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Showing posts from October, 2016

Another 'Portrait' of Usman dan Fodio



Here is another photograph that is presented as a portrait of Usman dan Fodio.


(Source: Slideplayer)

I found this one because it was used in a student's PowerPoint presentation that somebody uploaded to the web. Whether these students are at secondary school or undergraduates I cannot tell from the website. But, I hope they are not at university because, once again, there is no information here about the origin of the photograph. – Don't students these days learn that they have to reference their sources, including their image sources? 

(Source: Slideplayer)
 Anyway, this one is particularly puzzling. I don't know if I am being prejudiced here but to me the man in the picture, the one on the horse does not look Nigerian at all. What do you think? It puzzles me even more since the same presentation in another slide includes this 'portrait' drawing of Usman dan Fodio that I have already mentioned here a few days ago.

(Source: Slideplayer)

Political Sardines in Ghana



This comes from West Africa, the weekly magazine that was published between 1917 and 2005 and covered the latest news, economical developments and, to a much lesser extent, culture in the region. To me that's a rather creative approach to politics – though I am sure Dr. Busia didn't think it quite as funny. Did anybody ever do something similar to a Nigerian politician?

Political Sardines
Dr. Kofi Busia, one of Ghana's two main political party leaders, has said he does not know about the manufacture of "book matches" said to have been made with his effigy on. Ten thousand are reported to have been ordered by the Ghana Students Association in North America in 1965, without Dr. Busia's permission being sought. The former Vice-President of this student association said the matches had been produced as part of their struggle against Nkrumah. He denied reports that the Association had ordered tins of sardines with Dr Busia's picture on them (the tins).
(West Africa, 23 August 1969, page 985)

'Portraits' of Sheikh Usman dan Fodio



When I flicked through the papers this morning – online, if you must know – I came across an article in the Daily Trust that extolls the virtues Usman dan Fodio and his generation of northern Nigerian political leaders. It sets them up as good examples of leadership and argues that current President of Nigeria Muhammad Buhari should take inspiration from them to solve the current crisis of leadership in his government.
Now, I don't want to get into political arguments here. I only mention this article – here, in a space that I said I'd use to organise my thoughts for my art historical writing – because it was illustrated by a photograph of a smiling elderly man. The caption underneath the photograph identifies the man in the picture as 'Shaikh Usumanu Danfodio'. Now, the founder of the Sokoto caliphate may not have been the only Sheikh named Usman (or Osman or Usumanu) in the family. However, the article makes it pretty clear that it is him that the author is concerned with. This makes it likely that the photograph has been included to illustrate that very Usman dan Fodio who in the early 19th century waged war against the established ruling dynasties in Hausaland, conquered most of what is now northern Nigeria and founded the Sokoto Caliphate. 

Enwinma Ogieriakhi 1966 The Artist



Another Poem. I do happen to like this one … and it's also fascinating to think about it as an insight into one person's view of artists in Nigeria in the 1960s. Someone who actually produces art himself, at that.

The Artist
There again he goes,
An artist he calls himself!
Deep-set are his searching eyes
Seeing more than others see.
Wearing a look that saintly seems.
He hates the most,
Those things that others love:
Our beauty's not his beauty,
And ever looking higher or lower,
He is forever out of tune,
Who is this person,
That loves solitude, never cheer?
What manner of man is this,
That is HERE and yet not HERE,
Like a weed in the desert waste.
Others to him are either fools,
Or he's a fool to other men!

Enwinma Ogieriakhi, Nigeria Magazine, December 1966 (No. 91), p. 310

Ikorodu Road - A Poem



Alright, so here is one of these snippets that I stumbled across in the course of flicking through, in this case, Nigeria Magazine, in the search of articles and images that may be relevant to the research project I'm currently working on. It is by Vera Norman and was published in Nigeria Magazine. September 1964. No. 81. 236. I quite like it. 


P.S. Ikorodu Road, if you don't happen to be familiar with the transport networks of southern Nigeria, is a major express way connecting Lagos mainland to Ikorodu. It's important enough to have a Wikipedia page of its own

Ikorodu Road

Glaring white eyes their light
Reproduced and glancing off our own
As they race towards us
Leaping a slight rise or bending corner.
Ahead a mirage as light beats down on vapour
Like a fantastic sunburst prismatic upon sea.
The great expanse of nubian [sic] sky
Thrown down upon us by the heavy foliage
Of towering trees and plumage of the palms
Groping upwards with long arms.
The dark night illumined intermittently
By tropic flashes of white light
Following a season's storm.
But far more fearful than black skies
And the fast moving, glaring eyes
Now floating up before us a weird scene.
Ghost upon ghost, rising, weaving,
Beckoning, breaking into a vat host,
Armies of ectoplasm, where sudden rain
Recently fell on dry road.
Where is this fearful place,
Enchanted wood or childish fantasy?
But no, it is reality
As any drive will show at intervals,
The metal scars of numerous crashed cars
Victims of both day and night
Upended or on banks. 


To be honest, what fascinates me here, is Norman's description of the experience of travelling by road – some of which I can relate to a trip late last week here in Germany. It was dark and it was raining. We were travelling on one of the local highways from a family birthday back home to the small town where I am currently staying. This feels familiar:

Glaring white eyes their light
Reproduced and glancing off our own
As they race towards us
Leaping a slight rise or bending corner.

I admit that I am a bit traumatised by a recent accident. So, driving in the dark is a bit scary now. Even on German highways where there is a division between my lane and the one in which the 'glaring white eyes' of the cars that 'race towards us.' The later parts of the poem, however, are more reminiscent of experiences I have had travelling on Nigerian roads:

Now floating up before us a weird scene.
Ghost upon ghost, rising, weaving,
Beckoning, breaking into a vat host,
Armies of ectoplasm, where sudden rain
Recently fell on dry road.
As any drive will show at intervals,
The metal scars of numerous crashed cars
Victims of both day and night
Upended or on banks. 

It reflects on the dangers of long-distance travel on Nigerian roads. I remember seeing the wrecks of burnt out cars along on the road side when I travelled in shared 'bush' taxies. I travelled quite a bit but nothing comparable to the time that commercial drivers will spend on the road. So, I wonder, to which extent this is also a good illustration of the dangers that the drivers of those painted lorries experience – and whether there is a way in which I can work this poem into the project I am currently working on. I want it to be less academically dry, after all, more fun. 


Oh well, let's see.