Lagos, Nigeria – “As an artist politically and artistically, the whole idea of your environment must be represented in music, in the arts. In reality, art is what happens at a given moment in the development or underdevelopment of a people,” Fela Kuti once said. “So I think as far as Africa is concerned, music cannot be for pleasure, but must be for revolution.”
The iconic Afrobeat musician saw himself as an agent of change and believed that African artists could not afford to disengage from social issues.
As Nigeria hosts the second edition of Art
The three-day event begins on Friday, featuring over 60 artists from 15 African countries in 14 galleries at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The title of Rahima Gambo’s multimedia work, “Education is forbidden”, is co-opted from the English translation of Boko Haram and offers another perspective of the armed group’s battles in northeastern Nigeria.
It focuses on high school and university students, memories of attacks on their facilities and Nigeria’s education system.
The irony of Boko Haram’s attacks on schools does not erase the fact that this crumbling system has been around for some time.
“It goes beyond sensationalism, beyond deaths and kidnappings“, says Gambo. “It’s a quiet story of what’s going on internally, what’s going on in the mind of someone who lives in what today is called a conflict zone (and) that goes through an (educational) system that has almost, in a way, lost its purpose.”
A 31-year-old journalist from the northeast, Gambo is more than qualified to explore the region’s realities with nuance.
“The irony of Boko Haram’s attacks on schools doesn’t erase the fact that this crumbling system has been around for some time,” she says.
Combining text, photos, videos and textbook illustrations, she weaves a coherent story of rebellious school administrators and students still in school despite threats, absent teachers, suicide bombings and dilapidated infrastructure damaged by Boko Haram fighters. .
In one story, photos show students enjoying an annual campus variety show months after an ambush. In another article, a woman recalls escaping a deadly attack on campus, but says all she worried about at the time was the transcript and school certificate she left behind.
“(Gambo’s) Language Intermediaries…emphasizes the conditions of the particular moment,” says Art X Lagos curator Missla Libsekal of the artist’s part-documentary, part-art project.
It is one of nine curated works questioning the way artists perceive themselves and react to contemporary issues.
“Documentary included in artistic practice is historically recognized as being useful in responding to a crisis,” explains Libsekal.
The consequences of colonialism on education in the north of the country is also documented in the story.
Following the introduction of English as an official language by colonialists, Nigerians schooled in Arabic and Islamic education suddenly became illiterate, which limited and continues to limit access to economic opportunities – one of many factors attributed to the rise of Boko Haram.
“In many places where (schools existed), it created a hierarchy of culture and knowledge where local languages and local knowledge systems became secondary to this importation,” Gambo says, as she describes the destruction of Islamic education. “By colonizing a society, you have created an unequal society. People who went to school suddenly became powerful and (those) who didn’t go lost their power.
She also questions the Nigerian government’s paltry investment in education, adding that the schools can be seen as a metaphor for the problems in the northeast. “The school is a branch of government. It’s a power structure. The irony is not lost: Boko Haram sees the education system as the root of its problems… as the symbol of all those Western promises that have not benefited them.
Women’s mental health and beauty
Olatunde Alara, 25, is another artist whose work reflects his times. His spray-painted installation “Smile”, born from his struggles with mental illness and being asked to smile when depressed, depicts the inner spirit and outer personality at odds with each other. the other and with the concept of erroneous perception.
Recalling his previous encounters with mental illness, Alara says he “couldn’t give a definition to it because I didn’t have any reference, that’s why representation is very important and it’s important that I do “.
As Nigerian newspapers continue to label suicide as “despicable acts” and “horrific incidents”, Alara hopes her installation will broaden conversations about mental health and encourage people to speak out about their experiences.
Wura-Natasha Ogunji, on the other hand, questions the concept of female beauty, its destruction and the dynamics of seeing and being seen in an artistic performance titled “If I Loved You”. Like Alara, Ogunji’s performances, primarily focused on the presence of women in public spaces, draw on her experiences.
“I was very aware of the division of labor… of my own movement as a woman and how they were affected,” the 47-year-old recalls of her first visit to Nigeria in 2011. “I I was very aware of the fact that people were listening to me. or not in public space. And so it became something that I really wanted to engage in because of personal questions that I had about my own power and my own ability to engage with people and be present.
Standing on a pedestal, the performers are presented to the audience as “objects of desire and concentration and objects of art (and) elevated beings”, with the two parties having different points of view.
Ogunji says his intention is not to make a radical change in the system but change things slightly so that women, in this case the performers, can experience freedom.
“Art allows for that space in such a direct and eloquent way,” she says.
“Giving voice to the voiceless”
Critic Wilfred Okiche says the Lagos event expanded the space for discussion on uncomfortable topics.
“Art remains one of those mediums that is not totally subject to the awkward silence that conservative cultures generally seek to impose,” he says. “Art
As for whether artists who address societal concerns in their work identify themselves, like Fela Kuti, as agents of change, that depends on the artist.
“(I) don’t know what’s going to happen (to the public). (I) don’t know how someone is going to feel (about art), or how they’re going to be changed by what they observe,” Ogunji says.