THE NATION WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2013
38
The Midweek Magazine
E-mail:- ozoluauhakheme@yahoo.com
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HERE is a fascinating edition of a collection of the works of the late Chinua Achebe simply titled ‘An Image of Africa’. It is published in the Penguin series of great ideas that features such great minds as Chuang Tzu, Epictetus, Niccolo Machiavelli, Rene Descartes, John Stuart Mill and Charles Darwin among several others. The first part of this book contains what Achebe considers as nothing but sheer racism in Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’. In his clinical dissection of Conrad’s novel, Achebe contends that “Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as ‘the other world’, the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality”. Achebe continues: “In my original conception of this essay I had thought to conclude it nicely on an appropriately positive note in which I would suggest from my privileged position in African and Western cultures some advantages the west might derive from Africa once it rids its mind of old prejudices and began to look at Africa not through a haze of distortions and cheap mystifications but quite simply as a continent of people – not angels, but not rudimentary souls either – just people, often highly gifted people and often strikingly successful in their enterprise with life and society”. Even though he was immensely successful as an individual writer, thinker and intellectual, it is highly unlikely that Chinua Achebe died a fulfilled and contented man. This is because Africa, his beloved Africa, despite its immense human and material endowments, still lies in the throes of poverty, impunity and underdevelopment. It would appear to me that if Joseph Conrad were to resurrect today and write a novel about Africa, he would still characterise the continent as the ‘heart of darkness’. From all indices of human development, Africa lags pathetically behind – in education, health, infrastructure, poverty, disease, ignorance among several others. Ironically, the second part of this Penguin collection of Achebe’s work comprises of his seminal short essays simply titled ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’. Although these essays were
An image of Africa : Between Achebe and Conrad penned over three decades ago, they are ever so still relevant to contemporary Nigeria. It would appear to me that Achebe’s ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’ confirms Conrad’s deprecatory disposition to the black man. Nigeria is the most populous black nation on earth. She harbours natural and mineral resources beyond imagination. She is blessed with abundant human genius. In his last characteristically well written but controversial work ‘There was a Country: A personal history of Biafra’, Achebe documents how the British colonialists ran an impressive and efficient public administration in Nigeria . All that has gone to the dogs. As Achebe bluntly put it over thirty years ago, “Nigeria is not a great country. It
is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. It is one of the most expensive countries and one of those that give least value for money. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short, it is among the most unpleasant places on earth!” Our severe critic is not finished with us yet. According to him, “It is a measure of our self-delusion that we can talk about developing tourism in Nigeria. Only a masochist with an exuberant taste for self-violence will pick Nigeria for a holiday; only a character out of Tutuola seeking to know punishment and poverty at first hand! No, Nigeria may be a paradise for adventurers and pirates, but not tourists”.
‘We have become so used to talking in millions and billions that we have ceased to have proper respect for the sheer size of such numbers. I sometimes startled my students by telling them that it was not yet one million days since Christ was on earth. As they gazed openmouthed I would add: not even half a million days’
Are these the words of an incurable cynic who hates his country for no just cause? Are they the musings of a mind incapable of loving his country, warts and all as a true patriot should? No, I believe these words are borne of genuine affection for the fatherland, a deep desire that an otherwise well -endowed country achieve her full potentials. They are words of truth and truth, all too often, is a bitter pill to swallow. Three decades after Achebe’s words, the infrastructure across the country has decayed abysmally. The public education sector is comatose at all levels. Public health care has virtually collapsed. Kidnapping, armed robbery and suicide bombing have become commonplace across the land. Poverty has worsened. Corruption has deepened. The Nigerian state is clearly on the verge of collapse. I believe that Achebe despaired that our generation of Africans, by our actions and inactions, were actually confirming the inferiority tag implicit in Joseph Conrad’s depiction of the black man. Take the scale of corruption in contemporary Nigeria for example. Privileged officials siphon billions of Naira of pension funds into their private accounts. Yet, pensioners who have spent the best part of their lives serving their country die of exhaustion on endless pension ques. Before now, the norm was to steal thousands and then millions of Naira. Today, the fashion is to guzzle billions of Naira or even dollars. As Achebe put it three decades ago, “We have become so used to talking in millions and billions that we have ceased to have proper respect for the sheer size of such numbers. I sometimes startled my students by telling them that it was not yet one million days since Christ was on earth. As they gazed open-mouthed I would add: not even half a million days!” Yet, see how things have worsened. The inimitable Chinua Achebe no doubt today walks tall among our ancestors. He was an icon of integrity. He was a wordsmith of incomparable clarity. But then, we must heed his words of wisdom and mend our ways or else things will irreversibly fall apart and the great man would have to apologise to Joseph Conrad if their paths cross in the great beyond.
Oshiomhole urges Afenmai to preserve their heritage
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VER a dozen masqueraders and cultural troupes converged on the Ikelebe Sports Arena, Auchi, Edo State last week to celebrate the heritage of the Afenmai people. It was a colourful presentation embellished with heavy thudding strokes of the drums, dexterous and enticing footsteps in addition to an exhibition on sculpturing, skin decoration techniques, and masquerade costume production. The celebration was at the instance of the Centre for Afenmai Heritage & Cultural Studies, a creative outfit for the promotion, propagation and documentation of heritage of the Afenmai people. Six local government council areas were represented with two troupes each. The Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole who was the Special Guest, stressed the need for the people to ensure that their past is never allowed to go into extinction, reiterating the state government’s preparedness and willingness to partner with the centre in promoting the art and culture of the Afenmai people. He expressed satisfaction with what the founder and director of the centre, Prince Alhaji Usman Abudah had single-handedly put together. He stressed government’s readiness to key into the creative pursuits that would be of immense benefit to the forthcoming Edo Festival. Prince Abudah said the outing was to unfold the natural nature of the people through the lyric formats in masquerade presentation that was equally sustained in footsteps and instrumentation. “The emergence of the centre to assist in a thorough approach to unveil the rural based artistes, artisans and disciples of the often-forgotten aspect of a people’s past. It is also to document several historical locations that need to be fully put on record in various forms that the government alone cannot pursue. Apart from that, it is to promote tourism locally rather than talking from Abuja when the real locations are at home.” Abudah recalled that the centre had in the past promoted the heritage of Afemai land with its attendance at the COJA 2003 in Abuja featuring Ikao Masqueraders and the participation in the Lagos Black Heritage
•Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole (centre) inspecting some of the exhibits
HERITAGE Festival in 2010 in which it featured a 45-member contingent. He disclosed that the centre has published numerous reports on artistic works and festivals of the land in various Nigerian newspapers and television stations. The chairman of the occasion, Alhaji Aliru H. Momoh, Ikelebe III, the Otaru of Auchi kingdom praised the efforts of the founder and director of the centre in pro-
moting the artistry of the Afenmai people and called on him to sustain the pursuit. Oba Danesi, the Aidonogie of South Ibie Kingdom also graced the occasion. A lecture titled Masquerades don’t lie: Oshiomhole as a case study was delivered by Dr. John Edemode of the Mass Communication Department of the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi. Constance Bolivia Osigbemhe Memorial Band provided some entertainments for the guests as he performed some ever-green tracks of his late father.