U.S. Museum Splits Benin Royal House • Opens Gallery For Controversial Artefacts

 

Ambassador Walter Carrington (left), Chief Nicholas O. Obaseki of Benin Kingdom, His Royal Highness Professor Gregory I, Akenzua of Benin Kingdom, Chief Esosa Eghobamien, The Obobaifo of Benin Kingdom, Dr. Arese Carrington, and Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

By Tajudeen Sowole

After the Benin royal house’s disapproval of the controversial acquisition of 32 Benin artefacts donated to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston U.S. last year, there is an indication that a covert endorsement has been granted the foreign museum to keep the cultural objects.

Last week, a “delegation” described by MFA as representatives of the Benin Monarch, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Erediauwa, (CFR), were among the guests who witnessed the official opening of Benin Kingdom Gallery at the Boston museum.

According to reports monitored from Lagos, the delegation was led by Chief Nicholas O. Obaseki, Prof Gregory I, Akenzua and Chief Esosa Eghobamien, as “representatives” of the Oba of Benin. The delegation, MFA stated on its website, was in collaboration with a Diaspora group, the Coalition of Committed Benin Community Organisations. 

The MFA had, in June last year, received donation of 28 bronze and six ivories from Mr. Robert Owen Lehman, the heir to the vast collection of a famous American banker, late Philip Lehman.

The late banker and great grand father of Robert was one of the beneficiaries of the 1897 Benin Punitive Expedition; an invasion of the old Benin Kingdom by the British Army, which sent Oba Ovonramwen on exile.

At the end of the military action, an estimated 4, 000 cultural objects from the Benin palace were said to have been looted by the British army.

But last year, the Oba of Benin responded to the Robert Owen-donation through a member of the Benin Royal house, Chief Irabor Frank, who stated via email: “The Oba of Benin had said at many forums that the looting of the Benin palace by the British government in 1897 was premeditated. The Oba had made his demand very clear that the stolen Benin artefacts should be returned.”

Few days ago, a brother of the Oba, Prince Edun Akenzua claimed that he was not aware of the Benin delegation to the opening of the gallery in Boston. He explained in SMS: “The Oba did not send any representative to the Boston museum event.” Akenzua noted that a claim that the Oba sent a delegation “is spurious.”

Akenzua, the Enogie of Obazuwa, who said he was on holiday abroad as at the time of sending the SMS, stressed that “the palace has categorically informed me that no representative was sent.” He noted that “some organisations (project) their events” through misrepresentation. He described the action of the so-called representatives of the Oba as “wrong and reprehensible.”

But on its Facebook page, the MFA listed the names and posted pictures of the controversial delegates or representatives of Oba of Benin and other dignitaries.  They include "former U.S Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington, Chief Nicholas O. Obaseki of Benin Kingdom, His Royal Highness Professor Gregory I, Akenzua of Benin Kingdom; Chief Esosa Eghobamien, The Obobaifo of Benin Kingdom, Dr. Arese Carrington, and Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.”

Early this year, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), which had also urged MFA to return the controversial cultural objects to Nigeria, flagged off a dialogue with foreign museums. The conference held in Benin produced a document known as the ‘Benin Plan of Action.’

Remembering Kofi Awoonor: Humanity And Against

By Wole Soyinka

I am certain there are others who, like me, received invitations to the recent edition of the Storymoja/Hay Literature Festival in Nairobi, but could not attend. My absence was particularly regrettable, because I had planned to make up for my failure to turn up for the immediate prior edition. Participant or absentee however, this is one edition we shall not soon forget.
It was at least two days after the listing of Kofi Awoonor among the victims that I even recollected the fact that the Festival was ongoing at that very time. With that realization came another:  that Kofi and I could have been splitting a bottle at that same watering hole in between events and at the end of each day. My feelings, I wish to state clearly, did not undergo any changes. The emotions of rage, hate and contempt remained on the same qualitative and quantitative levels. Those are the feelings I have retained since the Boko Haram onslaught overtook the northern part of our nation. I expect them to remain at the same level until I draw my last breath, hopefully in peaceful circumstances like Chinua Achebe, or else violently like Kofi. As becomes daily clarified in contemporary existence, none of us has much control over these matters.

Prof Wole Soyinka, giving the tribute in Lagos, Nigeria on Friday.

Two earlier commitments were responsible for my inability to attend the Festival. One was a public conversation with a very brave individual, Karima Bennoune, an Algerian national, whose trenchant publication – YOUR FATWA DOES NOT APPLY HERE – is of harrowing pertinence to the events of Nairobi, a pertinence that continues to ravage our, and other nations. The other preventive factor was the annual conference of International Investigators in Tunis, doing battle with the monster of Corruption. The link of the former event is obvious enough, but if you think the latter has no relevance to what has happened in Nairobi, or is taking place in the northern part of this nation, permit me to correct you.

Yes, we all know of material corruption, we confront it all the time. Tragically neglected however is what we should learn to designate as spiritual corruption. Those who organized and carried out the outrage on innocent lives in Nairobi are carriers of the most lethal virus of corruption imaginable – corruption of the soul, corruption of the spirit, corruption of that animating humanistic essence that separates us from predatory beasts. I am no theologian of any religion, but I aver that these assailants delude themselves with vistas of paradise after life, that their delusion is born of the perverted reading of salvation and redemption. Those who attempt to divide the world into two irreconciliable parts – believers against the rest – are human aberrations. As for their claims to faith, they invoke divine authority solely as a hypocritical cover for innate psychopathic tendencies. Their deeds and utterances profane the very name of God or Allah.

Let us however abandon theology and simply designate them enemies of humanity, leaving a very real question that the rest of us must resolve – whether this breed even belongs to the human race, or should be seen as a mutant sub-species that require both moral and scientific definitions. We cannot continue to pretend that those who have set their sight against that enabling spark that we call creativity, those who arrogate to themselves the right to dispose of innocent lives at will, belong within the same moral universe to which you and I belong. Without a moral universe, humanity exists in limbo.

Not since Apartheid has our humanity been so intensely and persistently challenged and stressed on this continent. History repeats, or more accurately re-asserts itself, as a murdering minority pronounce themselves a superior class of beings to all others, assume powers to decide the mode of existence of others, of association, decide who shall live and who shall die, who shall shake hands with whom even as daily colleagues, who shall dictate and who shall submit. The cloak of Religion is a tattered alibi, the real issue – as always – being Power and Submission, with the instrumentality of Terror. Let us objectively assess the true nature of the dominion that they seek to establish in place of the present ‘dens of sin and damnation, of impurity and decadence’ in which the rest of us supposedly live. We do not need to seek far, the models are close by – they will be found in contested Somalia. In now liberated Mali.

Fitfully in Mauritania. In those turbid years of enchained Algeria, and her yet unconsolidated business of secularism. Theirs is the dominion of exclusion. Of irrationality and restraints on daily existence. A loathing of creativity and plurality. It is the dominion of Apartheid by gender. Of the demonization of difference. It is the dominion of Fear. Let us determine that, on this continent, we shall not accept that, after victory over race as card of citizen validation, Religion is entered and established as substitute on the passport, not only for citizen recognition, but even to entitlement to residence on earth.
After the deadly calling card of these primitives, the rest of the Nairobi Festival was cancelled. Understandably, but sadly.  I have however written to the organizers not to even bother to renew my invitation for next year’s edition – life permitting, I shall be there. We must all be there. And we must learn to smother loss in advance, not just for that Festival but for all Festivals of Life and Creativity wherever in the world.  Resolve that, no matter the tragic intervention, such events must run their course. Let us accept, quite simply, that a force of violent degeneracy has declared war on humanity. Thus, we are fated to be ever present on the battlefield until that war is over.

Soyinka, (centre) with other Nigeria writers during the tribute at Freedom Park, Lagos Island, Nigeria

I submit that we were all present at that concourse of humanity in Nairobi. We were present by the side of every maimed and fallen victim, among who was a distinguished one of us, one of the very best that have defined us to the world. We were present in Mali even before this nation, to her credit, joined in stemming the tide of religious atavism and human retrogression. We were beside the students of Kaduna, Plateau, Borno, the school children of Yobe, the mangled okada riders and petty traders of Kano, beside all those who have been routinely slaughtered for so many years past in this very nation. In Nairobi’s hub of commerce we were present, confronted yet again with that same diabolical test that was applied to school pupils in Kano many years ago, where those who failed to recite the indicated verse of the koran were classified as infidels, and led away to have their throats serially slit. We have been present at the travails of Algeria, recorded for posterity by that lady Karima Bennoune  in YOUR FATWA DOES NOT APPLY HERE. We were beside Tahar Djaout, author of THE LAST SEASON OF UNREASON, cut down also by religious fanatics. We are the mere survivors who continually ask, when will this stop? Where will this end? The ones who echo Karima and that miraculous survivor Malala in declaiming – No indeed, your fatwa can never apply here. We have been beside the children of Cherchyna in the Soviet Union, innocents who, taken hostage, were reduced to drinking their own urine, then deliberately gunned down as they made their way out of a school gymnasium that had turned into an inferno. We continue to remain beside all who have fallen to the blight of bigotry, religious solipsism and spiritual toxicity. We shall continue to stand beside them, denouncing, condemning, but most critically, urging on all who can to anticipate, stem, and ultimately eliminate the tide of religious tyranny. We have taken the side of Humanity against those who are against.
At this very time of the latest outrage, the world body, known as the United Nations Organization was actually convened in General Assembly. We must instigate  that body to evolve, through just, principled, but severe and uncompromising action, into a United Humanity Organisation, that is, thinking not simply ‘nation’, but acting ‘humanity’. It means going beyond pietisms such as – this or that is a religion of peace, but obliging its members to act aggressively in neutralizing those whose acts pronounce the contrary, so that Humanity is placed as the first and last principle of nation existence and global cohabitation. The true divide is not between believers and unbelievers, but between those who violate the right of others to believe, or not believe.

Memories that span fifty or more years are difficult to distill into a few words. Suffice it to stress for now that Kofi Awoonor was a passionate African, that is, he gave primacy of place to values derived from his Ewe heritage.  That, in turn, means that he was thoroughly imbued with the spirit of ecumenism towards other systems of belief and cultural usages – this being the scriptural ethos that permeates belief practices of most of this continent. We mourn our colleague and brother, but first we denounce his killers, the virulent sub-species of humanity who bathe their hands in innocent blood. Only cowards turn deadly weapons against the unarmed, only the depraved glorify in, or justify the act. True warriors do not wage wars against the innocent. Profanity is the name given to the defilement of the sanctity of human life. We call on those who claim to exercise the authority of a fatwa to pronounce that very doom, with all its moral weight, upon those who engage in this serial violation of the right to life, life as a god-given possession that only the blasphemous dare contradict, and the godless wantonly curtail. This scalp that they have added to their collection was roof to a unique brain that a million of their kind can never replace.

A few months ago, in New York, on a joint platform of the United Nations and UNESCO, I entered an urgent plea into the proceedings of that International Conference on the Culture of Peace: Take Back Mali!, I urged.  At home, I impressed that urgent necessity on our own government. I know that Kofi Awoonor, poet, diplomat and democrat, would approve my commendation – in this specific respect at least – of the action of our and other ECOWAS governments – albeit after France had taken the critical lead – in taking back Mali. I especially applaud the outgoing Foreign Affairs Ambassador Gbenga Ashiru, who hearkened to that imperative of speedy intervention and urged it with vigour and urgency on the African Union. We salute the courage and sacrifices of the soldiers who reversed the agenda of the interlopers – al Queda and  company – with their arrogant designs on those freedoms that define who we are in this region, and on the continent itself. Safeguarding freedoms, alas, goes beyond even the most intense passion and will of the poetic Muse, and we must never shy away from acknowledging this cruel reality. Those who believe that a tepid, accomodative approach to fundamentalist rampage can generate peace and human dignity should study – as I have often urged – the experience of Algeria, captured with such chilling diligence in Karima Bennoune’s work. The cost of ‘taking back Algeria’ is one that will be reckoned in human deficit – and unbelievable courage – for generations to come. Today, I urge all forces of progress to – Take Back Africa! Rescue her from the forces of darkness that seek to inaugurate a new regimen of religious despotism, ruthless beyond what our people have known even under the imperial will of Europe.

Kofi Awoonor  (1935–2013)

These butchers continue to evoke the mandate of Islam, thus, we exhort our moslem brother and sister colleagues:  Take back Islam. Take back that Islam which, even where it poses contradictions, declares itself one with the Culture of Learning, one that honours its followers as People of the Book, historic proponents of the virtues of intellect and its products. There is no religion without contradictions – it is the primacy of human dignity and solidarity that serves as arbiter.  We call upon the fastidious warrior class of the intellect, steeped in a creative contempt and defiance of enemies of the humanistic pursuit. We speak here of that Islam that inspires solidarity with the Naguib Mafouzes of our trade, with the Tahar Djaouts, with the Karimas and the Mariama Bas, not the diabolism of al Shabbab, Boko Haram and their degenerate ilk. Let us join hands with the former, and enshrine their mission as the history prescribed destination of our creative urge. What Nairobi teaches – and not just this recently – is that there is no place called Elsewhere. Elsewhere has always been right here with us, and in the present. I urge upon you this mandate: seize back your Islam and thus, take back our continent and, in that restorative undertaking – take back our humanity.
 Professor Soyinka delivered this tribute today at a gathering of Nigerian writers at the Freedom Park, Broad Street, Lagos.

Observation… Ogwo’s palette goes motivational

By Tajudeen Sowole

Painter, Emenike Ogwo’s new body of work titled Observation, just exhibited at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos adds visual narrative to the expanding ‘industry’ of motivational literary works. 

Emenike Ogwo’s Yaba Market

In fact, Ogwo’s Observation may just be an alternative to lovers of motivational books who are bored with the repetitive themes within which most writers and speakers on the subject are confined. With 36 paintings, including his familiar impasto=style textured canvas and acrylic on paper, Ogwo delves into the familiar issue of man’s power of observation, stressing the abundance of nature in every given state of the environment.

An impressionist whose palette makes no pretext about deliberately engaging a viewer of his work in visibility test, Ogwo’s choice of Observation, as the theme of the show, indeed, complement his technique: there is a thin line between the ability to understand the composite of images on his canvas and having a great sense of observation. And bringing such combination into his thoughts about the environment and hidden opportunity, stresses a strong intellectuality imbedded in the artist’s approach to motivational theme.

From Lagos to Owerri and the northern part of the country, Ogwo’s palette perches on the peculiarity of each city and suggests how opportunities are hidden, but only those with keen Observation make the best of the situations. In one of the textured works titled Yaba Market {oil on canvas, 2013}, for example, the foreground and the depth appears almost similar in thickness of activities. But somewhere in the seemingly lack of easy ways to navigate, a fortune could just be waiting to be uncovered.  “Someone might find a fortune, after making a good observation from the distance”, Ogwo explains to his guest few days before the end of the exhibition. 

   

He notes that as people become less observant, they see “less opportunity”. Perhaps, the environment is becoming less interesting, so is the decline in people’s sense of observation. “There is nothing created by God that is not good,” Ogwo argues. Even with man’s devastating of the earth, nature’s resilience, he insists, is still strong enough to create sustenance for those who have the ability to see hidden opportunity. “Opportunity exists where we chose to find it”.

 Aside the motivational tone of the artist’s visual narratives imbedded in the body of work, also highlighted is the human pressure on the environment. Having consistently focused the urban Lagos in his past art exhibitions, the artist’s highlight of the Lagos environmental and human challenges continues in Observation. Among such works are Makoko Settlement, Lagos island Market and keke Marwa. Captured on a typical Lagos road are two tricycles known in the local parlance as keke. Quite interesting in the painting is the seemingly orderliness and calmness on the road, devoid of commercial motorcycles known as Okada. It should be recalled that almost a year ago, Lagos state Government started restricting Okada operations to inner roads of the state. As relatively fragile as the restrictions look  – few commercial motor cyclists are still defiantly still on the roads – the Kekes are filling the space of the motorcycles. Like some skeptical few, Ogwo questions the good intention of the Babatunde Fashola led-government. “In Victoria Island, for example, okada used to be our taxi. Now that there is no okada, and taxi cabs are not available, is government forcing us to exercise our body?” But the artist’s work seems to have provided the answer as regards government’s intention: it shows an environment devoid of uncontrollable and dangerous transport workers that ‘were responsible’ for hundreds of deaths and injuries every year by okada.

More interesting, Keke appears to have also replaced the molue theme, which used to dominate Nigerian artists’ canvas.  Quite a number of artists, recently, have been exploring the tricycle themes, such that the demise of molue may not be “missed” after all. With the coming of Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) – from 2006 and formerly launched in 2007 – some artists have jokingly stated that “we will miss molue o”.

Between Ogwo’s thickened canvas of oil and his softer surface of acrylic on paper,  there comes the struggle to bond the two with a dual-dimensional illusory effect. To an extent, the impasto canvas has the relief effect, but the paper work, he argues is not far from achieving the same effect. Largely covered in dripping of acrylic, the drip effect, he says, is intended “to create a non -lattened surface”.

And as the central theme suggests, it probably takes a pass mark in observatory test to see the optical effect of the paper works such as Hope, Breastfeeding Mother, Fulani Men, Mother of Two and The Journey,

Nigerian oil magnate, Aluko partners fashion designer, actor on $500m African development fund

At the launch of Made in Africa: Kola Aluko, Ozwald Boateng and Jamie Foxx  Picture: c/o of NASDAQ.

 
Nigerian oil magnate, Kola Aluko’s U.K-based non-profit organization, Made in Africa Foundation {MIAF} has launched a $500 million African infrastructure fund tagged Africa 50, in collaboration a British fashion designer and Ghanaian-born Oswald Boateng. 

Sources said the fund, which also involves Hollywood actor and musician, Jamie Foxx got its bell rang, officially, on Wednesday at NASDAQ in New York. 

The project, Africa50, is a Pan-African infrastructure fund, in a joint venture with the African Development Bank and Aluko’s MIAF. Media sources said the fund is designed to energise development in Africa through funding of large infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa.  

Aluko said: “Infrastructure drives growth. If we focus on the big infrastructure projects- power, good roads, railways – then we will be creating an enabling environment for entrepreneurs in other areas of endeavor which are non-infrastructure”.
 

Aluko’s interest in in energy and investment banking. But the involvement of Boateng, a fashion designer and Hollywood actor Foxx suggests that the art and culture sector of Africa will not be left of the Africa 50 project.

Looted Benin artefacts: Boston museum opens gallery with ‘support of Benin monarch’

One of the works, a plaque 16th–17th century, depicting drum and two attendants with gongs, made of  copper alloy Collection.

It does appear that there is an official endorsement of the controversial acquisition of 32 Benin artefacts donated to Museum of Fine Art {MFA}, Boston U.S. last year.

According to a group known as Coalition of Committed Benin Community Organizations – which claims to be representing Benin monarch in Boston – MFA's  opening of a Benin Kingdom Gallery "is to celebrate the arts and culture of the Edo community". The group had earlier asked for support to join the Boston museum in to “celebrate” Benin art and culture on Wednesday, September 25” {yesterday}.

The Benin Gallery was actually opened yesterday, another source has confirmed. Meanwhile, the response of the Benin monarch is currently being awaited as regards the alleged endorsement.

 Meanwhile, the MFA had announced on its website that officials from Benin will be attending the opening of the gallery. READ MORE HERE