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Radio station
Smooth FM is set to regale music Nigerian lovers in its upcoming Jazz
festival, holding in Lagos on November 12. Tagged ‘Love Music, Love
Life’, the festival will showcase an impressive line-up of Nigerian and
international musicians.

African American
soul singer and songwriter Angie Stone of ‘Mahogany Soul’ fame and Jazz
Saxophonist Gerald Albright will be performing alongside Nigerian
musicians Bez, Tiwa Savage, Pure and Simple, and others.

A major highlight
of the festival is the inclusion of Richard Bona, who will be jamming
on the same stage with Jazz guitarist, Mike Stern. Born Bona Pinder
Yayumayalolo, Richard Bona has performed alongside the likes of Manu
Dibango, Salif Keita, Jacques Higelin and Didier Lockwood.

A rising star of
the international music circuit with appearances on many continents,
Bona was born in 1967 in Cameroun into a family of griots and singers.
He lived in Germany and France before settling in New York; and met
Mike Stern when he relocated to the United States and did some musical
stints with him.

The Camerounian has four albums under his belt and has collaborated
with Harry Belafonte and John Legend. The Smooth FM Festival will hold
at the Expo Hall of the Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos on November
12.

Children from
various schools in Lagos State came together to flex their muscles in
dance and to learn a thing or two about culture at the third edition of
the annual Nigerian Schools Cultural Festival (NISCUFEST).

The event,
organised by Onileagbon Theatre, took place at the the Grace Schools,
Lagos, on October 21. In attendance were seven schools that put their
cultural creativity to the test. These were: El-Bethel Nursery and
Primary School, Ifako-Gbagada; Christ Redeemer Nursery and Primary
School, Oworosoki; El-Shaddai Nursery and Primary School; Ibafo, Ogun
State; Lady Bird Nursery and Primary School; Labeo Nursery and Primary
School, Ifako-Gbagada; and Primrose Nursery and Primayry School,
Anthony.

Two secondary schools – Irvington College, Gbagada and Sunnyside College, Palmgrove Estate – also participated.

Preambles

After the
introduction of the guests and other preliminaries, NISCUFEST 2010 was
set rolling. This year’s edition was organised to mark Nigeria’s 50th
anniversary.

The event is an
avenue for schools to bring their students, who will be decked out in
cultural outfits, to stage 10-minute performances, either in Dance,
Dance Drama, or Mime, using live musical instruments or recordings of
traditional songs from Nigeria or other African countries.

Anchors for the
event were Calibird, a comedian; and Chijioke Ndukwe, who advised the
children that though being formally educated and speaking the English
language was good, young persons who neglect their local languages are
regarded as being uneducated.

A case for culture

Cultural activist,
Segun Adefila, gave the keynote address, titled ‘Creativity, Education
and Hope of Our Nation’. He summarised education as the acquisition of
knowledge.

He raised a
fundamental question when he said, “When you go to school, you learn
how to speak and write in English. That will make our forefathers
illiterates. But since education helps one to create, and our
forefathers had already created things like mortars, pestles and
grinding stones, then they were educated, though they could not read or
write English.”

Adefila said he
grew up wanting to be anything but Nigerian or Yoruba, until he met a
Japanese professor of Dance who visited Nigeria and the first thing he
said when addressing Nigerian dancers was, “English not good.”

He cited the
examples of Mozart, who was a child genius, and Isaac Newton, who made
discoveries without the kind of technology known to the world today.

“Why do we remain a
consuming nation instead of a producing nation? There is no space for
making anything in this country, yet we have people trained in so many
things. We would never grow up if we are not creative,” the dancer and
actor noted.

He reminded
students that they were the hope of Nigeria and if they were not
properly educated, then they would have failed the country.

“Creativity is the hope of our nation and the hope is you,” he concluded.

Staff, students,
and other invited guests at the event were entertained by Footprints of
David Art Academy, who were not part of the competition. They wowed the
crowd with their Zulu war dance, which involved a lot of high kicks and
screeching, jumping, and shouting.

Aduke and the SSV
then played a soulful tune, which had the trappings of Phil Collins’
‘Another Day In Paradise’ and whose underlying theme is ‘showing love.’

It’s a Dance Affair

The Ladybird
students were the first competitors for the primary school category,
and they performed the famous Atilogwu dance from the eastern part of
Nigeria.

Next was Christ the
Redeemer Primary School, which performed the Bata dance of the Yoruba.
Then it was back to Atilogwu with Labio Primary School, before Primrose
took a different turn and combined Dance and Drama in their own
presentation.

Irvington College,
Gbagada, did a choreography routine to Grammy award winner Shakira’s
2010 World Cup anthem, ‘Waka Waka’, combining African and contemporary
dance steps.

Sunnyside College, Palmgrove Estate, with an all-girl team, grooved to Kefee’s ‘Kokoroko’ and Brenda Fassie.

Lady Bird Primary
School were the overall winners for the Primary School category, while
El-Bethel Primary School, Ifako-Gbagada, emerged first runner-up.

Christ Redeemer
Primary School, Oworonsoki, were second runner-up, while El-Shaddai
Primary School, Ibafo, Ogun State, were 3rd runner-up.

In the Secondary
School category, Irvington College, Gbagada, emerged the overall
winners, while Sunnyside College, Palmgroove Estate, came in second.

The organiser and
brain behind the cultural project, Femi Onileagbon, said that the idea
is to give children the opportunity to exhibit their talents and also
to promote culture.

NICUFEST, which started in 2008, is used by Onileagbon Theatre, an
arm of Onileagbon Sight and Sound, to promote culture as a tool for
development.

Mali’s ancient city
of Timbuktu is steeped in fable, mystique and history; and has been a
fount of knowledge for hundreds of years. Head of the town’s World
Heritage Office, Ali Ould Sidi, recently took journalists on a tour of
the historical sites. He also shared with NEXT some fascinating facts
about Timbuktu.

The meaning of Timbuktu

It means the well
of Buktu. ‘Tin’ in Tourage means ‘well’. According to tradition, there
was a lady in charge of the well. Because we were in the dessert, this
lady Bouktu was providing water and hospitality to travelers and their
animals. Over time the small encampment grew. By the 16th century, the
town had a population of over 100,000 people.

According to our
history, there were several waves of migration of people here. There
were barbarians that were occupying these lands. Two years ago, I was
working with a professor from Harvard University who discovered a new
town that is older than Timbuktu, east of this place. It is 1000 years
older than Timbuktu. Archeological work is still going on there.

Sankore Mosque and University

To give you an idea
of the extent of knowledge here, let me mention that we had the first
University in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was called Sankore University. 25,
000 students from all over were in that university. It was established
in the 14th century. We had top knowledge at that University. We had
professors from everywhere and some of them, when they got here, they
changed their minds and instead of being professors, they became
students. Others went away to gather more knowledge before returning.

We have found a
manuscript dealing with Mathematics. That course was [taught] at this
university in the 15th century. We have translated it into French and
evaluated the level. The same programme is offered at the second level
of Universities in France. This shows the level of learning.

Most of the
manuscripts are in Arabic although there are some in our local
languages – in Bambara, Fulani [and] Songhai, using Arabic scripts.
This is not surprising because Timbuktu was born and funded by Islam
and the geographical location of Timbuktu. It became an international
centre; it was the link between Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa.
Through the trans- Saharan trade, you had manuscripts moving between
the people. The architecture was also influenced by this trade and you
will see buildings that show this. Timbuktu was important because it
was a learning centre that was based on Islamic sciences so the
learning was in Arabic. However, in addition the Islamic studies, we
also had other disciplines.

We need to let
people know that here, in this land of Africa, we had knowledge. That
is why some of our partners, South Africans mostly, choose to support
Timbuktu because of our roots. The roots are here in Timbuktu.

Some historians
believe Timbuktu and the rest of Africa does not have a past [or]
history, because our tradition is oral. But in addition to the oral
tradition we also had manuscripts. You will see them. They deal with
Mathematics, Grammar, Astronomy, Astrology… This shows how important
knowledge was in this part of Africa. This is not hearsay. You will see
the manuscripts. This is something tangible. These manuscripts are the
proof. Contained in these manuscripts are all sorts of knowledge.

The Manuscript Centre

The centre is named
after Ahmed Baba. He was one of our top scholars and was against the
occupation of Timbuktu by Morocco in 1591. He was an encyclopedia. He
was involved in several fields of study. He was a serious scholar. When
Morocco occupied Timbuktu, he was deported and taught in the university
in Morocco for 14 years. Before he was allowed to return, Ahmed Baba
had a dialogue with the King of Morocco but when the dialogue started,
there was a piece of cloth between the two men. And Ahmed Baba said to
the king: only God can speak to people without being seen. If you want
to speak to me as a human being, please have that piece of cloth
removed. It was removed and they had a conversation. The king said to
him: I hear you are very knowledgeable. How can a black man have this
kind of knowledge? Ahmed Baba replied: ‘Tout blanc n’ est pas du lait,
et tout noir n’est pas du charbon’ – meaning: all white is not milk and
all black is not charcoal.

He came back to Timbuktu where he continued to teach until his death.

The main job of the
centrer is to collect the manuscripts, catalogue, record and digitalise
them, make copies and also preserve them, but that is not all. The
second phase is to explain the manuscripts.

In Africa, we have
tangible proof of our history of our past: the written sources which
are our manuscripts and the oral source through the griots or through
architecture.

I remember once we
[hosted] the Director of African studies from Harvard. He was doing a
movie on African sources and he chose Timbuktu, to show the importance
of Sankore but also our manuscripts. Some historians and even
politicians like Nicholas Sarkozy will say: Africa does not have a
history. But this of course is not correct. I have books, if you want
to check, to see the answer African scholars gave to Sarkozy. The
oldest manuscript we have is dated 1204, the beginning of the 13th
century. So from that time we had scholars in Timbuktu, who have been
writing and reading.

The traditional
education had several steps. We had what was called the Economic
School. We had the university and everyone was also required to have
some sort of [craft], to be a tailor or a shoemaker. In the past if you
want to get married, the first question they would ask is: what is your
job? Not like modern jobs but handiwork, because they use to say: if
you have money, money may be lost; and if it is knowledge, even that
can be lost so the only thing that can follow you is your handiwork. By
your handiwork you can survive no matter what. So that is why handiwork
was important in Timbuktu.

We have people who
were working for ten and twenty years as scribes. We also had scribes
whose work was to write out manuscripts using paper that was from
China. We also used food.

The new centre is
thanks to the generosity of Thabo Mbeki and the South Africans. He came
to visit and decided to help. A trust was set up with the help of Mr
Mbeki and some South African business people. Malians are also being
trained in how to care for the manuscripts.

Content of Manuscripts

You have Islamic
Laws, History, Geography, Astrology, Astronomy. You have Human Rights.
We have manuscripts here dealing with the Rights of Women in Africa; it
is not a new start in Africa. We also have manuscripts dealing with
governance: how to govern and not get corrupted. Some of the scholars
here did not share the same views as the kings. Let me give you one
example. When the Moroccans occupied Timbuktu, they chose one of the
professors from another University here in Timbuktu, Sidi Yahaya
University. Mohammed Bagayogo was made the Kadi, the Chief Judge. But
he said his forefinger only stood witness to God and could not be the
witness to wrong things: “I am a true scholar, I cannot lie”. For
refusing to bear false witness, they put him in jail because he refused
to cooperate with the invaders.

We also have
manuscripts dealing with Traditional Medicine. Now we have people
talking about Sida, AIDS; we have manuscripts dealing with Sida. The
Prophet Mohamed talked about it. He said there will be a bad sexual
disease called Siba, which is the Arabic word for AIDS. In this
manuscript dealing with traditional medicine, the first section talks
about the climate and the environment and vegetation. The second part
deals with disease – the kind of diseases found in the area and how to
find solutions. The book dealing with Siba and other issues was written
in the 14th century. Another book dealing with Pharmacology (17th
century) called Shifa aul Aztav. If you want a source of knowledge, you
come here.

Endangered

The manuscripts
face threats from terminates and other small insects. Fire is also a
threat as is water. But the climate is a desert climate and so it is
not humid and helps with preserving the manuscripts in good condition.
Let me remind you of the nomadic way of preserving manuscripts. When an
encampment is moving, all the manuscripts are gathered and put in a bag
made from animal skin and then we dig a hole and put the bag inside the
hole and we cover it with sand. Then we leave, following our animals
for grass. Then when we come back, we dig the bag out. Sometimes it is
for three months, sometimes six. Most of the manuscripts here are
originals although there are a few copies too. Look at the type of ink
used. Some use black ink, for chapters and observations they use either
green or red ink. Sometimes for new chapters they use a good design.
And since people were wealthy in the past they also used gold. I
remember one such manuscripts was exchanged in Fez, Morocco.

Meaning of the Turban

When you come to
get a degree, once you pass your exam, in addition to the diploma, you
get a turban. The way the turban is tied determines its meaning. For
example, there is the letter A, L and H; the way the Turban is tried on
your head spells Allah, which means you are qualified to speak about
meaning of the Koran. The way it is wrapped will tell people what you
have majored in, Mathematics, Literature, Grammar and so on.

The turban also has
a social meaning. When the turban is going over your ears, it means:
’Please, now you are a teenager, do not listen to everything people are
saying’. A turban over your mouth means: ‘Please, do not say bad
things’. The ties over the head refer to your duties and
responsibilities in society, now that you are a teenager. Once you get
the turban, it also means you are allowed to lead prayers and be a
Chief in the society

The Great Mosque

The [Djingareyber]
Mosque was built in 1325 by Kanka Moussa. He brought in an Egyptian
architect , Abu Es Haq Es Saheli to do the work and paid him 200kg of
gold. Since 1325, the mosque has not changed. The first row is about
100 meters long and there are nine rows. The place is cool and one
could think it is air-conditioned, but it is not. The style adopted was
the Sudanese style with wide walls and heat does not get through this
kind of walls; that is why it is cool all day. All the restoration work
done try to maintain the same style. The floor is graduated as you can
see and during the rainy season the water flows down so there is a
natural drainage. Four new rows were added to the original mosque built
by Kanka Moussa. This extension was in the 15th century, so you can see
the different architectural styles if you look carefully. It is also
believed that this mosque was built on the ruins of another mosque.
Archaeologists came and did some digging, four metres down and found
evidence of that mosque. There were some transcriptions on the wall
that we still have not been able to decipher. Although the writing is
Arabic, we still have not been able to understand [it].

Peace Monument

It was here that
the Toureg rebellion ended on the 26 March, 1990. Over 2000 guns were
burned here in the presence of former president Omar Konare and former
Ghananian president, Jerry Rawlings. When they burned the guns, the ash
was used to build the peace monument. The handful of rebel groups who
refused to sign the peace agreement are represented by the stones.

New directions in
the art world were highlighted at the recently concluded residency
jointly organised by UK-based Triangle Network and the Lagos-based
Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA). The workshop held at Stone House,
Alakuko, along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Lagos from October 4 to
17.

Apart from the
opportunity of working in a serene environment, 15 participants were
able to discuss and share ideas among themselves and their
facilitators. Eight Nigerians artists – Peju Layiwola, Karo Akpokiere,
Stephen Ubaka, Ngozi Omeje, Victoria Udondian, Adeniyi Odeleye, Kelani
Abass, and Ghana-based Rasheed Olaniyi – took part in the workshop.
Others were Eva Jung from South Korea; Achille Komguem from Cameroun;
Mthabisi Philli from Zimbabwe, and Mexican, Pablo Rasgado. Senegalese,
Henry Sagna, and Ghanaian, Akwele Suma Glory, completed the list.

Norway-based
Zambian, Anawana Hobol and Romero Gongora, a Canadian of Guatemalan
descent, facilitated the workshop which also looked at the environment,
people’s interaction with it and effects of the interactions. There was
an open day on October 16 to showcase works produced during the
workshop. While some were solo, others were collaborations in line with
Triangle workshop’s goal of promoting exchange of ideas, innovations
and working together.

A minus suitcase

Works ranging from
installations that include sound and video to wall motifs, photographs
and performances were exhibited. New York resident, Jung, showed an
excerpt from ‘A Minus Suitcase’, a video project that experiments with
movement, storage and surplus. The artist videos herself and compresses
works of 19 artists into a suitcase she travels round the world with.

“It’s clear the
works will get damaged—a lot at first, and then more over time. From
city to city, repeating the inevitable process of packing and
unpacking, I dismantle, re-enact and reconstitute nineteen works,
blurring the role of artist and curator. Constantly reshaping and
transforming in new contexts, the journey becomes the form of art in
time, not the container of works,” Jung explained.

She added that the
works have been shown in Seoul, Dusseldorf, Montreal and New York. She
also collaborated with Rasgado for a project for which they read
alternate pages of Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’. Each wrote a
summary and sent it as an electronic mail to the other; these were then
presented to the public in Alakuko. Jung said, “The idea is to read the
book page by page, alternating the pages between each other and
depending on each other’s summary. I met Pablo in Lagos and we are
trying to understand the country through the book. Through this, we
want to make art that doesn’t end in one exhibition, but something that
continues with time. As an outsider how do you understand art through
literature? I don’t know what happens at the end.”

Transformations

Glory, a
multimedia artist, felt the workshop was different from others she had
attended. “In other workshops, it’s mostly a chat on technical things,
but this workshop is more in depth, you get to have a one-on-one
conversation with the facilitators.” The artist who chose performance
art as her medium during the training, disclosed that she was motivated
to do so by her interaction with Hobol and Gongora. “Because of my
experience with the facilitators, it has ignited a change for me, from
the old to the new, without me losing my true identity.”

She added that she
hopes to project Africa to the world and use art as a tool for
communication and development with her performance titled
‘Transformations’. She uses 54- year-old Kente material worn by her
mother on Ghana’s Independence Day in 1957, a wig, her silhouette and
newspaper cuttings in her performance. “This is not the end, it’s just
starting. I am going to continue this transformation in Ghana and
beyond. I will tell my story my way, I want to be recognised but
maintain my identity in the world.”

Beyond aesthetics

Located a few
blocks away from the Stone House is Rosgado’s monument, an obelisk made
from concrete blocks placed on a raised platform. “It’s like a living
monument, it serves beyond aesthetics,” he said. The Mexican who used
concrete blocks because he knew they would be put to other uses once
the exhibition ends, was also interested in the reaction of people
viewing the piece. “I am more interested in the way the people react; I
have been thinking about the space here in Nigeria and it’s different
from the one in Mexico. So, with this monument, I experiment on the
dynamics of space.” He disclosed that he noticed two days after making
the monument that the locals were coming to the spot to interact and
dry their clothes on the blocks.

Udondian
collaborated with Olaniyi to make a tent installation from nylon, pure
water satchets, dry palm fronds and old computer monitors. They
included a sound and video installation inside the tent for visitors to
sit and watch videos of their work in progress and listen to the sounds
of Lagos. Udondian disclosed that while some local residents offered to
help them collect pure water sachets that littered the environment,
others thought they were sanitary inspectors and began cleaning their
environment when they saw them.

Artist and
academic, Layiwola, who is a judge at this year’s ‘Life in My City’ art
competition holding in Enugu, commended the workshop. She said she
wanted to participate in a project that has affiliations with the
National Gallery of Art. The fact that Tony Okpe had been involved in
the Triangle workshop in the past, also encouraged her.

The Triangle Network was founded in 1982 as Triangle Arts Trust by
Robert Loder and Anthony Caro. It is a network of visual art
organisations and artists who organise artist led workshops that
encourage experimentation, exchange and innovativeness trough their
activities with emphasis on process and professional development of
local communities. The organisation had previously organised two
workshops in Kaduna and Jos that featured artists Tony Okpe and Jacob
Jari.

The second edition
of the Ogeyinka Merit Award for Excellence, tagged ‘A stitch in time’,
held on October 9, aboard the HMS President 1918, docked on River
Thames, London. The upscale event was organised to celebrate African
theatre, film, and music personalities within the UK.

According to the
host, Kayode Akintemi, the award was a way of “celebrating those in the
Diaspora who have made a mark.” Organiser of the event, theatre
director and costume designer, Yomi Oyekanmi, in his welcome address,
lamented the loss of African talents in the UK to unbecoming
occupations: “I am creating an avenue for networking. We have had
enough of losing talents to the security, care and nursing industries
here.”

Recounting the
humble origin of the self-funded award ceremony and its first edition,
which held last year in Stratford, London, Akintemi blamed the dearth
of adequate recognition for artistic and creative achievement on the
lack of support of the (British) Arts council.

The entertainment
began with music from musician and DJ, Errol Thompson, popularly known
as Soul to Soul, followed by traditional poetry recital and dance by
Lekan Oyeyemi, who in his entertaining act expressed pride in being
black (“I love the thickness of my skin,”); and quipped that there are
only few dissimilarities between the black and white cultures, (“when
the white man drinks tea, I drink hot pap”), he sang.

The awards kicked
off with the recognition of 2009 theatre award winner, Femi Elufowoju,
who articulated the significance of the honour to him, “I have been
working for a while and these recognitions are few and far between. To
receive from your own is the greatest possible esteem,” he said.

Co-host of the
event, Samyra Gellatly-De La Torrezz, however, condemned the
proliferation of inappropriate African entertainment, “there’s so much
sex appeal we can push; let us give a chance to raw talent.”

As if in answer to
her plea, the evening’s next entertainment could be described in just
those words. 14 year old prodigy, Camara Fearon, came onstage to sing
three of her self-composed songs. One of her renditions, a song
composed in the wake of a friend’s death in the notorious UK knife
crimes, almost reduced the crowd to tears. “Another day, another life
gone; Oppose the drugs, the blade, and the bullying,” Faeron sang.

Among the many
nominees for different awards were household Nigerian names in the UK
entertainment industry like Sophie Okonedo, Chiwetel Ejiofor, David
Oyelowo, Taio Cruz, Jocelyn Essien, Biyi Bandele, and Dipo Agboluaje.

Theatre artist,
Tayo Aluko, bagged several awards, including one for Most Outstanding
Playwright, which he said were won through his latest work, ‘Call Mr.
Robeson’, a play based on an African-American actor and singer of the
same name. According to Aluko, Robeson “achieved fame far ahead of his
time, and was in his days one of the most famous people on the planet.”

Olusola Oyeleye was
recognised as the Most Outstanding Theatre Director; Kwame Kwei Amah as
Outstanding Theatre Actor, while Anthony Abuah, whose first play,
‘Another Biafra’, was staged earlier this year at The Cockpit Theatre,
London, won Best Up-coming Actor. For film and television, Adaora
Nwandu, with her debut feature, ‘Rag Tag’ – a movie about two foreign
youngsters in London – won the award for Most Outstanding Director and
Producer.

Wave-making
Nigerian-born actor, David Oyelowo, who had featured in Shakespearean
plays in UK theatreland, BBC’s movies, ‘Small Island’ and ‘Blood and
Oil’, as well as major motion pictures including ‘The Last King of
Scotland’, was awarded the Most Outstanding Actor accolade. Though he
was not at the event, he was represented by both parents, who read his
letter of appreciation to the guests.

“I am incredibly
proud of my Nigerian heritage, and I am being represented by my parents
– which is fitting because it is to them I owe my success,” Oyelowo
wrote in his letter.

UK heartthrob,
Chucky Venn, was on hand to claim his award as Most Popular Actor,
while Jocelyn Essien, British comedian of Nigerian origin and producer
of her own comedy sketch ‘Little Miss Jocelyn’, brought the house down
when she was announced as the most popular film actress, amongst other
nominees like more popular Sophie Okonedo.

Recognitions were
awarded to the admirable representatives Nigeria has boasted in British
government and politics, in the persons of Anna Mbachu, former Mayor of
Walthamstow, East London; and Tayo Situ, current serving Mayor of
Southwark. Situ remarked that the Ogeyinka Awards are “a testimony to
the fact that though Nigeria is rich in oil, it has other assets. And
the best of them is the human assets that have grown wings to other
places to excel in different fields.”

Media personalities
were not neglected as Sola Oyebade, owner of Fashion’s Finest online
magazine and Mahogany fashion outfit, which in his words “specifically
catered to people of colour”, was honoured with an achievement award.
Ayo Johnson, renowned journalist and media analyst, dedicated his
achievement award to those whom he hopes to liberate with his efforts
on news balance in the world’s media coverage. He described them as
“those who would like to speak but have no voice, and the countless
faces that are never seen.”

The evening ended
with a special award presentation to young singer, Camara Faeron, an
African dance routine, and entertainment by Ayan DeFirst (Ayan
Ayandosu), popular London-based talking drummer. Ayandosu, winner of
the musical award, hailed himself as “the only talking drummer for the
British Labour Party.”

The event created a
wonderful avenue for entertainment and networking, and while it might
have fallen short, due to the non-attendance of the more popular
nominees like Sophie Okonedo, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Taio Cruz, and Lemar
Obika – artists who perhaps identify more as ‘British’ than ‘Nigerian’.

The event did
fulfil its purpose of expressing appreciation for the efforts of
Nigerians who have through their unflinching efforts, afforded the
country an iota of positive image amid myriad globally negative ones.

The organisers, however, might need to take care that the Ogeyinka
Merit Award for Excellence, like many other foreign-based African
awards, does not become a means of giving public gratification to its
financial and social supporters, rather than distinguishing and
rewarding real talent.

Fans of Oliver
Stone will be forgiven for wondering if the director has gone a little
soft in his old age. The belligerent maverick that spawned ‘Platoon,’
‘Born on the Fourth of July,’ and ‘JFK’ has been replaced by the more
pragmatic imposter responsible for ‘World Trade Centre’ and the hollow
‘W’. The latter in particular was grossly inadequate.

Audiences sat up
when they heard that one of America’s most inept leaders, George W.
Bush, was going to get the Oliver Stone treatment. They were instead
served up a tepid, directionless biopic that confounded more than it
exposed. However, even George Bush had his ardent followers and
perhaps, they enjoyed that movie.

No such luck for
the lecherous investment bankers and big corporations who brought the
world to its knees in the financial crisis. Surely, everyone hates
them. And once again, what better director than Stone to take his
rapier to the greedy bankers? The result is ‘Wall Street: Money Never
Sleeps’, a sequel to his 1987 classic.

The movie opens
with Gordon Gekko (welcomingly reprised by Michael Douglas) emerging
from prison where he has just done an eight-year stint for insider
dealing. In a great use of in-jokery, one of the items he collects is a
mobile phone the size of a dumbbell. The joke being that the world has
moved on, but Gekko has not.

The action lurches
forward with Frank Langella’s investment company, Keller Zabel, under
threat from a larger concern, Churchill Schwartz (a blatant reference
to Goldman Sachs) headed by Josh Brolin. As Langella faces up to a
world of increasingly predatory colleagues, he does the honourable
thing and kills himself. Shia LaBeouf, in an effort to avenge his
mentor’s death, tries to sabotage Churchill Schwartz and is bizarrely
rewarded with a job offer.

In a rather
convenient twist, LaBeouf is engaged to Gekko’s estranged daughter.
When he tries to reconnect mother and father, he ends up striking up a
relationship with the old man. As they get closer, LaBeouf’s character
is forced to re-examine all his relationships.

The photography in
the movie is fantastic. Overhead vista shots of the New York skyline
can never tire, nor can the lush red foliage of New England. However,
like much of Stone’s recent offerings, you are left wondering what is
the direction in all of this? What is the official stance? Is this an
attack on capitalist greed? Been there, done that. Is it an insider
account of how those banker fat cats played hokey with the world’s
finances? It barely even scratches the surface. Or is it just a plain
old love story in which all this banking stuff takes on secondary
importance? Bingo.

Wall Street 2 fails
to tell us anything that we didn’t already know about the global
financial crisis. Michael Douglas acts as a sort of on-screen narrator,
explaining to LeBouef how the banks got everyone in the mess they are
in. Douglas is a far more contrite character than his 1987 counterpart,
but the now cancer-stricken actor has lost none of his charisma. The
movie is only really alive whenever he is on the screen.

Shia LaBeouf gets
more screen time, but fails to convince as the nimble sidekick. He is
an engaging enough actor but lacks the gravitas to go toe-to-toe with
Douglas. His emotional scenes in particular lack the requisite depth of
feeling. It is often left to the masterful Carey Mulligan to bail him
out, a task she executes with some aplomb.

Hers is really a
career to watch. Anyone who saw Mulligan in ‘An Education’ had the
singular privilege of seeing a new doyenne announce herself on the
world stage. It was like watching Judi Dench in her prime – only
Mulligan is some 50 years younger than the great dame. She has far less
to do in Wall Street 2, but still manages to emerge with some credit.

The rest of the
cast does a pretty solid job. Brolin is, as ever, a reliable hand in
the bad guy stakes. Eli Wallach, the 95-year-old veteran method actor,
with nearly a hundred films to his credit, almost steals the show with
his irreverent one-liners. Susan Sarandon has limited screen time as
‘the mother’. Even Charlie Sheen, the young turk of the original, turns
up in a self-deprecating cameo.

As soon as one gets
over the fact that this is not a classic Oliver Stone polemic, it is
actually a half decent movie. The boardroom scenes are filled with
foreboding and one remains galled at the levels of government
intervention the bankers needed just to stay alive. Some of the scenes
are eerily close to the meetings held by mafia bosses in ‘The Godfather
II.’ There are, perhaps, even more parallels than that.

Stone remains a master of fixating on a core message, but somehow it
all sounds a bit too preachy. If only there was some greater thrust to
the spine of the movie, it would have been so much more memorable. As
it is, ‘Wall Street 2’ is the movie equivalent of a slightly underdone
hamburger: thoroughly engrossing when your teeth have sunk in, but
instantly forgettable the minute it is over.

Winners of the 2010 Omoba Yemisi
Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF), Photography Competition were
given their prizes at a ceremony in Lagos on Wednesday, October 13.

The event, held at the home of OYASAF’s
patron, Yemisi Shyllon, attracted artists including Nike
Davies-Okundaye, Oyerinde Olotu and his wife, Dan Ifon, Ariyo
Oguntimehin, Sidney Akaphiare and some of the winners. Dapo Adeniyi,
publisher of ‘Focus’, an arts and culture magazine, was also at the
presentation ceremony.

Timipre Willis Amah came first with
‘Local Wharf Yenogoa’ depicting life at one of the wharves in Yenagoa,
Bayelsa State while Gbemile Oluwatosin was second with ‘Bus on fire’.
Abiola Akanbi took the third position with ‘Child Paddles’ while Ophori
Israel and Charles Ijeomah emerged joint fourth with ‘Eyo Display’ and
‘Masquerade on Fire’ respectively.

Olagoke Femi came fifth with
‘GSM/Electricity in Nigeria’ and Akinkunmi Farinto was sixth with
‘Cultural Dance’. Other winners were Emmanuel Osodi (Traditional
Dancers); Akinleye Adeoye (Market Place); Etim Ekenyong (Wrecked Canoe)
and Olatunji Obasa (The Drum Maker).

Shyllon spoke about the competition and
how the winners emerged before cash prizes of N150, 000 and N100, 000
were presented to the first and second prize winners. Consolation
prizes including printers and flash drives were given to the others.
Shyllon disclosed that the competition’s first edition, held in 2009,
featured professional and amateur photographers. Works by the first
five winners were presented to the public in a photo exhibition in
March at the Aina Onabolu complex, National Gallery of Art, Iganmu,
Lagos.

The art collector disclosed that the
aim of the competition is to “develop proactive means of boosting
photography excellence in Nigeria, (and) create a platform for
photographers to confidently engage through their works issues of
national interest through exhibitions, competitions, seminars and
scholarship.”

Shyllon also highlighted some of
OYASAF’s activities. He said the foundation has published books on
Yoruba art while there is a forthcoming one on the late carver and
academic, Lamidi Fakeye. The body, he added, erected a commemorative
monument at the University of Ibadan, his alma mater, and restored Ben
Enwonwu’s work in the Vice Chancellor’s office. OYASAF also assisted in
redeveloping the physical environment of the UI zoological garden and
initiated a fellowship programme, with six scholars as beneficiaries so
far.

Shyllon thanked the organising team
comprising Sidney Akaphiare, Ariyo Oguntimeyin and Ozolua Uhakheme and
assured that OYASAF will not relent in promoting Nigerian art.

Some winners commended the initiative and spoke about why they took
up art practice. The second prize winner, Oluwatosin described himself
as a budding freelance photographer while fourth prize winner, Ijeomah
said it was the first award he would win. The Nike Cultural Troupe
provided the entertainment at the event.

UK-based Nigerian
musicians, Lekan Babalola and Ayinke Martins will be joined by their
home-based counterparts, Herbert Kunle Ajayi, Mike Osadolor, Imole
Africa and Pure & Simple for this year’s MUSON Jazz Festival on
November 6.

The jazz festival
is one of the main attractions of the annual MUSON Festival which
started on October 25. Previous editions of the festival have featured
Grammy award winning American guitarist, Earl Klugh performing with
Lagbaja; South Africa’s Hugh Masekela and guitarist Jimmy Dludlu; as
well as Jonathan Butler and Al Jarreau from the US, among others.

Organisers say the
contribution of the artists to the development of Jazz and live music
was a factor in their selection to feature in the highly rated concert.

Chair, festival planning committee of the event, J.K. Randle, said concert-goers can expect much from the festival.

“This year is
different and special as we celebrate Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee
Anniversary and what better way to do this than have a line-up of our
own artists both the ones based at home and those on the international
scene?”

This year’s MUSON Festival is themed ‘Nigeria at Fifty’ to celebrate
the country’s golden jubilee. It is on for two days; November 6 and 7.

Sultry neo-soul
singer, Angie Stone, is to headline a jazz festival by Smooth FM, a
Lagos-based radio station that specialises in Soul, R’n’B and Jazz
music.

The
African-American singer will be joined on the programme by Jazz
Saxophonist Gerald Albright, fresh from his appearance at the Macufe
Festival in South Africa. Also on the bill is the Cameroonian Jazz
Bassist, Richard Bona.

Completing the line-up will be a clutch of up and coming Nigerian musicians including Bez, Tiwa Savage and Pure & Simple.

Festival organisers
said the concert “promises to change the face of entertainment in Lagos
and introduce adult contemporary genres of music to an eagerly awaiting
and expectant audience. It will be a night of nonstop entertainment for
a mature and discerning audience.”

Famous for hits
including ‘Life Story’, ‘No More Rain’ and ‘Brotha’, Angie Stone will
be making a welcome return to Lagos for the festival. She first gained
notice for her songwriting credits on D’Angelo’s critically acclaimed
CDs, ‘Brown Sugar’ and ‘Voodoo’. She came out in her own right with her
debut album, ‘Black Diamond’ (1999) and followed up with ‘Mahogany
Soul’ in 2001. Her latest album, ‘Unexpected’ was released earlier this
year.

Tagged ‘Love Music, Love Life’ the festival is the first in a series
of concerts planned by Smooth FM. It is sponsored by Guaranty Trust
Bank and supported by a number of other corporate organisations. The
festival holds at the Expo Hall of Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, on
November 12.

We played the game.
It entailed any number of men or women running about kicking any
roundish object. We had no special name for the game. Then the man from
overseas came. He brought balls and boots and talked of football and
soccer. Like most white men Coach Clemence came to Africa with a
mission—to discover the beautiful game of football.

Coach Clemence came
with many rules and regulations. And we all got hoarse complaining that
he was complicating a simple game with his many rules. The bounce of
the ball was beyond the ken of most of us. Kicking with boots put us in
all kinds of trouble: the ball flew everywhere but the goalposts. It
was all so cumbersome, like teaching a man to use the left hand in
grand old age.

“Keep the ball on
the ground!” Coach Clemence hollered, daring the noonday sun as he ran
from one goal to the other correcting us. “The birds in the sky do not
play football.”

We suffered at the
hands of this man. He made us run endlessly round the field building up
what he called stamina. After the marathon running, kicking football
was well-nigh impossible. Even so Coach Clemence insisted that we must
play football. There was nothing like impossibility in the man’s
dictionary. You cannot play the man’s game unless you have sapped all
your energy running like a madman chasing after dry leaves.

“Who ever heard of
the footballer with neither skill nor stamina?” Coach Clemence asked
rhetorically while pushing us ahead to more suffering. “You lot deserve
special places in the Football Hall of Shame!”

To give him his
due, Coach Clemence led by example. He ran all the rounds with us and
played ball like a maestro. He could keep the ball up in the air for an
entire day, juggling masterfully as though the ball were tied to his
boots. And he could whack a shot at goal. The goalkeeper once flew into
the net together with his thunderously wheezing shot. And the man cried
like a baby, ending his football career just as abruptly.

The first
competitive match we played was against a team of some tourist friends
of Coach Clemence. It was a massacre. We somewhat stood fixed watching
the soccer wizards from London do all the scoring. They ran like the
wind and danced past our ears like mosquitoes. They were more slippery
than catfish in water. Neither skill nor stamina was on our side, a
total mismatch. Coach Clemence had to stop the match after thirty or so
torrid minutes to save us from further punishment. Even he had lost
count of the number of goals scored against us.

“I quit,” my elder brother said to me moments after the game.

He was gasping for
breath, dying for oxygen. It had been his job to mark the fleet-footed
left-winger of the tourists. My big brother, big and proud fellow that
he is, was dusted on the corners of the field by the flying little
wizard on the left wing. The wee ball player drew circles round my
brother, dribbling, taunting and scoring. After the humiliation my
brother picked up his climbing-rope and returned fulltime to his trade
of tapping palm wine. All the entreaties from Coach Clemence could not
get my brother back on the field.

“I can’t afford to
spend all my life chasing the wind,” Brother Okoro said. “My younger
one is still there and he may yet catch the wind.”

“You can’t afford
to throw in the towel so early in your career,” Coach Clemence pleaded,
staring fixedly with imploring eyes on my brother Okoro. “You can still
make the grade and earn tons of money as a football professional.”

“It is a man who is alive that can earn money,” Okoro replied, unmoved. “Do you know how many times I died in that field?”

“The beginning of
every act is always difficult,” Coach Clemence said, patting Okoro on
the shoulder. “Once you have mastered the art, all the suffering you
took would look glorious in hindsight.”

“White man, I have
played my last match.” The finality in Okoro’s tone could not be missed
by Coach Clemence. “There is even no sense at all in fully grown adults
running all over the place chasing an inflated balloon!”

The exit of Brother
Okoro was an open wound felt by all our teammates. He was a natural wag
who softened our suffering with his many jokes. In his absence
everybody looked upon me to take up the mantle of team clown. I was a
profound failure on all counts. One statement assailed my ears
everyday: “If only your brother Okoro had been here …”

We played some
other matches. We lost all the matches. The score on each occasion was
scandalous. Coach Clemence had the same words for us after every
defeat: “You learn from losing.”

After one
particularly humiliating defeat, a game in which half of our players
scored own goals, one rugged man walked into our fold. Some said he had
been a coup-seasoned soldier while others said he was an expired
politician. Nobody was sure of anything about the man. A pudgy and
crafty old stager, he was gap-toothed and his goggles were darker than
midnight. He spoke quaint English that edged Coach Clemence’s for
incomprehension. He at first introduced himself as our Team Manager. In
the next practice session he appointed himself Defence Minister,
explaining that he had all the answers for all our defensive frailties.
Next he called himself Sole Administrator. Coach Clemence could not
hide his amusement as the strange fellow by and by took the titles of
Head of State, C-in-C, Life President etc. The title Presido fitted him
like a cap.

“They are my people,” the man said to Coach Clemence, pointing at us as we sat head bowed. “I know their psychology.”

In the football
field he spoke to Coach Clemence in English while he talked to us in
the native tongue. Some of his words to us were actually full-throated
insults directed at the white man.

“Don’t mind the white monkey,” the man said, pretending to be serious. “May he dissolve under the hot African sun!”

“What’s that?” Coach Clemence asked quizzically after we had burst out in laughter.

“Oh I was telling
the boys to rise up to the magnitude of the British Empire,” the man
replied in grand English elocution. Then he turned to us and asked in
vernacular: “Can this white nobody give birth to a black somebody?”

We continued to laugh much to the puzzlement of Coach Clemence.

“Don’t mind the
native morons,” the man said, reverting to English. “They are laughing
at my lack of knowledge of the local lingo.”

Coach Clemence was
none the wiser but would not be distracted. He upped the ante by taking
us into the classroom to teach us football. He mentioned many
incomprehensible figures and numbers: 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-2-4 etc. He drew
many lines on the blackboard and plotted many graphs. He pointed and
directed through arrows and curves. We got more confused by the minute.
The classroom lessons continued interminably. If there was anything
worse than being defeated woefully on the field it was being made to
sit through the dreary lessons in the classroom.

“My people cannot
get the hang of this teaching of football inside the classroom,” our
self-appointed President challenged Coach Clemence.

“Without a sound theory there can be no good praxis,” Coach Clemence explained.

“How can somebody do on the blackboard what is played out there in the football field?”

“Presido!” We all rose in salute of our President for asking a question that we had all individually wanted to ask.

“Football is a game of the head rather than of the feet …”

We all shouted, interrupting Coach Clemence.

“In that case,” Presido was saying, “the game would have been called headball instead of football.”

Yes! We were all screaming in support of the thesis of our darling Presido, a true man of the people.

Coach Clemence
shook his head and announced the end of the day’s lesson. He then said
that the British Embassy Staff Club had challenged us to a football
match. Presido instantly volunteered to produce FIFA-graded match
officials and a record crowd for the special match.

“This match I take as your command performance,” Coach Clemence said, dismissing us for the day.

The football
stadium was a wild forest of people and spirits on the august day. The
pep talk of Coach Clemence minutes before the match dwelt much on the
anticipated style of our opponents. He talked of the speed and accuracy
of British football and asked us to watch out particularly for the
overlapping runs of the full-backs. He mentioned a certain footballer
of yore called Terry Cooper who by overlapping turned into a menacing
demon for all opponents of England.

“We know what you
mean,” said Presido, interrupting as usual. “Overlapping means that
somebody comes as a missionary and then overlaps as a colonial master!”

“Don’t mix football with politics,” Coach Clemence said.

“Don’t listen to the white man,” Presido said to us in the native tongue. “When we get into the field we shall play our style.”

“Our style is
home-grown freestyle soccer democracy played with military boots,”
shouted our dancing goalkeeper who had for some time been taking some
private lessons at the insistence of Presido.

The match was not
yet a minute old when the British left-back, overlapping, scored. He
would have scored again in the very next minute but for the agility of
our goalkeeper. Now instead of putting the ball into play according to
the rule of the game our goalkeeper ran the full length of the field
and threw the ball into the net of our opponents!

“The overlapping goalkeeper!” roared the crowd.

“Unprecedented! Fit for the Guinness Book of World Records! First in history!” I heard so many exclamations.

The referee looked
at his assistants and at the excited crowd and then pointed to the
centre of the field, thus counting our goalkeeper’s caper of a coup as
a goal. The British Embassy Staff Club players were dumbfounded. I
could not understand what was happening. The referee was asking the
Embassy boys to restart the game, but they refused to. Suddenly our
goalkeeper picked up the ball and ran all the way to score again. The
referee blew a blast on his whistle, jumping up in excitement like
Presido and the crowd. The overlapping goalkeeper scored many more
times, and the spectators could no longer be controlled for joy. They
encroached into the field, passing the ball to us with their hands and
feet. It was a melee. Nobody could leave the field of play. I looked in
the direction of Coach Clemence but his place had been taken by
Presido. And how Presido enjoyed the game! He actually came into the
field to score a handful of goals with his hands and feet and head. How
he gloried in “our style” of total football! He jumped and screamed and
laughed, urging us on with his hands and feet and mouth. And we obeyed
him, playing with all parts of our bodies and scoring with every
section of our anatomy. It was indeed an original never-ending game.

Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
was born in Nigeria on December 22, 1960. He was the 1989 Distinguished
Visitor at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of Western
Ontario. He is the author of the collection God of Poetry. In 2010, his
play Doctor of Football will be produced across Nigeria. He was
nominated for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2008.