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The British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has aired the first of a three-part
documentary on Nigeria, hosted by television personality, Funmi Iyanda.
Titled ‘My Country,’ the documentary aired on BBC World on October 2,
with two more episodes scheduled for later this month.

Produced by Iyanda
to commemorate Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary, ‘My Country’ is
described as “an epic journey around Nigeria (to) discover authentic
stories told from the Nigerian perspective.”

It features the
stories of a wide spectrum of Nigerians, from ordinary, otherwise
faceless, people, to major celebrities. The themes range from
heartwarming stories to hard hitting ones about the challenges of being
a Nigerian in these times.

Writing on her
blog, Iyanda said the documentary “has captured everyday Nigerians in
unusual but natural settings, engaging them in eye-opening and
down-to-earth conversations about their unique Nigerian experience.”

Having made her
name on ‘New Dawn’, a show that ran on the Nigerian Television
Authority for eight years, the television personality launched a new
programme, ‘Talk With Funmi’, earlier this year. She says the BBC is
the next stage in her quest to create a platform where authentic
Nigerian stories can be heard.

“I truly believe
that nobody can tell our stories the way we can. It is time for
Nigerians to tell our own stories with knowledge, intellect,
creativity, and truth,” Iyanda said.

‘My Country’ is directed by Chris Dada, who works with Iyanda on ‘Talk With Funmi’.

The second part of ‘My Country’ airs on BBC World on Saturday,
October 9, at 6.10pm (repeat broadcast on October 10 at 11.10am). Part
Three will be shown on October 16 at 6.10pm (repeat broadcast on
October 17, at 11.10am).

Farafina Books kick off a public schools literacy initiative in Lagos today, as “a unique way” of celebrating Nigeria at 50.

Starting from 12
midday, students of Ansar-Ru-Deen College, Isolo, Lagos, will be
treated to a reading by radio On-Air personality, writer, and youth
figure, Tosyn Bucknor. The two-hour event will be the first of a
quartet of readings around Lagos public schools, as a way of sparking a
love of reading in youngsters.

Chart-topping
singer, Omawunmi of West African Idol fame, will take up the baton on
October 13 by reading to the pupils of Festac Grammar School, Festac,
Lagos. Hip-hoppers Rooftop MCs will visit Isale Eko Grammar School on a
similar mission on October 20.

Rounding up the
readings will be rapper, Naeto C; the lyricist will read for students
of Omole Grammar School, Omole Phase I, Ikeja, on October 27.

Each celebrity will
read an excerpt of a Farafina book of their choice to the students,
who, it is hoped, will be more receptive, seeing books being read by
the new figures of ‘cool’ culture. In addition to reading excerpts, the
celebrities will give chats to students about the importance of reading
and education. The events will also be interactive, with the
opportunity for students to put questions to the personalities.

Speaking about the
initiative, Farafina said, “We conceived this idea to help revive the
reading culture, which is fast becoming extinct among our youth, and
consequently, (to) improve educational standards in our schools.”

Farafina, which
claims to be the leading imprint of indigenous fiction in Nigeria and
whose stated mission is to ‘Tell Our Own Stories’, brought the
celebrities on board as they are role models youth can readily identify
with.

“Our hope is that
through this book reading, the students would be inspired to read and
this would improve their academic performance,” said the publisher,
which will also present complimentary copies of its books to the
libraries of participating schools, as well as deserving students.

Founded in 2005,
Fafafina has published over 30 titles by some of Africa’s best known
authors including Ben Okri and Ngugi wa Thiong’o. It also published the
best selling ‘Purple Hibiscus’, the debut novel by Orange Prize winning
author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. ‘Purple Hibiscus’ has recently been
placed on the literature reading list for the West African Education
Certificate (WAEC).

All events on the programme begin at 12 noon and end at 2pm in the selected schools.

I have to say that
there are times when I am happy that I will be long dead by the time
the book as a medium of communication, dies. Otherwise, I would miss
the delicious messiness of my weekend mornings, surrounded by
newspapers and magazines. Every now and then I would also actually
download a story, and proceed to enjoy it at my leisure when I have the
time. And so I recently had a great weekend reading from two of
Nigeria’s powerful and lovely owners of words – Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie and Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani. The New Yorker has a lovely little
tale by Adichie called, intriguingly, ‘Birdsong.’ The UK Guardian has
Nwaubani’s essay, ‘Nigeria tribalism: a personal love story’ in the
Comment is Free section.

Adichie’s story
showcases her intimate knowledge of Nigeria, in many instances it is
quite moving. You almost wish you were in a room alone with Adichie and
her story listening to it unpolished, without the ruthless discipline
of the editors of the New Yorker. Stripped clean of the edge that is
mostly Nigeria’s drama, it comes across as sanitised for a Western
audience. In some places, the story has the hallmarks of an Uwem Akpan
classic – edited relentlessly until it becomes cold wooden prose. It is
not all Adichie’s fault; there are Western audiences to satisfy and the
publishers make sure that words like “panel beater” never make it to
the West. Who needs the drama of explaining the delicious difference
between “mechanic” and “panel beater”? But the heart craves ogbono soup
that is not garnished with the pretence of cucumber rings. You know,
sloppy, draw-soup, primeval, dripping all over you, that sweet savage
nectar of the gods.

Adichie’s story
goes nowhere because, there is nowhere to go to. Reading ‘Birdsong’,
one wonders, what is the purpose of these lives, lived in the
conspicuous consumption of mediocrity? The main characters eat, make
love, and shit over and over again. In Nigeria, life is good and
aimless. If you are rich. Life is hell and aimless. If you are poor.
This is Adichie’s genius; she effortlessly narrates the aimlessness of
a people. Sometimes I almost understand why some of our writers write
only about the past. Stories like ‘Birdsong’ remind us of what is
missing in today’s Nigeria, what some would describe as the “moral
clarity” of our people’s past.

I thoroughly
enjoyed Nwaubani’s piece; she describes the tension in relationships
among the major “tribes” of Nigeria. I cringed at the word “tribe” just
as I did after recently re-reading several invocations of it in Peter
Pan Enahoro’s ‘How to be a Nigerian’. But then don’t our people use
“tribe” in discussions? Who says, “na my ethnic group?” The unintended
consequence of political correctness is to distort history. I could
make a compelling argument that “tribe” as Nwaubani meant it is a
distinctly Nigerian term. Transferred on to a white paper read mostly
by condescending patronising know-it-all white liberals, the meaning
could get lost in its translation. I am glad that Nwaubani’s editor did
not do to the piece what Adichie’s editor did to Birdsong. In the hands
of a Western editor the New Yorker almost rendered Adichie’s
potentially beautiful piece into the kind of clinical stuff that Uwem
Akpan is famous for. This is all the more reason why we need to support
our own home-grown newspapers and publishers and editors who know a
panel beater from a mechanic, our tribe from their tribe etc.

The two stories offer a great commentary on how we should record
our history. What is the role of the writer in faithfully documenting
the lived life? I believe that a writer should be faithful to the exact
words used in dialogue. If someone calls someone a nigger, I would say
so, not say, someone called her the N word. This is not the same as
legitimising its use. I have complained about the gods of political
correctness ruining the history of our discourse and their delicious
rhyme, flow and poetry… Try saying “abeg go jo, were! mad man!” And
then try saying “Please go away, you emotionally challenged person.”
And of course this is all a roundabout way of saying I miss the raw,
brilliant unfettered poetry of Fela Anikulapo Kuti. For that reason
alone, I am afraid to go up to New York to go watch Fela on Broadway. I
might not like what I see. And I might be alone in that assessment. Who
needs the stress of being alone? Nwaubani’s authenticity is refreshing.
We are going to lose her though. Soon she will be writing clinically
sanitised pieces for the New Yorker and the Guardian, she will be a
superstar whose secretary will not take my calls. And I will remember
that magical afternoon in Lagos as she sat with me in a buka sharing
amala without meat. I regret now that I did not have someone snap us a
picture for when she was… one of us. It is all good; everything is as
it should be.

The cover girl for
the September 1960 Nigerian Independence special edition of the
historic DRUM magazine was in fact a South African, Patience Gcwabe,
described as a “stage entertainer” from Johannesburg. Inevitable
perhaps, for a South African publication that started life in 1951 as
“the first black lifestyle magazine in Africa.”

Also the first
Pan-African magazine, 240,000 copies of DRUM were being distributed in
eight countries within a few short years. Among these countries were
Kenya, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Uganda, Ghana and Sierra-Leone.

The Nigerian
edition, introduced in 1953, was edited by Nelson Ottah, with
contributions from the likes of Cyprian Ekwensi, Sam Amuka and the
photographer, Matthew Faji. In ‘Drum Beat in Africa’, published in
September 1959, TIME Magazine wrote of DRUM: “In the Nigerian capital
of Lagos, 19,000 copies go on sale at 4am; by sundown of the same day,
all have been sold.” The Nigerian DRUM was a bestseller, therefore, and
it is the special edition published on the eve of Independence that now
comes up for consideration. Fragile with age, the copy has survived
half a century of tumultuous history, thanks to the uncommon foresight
of an owner that lovingly preserved it, as a memento to momentous times.

Though concerned
mostly with Nigeria, it is really a West African edition; advertisers
list outlets in Lagos, Aba, Kano, Accra and Freetown as standard. A
child ill with malaria in a Nivaquine advert has the Guinean name,
Sekou; and some features insist on banal regional commonalities, as in
the case of an article on beauty tips that asserts that “West African
girls have always had good complexions” – who knew?

Pan-African

The South African
interest never completely goes away, reinforcing the continental reach.
There’s the cover girl, for a start. Two pages of words and images are
lavished on the “torrid” Phatha Phatha dance sweeping through South
Africa at the time. DRUM was said to be so successful in its
originating country that even illiterates ‘read’ the images, and so the
magazine had to communicate in images as well as in words. The
‘Africa’s Great Leaders’ feature on the inside back cover eulogises
Mangaliso Sobukwe, founding president of the Pan-Africanist Congress
who led protests against the Apartheid regime’s notorious pass laws on
March 21, 1960 – the day of the Sharpville Massacre. Sobukwe was
already a ‘prisoner of conscience’ by the time of the September 1960
edition, serving a three-year sentence for “incitement”. And so began a
spiral that led to solitary confinement on Robben Island before release
in 1969, followed by house arrest.

Sobukwe’s ordeal
was an ominous sign of what was to come for other visionary African
leaders. But it was a sign only; the reality was still very rosy.
Patrice Lumumba of The Congo (which also gained independence in 1960)
had still not met his brutal death. Nigeria was gaining her freedom;
there was hope. 50 years on, the reader views the DRUM page on Sobukwe
with sadness, for him and for Africa as a whole.

Today and Tomorrow, Yesterday and Today

DRUM documents the
infrastructural rush in Lagos to ensure a “chromium-plated atmosphere”
for the independence celebrations, for which 250,000 visitors were
expected from 90 countries. Extra grandstands are erected at Racecourse
(Tafawa Balewa Square); and Tinubu Square gets dug up for a fountained
roundabout. Federal Palace Hotel, then known as the £1m ‘Palace Hotel’,
then the best in Africa, is taking shape under scaffolding. In charge
of all this was the head of Planning in the colonial administration,
Colonel A.E Hefford, who is shown behind his desk. But as Matthew
Faji’s images show, Nigerian workmen were the ones that sweated and
toiled to get the gleaming new architectural pieces ready for October
1.

“On Victoria
Island, there will be the gigantic Nigerian Exhibition… it’s theme will
be ‘Nigeria – Today and Tomorrow – was how DRUM announced the
Independence Trade Fair held in what became Bonny Camp. The art
component of the exhibition brought to prominence the likes of Bruce
Onobrakpeya, now a venerable old man of Nigerian art. By its title, the
‘Nigeria Yesterday and Today’ exhibition, which opened at the National
Museum in Lagos on September 1, 2010 – seems to be a conversation with
that more illustrious, 1960 exhibition. The similarity in titles either
betrays a lack of new thinking, or how little things have changed or
evolved in 50 years.

The new socials

More about how
little issues of the Nigerian public space have changed, later. But to
return to the adverts in DRUM in 1960, a cursory glance shows how they
expressed the aspirations of the new Nigerian middle class in the era
immediately before, and after, independence. The need to better oneself
through a British education, is filled: “Let me help you through your
G.C.E,” offered the bespectacled Mr. F Bradshaw, all the way from
Bennett College, England. There’s another advert from Mayflower College
in Croydon. On the facing page to Mr Bradshaw, another bespectacled
white man, an illustrated physician, recommends Phensic.

Then there was the
lure of travel overseas. The advert for Lux has the “Lux-lovely Shade
Thomas of Lagos”, the precursor to Suzy Martins who starred in
television and billboard commercials in a later era. The advert boasts
that Shade Thomas “has been in England for over four years.” Quite what
this fact has to do with her choice of toilet soap, is never explained,
but it sends the message that glamorous young Nigerian women of class
ought to travel. Next to the Lux advert is another one for Vogeler’s
Curative Compound. An illustration shows a young, jet-setting Nigerian
couple with a ship in the background under the headline, ‘Off to
England’.

Lots of product ads
are targeted at the new socials: Snowfire Face Powder, Max Faxtor Pan
Cake makeup, Star Lager, Dubonnet and Kingsway Supermarket (the
Shoprite of its day). Lots of adverts for the pools too (Cyprian
Ekwensi contributes a piece about the new gambling phenomenon). But the
working classes aren’t entirely forgotten: Barclays Bank D.C.O invites
“the thriving textiles trader” to open a savings account. As for DRUM’s
cartoon strips, for some reason, the characters are all Europeans with
European concerns. A page about the Nigerian love of gold, however, is
spot on.

Before Nollywood

A column by Coz
Idapo, ‘West African Whispers’, talks about the Nigerian public’s love
for Indian movies. He marvels that though he knew no Nigerian who could
speak a word of Hindi, “yet millions of Nigerians like Indian songs”
which are “languorous, sugar-sweet and painfully nostalgic.” The column
goes on to identify a deeper reason for the love of Indian films in the
50s and 60s (and well into the 80s), and by so doing, ‘West African
Whispers’ hit a nail on the head.

Decades before the
advent of Nollywood, “an articulate Nigerian” told Idapo: “Until the
Indian movie-makers invaded the Nigerian market, I was in the habit of
thinking that only Europeans and Americans have culture and history,
and tradition and supermen, and fencers, and all that. Well, I go to
Indian films because they help to convince me that Nigeria can even
start to produce her own films.”

On tribal affiliations

‘West African
Whispers’ also touches on a chiefly cousin who tended to bemoan his
declining stock in a democratic Nigeria. The cousin pepped up on
hearing of “the recent appointment of the Ooni of Ife as Governor of
Western Nigeria.” The Ooni, Oba Adesoji Aderemi – also head of the
socio-cultural group, Egbe Omo Oduduwa – makes an appearance in another
piece that asks, ‘Do we want tribal unions after independence?’ 50
years on, we are still asking the same question.

DRUM also mentions
the Ibo State Union (headed by Z.C Obi) and the Ibibio State Union –
Arewa did not figure in 1960, for some reason! – and calls for them to
be disbanded. Stating that “everything outworn or out-moded should be
left entirely behind” after independence, the magazine declares, “In
the great task ahead, there will be little or no place for interplay of
tribal loyalties.”

Kidnapped

Also eerily
prescient still, is a piece about kidnappings in Nigeria at
independence. Trafficking for some sort of modern slavery and more
macabre reasons, is suggested. And who should turn up in the piece?
Ayinde Bakare, “a well known Lagos musician” (and father of present day
highlife singer, Shina Ayinde Bakare) is photographed and quoted,
citing “juju” as one of the kidnapping methods. In 2010, kidnappings
are regular on the news; 15 kidnapped schoolchildren have only just
been released in Abia State. Here’s what DRUM said: “KIDNAPPED. An
offensive word. A spine-chilling word that means great sorrow for many
families in Nigeria today.” DRUM could have been commenting about these
times.

The Sage

The lead story in
the Independence edition is a special on the late Obafemi Awolowo,
leader of the Action Group, the Opposition party. In stark contrast to
today’s manifesto-less politicians, Awo installed a full Shadow Cabinet
of Opposition ministers including Solomon Danship Lar (Minister of
Works), A Rosiji (Finance Minister), J. S Tarka (Commerce) and Anthony
Enahoro (External Affairs). The 1963 treason trial had not even
suggested itself to the imagination.

Sumptuous black and
white images hint at the lost grandeur of Awo’s political vision. He is
photographed in his book-lined study in Oke Ado, Ibadan; amid the
endless volumes, he looks like a man in his natural environment, a well
read man. How many of our politicians can boast of such a ‘real’ study
of books today – the current Ibadan strongman, Akala? With the 2011
elections looming, Awolowo could have been addressing the country of
today when he tells DRUM: “You can classify the electorate into two
classes… those who follow a party whether it is doing the right thing
or not, and… those who examine the policy and programmes of a party
before voting for it.”

Minister Johnson

A counterpoint to
the Awolowo special, is a two-page spread on ‘Our Political Glamour
Boy’, the then Minister of Labour, Joseph Modupe Johnson. If the five
images of him in the magazine are any indication – Johnson took his
leisure time and dressing very seriously indeed. A happy-go-lucky
boating fan, he tells DRUM “I love to go round unbeaten water tracks…
Boating is a pastime people should think about”. The magazine pips in:
“If we had boats like him, we would.” The minister goes into fine
detail about his bargaining strategy when shopping for fabrics in Ereko
and Balogun markets, saying, “To be well groomed is the A.B.C of social
success.” True, but I’m not sure this should be a Labour Minister’s top
discussion topic.

And back when ‘Gay’
still only meant ‘Happy’, Minister Johnson is described as “a gay beau”
who would be remembered in future as a “gay firework of new Africa.”

The reporter
assures that Johnson also gets busy reading files on trade disputes and
strikes and gives to the poor, but the image of the “high society”
figure who attends “rounds of parties” has stuck, for this reader at
least. The colourful character says his flamboyance is just an
expression of his “African personality”.

I’d never before heard or read about the Minister of Labour at
Nigeria’s independence, until I read the DRUM edition of September
1960. And there I was thinking Modupe Johnson was just a primary school
I attended briefly in Surulere, Lagos, in my youth.

To mark Nigeria’s
five decades, we dusted down an iconic photograph. The image above
shows a handover of power – from James Robertson, the last British
Governor-General of Nigeria to Tafawa Balewa, the first Prime Minister
of Nigeria. We asked eight writers to tell us what feelings the
photograph evoked for them.

Below are their thoughts; some optimistic, some weary, and some resigned.

Sarah Ladipo Manyika, author, ‘In Dependence’

Two men are waving,
but to whom exactly? Tafawa Balewa’s hand hails the people, but what of
James Robertson? Is he waving hello, farewell, or not so fast? It’s
hard to tell, and yet the stiffness of those gloves, sash, headgear and
medals suggest a man no longer at ease. And as for those two young men
standing ramrod straight around the flagpole, what expression, I
wonder, rests on their faces? Pride, I imagine, and immense hope on a
day when a brand new flag waves prosperity and peace to all who stand
below. Half a century later, what would each of these men make of
Nigeria today? Disappointment, I would guess, at the very least, and
yet I hear that there is beauty in turning fifty and being able to look
both backward and forward. If this is the case, then I think that
today’s picture must be in colour with much less grey, fewer shadows,
many more women, and just as much hope.

Carlos Moore, author, ‘Fela: This Bitch of a Life’

The image of James
Robertson, the last British Governor-General of Nigeria and Tafawa
Balewa, the first Prime Minister of Nigeria, celebrating the birth of
what is today called NIGERIA is nothing unusual. It is an image that
says that, for all practical purposes, it is all business as usual.
Just a new arrangement of the same colonial, neo-colonial and
neo-imperial package.

Abidemi Sanusi, author, ‘Kemi’s Journal’

I am drawn to the
flag pole in the background. Has the Union Jack been lowered already,
and the flag of the new Nigeria, a phoenix of green and white stripes,
been raised in its place? It is hard to tell. The phantom army of
witnesses are a little harder to spot, their ghoulish presence a
forewarning of what is to come in the ‘new’ country. Finally, I notice
the two men; each, with one arm raised high, the white man, James
Robertson, the last British Governor-General of Nigeria and the
Nigerian, Tafawa Balewa, the first Prime Minister of Nigeria.
Robertson’s arm is raised in a wave, whether in farewell or in good
wishes, again, it is hard to tell. His face is inscrutable, no doubt
relishing the years ahead, when cocooned in his own grave, historians
would pore over every muscle of his face in the photograph for a hint
of the thoughts that lie within. He knows the photograph will reveal
nothing. I’m intrigued by Balewa’s arm. What is it saying? ‘Farewell‘,
‘Stay awhile’, ‘Now what?’ One thought keeps on reverberating through
my mind: where was the photograph taken and why the night-time?

Toni Kan, author, ‘Nights of the Creaking Bed’

Hello and Goodbye.
Two knighted fellows waving out an epoch and welcoming a new one;
albeit a benighted one. 50 years later we look at this picture and
wonder, was it too soon, were mistakes made and who made those
mistakes? 50 years of independence and yet we remain a country fraught
with ills that defy logic, balms and unguents. Who knows, maybe Sir
James Robertson was actually saying: good riddance!

Teju Cole, author, ‘Everyday is for the Thief’

“A painful
disappointment, though one must admit it was not a total failure” –
these were the words Nnamdi Azikiwe used to describe the Constitutional
Conference of 1957. The British stymied Nigerian demands for
independence by 1959. But independence did eventually come, in 1960.
Two hands raised in the darkness, a flicker of hope. The British packed
their bags and left, after poisoning the well, and Zik’s words might as
well serve for the fifty-year journey Nigeria has undertaken since
then. Things went wrong very quickly for the country once the
Okotie-Eboh model of kleptocracy supplanted the humble civil service of
Tafawa Balewa. There were utter disasters along the way, the three most
notable, in my view, being the Civil War, the Babangida dictatorship,
and the Abacha dictatorship that succeeded it. The years rolled on, and
we swallowed one missed opportunity after another. Still, there was
FESTAC. There are our great artists, particularly in literature and
music. And there is the incomparable intensity, creativity, and
resurgence of the city of Lagos. A painful disappointment, then, this
maddening Nigerian journey, but not a total failure. Not yet.

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, author, ‘I Do Not Come To You By Chance’

Five decades ago,
the white man waved goodbye to Nigeria. But today, Nigerians remain in
captivity. The colonialists rule our minds. We obsess over what they
think about us, we struggle to imitate their ways, we are in awe of
their abilities. As Nigeria celebrates 50 years of independence, I have
a dream that my people shall be free at last. With the white man and
his West safely out of our heads and our minds obsessing over more
progressive purposes.

Chika Unigwe, author, ‘On Black Sisters’ Street’

Whenever my father
talks of the 1st of October, 1960 his voice carries a certain sense of
awe, as if he were talking of something sacred. Looking at this
photograph, I am reminded of my father’s voice. There is a sense of the
sacred in the way both men are standing still, unsmiling, hands raised
as the clock strikes midnight to usher in the birth of a new country
and announce the irreversible death of colonisation. But there is also
a sense of excitement, of optimism. It is easy to read on Balewa’s
face, the eagerness to get on with the job of leading Nigeria to its
destined greatness as an independent nation. 50 years later, Nigerians
of my father’s generation have seen their hopes for Nigeria betrayed by
kleptomaniac regimes. And we, their children are finding it more and
more difficult to remain optimistic that things will change enough to
bring Nigeria back to its days of glory.

Amatoritsero Ede, author, ‘Globetrotter & Hitler’s Children’

The promise and
dream of that celebratory image of – I presume Tafawa Balewa, first
‘Head-of-State’ of an independent Nigeria beside the representative of
the colonial British Crown – has become a nightmare and an illusion.
The ex-colonial state (I refuse to call it post-colonial to emphasise
the continuing colonial dependence) has continued the plunders of
imperialism. As Wole Soyinka put it in a public statement recently, we
celebrate shame. It is like celebrating the death of an infant
first-born child. It is very un-African. This should be a time for
inward looking, not for pomp and pageantry. The leadership has failed
woefully. A country blessed with all the human and mineral resources
which Nigeria has should not be the failed state that it is today,
where a lack of maintenance culture, entrenched corruption in
government, criminal politicians or ex-military men vying for office is
normalised. Nigeria has taken itself out of any kind of global
competition – even on a continental level. This house has fallen! It
can only be rebuilt by a complete shift in its leadership and civic
mental orientation.

A version of this article was first published on the Cassava Republic blog.

The exhibition held
as part of the recently concluded first International Convention on Art
and Development (CONADEV), themed ‘Engaging Art as a Sustainable Tool
for Development’ was a big treat for art lovers in Lagos.

Though without a
title, the exhibition which held at Harmattan Workshop Gallery,
Victoria Island, featured works by designers, painters, sculptors, new
media artists and mix media artists. The about 50 works displayed were
made by Nigerian artists, a Ghanaian and an artist from Benin Republic.

President, Society
of Nigerian Artists (SNA), Uwa Usen, opened the exhibition which
started with entertainment from dance group, Theatre Centrik. The
dancers held the audience spell bound with their well choreographed
dance steps and acrobatics.

Viewers were able
to appreciate the beautiful artworks laid out in the three sections of
the gallery before the exhibition which opened on Monday, September 20
closed on September 26.

Celebration and development

The works explored
themes including celebration, development and growth. Bunmi Lasaki’s
‘Greenland Melody Merchants’; Palmer Noah’s ‘Life of a People’; Ahmed
Tijani’s ‘Drummers’; Dan Ifon’s ‘Labe Igi’ and Chris Ogieghbo’s
sculpture titled ‘The Saxophonist’ all depicted celebration.

Obiora Anaemaleze’s
mix media, ‘Anyabaife’ showing a girl reading and writing, and Olisa
Awunna’s ‘Sustainable Development’ tackled development and growth.

Lovers of landscape
paintings at the exhibition were not disappointed. Asmau Ahmed’s pastel
titled ‘Sabon Karshi’; Imonighie Imoesi’s ‘Unification of Purpose’ and
Olojo Koso’s ‘Close view of Majidun’ were available for their viewing
pleasure.

Famous Lagos
Island-based graffiti artist, Theophilus-Iwalokun Olaitan popularly
known as Ratty, also registered his presence with ‘Burning and Looting’.

Works leaning
towards traditional mysticism were also displayed. ‘Igba’ by Segun
Olotu and Okezie Okafor’s metal and wood sculptor, ‘Worshippers’,
combined well with Suleiman Taiwo’s fibre glass table top sculptor of a
goggled man reading.

Eminent artists,
Bruce Onobrakpeya and Kolade Oshinowo, were not left out. Onobrakpeya’s
‘Pendant and Beads’ and Oshinowo’s ‘Old City Gate’ were beauties to
behold.

Price issue

Victor Ecoma, a
lecturer at the Cross River University of Technology and participant at
the convention believed that it was good the exhibition held as part of
the meeting. He, however, commented on the pricing of the artworks.
“The exhibition raises an issue for pricing of art. What are the
criteria for appraising art? What are the indices? Is it objective or
subjective?”

Though artist, Ato
Arinze, was happy that the exhibition signified development in the art
scene, he expressed reservations about some of the works. “You cannot
see any development from what the artist has been doing before. It’s
the same thing in every exhibition. Development starts from the
individual artist, from his studio. Exhibitions are meant to show what
new things the artist is doing, it is when you get this right that you
can develop as an artist.”

Tijani Ahmed, a Ghanaian participant, was happy. “Though I wished
that there were more installation works and new media, I am happy to be
part of this great exhibition,” he said.

The first solo UK
exhibition of the Beninoise artist, Julien Sinzogan, opened at the
October Gallery in London on September 29. Attracting artists and art
enthusiasts of different races, the exhibition, titled ‘Spirit Worlds’,
explores the theme of the Transatlantic slavery and the spiritual
return of long-lost African souls to their homeland.

Employing varied
media, Sinzogan, also an architect, created an emotive atmosphere that
not only took viewers back in time to the horror of that period but
also made a bold statement on spirituality and the indestructibility of
the African soul and cultural identity.

Visa denied

The absence of
Sinzogan himself from the exhibition’s opening event, however, cast
some shadow over the event. Elisabeth Lalouschek, Artistic Director of
the October Gallery, disclosed that problems with obtaining a visa, had
kept the artist from attending. She however expressed hopes that the
artist will be able to visit before the six-week exhibition rounds off.

The artist
previously featured in ‘Voyages’, an October Gallery exhibition of his
work and those of Zimbabwean sculptor Tapfuma Gutsa, which ran from May
to June 2007, to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave
trade. Sinzogan had attended the opening of the exhibition at the
October Gallery on May 16, 2007.

For ‘Spirit
Worlds’, the collection on show includes sixteen works which employ
different media such as natural pigments, acrylic, coloured inks as
well as mixed media. Many of the pieces, according to Lalouschek, have
been reserved by collectors. “Their prices range between 4,500 and
16,000 pounds sterling. The October Gallery likes to exhibit Sinzogan’s
work because they are excellent pieces of art and they attract good
sales,” she said.

Paul Goodwin, Tate
Britain curator, gave a brief speech about the artist and his works,
while formally declaring the exhibition open. “I first came across
Sinzogan’s art at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2007. It was titled
‘Uncomfortable Truth’ and was exhibited to commemorate the 200th
anniversary of the parliamentary abolition of the slave trade,” said
Goodwin.

Particularly
striking in its detailed execution and use of colour, “His work dealt
with something I, and many other blacks across the world, have always
thought about.” Goodwin continued, “[Sinzogan] put a positive spin on
something that’s usually a dark subject; with the energy he gives his
drawings, as well as the colours and spiritual themes he employs. He
put beauty into an issue associated with ugliness.”

According to
Lalouschek, a lot of Sinzogan’s works derive from a need “to recognise,
remember and re-present the sights, scenes and shared history of those
almost-forgotten times,” and the artworks detailing varied subjects
associated with slavery, achieve just that.

Cross-cultural

Among them is a
portrait of four ‘Yoruba Chiefs’- supposedly the first point of contact
for the intending slave traders; a mixed media work on a wooden panel
depicted slaves chained together walking towards a destination unknown;
several colourful drawings of ships with bird-like depictions of
spirits titled ‘Gates of Return’; and ‘Le Jetty’, the only work which
shuns a colourful visage, employing instead brown and yellow to depict
hundreds of chained slaves going onboard the ships that would cart them
away.

The collection also
includes a number of drawings depicting the Egungun masquerades in all
their vibrant and spiritual glory, while a mixed media artwork of the
Egungun costume took centre stage in the main hall of the gallery. One
of Sinzogan’s Egungun work had been the showpiece of the ‘Voyages’
exhibition at the October Gallery three years ago. The artist also
hosted Elisabeth Lalouschek in the Benin Republic, so she could see
real Egunguns (masquerades) in action.

Speaking further on
Sinzogan’s general theme, Goodwin opined that Sinzogan’s works have
cross-racial appeal. “It is open to everyone. The slave trade was a
universal moment in time. The West became rich, and Africa was
impoverished. And the globalisation we now experience has its root in
the slave trade,” he declared.

Goodwin concluded
by expressing his disappointment about the reason behind the artist’s
absence, saying, “A lot of Artists from Africa and the Caribbean face
this inability to obtain visas for exhibitions. And there is no reason
why this should be so.”

‘Spirit Worlds’ at the October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AL – until November 6.

The performance
justified the hype. Filmmaker, Tunde Kelani and Mufu Onifade, chair,
Lagos State chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Theatre
Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), producers of ‘Yeepa: Solaarin Nbo’, had
assured before it opened that it would not be jejune.

“It is a total
performance that is taking theatre back to the basics,” Kelani said of
Dotun Ogundeji’s Yoruba translation of Femi Osofisan’s ‘Who is Afraid
of Solarin’ staged as part of events organised by the Lagos State
Government to mark Nigeria’s 50th Independence anniversary.

As promised by the
duo, there was no dull moment at the first public staging of the play
at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos on Tuesday, September 28. The
full house that saw it obviously enjoyed the play, going by their
raucous laughter and ripostes to the lines and antics of the actors on
stage.

The opening glee, a
two-in-one performance by the Lagos State chapter of the Dance Guild of
Nigeria (EKO GOND) and Crown Troupe of Africa, was the appetiser before
the audience was served the main course. Dancer, Dayo Liadi and members
of Eko GOND who performed 9ice’s ‘Petepete’, decrying the stagnation of
Nigeria 50 years after Independence, were outstanding. Their movements
were in synch with the mournful tone of the music and Liadi,
choreographer of the piece, got the extra applause he deserved when he
rolled himself several times over towards the exit as the song ended.

The Crown Troupe of
Africa’s performance of the late Hubert Ogunde’s classic, ‘Yoruba Ronu’
was no less interesting. Alabi Ademola, who spotted the trademark white
wrapper, cap and ‘shaki’ (fraternal shawl) of the late doyen of
Nigerian theatre, gave a good account of himself as Ogunde.
Unsurprisingly, members of the audience familiar with the chorus of the
reflective song, sang along with the troupe. The themes of the two
performances, fittingly, cohere with that of the satirical play on
corruption and the tragedy of small minds in big positions in Nigeria.

United by graft

Siaman, played by
Ropo Ewenla, bursts in on his colleagues in the local government and
informs them that Solaarin, the much feared public complaints
commissioner, is set to pay them a visit. The mere mention of Solaarin,
a forthright man, leaves the group including Edukesan also known as
Force is Force (Toyin Oshinaike); Adajo (Oladejo Adegboyega);
Alafowosowopo (Lara Akinsola); Dokita (Yinka Aiyelokun) and Adiyeloja (
Bukky Ogunnote- Ogunade) trembling in fear.

Like most public
office holders, their hands are not clean and they dread Solaarin for
reasons which become clear as the play progresses.

Edukesan who is in
charge of the Education Ministry is a rotten official who does nothing
other than embezzle money. Apart from collecting bribes to pervert the
course of justice, Adajo (Judge) is also a chronic womaniser who jails
the husband of a woman he fancies and turns the courthouse into a
poultry. Dokita is a pipe puffing and coughing layabout who has allowed
the hospitals to completely run down. The two women in the cabinet,
Alafowosowopo and Adiyeloja, are as rotten and immersed in corrupt
practices as the men.

Solaarin’s imminent
arrival throws them into a quandary and they start looking for ways to
avoid the perceived disaster. The half-educated Siaman suggests they
burn the records to hide their atrocities and sends his houseboy,
Polycap, to fetch Baba Fawomi, an Ifa priest, to rescue them.

Underscoring how
deeply corruption has eaten into the moral fabric of the society, Baba
Fawomi played by Bayo Ogundele, is also a dupe. He tells the terrified
officials that, among other things, Ifa wants five cows, 10 local
goats, 10 Hausa goats, 16 fowls and seven yards of white cloth as
sacrifice to hide their sins from Solaarin. Any doubts the audience
might have about Baba Fawomi’s integrity is soon erased when he does a
break dance while singing “ifa ki paro” (Ifa doesn’t lie). He also
requests schnapps to enable Ifa speak fluently. Siaman sends Polycap to
fetch the drink from his bedroom but the bumbling fool brings toilet
cleaner which Baba Fawomi quaffs thirstily before realising he is
drinking poison.

The arrival

The satire, which
more than adequately reflects the sordid state of affairs in Nigeria,
takes an interesting turn when Lemomu and Lamidi – two charlatans who
spy for Siaman while pretending to be beggars – return with news that
Solaarin is in town. Like the others, the duo don’t render assistance
except they are sorted. They disclose that Solaarin is staying in the
Pastor’s house; and Siaman heads there. The Pastor, sadly, is also
tainted. He not only helps himself to offerings, he also trusts more in
Baba Fawomi’s power than the God he professes.

It’s a different
scenario in the Pastor’s house where he is seen quarrelling with his
daughter, Cecilia, for taking too quickly to the guest (Kayode Idris)
from Lagos. Pastor is angry with the guest for finishing the bottle of
sacrament wine and taking liberties with his daughter.

The continuously
twittering daughter whom the guest affectionately calls ‘Cicily Misa
Misa’, however, doesn’t mind the attention. She, in fact, basks in it
and strongly defends him against her father’s accusation. The street
wise Lagosian wins the Pastor over with a yarn to promulgate a decree
that will elevate him into a Bishop.

Pastor becomes
afraid when Siaman later tells him his guest is Solaarin. Pastor leaves
immediately to see Baba Fawomi lest Solaarin discovers his own
atrocities too.

The play climaxes
with the rotten officials falling over themselves to offer ‘presents’
to the guest in Pastor’s house so he doesn’t report them in Lagos. But
is he really the upright Solaarin, the bane of corrupt officials?

Current theme

Though set in a
rural Yoruba town of the 60s and 70s, ‘Yeepa: Solaarin Nbo’ reflects
the current Nigerian society where elected officials don’t understand
the meaning of service; where contracts are awarded at exorbitant
prices but shoddily executed; where nothing works. Siaman, whose full
name JDG Gbonmiayelobiojo hints at graft, typifies the half-literate
official in a position of power. Playing Siaman, Ropo Ewenla
entertained the audience endlessly with his excellent portrayal of the
thieving chair. The icing on the cake was his bad pronunciation of
words like ‘emergently’; ‘gentlemens and ladies’; ‘incongnito’; ‘tomati
puri’ and “o si ro pe o prosper lati wa so fun mi” (You didn’t deem it
proper to inform me).

But a tree does not a forest make. Ewenla was good but so were the
others. Oshinaike who played Edukesan; Adegboyega, the corrupt judge;
Aiyelokun, the doctor and Idris, the scoundrel who pretended to be
Solaarin, also handled their roles excellently. Toyin James who played
Tolu, Siaman’s mentally retarded wife, and Bunmi Mapelujo, the besotted
Cecilia didn’t fail to add to the play. They were completely at home in
their comical but significant roles in the fast paced satire directed
by Niji Akanni. That careful planning went into the production of
‘Yeepa: Solaarin Nbo’ was also evident in the choice of costumes. The
characters were appropriately dressed while the stage was functional.
The audience had no cause to complain when the play ended.

Sam Ebohon’s latest
solo exhibition, ‘Fragments’, opened on Friday, September 24 at Omenka
Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos. Twenty five new works by the artist, winner of
the 2009 edition of the Caterina de Medici Painting Competition, were
on display in the exhibition, the opening event of which recorded a
large turnout of guests.

Ebohon’s
colleagues, Ben Osaghae; Olu Ajayi; secretary general, Society of
Nigerian Artists (SNA), Dotun Alabi, and curator of Omenka Gallery,
Oliver Enwonwu, were among those at the opening ceremony.

Vice chair, Lagos
SNA, Stella Awoh declared the exhibition open. She did not waste time
on formalities as she promptly ushered in viewers to see the visual
feast that had been laid out for them. Some viewers lingered while
appreciating the works done in the artist’s unique crisscross linear
strokes that gives them a somewhat abstract touch feel.

Arranged under
themes like Family, Work, Love, and Beauty, works displayed include
‘Adam and Eve’; ‘Still One’; ‘Rain and Shelter I and II’; ‘Curvature’;
‘Engrossed’; ‘Survival Strategies’ and ‘Triumphant entry’.

The works, Ebohon
later told NEXT in a chat, are offerings from his heart. He revealed
that his two favourite works on display are ‘Adam and Eve’ and ‘Still
One’. He explained that he conceptualised ‘Adam and Eve’ from scratch.
The painting, which shows a male and female figure in the process of
merging, also holds another meaning for the artist “The work is an
imaginative composition of man cleaving to his wife and not letting go.
If Adam held on to Eve, we wouldn’t be in the trouble we are in today,”
he said.

In ‘Still One’ a
man and a woman lie together but face opposite directions. “The
painting is called ‘Still One’ because couples quarrel but one cannot
remove himself from his wife,” the painter said. He also explained why
he titled the exhibition ‘Fragments’.

“One thing that runs through my works is strokes made into fragments; if you remove one fragment it changes everything.”

Kelani Abass, 2010
winner of the Caterina de Medici Painting Competition who attended the
opening said of the show, “I think the works are wonderful. The artist
knows what he wants in his works. Based on the title of the exhibition,
I can see the fragments in the way that he uses the medium; I think the
exhibition is a good one. His style really makes him unique in Nigeria.
I have not seen anyone in Nigeria who has such a style.”

Artist, Kehinde
Oso, also showered praises on the Ebohon. “In most of the works, you
can see good craftsmanship. The artist made good use of light and
shade. Exhibitions are not about having big sizes, and the sizes of the
works are moderate.”

Speaking on his
style, Ebohon confesses that though he is known for his unique style,
he is certain other people are practising variations of it. “Somewhere,
somehow, you will see other derivatives in some other part of the
world. Also, I will tell you not to look at the title but the works,
that’s the way to truly enjoy them. The paintings will tell you things
I have not added.”

Born 44 years ago,
Ebohon holds a Higher National Diploma in Painting from the Yaba
College of Technology and a Teacher Training Certificate from the
Federal College of Education, Akoka, Lagos. He is a member of the SNA
and the Guild of Professional Fine Artists of Nigeria (GPFAN). His
works go straight to the heart of the matter but still leave plenty to
the imagination

The works are available for sale; and rices range from N200,000 to
N400,000.. ‘Fragments’ is at the Omenka Gallery, 24, Ikoyi Crescent,
Ikoyi, Lagos, until October 8.

I didn’t start life
as a voracious reader, in the way that the average member of the Lagos
literati supposedly did. I didn’t hear about the character named
Bambulu in James Ene Henshaw’s ‘This is Our Chance’, like most people
of my age seem to have done. I wasn’t the most passionate member of the
debating society at Baptist Academy. I didn’t belong to the Press Club
at the Federal School of Arts and Science. I picked up the idea of
writing sometime in the course of studying at the University of Ife;
after the German culture activist Ulli Beier came to give a lecture on
Duro Ladipo and discovered, a few months later, that ‘Lagos Weekend’
paid 25 naira for published articles. “The proceeds” helped pay for my
final year Geochemistry project on Laterisation (the creation of those
red soils that form the sub grade in tropical roads).

One thing led to the other and the last time I checked, my arts column has been 21 years in the running.

To write about 10
Nigerian works of literature I found most memorable in my 50 years of
life is thus a way of presenting a slice of my biography:

Burning Grass:

I read this in
Class 2 in Baptist Academy (read Age 13). It’s the only Nigerian text I
read in my teens whose basic message has stuck with me. This is the
story of a man who wanders aimlessly from village to village, having
been struck by Sokugo, the wandering disease. I don’t know if Cyprian
Ekwensi, who ordinarily tells simple stories without trying to hammer
in a sermon, meant that this should be about living a life of purpose,
but whenever I evaluate my contributions to my immediate environment,
in the 50 years I have hung around this earth, I am always hoping I
haven’t lived like the protagonist in this slim novel.

Season Of Anomy:

Wole Soyinka’s
second novel, published in 1973. This was my introduction into
‘literary enthusiasm’, so to speak. Three years after graduation,
having worked for The Guardian, and now at ThisWEEK, a news magazine, I
did more of film reviews (pre-Nollywood Nigerian, celluloid based
movies), visual art appraisals, some (very little) literature reviews
and a lot of evaluation of stage and TV drama content and trends. But I
needed to do more book reading, if I wanted to be a rounded arts
writer, I was warned. So I borrowed Niyi Obaremi’s copy of ‘Season of
Anomy’ and read it specifically for finding out for myself the so
called obscurantism in the typical Soyinka work. It was heavy going,
but I enjoyed the flow. It provided quite a very gory picture of the
pogrom, but it wasn’t so much the detail, but the language – the
cadences, the imagery – like linking a paunch with rolls of Amala. You
don’t exactly read a work like this, it happens to you.

On A Darkling Plain by Ken Saro-Wiwa:

This is one of
those non-fiction books which I found most illuminating about the
National Question. I started reading this type of work, at the turn of
the last decade of the last century (the 90s for short), more out of
the wish to be a front row witness in the unfolding of the Nigerian
drama. These ‘minutes of the last meeting’ kind of books are always
being written by other people about us. So it’s always welcome when a
Nigerian does it and does it in a properly structured literary style.
On A Darkling Plain is a long, extended, rigorously delivered argument
against the Nigerian Civil War. You can’t always agree with the
author’s opinion (I found ludicrous the length to which Saro Wiwa wants
to go to declare that the Ikwerres are non-Igbos, especially as I have
read Elechi’ Amadi’s ‘The Concubine’ and ‘Slave’ and found the lore so
close to the basic societal order in ‘Things Fall Apart’ and ‘Arrow of
God’).

Roots In The Sky, by Akin Adesokan:

I read the
manuscript of this book at around the time I decided that the way to
truly find out as much as I could about Nigerian literature was to
start reading ANA award winners, especially those works which won in
the Prose Fiction category. I was amazed at the task the author set for
himself. He packed in: History (it’s about three generations of a
Nigerian family from pre-independence to the 90s); Poetry (the author
swerves into long verses, chanting); a city’s subculture ( a vivid
portrayal of the underbelly); linguistics (there’s a gush of words by
one character in Pidgin spread over three pages). I was awed by the
perpetual storytelling and the effort at turning phrases around.

Anthills Of The Savannah, by Chinua Achebe:

This is a very
different Achebe from the one I’d come to know. I somehow found some
similarity with ‘The Interpreters’ in terms of temperament. This book
reads like a discursive argument, about power and its intoxication.
It’s a theme Achebe had explored in ‘A Man Of The People’, but this is
an updating because it fits with the emerging tendencies in the novel
form around the 70s to 80s, that novels can be written, more like a
conversation, than like a story that starts from A and ends at Z.

Conduct Unbecoming by TM Aluko:

While everyone
insists that Cyprian Ekwensi is the dominant spinner of yarns about
Lagos, I find ‘Conduct Unbecoming’ an instructive portrait of life in
the city in the immediate post-independence era; the mentality behind
the take-over of the famous Public Transportation company owned by a
Greek businessman; the sneer (by the Lagos elites) as the last
remaining British public servants insisted on adherence to city code in
building construction and destroyed illegal structures. This sort of
novel is good for a journalist, because it provides a context. It shows
how everything started to crumble.

Arrows Of Rain by Okey Ndibe:

This is an onion of
a story, you read one story – it leads you to another, which leads to
another. It’s an utterly beautiful storytelling and like ‘Roots in the
Sky’, it tackles the Nigerian political landscape through three
generations of a single family. It ends with a twist.

Everything Good Will Come by Sefi Atta:

This book grabbed
me because it reads like the story of my life; growing up in Lagos.
It’s the first book I ever read where someone depicts childhood exactly
as I lived it and the scene in Ikoyi Park, even though on the dark
side, reminds me of what we enjoyed, holidaying every Easter in what
has been mercilessly sand-filled and renamed Parkview. It’s one of the
joys, like the view of the Lagoon while driving along Oyinkan Abayomi
Drive, that has been snatched from the majority of us by a few.

My favourite 2010 reads are “minutes of the last meeting” types:

You Must Set Forth
At Dawn by Wole Soyinka: is a feisty account of one man’s exciting
journey through the world over a course of 30 years. It’s not a
chronological reading but you can fix the beginning at around 1960 and
end it at 1994. It’s the entire story of key global concerns in those
years and how one man engages all through personal and public
interactions.

When Citizens Revolt:

Ike Okonta uses
the Ogoni tragedy to attempt an explanation about why access to power
at the Federal level is still important to every ethnic unit in the
country. The Ogonis were citizens in the pre-independence era, who
became subjects as the colonial project took hold, and muzzled their
most enterprising individuals out of the economic mainstream. Like many
other nationalities in the Nigerian agglomeration, they are still
subjects even in a democratic environment run by Nigerians.

Toyin Akinosho is Publisher of Africa Oil+Gas Report