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Organisers took the
excuse of this year’s Black Heritage Festival being low key a bit too
far at the festival symposium on Wednesday, April 27. The seminar, held
at Freedom Park, Lagos Island, started over two hours late and recorded
a low turnout.

BHF consultant and
Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, however, attempted to rationalise the late
commencement of the programme. He attributed it to “post-election
euphoria or depression, depending on the side you are,” in reference to
results of the previous day’s governorship polls that were being
declared.

The festival
consultant touched on the theme of the festival, ‘Animating Heritage:
The Lagos Experience’ and broke it down for those who may have been
puzzled by its meaning. He disclosed that he was overwhelmed by the
concept of turning “a place of despair and hopelessness” into Freedom
Park, the first time he stepped inside the former Broad Street Prison.
He, however, added a caveat, noting that “I should be careful not to
tar prisons as negative places,” in reference to political prisoners
who don’t find prisons to be places of hopelessness. Kongi noted that
instead of their spirits being broken, political prisoners are
strengthened by their ordeals in prisons. Soyinka, who delved into the
history of the park, cited the examples of nationalists including
Herbert Macaulay and the sage, Obafemi Awolowo, who were imprisoned
there but emerged even more determined.

He expressed
happiness that the prison is being converted and that he found it
striking that “the performance stage is on the exact spot where the
gallows used to stand.” He added that “the most poignant aspect of this
(conversion from a prison to park) is that prisons can be turned into
animating spaces.”

Awolowo’s curse

Theo Lawson, the
lead architect in charge of the conversion, spoke on ‘Freedom Park: A
Restoration of the old Broad Street Prison’. He told the gathering that
he conceived the idea of turning the prison to a park 12 years ago from
a workshop with students. He said the students helped with the idea
before he submitted a proposal for the project to government.

Lawson discovered
while researching the prison’s history that it was first built with mud
and thatch in 1872 but that the colonialists, who had earlier
established a constabulary to keep nationalists in check, decided to
rebuild it with bricks in 1875 because of the then-prevalent fire
outbreaks. The bricks were imported from the UK at a cost of £16,000
that same year the colonialists were hard pressed to spend £6,000 on
education in the colony.

Some other famous
inmates of the prison include Adeyemo Alakija, Michael Imoudu, Lateef
Jakande and Awolowo, who reportedly cursed the ground upon his release.
The prison was shut down shortly after Awolowo’s release and no one
occupied it for 30 years. Lawson explained that what further lengthened
the prison’s abandonment period was that both the federal and state
governments didn’t want it, until the Lagos administration eventually
took it over.

Rational and emotional

Lawson said he had
no problems converting the prison when work started because it already
had natural elements of a park, including a lot of trees. He disclosed
that he was motivated to embark on the project for two reasons: the
rational and the emotional. He noted that Lagos Island needed a park
for relaxation because it was over-developed and over-populated, with
no green areas. However, Lawson rather overstretched his argument by
comparing Freedom Park to historical slave sites like Elmina Castle in
Ghana and other colonial forts. The designer also highlighted the
park’s benefits, including encouraging healthy living and complementing
the Green Lagos project of the government.

Reacting to the
non-availability of a car park for the recreational area, Lawson said
branded motor tricycles (Keke NAPEP) will be provided to serve the park
from Tafawa Balewa Square and Marina. He disclosed that there is
already a car park opposite Island Maternity able to contain 50 cars.

Lawson further
disclosed that he tried his best to contact a living inmate of the old
prison but was thwarted by poor documentation at the Nigerian Prison
Service, Ibadan, where records of the prison were transferred when it
was shut down, and the National Archives. He however disclosed that he
met a former staff of the prison named John Ogundare, who told him more
about the old Broad Street Prison.

Deji Rhodes, a
lawyer and one of Lawson’s collaborators who handled the Nigerian leg
of the research, confirmed that getting old records of the prison has
been a herculean task. He said he is yet to get information on any
former inmates but that he is still working on it. Lawson weighed in by
disclosing that they are collaborating with some agencies in the UK to
get materials about the prison.

One of the
permanent secretaries in the Lagos State Ministry of Tourism and
Inter-Governmental Affairs, Sewanu Fadipe, enjoined Lawson to replicate
the old prison, to maintain the theme and originality. However, Lawson
maintained that the concept was to create a park merging history with
recreation. He added that relics they have been able to salvage from
the site, which had earlier been allocated to four developers, will be
in the museum. He noted that while it will be impossible to restore the
prison to its former state, plans are afoot for a virtual library about
its past in the park’s museum.

Fadipe, who rounded off the session, reiterated the importance of
the annual celebration and assured that, “We will drive this state to
the next level with the Heritage week.”