Media 27
NEW TELEGRAPH FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2015
African cultural heritage key for development, integration – CBAAC DG
L-R: Comrade Abiodun Aremu (Coordinator ACII), Dr. (Mrs) Glori Chuma-Ibe (Director Exhibition & Museum, CBAAC), Sir Ferdinand Anikwe (CBAAC Director General), Comrade Aboagye Boamong (Ghana) and Comrade Emoni Emoja (Guinea Bissau).
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or the African continent to achieve cultural growth, once in a while we must produce a template on how to ensure that we graduate from one cultural development to the other and eventually emerge as total Africans,” the Director General of the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), Sir Ferdinand Anikwe has said. He urged Africans to emulate the late nationalist thinker, political leader, and one of Africa’s foremost anti-colonial leaders, Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral, who fought to liberate Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde from the Portuguese
Elijah Samuel
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agos City Chorale, again, proved itself as a worthy ambassador as it won laurels and did Nigeria proud at the just-concluded international music festival and competition which held in Magdeburg, the capital of state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. With a 30-man contingent to the 2015 edition of the European Choir Games, the world’s largest cultural festival and choir Olympics, Lagos City Chorale, directed by Sir Emeka Nwokedi, won three gold medals in three different categories, namely Folklore, Chamber Choir and Musica Contemporanea (contemporary music). The Interkultur, the organizers of the world choir Olympics, had staged the programme with the major aim to, among other things, foster peace among the nations of the world through choral music as representative choirs from all parts of the world sing together. Thus, the period of the choral competition in which about five thousand choir members
government, saying that, “after Cabral, there has been a burning desire by those who are following him to ensure that his ideas are actualised. But I must say that there has been a big gap between his ideas and what we are seeing in Africa. “He also stood against the belief in the West that many African leaders don’t want democratic change, as they want to be in power for life, pointing the fact that the western countries have leaders, who have been ruling for 30 years.” The CBAAC DG made this call in his remarks when members of the Amilcar Cabral Ide-
ological Institute (ACII) paid him a visit to congratulate him on his new appointment as the President of the Pan African Cultural Congress. The visit was prior to its just concluded 10th anniversary celebration, which held from July 15 to 16. Anikwe said, “Neo-colonialism is worse than colonialism because with that, we think we are liberated, but in fact deepening the colonial process. There are simple things we must do to prove to the West that we are no longer for them, speak the African language, wear African attires and so on”. According to him, “since these our oppressors are oppressing our culture, then
fighting for culture is what we need by depression.” Anikwe called on every black country on Earth to value what Africa has, adding that the country is yet to understand what CBAAC stands for. CBAAC, he said, has a number of programmes that will properly help to re-orientate the African children. “One of such is our partnership with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), so that, rather than seeing the western culture, they will see Africans, who are going through our process, and the proper education, respect for elders and so on. What we want to do is to move Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) everywhere.” Anikwe also commended Nollywood for the efforts at exposing the African culture to the rest of the world, adding, “for us to imitate Cabral, we must look inwards, return to our roots, listen to our elders and research those important areas of our culture that are fading.” Coordinator of ACII, Abiodun Aremu, in his remarks, said CBAAC has produced a lot in the sector. “One thing that strikes us most is the underdevelopment of the Centre, the Nigerian State ought to protect and guard the place, because if there is an invasion here, Nigeria will lose its entire history and these are histories that are not even available to generations after the FESTAC in 1977,” he noted. Aremu urged the federal government to pay more attention to CBAAC and invest on the basis of cultural reality, saying, “you cannot drive
development outside your cultural reality.” He said the Centre should be well resourced to enable it move from school to school to show documentaries that would capture the younger ones to our culture. “The ACIS would partner with CBAAC to ensure that every African takes maximum advantage of the Centre, which, can show in our thinking, consciousness and in our ability to see that we essentially are just one Africa,” he said. Also speaking at the event, Aboagye Boampong, the organiser of All African Peoples’ Revolutionary Party, Ghana, commended CBAAC on its achievements saying, “there are a lot of cultural centres in Ghana, but none can be compared to what I have seen here today. If there is any relevant thing, it’s Kwame Nkrumah, we are going to use our culture to reclaim our land”. Imani Na Umoja of Guinea Bissau said Africa is one and must be united to liberate the continent. According to him, “to fight neo-colonialism, we must have our own thinking to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, we must have our own ideology that comes from our history, and to get our land back we must have independent mass organisations.” The national Youth Leader ACIS, Mr. Patrick Oseriemen Benjamin, suggested that CBAAC should decolonise the mind of the African child by creating the platform to scrutinize the educational system of Africa.
Lagos City Chorale shines at European Choir Games from different countries and cultures performed various songs, literally became a melting point for various world cultures. They co-habited in hotels and hostels, fed together at a central feeding point, had a very healthy contest in various categories of the competition, shared same stage in friendship concerts and cut friendship across borders and various cultures of the world in a very convivial atmosphere. According to the Master of Music, Sir Emeka Nwokedi did Nigeria proud and was selected to perform in a special forum to entertain high profile audience. “Nigeria’s Lagos City Chorale representing Africa was among five choirs from different continents specially invited to perform for a select high profile audience which include Reiner Haseloff, the Governor of the State of Saxony-Anhalt; Lutz Trumper, the Lord Mayor of the City of Magdeburg and Gunter Titsch, the President of Interkultur. The performance
Lagos City Chorale in performance
was evidently outstanding by the reaction of the audience which gave a resounding ovation at the end of each song.” “In all the performances, Lagos City Chorale exhibited Nigerian rich Culture embedded in her indigenous choral music, traditional music instruments, costume and unique dance to the admira-
tion of a global community that constituted the audience.” Irrespective of the daunting challenges of having to represent Nigeria at international outings without the needed support, Lagos City Chorale has continued to use its participation in various global cultural festivals and choir Olympics as a way of contribution to re-
branding Nigeria and showcasing her positive abilities on the international platform. The Lagos City Chorale has represented Nigeria at the European Choir Games held at Cincinnati, Ohio USA in 2012; Graz, Austria in 2013; Riga, Latvia in 2014 and recently concluded 2015 edition in Magdeburg, Germany.