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AFRICAN ARTS AND CULTURE PERILS
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Interview by Chris Onofua
Lagos, Nigeria
Prof. Sylvester Ogbechie;
a professor of (History of Arts and Archietcture) at the University of California who recently visited Nigeria having been away for a long time, in interview with Chris Onofua, xrays the problems and gives an insight into turning the fortunes of arts and cultural heritage in Nigeria.
Q: Can we meet you Professor and perhaps get an insight into your background?
A:
I am Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, a native of Onicha-Ugbo in Delta State. I was born in Ibadan in 1965, moved back home when I was 11 to attend high school, lived in Abuja for two years from 1982-83 and then attended UNN (the University of Nigeria Nsukka) where I obtained a First Class degree in Fine and Applied arts (1988) and a master's degree in art history in 1992. I then received a scholarship to study art history for a Ph.D at Northerstern University near Chicago in the USA. I left in 1993 and have lived in the USA since them. After getting my Ph.D, I took a job at the University of California Santa Barbara where I still teach. I am fluent in Igbo, Yoruba, Pidgin, English, read French and some German, and can say a few words in Hausa and Edo.
Before I left Nigeria, I travelled extensively in the country and I am familiar with many places in Nigeria. I still travel a lot for
business, and as a hobby.
Q: How did you get into this combination of courses (History of Art and Architecture)?
A:
The History of Art and Architecture program emerged from my art history PhD degree in which I studied various forms of African and African Diaspora Cultural practices. In the history of art, we study how artistic conventions (ways of doing and using art) changes over time, and in the history of architecture, we study how societies configure and use space for various purposes. In both areas of work, we are interested in the development and evolution of cultural ideas over time.
Q: How long have you been in the University of California as a professor and how has it been?
A:
I was appointed to the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of California in Santa Barbara in July
2001. I drove from Chicago to Santa Barbara and arrived there four days before the September 11 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. That event had a major impact on American life and certainly forced us scholars (especially foreign scholars) to re-evaluate our conditions in the USA. Luckily, the University of California is one of the best and most powerful academic institutions in the world, and it extended itself mightily to care for and protect its faculty and staff during this period. Santa Barbara is generally considered the closest thing to paradise on earth (at least here in the USA) and I love teaching at the University. I inherited a very good program (much praise to my predecessor Prof. Herbert M. Cole who developed the UCSB African art history program) and I have been working hard myself to add to its eminence. I am in my fifth year of teaching now and my record shows substantial achievement in many areas.
Q: Other than teaching, what type of working experiences have you pursued/acquired?
A:
I did two terms of internship with LINTAS NIGERIA LTD in 1986 and 1987, and for a while considered going into advertising. Before I left for the USA, I worked as a professional guide for foreign scholars who come to do research in various parts of Nigeria. I practiced as a professional artist and had many solo and group exhibitions in Nigeria, Germany, and the USA. I have been included in three international Whos Who in Contemporary African Art over the years. I currently work as a curator in addition to my work as an art historian. I manage a New York-based Foundation, and I am on the Editorial Board of three significant journals. I have recently branched out into publishing and will be releasing the first edition of my new journal "CRITICAL INTERVENTIONS" next year, in addition to a planned monograph series on modern and contemporary African art. I like to keep busy.
Q: How does it feel like being a professor in the University of California as against being a professor in a Nigerian University. Can you make some comparisons?
A:
It is hard to make this kind of comparison. For instance, I was in Nigeria for three weeks recently and I constantly felt like I had lost a limb because I could not immediately access the internet since I didn't bring my laptop. A professor in the USA gets used to such a wealth of resources that it becomes easy to take these for granted.
When I left UNN to go abroad, I was eight months away from a UNN doctorate degree. In fact, I returned in July 1994 to see my classmates graduate. However when I got to the USA, I felt like I needed to start my PhD program all over again, which was in fact what I did, since there was such a huge body of knowledge that I was unaware of out there. At UNN in 1993, the year I left, I was reading books published in 1969, and considered books published in 1975 very recent. At Northwestern University, by September 1993, I already had books in my hand published in 1994, and it is hard to explain exactly the feeling of awe that you get from this. There is nothing remotely resembling the Africana library at Northwestern in Africa, and for that matter in many parts of the West as well. It is truly one of the great libraries in the world. In addition, my students are smart and although many college students like to explore life away from home, which sometimes stops them from workin! g hard, many others take their education seriously and do.
A caveat though: my description involves what life is like at the top universities in the USA. There are as well several institutions here
that are basically operating on third world university budgets and these are not quite as glamorous. I have visited universities in the
USA that are worse off than UNN. In essence, both excellence and mediocrity coexist in this sphere as in other spheres of American life.
Q: How would you assess our artistic and cultural values within the Nigerian context?
A:
Nigerian art and culture has been a rich source of pride for its great heritage and deep history. However I was not very happy to observe that contemporary management of this cultural heritage seems to be declining rapidly. For example, I couldn't believe my eyes when I visited the National Museum in Onikan and found out that its proposed new building has been sold to a corporation that has now turned it into a movie theatre. In the meantime, the administrative building of the National Museum is now decrepit, with its roof torn off, while the main collection galleries look like dumps. Right across the street from the National Museum, you can see the MUSON building, which was mainly built with contributions by the principal oil companies, and of course the new movie theater sits right next to the National Museum, shaming the decrepit building by its opulence and magnificence. This is a national disgrace and it makes mockery of our claim to be a nation.
My suggestion is this: if the federal government cannot invest in new and ultra modern museum facilities, it reinforces the claims by
institutions like the British Museum who cite our deplorable facilities as a reason why they cannot repatriate the artworks they looted from Nigeria. While I don't agree with this reasoning, it is hard to fault it given the deplorable conditions we keep our artworks in (in a country where public officials regularly embezzle =N=100 billion Naira and get away with it and government wastes money on white elephant projects).I am also worried that our arts and culture face stagnation in the contemporary era. I visited many museums recently and became comvinced that our fine arts is pursuing a downward path. Fine artists have become conceptually lazy, content with churning out over-rehashed themes of rural culture, while living in one of the most urban environment in the world. I mean, how many times can you paint a Fulani milkmaid before someone tells you to either evolve or give up art altogether? Ben Enwonwu and Akinola Lasekan first painted these kinds of genre images in ! the 1930s and its thematics have been exhausted. The subject is dead. Everyone should move on and let it rest in peace.
Some ascribe the sorry state of art in Nigeria to lack of resources and the pervasive struggle for sustenance in an unforgiving terrain.
However, many artists make a decent enough living and even if they have to cater to the market in their subject matter, it does not stop them from experimenting in reasonable ways. Good art will always sell and good artists will always rise above the mush. The issue is whether our artists have enough courage to seek greatness. Consider in this regard an artist like Olu Amoda, who has singlehandedly sustained the most eloquent use of heavy metal in his art. Amoda is a consumate artist, and definitely one of the few Nigerian contemporary artists who is not afraid to confront his muse. He works hard and he has spent close on two decades investigating the intricacies of metalwork. His works have gravitas and are very honest, and they recycle the detritus of urban
existence in a way that pays homage to the sheer struggle to survive. Amoda has created this matrix of excellence in the same Lagos where an artist like Sam Ovraiti, an otherwise consumate master of watercolor painting, is content to restrict his themes to gross genre (albeit masterfully rendered).
Please note that I am not against artists making a living from their art. My suggestions is that this process can be enhanced by putting in greater effort into one's creative practice. Use tailoring as an example: do you think a tailor who doesn't care about quality work will fare well in his trade? No. Why then do the bulk contemporary Nigerian artists think they can get by with minimal effort and sometime atrocious work? I will reserve comments about the state of traditional arts since I did not have a chance to review that.
Q: Can you give us a brief history of Nigeria's foreign relations policy?
A:
No. I prefer to leave this kind of politics to the learned personnel at the Nigerian foreign relations office. I can however say, as someone who travels on a Nigerian passport, that we Nigerians are treated horrendously at every international airport. Our government has failed us by leaving us to cope with such humiliation without intervening.
There are criminals in all countries, and I see no reason why Nigerians should be collectively punished or humiliated for the crimes of a particular segment of society.
Q: Does the arts and culture of the American people reflect or influence the American way of life?
A:
Absolutely. American arts channel the ethos of corporate capitalism, and has become in essence its principal mode of visual logic. What I mean by this is that corporate money influences all aspects of American arts and visual culture. Advertising is ubiquitous and the richest American artist ever, Thomas Kincaid, panders to a genre landscape of monolithic white American culture, a format that is extremely dishonest and racist to boot. In Kincaid's America, there are only white people, and everyone is bathed in light. As we see from the devastation of Katrina, the USA has not dealt with its legacy of slavery and discrimination, which now emerges as a national shame in recent times.
Capitalism and its business operations is the American way of life. American art is completely intertwined with capitalism and also
completely reflects the capitalist ethos. More is better, opulent, and in many recent examples of installation art, cold and heartless.
Q: The arts industry in Nigeria has been in decadence over time. What do you think can be done to revive the industry?
A:
We need a gross overhaul of our society. I mean, start with putting the right people in the right jobs, and allowing them the power to pursue the right courses. I think the arts in Nigeria reflect the general decadence in the country which seems paradoxically to increase even as Nigeria struggles towards a major revolution in its social structures.
I was appalled by the complete lack of civility in Lagos day-to-day life and also by how people had become so used to the galling noise and raw chaos. In similar manner, I saw a lot of bad art, and realized that the country has not yet created enough critical independence for a critic to flat out come out and say "this is a very bad art exhibition, and this artist should give up art and become a farmer". Not everyone who draws and paints is cut out to be an artist, and it is time we recognize that. In any case, the country gets what it deserves and since its museums and most exhibition spaces are content with showing mediocre exhibitions, artists have no incentive to do better.
Nigerians need to be further educated in matters of visual culture. Our old tradition of critical interrogation of art and culture is now only a fading memory, sustained only by stalwart defenders like Toyin Akinosho and Jahman Anikulapo, Muhtah Bakare, the folks at Glendora and a few other patrons who deserve our great praise for their dedication to the cause. I like to compare the art industry in Nigeria to a farm that has gone to weed, where the crops are slowly having the life choked out of them by weeds and parasites. We need to clear the ground periodically, discard those things that no longer work, and find new ways to engage our contemporary realities.
I will like to see the following themes proscribed in contemporary Nigerian painting for the next ten years: Fulani Milkmaids, Mother and Child (yeah!!! we get it. We love our mothers but I have yet to see an artist do anything useful with this image in the past two decades), Eyo masquerades; Views of Rural environments; Cultural dances of any sort (let someone figure out a new way to reference culture without descending into literal narratives), nubile women in various suggestive poses (there are very few Nigerian painters who have actually painted studies of NUDE women: the other kinds of imaginative renderings of nubile submissive women verges on pornography); Lagos Lagoon and fishermen; Traditional Rulers of any sort or ilk; Durbar; Palm wine tapper or any other such genre image; and above all, enough already with the Ovie Idah style sculptures. These themes have been worked to
death and I will like to see our artists come up with new themes and more imaginative renditions. Artists should try other modes of
representation other than just paint and canvas. Interrogate space, move your work into three dimensions, try installations, use other
kinds of materials. In this regard, the JUNKMAN (Humphrey Umezulike) does art worth noting, although his devotion to the urban detritus verges on the demented. But hey!! It's unique.
Q: Can you make a comparison between the arts industry in Nigeria and what is obtainable out there in America?
A:
No. There is no comparison. Don't get me wrong, the Nigerian art industry has galleries, and so do American art industries. What we don't have in Nigeria is a true structured context of art valuation, which supports a tier-system of art galleries, museums and exhibition spaces. Many of our art galleries in NIgeria are akin to community art spaces in the USA. Curatorial intervention, which was on the rise in the 1990s, is clearly lacking today; the august spaces allow any artist who can raise the necessary fee to hire their premises. The major national collections have not been updated and given our lack of infrastructure, I won't b surprised to find many of the artworks in the collection moldy or even eaten by termites. The American art industry is a major arm of the country's economy. Unfortunately, the Nigerian government and many of its citizens continue to treat art as an unnecessary luxury even today.
I reviewed some announcements of Federal Government scholarships in Nigerian newspapers during my visit. I noted that as usual, the government did not devote a single scholarship to anyone to study art or art history either in Nigeria or abroad. We obviously have sidelined the role of art in nation building, a development that must surely leave people like Uche Okeke and Demas Nwoko distraught.
Q: There are different aspects of arts; drawing, painting, films, festivals e.t.c, and they transmit our culture from generation to generation. Arts and culture could therefore be said to be interwoven; how effective has arts been in the transmission of cultural values?
A:
Culture survives, even then formal art practice fades. Culture is the singular ability of human beings to transmit their knowledge to their progeny. This includes culturally sanctioned items and activities of value that we identify as art. Art engages our creative minds as human beings, and its continuous manipulation of the visual field has a great deal to do with the fact that we are humans today, rather than living as our cousins, the great apes, still do.
African art has been effective in transmitting cultural values, and even the most recent developments in contemporary culture are still
evaluated through a visual field. We may not always agree on what constitutes art or good art for that matter, but we as humans will
continue to manipulate the visual field to create objects of mental and physical value. This process is called artmaking.
Q: Our museums have been depleted over time with a whole lot of our "artistic and cultural" artefacts finding their way to museums in Europe. What are the consequences on the Nigerian arts industry?
A:
A country that does not have control over its cultural artifacts can arguably be said to be very low on the international scale. The Western countries' control of our cultural objects reflects their greater control of our political, economic and social life, which allows them to profit from the exploitation of our natural resources, which in turn enables their fantastic lives. The struggle to recoup these cultural artifacts is in essence a struggle for a more equitable share of international resources. The USA alone consumes over 25% of the world's resources. Its museums house a combined 40% of the most significant cultural artifacts in the world. Do the math.
Q: In the past, arts and culture took their rightful positions when the FESTAC was held in 1977 (you knew the glamour and shine that went with it). Shortly afterwards, the national theatre (an imposing and fantastic structure) was built where a lot of artistic and cultural events took place but today, reverse is the case. What could be responsible?
A:
Bad planning and even worse management. FESTAC was a huge white elephant project but once built, the building (which I particularly think is VERY UGLY) has become, despite itself, an icon of Lagos. It is hard to imagine Lagos without this building, yet its potential has not been realized. In a country where basic utilities are lacking, such a building imports the conceits of the West without the appropriate infrastructure to back it up. It reminds me of a villager who came to Lagos, saw a water tap (faucet), and bought one to install in his house in the Village. Of course the tap did not work when he turned it on. He did not understand that water comes out of the tap only if there is an underlying infrastructure to produce and distribute the water.
Q: The film industry in Nigeria is being sabotaged by piracy which has come to be a perenial problem in Nigeria. And there have been concerted efforts by stakeholders to rid the industry of piracy. Do you think they have done enough to sanitize the industry?
A:
It will never be possible to get rid of Piracy. What we need to do is minimize it. We are aware of the problem and in fact devoted one whole panel to it in the recently concluded First International Nollywood Convention and Symposium (Hilton Universal City, Los Angeles, California USA, June 13-17, 2005). Speakers agreed that new technologies meant to eradicate piracy are defeated almost as soon as they are introduced. I was shocked to see pirated copies of recently released American movies being sold publicly on the streets of lagos, very much in the same manner in which they are sold on the streets of major American cities. We can fight piracy using the same old means--raiding their production facilities and destroying seized copies of the pirated items, or we can make piracy unprofitable by tightening production lines, and reducing the costs of these items so that the pirated item is no longer as desirable as the real one.
However, I honestly don't know how the piracy problem will ever be taken care of. One can only hope that better application of laws, and future technology will make it less profitable.
Q: We have to come back home now; What do you think of the course of event towards 2007 General Elections?
A:
This is not a good development. I am however not in a position to discuss this matter, since I really do not have enough information to make any conclusion. I can only say that in the end, I hope that Nigeria has a good transition in 2007. Our future as a country depends on it. If the transition occurs in a reasonable and acceptable manner, then I can predict that by 2010, Nigeria will be seeing a significant revolution in its industries, and perhaps in the quality of life of its peoples. If the transition fails, we will be carved up and eaten by the mercenary forces of international oil corporations who are waiting to devour the country and its resources.
Q: Has the Western World assisted enough to curb corruption. What is the implication on the corporate image of the country?
A:
As I said, our government has failed us in this regard. I am all for the war on corruption (never mind that many extremely corrupt American corporate officers are walking free and unmolested in the USA). I am somewhat bothered by the complete disregard for international law that accompanies this kind of search and seizure, which not only undermines the concept of diplomatic immunity, but also highlights the tactics used to deal with black peoples everywhere. I have not ever heard of a white politician of another country treated in this manner in the USA.
In the post-cold-war world, the American Imperium and now Britain and other Western countries are now able to disregard such niceties as diplomatic immunity at will, especially when it concerns black politicians. The implications for world peace are very dire.
At the same time, we can say that our own people brought this kind of treatment on ourselves. Politicians embezzle public money without any regard for decency and use the money to buy mansions abroad. However, instead of these kinds of token raids, the USA and other Western countries (especially Switzerland) should publish the accounts of all African public holders so that we can know what amounts of money they have looted. Once we get these documents, we can apply all sorts of legal means to recoup the money.
Q: How far do you think EFCC has gone and how effective have they been in the fight against corruption?
A:
I really don't know. My impression is that the EFCC is doing a good job, especially in its attempts to make people accountable for their crimes. I guess the mere fact that they are capable of probing the president's affairs is an improvement. I hope they continue to do their work and that our laws allow them the leeway to do this, without the EFCC degenerating into another government branch full of incompetent cronies of those in power.
In this regard, the EFCC will do well to investigate a new type of 419 that specifically targets intellectual workers. I have myself been a victim of this kind of fraud perpetuated by one CHIKE MADUEKWE of GEMAFRIQUE who mis-represented himself to me and persuaded me to spend huge sums of money doing the Nollywood Convention. He did this knowing he did not have the money and also used the names of prominent people, including a letter from the US Embassy to persuade me to fall for his fraud. When I came to Nigeria to ask this man to repay my money, he filed a civil suit against me which ensures that he does not have to deal with paying back the money, at least until the suit is resolved.
The Nigerian legal system has developed to the point where it can be used by such unscrupulous individuals but it has still not learned to deliver justice. Mr. Maduekwe is operating as a legal predator using his knowledge of the law to defraud Nigerian professionals like myself based abroad who yearn for a new day when we can collaborate with our Nigeria-based colleagues. Maduekwe's activities are a danger to the Nollywood Industry and the culture work industry as well since he is essentially preying on people he feels are not in a position to respond to his threat of lawsuits. I attach my formal complaint against Chike Maduekwe. You magazine can do our culture workers a great service by making people aware of the fraudulent business practices of Chike
Maduekwe. You should also be aware that he has since been removed from any association with the Nollywood Convention USA. I will make everyone aware of his crimes so that they are not taken in by his subsequent frauds.
Q: What are the challenges faced as a professor in University of California in terms of funding and getting grants for research?
A:
The University of California has been very supportive of my research and has funded me fully since I took up my position. I am doing well at the University and I have since found my own niche there.
Q: What is your relationship with Lancelot Imasuen; Nigeria's most celebrated movie director?
A:
I met Lancelot Oduwa-Imasuen when he visited Los Angeles during the first international Nollywood Convention in June 2005. I have great respect for what he has accomplished and wish him well in future endeavors. At the Nollywood Convention, we gave him time to speak about his work and also his plans for the future. There is no doubt that he is going to remain a significant figure in this context for a long time.
Q: How are you able to spend significant time with your family?
A:
I live as an expatriate, which means that I don't see my Nigerian family often. For example, this was my first visit in seven years and many changes has happened since I last visited home. Nevertheless, family is family and I am glad for the chance to visit with mine. I keep in touch via email, phone calls and the occasional letter from home.
Q: How do you relax?
A:
I watch movies, go driving, and sit by the ocean. I live two miles away from the Pacific Ocean and love to watch the sunset whenever I can. I also love traveling.
Thank you very much for your time.
.... CHRIS ONOFUA |
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