nkem Ajufo (from the Delta State
Tourism Board) – as the trio joined the dancers on the field.

The group, Ebu
Wonder’s performance won’t be forgotten in a hurry. People wondered
what was in the three feet long box the magicians in red brought into
the field. But they did not wait for long as the box opened to release
a 12-feet-long masquerade which danced around, stood from both ends,
and became as flat as a pile of clothes laid on the floor, before being
bundled back into the box. This wasn’t all the group had to offer. One
man went round with a basket full of water and not one drop leaked from
the basket, to the amazement of the crowd.

The ‘Heavenly
Steppers’, comprising three young girls, incorporated some gymnastics
and the wave making ‘Alanta’ dance into their performance. They
squealed in excitement when they were announced winner of the
contemporary dance category.

The Onu-Anioma
group eventually won the overall first prize at the end of proceedings.
They got a trophy and N300,000 for their efforts. The group, which also
won the prize last year, performed a striking planting and harvesting
dance. The applause which greeted their victory was deafening,
affirming that the audience supported their victory. Uloko Dance Troupe
of Ishiago from Issele Asaba came second, while the African Voices
Group from Kwale, was third.

The wrestlers

While the Egbulu
Akiti group emerged winner in the war dance category, the pantomime
performed by Otu Ita Buisi Biani Troupe from Ogwashi-Uku, won in the
storytelling category.

Accompanied by
drums, the Ekwe Troupe performed a story about how a beautiful maiden’s
pot was broken by two young men. The maiden cried home to her parents
only for both men to come bearing gifts of yam and palm-wine, asking to
marry the maiden. When both men refused to pick from the maiden’s
friends but insisted on her, it was decided that a wrestling match
would settle the matter.

The pantomime was
a good way of announcing the wrestling event which came up next.
However, the wrestlers were too anxious and they contravened some of
the rules of traditional wrestling in their anxiety. The umpire had to
end the event in order not to encourage personal vendetta amongst the
three wrestling groups. The already excited audience was disappointed,
naturally.

Telecommunication company, MTN, partnered with the organisers and
conducted a raffle (separate from OFAAC’s own raffle draw) as part of
the festivities.The fiesta finally ended with the OFAAC raffle draw.
Winners went home with generators, motorcycles, bags of rice, and
standing fans.

Teju Cole’s book, Every Day is for the
Thief is published by Cassava Republic, a Nigerian publishing house. In
this highly engaging book, a Nigerian living in America decides to take
a trip to Nigeria after a long stay away from home. Hurrah for Cassava
Republic. There is hope for Nigeria’s publishing industry. This is a
pretty little book. I absolutely love the cover; earth tones seeping
gently into black and white truths. Indeed, there are many things to
like about this little book. It exudes the quiet confidence of a
brilliant writer properly centered in the beauty and challenges of his
art. It is refreshing that ‘Every Day is for the Thief; does not
pretend to be perfect. If I had to do it over, I would employ an artist
to draw charcoal sketches of scenes from the chapters. The binding
could be stronger. In editing and in general, there is considerable
evidence of a gallant struggle for excellence.

Cole has a reverence for the carefully
documented journey as opposed to sloppy hagiographies. From the middle
passages the voice rises, lumbers to an alert at attention relentlessly
flogging the reader’s conscience. We see firsthand the effect of
capitalism unchecked. Cole describes in sombre but frightening terms,
what “democracy” has brought to Nigeria. We are introduced to a Nigeria
innocent of an abiding set of core values and a coherent spirituality –
a consumer nation at its crassest defined largely by the absence of a
reading culture. Soaked in the effluvium of the new Christianity,
Nigeria is host to a relentless scourge of new “pastors” gouging their
destitute congregation to near-death.

All connoisseurs of history should
simply read Cole’s rendering of the slave trade as it pertained to
Nigeria. The writer has a historian’s keen sense of observation – and
sees little things that portend huge seismic shifts. He observes hard
working professionals like medical doctors who are paid in Naira but
who pay for their subsistence in dollars. And every day they make
furtive plans to flee Nigeria. What this democracy has brought to us is
pregnant and nursing a baby at the same time. Nigeria unravels before
the eyes – a society in slow motion decay wrapped in suffocating
mildew.

In this book, Nigeria is pathetically
a-historic. Nobody seems to remember much. Even Biafra has evaporated
from the conscience of those who should remember. Museums house filth,
indifference, and hagiography. General Murtala Muhammed’s Mercedes Benz
in which he perished in 1976 is there with a hagiographical note
attached. Missing is this man’s misadventures during the civil war.
Gone is his own admission of his thievery and selective remorse. A
murderer and an armed robber adorns Nigeria’s currency and has her
International airport named after him. No one cares. Only in Nigeria.
The courtyard of the National Museum is rented out for funerals and
Owambe parties. I am reminded of Wole Soyinka’s retelling of his
quixotic 1978 adventure to return a stolen artefact from Brazil. The
goal as he tells it in ‘You Must Set Forth at Dawn’ is to return the
mask to Nigeria where it belongs. We have our ancestors to thank for
turning a well-intentioned initiative into a bumbling farce. Where was
Soyinka going to put the ancestral mask, in one of these ‘museums’? How
would he like it if his revered papers were left to the mercy of mildew
and termites in one of those ‘museums’?

It is not all despair. There is balance
to Cole’s story. The protagonist actually goes around documenting hope
wherever it sprouts. He is relentless in his belief in hope and
redemption – it is not all ceaseless despair and irredeemable filth.
Instead the book asks questions that point to structural flaws that are
exploited by men and women of no character. The protagonist wanders the
land seeking that elusive spot of earth called hope. And each time he
finds one, his parched throat erupts in lusty song.

I commend Chapter 27 of this book to the gentle reader. It is quite
simply stunning in its application of poetry to prose. Cole succeeds in
adorning Lagos with a well deserved veil of dignity after the quick
peek into a deeply mysterious place. “And sitting there, a memory of
Lagos returns to me, a moment in my brief journey that stands out of
time.” (p125) The enduring mystery of Lagos triumphs over even the
keenest eyes, over even the prettiest of prose and poetry. Lagos is a
teeming pot of mystery – it trumps even the best story teller, the best
photographer, the best bard. Fela Anikulapo Kuti was close but still no
cigar. Lagos will take her secrets with her to our graves. In the end,
Lagos remains a frustrating enigma. Lagos lifts her skirt. She allows a
peep and shuts it down. And the musky aroma of a sensuous experience
lingers on. Buy this book. Read it and think of the perverse mysteries
unfolding in Nigeria.