When Igbo Arts And Music Meet…

Gerald Eze image courtesy of Gerald Eze

A recent collaboration between a Visual Artist and designer, Chuma Anagbado and a musician, Gerald Eze, who also doubles as a university music lecturer, is likely to bring about a revolution in the Igbo culture, writes MARY NNAH

“Oja is classical music. It is high art. It is not a bagger’s tool. It is the tool of a master performer. It does not communicate to just anybody, it is played for men of substance. Its appeal cut across cultures, and talks about connected cultures. It is spontaneous, yet it is of high essence. It is a force. It evolves and uplifts us”, these are the words of Gerald Eze, a skilled musical artist and university don, describing the Oja, a vital instrument of the Igbo music and culture.

Eze, who plays over 14 Igbo musical instruments, including the Oja, is collaborating with Chuma Anagbado, a multi-talented artist and designer, whose work cuts across traditional, digital, and emerging creative mediums.


They are both embarking on collaborative missions driving on the indigenous musical instruments of the Igbo and how they both seek to reinterpret the essence and utility of these instruments for a global audience, thereby connecting cultures. Their arts, they say, “Reimagines Igbo culture and identity.”

The collaboration is in the sense that while Eze plays the Oja (flute), at the same time, Anagbado’s laptop synchronises the songs with the digital image of the flute.

The intention, for these two Igbo creative artists, is to preserve the culture for posterity and they are willing to extend the frontiers of the culture and take it to another height with the use of digital arts while also exploring the NFT (Non-Fungible Token) Technology.

This collaboration, according to them, essentially seeks to document and promote Igbo oral musical tradition, particularly through the Oja and Ogene, among other local and contemporary musical instruments in an exhibition to be held before the end of the year.

Speaking on the reason behind the collaboration during a recent press conference, Anagbado said, “In essence both of us are reimagining our culture, which is the Igbo culture. We are actually creating this culture but we are putting it out as NFTs so as to take our culture and put it where it is supposed to be. We imagine what we have and then make it more relevant. So, I am creating the art and he is scoring the music and that becomes a video – an animated piece that is then put out as NFT.”

Speaking further on the essence of the collaboration, Anagbado posited that, “Within the Igbo culture is an embedding consciousness that you have to travel. We are all raised like that. As you grow up, there are reminders, placements and statements that will always remind you that at some point you will need to leave the geographical space of the Igbo. That essentially makes the culture a diaspora culture.

”If you look at all major events and innovation leaps, key players and influencers in Igbo land are mostly diaspora influenced and when I say diaspora, even the Igbos living in Lagos are diaspora. So, there is that consciousness that culture connects diaspora and the homeland. Within the construct of the culture, you must at some point, travel out of the Igbo geographical area to go and learn.

“Now what comes with all of that is that you then have a culture that people experience all over the world. It is likened to the Chinese and the Jews. And because the Igbos travel out a lot, everybody knows about the Igbos. So, the Igbos are like a clue connecting every other person in the world. Igbo culture is one that you would want to preserve but within all of its offering – music, arts and all of that, you have infusions of diaspora influences, like elements that have been picked up from other cultures around the world and that make the culture very robust.

“I will say it’s a universal culture and in preserving it, that culture needs to also travel into all the possibilities and places that it can be. So, it is just natural that we would go into this because we have experienced other cultures. We are doing this, as they would say, for the culture”, Anagbado explained further the essence of this uncommon marriage that brings together the brushstrokes and music.

Anagbado, whose art is driving conversations on cultural heritage, particularly the Igbo oral traditions, believes he is naturally cut out for the Igbo culture and so cannot but always be at the vanguard of stimulating the culture through his various artistic expressions.

With his experience across the world, Anagbado constantly evaluates practical ways of using both material and non-material aspects of Igbo existence in designing new structures and narratives to build a sense of identity.

For him, it is more than just an art project. “We intend to showcase the traditional art which is painting alongside playing the music instrument to show the emotions of art. We enjoin every creator out there to look for deeper meaning in whatever they do and carry an identity. We are really putting it out there that it is very important for people with like-minds to try working together: we can’t grow the culture when we are apart, we need to create a community which is what the collaboration entails.”

Beyond the fusion of music and arts and being creative, Anagbado is of the belief that they both are embarking on a divine assignment to bring the various segments of Igbos together.

“It is well known that Igbos are deeply fragmented, even though you may see a community on the surface – the Igbos are deeply fragmented and highly competitive, so what we are just trying to do is to move from competition to collaboration and from fragmenting to synergy.”

In like manner, Eze, the musician and a lecturer of music at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, also promotes and researches indigenous cultures through his music.

Using the Igbo’s traditional musical instrument, particularly the Oja, Obuaka and other 14 instruments, including Ogene, he is out to take the indigenous sound flair of Igbo to a new height.

“Igbo music has always been integrative. Even the shapes of the Oja and Obuaka are pieces of art. Philosophy, literature, music, arts and psychology are all the elements that come together in each festival that we have in the Igbo culture. So it is not out of place to collaborate with Anagbado”, the university don explained.

He noted further that one interesting thing that they both are doing in this collaboration is to explore new opportunities while reimaging the culture and connecting it.

“We explore new opportunities and that is why we are looking at the NFT space. Our ancestors explored the Oja and Igba in the village square but I try to explore the Oja in Highlife, Hip-hop, and Afro beat and these have been very successful. If you check out my videos you will see how the Oja is interacting with the violin effortlessly like it has always been there but this took years of effort.

“Anagbado has been developing his own ideas in the arts and it has taken him years, so the time eventually came for us to meet and since both of us are like minds, we felt we should come together and put out something that is collaborative- Music and Arts- in the NFT space. So, like he said, it is for the culture – to engage people and to keep the narrative going.”

For his message for people from this synergy – for the Igbo culture and other cultures, just like his partner, he said, “A sense of community is very important for the Igbos at this very moment. And the artist is always taking a lead in creating the conscience of his race in making people think critically. The artist takes it upon himself to create and to think.

“When I say artists here, I mean serious musicians, creative fine artists, those in architecture who are really breaking bounds and not just the fine artist. So for both of us to collaborate on this project, we are really putting it out there that it is very important that those of us with like minds should keep coming together because we cannot grow independently. We can develop independently but to sustain the growth, we have to come together. And we also can`t grow the culture when we are apart.”

On this note, Eze is focusing on the message of community – building a sense of community, which is what this collaboration entails.

He noted: “These are the sounds and symbols of the Igbo. They are not just coming to you from one person but from two creative persons who have travelled far and wide collecting ideas, connecting to people, integrating different forms and then we are now together to push it on. So, when these works get to people, I believe it will communicate that essence and feeling of community because whatever we have embedded in the work is also that which truly belongs to the Igbos but that which has truly evolved.”

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I will say it’s a universal culture and in preserving it, that culture needs to also travel into all the possibilities and places that it can be. So, it is just natural that we would go into this because we have experienced other cultures. We are doing this, as they would say, for the culture

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OMENALA: BBC’s Searchlight Spots Crumbling Mbari Art In Umunakara

Ime Mbari. Image: Herbert M. Cole, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Santa Barbara.

BY OSA AMADI

Recently, Picasso’s granddaughter sold a trove of his unique and highly coveted ceramic works at Sotheby’s, London. Included were Cubist drawings from the 1910s and a selection of unique ceramics that reflect the artist’s fascination with faces and portraiture whose prices range from £6,000 to £60,000. There is also a work titled “Tete a Tete” estimated to be sold between £799,000 and £1.1 million. 

In Africa, there were numerous Picassos uncelebrated. They carved or sculptured wonderful art objects, both movable and immovable. Sadly, many of those artworks have either been stolen by Western countries or are rotting away here in remote parts Africa. The Mbari Orieamafor is among those ancient artworks, now begging to be salvaged, restored and preserved.

On February 2, 2020, a crew of BBC Igbo Service stormed Umunakara Imerienwe in Ngor-Okpala Local Government Area of Imo State where they found a crumbling Mbari artwork not less than 100 years old. The outcome of the discovery was a story titled “Igbo Culture: Ihe mere e ji kwusi igba mbari n’obodo anyi” (Why making of Mbari art is no longer going on in our land). 

Speaking in the BCC interview, two elders of Umunakara, Mr. Atinetus Ekeh and Felix Ekeh explained why the present generation is no longer following the footsteps of their forefathers and tradition of making Mbari art. The two elders said the making of Mbari artwork was a tradition of the people which they themselves met when they were born, and that there is no one alive today that can tell when it started. 

“As we were told,” the elders said, “the artists that make the Mbari used to come together whenever they want to make Mbari. They usually conceal themselves and their artwork-in-progress with reed fences for about two years. They use red muds and clay, moulding different kinds of objects within those two years. After the work was completed, they unveil it to the public to see the artworks they had created.” 

Because every aspect of life in traditional African society was intertwined with the African traditional religion, some people associate the Mbari art with the worship of the village deity, Orieamafor, “because it kills evildoers,” said Mr Atinetus. 

The two elders observed that it was when Christianity came that the making of Mbari was stopped an began to be used only as an object of art exhibition or spectacle. 

Mbari is a visual art form practised by the Igbos of Eastern Nigeria. According to Chinua Achebe, “Mbari was a celebration through art of the world and of a life lived in it. It was performed by the community on command by its presiding deity, usually, the Earth goddess, Ala, who combined two formidable roles in the Igbo pantheon as a fountain of creativity in the world and custodian of the moral order in human society.” 

In 1961, Ulli Beier, a German editor, writer and scholar who had a pioneering role in developing literature, drama and poetry in Nigeria, in association with others, co-founded the MbariClub as a cultural centre for writers and artists. 

It is ironic that the descendants of the same British colonial masters who were responsible for the rape, looting and destruction of African arts and culture, are now the people championing its restoration and protection against extinction. 

This work and the BBC’s, therefore, serve as wakeup calls for state and federal governments, private organisations and international agencies, to rise to the challenge of restoring and preserving these great monuments scattered across Nigeria. They are indeed repositories of our history, arts and culture which provide contents for the much-talked-about tourism as Nigeria’s new oil deposit.

SOURCE: VANGUARD

BEN ENWONWU DISTINGUISHED LECTURE 2019: Using Art As Tool For Peace, Conflict Resolution

BY CHRIS ONUOHA

Sometimes art can fill the gap when politics falls short – Ms. Thompson (British deputy high commissioner to Nigeria.)

The outcome of the 11th Distinguished Lecture Series of Prof Ben Enwonwu Foundation was one agreed unanimously by the art and culture experts at the event that Nigeria art needs urgent attention to revamp.

The special guests comprising a renowned artist, Professor Bruce Onobrakpeya; another prominent artist, Kolade Oshinowo; Allan Davies, a veteran Architect; Her Royal Highness, Erelu Abiola Dosunmu and the keynote speaker, Her Excellency, Ms. Harriet Thompson, British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria deliberated on the way forward; how art can be used to resolve conflicts and build peace in a war torn zones.

The lecture series since inception in 2004, instituted to immortalise Prof. Ben Enwonwu’s unequalled contributions to the growth of art in Africa and the world has proved a delectable platform for national and international leaders, renowned academics, policy makers and diversity of contemporary Nigerian society to share their understanding and perspectives on the role of art in causing desirable societal changes.

With the keynote speech delivered by Ms. Harriet Thompson that hinged on “Art: An Instrument for Peace, Conflict Resolution and Socio-Economic Transformation,” she draw home some points to express her feelings over Nigeria’s art and culture and how women can influence decision in that aspect. She also stressed that Nigerian art that is striving for global reckoning should be harnessed for its potentiality and relevance in resolving conflicts.

She mentioned Enwonwu’s art as one that draw attention of effects of war and conflicts: “For Enwonwu, it was the horrors of the Nigerian civil war, with paintings such as “Children of Biafra” for example, or the piece on the invitation for today’s event, “Storm over Biafra,” she said.

“From Enwonwu to Picasso to Dali to Goya to Rubens – and the list goes on – so many artists who have used their creativity and talents to highlight the devastation of war. The Dada movement, for example, which started in Switzerland in the early 20th century, brought together artists from many different countries, including those ravaged by war, to advocate for peace and criticise those governments they believed responsible for pushing unwilling victims into war,” Thompson narrates.

“It’s worth recalling as well that arts and culture have also been used –are still used – to promote violence and disunity. Those appalling anti-Semitic pictures common through Nazi Germany, together with the nationalistic films and music used to promote a distorted image of the nation stay with me many years after my own studies of European history came to an end. And more recently in the Rwandan genocide as elsewhere, popular music attracted people to the radio stations that spread the messages inciting violence.

“But back to the positives: the Dada movement that I just mentioned was about more than raising awareness and speaking out through art. That process of self-expression was undoubtedly also part of the artists’ own personal healing, as they came to terms with the trauma they’d suffered. Today, art therapy is used for healing with many groups: victims and survivors of war, veterans, those suffering with PTSD. The value isn’t just in the work itself, but in the process of creating it – which can provide a route for self-discovery and to express emotions or thoughts too difficult to put into words.

“Last year, the British Council worked with the University of West Scotland to produce a report on “The value of art in post-conflict recovery”. The emerging evidence is clear on the role that arts and culture have to play – alongside security and development – in mitigating conflict and building peace. The evidence is particularly strong regarding the role of such programmes with post-conflict communities, in supporting therapy, reconciliation, and strengthening civil society. Rwanda provides a compelling case study. To commemorate the shocking genocide of 1994, as part of efforts to recover from the trauma, there is an annual Kwibuka period: three months of events to remember the conflict, in which arts and culture play a central role, building pride in the emerging nation. Ben Enwonwu’s sculpture, Anyanwu, also symbolises pride and hope, this time in a continent, as Africa emerged from colonialism. The power of arts and culture to bring people together, even and especially people once violently divided, is clear and sometimes, art can fill the gap when politics falls short.

Ms Thompson earnestly challenged the psyche of typical Nigerians asking; “So if art is so effective in promoting peace and speaking out, why don’t we see more of it today? The Nigerian art scene is booming – it’s one of the things I love about being here. But, and this is an observation rather than a criticism, much of it is art for art’s sake, celebrating skills, beauty and creativity; showing new perspectives on the world around us; rather than art to make a point, art as critique or advocacy, art as an inclusive means of expression or of healing and of coming together,” Thompson queried.

“Perhaps one reason for this is that using art to make a point can be high risk. Ben Enwonwu’s work during the Nigerian civil war came at a price: he came under so much pressure as a result of his perceived criticism – and at the same time from others who felt he didn’t go far enough – that he was forced to flee the country, taking many of his works with him to London to protect them.

“Even if the art doesn’t go so far as to invoke the wrath of leaders and governments, on a far more basic level, artists need to eat. They need to sell their work. Upsetting people is not always the best way to make a profit, alienating potential customers. So it’s often only once artists are well-established that they’re able to take that risk. When Picasso painted Guernica, one of the best-loved and most well-known anti-war paintings in the world, he was 56 and already a successful – and therefore relatively secure – artist. Incidentally, I love the story of when a German Gestapo officer barged his way into Picasso’s apartment, pointed at the painting and demanded “Did you do that?” to which Picasso allegedly responded “No, you did”. Now, that is courage.

“And then if an artist has the economic security and the courage to use their work to make a point, to criticise or to provoke, how do they make that point land, how do they reach the people they might want to influence, how do they evoke change? In the case of Ben Enwonwu and Pablo Picasso, when they produced some of their anti-war pieces, they were well-known, well-respected artists who counted the influential elite among their clientele.

So what they painted was bound to be noticed, to attract attention, and to promote a reaction. Which meant it did reach an audience well beyond the elite. But even in today’s Nigeria, access to the arts is highly restricted – particularly access to the visual arts. Art galleries simply aren’t accessible to huge swathes of the population. One of the many things that impressed me about Art X was the focus on accessibility, bringing in schools and keeping ticket prices as low as possible. Yet still it’s out of reach for the vast majority.

“Art isn’t a luxury for the wealthy elites. It’s the means by which people can engage with and understand their complex and messy reality. It isn’t nice to have, it’s who we are. It therefore shouldn’t be the first thing to go as governments under pressure look to make savings, and in particular, it can’t be ignored in societies like Nigeria where there are conflicts and so many tensions to be overcome, bridges built and divisions healed. Culture is not incidental but fundamental to humanity. If we want to transform humanity – whether that be through supporting peace or promoting socio-economic transformation – art and culture must be at the heart of those efforts.”

Drawing points from the extensive lecture delivered by Ms Thompson, the speakers argued over government’s involvement in promoting art in the country. Kolade Oshinowo expressed his displeasure, an encounter with the Minister of Culture over the issues of Museums in the country. He laments the poor state of the existing museums and non availability of befitting museums to cater for the arts produced in the country, saying that when art issue is sidelined by the government, it doesn’t help matters. He however, canvassed that art should be taught in our schools, from kindergarten to the University level, so that the feel, awareness and enthusiasm should be embraced by all.

Bruce Onobrakpeya in his reaction tends to shift blame on government saying; “I think we are putting too much wait on government.” He advised that the public should start the consciousness and allow the government to come in and help where necessary. He said that there are many things private and corporate entities can do to encourage art and create adequate awareness, then allow government to pick it up from there. Onobrakpeya noted that art goes beyond painting and sculpture. “Art goes beyond that, it involves everyday use of common things in our lives – from architecture, construction, industrial purposes and others.”

Erelu Abiola Dosunmu also suggests that reliance on government cannot grow the art industry. “They are not ready. We need to do it as private entity to change the narrative. I have pursued this cause for 40 years while working for the government to no avail. It is time we look inwards as art enthusiasts to promote art.

Professor Bruce Onobrakpeya on a sideline speaks extensively on how to create opportunities to promote art without involving government. He spoke on workshops for artists that have been used to harness peace and harmony among different youths across the country. “There are series of workshop all over the country where youths engage, discuss and share idea together. They now think themselves as one rather than different bits. I mentioned the workshop, “Life in my City” at Enugu, and for how many days, they are doing things together. They seem to forget that they are Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa. With this kind of workshop, they feel now, that they are one. That to me reduces tension and removes some kind of bias that is in the mind of people, which will make them hate or fight one another.

“Art creates possibilities and open up venues for people to engage in some kind of practices that keep them occupied and help them reach out to another person. Government is important but to start with, who is the government. We are the government. If the people you have in government do not know about art, how then can they push it to the government for legislation? What happens outside the government is very important. The other people should be educated through all the small private avenues that I talked about,’ Onobrakpeya concludes.

The 2019 edition of the lecture was held at the MUSON Centre, Lagos on December 12. It was attended by art enthusiasts, stakeholders, collectors and artists. The event was moderated by Tunde Arogunmati, Associate Director, Sustainable Social Investment, Ben Enwonwu Foundation and the closing remarks was made by Oliver Enwonwu, Executive Director, Ben Enwonwu Foundation while a renowned visual and performance artist, Jelili Atiku made an impressive appearance with an illuminating performance.

According to some of the guests, “it was quite an incisive lecture worth attending. This really exposes some facts why we still lag behind on our pursuit of global reckoning in art,” says one guest while another was of the opinion that the awareness created in one lecture do not saturate to the main people that needs the information.

SOURCE: VANGUARD

The Mona Lisa Charm Of Chikadibia Benedict Enwonwu

BY CHJINELO EZE

Every art masterpiece has as allure and charm that revolves around it adding to the value and mystery of the work. When such works are showcased, a cluster of wonder is centred on who the sitter may have been, the relationship between artist and sitter, the working disposition of the artist and more. These and more have guided and led the famous works of Leonardo Da Vinci especially his most prevalent work Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisasmile is a smile that gives credence to the historic renaissance painting of Leonardo Da Vinci believed to have been painted 1503-1519 and probably was not finished due to the death ofthe creator Leonardo Da Vinci. The Mona Lisa painting has lasted a century, as well as it has lasted a lifetime.

The western world has been known to be the hallmark of art, a world exquisitely decorated with beautiful artworks of various artists and let us not exclude that these beauties are laced with what was shipped away from various African countries through the devastating history of Africa, as they add it to their endless collection of art and beautification.

In the African domain of Nigeria, Benedict Chikadibia Enwonwu was a famous Nigerian painter and sculptor, the first professor of arts in Nigeria at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and fondly called the father of modern art.

His works as it is for unimaginable reasons have recently been making a comeback in the 21century after being lost for over 60 years. His famous work for details of grandeur called the “African Mona Lisa” is the picture of an Ile Ife princess Adeutu warmly called Tutu. Being of noble birth just as Mona Lisa by Da Vinci was and having her as a sitter took tedious patience of 6 months of study and persuasion by her creator Ben Enwonwu, before her family approved. The hesitation leans on the just-ended civil war (Biafra), having an Igbo and Yoruba relationship at such contentious time was like an attempt to commit suicide. The intricacies of Tutu is similar to Mona Lisa with the lost and found curse of great pieces as Tutu was found in a conventional home in London.

Tutu also branded as African Mona Lisa is an embodiment of love, hope and reconciliation at a muddled time of Nigerian history. She may not have suffered series of wars like her counterpart Mona Lisa, but she was affirmatively the beauty born out of war, a symbol that projects the rebirth of a nation. She holds a cultural significance of the Biafra war and the unity sort, in the aftermath of the war therein having an Igbo sculptor and painter work on the Yoruba princess Adetutu.

Mona Lisa definitely does not share this unification trait as Tutu, but she has conquered the hearts of powerful men like Francis 1 of France and the infamous Napoleon Bonaparte hanging on his bedroom wall for years, whilst surviving abduction, war and amputation. Tutu also made a headway for herself as she first conquered her master who could not let her go and therefore drew two more in order to hold on to the first and original which he considered a masterpiece though still missing after a robbery attack in his home.

As fate may have it the second painting emerged as earlier stated in faraway London. She was put up for sale February 28,2018, in London’s Bonhams auction house and was streamed live in Lagos, carting off with the sum of 1.2million pounds. While another of his portrait, Christine Davis recently bagging the second-highest sale of Enwonwu’s works at 1.1million pounds. Both work beating the expected estimation.

Thanks to the recent rising popularity of African contemporary arts, her worth was realized. These sales have made history to probably be the highest selling Nigerian artwork to have sold over a million in dollars and pounds.

In comparing both images of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Ben Enwonwu’s Tutu, one thing is unmistakable, and that is the natural or quirky beauty of both sitters, compared to this time of 3D and HD makeup artistry. While both portraits have a perplexing demeanour, they also exhume an aura of grace with Tutu’s perfect blackness and voluptuous lips and cool look away gaze, as Ben Enwonwus’ works are known to celebrate the African melanin skin being a keen supporter of the negritude movement at the time.

Suffering attacks in 1956,Mona Lisa was therefore replaced with a bulletproof casing; it was further attacked in the years 1974 and 2009. Portraying like Enwonwu’s Tutu, not just of a woman but of history and its times of slavery and war thus revealing the disparity in times and centuries. Tutu so far unlike her western counterpart has had no harm meted out on her as she makes her grand awakening breaking barriers as with other works of Enwonwu.

A year and months after the African Mona Lisa made her debut, so did Christine with an amazing sale. It is believed there is a 50/50 chance of Tutubeing alive or dead coming from a home of over a hundred siblings and relations. She again might have been a sister of Christine in another life because the resemblance is uncanny.Like every great work of art, there is always a history of mystery and fascination befitting it which Tutu and Mona Lisa represent. Like fine wine, the older it gets the better it gets.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

Discover Osinachi, The Digital Artist Who Turned Microsoft Word Into His Canvas

"I find myself being inspired by 

Image: Osinachi via Konbini

BY ADEWOJUMI ADEREMI

To many of us, Microsoft Word is simply a word processing program used for writing, editing and, on occasion, making a table or two. But for Osinachi, Microsoft Word is much more than that — it's his canvas for his enthralling digital art creations.

Starting out as a writer by the name of Prince Jacon — you’ve definitely seen his words right here on Konbini — Osinachi fell into visual arts largely out of boredom.

While in secondary school, upon completing his writing assignments, with nothing better to do, Osinachi began playing around with the various features on Microsoft Word — discovering artistic functions to which most of us are oblivious.

Though the pressures of his undergraduate degree didn’t allow for many distractions, after his degree, Osinachi fell back into his artistic ways, and this time around he stuck with it.

"In 2014, I had just finished my undergraduate studies and I was lazing about, waiting for NYSC call-up. Then I started playing around on my computer and that was when I rediscovered what I could do on MS Word."

Without any formal digital art training, Osinachi embraced Instagram as his gallery. Sharing his audacious pieces to an ever-increasing number of followers.

It has only been about a year since Osinachi began to take his career as an artist more seriously, but his works have already been picked up by notable online art retailers, such as Polartics, and exhibited at the Ethereal Summit Conference in New York last year.

Speaking with Konbini about his rapid successes so far, Osinachi recalls two career-defining moments:

"I would say the first was when ARTOJA replied my email, saying they loved my work and would like to market it. The second was when Artnet, the biggest art market website in the world, featured my work on their Instagram account. It basically made me the face of contemporary African art on Instagram."

With motif's reminiscent of Picasso's signature style, Osinachi's works are completely captivating, for their boldness in colour and form. He talks us through what inspires his works, saying:

"At first, as you would see in my early works on Instagram, I was inspired by how a combination of colours can create a striking effect. But these days, I find myself being inspired by my experiences as an Igbo man and a Nigerian. My subjects are first and foremost black. That is my own way of exploring the black experience. This is why I use my Igbo name, Osinachi, for all my creative works."

So far, he's got two standout series' behind him already,

"One is called 'They Say I'm a Hoe', exploring sex and sexuality among males. The other is called 'August Meeting', exploring the meeting Igbo women hold in villages every August."

As one of our own, we’re so excited to chart his growth and can't wait to see what he comes out with next. You can purchase Osinachi's works from ARTOJA and Polartics or simply see more via his Instagram page.

SOURCE: KONBINI

‘The Lost Okoroshi’ Blends Afrofuturism With Mythology, Comedy, And A Lot Of Dancing

Image via Pajiba

BY KAYLEIGH DONALDSON

The Nigerian film industry — often referred to as Nollywood — encompasses one of the largest entertainment entities on the planet. The country’s vast and extremely prolific output, encompassing hundreds of languages and divided along regional and religious lines, remains a fascinating and oft-unreported melting pot of the medium’s past, present, and future. Despite its status and ever-expanding cinematic slate, it remains depressingly rare to see Nigerian film — and indeed, African cinema in general — represented on the major festival scene. For most Western film lovers, especially in Britain and America, access to such films is difficult. Progress has been made thanks to streaming services like Netflix, and now the Toronto International Film Festival brings us a real gem with The Lost Okoroshi.

Directed by Abba Makama, who previously brought Green White Green to the festival, this comedy-drama is a blend of Afrofuturism, music video coolness, traditional Nigerian culture, and slapstick comedy. Funnily enough, it all works too.

The story follows Raymond (played by Seun Ajayi), a dissatisfied security guard living in Lagos. His life is familiarly bland, mulling day after day from home to work to time with friends. The only thing that disturbs this ease is a recurring dream where he is haunted by colorfully costumed characters from a traditional Okoroshi masquerade. They dance and chase Raymond every night with no rhyme or reason. Upon the advice of a friend more strongly connected to his roots, Raymond decides to stop running in his dream and embrace the Okoroshi. Then he wakes up one morning and finds that he now is the masked performer. After being fired from his job for improper attire, Raymond stumbles through Lagos and soon finds a use for his new abilities.

On a purely stylistic level, The Lost Okoroshi is a fascinating mish-mash of ideas and aesthetics that ensures you’ll never be bored throughout its speedy 90 minutes running time. The first 15 minutes or so almost feel like a soap opera before the madness starts. There’s a gonzo element that blends well with Makama’s keen eye for visuals. The masquerade costumes alone are a stunning delight of movement and allure, but it’s in the vaguely paranormal moments where he truly shines. There’s no shortage of color on display here, from the vivid purple of Raymond’s new garb to the vibrancy of Lagos’s streets to the nightclub that becomes an Okoroshi dance party. The entire film, even as it blends broad comedy with wholly earnest pleas for an understanding of cultural lineage, feels like the world’s coolest music video, especially with its blend of music that feels like a playlist of traditional beats, MTV Africa, Angelo Badalamenti’s work on Twin Peaks, and ‘Flight of the Valkyries.’ That may sound somewhat glib or reductive of what the director is trying to accomplish here but it should not diminish his work. This feast for the eyes works because it works in tandem with the central themes.

There’s such energy in moments where Raymond, skulking around Lagos in the masquerade costume, helps out a beleaguered sex worker and is chased down by a wannabe entrepreneur who sees a potential money-making ability with this supposed novelty. One especially memorable scene includes a kidnapping at the hands of the Igbo Peoples Secret Society of Heritage Restoration and Reclamation (or IPSSHRR for short), a group so secret that they have their logo emblazoned on t-shirts and keep a sign on the gate outside their headquarters. Their increasingly bureaucratic arguments over how to retain their cultural heritage are highly entertaining, more so than the film’s other major attempt to engage with its own thesis. It’s also worth noting that this is a film with a sex worker character who is funny, fully fleshed-out, never shamed for being a sex worker, and not used by the narrative as someone to be made an example of. If only the rest of pop culture would follow suit.

One character, an African studies scholar called on to help figure out what’s going on with Raymond, sadly drives the momentum to a complete halt to provide historical and cultural context as well as to conclude the film with an overview of its themes just in case anyone missed them. It’s a shame because for the majority of its running time, The Lost Okoroshi refuses to hold open the door for audiences unfamiliar with Nigerian culture or Igbo mythology, and it’s all the better for it.

If you’ve never seen a Nigerian film, The Lost Okoroshi is a vibrant and appealing introduction for any newbie, even as it lags in moments where the substance starts to overburden the style. Still, it’ll definitely make you want to dance.

SOURCE: PAJIBA

After 44 Years Of Devoted Service, Ihe-Nsukka Honours El Anatsui

Anatsui dances after his chieftaincy installation. Image: The Guardian

• The Love For Fela’s Music Brought Me Here

• Nigeria Has Not Lost Much Of Its Culture
• Artists Survive In Environment Where There Is Idea Stimulation

BY GREGORY AUSTIN NWAKUNOR


First, the hair. They are silver, without space for any other colour. On a sunny day, the hair glistens like cumulus in the sky. They are not receding yet.

Seventy-five years old El Anatsui, the owner of this hair is one of the most respected artists of the contemporary era.

Born in Anyako, Volta Region of Ghana, and trained at the College of Art, University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in central Ghana, his work with sculpture and woodcarving started as a hobby to keep alive the traditions he grew up with. He began teaching at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 1975 and has remained in the university town till date.

The critic John McDonald says: “It has taken many years to find artists who can occupy a prominent place on the global circuit while choosing to reside outside the metropolitan centres. William Kentridge has made his reputation from Johannesburg, and El Anatsui has conquered the planet while living and working in the Nigerian university town of Nsukka.”

He did not dare get his hopes up too high when he got to Nsukka. He didn’t want them to be dashed. Many have had that as a welcome gift in new climes.

One year had gone by, and another, and then another, and he was deep into his stay in the university community, worming his way into the heart of Nsukka art School.

He was working day and night, weekends, putting off vacations, losing weight, gaining weight, growing pale and worn out, waking at odd hours.

With a hammer, chisel, rasps — a piece of metal that resembles a file, with small teeth all over the surface — and banker, a very sturdy workbench, used mostly by sculptors, by his side, Anatsui he was always ready.

Forty-four years is no joke staying in a foreign land. When you listen to him, you get a picture of what it was at the beginning: Excitement and hope.

“I was excited coming to Nigeria,” he says.

Pauses.

Anatsui is courteous and measures his words before bringing them out. “I knew something about Nigerians. I was in school with them. I knew something about the country from primary school. There were Nigerians who taught me, and when I finished secondary school, I taught one or two of them in class.”

He says, softly, “when I went to the university, there were so many Nigerians there. I found them very exciting people. In Ghana, at the time, we were on a government scholarship, but these people came and they paid fees. And for that reason, they tended to be more serious than we on a government scholarship. The government was paying us for schooling. So, I knew that when I got the appointment with the University of Nigeria, I was going to be with very serious people like the ones I met in my school days.”

He flashes a grin.

“Also, when I was in school, I was playing in the university band. I was a trumpeter, and occasionally, a drummer. One of our heroes or icons at that time was Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. I think it was in the final year that he visited my school,” he says.

That was when Fela was trying to introduce afrobeat “and we had the opportunity of playing during the halftime of his performance. I thought that if I came to Nsukka, Fela would be within five hours reach and that I would go and listen to his original music anytime I was in Lagos, which I was doing anyway,” Anatsui reveals.

His voice is gentle and cultured.

Now: try to imagine a Bohemian life.

“Each time I was travelling to Lagos, I made sure it was Friday. So, in those early days, I was always going by road for my long vacation,” he says. “I will come to Lagos and do my papers and international driving licence, and in the evening, retire to Fela’s Shrine to listen to good music. At dawn, I will take off to Ghana.”

The artist says, jocularly, “Fela’s music was original to many of us. It was the kind of music you want to hear over and over again. I didn’t want the situation where I would have to wait for him to travel to see his performance. All those things put together, my colleagues, who were hardworking, and then, Fela made it exciting for me to live and work in Nigeria.”

Why Nsukka and not any other place in Nigeria?

He adds, creating a world for the inner eye to inhabit.
“UNN was the place that gave me an appointment. When I came, I found the place welcoming and I didn’t think of going to another university. It was the time that I came that we had the likes of Uche Okeke, Obiora Udechukwu, Chike Aniakor, and so many artists around. Nsukka art school had a very prestigious formation. The staff were very good, and so, initially, I thought I would do a couple of years and then renew at the end. I kept renewing, and the university, on a couple of occasions, renewed without me knowing. So, I needed a place that was very exciting.”

He says, “an artist survives very well in an environment where there is idea stimulation and I have a lot of stimulation in the environment from the things that are cultural and even the language. I’m a very good fan of Pidgin English. It has a lot of art and imagery. Listening to Pidgin English being spoken can be interesting. The radio in my car is permanently on WAZOBIA FM where they speak pidgin. The expressions are revealing and entertaining at the same time. I see that in Nigeria, you haven’t lost much of your culture. The colonialists did not stay long here. In Ghana, they destroyed so many things. When I came, I saw that in this area, especially the Igbo community, a lot of the culture was still intact. In those days, I used to go to events; I even went to a place where a friend took ozo title. The Nsukka environment was exalting, people were experimenting, and sometimes, not experimenting but very active – one that urged you on to do something. It was a synergetic kind of, at that time.”

And he didn’t feel like joining the ‘brain drain’ movement of the 90s?

“I think the people who left mostly were not Nigerians. They were expatriate. Though I’m an expatriate. What I think I was earning did not have anything to do with money. More so, my practise was good enough for me to worry about money the way others would do,” he says.

He admits, “I don’t think I have any regret living here these past 44 years because you cannot imagine another scenario to compare with or maybe with the Ghana that I left.”

According to him, “that’s one thing I don’t know. It could happen, maybe not. The thing is that the kind of artist that I’m, somebody who is constantly working for a new way of doing things, Maybe I would have survived in Ghana, I don’t know. When you leave your domain or country where you are used to things and come to a new place, you tend to probably move faster than when you were in your home where you have all the comforts. You might not be adventurous enough or you might just relax, new things to learn, new challenges to move on.”

Anatsui reveals that his first experience with art was through drawing letters on a chalkboard. “During my pre-school years, I lived in a mission house with an uncle who was a reverend. We used chalk and slate. The letters always baffled me. I thought they were very interesting signs. I thought they were human beings,” the sculptor explains.

The smile on his face is huge. It looms large enough for a close-up shot. “When I went to university, sculpture looked interesting to me. That was an area I had not been introduced to in all the other stages of education. So, I instinctively chose to major in it. Having done that, I discovered that I made a very good choice because sculpture seems to be so wide that within it, you can have so many others,” he confesses.

He adds, “in sculpture, for instance, you handle colour like a painter — They are even restricted kind of to canvas or only papers. In sculpture, you’re handling colours in so many ways. You have all the other areas subsumed in it. As a sculptor, you can use fabrics, paints and just anything to work with. You can even use clay, which is ceramics. All the other areas are easily found in the discipline. As a sculptor, you have the freedom to work in all these areas.”

He expresses a variety of themes and demonstrates how African art can be shown in a multitude of ways that are not seen as ‘typical’ African.

His work utilises conceptual modes that are used by European and American artists but hardly in Africa. He uses his inspiration and materials from Africa to speak about humanity.


In his studio practice, Anatsui creates experiences for his viewers conceptually. He believes that “human life is not something which is cut and dried. It is something that is constantly in a state of change.”

Anatsui’s preferred media are clay, wood and found objects, which he uses to create sculptures based on traditional Ghanaian beliefs and other subjects. He has cut wood with chainsaws and blackened it with acetylene torches.

After he moved from Winneba to Nsukka, wood became less accessible to him. This drove him to pursue clay as a medium.

“I have spent time doing some works. They call it ceramics. That was about three or four years ago. But that’s what I call ceramic sculpture,” the artist retorts.

Anastui’s Broken Pots: Sculpture was a series of vessels formed by shards of existing and created pottery. This series was Anatsui’s first experiment with using many parts to create a whole. Often providing new context or meaning to the pieces he was using.

More recently, he has turned to installation art. Some of his works resemble woven cloths such as kente cloth but were not intended as textiles, but as sculptures.

In his installations, draws connections between consumption, waste and the environment.

For him, art grows out of each particular situation, and artists are better off working with whatever their environment throws up.

He says, “as a sculptor, you’re delving into the meaning of form and the material. Let’s take a look at clay. It is soft and pliable, but when it dries, it is hard. When you fire it, it becomes harder. The main characteristic is that it is fragile. It breaks easily. A sculptor, for instance, might not be thinking of clay when he or she wants to do a work that is not fragile. I’m not restricted to any particular medium and grow into something else.”

According to him, “at this stage, I haven’t closed my eyes or signed off. My mind is constantly in search of any medium that will bring a new message. When I worked with wood, it was to explore certain ideas. It doesn’t mean that I’m finished with wood; I’m still working with wood, but not as much as I’m doing with metals. When I came to metals, it wasn’t as if the wood has been exhausted but because metal comes with a new message and idea. When a new medium shows itself up, then it tends to draw more attention. It doesn’t mean that I have left the other one.”

These works are made from found objects, usually metal bottle caps, which are tied together with wire to create vast sculptures that resemble tapestries. Anatsui incorporates Adinsubli for his works, an acronym made up of uli, nsibidi, and Adinkra symbols, alongside Ghanaian motifs.

With his metal hangings continuing to spread over the world, Western art critics began to connect Anatsui’s work with potential art historical references in order for them, foreigners, to create familiarity. For example, one mentions that his bottle tops could be compared to “Duchamp’s bicycle wheel” and “recall disparate Modernist sweet spots without quite settling into any familiar category.”

On Saturday, August 24, 2019, the traditional ruler of Ihe-Nsukka autonomous community, Igwe George Asadu, honoured the Ghanaian-born Nigerian artist with the chieftaincy title of Ikedire. This is the first traditional title conferred on him since his sojourn here.

On why he chose Anatsui for honour, Igwe Asadu said: “Ihe community searched around Nsukka and all its environs for a distinguished and outstanding personality to be celebrated. Out of the very few names shortlisted, no one qualified for this recognition more than Anatsui.”

He says, “the first time I heard, I thought it was good. It comes with a challenge. You are challenged to see how you can make things better. It’s an official way of having access to members of the community in terms of ideas that can help me and the community to move on. These days, you have artists not looking only in their studios. They are becoming involved in a series of collaborations. Now, if I meet a member of the community and I ask of an idea, they are not going to look at me like, who is this. They will take me seriously and try to collaborate.”

He continues, “when I first arrived in Nsukka almost four decades and a half ago, little did I know that I would be here today as a recipient of this great honour being bestowed on me. Nsukka has been my home for a longer time than even my place of birth and where I grew up in Ghana. I have spent more years living among you all than I have lived anywhere on earth. And, because of this, the town and people of Nsukka shall always remain an indelible part of my being and experience.”

Anatsui adds, “today, I am now being admitted into the honoured sanctum of this town, a few of whose historical antecedents I have tried to encapsulate here, as a reminder of what Nsukka once was and can build upon. I shall continue to do my best to assist in perpetuating some of these legacies.”

Anatsui won an honorable mention at the First Ghana National Art Competition during his time as an undergraduate student in 1968. The following year he was awarded the Best Student of the Year.

In 1990, Anatsui had his first important group show at the Studio Museum In Harlem, New York. He also was one out of three artists singled out in the 1990 exhibition, Contemporary African Artists: Chaning traditions, which was extended for five years.

He has since exhibited his work around the world, including, the Venice Biennale (1990), the 8th Osaka Sculpture Triennale (1995); the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (2001); the National Museum of African Art (2001); Liverpool Biennial (2002); the 5th Gwangju Biennale (2004) and Hayward Gallery (2005).

He also exhibited at the Fowler Museum at UCLA (2007); Venice Biennale (2007); National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. (2008); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2008–09); Rice University Art Gallery, Houston (2010), A 2010 retrospective of his work, entitled, When I Last Wrote to You About Africa, was organised by the Museum for African Art and opened at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It subsequently toured venues in the United States for three years, concluding at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

His works have equally been shown at the Clark Art Institute (2011) and at the Brooklyn Museum (2013).

In a span of two years, he bagged three international Honorary Doctorate degrees from University of Harvard, USA; University of Capetown, South Africa and his own alma mater, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Arts, Kumasi.

Again, in 2014, he was made an honorary royal scholar and equally elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2015, Anatsui clinched the prestigious Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 56th international Art Exhibition of the Biennale de Venezia, and just this year, he was decorated with the glamorous Praemium Imperiale Award for Sculpture plus countless other numerous awards, recognitions and honours.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

Things Fall Together: Chinua Achebe Is Okonkwo Of Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe

BY JIMANZE EGO-ALOWES
For Chinua Achebe, the standard fare is that he was not autobiographical in his novels. But is it? Whatever, the scandal is not that Achebe was actually autobiographical in writing Things Fall Apart, the scandal is that Achebe’s readers, scholars, and researchers, have missed out on this largely self-evident fact for sixty-odd years.

The question is why? Perhaps the explanation will require another paper. For justice, the best way to go about tracking the Achebe analog in Okonkwo of Things Fall Apart is to match the key and character-defining moments and highlights of the lives of the two men; the man as God made him, and the other as created a character.

Okonkwo was born, Achebe tells, as the son of a lazy but impoverished man. The key point is that Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, was not one of the leading personages or as Achebe may prefer, one of the lords of the clan. Okonkwo was born into the lower strata of society. One telling fact is this. Achebe writes in Things Fall Apart, a sociological truth that resonates with historical veracity.

“The church had come and led many astray. Not only the low-born and the outcast but sometimes a worthy man had joined it.’’ Later he writes, [Mr. Brown] went from family to family begging people to send their children to his school. But at first, they sent their slaves or sometimes their lazy children. (Achebe 2008, 139).”

So, it is obvious that the bulk of the Igbo who first went to school or converted to Christianity were not from the dominant strata of the Igbo society. In fact, the fact of ‘’A worthy man joining,’’ was much later. And since Achebe’s parents were the first of the converts, it is reasonable to affirm that his fathers did not belong to the elite strata of society or the lords of the clan.

In other words, Achebe was like Okonkwo. He was born underprivileged. This is especially so in the eyes of the extant, ‘’the status quo ante,’’ not the transitional society he is reporting in Things Fall Apart. That these underprivileged ones later became leaders and lords of the clan were due to the self-fulfilling prophecy of the white man. The white man fixed it. It was ‘’his century’’ and consequentially, the century of his local agents in Igbo land. And these local agents were the Achebe fathers and sons who pioneered going to schools and churches.

So, it is not out of place to read an Achebe memoirist excerpt, under a chapter appropriately titled: “Pioneers of a New Frontier: “My father was born in the last third of the nineteenth century, …. And so, my father was raised by his maternal uncle, Udoh. It was this maternal uncle, as fate would have it, who received in his compound the first party of English clergy in his town…. My father was an early Christian convert and a good student. (Achebe 2012, 7).”

In Things Fall Apart, Achebe writes: “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages. As a young man of eighteen, he had brought honour to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat.… It was this man that Okonkwo threw in a fight, which the old man agreed was one of the fiercest since the founder of their town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights. (Achebe 2008, 1)”

This too is the story of Achebe, if especially we read Things Fall Apart, philologically. The point is that we miss doing so. The details are as follows. Today, we see wrestling as street brawls and not the haute couture cultural fiesta it was for the Igbo of Umuofia. That is, an Okonkwo of Things Fall Apart is the equivalent of a George Weah or an Arnold Schwarzenegger of today, if you liked. Weah and Schwarzenegger are all popular sportsmen who rode on their entertainment value to become a President of Liberia and an American State Governor [California], respectively. Thus, the rite of Okonkwo’s winning, not to speak of the millennial upset he staged set him out as one of the – all-American, sorry, all-Liberian, sorry – all-Umuofian boys of all ages. In today’s world, Okonkwo would be one of the world’s most eligible bachelors.

One of the world’s most eligible bachelors? Yes. The point is the nine villages and beyond constitute the equivalent of the whole known world for the Umuofians and there is nothing odd or exotic in this. The sages of the Greek city-states wrote and performed as if they constituted the world. The only ‘’Prisoners they took’’ was that the unknown world was made up of barbarians, men who were outside history, and thus of no consequence. Injustice, it is thus obvious that Okonkwo’s fame was worldwide, in philological or new-reality adjusted terms. Even today, when Americans say, ‘’It is a worldwide hit,’’ they really mean that it is a hit in America, the larger West, and Japan. Africa and other provincials are not members of their known cultural universe or kit.

If one thing can be said of Things Fall Apart, it is that it is an upset, a worldwide upset. Achebe was an outlier, a provincial lad. In this, he was just like Okonkwo. While Okonkwo’s handicap was cast from the perspective of sociological lowliness, Achebe’s, was of his being a colonial. Colonials like Achebe were not proper citizens of any part of the known world. They were more chattels than citizens, at least to the British who colonised them. And just at the tender age of 28 [adjusted for the years of his education, it would probably come to 18 or so], as against Okonkwo’s 18, Achebe pole-vaulted to the top of the known world just like Okonkwo. Of course, Achebe must be writing of himself principally, when he ostensibly writes of Okonkwo that: ‘’ His fame rested on solid personal achievements.’’ The point is if ever there was such an achiever it is Achebe. Things Fall Apart, a dazzling accomplishment, is Achebe’s singular, solid, personal achievement, as there ever was. And that ensured that Achebe like Okonkwo became a pan-world icon.

In other words, Achebe’s first great and crowning achievement, Things Fall Apart, is the moral or urban equivalent of Okonkwo’s unbundling of Amalinze the Cat, and it was just as monumental. So monumental, that it was compared in the case of Okonkwo with the epic fight of the founding fathers. And in the case of Achebe it was so monumental that it is compared with the epic fathers of world literature. Today, alongside immortals, the greatest of the greats, like Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, etc., Achebe is ranked as their equal. (“The 100 Best Books of All Time From the Norwegian Book Club.” https://www.listchallenges.com/the-100-best-books-of-all-time-from-the) It is thus safe to state, that if Umuofians made such urban lists as the “100 greatest men, etc. of all time,” Okonkwo would have made it alongside their founding fathers and ‘’urban’’ names like Einstein, Nietzsche, Napoleon, etc. Okonkwo would have ‘’philologically’’ topped the lists just as Achebe does today.

Okonkwo’s undoing was a largely innocuous event. A “Friendly or such fire” killed a maiden, and a lad etc. was substituted for her. The lad, Ikemefuna, stayed in the Okonkwo household as was befitting one of the lords of the clan. And it so happened that in the wisdom of the day, Ikemefuna – Okonkwo’s adopted son – had to be killed or sacrificed. Okonkwo heeded the call to swing the machete and did. And a little later, unrelated to the death of Ikemefuna, things took a bad turn; and Okonkwo never quite recovered. Like Achebe’s Ikemefuna, an inauspicious event also befell him because of his solid personal achievement, because of his genius. Achebe authored a novel, A Man of the People. It was a prescient and prophetic novel.

The novel predicted the coup that quickly followed its publication. That alone made Achebe guilty in the eyes of the genocidal Yakubu Gowon and or his agents, and they sought out Achebe to murder him. To these genocidaires, Achebe was a part of the Igbo conspiracy to dominate the known world. Luckily, Achebe escaped, but things tipped in the manner it did for Okonkwo. Just, as the white man came and brought his pestilence, the Biafra war erupted, no thanks to Gowonism, and the Gowon-exacted genocide against the Igbo.

And just like it happened to Okonkwo with the coming of the white man, Achebe never quite recovered from the Biafra war. It is not only that it cut short his writing career – organically at least -– he now saw the country he once loved slip into the darkness with the direst of consequences, and this was not just for him but for his people also. This too was similar to Okonkwo’s understanding of the consequences of the white man and his new ways, that devastated not just Okonkwo but Umuofia.

Again, and insistently, Achebe and Okonkwo live out parallel lives. Okonkwo never quite listened to advice or alternative opinions, especially after he became a successful man. We may recall: “Looking at a king’s mouth… one would think he never sucked at his mother’s breast. He was talking about Okonkwo, who had risen so suddenly from great power and misfortune to be one of the lords of the clan…. But he was struck, as most people were, by Okonkwo’s brusqueness in dealing with less successful men…. Without looking at the man Okonkwo said: “This meeting is for men.” (Achebe 2008, 21).”

But was Achebe in real life any different? Historical data suggest that Achebe lived up to be an analogue of his character, Okonkwo, in these matters. A pivotal and character defining event in Achebe’s literary life and career must be the critical revelation by Professor Charles Nnolim. Nnolim ‘’unearthed’’ the source of one of Achebe’s great novels, Arrow of God. Quite some din was raised over the matter and Achebe faltered, Okonkwo-like – it is apparent –in his responses. For instance, Nnolim reports on Achebe’s written response. Achebe writes: “A certain fellow was claiming that Arrow of God was written by his uncle, which led to a rather curious situation in which the fellow was dismissed as irresponsible by a white critic. It really should have been expected that some Igbo critics would have shown as much concern as the white critic about matters of critical responsibility in our literature.(Charles Nnolim, “A Source for Arrow of God,” University of Port Harcourt. Okike, No 52, 01 November 2014. https://www.unn.edu.ng/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Charles-E.-Nnolim-%e2%80%98A-Source-for-Arrow-of-God%e2%80%99-Matters-Ari1.pdf).”

“A certain fellow,” Achebe’s epithet for Nnolim, whom he knows personally, and who was at the time a well-known and distinguished critic, is the urban equivalent, of Okonkwo calling another, a man, a woman; and Achebe did and in print!

Even more interesting is that Okonkwo rationalized his killing of his adopted son by recourse to the higher authority of the clan, though he needed not, at least according to his equally brave and well-achieved friend, Obierika. In other words, that act of murder by Okonkwo was superfluous as far as Okonkwo, a foster father, was the actor-subject. This is despite conceding that the act may be done. But not done by Okonkwo, was Obierika’s very reasonable position. In the telling words of Obierika: “If I were you, I would have stayed at home. [And not participated in the killing of Ikemefuna.]
“The Earth cannot punish me for obeying her messenger,” Okonkwo said. “That’s true,” Obierika agreed. “But if the Oracle said that my son should be killed, I would neither dispute it nor be the one to do it.”(Achebe 2008, 53).

And when Achebe had a similar issue what did he do? Professor Eldred Durosimi Jones plays Obierika to headstrong Achebe: ‘’What I find curious is that Achebe did not acknowledge the source which he obviously studied and whose use does him no injury.’’ Quoting [Professor] Eldred Durosimi Jones. Founding editor of African Literature Today. (Charles Nnolim, “A Source for Arrow of God,” University of Port Harcourt. Okike, No 52, 01 November 2014. https://www.unn.edu.ng/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Charles-E.-Nnolim-%e2%80%98A-Source-for-Arrow-of-God%e2%80%99-Matters-Ari1.pdf)

Thus, just like Okonkwo, the rationalization by Achebe of a self-evident even if ‘’harmless failure’’ of his, is superfluous. It would have served him and the rest of us best if he admitted to being forgetful or in plain error. But like Okonkwo, Achebe hinged his personal choices on higher powers. For Okonkwo, it was the Earth goddess: for Achebe it was the white critic he called on his fellow Igbo to queue behind.

In characterizing the ‘’doubleness’’ of Achebe and Okonkwo, we may not yet be done. Achebe again writes: “And when she returned, he beat her very heavily. In his anger, he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace. His first two wives ran out in great alarm pleading with him that it was the sacred week. But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way, not even for fear of a goddess. (Achebe 2008, 23)

Was Achebe not such as one? Would Achebe ever have changed his mind even in the face of contradictory evidence? Our records show Okonkwo-like tendency of the great man. For instance, Achebe was into a political alliance with Alhaji Aminu Kano, a prominent Northern Nigeria politician. It is not impossible Achebe did not in the morning of his political romance with the said Aminu Kano, know that Aminu Kano was a ‘’notorious’’ – even if then closeted – genocidaire. But when the fact of it was in the open (Iloegbunam 1999), Achebe neither retracted nor spoke on the fact of his friend, a genocidaire, against his own people.

The point is that Achebe as the successful Okonkwo took himself as beyond good and evil, as the new measure of all things. That is, for Achebe as for Okonkwo, there was to be no community Week of Peace or rites, or even truths that their personal whims could not override. The matter is so much that Achebe in pursuit of personal sentiments above community good, dedicated his famous The Trouble with Nigeria to Aminu Kano, a notorious genocidaire – we repeat. And worse, he had the temerity to later write: “… there were a few upright political figures like Mallam Aminu Kano….”(Achebe 2012)

Get the drift? A genocidaire as an upright political figure? Only in Achebe/Okonkwo-style delusion!

Achebe writes: “In a flash, Okonkwo drew his matchet. The messenger crouched to avoid the blow. It was useless. Okonkwo’s matchet descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body… Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action. He discerned fright in that tumult. He heard voices asking: ‘’Why did he do it?’’ He wiped his matchet on the sand and went away. And next it was reported of Okonkwo: It is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offense against the Earth…. Okonkwo had committed suicide. (Achebe 2008, 163)

Our conjecture is this. If Achebe had recorded Okonkwo’s last soliloquy, it would have been recorded Okonkwo said something like: “There was a people, oh alas, there was a brave Umuofia-Country” And that was likely to be Okonkwo’s last rite before he took to the gallows.

For Okonkwo, it all came to a bad bend. It was so bitter that he committed suicide. Achebe did not exactly do so. But it is clear from his ‘’last testament and confessions,’’ There was a Country, that Achebe felt Okonkwo-like embitterment by events as they turned out, just as Okonkwo did. Truthfully, Achebe as a single being has done so much that few if any African or other persons can rank with him, but society is team-play not a solo run. This is one thing Okonkwo understood and Achebe too, even if they both did too late in their days. It was the failure of their teammates, as it were, that pushed them beyond the pale, beyond consolation and each to a bitter self-bemoaned death.

While Okonkwo dashed for the gallows, embittered and feeling betrayed, There was a Country, may be seen as a stylish repetition of the same act; or its memorial as a swan song or perhaps as a stylized suicide. But please, let no ‘’judicial references’’ be made of this, ala, the 1979 transition elections judgment: ‘’Chief Justice Atanda Fatai Williams’ Supreme Court, legitimized President Shehu Shagari’s election… [but] ruled that the majority judgment should not be cited as a precedent in future cases!’’ https://thenationonlineng.net/justice-path-not-taken/

Finally, Achebe writes beguilingly of Okonkwo: “Looking at a kings’ mouth, said an old man, one would think he never sucked at his mother’s breast. He was talking about Okonkwo, who had risen so suddenly from great poverty and misfortune to be one of the lords of the clan. (Achebe 2008, 21)

Continuing, Achebe writes: “The old man bore no ill-will towards Okonkwo. But he was struck, as most people were, by Okonkwo’s brusqueness in dealing with less successful men. (Achebe 2008, 21)

The point remains that the Achebes [plural] were like the Okonkwos. The Achebes, even more than the Okonkwos, arose most suddenly from great material poverty to be lords of the new and emergent dawn, post-colonialism and all. Many would roll their eyes on this. But first let us remind ourselves of the following: “They [post-colonial administrators and heirs like Achebe] take over the colonial state in an unaltered from. They even take great care not to alter anything, because such a state offers fantastic privileges, which its new administrators [the Achebes] naturally do not wish to renounce. The colonial origins of the African state – a state wherein the civil servant received remuneration beyond all measure and reason…. All at once, in the blink of an eye, a new ruling class arises – a bureaucratic bourgeoisie that creates nothing, produces nothing, but merely governs society and reaps the benefits. (Kapuscinski 2002).”

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

Emeka Ogboh Installation Fills CMA Atrium With Sound Of Nigeria And Timely Message Of Diversity

Emeka Ogboh. Image: Cleveland

BY STEVEN LITT

CLEVELAND

The Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh, based in Lagos and Berlin, wasn’t trying to make an overtly political statement in his large-scale installation, “Ámà: The Gathering Place,” the first work commissioned by the Cleveland Museum of Art for its big central atrium.

But the timing and context of the work surround it with a swirl of political meanings that have local and global implications.

The installation gives pride of place in the heart of the museum for the first time to African art at a moment in which the institution — located in a majority black city — is trying harder to diversify an audience that has skewed largely white for decades.

In that sense, Ogboh’s installation neatly serves the institution’s need to make minorities, particularly blacks, feel more welcome.

Celebrating cultural pluralism

In a larger sense, Ogboh’s work celebrates globalism and cultural pluralism at a time when Western democracies —including the United States — are awash in right-wing nationalism, xenophobia, racial division and hostility to immigration.

Ogboh’s work consists of a 30-foot-tall replica of an African baobab tree, made with giant blocks of Styrofoam wrapped in earth-toned Akwete cloth, that towers over the east end of the atrium.

Arrayed on the granite floor in the center of the atrium is a circle of 14 black, rectangular loudspeakers that stand about 4 feet high. They fill the air intermittently with uplifting choral arrangements of traditional Igbo folk songs from southeastern Nigeria, Ogboh’s home region.

Visitors can sit or lie in the circle on beanbag chairs and cushioned boxes wrapped in Akwete cloth woven in colorful geometric patterns as they let the sound of Nigeria wash over them.

In the bamboo grove toward the west end of the atrium, which borders the museum’s cafe, Ogboh has installed a series of small loudspeakers amid the foliage.

The choral music flips back and forth from the bamboo grove to the center of the atrium and to speakers installed on the baobab tree, creating sonic experiences of intimacy, grandeur and ravishing beauty.

Ogboh, 42, is a rising global star whose work, focusing largely on recorded sound, has been featured in the prestigious Documenta 14 exhibition, held in Kassel, Germany, and Athens, Greece, and in displays at the Menil Collection in Houston and in Philadelphia’s Logan Square.

His show here was organized by Emily Liebert, the museum’s curator of contemporary art, and by Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, who joined the museum in June, 2017 as its curator of African art, and its first black curator, and who left earlier this year for a post at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Public space at the center

Ogboh’s goal in Cleveland is to draw a comparison between the art museum’s atrium and traditional village squares in southeast Nigeria, which function as places for commerce, people-watching, relaxation and ritual ceremonies.

But Ogboh’s work has other, obvious meanings in a country whose president has described Latin American immigrants and asylum-seekers as part of an “invasion” and an “infestation,” and who described immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and Africa as coming from “s---hole” countries.

Well, here is an artist from one of those countries, bringing a profound sense of humanity and joy into the light-washed core of the museum, one of Cleveland’s biggest public rooms.

The museum started laying plans for the Ogboh installation in 2017, before Trump’s reported epithet about Haiti, El Salvador and Africa. But the mood of division and fear stoked by the president was certainly apparent as the museum prepared to give an African artist a highly visible exhibit.

Then, as now, the decision to display Ogboh’s work so prominently affirms the role of the museum as a safehouse for cultural expression of all kinds.

Beauty of listening
That doesn’t make the institution a politically motivated island of resistance. But it makes it a place that aims to treat all people and cultures with receptivity and respect. It’s a place where the shouting can stop and, especially in the case of Ogboh’s installation, people can just listen.

In America today, that in itself can be considered a political statement.

Ogboh himself recognizes the inherent tensions in his Cleveland debut at this particular moment.

The gregarious, 6-foot-6 artist firmly declined to say anything about Trump in an interview. But he’s certainly aware of the global climate in which his career is unfolding.

“I mean, right now around the world we have nationalists and right wings rising,” he said. “It’s happening in Germany, but I think it’s not as bad as in America.”

The artist used to describe himself as a migrant or an immigrant, but lately he’s come to use the word “expatriate.”

“They shove ‘migrants’ and ‘immigrants’ down our throats,” he said, speaking of xenophobes everywhere. “So yeah, I want to be an expatriate, living outside my country, working and paying taxes and employing Germans.”

In the current climate, he said he considers his work an invitation to “be more open,” and to realize “there’s nothing wrong with movement of people.”

Ogboh’s act of resistance is to reject the idea of racial or cultural purity. He wants to celebrate exchange, appreciation, understanding.

“There is really no pure form of human culture,” he said. “We’ve been intermixing for thousands of years. So maybe this is the next new wave of the mix.”

udging by the audience reaction to Ogboh’s installation, it’s an instant hit. Visitors have enthusiastically accepted the artist’s invitation to lounge on the Akwete cushions under the big atrium skylight and bathe in 12 compositions performed by 12 Nigerian singers.

Transcending a gap

Ogboh’s recordings are vivid and vital, and they create an aural space that is contained by the museum’s architecture, but also easy to perceive as an embodiment of another place, another society.

The work transcends the gap between here and there, which is what makes it so enthralling, especially now.

It also brings a welcome artistic dimension to the entire atrium, the centerpiece of the museum’s 2013 expansion and renovation designed by architect Rafael Vinoly.

In a more utilitarian way, Ogboh’s work is portable. Its pieces and parts can be moved from time to time during the show’s run between now and Dec. 1, enabling the museum to continue to rent the space for special events.

Until then, music and textiles from Nigeria will serve as a point of entry before visitors explore galleries surrounding the atrium that are devoted to 5,000 years of art from cultures around the world.

Making such a statement at any time would be notable at the museum. But the present political and cultural circumstances in the United States make it especially important now.