|
The 20th
century – and perhaps, the 21st – have been highly tormented
times for mankind, more so for the highly apocalyptic nations of Africa.
Harried by wars and their attendant disasters, chief of which are hunger and
nescience, most African countries have lost all humanizing sensibilities.
This is principally due to the divorce of art from living and society which
has encouraged governments and policy makers to regard art and artists with
disdain. It is very worrisome that the art situation in Nigeria, for
instance, is worse than in most other countries in the sub-region. This is a
paradox, of course, given the number of universities and polytechnics which
offer art as a branch of scholarship and for the converse fact that most of
Nigeria’s neighbours lack the same facility for art training. What these
countries lack in art training facility they make up for in general
appreciation. Most of them, for instance, have art and craft villages
established by government. Some have annual or biennial festivals and
projects in the visual arts. All these are nonexistent in Nigeria. Her art
industry is firmly part of the larger bread-and-butter industry which
Nigeria has become. Yet the vibrancy of the Nigerian art tradition remains
non pareil mainly due to the exertion of a few individual artists and
private galleries who are committed to advancing the Nigerian project and
the cause of humanity in general through the instrumentality of art. Mired
in the curse of bureaucracy, public art institutions in Nigeria – including
the government museums, galleries, and art councils - have failed in their
responsibility to artists and society.
Anyone who
wishes to assess Nigerian government’s attitude to art appreciation and
promotion must take a look at the report on “Saving Africa’s Art” contained
in the Time magazine of June 18, 2001. The magazine reports that in
1999 the Louvre Museum in Paris purchased from a Belgian dealer a collection
of 2,000-year-old Nok terracotta sculptures for about $400,000.00. As Simon
Robinson and Aisha Labi put it in the story, “They are among the
centerpieces of an exhibition that was inaugurated by President Jacques
Chirac over a year ago, and the reverence with which they are displayed
demonstrates the Western art establishment’s growing appreciation of African
art. But the exhibition, which came about through Chirac’s own instruction
that the Louvre devote gallery space to ethnic art, is clouded by
allegations surrounding the Nok’s acquisition. Nok terra-cottas are on the
International Council of Museums’ Red List of objects ‘banned from export,
(that) may under no circumstances be put on sales’ and Nigerian law
prohibits their export. President Chirac is reported to have personally
sought approval for the purchase of the Noks from Nigeria’s then military
ruler, General Abdulsalami Abubakar. The request was rebuffed on the advice
of the N.C.M.M., which warned that the works had been ‘illegally exported
from Nigeria and therefore remained the legal cultural property of Nigeria.’
According
to Time, “After Nigeria returned to civilian rule in May of 1999 the
French government raised the matter once again. This time, the new
government gave its approval to the transaction. In February 2000, just two
months before the Louvre display opened, a formal agreement authorizing the
Nok transaction was signed by Nigerian Culture Minister Chief Ojo Maduekwe
and Branley Museum Director Stephane Martin during Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo’s state visit to France. The French agreed to provide
Nigerian museums with technical support – including the exchange of
publications, the organization of conferences and researcher exchanges – and
in return the Noks were symbolically handed over by President Obasanjo.”
I have only
quoted Time at length in order to give the reader and the average
artist an insight into the Nigerian government’s attitude to art and
creativity. But I must quickly add that the fact that the approval sought by
Jacques Chirac was not given by the General Abdulasami Abubakar
administration does not exonerate that regime from the perennial anti-art
attitude of successive governments in Nigeria. Nor does Obasanjo’s granting
of the request make his regime the worst in that respect. The Obasanjo
regime, as far as the patronage and promotion of Nigerian art is concerned,
has only exploited an old pattern. But the logical question that must follow
is, if previous governments have brazenly neglected art and artists (of
course, to the detriment of society), must the present regime follow the
example? Must the government continue to nurture an exemplar of a
dehumanized society where art and artists are confined to the fringe?
The problem
of art and artists in Nigeria derives from the ineptitude of the art
administration and indirectly from the ephemeral interest of government.
Since the culture sector is poorly funded, it is easy to lay all the blame
for the sorry state of affairs in the sector at the door of government. But
any critically concerned person will also wonder whether those in art
administration have done their best in terms of the proffering and execution
of ideas and a more creative and imaginative system of funds generation.
From the public museums and galleries down to the art councils, all are like
Siberia; everyone knows where they are but no one wants to go. In some
cases, people do not even know where the public museums and galleries are
and what they represent. Nigerian museums, including the newly-built ones,
are dead ends. They smell of neglect and despair and give little or no
courage to anyone to regard the past and its heritage with any enthusiasm.
The fact that the museums in these parts do not encourage much visitorship
simultaneously underscores our society’s loss of its past and logically its
loss of its future. For in reality, there is only past and future. The
present is but a fleeting realm that can be claimed by no one. If the
Nigerian society continues to regard art and culture as luxurious
entertainment, we will remain a carelessly uprooted people, with neither
memory nor desire. If the culture sector in Nigeria is poorly funded, the
onus lies on those who accept to be appointed art-culture administrators to
try to make the best of a bad situation, while also exploring various
possible means to make our lethargic governments more responsive to the
needs of art and its role as a socializing agent. There is need to attract
more visitors to the public museums and galleries and empower them to
constructively reach out to the people as mediators of the common heritage
rather than arbiters of dead and forgotten consciousness. The situation
where some of the museum halls in Nigeria are used for weddings and other
non-culture events cannot be said to be geared towards visitor increase. It
underscores Nigeria’s proclivity to absurdity and inversion of values and
commonsense. It only adds to the plight of the museums, as it is merely
“museum abuse” par excellence. I do not know of any museum in Nigeria
that records up to 10,000 visitors in a given year. In some cases, the
visitor record does not exceed 1,000, that is, excluding those who come to
see occasional temporary exhibits of so-called contemporary art.
The above
scenario calls for serious concern, as it presents the museums as a waste
pipe. But evidence in some other countries where the potentials of the
museum have been creatively harnessed shows that the museum can be an agency
for cultural democracy, social cohesion, and economic development. Of
course, this fact also relates to art itself when it is adequately enabled
to fulfil its eternal role, not just through the artist, but also through
the mediating institutions and agencies, (museums, galleries, art councils,
the public, among others). For art is art, not just for its own sake, but
for the consecrative infusions it receives from the relevant institutions,
the society and the public.
Unfortunately, the Nigerian society seems to lack the capacity to enthrone
art as a major arbiter of common and transcendental values. Again, this can
be traced to government’s attitude. If art and aesthetics have no place in
the general scheme of things, their appreciation will remain the exclusive
preserve of a few elite. This situation is in contradistinction to what
obtained in pre-colonial times when art belonged to everyone. Today art is a
luxury and no longer part of the conscience of society. This is why
everything in these parts is so sterile. The sterility of the concept of
society and development in these parts is the child of the severance of art
from society. You could see the effects in our highly dehumanized roads, in
our austere homes, the brutally-utilitarian public buildings, the recklessly
defaced public monuments, the do-or-die brand of politics that has thrived
here. Not even science and technology are allowed to be complemented by
art’s salve. Of course, the problem is not entirely a Nigerian one. But if
there is any place where the separation of art from society has taken a
great toll, that place is Nigeria. As former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro
Mori told some visiting African artists (including myself) in Tokyo in
November 2001, “There is art in everything, including politics”. When
science and politics over-awe the human psyche with their often dangerous
exertions, only art can repair the divided consciousness. The Nigerian
society, with its crop of bread-and-butter leaders, does not acknowledge
this fact, as it rides rough-shod against the face of time and civilisation.
Not only
that. These are very “Dark Ages.” What with the prevalent triumph of
materialism and the suffocating religious revivalism that have encircled
Nigeria in recent years. Some people would readily point at hunger as the
bane of the situation. Hunger may be part of it. But it is to the
unprecedented inversion of value that we must turn if we seek any solution
to the anti-art syndrome that has characterised the leadership of Nigeria
and its culture sector up until the present. For too long, government’s
conception of art and culture is circumscribed by raffia-wearing dancers and
pedestrian local crafts. There is no credible art festival organized by
government; no national exhibit where the state of art in the country can be
measured and celebrated annually. There are no institutions or systems
through which excellence in the arts can be duly rewarded. The art
institutions and organizations are caught in the web of bureaucracy. And the
Nigerian artist, an endangered species of sorts, waits in vain for
encouragement from a government whose out-look remains strait-jacketed.
Of course,
when the jaundiced eye of the prevalent post-modern “religionmania”
in Nigeria is added to the above scenario, we are faced with a state of
anomie which impacts most negatively on the art situation. While a good
number of artists have been lost to religious fanaticism, art as a whole is
impeded by such fanaticism in terms of the dwindling perspicacity of its
vision and subject matters. Overbearing religiousness presupposes orthodoxy,
which is one of the greatest enemies of art. I have insisted elsewhere that
a priest-ridden society like ours does not beget great art. Born-again,
fanatical art administrators and museologists (especially the species we
have in Nigeria) can be the greatest enemies of movement, as far as the
development of art is concerned. But I must hasten to add that I do not
condemn religion in itself. Religion plays a vital role in society. This
role is better performed and appreciated when it is aligned with other
factors in the society, as religion is only one of the socializing agents of
society. When a people over-feed themselves on one social nutrient (in this
case, religion) out of all that is available to the given developing
society, such a people are running the risk of social Kwashiokor, as
is the case with contemporary Nigeria.
All told,
the problem with art in Nigeria is not an isolated case. It has been the
same in much of Africa; it has been the same in Nigeria in several years.
There is nothing strange or unusual about it. It is only a by-product of the
prevailing social situation where development is defined along the lines of
soldiery and mercantilist politics. The present government, like its
predecessors, has failed to recognize the role of art in economic
development and nation-building. The continued non-creation of a Ministry of
Arts and Culture remains the bane of art in Nigeria. The situation is
further worsened by the bohemian attitude of the nation’s art-culture
leaders who are only concerned with holding on to office and doing little or
nothing to justify their positions.
But the
rescue mission belongs to the artists. If we fold our arms and wait for the
government to be “born-again” in its attitude to the visual arts, we will
remain merry little dogs who must wag their tails for the amusement of the
establishment. What is needed are more concerted efforts and sustainable
meaningful networking in the art scene to amplify and exploit art’s role in
a (under?)developing economy such as our own. To achieve this, the
artists and galleries must work more closely together, not as mutual
parasites, but partners with a common vision and desire for the uplift of
art in these parts. This imperative also presupposes the recognition of the
need for regular discursive fora (which is not very common in Nigerian art
circles) as a very important factor in the dissemination and advancement of
art and, in turn, art’s possible potential to positively affect society.
Painter and theorist C. Krydz Ikwuemesi, Editor of
The
Art Field, is the International Secretary of The Pan-African
Circle of Artists. He is also a member the Administrative Council
of Congress for Cultural Actors in West Africa (CCAWA)
|
