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The National
Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) has
revealed that it is more than just a gathering of theatre art
practitioners if the theme of its 2010 convention is anything to go by.

‘Theatre and
Change: Credible Election and Good Governance’ was the 2010 theme, as
revealed at the opening ceremony of the association’s annual
convention, held on November 18 at the Mainland Hotel, Oyingbo,
Lagos.The association seemed fired up about the theme as it could be
deduced from its president Greg Odutayo’s welcome address, Ahmed
Yerima’s speech and comments from various members of the association.

Odutayo said this
year’s convention was to consolidate on three years of the executive.
“We want to be able to showcase the journey so far,” he said. “We have
reinvigorated the association. We have taken our rightful place as key
stakeholders in arts, culture and tourism,” he noted. However he added
that there is still much to be done, as there were still things
happening in the Culture and Tourism ministry, from which the
association was excluded.

Odutayo also
reminded the members of the need to drive forward the state chapters
and membership, as these two areas still needed much improvement. He
declared that the theme for the convention became imperative in light
of the association’s elections this year and of course the impending
2011 election in the country.

Ahmed Yerima

Yerima’s speech
went in similar direction as he illustrated how theatre and the theatre
artist could be used as a tool to effect change. “Can theatre be used
to achieve political change? The answer is simple, yes,” he affirmed.

Athol Fugard’s use
of theatre to agitate against the apartheid system in South Africa,
Ngugi Wa Thiongo and Micere Mugo’s use of Kikuyu language in theatre to
depict the injustices of colonial Kenya, Herbert Ogunde’s ‘Yoruba Ronu’
and Soyinka’s efforts in the 70s and 80s were some of the examples he
cited.

Consequently, in
using theatre to effect changes towards credible elections and good
governance in the country come 2011, Yerima argued that the onus lay on
the theatre artist. “He must understand the craft of skillfully turning
theatre from a tool for entertainment and enjoyment into a weapon of
social change.” “He must observe the society, recognise the ills, and
begin to weave his plot so that the conflict of his play carries the
message without making it too didactic. Also the society must recognise
and identify themselves within the context of the play” he said in
addition.

He counseled that
theatre practitioners should take advantage of their relationship with
the media to send specific messages on the elections to the Nigerian
populace. He also warned theatre artists not to sell their fame cheaply
for a few bucks.”Good governance can only be achieved if the individual
artists are also careful in the choice and the personality of those
they endorse,” he said.

Yerima spoke about
the $200 million endowment fund for the arts which President Goodluck
Jonathan had announced would be made available to support the arts, and
raised relevant questions about it, which elicited much response from
delegates.

One attendee called
on the association to look into ensuring that the fund is judiciously
used and not misused. Another contribution advised that artists source
for their own survival because they would not be objective in their
criticism of politicians’ excesses if they continued to go cap in hand
to government. The responses revealed that Ahmed Yerima’s speech had
made its mark as comments continued to flow.

Veteran actors
Dejumo Lewis ,Lara Akinsola, Ben Tomoloju (one of the founding fathers
of NANTAP), Mufu Onifade and Martin Adaji of the National Troupe of
Nigeria, were some of those present, among many others.

There were
delegates and executives from the various chapters of NANTAP. There
were also representatives from the Creative Designers Association,
Committee for Relevant Art, The Lagos Chapter of the Guild of Nigerian
Dancers (EKO GOND), Indigenous Movie Makers Association of Nigeria,
Voice Over Artists Association and many other affiliated bodies of
NANTAP.

In his goodwill message to the association Dejumo Lewis praised
NANTAP for being a well organised and focused association in the
entertainment Industry. “We are proud of NANTAP,” he enthused.

The Danse Meets Dance (DMD) Festival is an annual contemporary dance festival that originated in 2001.

It was first
organised and run by the French Cultural Centre Lagos until 2004 when
the centre closed. The Festival is now being handled by the French
Cultural Centre Abuja, Alliance Francaise Lagos and Goethe Insitute
Nigeria with technical support from Blackroots International.
Additional support also comes from the French Embassy and
CulturesFrance, the agency of the ministries of Foreign Affairs and
Culture and Communications responsible for international cultural
exchanges.

The festival aims
to encourage professional dance in Nigeria and give Nigerian dancers
exposure on the international scene. The festival features performances
from local and foreign dance companies; and also workshops for
professional and amateur dancers.

Over the years, DMD
has successively served as a launch-pad onto the local and
international scene for several indigenous dance companies, one of
which is the popular Ijodee dance group helmed by award winning dancer,
Dayo Liadi.

With the calibre of
foreign and indigenous dance professionals that have featured at the
festivals, it is a wonder that DMD has earned little or no public
recognition so far. Its aim to encourage dance in Nigeria, however, has
led to an increased awareness of contemporary dance within mostly art
circles and the proliferation of dance companies in Nigeria. According
to Gboyega Adetona, the creative director of the Festival, as many as
20 dance companies have risen in Lagos alone thanks to DMD.

For this year like
in past years, efforts were made to get sponsorships, with little
success. For a “festival”, the event gets very few participants in the
way of audience. The organisers are able boast of 2000 people at last
year’s grand performance show, which held on the last day of the
festival. This year, the normally week-long event has been shortened to
four days, due to this lack of corporate sponsorship and public
participation.

For a country that
can boast huge music and dance reality shows, mostly culled from
foreign franchises, it is a wonder that an indigenously organised event
such as this would have to suffer interest. In the United States, the
TV show ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ has been hailed for encouraging
dance (especially contemporary dance) culture in that country. The show
has helped to bring together dance practitioners across America that
help to develop workshops aimed at serving those, kids and adults,
interested in the dance profession.

For a country, that
loves to emulate, one would not be surprised if a production company
decides to import that franchise for local consumption sometime in the
future. This would be sad indeed, as there is already a foundation to
build on with Dance Meets Danse, if only someone would come forward and
start building.

The 10th edition of the Danse Meets Dance festival takes places this
year from the 1st to 4th December 2010 at the Arts Theatre University
of Lagos, Akoka; and the French School, Victoria Island. It is free for
all comers.

In Sarah Ladipo
Manyika’s debut novel, ‘In Dependence’ Tayo goes off to study in Oxford
and encounters the love of his life in the person of Vanessa, a young
English woman. The story opens in 1963, in the heady days of
independence and optimism for the newly liberated nations of Black
Africa. By the novel’s close in the late 90s, Manyika has taken us on a
narrative journey of love and loss, age and regret; with the optimism
of independence having slowly wilted away.

“The title goes to
the fact that the book begins in the independence era. The political
implications are there in the story,” the author says of her novel.
Chief among the motivations to write the story, she readily confesses,
was what she saw as a dearth of universal themes like love in most
books being published by African writers. Whilst acknowledging that
stories of conflict are African realities, the author, a literature
lecturer at San Francisco State University, insists that war and
carnage, hunger and disease are not the only stories. So, she set out
to write a simple yet complex story about the need to love and be loved
– as writers the world over have done down the ages.

Capturing the era

The world of the
novel is an elegiac, romantic one of ships and postcards and letters,
symbols of a now disappeared world. “The sixties, seventies and
eighties were times when people wrote letters. That’s been eclipsed by
email now,” Manyika observes, while explaining that she used the ‘I’ of
the letter writers to bring readers closer to the characters’ thoughts.
“This is a novel that spanned a lifetime. I wanted the story to mirror
the evolution of the characters; as they are young earlier in the novel
and we follow them till they’re older.”

Among the things
that strike the reader about ‘In Dependence’ are the many eras and
milieus convincingly evoked in the novel. “I actually did a lot of
research. I wanted to make sure that I was true to the spirit of Oxford
during that period,” she informs. “I read all the student newspapers
for the years my characters were at Oxford. None of it made it into the
book, but it gave me the confidence to know that I could capture that
period in history. I did many interviews with old students, too.” She
also spoke to her own family and friends’ parents for not only
“contextual detail, but also a feel for the language, films of the time
and the music they were listening to.”

Telling Africa’s stories

The experience has
shown her that there is a wealth of stories of Africa and Africans yet
untold. “I feel that there are so many stories to be told,” she
reiterates. While researching for ‘In Dependence, she interviewed
someone who had been instrumental in bringing Malcolm X to Oxford
University in the early sixties; and who had corresponded with the
African American leader via postcard for sometime afterwards. “There is
a whole, fascinating history in that connection between those two
people,” she asserts.

Manyika talks about
the need to “overturn this power structure” that means only certain
stories about Africa come to the fore through Western publishing deals.
“Africa needs good writers, wherever those writers come from,” she
declares. “I hope more and more books will be published. I would love
to see a burgeoning of writings, more writing awards, residencies.” She
also hopes to see more Africans in positions of ownership in the
publishing industry.

Indeed, one of the
points raised early in ‘In Dependence’ is the need for Africans to tell
their own stories, for the continent’s stories not to be seen via the
constricting prism of Western eyes. Yet in a seeming contradiction,
Vanessa goes on in the novel to become a renowned journalist on Africa,
a white Africanist of sorts, telling the continent’s stories. Manyika
concedes that, “Any book is open to interpretation. At the end, it’s up
to the reader… All my characters are flawed to one extent or another
and Vanessa is no exception.”

Pan-Africanism

In the West African
Society in Oxford, Tayo and friends discuss issues including racism,
love across the boundaries of race and country, identity, as well as
power relations between Africa and Europe. Asked if the discussion
topics mirror her own concerns, Manyika is emphatic: “The writing is
certainly is not a voice piece for my thoughts. I am there in those
conversations to the extent that I care very deeply about the African
continent. Through the various characters, I am exploring the questions
that I’ve asked and that others have asked.”

A Nigerian of mixed
ancestry, Manyika has lived in Nigeria as well as in Kenya, among other
places; and is connected to Zimbabwe by marriage. One of her short
stories is published in the anthology, ‘Women Writing Zimbabwe’, and
she keeps a close eye on writings out of Harare even as she is a part
of the Nigerian literary community, albeit from the Diaspora. “It’s
really exciting to see what’s coming out of Zimbabwe,” she says of
wave-making writers like Petina Gappah and Brian Chikwava. “Because I’m
married to a Zimbabwean, I have extended family there and spend time
there. I feel connected in many ways. There’s an element of West Africa
in Zimbabwe.” To buttress this point, she cites Chielo Zona Eze’s
novel, ‘The Trial of Robert Mugabe’ that begins with the reference that
his first wife was Ghanaian.

It’s no surprise
perhaps that the novel begins in the sixties, the high noon of Pan
Africanism, with the likes of Nkrumah striding the length and breadth
of the Black world canvassing the dream of a united Africa. Manyika
hopes her readers will take something meaningful from ‘In Dependence’,
not least “that aspect of hope, that the original Pan-African spirit
will resonate with them.”

On women writers

‘In Dependence’ is
published in the UK by Legend Press and in a West African edition by
Abuja-based Cassava Republic Press. A blurb on the book notes, in a
complimentary tone, that “even the sex is well mannered.” Why has
Ladipo Manyika not gone with roaring sex scenes, as is de rigueur in
contemporary novels by Nigerian female writers? “Just wait till my next
book!” she jokes, then adds, “I personally find some of the most
enticing… a lot can be left to the reader’s imagination.” The allure of
many a romantic scene, she suggests, “is not about the roaring sex but
the anticipation of what is to come.”

The author feels an
affinity with fellow women writers. “I’m conscious of women writers.
It’s often a struggle for women to write because we have to juggle more
things,” she says. As a reader therefore, she is especially drawn to
short works by women, including Petina Gappah’s stories, Virginia
Woolf’s essays and the stories of Edith Wharton and Jhumpa Lahiri,
among others.

A constancy of themes

The themes in her
works reflect “ideas that are occupying my mental space.” There is a
constancy to the themes. “Africa is always there somewhere in my
consciousness,” she reflects. She touches on recent news headlines
about race riots in Italy: “African immigrants who have been used as
slaves by the Mafia – these stories aren’t really being told, they’ve
been subsumed.” Other preoccupations include women and ageing; and
identity – “This notion of who we are and where do we fit?”

Sarah Ladipo
Manyika did a book tour of Nigeria late last year, and was pleased that
she didn’t have to explain as much as she would have had to do with
European readers. “I feel that Nigerians are maybe able to engage with
the novel more,” she says with satisfaction.

The author is
currently working on a collection of short stories set in Harare,
‘Transatlantically Speaking’; and a novella set in San Francisco, with
women from different parts of the world as the main characters.

As part of the
drive to see more confident writings from the continent, she actively
encourages other writers, “due to my desire to read stories that
haven’t been written, because it inspires me.”

‘In Dependence’ will be reviewed in next week’s edition of The Lagos Review.

Nigerian writers
got the accolades they have rightly earned over the years at the eighth
Macmillan Literary Night held on Thursday, November 18 at Agip Recital
Hall, MUSON Centre, Lagos.

Octogenarian,
Chinua Achebe; Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka; dramatist, Femi Osofisan;
poet, Niyi Osundare and deceased writers, Amos Tutuola and Cyprian
Ekwensi, amongst others, were lauded for their contributions to
Nigerian literature.

The event themed
‘Penning Our March to the Golden Year: A Celebration of Nigerian
Literature in the Last 50 Years’, was attended by many lovers of the
written word. The task of introducing some of them, especially the
chair, Tunde Babawale, Director General, Centre for Black and African
Arts and Civilisation, and the special guest of honour, Babatunde Raji
Fashola, the Governor of Lagos State, fell on Nigeria’s first female
permanent secretary, Francesca Emmanuel.

The vice chair of
Macmillan’s literary committee, who executed the task with a touch of
class, apologised for the late commencement of the programme. She
capped her excellent presentation by reading an excerpt from Peter
Enahoro’s ‘How to be a Nigerian’.

Worthy ambassadors

Her husband and
chair, Macmillan Nigeria Publishers, Bode Emmanuel, welcomed guests
thereafter. He noted that the night provided an opportunity to boost
creativity, writing and reading. He said Nigerian literature is
representative of a country on the move as “it constantly draws from
the country’s realities in the best tradition of protest art.” Emanuel
added that it was inevitable that writers would speak out against the
excesses of the Nigerian society after a bloody civil war and ill
managed oil boom.

The publisher
described the emergence of first generation writers including Achebe,
Soyinka, Ekwensi, J.P. Clark and others as a “landmark” because they
succeeded in giving “African literature focus and direction, and
propagated African values to the outside world.” He noted that rather
than abating, issues that first generation writers condemned in their
works multiplied, thus leading to the taking up the gauntlet by second
generation writers. Labo Yari, Femi Osofisan, Abubakar Gimba, Festus
Iyayi and Odia Ofeimun, Emanuel said, have at various times condemned
corruption and other ills in the society. He added that contemporary
writers including Ben Okri and Helon Habila have toed the same path.

Emmanuel further
noted that apart from the Civil War being the cause of poet Christopher
Okigbo’s death and the imprisonment of Soyinka, it has been a major
issue to Nigerian writers, providing a creative outlet for many of
them. Elechi Amadi’s ‘Sunset in Biafra’; Soyinka’s ‘The Man Died’;
Chukwuemeka Ike’s ‘Sunset at Dawn’; Ken Saro-Wiwa’s ‘Soza Boy’ and
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, he noted, are
examples of the country’s rich civil war literature.

The publisher
however expressed happiness that in spite of ills afflicting Nigeria
and its literature, the writers have achieved a lot on the
international scene. He mentioned the translations Achebe’s ‘Things
Fall Apart’ has undergone and Soyinka’s Nobel Prize for Literature as
examples. He further praised writers for succeeding in exporting our
culture to other parts of the world. “Nigeria stands tall in
international politics because of the arts and writers… Nigeria
stands redeemed through the works of writers,” he said. Emanuel also
restated Macmillan’s dedication to quality publishing.

Laudable project

Emcee, poet and
polemicist, Odia Ofeimun, keyed in to Emmanuel’s last statement by
noting that the company did something he had always wanted this year:
releasing four new books. ‘A Childhood Journey’ by Mary Oto Lijadu;
J.C. Agunwamba’s ‘The Poacher’s Daughter’; ‘Too Close to the Rocks’ by
Jide Oguntoye and Onyechi Mbamali’s ‘Your Man Abednego’.

Fashola, who was
represented by Babajide Sanwo-0lu, the Commissioner for Establishment
and Training, commiserated with Macmillan on the demise of educationist
Aliu Babatunde Fafunwa, vice chair, board of the company. He disclosed
that he was impressed by the company’s effort to sustain and project
Nigerian literature through the literary night initiated. “This is a
laudable effort to promote reading,” he noted. The Governor reiterated
the importance of education to development and urged people to buy and
read at least a book a month.

Presentations

Rather than have
the chair’s remarks, Ofeimun tweaked the schedule to take the
presentations, which involved four major Nollywood artists reading
excerpts from some works. Norbert Young, Ihria Enakimio, Tina Mba and
Ireti Doyle all read while the Crown Troupe of Africa performed. The
group’s opening glee was a refreshing piece different from their usual
offering. It earned them generous applause from the audience. Their
second and last presentation, a dance drama titled ‘Our Story’ and Wole
Soyinka’s ‘I Love This Lagos’ were also appreciated.

The quartet of
Young, Enakimio, Mba and Doyle, also did a commendable job, adopting
the mannerisms of their characters. Young perfectly adopted the accent
of a Yoruba man while reading Amos Tutuola’s ‘The Palmwine Drinkard’
while Enakimio did same with Frank Aig-Imoukhuede’s pidgin poem, ‘One
Man, One Wife’. The two ladies were not exempted in convincingly
portraying their characters. Folk group, Nefertiti, accompanied the
artists on some excerpts. The quartet did Ken Saro-Wiwa’s lengthy,
risqué and irreverent pidgin poem, ‘Dis Nigeria Sef’ together to end
the session.

Critical tool

It was only then
that Babawale gave his speech. The CBAAC boss said he was honoured to
have been asked to chair the event and described it as a “night of
fulfilment, education and sober reflection on the state of our
country.” He commended Macmillan for doing a great job over the years
and reiterated the place of the arts in the society. Babawale said one
of the greatest mistakes Nigeria has made in the last two decades is
giving preference to science and technology to the detriment of the
arts. “Literature provides a critical tool with which you can analyse
the society and you need a critical mind to develop. Government must be
told in clear terms that we must do everything to support Literature,”
he said while pledging CBAAC’s continuous support to Macmillan.

Babawale, who pulled no punches despite being in the employ of
government, also condemned the country’s decaying infrastructure.
“Ladies and gentlemen, must this continue? No. Go home and start
reading.”

Prior to the
Soundcity Music Video Awards of November 20, its organisers generated a
lot of hype about the calibre of the event they were planning to
unfold. The major gist was how different this show was going to be from
prior SMVAs and also from other award shows in the country. “We are
aiming for international standards,” CEO of Consolidated Media, owner
of the Soundcity brand, Tajudeen Adeputu was quoted as saying.

The show started
with the ubiquitous red carpet which the SMVAs had transformed to a
fashion show hosted by Spice TV, the lifestyle channel and sister brand
to Soundcity. The red carpet was opened only to holders of the VVIP
ticket sold at N100,000 and special guests. The dramatically and
beautifully lit runway which was hoisted at the poolside of the Eko
Hotel and Suites, Lagos, featured designs from top fashion houses
across Africa, especially Nigeria. There were exquisite designs from
Lanre Da Silva-Ajayi, Tiffany Amber and Dax Martin from South Africa,
amongst others.

The award show proper which was held at the Expo Hall of the same hotel started at about 11pm.

Uti the host

The event started
with a performance from P-Square, backed by a high-octane dance routine
from dancer, Kaffy. The announcer soon introduced the host and Big
Brother All-Stars winner, Uti Nwachukwu. Heralded by bikini clad
females and himself in glittering metallic overalls, Uti’s entrance
aimed for the dramatic but only marginally achieved it. (To balance the
bikini-clad females, at another point during the show, bikini-clad
males accompanied Adaora, host of MTN Project Fame on stage to present
an award.) There had been some sceptics on the choice of Uti as host.
However, with the sarcastic wit he displayed on Big Brother, his
supporters felt he was worthy. At the end of the day, both sides of the
debate came out justified. He had his high and low moments but there
was nothing of the spectacular, either good or bad.

Unlike last year’s
show where the sound quality was held in question, this year it was
loud and clear. For those on the balcony who were not able to feel the
raw excitement from the well-lit stage (the downside of VIP area),
there were small screens in strategic corners there and also huge ones
on the walls of the hall that transmitted high definition images. The
camera and video-editing crew did a pretty good hands-on job as there
was no way one could have missed what was happening on stage or the
power of it.

There were however
awkward moments brought on by the absence of quite a number of award
recipients. Presenters were often left standing aimlessly on the stage
after announcing a winner’s name without any clue of what to do with
the award. When this happened to Fred Amata who had to present the
award for Viewers Choice won by Buffalo Souljah for ‘Ezandlha Phezulu’,
he called on Zaaki “the man from Benue to collect the award for the man
from Zimbabwe”. This inspired move was accepted gamely by Zaaki and
brought on amused chuckles from the audience.

The performances

Still going for big
and over the top, the SMVAs had contracted almost all the big names in
Nigerian entertainment and one or two from Ghana and South Africa to
give life performances. Even so, each staged performance depended
entirely on the artists as there were little or no stage effects
provided by the organisers. The best performances came from Sasha P,
Asa and Whiz Kid who displayed some mean dance skills. D’Banj and the
Mo’Hits crew were literal crowd pullers as they (especially after
D’Banj and Don Jazzy appeared) managed to get people off their seats
and to the bottom of the stage where they roared out their love for the
Koko Master. The show all but ended there as most people left the hall
in D’Banj’s wake, leaving very few to witness Timaya, the last
performer, give his usual energetic routine.

From the lights,
cameras and stage and hall models, one thing was evident about the
SMVAs 2010: a lot of money, effort and attention to detail were put in
to this particular event, even starting way back from the runway on the
red carpet. But as Julius Agwu who was an award presenter noted, it was
sadly a solo project from Consolidated Media with no input from
external sponsors.

Although, the SMVAs is still far from what is seen at international
awards, especially at the “average” televised American award show, its
ambitions were clear. At this stage, it is only fair to say that if
Soundcity continues to set such high standards for themselves, they
will one day surpass even these so-called international standards.

Chinua Achebe is on
my mind. I must congratulate the brave warrior for scaling his 80th
year on this rugged earth. This card-carrying member of his ardent cult
of followers wishes him many more years of happiness, peace and
prosperity.

My father,
Papalolo, and I would not be where we are today without Achebe’s
fearless and nurturing leadership. More on that later, but there was a
time when people actually read books in Nigeria. Today, Nigeria is a
nation of mostly uncritical people reading, swearing and living by
“holy” books that were crafted by scheming, feuding brothers in ancient
times, siblings who could not stand the notion of living together in
peace.

Today in Nigeria,
the bible has become a weapon of mass destruction. Not only is it
destroying the lives and aspirations of the truly dispossessed, it is
destroying Nigerian culture, our ways of life as it should be. And
those that call themselves “pastors” are at the heart of this rampage,
presiding over this hell on earth that serves to create brick by brick
their own commercial heaven. I am not a Christian, but I sincerely hope
that there really is a mean unforgiving God and a hot hell and that all
our thieving pastors have seats reserved for them on the high table of
hell.

My favourite book
of all times is Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’. It is easily my security
blanket. Whenever I am stressed, I go to it like my bible and read a
passage; it never fails to console me. Until Facebook came along and my
parents Papalolo and Mamalolo befriended me, exile was hell and there
was a passage in ‘Things Fall Apart’ where Okonkwo was being consoled
in the wintry depths of his exile by his maternal uncle. That passage
is my favourite; I used to go to it many times a year until Facebook
came along. My father Papalolo is also an Achebe groupie. My dad did
not have a formal secondary school education, but a scrappy soul, he
educated himself. He got disillusioned about the experiment called
Nigeria very early in his life and the dark humour in his reading
choices reflected his disenchantment. A dashing warrior who spent a
career prepared to die for Nigeria, he now relies on the generosity of
his children to make it to the next day. The country that he fought
for, the leaders that he fought for, have long forgotten about him and
fellow retirees. Our leaders fight over loot, national resources, that
if shared equally among all of us, would make each Nigerian as rich as
Saudi Arabian oil sheikhs. There is no God.

My father loved
books and newspapers. He loved detective stories and so he subscribed
to magazines like ‘True Detective’. He was also a romantic and he made
sure to subscribe to romance magazines. I was addicted to pictorial
magazines like ‘Sadness and Joy’, ‘Boom’ and the antics of the
detective Lance Spearman and “bad man” Rabon Zollo.

I remember once
breaking down in tears when, as punishment, my dad would not buy me the
latest copy of ‘Boom’. The magazine featured a good looking warrior and
his elephant who always managed to vanquish his enemies. Some of the
enemies were man-eating plants! My father loved Agatha Christie’s
stories. I also distinctly remember the Inspector West series by John
Creasey. Inspector Roger West was a dashing young Scotland Yard
detective and several volumes of his exploits were housed in my
father’s cupboard. My father had a cupboard of books and as a young boy
I thought it was a thing of magic; no matter how many times I visited
that cupboard there was always a book I had never read. I travelled to
many worlds on the wings of my father’s cupboard – India, England,
America and faraway places that housed little impish boys that loved to
dream.

Achebe’s books spoke to my father because Achebe was of his
generation and he could identify with the issues that the books
wrestled with. My dad would always tell me that the books ‘A Man of the
People’ and ‘No Longer at Ease’ were fabrics torn from Nigeria. They
featured the uncritical acceptance of Western culture, what my Facebook
friend, Binyavanga Wainana the brilliant writer of Kenyan extraction,
once contemptuously called mimicry on his Facebook status. In the
books, Nigerian intellectuals, newly arrived from England would acquire
cars, fake accents and at dinner parties the favourite greeting was:
“How is the car behaving?” My dad loved that phrase. On certain days,
with a glass of Star lager beer in his hand, the keys of his motorcycle
twirling around his finger, and that twinkle in his impish eyes, he
would ask the mirror in our parlour: “How is the car behaving?” and we
would both break into long peals of laughter. Here is to you, Professor
Achebe for bonding my father and me with the glue of your powerful
words. You sir, are a man of the people.

The corridors of
Olivier Hall of The National Theatre, South Bank, London was crowded on
the evening of November 16, when I arrived just minutes short of the
start of the musical, Fela!. It was the opening night of the critically
acclaimed Broadway production, which had already bagged three Tony
awards and was much talked about in international thespian circles.

It is not often
that an African personality is celebrated and chosen as a subject for
western theatre; therefore the excitement was palpable as this evening
marked its next step: a debut in London’s Theatreland – and the British
media were out in their numbers to appraise this curious collaboration
of American stagecraft and African music.

Songs by Fela
played softly from hidden speakers around the busy corridors of the
hall, seducing us to a state of ecstatic anticipation. The songs
interrupted frequently by recorded voice simulations of Fela urging
that the motley audience take their seats as the show was set to begin.
We finally made our way from the small talk, the bars and the sales
stalls offering Fela merchandise and trickled to our seats.

The Olivier had
transmuted into a world of colours, symbols and images. Grabbing
attention high up on the right wing of the hall was a giant portrait of
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Fela’s mother. The stall terraces were draped
with flags of various African countries. The stage background was a
blown up image of Kalakuta Republic, while the foreground paid homage
to many traditional deities: Oshun, Shango, Esu, Ogun and Yemoja.

Projected pages of
newpapers proclaimed news like ‘Fela Raided in Ghana’, ‘Let’s legalise
polygamy – Fela’; and the many scrolling, flashing and shifting stage
accoutrements that were scattered above the stage ensured that one did
not quite know where to look. The stage set was a tribute to excess –
oddly fitting in depicting the life of a musical legend who was known
to have been ruled by extreme passions.

Preceded by his
beautifully decorated dancers, who taxed their waists and derrieres in
seductive dances that left many in the crowd gasping at the audacity of
their ample behinds, Sahr Ngaujah swaggered onstage and promptly took
the thousand-strong audience down a headlong dive into the life of
Abami Eda from the first strains of ‘Upside Down’.

Unknown Soldier

We watch with
wistful appreciation his devotion to his mother, whom he praises as
“the first (Nigerian) woman to drive a car… the first to visit China…
The Teacher” and we mourn along with him in pin-drop silence after her
death at the hands of ‘Unknown Soldier’. We accompany him when, evoking
the spirit of his mother, he summons an Egungun who leads him by the
hand to seek her in the world of the spirits. And along with him feel
the reprimand of her pronouncement when he begs to abandon the
homeland: “I refuse to give my permission for you to use what happened
to me as an excuse to run away.”

We are acquainted
uncomfortably – considering the British audience – with his long-held
scorn for those he calls Nigeria’s “tea drinking guests, the ones who
take our petroleum and people and leave us with gonorrhoea and Jesus.”
And together we are pallbearers who carry gifts of ‘Coffin for Head of
State’.

When the musical
seems to double back on itself, we accompany Fela on his musical
education to grey, cold London and sympathise when he wallows in what
might be termed a quarter life crisis. We all discover his identity in
Black emancipated Los Angeles, learning at the feet of Sandra who is as
much a political influence on him as Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver
whose texts she plies him with. And we share his triumph when he
declares, “Music is about change and I’m going to change the world.”

Complemented by a
12-piece band – with London-based Afrobeat musician, Dele Dosimi, on
the keyboard – and two lead singers who played the two major influences
in Fela’s life Melanie Marshall (Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti) with her
steely soprano, and Paulette Ivory (Sandra Isadore) crooning in sultry
alto, Ngaujah sweated his way through several saxophone build-ups,
while exuding the megalomania and larger than life charisma of Fela. He
played the audience expertly, we laughed when he wanted and danced when
he ordered. He took us from raucous participation in the notorious
pelvic thrusting clock dance to sad contemplation of the still-bitter
state of affairs in the nation he tried so hard to change.

Shuffering and Shmilling

‘Water No Get
Enemy’, ‘Coffin for Head of State’, ‘Expensive Shit’, ‘Upside Down’,
‘Shuffering and Shmiling’, ‘Sorrow Tears and Blood’, ‘Zombie’, ‘Yellow
Fever’, led us down route after intriguing route in the life of the
much missed icon. Finally, Ngaujah asked, “Who here has ever been to
jail?” and surprisingly several hands shot up in the audience.

Two of the more
insistent hands came from the first and fifth rows, and moments later,
stage lighting revealed them to be no other than Fela’s sons, Seun and
Femi Kuti. Seated discreetly among the crowd with his older sister,
Yeni, Femi had undoubtedly tried to evade recognition until the
nostalgia of the recreated shrine ambience prompted him to abandon
anonymity. Seun on the other hand had hardly been able to restrain
himself from joining Ngaujah and the dancers onstage. His head bobbed,
shoulders shook, and feet tapped in evident enjoyment of the music and
the bird’s eye view of the spectacular dancers gyrating before him in
an alternation of perfect choreography and reckless abandon.

Employing a
colourful array of costumes, expressions, dances, ideas, Fela! was
spectacular in its drama. Bearing in mind its international audience,
however, many of the songs were performed in English rather than the
Pidgin English. The musical also played, as it were with the facts:
Fela was no known Abiku, who had eschewed his mortality in anger at
being given a foreign name. Yeni, was quick to defend these add-ons
when NEXT caught up with her after the show, “It’s a musical, they
can’t get all the facts right. You will not find me criticising it
because it has ensured that almost 14 years after his death, Fela’s
legacy continues to live internationally.”

After curtain call

The performance
seemed to be packed too tight on a body too thin, getting lost in the
hazy area between drama and musical. Nigerians may not have seen all of
the Fela they know, but the parts of Fela seen fit to be depicted was
played out in almost an overdose. “The story is flimsy and confused,
there’s a lack of narrative drive,” complained Henry Hitchings of The
London Evening Standard, and one could not agree more. One might
therefore disagree with Femi Kuti’s remark that “This show is for the
international audience. It gives the average foreigner knowledge of
Fela and what he stood for. We Nigerians are too critical; we want the
Nigerian accent and fail to understand the intention of the producers.”

Seun Kuti who was
seeing the musical for the seventh time, said he found it enjoyable
though less heightened than the Broadway shows. “Not in the message,”
he hastened to add, “but in the drama.”

Watching Ngaujah
alternate between abrasive confidence, soul and affected contempt for
his “political enemies” was a thrill only slightly marred by his
mispronunciation of Yoruba expressions. And one could not help but
wonder, as he appeared in one elaborately embroidered Fela trademarked
costume after the other, whether this job of playing Fela could not be
better delivered by D’banj, whose new Mr Endowed mantra seems another
of his similarities with the illustrious “one who carries death in his
pouch”.

Enquiring from Femi
if when Fela! debuts in Nigeria as hoped, D’banj would be playing Fela,
met with a bright eyed knowledge but a refusal to comment, and one can
only wonder whether the Koko Master is not as we speak taking a crash
course in playing the brass.

Fela! at London’s National Theatre is an exhilarating testament to
the achievement of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti while being at the same time
exaggerated yet sketchy; toned down, as it were, to appeal to British
sensibilities. One therefore hopes that when the musical visits
Nigeria, the Abami Eda will be unleashed on his people in all his
overwhelming glory.

For the second year
running, works by Nigerian and Cameroonian artists were on display at
The Last Pictures Show, organised by Catherine Pittet’s company,
Gondwana.

The five-day
exhibition kicked off on October 29 with a cocktail at Terra Kulture,
venue of the show. This was the seventh edition of the yearly event,
which had run its first five exhibitions solely in Cameroon.

Present at the opener were artists Ndidi Dike, Alex Nwokolo, Jean-Marie Ahonda and Terra Kulture’s Bolanle Austen-Peters.

The exhibition
opened to the public a day after. On display were works of various
media from 55 artists including Nigeria’s Richmond Ogolo, Duke Asidere,
Babalola Lawson, Fidelis Odogwu, George Edozie, Kehinde Balogun and
Cameroonian artists Elolongue Weti, Bekoun Calaudee François, Louis
Epee, He Zoul, Guillaume Makani, Francis Budin, and Maurice Tchinda
Tchim.

The works shown

For lovers of art, it was a mixed grill of the abstract and the realist, ranging across various media.

These included
works in acrylic on canvas by Bob-Nosa Uwagboe and Aser Kash, metal
sculptures by Fidelis Odogwu and Agose Patrick Ighogbedhere.

Blaise Bang, Joe
Kessy and Cheupine Njoya all had mixed media pieces; and there was
photographic art from Pierre-Alain Bignalet, which captured city life
in Cameroon. Mostly untitled, one of these featured stevedores on a
boat and two women dressed in traditional attire. Rural life appeared
to be the thrust of Mathieu Mbainaissem’s works: cows grazing, corn
fields, and village men and women in trade.

Amongst other
interesting pieces was Nwokolo’s ‘Congestion.’ The piece done in oil on
canvas depicts the overcrowded state of a Lagos province. ‘Manhood,’
also by the same artist features, four young men apparently in the
nude.

Weti from Cameroon
made use of bottle tops to create captivating images; one titled ‘Le
Monde’ (The World) and another piece, ‘Unity in Diversity.’

Jean-Marie Ahanda’s
dual-purpose mixed media sculptures were also a sight to behold. Turned
right-side up, upside down, front or back, the pieces depict a mother
with a child tied to her back and a calabash on her head; or a young
maiden with a long, slender neck. Marbles and sea shells were other
components of the works. The artist also had a series of abstract
paintings on display, but the sculptures stood out.

At the heart of
Emmanuel Ekong Ekefrey’s art was both modern and traditional African
existence. One of his works, ‘Molue Bus’, portrays the Lagos city bus
in its usual overloaded state. Bodies dangle from the windows and faces
peep out through the fender. In the midst of the chaos, one passenger
can be seen brandishing the Benin traditional sword. Birds and giraffes
were the focus of Sabastiene Berenyny’s animal-themed paintings.

Catherine Pittet

According to the
organiser Pittet, her outfit and the featured artists were satisfied
with this edition of the exhibition, which closed on November 2.

“We are very happy
because at Terra Kulture, we had the opportunity to display most of the
works and I think everybody was very happy. It was better than my first
time in Nigeria. This is my second time presenting the works in Nigeria
and we had a better (place) to show the works,” she said.

In her words, the
sales and appreciation for Cameroonian artists was also better than the
first time, when the show took place at The Civic Centre in October
2009.

“Many people bought
(the artworks this time round). Cameroonian artists are happier this
year because last year people did not know them. (At the initial
edition) Nigerian artists were very happy in Cameroun but it was not
the same for the Camerounians in Lagos. But they are better known now
and (sales) were better.”

Consequent editions
of the show will take place for the first time in Cote d’Ivoire in
February 2011 and in Paris (for a second time) in October 2011. While
looking forward to taking it to other countries in the future, Pittet
maintains that the exhibition will keep its home in Lagos. “I think we
are coming back here because Terra Kulture has a gallery and I like to
stay where I feel good.”

Pittet feels good
enough to be grateful that support for the exhibition has grown in
Nigeria, but she hopes for a bit more. “We have small support and I
wish next year we will have more. (I hope that) people like Coca Cola,
Samsung and the telephone companies will support the exhibition.”

She believes arts
across the West Coast will receive a huge boost if funds are available
to allow more artists feature at the exhibition. Pittet is however
positive that lack of support will not dampen her spirit. “This is my
life. I am a designer. It is part of my life.”

With no preference
for any particular artist, she says her exhibitions are open to all;
either those who approach her or those she approaches. In her words,
“It’s a big family. We are all friends.”

‘The Last Pictures Show’ opened in Cameroon on November 26 and runs till December 1.

The Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has advised filmmakers not to see pirates as enemies but as “our brothers and sisters.” Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Association of Movie Producers (AMP) Eko International Film Festival held at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, on Monday,

Fashola told the filmmakers that pirates do not dislike them.”Let us understand that, they do not dislike you. It’s not that they have a personal quarrel with you but there is an economic opportunity there and that is the best way they have responded to it,” he said.Though he acknowledged that piracy is a problem which undermines the efforts and returns of movie producers, the governor urged them not to despair.

He said the solution to the problem lies with both filmmakers and the government who have to find ways of constructively engaging the pirates so they can desist from the act.”It is for us as leaders to show that there is a better way, a way in which we take them along. And as I said when I first met with you, they would become your distributors, marketers and agents and everybody will have a win-win situation.”It will require advocacy, it will require even better communication from us, not only from you. How many movies have we made about the ills of piracy? Have we made many to educate people? It’s one thing to go and shut down the place [Alaba] today but if people don’t understand why they must change, we fight a very difficult battle.” The governor added that his administration will help the filmmakers fight piracy by employing science and technology to protect their works. He disclosed that his government has requested some consultants from Harvard University to look into the matter.

Responding to the filmmaker’s request that he set up a revolving fund for them, Mr Fashola said government can’t set up special interventions for every sector because it won’t have money to provide basic amenities for the people.He advised the filmmakers to package their productions better to attract sponsorship from banks. “We have to wear our creative cap to make this business finance-friendly, government alone can’t do it”.Mr

Fashola, who described the filmmakers as instrumental in national life, also charged them to “put the best image of this country forward in your works.” The week-long festival featuring film screenings, discussions and workshops ends on Friday.

After a 14-year exhibition hiatus, the duo of Gbenga Ajiboye and
Ayoola Mudashiru are set to re-ignite the Nigerian art space with new works,
using mainly oil and acrylic on canvas and paper. A wide range of
experimentation with watercolour, sawdust, and linear painting will be on
display in 60 works of art that will be on show at the week-long exhibition,
which opens at Wangbojes Art Gallery in Lagos, next weekend.

Ajiboye and Mudashiru, graduates of the Department of Fine Art
in the old University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) where they
majored in Painting, last held a joint exhibition in 1996.

Genesis

Following their graduation in 1992 and 1993 respectively, the
two discovered that they had an artistic connection, and their 1996 exhibition
at the National Museum, Lagos, was titled ‘Genesis’. They have maintained their
individual levels of art production over the years, but the success of the
Genesis exhibition has remained a high point. And so, after requests for more
from visitors to that earlier exhibition, the artists decided to do a
long-awaited follow-up with ‘Resurgence’.

Works to be exhibited include paintings inspired by different
cultural influences. Ajiboye’s new works incorporate signs and symbols of the
Yoruba culture from centuries ago. His pieces like ‘Mother’s Love’, ‘Not Our
Will’, and ‘Family Portrait’ take their cue from what he calls ‘Cave Paintings’
from the Yoruba stone age.

Mudashiru, who has been resident in Abuja, describes himself as
an artist who is highly attracted to the “linear way of painting”. His works in
‘Resurgence’ are inspired by motifs used in the Hausa/Fulani styled hats or
caps. The ‘Hula (cap in Hausa) motifs’ inform his various mediums and
expressions in the coming exhibition.

With careers in the civil service for Mudashiru and a stint in
advertising for Ajiboye, the artists acknowledge that the combination of their
day-jobs with art has not been a fulfilling experience. After a thorough
evaluation and self-discovery, they have decided to stage a sustainable
comeback in the art world.

“There are a lot of paintings in me that are crying out for
expression and, listening to this inner voice, I started dolling them out and
now I have a collector’s item,” Ajiboye said of his exit from the advertising
world. “We now plan to be holding this exhibition annually henceforth,” he
confirmed.

Ajiboye and Mudashiru’s works are, to a large extent, inspired
by music; they are great lovers of jazz. “Whenever I listen to jazz, it takes
me to another world entirely and when I am back, I flow with diverse ideas for
my expressions,” said Ajiboye.

While Mudashiru also favours jazz, he admits that some of his
works are inspired by everyday music, such “a painting based on MI’s recent
line in one of his rap songs: ‘I’m a chicken, not a rooster…'”

Challenges

Among difficulties encountered in planning ‘Resurgence’ is the
unsuccessful bid to hold the exhibition where it all began for them as joint
collaborators: the National Museum where ‘Genesis’ held 14 years ago.

To Ajiboye’s dismay, “We were told by officials [that] the
Museum is now to be used for ‘their own thing’ of preserving the nation’s
relics; yet, they have a gallery that now looks like a graveyard.”

“I wonder how they want to attract the crowd to the museum if
the gallery cannot be opened to exhibitors who will be lured to other departments
of the museum after a viewing pleasure.”

The duo agree on what they consider to be the bane of the
Nigerian art community. As Ajiboye observed, “We don’t build young collectors
and new collectors, such as someone who has just gotten a job and needs to
decorate a new home.”

“No matter how expensive a piece of furniture is, it can only be
complemented with an art work on the wall or elsewhere in the room, which will
bring out the true value of the furniture. Therefore, people should imbibe the
habit of purchasing art works, which will always appreciate in value as times
goes on, whereas the expensive furniture depreciates,” Ajiboye said.

The two artists also argued that a curriculum should be
introduced in schools for people to appreciate art, as is done overseas. This,
they believe, will help to develop people who know “the art behind the art”, so
that professional critics will come to the fore.

“It is unfortunate that artists are also the critics in this
part of the world. We need to have professional critics who, with few words,
can add an eternal value to a piece of art,” opined Mudashiru.

“The essence of art needs to be resurged in our country, to
enhance our thinking mentality, as artworks are interactive and engaging with
people continually. This is what we aim to achieve with our exhibition,” he
added.

The exhibition’s opening event will be chaired by Idowu
Falekulo, CEO, Addlo Properties Nigeria Limited; with Babasehinde Ademuleya;
Senior Lecturer, Department of Fine Art, OAU, as special guest of honour.
Speaker at the occasion will be ‘Araism’ artist, Mufu Onifade.

Resurgence opens at 3pm on
Saturday, November 27, at Wangbojes Art Gallery, Foreshore Towers, 2a Osborne
Road, Ikoyi, Lagos. It is open to the public until December 3.