What about Us ?

'It's a pity that life can only be lived looking forward, but understood looking back.' 

Fifteen years ago, Pat Nebo, a veteran set designer in the entertainment industry, made a few comments in an interview about practicing his craft in Nigeria.

 Two lines stood out in his career-long reflections ...

"...what I found out is our educational system is not tailored to basic perception of art. 

We have not actually matured to look inwards at the glamour in our culture."

Here's the full newspaper archived page from March 27th, 2009. 

In the first phrase, Nebo accurately identified the common denominator for such a mediocre approach to life. 

We have gone back and forth about this mediocrity cutting across all things in our living space, not just art. Cars as spicy as a platter of table salt, hermetically sealed buildings pasted as concept architecture without context, civil engineering works with a distinct lack of planning, functional design, or aesthetic finesse. 

At least there is one planned city in the maze, but even Eko Atlantic Abuja could have been starkly different. 

...as long as we agree there is no such thing as a valid excuse for mediocrity.

What about Us ?

What about an incipient perception of art ? 

This cultural stagnancy cuts across all levels of our communities - formally or informally educated. It also leads to all sorts of questions... 

What is going on ?  

Are we building communities around ideas, reflection and choice ? 

What communities are being intentionally built around shared values from folk tales, or philosophy ? 

Are we condemned to repeat previous errors of spaces shared by coercion of shotgun marriages ? 

What about change ?

 A new generation brings renewed verve, that questions more of what they met, and were handed down while growing up. This search for meaning also defines a sense of belonging in community. 

No matter how tall our grandfather was, we all have our growing to do.

What comes to mind while reading about ancient Benin bronzes and Nok sculpture from hundreds and thousands of years ago ? Does the young nigerian ask  'now what ? ' - do these arcana tuck into the fossil folder of 'cool stories - largely irrelevant' ? 

Where are artifacts - stories, songs, books, hanging maps, figurines of these supposed illustrious ancestors under his nose at home, in a church or mosque down the road ?

We can't outsource our entire cultural education to art classes and museum trips, as critically relevant as they are. 

Have either Indigenous or urban-dwelling groups curated mundane crafts at any significant level of quantity ? Is there unfettered access and exposure to the art form and ideas that spurred such craft at all ?  

Why should the tenous existence of estranged art thousands of miles away be any cause for a teenager's fleeting interest ? 

What does a typical nigerian home, digital space or community centre anywhere in the world, really say about our respect for those that came before us and fidelity to the ideas that inspired their actions ?  

Deflecting these contemplative matters elsewhere has not worked out well. At all. 

Look around.

We have replaced quiet contemplation and intellectual growth with extreme projections of materialism, individual stage performance and cults of personality. 

We have derailed the spiritual awakening that should have been.

 

Talking about expressions of our culture - and what they could be - is a great vector for musing about these large groups of people. Mindlessly chanting '9ja no dey carry last!' is just celebration of oneupmanship, masking as a brazen zest for life. One can only play the ostrich for so long. It is easy to see where two generations of such has led us; mid-way through another generational brain-drain. We are still tipping the scales as the largest group of poor people in the world.

What new opportunities are created, and passed-on for critical internal development ? 

What spaces for reflection are ardently sought after online and onsite, instead of space-filler conversation, trading gimmicks, noise, trend surfing and having a laugh ?

Archivi.ng is such a thrilling digital space. It speaks of so much more than a tenous hold on yesteryears long gone. Similar to yungnollywood, it serves as a period piece or mimetic time capsule, with a little extra. 

Stories that highlights this thread come from the preceding series of character portraits long long ago 2019 B.C. (Before Corona)- Naira Life on Zikoko, also by Fu'ad.  In it, a motley crew of people recount their adventures with the running theme of making a living. I found the pieces so rich with artefacts of an age long forgotten, as well as questions to reflect on. 

By following such a good story on NairaLife, your cocktail is served chill and effervescent - bubbling up with more detail as you sit with it - more themes to ponder on while swimming with fingerlings through the lagoon in the 90’s or something of the sort.

What questions were addressed by life choices like relocating for a new job, life happening to the character, or left unanswered in the milestones marked without fanfare ?

Is there more to the zeitgeist about what recipes we are losing, other than durags, jeans and pantalon cuts ? 

When do we get to look inwards at the glamour that lies in our culture ?