okey nwafor

Drama as Madman hits a man on the News Stand

2010-05-07T10:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning my younger brother called me to inform me of the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua who has been sick since November 23 last year. At around 7:30 am, I rushed out to buy a copy of the daily at a News stand at Egbeda Bus Stop here in Lagos. As I got there, a group of ‘free readers’ had swarmed around curiously struggling to steal a glance from the numerous dailies. As is the norm, if you don’t have money to buy you just enclose twenty naira note into the vendor’s palm and he offers you a sit among the ‘free-readers’ where you can relax to flip through the pages, after which you drop the paper and leave. Sometimes when I lack funds, I normally join this ‘free readers’ group but yesterday did not call for such free reading as I needed a copy of the daily to grasp the full story drama of the president’s death and the ensuing politics. As I was busy checking out for the most news-laden paper, a man rushed in and shouted, amidst the raucous debate, “what about the money!” People were busy arguing, debating and brainstorming over the president’s death when the man, again, interrupted and shouted “Yes he is dead what about the money!” One of the ‘free readers’ asked him, “which money?” Others looked at the man and recognizing the abnormality written all over him ignored him and concentrated on their debate. The man, still shouting, “What about the money!” faced one of the ‘free readers’ and hit him violently on the face. A fight was about to ensue before others intervened and halted it and drove the mad man away. Some people burst into uncontrollable laughter. Of course if the man had fought the mad man people would have thought both of them mad.

If you travel to a far stream to swim or to take your shower and a naked mad man comes to the stream to steal your clothes while you shower or swim inside the stream, don’t run after the naked man for if you do then people will think both of you are mad. Just leave the mad man and make a call to your neighbour to get you some clothes to cover up for your journey back home.

Below are still more of the New Lagos, quite different from Lagos of Rem Khoolhas

This man was carrying his foam without trouble, Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor, 6 May 2010

Suddenly it falls and the Okada man (Bike man) charges, "Why did you fall it?" Everywhere in Lagos such drama unfolds and it is a Nollywood scene on its own. Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor, 6 May, 2010.

Enjoyment on top of Locomotive going to Sango Ota from Lagos Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor,6 MAy 2010.

Still on Lagos

2010-05-05T03:28:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I almost got stoned by one guy on top of a moving train along Oshodi-Ikeja expressway. I was inside a bus ‘shooting’ the guy and others as they scampered on top of a moving train. As soon the guy saw me he got very angry and started spitting fire and gesticulating aggressively in a stone-throwing gesture, even beating the air as though the air was the one photographing him. I was terrified initially as I thought he actually had a stone but when I remembered he was on top of a moving train and I was inside a moving bus I was reassured of some safety. I imagined what could have happened if the guy caught me on the plane ground, one-on-one. Surely, I know I would have been the next victim of the much feared area boys (touts) for the guy looked like one. But that is life in Lagos, while some journeyed by luxurious, posh cars, some journeyed in rickety Molues, some on top of the dangerously meandering Okadas (motor bikes) and some journeyed by desperately clinging onto George Washignton's 19th century locomotive which threatens the environment with an unimaginable emission of thick blanket of carbon monoxide gas. In Lagos life is do-your-own and I-do-my-own ‘God no go vex.’ I will post the photos for you to view soon.

As I moved further towards Lagos Island and CMS I captured the frenzy and drama of existence. The daily activity which my people engage in to put bread on their tables. This is not just a gentleman’s idea of working and getting paid at the end of the day but I mean the kind of severe working-class striving that might not after all put the bread on the table; severe labour under an intense skin-tearing sun. I saw a white man walking on bare bodies. I know the heat is just scorching for him as I understand the nature of where he comes from, yet my people are used to this sun under which they must toil to put amala and fufu on their tables. It is not easy. What also surprises me is how the uniformed touts called ‘LASMA’ officials (Lagos Task Force Agency) charge at the commercial bus drivers. You need to behold the scene. These LASMA officials are warriors; they threaten war and death as soon as they see the commercial buses approaching a Bus Stop especially if they suspect that the driver does not want to pat with the usual fare they illegally extort from them. They would fiercely chase the bus and cling brutally on the steering, most times struggling to wrest the steering from the driver of a moving bus to the utter screaming and shouting of the passengers. Most times the driver, apparently intimidated, would pat with the money and they would grab it and jump out of the moving bus. It looks like a Nollywood scene.

That is the picture of the guy on top of the locomotive angry at my camera. Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor,

Egbeda 26 April 2010, taking the children to school, Photo Okechukwu Nwafor,

Houses beside and inside the lagoon at Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos. Photo Okechukwu Nwafor, 1 May 2010.

Football players along sandfilled space at third mainland bridge,Lagos. Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor, 1 May 2010.

Basket Ball players along Third Mainland Bridge,Lagos. Photo by Okechukwu Nwafor, 1 May 2010

Along Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos. Photo by Okechukwu Nwafor, 1 May 2010.

CMS, Lagos. Photo by Okechukwu Nwafor, 28 April 2010.

boundary market, Lagos. Photo by Okechukwu Nwafor, 30 MArch 2010.

boundary market Lagos., Photo by Okechukwu Nwafor, 30 MArch 2010.

boundary market, Lagos. Photo by Okechukwu Nwafor, 30 MArch 2010.

2010-05-05T03:28:00.000-07:00

More scenes from Lagos April 2010

2010-04-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

Everybody does his or her stuffs, Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor.

Poetry Performance at the National Theatre Iganmu Lagos, April 2010, the little boy watches in admiration, Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor

Brisk business along Agege Motor Road Ikeja, Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor

Egbeda, Lagos, Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor

Along Egbeda express road, even Mamas enter Okada to beat the traffic, Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor

Along Egbeda express road Okada (motorbike) is the fastest means of transport(to avoid the traffic) but it is also very dangerous. Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor

Oshodi, Lagos, Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor

In Lagos

2010-04-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

CMS Lagos, April 2010 Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor

CMS Lagos April 2010, Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor

CMS Lagos April 2010 Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor

CMS Lagos April 2010 Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor

Mosalachi Lagos April 2010 Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor

Mosalachi Lagos April 2010 Photo: Okechukwu Nwafor

As I entered Lagos events changed and I knew I had left a less chaotic location to a fast nerve-breaking center of activity. In Lagos, the word that sinks deep is noise and briskness. You need not be told how to live here for you will be forced to learn fast. The fact is that you will never understand the beauty or ugliness of Lagos until you live in other quieter part of the world. As they say you will always love and hate Lagos as you engage the kinetic crowd and the zero tolerance of quietude and gentility in the city. You might hate it more especially when you furiously fight back the charging crowd, Okada, Danfo and Molue along the road. What beats the imagination is the sheer ruggedness and ruffian-like attitude exhibited by Okada and Danfo drivers. When you enter the Danfo or Okada it moves with an alarming speed and you think you’re crashing the next moment because each minute brings you very close to collision with another Danfo, Okada or the staggering mammoth crowd. Yet even as you shudder at the sheer recklessness of the drivers you also amaze at their expertise and professionalism at dodging numerous potential accidents. Lagos to me looks like an action packed movie or drama that can never stop. Enter into the streets and you partake in this movie. You may choose to become a protagonist, on your own level, depending on the condition of your sanity.

I joined this movie and, I must say, have been enjoying it. What made the movie seem very interesting to me is how I fit in fast despite some months of my absence from the scene. I can only say that I be proper Naija. I traversed the entire Lagos in few months. From December to April I had journeyed almost the nooks and crannies in search of what I am pursuing. From Egbeda through Mosalashi to CMS, from Ojuelegba to Ikeja then to Ikotun, from Surulere to Iyana Ipaja, from Obalande to Ikoyi, from Mushin to Ketu, from Dopemu to Festac, from Bariga to Olodi Apapa then to Ajegunle, from Olodi Apapa to Boundary market, from Palm Groove to Onipan then to Onikan among many other places. Trust me my camera responds at every beck and call. Above are some of the images.

Back from limbo

2010-04-23T07:38:00.000-07:00

So unfortunate that I entered into limbo since I left Cape Town for Nigeria in November 2009. I never imagined that this blog would remain empty like a barren land since then. But as I have recovered from my writer’s block I come out with a big bang. Just to intimate you on my last activity with the Center for Humanities Research before I left Cape Town. We, the fellows at CHR with our director, Prof Premesh Lalu and our administrator lameez Lalkhen had gone on a treat trip to Cape Point. We spent a night there and gleefully treated ourselves to the splendid beauty and loveliness of Cape Point’s wild setting. In the (in)clement fusion of wild wind waves and cold oceanic surges we found peace, love and fraternal re-union. That was our last brotherly encounter before I left for Lagos on November 25.

By way of Recapitulation: Progress Report for PSHA fellowship 2009

2009-11-05T14:41:00.000-08:00

The session started on 4 March 2009 with a very interesting reading on Edward Said’s “Orientalism.” It continued with "Beginnings" on the 18th of March and “Orientalism” on the 31st of March and then “Culture and Imperialism” on Wednesday 15th April 2009.
“On Late Style: Music and Literature against the grain” by Edward Said was read on May 20.

There was “War and the Everyday colloquium” on the 3rd of April.
On July 8 and 9, I attended and presented a paper at the conference, “Re-imagining Postcolonial futures: knowledge transactions and contests of culture in the African present.”

On July 21, we welcomed Professors Simona Sawhney (University of Minnesota), Jacques Depelchin (Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador) and Brian Raftopoulos who were guests at the Centre for Humanities Research, UWC.

Then on Thursday 30 July, another reading group headed by Professor Patricia Hayes started with readings on Jonathan Crary’s “Techniques of the Observer” and Allan Sekula’s ‘The traffic in photographs'. On the same day 30 July, some of us in the PSHA fellowship started an informal research group discussion with
Dr. Jade Gibson at the Mayibuye Archive centre and were also able to engage with our various research themes in a way that facilitated our individual drifts.

My proposal was approved by the postgraduate committee in July 2009.

We read Ian Baucom’s “Spectres of the Atlantic” between July and August but this is the only reading I am not sure of the particular date we read it, maybe someone can help me here.

Our PSHA reading group continued on Tuesday 4 August 2009 with the reading of Alain Badiou’s “Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil.”

On the 13th of August, the Visual History Reading group continued with Jacques Ranciere’s “The politics of Aesthetics: The distribution of the sensible.”
This was followed by the social theory colloquium which started on August 20 and ended on August 21.

The Dr. Jade group met again on 26 August at the Mayibuye Centre.

The Visual history reading group again continued on Thursday, 10 September, still with Jacques Ranciere’s “The Politics of Aesthetics,” and “Dissenting Words: A Conversation with Jacques Ranciere and Davide Panagia.”

The PSHA group engaged with Dipesh Chakrabarty’s “Provincializing Europe” on Tuesday 15 September 2009.

Then on Wednesday 16 September the research group with Dr Gibson also met again.

On Thursday 17 September, The reading group on Visual History continued with Andrew Apter’s “On Imperial Spectacle: The Dialectics of Seeing in Colonial Nigeria.”

On Tuesday 29 September 2009 the PSHA reading group convened again with the Reading of Dominick Lacapra’s History & Criticism (Chapter 1: “The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Twentieth-Century.”)

On the 8 and 9 October 2009, I attended Heritage Disciplines symposiums put together by The Heritage Disciplines Project together with the African Programme in Museum and Heritage Studies, the Centre for Humanities Research at UWC and the Office of International affairs at Emory University. I was the discussant for the paper titled, “The Promiscuity of ‘Place’: Contemporary ‘Zambian Art’ and the Afriglobal Interface” by Ruth Simbao.

On 13 October 2009, we were joined by two important senior fellows from Emory University Atlanta, Professors Ivan Karp and Corrine Kratz and in fact Ivan Karp joined us in the reading group of one of his edited books with D.A. Masolo titled, “African Philosophy as Cultural Enquiry.” Another book read the same day is A.D. Masolo’s “African Philosophy in Search of Identity.” Ivan acted as our lead speaker on this day and we had to listen to some of his lengthy harangue. A very interesting chap, and in fact an excited, Olusegun Morakinyo intervened with a multitude of literature on African philosophy of which Ivan Karp confessed that he had left the arena of African philosophy some ten years back and could not track some of the books.

On Wed 21 October our last meeting with Dr. Jade Gibson took place at the History department where we had a sumptuous lunch to mark the last meeting of the group for the year.

The PSHA reading group session took place on Tuesday 27 October 2009 with a reading of V.Y. Mudimbe’s “The Invention of Africa, Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge and Kwasi Wiredu’s “Our Problem of Knowledge: Brief Reflections on Knowledge and Development in Africa.”

On Friday 16 October 2009, I attended the pre-colloquium workshop of the “War and the Everyday.”

I attended the fourth "War and the Everyday" colloquium organised by the History Department and the Centre for Humanities Research, UWC on Friday, 30 October at the Centre of Humanities Research where I presented a paper.

Lastly the PSHA Workshop with the theme, AFRICA IN AN INTERDISCIPLINARY NEXUS took place on Thursday, 5th of November 2009 with the following readings:
1. Mowitt, J. 1999. "In/security and the Politics of Disciplinarity." In Jutta Weldes et al. (eds). Cultures of Insecurity: States, Communities and the Production of Danger. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press: 347-361.

2. Chandler, J. 2009. “Introduction: Doctrines, Disciplines, Discourses, Departments.” Critical Inquiry, 35(4): 729-746.

3. Butler, J. 2009. “Critique, Dissent, Disciplinarity.” Critical Inquiry, 35(4): 773-795.

4. Sahlins, M. 2009. “The Conflicts of the Faculty,” Critical Inquiry, 35(4): 997-1017.

Apart from the above programmes which I participated in, I attended all the Tuesday seminars organized under the rubric of SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEMPORAY HISTORY AND HUMANITIES SEMINARS as well as other incidental functions. In addition, I also read many books and literature as preliminary background to the research I am preparing to undertake in Lagos from November 2009. These literatures have contributed in shaping in clearer terms my intended research theme.

Overall summary
Having made all effort to undertake a chronological review of this year’s activities at the Center, I believe, you would agree with me, that the year has been quite an exciting and productive one. It seemed that there was a passionate quest for reading groups which generated splinter groups (as Prof Premesh lalu jokingly pointed out) and at a point one was almost inundated by the huge avalanche of readings. Sometimes one read some of the readings and they seemed tough, impenetrable and ungraspable yet (as one aspiring to become a fine scholar) one would invoke new meanings outside the ones intended by the author. Nonetheless all these experiences have left one mentally edified, intellectually accomplished and morally gratified.
Thank you.
Okechukwu Nwafor.

What is interdisciplinarity

2009-11-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

Today we had our last meeting at CHR which I have termed the grand finale of the marathon readings. Today’s readings were based on the debate circling around interdisciplinarity. The readings opened doors for a more critical re-examination of our different disciplines. It pushed us to interrogate the points of convergence or divergence of our works with the broader fields of interdisciplinarity. The readings we engaged are: John Mowitt’s “In/Security and the Politics of Disciplinarity”, James Chandler’s “Introduction: Doctrines, Disciplines, Discourses, Departments”, Judith Butler’s “Critique, Dissent, Disciplinarity”, and Marshall Sahlin’s “The Conflicts of the Family.”

The thematic thrust of each of these authors is premised on a clearer understanding of what W.J.T. Mitchell calls “disciplinary anxieties…territorial grumpiness and defensiveness,” and what James Chandler describes as the “implications of blurred genres for proof, practice, and persuasion across the disciplines.”

Again the themes probe, if I may borrow from John Mowitt, the overall political engineering intertwined in questions of in/security and disciplinarity. And finally it could be said that there is a determination on the part of the authors to unpack the ambiguity that inheres in what Marshall Sahlins describes as “the politics of disciplines.” Perhaps Jacques Ranciere’s concept of ‘dissensus’ could become the idiom necessary to re-frame the grumpiness of interdisciplinarity as a subject matter.

Each of us made a contribution on the meanings of interdisciplinarity in our works. While Steve Akoth examines the concept of human right from alternative interpretive perspectives, Paolo Israel underscores the importance of fieldwork in his research and in fact in most research of that nature. While Vilho Shigwedha sees his study of the Kasinga massacre as one demanding the attention of other disciplines outside the social sciences, Tony Ngonaldo emphasizes the relevance of gender studies in his research on violence against Shurigwu women in Zimbabwe. While Annachiara reviews some anthropological methodologies employed in her work on Voodoo cult in Benin, Okey sees his research as one which will use the visual archive to approach sociological, anthropological and historical questions. However Prof Premesh holds that we must go beyond grumpiness and go back and forth, in and out as we open spaces and pose critiques of institutions of the humanities in Africa. In fact Premesh formulated an interesting idea in what he calls “postcolonial transactions of knowledge.” Prof Brian Raftopoulos suggested to Steve that the institutional rationalization of human rights has, in fact, derived also from some paradigms that emerged from below and he urged Steve to be careful in assessing how such models are constituted. Celine was a bit worried about the grand framing of interdisciplinarity itself as a discipline and sees it as something that could be too limiting. Jill and Alannah also spoke on how interdisciplinarity affected their works.

Our important visitors Prof. Patricia Hayes and Fiona Moola from English department also contributed to the interesting discussions.

My take in all these is that as we are approaching saturation point in this issue we may borrow from other grand narratives and then pre-fix the grand “POST” in interdisciplinarity so that like its post siblings (post modernism, postcolonial, post anti apartheid, post communist, post enlightenment, post cold war, etc) we can have post-interdisciplinarity. Sounds like a comic relief here. But with these set of readings I think I cannot conclude without thanking Prof. Premesh and Annachiara for introducing the readings which really are must read for every intellectual in the academy.

War and the Everyday Colloquium

2009-10-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, 30th October 2009 I presented my paper titled, "Photography, Aso ebi and the everyday politics of dress in Nigeria," at the War and the Everyday Colloquium. Below is the programme of events:

09:00-09:30 Introduction: Prof. Patricia Hayes (History Department, UWC) & Dr. Heidi Grunebaum (History Department & CHR, UWC)

09:30 -10:20 Napandulwe Shiweda (PhD student, History Department, UWC) “Towards a Visual Construction of Omhedi: C.H.L. Hahn and A.M. Duggan Cronin’s photographs”
Discussant: Dr. Annachiara Forte (Postdoctoral fellow, CHR, UWC)

10:20-11:10 Okechukwu Nwafor (PhD student, History Department, UWC) “Photography, Aso ebi and the everyday politics of dress in Nigeria”
Discussant: Dr. Noeleen Murray (UWC)

11:10-11:30 Coffee

11:30-12:20 Stephen Akoth (PhD student, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, UWC) “The Meanings of Obama in Kogelo: Culture, Ethno-politics and the Making of Leaders in a Multiparty Era in Kenya”
Discussant: Prof. Premesh Lalu (CHR, UWC)

12:20-13:10 Mzuzile Mduduzi Xakaza (Ph.D student, History Department, UWC)“Power Relations in Santu Mofokeng’s Landscape Photographs: A Critical Reflection”
Discussant: Prof. Leslie Witz (History Department, UWC)

13:10-14:00 LUNCH

14:00-14:50 Ngonidzashe Marongwe (PhD student, History Department, UWC)“Conceptualising Violence, The 2000-2008 Violence, and the Historical Dimensions of the Militarisation of Violence and Rural Women in Zimbabwe”
Discussant: Paolo Israel (CHR)

14:50-15:40 Vilho Amukwaya Shigwedha (PhD student, History Department, UWC) “Picturing the Colonel and the Brigadier”
Discussant: Thiven Reddy (Political Science Department, UCT)

15:40-16:00 Coffee

16:00-16:50 Prof. Ciraj Rassool (History Department, UWC) “Taking the nation to school: order and dissent in the deployment and contestation of I.B. Tabata’s biography”
Discussant: Suren Pillay (HSRC and Political Studies Department, UWC)

The Meanings of Timbuktu

2009-10-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday 27th of October 2009, I attended the usual Tuesday seminars at the Centre for Humanities Research of UWC. The topic of the discussion was "A 'Heritage Disciplines Project,' Ciraj Rassool and Leslie Witz in conversation with Shamil Jeppie (UCT, Historical Studies) about the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project. But to abbreviate it, the seminar was framed around an understanding of "The Meanings of Timbuktu." First of all you may wonder where this Timbuktu is located. Timbuktu is located on the edge of Sahara desert, near the River Niger, in Mali, West Africa. It played an important role during the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in the history of West Africa.

I shall come back to This later.

War and the Everyday Colloquium, Pre Colloquium workshop, 16th October 2009

2009-10-22T01:39:00.001-07:00

On the 16th of october I attended War and the Everyday pre-colloquium workshop organized by Prof Patricia Hayes and Heidi Grunebaum, both of the History Department at UWC. This is a pre workshop to the fourth colloquium on this theme since 2008. The workshop according to a press statement by the organizers, brings graduate students working on "their research archive (documents, interviews, photographs, maps, newspapers, artwork)" together with most senior scholars into a space of critical deliberations, interpretations and methodological questioning. Those who presented their works include, Rui Carlos De Noronha Assubuj, Geraldine Frieslaar, Napandulwe Shiweda.

Time to speak truth to power: Ufot Ekaete and the intrigues of Political Machinations

2009-10-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

In the discourse of power, politics and nationalism dressing always assumes a controversial turn. First I write to respond to what I perceive as a misguided political agenda on the part of Senator Ufot Ekaete and her much highly defective Bill against “public nudity and sexual intimidation.” Second I try to historicize the parallels of Ekaete’s faulty efforts on the African continent with a view to defining in explicit terms what should/should not constitute the limits of human mischief, desire and set accomplishments.

First it is understandable that Senator Ekaete’s conceptual volition in the senate rests in the body politics of sartorial expression. This is not bad at all. But if we view Ekaete’s specifics (in the bill) in relation to a much historical background, then we might have to initiate a space where both Ekeate and her theory will face a spurious blitz.
Women’s bodies have always been a political battleground right from colonial era down to the nationalist movements. For want of space I will not delve into the colonial efforts to control and discipline women’s bodies which in my suspicion constituted a stereotype that had a pathological influence on the nationalist states. But it is established that there has been a protracted struggle between the government and the civil society over the former’s attempt to unduly exercise control over women’s sartorial style (and bodies).
A few examples will clarify some points here. Nationalism promoted a skewed desire in ‘proper’ gendered dressing as a strategy for the pursuance and advancement of egocentric desires of some megalomaniac, often disorientated, nationalist leaders. For example in Malawi, President Kamuzu Banda after spending more than 30 years in the West came back to Malawi with an imagined interpretation of what ‘African’ women’s dressing should look like. And he (Banda) went along to proscribe trousers, miniskirts and other perceived ‘unAfrican’ fashion styles for Malawian women and even foreigners visiting Malawi. It was boldly written on the airport that no foreigner should enter Malawi wearing miniskirts or trousers or other ‘indecent’ dresses. Then in Uganda, miniskirts were banned in 1971 where they were defined as clothing injurious to public morale. Again, in Zambia miniskirts were also banned by the government and this prompted the Women’s league to also wage a counter campaign against the government which even resorted to physical assault on independent women. There were similar instances in other African countries including Kenya and of course our own Nigeria during the Buhari/Idiagbon era. Of course Buhari and Idiagbon did not succeed neither did any of the above mentioned groups. The list continues but one recurring centrality remains that the nationalist leaders mixed dress and the well being of the nation (which they rhetorically claim to be protecting) into a single issue of female immorality.

Now my question to Ekaete is a much trite one: Is this war really worth it? And should she even initiate it at all? Ekaete comes from the region where the plight of women and children has been a topic of delicate, critical altercation in recent times. Ekaete trudges along an unstable and unmanageable socially tricky walkway; a walkway that leads one deeper into a much perplexing, problematical economic indigence where the discourse centers on how to alleviate the death toll witnessed as a result of inhuman killing of children perceived as witches by their own parents and kindreds. Simply put Ekaete comes from an area where poverty alleviation, infrastructures, democracy dividends sound like utopia to the people. And in my mind these are some of the bills I thought Ekaete should stick out her neck to actualize. But instead what gave her sleepless nights was a very highly subjective judgement of what indecent dressing should comprise.
Some writers have emphasized the misplaced sensibility Ekaete’s bill has imparted into the youth in Nigeria like men taking advantage of that in cities like Aba to strip women naked whom they perceive as dressing improperly. And of course the undressing sometimes comes with rape and sexual harassment. These men claim their authority comes from Abuja. Shame! In my mind Ekaete must drop this bill and re-channel her energies towards the alleviation of problems like enforced female prostitution and women/child trafficking. Moreso she should drop the bill and refrain from bolstering the strengths of rapists who hide under the guise of indecent dressing to commit rape and sexual assault. Yes because even decently dressed women had been raped. She should draw examples from South Africa where indecent dressing has nothing to do with rape.

Is Ekaete no longer an illustrious daughter of Akwa Ibom state where hundreds of children are suffering and wandering the streets because their churches have proclaimed them witches and wizards and, therefore, abandoned and hunted by their parents, relatives and church members? She should listen to the cries and tears of Nigerians and the world who cry for these innocent children who have been killed, tortured and abandoned for being victims of religious fraudulence of twenty first century Nigerian Penticostalist pastors. These children wander in the open cold and feed from the dustbins without any help from anybody. Please Darling Ekaete can you please re-direct your ignoble bill and pursue a more humanitarian cause (such as that of these street kids) so that God in his infinite mercies will have cause to bless all of us for a job well done. Thank you ma for listening.

Heritage Colloquium 8 & 9 October 2009

2009-10-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the Heritage Colloquium commenced at the Center for Humanities Research of UWC. Papers presented yesterday include "South Africa and the spectacle of public pasts: heritage, public histories and post anti-apartheid South Africa" by Profs. Ciraj Rassool, Leslie Witz and Gary Minkley, "Ndabeni: land claims and the politics of memory" by Sipokazi Sambumbu, "The Promiscuity of ‘Place’: Contemporary ‘Zambian Art’ and the Afriglobal Interface" by Ruth Simbao. I was the discussant for the last paper which I will discuss later.
Then today papers presented include, "Rhetorics of value: Constituting worth and meaning through cultural display" by Corinne A. Kratz, " Wishing Werdmuller Away: fear and loathing in lower Claremont, Cape Town" by Noeleen Murray, while Prof Ivan Karp summed up the whole thing.

I start by looking at the paper I discussed which is "The Promiscuity of ‘Place’: Contemporary ‘Zambian Art’ and the Afriglobal Interface" by Ruth Simbao.

Dominic LaCapra’s History and Criticism

2009-09-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

Today’s reading is on LaCapra’s History and Criticism. We have special visitors from Emory University Atlanta, Profs. Ivan Karp and Corinne A Kratz.

Lacapra in this book is very revealing for one thing: he suggests that one can look at texts in the disciplines of history with some of the tools of discourse theory. In what Steven Weiland describes as “’discourse communities’ making up the university” (p.816) one can think about the uses of rhetoric in history and the relations of historiography to other disciplines.

I understand that LaCapra’s interest goes beyond the history of ideas, it transcends convention and orthodoxy but embraces the relations of historiography with other forms of intellectual practice. He pushes the idea of greater self-consciousness of analytic approach and their contexts; the contexts of the imputed province of the social historians. He loves the big debate circling around methodologies and wonders how historiography can be injected into them "not simply as a repository of facts or a neopositivist stepchild of social science, and certainly not as a mythological locus for some prediscursive image of 'reality,' but as a critical voice in the disciplines addressing problems of understanding and explanation" (10). It is evident that LaCapra comprehends the encumbrances and posits thus:

Historians tend to pride themselves on their immunity to the wormlike doubt and self-reflective scrutiny that have appeared in other areas of inquiry, notably those infiltrated by recent French thought. Far from seeing recent critical initiatives as holding forth the angelic promise of a reformation or even a renaissance in historical studies, many historians have been seized with what might almost be called a counter-reformational zeal in reasserting orthodox procedures. (46)

What interests me is the fact that LaCapra, armed with ‘evidence’ of rhetorical gifts sees an exigency for broadening the personal scope of scholarship. We can say that historians have been re-examining the methodological foundations of their work, even occasionally for audiences outside the profession. LaCapra, however, thinks there is an oversight regarding the use of language available from rhetorical and discourse theory. His passion for this reformation may have been exhibited in other works. For example, Peter Gay in his book, Style in History draws a parallel between the rhetorical techniques of some writers even though in the manner of a nascent theory of composition based on familiar propositions about the nature of language. His theory insists that the relation in history of style to truth is a perplexing matter because no account of the past can be an actual copy of it. Writing imposes linearity though events occur simultaneously. Yet for Gay, narrative and scholarly conventions in history and other fields are more than inconveniences. They are themselves part of the truth they are used to represent. While the stylist's shaping hand appears to be imposing order on disparate, often seemingly disconnected past realities, he says, "his act of ordering is formal, exacted by the requirements of presentation."

to be continued...

Okey Ndibe on James Onanefe Ibori

2009-09-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

Today I read an interesting article on James Onanefe Ibori by Prof Okey Ndibe in Next newspaper. Please I seek your indulgence to reproduce verbatim some of Prof Nidbe's remarks about Ibori:

"Here's a more interesting fact about Mr. Ibori: Long before he became governor, he'd been convicted twice for crimes committed in Britain. In 1991, he and his then girlfriend (and now wife), Theresa Nakanda, were found guilty of theft. Mr. Ibori was fined 300 pounds sterling and ordered to pay another 450 pounds sterling as cost. A year later, Mr. Ibori was convicted again, this time for handling a stolen credit card" (See Okey Ndibe Next newspaper September 26 2009).

"Here's another, even weightier, narrative: In 1993, during the reign of bespectacled Sani Abacha, somebody wired more than a million dollars into Ibori's account in the US. That transaction drew the due attention of American law enforcement officers. Puzzled American officials were curious to know how a man - that is Ibori - who at the time lived in a subsidised council flat in London could have come by so much cash. The US government, suspecting that the money came from one 419 scheme or another, asked a judge to freeze the account. Ibori explained away the cash by passing himself off as a consultant, and he produced a letter from the Abacha regime to back him up" (See Okey Ndibe, Next newspaper September 26 2009).

"Listen to yet another tidbit about the man. He and his associates currently face prosecution in Nigeria and the UK on charges of laundering billions of naira of public funds during Ibori's eight years as governor. Nuhu Ribadu, who ran the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission until December 2007, has said that Ibori tried to "persuade" him with - wait for it - $15 million to discontinue the agency's prosecution of the former governor on embezzlement charges" (Okey Ndibe Next newspaper September 26 2009).

Apart from the above many of us are aware of Ibori's long and arduous ordeal to escape the September 28, 1995, conviction by the Bwari Upper Area Court which I blame the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo for spearheading. Many other hideous facts about Mr. Ibori may still remain in the dark.

I thank Prof. Ndibe very much for this article which to me is wonderfully revealing and evidential of the wider political sphere of Nigeria. You see Ibori should serve as a metonymy for framing a fraudulently dangerous group called politicians in Nigeria. The whole political landscape of Nigeria to me resembles an amphitheater where dare-devil comedians treat the audience to an effusive laughter. And we sound like the audience here but this time their absurd performances have failed to amuse some of us instead we have become solemnly sad and austere. It might not even amount to a hyperbole if I say that all politicians in Nigeria are like Ibori. So I don't see why Ibori should be a big news. But I think he is a big news because his case is a clear testament to that Igbo proverb which says that "all dogs eat shit but the one which smears its mouth with shits remains the one to be called shit eater". In other words Ibori could not clean up his shits and that was why he is called shit eater. I am ashamed of Nigerian politics and politicians, perhaps except Fashola of Lagos state who remains a typical model for others to emulate.

My reading of “Provincializing Europe”

2009-09-15T00:08:00.000-07:00

Dipesh Chakrabarty opens up a highly critical space for the interrogation of the Imperial project. He launches us once more into the contention surrounding subalternity and the dialectic of meta narratives and perhaps teleology. He tackles Europe headlong in her totalizing assumptions of the universal and makes a case for “multiple temporarities.” ‘Provincializing Europe’ therefore comes as a phrasal irony which opens “up the possibility of a politics and project of alliance between the dominant metropolitan histories and the subaltern peripheral pasts” (Chakrabarty, 2000: 42). It says that Europe is that which “modern imperialism and (third world) nationalism have, by their collaborative venture and violence, made universal” (ibid).

Chakrabarty aims for a different way of analyzing and describing things; not instead of the European way, but alongside it. In opening his discourse, Chakrabarty informs us that he is not going to be dealing with "the region of the world we call 'Europe,'" but rather the "imaginary figure [of Europe] that remains deeply embedded in clichéd and shorthand forms in some everyday habits of thought." (Chakrabarty, 4)

Reading Chakrabarty, it is possible to rephrase Andrew Apter and thus “deploy the flotsam and jetsam of European culture against its master narratives of progress and modernity” (Apter 2002: 565 my emphasis). Chakrabarty mentions “the four basic genres that help express the modern self as the novel, the biography, the authobiography, and history, all of which fall within the scope of what Jacques Ranciere calls “literarity and historicity” (Ranciere 2004: 39). If I may explain Ranciere further ‘literarity and historicity might imply that:

“Man is a political animal because he is a literary animal who lets himself be diverted from his ‘natural’ purpose by the power of words” This literarity is at once the condition and the effect of the circulation of ‘actual literary locutions” (Ranciere 2004: 39).

Chakrabarty and Ranciere correlate because the circulation of the word marks the story of how history constructs differences and how “the modern” could be understood as a “mimicry” or “reproduction.” In fact, it suggests how the nonmodern could portend a lack, an absence, and an inadequacy. Perhaps one question that constantly recurs here is, ‘what does it mean to be modern?’ In an attempt to become modern the peasants “needed to be educated out of their ignorance, parochialism or, depending on your preference, false consciousness” (Chakrabarty, 2000: 33), the savage peasants needed to embrace a commonwealth, and made to overcome their naivety, they in fact needed to be transformed from their deceit and willfulness in order to partake in this civilizing, ‘globalizing’ projects of capitalism and democratic society. This last statement sounds like Shakespeare’s comic relief but it, nonetheless, expresses the reason d’etre behind Chakrabarty’s task of ‘Provincializing Europe.’

Now I read Chakrabarty on my own terms. I read him from the perspective of things like “the Nobel prize in literature,’ and then ‘Caine Prize for African writing’ and then “booker Prize” and of course ‘Commonwealth prize in literature,’ ‘Nobel peace prize’ the ‘United nations,’ ‘(UNESCO)’ among others. I read him also juxtaposing the above mentioned grand narratives against perhaps things like ‘C. Krydz Ikwuemesi Prize for painting and drawing in Nigeria’ and ‘Yemisi Shilon prize for the promotion of art in Nigeria.’ For example some of the stories read thus:

First, the Nobel Peace Prize is presented annually in Oslo, in the presence of the king, on December 10 (the anniversary of Nobel's death), and is the only Nobel Prize not presented in Stockholm. In Oslo, the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway.

The second is ‘The Caine Prize for African Writing’ which is awarded annually to an African short story writer published in English, whether in Africa or elsewhere. The £10,000 prize was founded in England in 2000 and it was named in memory of the late Sir Michael Harris Caine, former Chairman of Booker plc. The first prizes were awarded in Africa but the winners are announced at a dinner in England to which the shortlisted candidates are usually invited.

Third, is ‘The Man Booker Prize for Fiction,’ also known in short as the ‘Booker Prize.’ It is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations. The winner is usually announced at a ceremony in London's Guildhall, usually in early October.

Now in the light of the above master narratives Chakrabarty remarks that:

“The project of provincializing Europe therefore cannot be a project of cultural relativism. It cannot originate from the stance that the reason/science/universals that help define Europe as the modern are simply “culture-specific” and therefore only belong to the European cultures.” (43).
My intention to chronicle these awards derives from an understanding that “if a language, as has been said, is but a dialect backed up by an army, the same could be said of the narrative of “modernity” that, almost universally today, point to a certain “Europe” as the primary habitus of the modern” (Chakrabarty, 2000:43). This modern could be seen from the above arsenals of awards that “point to a certain Europe” as the capitalist machinery behind the projects of awards. It shows that “this equating of a certain version of Europe with “modernity” is not the work of Europeans alone” (43) but a complicit networking between members of the post-colony. But on the contrary, the other awards I mentioned (i.e. The C. Krydz Ikwuemesi and Yemisi Shilon awards) may be located within the discourse of “mimicry” and “nonmodern.” However, I see them as forming a counter critique of, or a reworking of, “the intellectual legacies of post-Enlightenment rationalism, humanism, and historicism” (47) for "provincializing Europe is not a project of rejecting or discarding European thought," but one that is able to use European thought "renewed from and for the margins" (Chakrabarty, 16). In Jonathan Crary’s terms:

moving out from the work of Weber, Lukacs, Simmel, and others, and from all the theoretical reflection spawned by the terms “rationalisation,” and “reification,” it is possible to pose a logic of modernization that is radically severed from the idea of progress or development, and that entails nonlinear transformation. For Gianni Vattimo, modernity has precisely these “post-historical” features, in which the continual production of the new is what allows things to stay the same (1990, 17).

Two Histories
As it applies to postcolonial studies, Chakrabarty argues that ‘History 1 & 2’ can be used to describe the transition of postcolonial societies to capitalism, and modernity.
According to him History 1 is “the free labour which is the precondition of capitalist production and “its invariable results”. This is the universal and necessary history we associate with capital. It forms the backbone of the usual narrative of transition to the capitalist mode of production. It is a past posited by capital itself as its production. (63). History 2, is another kind of past which opposes History 1 and they are money and commodity, and almost an everything else category; "it allows us to make room in Marx’s own analytic of capital, for the politics of human belonging and diversity," without which "there would be no way humans could be at home – dwell – in the rule of capital, no room for enjoyment, no play of desires, no seduction of the commodity" (67), which means he sees capitalism as absolute freedom.

Against Historicism: A New Departure
In taking up arms against historicism and a linear, evolutionist approach to history, Chakrabarty is not unusual amid postcolonial theorists. His complaint is that to understand history in this light is to inevitably see certain non-European states and regions as "lacking" something, rather than as dealing with problems in a different way, and as thus further behind in development. Rather than adopt this approach, he sees history as a plurality of times and eras, and uses the example of how people can seem to live in different centuries, not just in India, but also in many other parts of the world, while living modernly.
Chakrabarty’s concept of time is related: He sees it as disjointed. People can experience something for decades after it happened, even if the event was seconds long, or people can compress a whole day’s events (or a whole lifetime’s) into a few short breaths (or a small autobiography). He is trying to challenge the reader not to accept the highly Western, progressive look of history as a series of ongoing developments, with all steps forward and no steps back.

In conclusion reading Chakrabarty for me entails the crucial question of how one can dissociate oneself from the production of linearity that is inherent in the logic of written texts. A suggestion which enjoins historians to organize text in a different order that “subverts the illusionary identity of narrative and history.”

Social Theory Colloquium, Thursday 20 August - Friday 21 August

2009-08-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

Today I attended the Social Theory colloquium at the Centre for Humanities Research. Those who delivered papers today include, Prof. Michael Neocosmos of Monash University, Prof. Brian Raftopoulos, a research fellow at the Center for Humanities Research, UWC and David Moore of the University of Johannesburg, Prof. Bert Olivier of the Nelson Mandela University, Prof. Premesh Lalu, director of the Center for Humanities Research, UWC and Neelika Jayawardane of the State University of New York.

Among all the papers presented the one that interested me most is that of Prof. Michael Neocosmos which is titled, “ Analyzing Political Subjectivities: Naming the post-developmental state in Africa today.” The paper among other things deals with how to think emancipatory politics outside subjectivities. It posits that state politics can no longer be emancipatory; state politics is highly bureaucratic and has failed in human emancipation. It touches briefly on Alan Badiou and Jacques Ranciere as theoretical references. From the paper I understand that politics now represents the policies of the dominant class and negates the real essence and language of ‘emancipation for all’. Neocosmos makes us understand that politics exists in ‘specific sites’ and that what we have is “mode of politics” which rises at a particular time in history and declines. He cites examples with the rise and fall of Lenin in 1904.
He went on to discuss National Liberation Struggle. National liberation struggles according to Neocosmos developed not with the aim of acquiring state power but to champion a change in modes of life of the people. It combines ‘narrow national ethos’ and ‘broad universal Africanism’ which are actually two contradictory paradigms. NLS sees development as people oriented and emancipatory but at the same time sees itself as a state project and then recently as a neo-colonial project. In other words it has three faces.
The dilemma of emancipatory politics is that in Africa politics outside the state is no longer tolerated despite the number of political parties involved. This immediately brings my mind to Nigeria's case. Recently in Nigeria what is understood as multi-party system has gradually become absolved into the bureaucratic and forceful sway of the state under the guise of PDP. A highly political and democratic militarism which to my mind makes the project of democracy in Africa a mockery of the century. In my opinion democracy is not the best form of government for Africa as current statistics proved that it has not worked in any African nation. Then why should our leaders keep deceiving themselves and others that we are 'democratic.' According to Neocosmos, in the wake of the post-independence era, gradually, development became a state project and highly ‘technicised’ and it also became a neo-colonial project. Development and Nation fell by the way side and were replaced by democracy and human right which in his (Neocosmos') words is “post-developmental”.

The paper touched on human right in the manner Alan Badiou expressed it. There is a systematic shift from the way Africa has been viewed from the 1960s to the present because the “European Left” (or humanitarian agents) after 1975 spoke more of humanitarian project mainly because Africa is seen as a victim. Human right discourse is cantered on seeing people as victims and there is interventionism informed by European agency such as Amnesty International and others.
The overall language of the presentation is that in the pre-independence era the slogan was developmental but now it is democratizing but all employ a technique. In the 1960s it was nationalism now it is globalization. In the end political parties don’t have the capacity to mobilize popular support again.

The Politics of Aesthetics: The distribution of the sensible

2009-08-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

Today we convened again at the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) for another reading group on the theme of aesthetics. We are engaging Jacques Ranciere’s The Politics of Aesthetics.
Jacques Ranciere began his intellectual journey as a structuralist Marxist in the 1960s and maintained a tempo of a fiery thinker and co-authored books with Louis Althusser, Eltienne Balibar, Pierre Macherey, Roger Establet in the Lire le capital (1967). After the event of 1968 he broke with Althusser and structural Marxism. Quite critical of Althusser’s philosophy for his eliticism, he rejected the rigid and hierarchical distinction between science and ideology which it presupposed. He accused Althusser’s philosophy of distrusting the spontaneous popular movements which had emerged in 1968 and of supporting ‘politics of order’. He however devoted much of his intellectual pursuit towards a development of an oppositional philosophy and radical political philosophy that aim to lend voice to an egalitarian politics of democratic emancipation.

In his book The Politics of Aesthetics, Ranciere states that his concern was with “aesthetics acts as configurations of experience that create new modes of sense perception and induce novel forms of subjectivity”. (P.9). Now the question he posed is how can “new modes of sense perception” be produced which can potentially help remove the subject out of his/her glib indolence. In fact, Ranciere raised a whole lot of issues which I might not exhaust now. But I pose this discussion as food for thought for us and as something that will act as a point of departure for further engagement with aesthetics.

My worry is my tendency to misread Ranciere. But I am also apologizing if I ever in any way misread him. On this note I propose that the distribution of the sensible started in the preceding years of the 20th century only to culminate in the 1930s by which time painting has surpassed its interest in the subject of perspectivist illusion. As a consequence, painting entirely concentrated on the qualities of the two-dimensional surface implying a passion for painting qualities such as planes, colours, and lines. From that time onwards painting and the sensible was politicized and there was an emergence of what Pierre Bourdieu calls ‘cultural capital’ of the bourgeoisie or elite class.

Ranciere believes that the “anti-representative purity’ of abstract art is inscribed in a context where pure art and decorative art intertwined, a context that straight away gives it a political signification.

It is however worth pointing out that Ranciere did not address the disturbing question of art-politics in his book, neither did he address the central issue we find ourselves whereby political gestures and critical images are potentially consumed and neutralized in the happy inferno of mercantilism . So what does Ranciere had to say about the failure of contemporary art to address the major problematic of the banal economic world that strangles the core of contemporary art world. Why didn’t Ranciere suggest ways through which art can project a wider vision of political awareness inclusive of the private spiritual, ecstatic or magical themes accessible through the subjective realm of each individual. I am yet to pin down where Ranciere advocates this position of how art could be used to advance the political course through an inward introspection into the social-political dimensions of the human mind. I will come back to Ranciere in the future. Thank you.

Inter-religious war or fundamentalism? unmasking the veiled truth

2009-08-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

Today I have been touched by this five days terror that ravaged some Northern parts of my country – Nigeria. There was a heavy war between members of the Boko Haram and the Nigerian government over the insistence of the former for an abolition of the Western systems in Nigeria. Indeed this is absurd and ridiculous especially if seen from the Boko Haram’s campaign for an imposition of the Islamic Sharia law upon the rest of the Nigerian nation which comprised of thousands of religion. Quite tragically their leader Mohammed Yusuf has been reportedly killed by security forces during the war, although circumstances surrounding his death still remain controversial. By the last day of the war it was reported that about 700 people, mainly from the sect, had died. But one big contradiction that rested with Yusuf’s existence was that when his base was vanquished by the Nigerian military, a series of Western gadgets and utilities were discovered there. These include cars (jeeps, Japanese sports cars), several motorcycles and, to the greatest surprise of the Borno State governor (who was among the team that visited his demolished base), different kinds of canned food. These utilities helped him to live in a world he fought to rid of Western things. He was absolved in an inevitably gratifying ambience of his supposed adversary. Indeed the validity of the saying that life is a paradox is explicit in the life of Mohammed Yusuf.
It is based on this incident that I revisit the issue of religious war and fundamentalism in Nigeria. Indeed I have pondered the scenario and have come to a conclusion that decades of crisis ravaging the Northern part of Nigeria could not have been addressed in such appellation of “inter-religious war.” I was able to fathom these previous crises in the light of a fundamentalism which could not withstand the military might of the state and instead resorted to Christians as easy target of their undefined grievances. But recently their grievances were unveiled as they first attacked and bombed a Police station in Bauchi state. This was only the time when the Nigerian government realized that it was not a case against the Muslims and Christians as it previously thought. It was a sheer display of an overflowing dogma and firebrand fanaticism.

With the largest Muslim population in Africa after Egypt, Nigeria stands a chance of becoming an easy target for the recruitment of radical extremist Islamic militancy. And now with the recent growing anti-Western hostility, it becomes clear that the weather is inauspicious. The challenge of the Nigerian government is to curtail any impending reconnaissance that may arise from the agglomeration of Boko Haram’s siblings scattered all over Northern Nigeria.
Please supporters of Sharia law in Nigeria for the benefit of clarity, Nigeria is a secular state which guarantees freedom of religion for all her citizens. It is unacceptable that a state should impose such funny laws as flogging for indulging in alcohol, an amputation of the hands and feet for damned criminals, and stoning to death for a case of adultery(only heaven knows their standard of prove for adultery). Considering the fact that Islam is a religion in which it is difficult to severe religious authority and political power and which proposes a unified theocratic system of governance, one wonders the workability of the Sharia law in Nigeria. Let peace reign.

The Death of a Nigerian in China

2009-07-17T01:16:00.000-07:00

Last year I got the information that Nigerians living in the city of Guangzhou in China were under severe stress. Although I had thought of my brother Ndubueze living in that city, I convinced myself that he was safe. The news had it that the Guangzhou residents last year got tired of the excesses of Nigerians that they unleashed 'operation hound Nigerians.' In the process a lot of Nigerians were killed while those that managed to survive found their way home. Today the news again has it that "More than 100 Africans surrounded a police station in the Chinese town of Guangzhou Wednesday afternoon after a Nigerian clothing trader, Emmanuel Egisimba, died during an immigration raid.
Reports said he jumped out of a second floor shop window as police mounted surprise passport checks. Other protesters suggested two people had died.
It is unusual for foreigners to protest in China. But state news agency Xinhua reported that protesters took the body of the man, who it said was trying to evade police because his visa had expired, to a police station to demand justice."

Failed States

2009-07-16T04:59:00.000-07:00

The big question today is the news article I read in 'Thisday Newpaper' which indicates that "Nigeria was yesterday ranked the 15th most failed nation in the world....According to the detailed index, Somalia emerged the most failed state, for the second time running, while Norway emerged the best or most sustainable state.
The index's ranks are based on twelve indicators of state vulnerability - four social, two economic and six political....Out of the 15 most failed nations surveyed, ten were African nations. These include Somalia (1st), Zimbabwe (2nd), Sudan (3rd), Chad (4th), Dem. Rep. of Congo (5th), Central African Republic (8th), Guinea (9th), Ivory Coast (11th), Kenya (14th), and Nigeria (15th)."

As I contemplate this news, I also think of the current state of things in my beloved country - Nigeria. At least as an insider I am in a better position to make fair judgement. First on the list is electricity. What is the state of power supply? I consider the power sector failed because most people run on generators almost close to 20 hours a day. Second, what is the state of the roads which constitute 90 percent of the transport system? I consider it failed too as a journey from Lagos to Onitsha would confirm; the journey could be described as a mere test of one's ability to withstand risk because of pot holes and neglect. Third, the state of education. I consider education failed because as I am writing now the Nigerian University lecturers are on strike while the minister for education at the same time was busy spending 120 million naira on his birthday; he was seen dancing, laughing and thanking God that he has escaped from the circle of those miserly folks where he initially belonged. I make this statement because the minister was formerly a university lecturer who resigned to join politics and served as the governor of his state and now serving as the minister. It means that an air of conviviality that surrounded him had more to do with his escape from the troubled group of university lecturers than an ostensible birthday gaiety. Fourth, I thought of health. I also failed this sector as the doctors are presently threatening massive strike action while none of the ministers and their cohorts would risk sending any of their wards to any Nigerian hospital even if they have a mild headache. Fifth, I looked at the state of security. I scored this sector zero. Yes I know it is dreadfully unpleasant for a teacher to score his/her student zero but I think my student in this sector deserves even anything less than zero - maybe -1. I say this because of the increasing rate of kidnapping especially in my region. Although in my fair analysis I still score my country higher in security than South Africa where I presently live as a student. Then I proceeded to the overall service delivery to the masses and I also scored this area zero. Why? The reason is not far-fetched considering the incredibly insensitive adumbrations that spew out of the so called national assembly. They are busy fighting over money to be shared among themselves.

Conclusion
In my final submission, the index by the above group for the failed state is right. My understanding of the situation in my country fits well into the category of a failed state. Things have crossed the boundaries of exigency and critical emergency. If you are a Nigerian reading this piece I want you to think of urgent ways out of this and apply it in any little way you can. I see myself as future partaker in the total liberation of my country. I don't think I will be so insensitive to sit at the helm and watch things degenerate to this level. We must wrest control from agents of destruction and restore hope in the bleak milieu. The onus lies in our ability to see the reality and reject our tendencies to capitulate to the signification of Fela's music "Suffering and smiling". Now is the time to act!

Reimagining postcolonial futures: knowledge transactions and contests of culture in the African present.

2009-07-09T10:13:00.001-07:00

Today I attended the conference, "Re-imagining postcolonial futures: knowledge transactions and contests of culture in the African present" organized by the The Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies, UK and the Centre for Humanities Research of the University of the Western Cape. I presented a paper tiled "The Spectacle of Aso ebi in Lagos:1990-2008". The conference was quite illuminating especially because of its ability to evolve a unique epistemological approach to postcolonial discourse. Scholars came from the the UK, United States, Brazil, India, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Germany, South Africa among many other places. Some of the sub-themes for the conference include "War and the everyday," chaired by Prof. Patricia Hayes of UWC, "Postcolonial critiques of disciplinary reason" chaired by Prof. Premesh Lalu, "Performativity and the postcolonial aesthetics," chaired by Helena Pohlandt-McCormick "Cities in transition," chaired by Prof. Leslie Witz, "Aftermaths of War and Violence," chaired by Prof. Ciraj Rassool, "Literary production of the postcolonial," chaired by Prof. Duncan Brown, "Biographies/Autobiographies in the postcolonial," chaired by Drew Thompson, "Heritage practices and the postcolony," chaired by Suren Pillay, "Publics, Communities and Transitions," among others. What really impressed me in this conference was the intersection of knowledge among disciplines and the fascinating way presenters went about their papers. More inspiring was the objective brainstorming that emanated from the floor at the end of each session. Through this process, I believe, some potent viewpoints would inevitably aid presenters in fortifying their future arguments. There was an air of lived joy and a pervading euphoria of mental and physical accomplishment that attended the last day of the conference as seen from participants who responded with a resounding ovation to the organizers for a job well done.

Peter's Death and Violence in Africa

2009-07-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

Today I receive with shock the tragic death of Peter Dubem Areh, a friend and director Pendulum Centre for Culture and Development Lagos. This is one of the saddest news I have received in recent times. Peter was brutally stabbed to death at his residence in the Lekki Peninsula area of Lagos in the early hours of yesterday. As I reflect on the news, I interrogate the concept of violence in Africa and elsewhere. I interrogate violence in Africa because of the multiple dimensions violence has assumed in this continent. Ranging from large scale, collective ethnocidal violence to various forms of organized individual killings and extending to what Appadurai describes as "extreme forms of political violence against civilian population," I get crossed at the rate of the escalation. Although you cannot divorce these kinds of violence from other continents but the contention here is the alarming senselessness which Africa’s own has assumed. I think of the war going on in the Niger-Delta region of my country Nigeria which has as at present taken a new dimension. The Niger-Delta war has interfused into disparate gangsterism that exist on abduction as a means of survival. The kidnap issue is very serious as disbanded robbers and criminals have all embraced it as a newly discovered lucrative enterprise since the emergence of online banking and ATM has affected robbery business. I get worried that the terrains of my country are becoming more dangerous with the passing days. Things keep on degenerating without visible attempt by the so called government to address them. As a matter of fact, without being utterly pessimistic here, I have never seen or heard of any assassination case in Nigeria whereby the culprits were ever apprehended. What is actually happening? If you think of any advanced and developed society you can count on Nigerians as one of the most successful group in any field of human endeavour. But if you come back to Nigeria it would seem as though hell has been let loose. I don’t intend to use this space to cast aspersion on my beloved country but sometimes it makes me think sh*t when I remember the state of things in a country which should be one of the richest countries in the world. Don’t misunderstand me as this write-up comes as a sudden emotional ejaculation to the death of Peter. Yes it’s true one cannot cry over spilled milk but let it be known to the world that the milk was most insensibly and brutally spilled that one cannot help crying out loud. Adieu Peter! Jee nke oma.

On Late Style: Music and Literature Against the Grain

2009-05-20T12:58:00.000-07:00

Today we convened again for an ongoing discussion of Edward Said's work. Today's reading was On Late Style which is a posthumous collection of Said's last works before his death in 2003. The work was compiled and edited by Michael Wood. But in On Late Style Said examines artistic lateness as being composed of “intransigence, difficulty, and unresolved contradiction.” He introduces Theodor Adorno as Beethoven's patron saint who saw Beethoven's late style as full of abstruse sounds. Adorno beleives that Beethoven's world view lately was bedevilled by a dialectical battle of philosophical concepts, hence the "unresolvable contradictions". Said consistently clarifies lateness as a period of recondite output and profound incomprehensibility. Perhaps he (Said) was a victim of unresolved internal conflict as at the time he was wrting this and which perhaps provoked his verdict on the constitutuents of 'late style'. In fact, he believes that lateness is often “a form of exile” that is also characterized by a certain confrontational opposition. Again late style may stand in direct contrast to what was popular at the time, and could constitute a harbinger and forebearer of what was to come in each artist’s particular discipline—works of true genius.

War and The Everyday

2009-04-08T11:53:00.000-07:00

On Friday 3rd April 2009, I attended War and the Everyday colloquium organized by Professor Patricia Hayes and Dr. Heidi Grunebaum of the History Department and the Center for Humanities Research, UWC. I attended their last year's War and the Everyday and was very inspired by the style and approach to the theme. Our understanding of the concept of war and the everyday is such that we evade certain inevitable reality of our day-to-day existence: violence.

Still on Orientalism

2009-04-01T15:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was another reading of Edward Said's Orientalism at the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, South Africa. I participated in the reading group. I had read the introduction to Orientalism again and it was very motivating. I see Said's work here as an excellent mixture of finnese and literary ingenuity. He is an erudite scholar of unequal match, I must say. I love his analyses and discourse of orientalism especially from the point of view of what he (Said) calls 'contrapuntal reading'. Orientalism is according to Said "almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experience". I may not exhaust all the discussions but different views pointed to varying interpretations that could arise from our 'contrapuntal reading' of Said.While some feel sceptical about the ability of the archive to serve as a veritable source of reference for such 'Occidental' construction of Orientalism, some feel that Said had already attacked the archive from his discourse. But I think Orientalism is very vast and at the same time ambivalent. Scholars of Orientalism are always positional in their attempt to confront an essentialist imperial ideology and hegemonic approach towards the Orient. Said is obviously troubled by what he describes as "Western hegemony over the Orient during the period from the end of the eighteenth century". He emphasizes three aspects of his contemporary reality as The distinction between pure and political knowledge, The Methodological question and The personal dimension as instigating his incursion into research and writing. I find the first very attractive and relevant in understanding the discourse of Orientalism. At this point I think of Linda Nochlin's urgent insistence that "art history had to be repoliticized". Nochlin was also speaking in line with Orientalist paintings which according to her should be analysized in terms of imperial ideology and hegemony. Again, John Mackenzie speaks of Orientalist images as that which "imply timelessness and the absence of the historical dynamic of progress that represent Western superiority". One particular painting of note here is titled Summary Execution under the Moorish Kings of Granada by Regnault which is "nothing but a Western construction of an irrational violence of the East". The French and the British penchant for the Orient has been questioned by scholars like Said. More questions even rest upon America's later construction of an Oriental otherness that is predicated on a complex intermix of relations: politics, power, economics, and so on. But despite every effort made towards deconstructing an entrenched Oriental stereotype, I think the best way to counter Orientalism is to adopt Said's 'contrapuntal reading'.

2009-03-30T00:45:00.000-07:00

Today is monday and i need to get to the library for my ongoing research...

Okey and Emeka, Salt River, Cape Town, 2009

2009-03-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

Emeka and Jane at V&A Water Front, Cape Town, March 25 2009

2009-03-25T13:35:00.000-07:00

cruising along from the Island

2009-03-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

On our way back from Robben Island

2009-03-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

All in Robben Island

2009-03-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

Okey and wife

2009-03-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

Nk, Jane and Prof

2009-03-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

human sculpture and Okey

2009-03-25T12:21:00.001-07:00

from left: Okey Nwafor, Prof. Ezeonu's wife and Prof. Ezeonu at Salt River, Cape Town, 23 March, 2009.

2009-03-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

from left: Prof Ezeonu, his wife Jane, and Okey Nwafor at the ICC, Cape Town, March 23, 2009.

2009-03-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

Prof Ezeonu delivering paper at the conference

2009-03-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

Robben Island

2009-03-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

Prof Ezeonu and his wife had arrived in Cape Town on 23 March for the Internationl Conference on Occupational Health. He called me and I attended the conference where he was the only African to present a paper in his group. I was highly impressed given that he comes from my institution: the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria. After the conference we took a brief sight seeing tour around Salt River and some other places. That was on 23 March. Today 25 March we planned to visit Robben Island and my wife had to accompany us too. We took off around 12:45 pm and it was inside a ship with a full passenger capacity of 300 passengers. Most of the tourists came from outside Africa especially Europe, USA, and Canada. So we were part of a negligible black-skined tourists that ocassionally go to the Island. It was a very interesting journey although our wish of ferrying on top of the ship could not be realised because we arrived late. In the Island the tourist guide took us across a brief history of the Island. Although as a student of Robben Island in 2008, I had learnt that Robben Island Museum is a site with a multi-layered history of struggle and incarceration beyond the image of Mandela. But unfortunately In the post apartheid South Africa, Nelson Mandela emerges as the chief icon of political imprisonment in the narration of Robben Island Museum. The predominating conception of Mandela as the former prisoner emeritus of Robben Island continues to attract public discourse and as a matter of fact has become the narrative iconography of Robben Island in the eyes of international visitors. I understand that the history of Robben Island dates back to 1600 when the Dutch used it as a place of banishment for recalcitrant chiefs. It was also used as a convict station and place of banishment by the British when they ousted the Dutch from the Cape in 1809. Apart from the Khoikhoi, Xhosa, Korana and many other indigenous leaders who were banished there at different times, political prisoners at different epochs in South Africa were also banished there.For example numerous prisoners like Govan Mbeki (1964-1987), Robert Sobukwe (1963-1969, Irene Mahlongo, Heleo Shityuwete (1968-1984) among others and the dates of their imprisonment also emphasized their long term incarceration just like Mandela. We went to Mandela's room and took photographs, of course that is the wish of every tourist to Robben Island. Our journey back was more eventful as we came on time to take a position on the uppermost end of the ship-an open roof-from where we viewed the whole sea. A wonderful sight indeed. But one thing is certain in our journey: Nigeria needs to re-think this banal, rash, i-don't-care attitude towards tourism and recreation and come out of their deceptive tourist sham which they use to siphon our funds. Nigeria tell yourself the truth, you are not serious about tourism.Yes I can say it boldly because I am a critical heritage practitioner.

Still on Edward Said

2009-03-19T02:26:00.001-07:00

The second day of our reading group at CHR, University of the Western Cape, was 18th March 2009. The topic was "Beginnings" by Edward Said. Said's work here is quite instructive and inspirational. He generated questions that "impinge upon the writer" and his attempts at literary criticism. I think Said undertakes an intellectuall amplification of "Beginnings" as a subject of study that may embody "critical, methodological, or historical analysis". As a modest contribution to contemporary criticism, "Beginnings" allows one an ample space to interrogate certain epistomological assumptions of "intentions and methods" of 'beginning'. But as I try to capture the very trajectory and essence of "beginnings", I am also struggling to locate its place in the domain of historicity, subjectivity and temporality especially when Africa is involved. Perhaps Said has provided an implicit answer to my worries, when he inquired "how beginnings relate generally and specifically to different communities, and how, paradoxically, an interest in beginnings is often the corollary result of not believing that any beginning can be located"(Said,1975:5). If in Said's words that "beginnings is the first step in the intentional production of meaning", how then do we adopt "Beginnings" to begin to trash out a huge body of complexities hovering around the issue of African writing and historiography. In fact is it also possible to juxtapose Africa and the West in the discursive framework of "Beginnigns"? I ask this question because I know that there is a "whole complex of relations" tied up in 'beginning itself'. How do we solve the problem between the word 'beginning and the word 'origin'.

Interview with Pieter Hugo by Okey Nwafor, in Cape Town, August 10, 2008.

2009-03-19T02:21:00.000-07:00

Okechukwu Nwafor: You have been a recipient of many awards including the 2006 World Press Photo Award, the Standard Bank Young Artist Award, the 2008 KLM Paul Huf Award which grants you a solo exhibition in Amsterdam in September this year. Tell me what was your journey into photography like?

Pieter Hugo: When I started, the first camera I got was when I was 13 years old and my father gave it to me. As a teenager at least it enabled me to satisfy my curiousity in exploring the world in a way. For some years I was taking pictures without taking it particularly seriously. When I was about 20, 21 years, I was working in a ministry as an art director and I had a friend that was a photographer whom I watched what he was doing and I thought it was very interesting, more interesting than just the type of work I was doing then. Afterwards, I started working as a documentary photographer and it happened very quickly that I started getting assignments from foreign publications. I realized initially that as a photojournalist, I wasn’t really good in shooting photos with lager format cameras. And it evolved from documentary based to a preoccupation, a kind of personal preoccupation. But I think I learnt the craft of photography as a documentary photographer.

ON .When I looked at the photo of the White family in army uniform in Musina/Messina series it reminds me of the divisiveness that was very visible during the apartheid period. Do you actually intend to reinforce that idea in the picture by allowing them to possess arms?

PH. Well that family actually owns a huge hunting farm. The army uniform might be militarily inspired, but it is primarily of a hunting vocation. One of the sons hunts for the national team. The family came from Zimbabwe where the father fought against Mugabe during the civil war and then immigrated to South Africa after the war obviously because of fear of prosecution or what will happen if they stayed on after Zimbabwe got liberated. The weapons in the picture…I mean I understand your question, but in a weird way it was a request to have their guns with them. But if I may understand your question, what you are asking me is Do I feel that the picture in some other way is reconfirming the stereotype of a certain type of white person in South Africa?

ON: Yes, yes.
PH: I can understand that you are asking that but in a way no, I don’t think so because I… I think it is a complex picture because of the complicated dynamics surrounding these guys’ environment.

ON: Your Nollywood Series evolves with a horrifyingly visual encounter which bespeaks of a popular imagination of Nollywood as “overdramatic”, if I may borrow from your introduction in Michael Stevenson website. As a Nigerian who has observed the psychology of the market targeted by Nollywood I noticed that the greatest market of Nollywood in Nigeria comes from the group of adolescents and young adults who delight in watching the tragic and fantastic displays. In fact they believe that a good movie must be packed with shocking, violent and superstitious conflicts. The other segment of Nollywood viewers who are obviously in the minority wishes that actors speak instead of shouting in the movies and that the practice must be refined and professionally standardized to meet an elite, intellectual and international demand like Hollywood. Why did you decide to exclude this later group. I mean why did you avoid the segment that displays affluence and high brow living of the bourgeoisie class?

PH: That’s a very good question. Firstly something that was interesting when I met people working in Nollywood as actors was that I wanted to encounter their sufferings and the kind of level at which Nollywood has been picturing itself with the garishness and the over dramatic happenings . On the other hand I looked at Hollywood, and questioned their average displays which is all about bomb explosions, visual garishness and crimes. Perhaps theirs could be more refined because they have larger budgets but basically their preoccupations are similar with Nollywood. One of the things I found really interesting about Nollywood was unlike Hollywood, it had preoccupations with tragic endings which is interesting. In Hollywood they like to resolve any issue at the end of the movie whereas the Nigerian version is more honest in a way that I relate to the tragedies of life and part of the unresolved aspects of the human existence. But to get back to your question about why I have omitted the segment that displays the affluence and highbrow living of the bourgeoisie, I think what interests me is the visual over-deductions and it is definitely a genre of Nollywood movies that is more drama-based; dramas that play out in living rooms or entire inside interior spaces. I did actually do series of portraits that subverted the situations but it didn’t work and that was because of my technical inadequacies in the photographs and I am intending to go back to Nigeria and meanwhile the Nollywood series is still unfinished. It is an on-going project.

ON: It’s a work in progress
PH: Yes it’s a work in progress, and I am aware of that.

ON: Still in Nollywood, the photo, titled “Song Iyke with Ebube, Thank God and Mpompo”, highlights the painstaking nature of your task. Why did you bring the three children in because there seems to be a disconnection between the display and the children? When I first saw the photo I thought it would have been a culmination of a long battle process and instead of the children one would have expected a retinue of assailants or wounded combatants. The little children seem to speak another language. What is the language?

PH: Well the interesting thing is that the children were not supposed to be in the picture. (laughs). They showed up. When I was busy taking the pictures of the man they formed a sort of curious onlookers. The Hollywood pictures were very organic. You know… I think it will be a good time to say how the pictures originated. I would always have some visual references and we would have prior plans of the type of things and people we would want to photograph. Often we had a very short space of time to do the make up, take the photograph and the location that we might have considered using might be unavailable. So we would just walk into the streets and on this occasion we saw a pile of burning rubbish outside the apartment block where I was staying. We were about taking the pictures and these kids staying next door were hanging out around us. They kept on creeping into the picture and then we said why don’t we acknowledge their presence. And in a way there is a juxtaposition just as you said about the different languages; a sort of external otherworldly strangeness with the violent figure with weapons and the children who seemed to have been displaced especially with that child on the left with a confrontational posture of his hands on his waist. This is mixing of languages and hybridization of languages which is very interesting and I try to look for that in my works.

ON: Sorry I think the children are also food for thought because …when I saw them my mind kept going to many places and that was the interesting part of it.

PH: But there is also something very interesting about the juxtaposition, which is the aesthetics of violence and the glorification of violence. And the children could as well depict child innocence and vulnerability in the face of violence.

ON: Do you normally insist on a particular position of your models? What is always their reactions sometimes?

PH: It’s difficult to say because different people have different temperaments. Sometimes people want to be directed and want to be told what to do in the photograph. And in some instances some more experienced actors want to take things on their own terms. Often what normally happens is that I give people the initial direction but also I try to give them the space to evolve it and take it somewhere else. Some people are comfortable with that while some people don’t have that imagination and would need the directives of the photographer.

ON: While in Nigeria, have you ever traveled long distance by road?
PH: I have traveled a lot long distances in Nigeria. Between Lagos, Kano, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ogere Remo, Enugu, just to name a few places.

ON.That is why I am amazed at your courage because being a Nigerian I know what it takes to travel by road especially from Lagos to the eastern part of Nigeria and I know what the road looks like. What do you think about the situation there?

PH: Well I find…. There is something with Nigeria which I find very interesting. I really like Nigeria and I love the energy that one finds in Nigeria. There is a real, kind of cardinal desire for people to go out and do it and they do it with conviction. I find this very interesting. But at the same time the place makes me very sad sometimes because the police are all over the place and the roads are bad and every time you see a good road it is either going to the minister’s house or to a politician’s house. And there is a weird kind of culture of complacency when it comes to acknowledging that this is what politicians do which I find very disturbing.
ON You the popular Afro musician from Nigeria, Fela?
PH I love Fela Kuti.
ON You know that was part of his campaign when he was alive and in one of his songs…eh..
PH: Coffin For Head of State
ON Exactly and the other one he called Suffering and Smiling he said Nigerians have this ‘nature’ of suffering and at the same time keeping quiet and smiling. So that is the irony of life in Nigeria.
PH: This is something you might not know but I have shot a photo cover for record of Tony Allen. If you know Tony Allen who was the drummer for Fela Kuti.
ON Yea. Yea.
PH There is something amazing with Tony Allen. When he left Fela Kuti’s band they had to get three drummers to replace him for the live performances.
ON Yes he was great.
PH I must get you a copy, it’s called Tony Allen, a Lagos Chop-up.
ON I will like to have a copy.

ON: During one of my encounters with the Hyena Men sometime in 1999 in Port Harcourt, one young man had alleged that his money was stolen mystically by these men through their charms. In fact, it was a serious police case where people converged and threatened to burn them down. There is a belief that during their displays if you have money in your pocket and if you go closer to watch them that the money will disappear. But did you find anything mysterious about these men during your job?

PH: No I didn’t find anything mysterious about these men. Well I have got a good relationship with them because I have worked with them in two trips over a period of two years in Nigeria and I have spent a lot time with them, stayed with them, traveled with them, and I became friends with them. You know when you do a work of that scale of course there is going to be a kind of intimacy that will develop. These guys are operating in a weird way and the fact that they spend a lot of time with these animals without getting harmed plays into people’s beliefs that they must be using some kind of magic like juju to protect themselves. And they do in fact sell amulets and portions which they also use to protect themselves. But there is not much difference from the way that religion also works. It tells you sometimes that salvation is there to replace your fears, I believe. And this is a kind of small scale economic exploitation. I don’t believe that this guy’s money was taken from his pocket. I don’t know, who knows what happens.

ON : And I think that is part of the problems of Nigeria, Nigerians are so religious and at the same time superstitious and it doesn’t really solve the problems of the country.

PH: I don’t think it does too.

PH: What really amazes me is that the country that is so aware that the politicians and some other foreign oil companies but they continue to allow themselves to be exploited by these modern day prophets that are so economically based.

ON: ha ha ha ha

ON:.I think your style of photography involves more behind-the-scene process whereby the means justifies the end instead of the other way round. Do you ever use elements of the new technology to enhance the quality of the photos or are the outcomes strictly in their original form?

PH: No I do use some digital techniques but I try not to alter the content of the photograph. So usually if I print the photograph, I will not crop it, I will try and use the full image. Unless it was impossible to shoot that image in that way because of one reason or the other. But I try not to alter the image because I still believe that what one sees is something one has captured but what I do is that I de-saturate my images a little bit and the reason for this is that photographic emulsions were designed for advertising reasons which produce a very saturated bright colours and this does not correspond with the way that I view Africa which is the place I photograph. I like a more de-saturated, less bright and garish representation of the world.

ON: The wild Honey Collectors in Ghana again attracted my attention especially as I have traveled by road from Bolgatanga in the northern part of Ghana through Techiman district to Accra. It was a very long journey on a somewhat narrow road. How did you hear about these men and what was your journey like?

PH: Actually I saw a photograph taken on a holiday snapshot in the photo section of he BBC Focus Magazine. And in this section there was a holiday picture taken by the side of the road in the Techiman District. I contacted an environmental journalist in Ghana through some friends of mine indicating my interest to meet these guys and photograph them. I went to Accra and who boarded a car to Techiman. I did the trip in a land cruiser and the road was quite bad. What is this northern city in Nigeria? Em..em…

ON: Is it Kano?
PH: As one drives from Kano in Nigeria, the roads start getting quite bad.
ON: Yes.
PH: But to me the journey is part of the process. One does not expect this amount of discomfort but I think the discomfort is minor compared to the results that one gets out of that. It is a very small sacrifice to make. My biggest fear when working in West Africa is that I am going to get injured in a car accident. My biggest fear is not authorities or violence from people, this to me is not an issue. The issue is the bad roads and the bad driving.
ON: So it is really bad?
PH: Yea, I mean, I think the roads are in bad condition. People say… well I don’t want to perpetuate a stereotype about Africa because I was also in Brazil and it is almost the same thing. In fact we were traveling in a bus. Sorry what do call this type of big yellow bus you have in Nigeria?

ON: Molue.

PH: Yes that was the similar bus I was traveling with in Brazil and we came into a ditch which was full of water and the whole bus up to the level the we were sitting in was flooded with water and we had to climb out from the window to avoid drowning. And this is a ditch on the road. So you can imagine this ditch could be almost four meters deep.

ON: While traveling in Nigeria were there any difficulties you encountered given your conspicuous White nature? Were the people approachable and did you find anything special and peculiarly distinct about the people? I ask this question because I have this feeling that South Africans don’t travel to other African countries with ease as they do travel to Europe or America.

PH: I think firstly traveling in Africa is harder than traveling in Europe or America and that is mainly because of the infrastructure issues. Secondly the issue of being White is a problem I have. The biggest problem I have is having to deal with the Nigerian police, having to compromise…em… but I don’t want to go into that. I do also find people often trying to take advantage of me economically because they think that just by proxy of being White it is assumed that you have got money which is often wrong. The first time I worked in Nigeria, I arrived with about three hundred dollars in my pocket and stayed for almost a month…you know I don’t eat in fancy restaurants, I eat like every other guy on the side of the road.
ON: Amazing.

PH: I want to answer this question properly. I had a conversation with some people about Nigeria and we spoke about ‘chest beating’ and I found that in Nigeria it is very important to assert yourself once you meet people.

ON: Boldness.

PH: There is a certain boldness one needs when one meets people and after that I find Nigerians incredibly engaged. I find Nigerians incredibly intelligent people and incredibly inquisitive actually. It is not engagement or inquisitiveness in an arrogant manner but a real, genuine curiosity as to why are you doing what you are doing… and I… do find people asking really …em.. challenging questions and why are we doing this and what are we getting out of it not just economically but how are these going to help these people. I mean I found this engagement really stimulating and challenging. Whenever I leave Nigeria…it’s a hard place to work but I always leave there feeling incredibly stimulated with a lot of food for thought.

ON: Apart from the staged recreations have you taken unmeditated photos, I mean instant photos that still have the arresting or unsettling grandeur your other works possess.

PH: Yes I do occasionally do more documentary based work but I am not particularly good at taking quick snaps. My reflexes are slow. I work with conversant cameras. I have been interested in capturing the drama of the moment, I have always been interested in the dynamics that come into play up to that point.

ON: Without being impolite in drawing your attention to previously uncomplimentary remarks on your works regarding stereotype of which you said you are tired of answering such questions. Now begging your pardon to ask again such sensitive question, I want to look at the power relation between you and your subjects. I know colonial stereotypical photographers have a power relation that is rooted in imperial domination and powerlessness of the photographed. Tell me what is your relationship with your subjects and if you would not mind can you make special reference to the blind beggar in Musina and ‘Malawi Tuberculosis and Guardian’ especially that of Tabalure Chitope.

PH: Ok. Let’s start with Tabalure Chitope. That picture was taken for the World Health Organization relating to the treatment of tuberculosis and how the current systems are not working and a need for the implementation of a type of guardian system which has been working very well in Malawi. So there is a context into which that picture was taken and the subjects in the picture were interviewed and their testimonies indicated that they have started getting improved tuberculosis medication. So the people we photographed might be physically ill a bit and might have accumulations of HIV along with TB. The article in the photograph is related to the treatment of this illness. The second is the Musina photo. Yes there is this phenomenon in South Africa that anyone who has traveled around would tell you that suddenly in the last few years you would see a lot blind beggars coming from Zimbabwe. Now there are two reasons for this, one Zimbabwe has a very high ratio of water borne blindness and secondly there has been an incredible influx of refugees coming from Zimbabwe into South Africa. This is an economic and political situation that needs to be confronted which I very much disagree with the way our current president Thabo Mbeki’s policy of quiet diplomacy has unsuccessfully addressed the issue. I think people in this type of dire situation even sometimes appreciate the attention they receive when somebody acknowledges that they need attention.

ON: Still in Musina, I discovered one prominent feature in your photos which is uniform. Why are you so much interested in the uniformed group in Musina which again makes reference to the Liberia Boy Scouts?
PH: Uniform implies power, status and position and there is something to me really interesting as a White African, whatever that means and there is something to me interesting about how the idea of uniform was subverted. Uniform was used by the colonizers to dictate position and it has now been re-appropriated within certain context. So there is something about re-appropriation, militancy and pride. The combination of these are actually what interests me.

ON: So it is symbolic.
PH: Yes very much symbolic.

ON: Coming to the technicalities and professional style, I tend to remember Mona Lisa when I look at your outdoor photographs’ backgrounds. What message do you intend to pass across with your outdoor portraits when you incorporate those backgrounds. Can you again revisit “Sakkie van Zyl, the young Afrikaans farm boy” and “Song Iyke with Ebube, Thank God and Mpompo”, Enugu, Nigeria.
PH: Yes. You notice in some of my pictures there are two contexts. One when the context has been completely stripped and what is in place is a certain isolated physicality and the second one is trying to find some situational elements in it. Obviously to me the environment in which the picture is taken is constantly in dialogue with some type of context and often it is very important when one decides to define in the frame that the dynamics are between the subject and the environment.
ON: One Nigerian friend I have shown your photos doubted if you went to Nigeria. He said he thought you saw these men in South Africa. Have you ever been commissioned to do any of these series in these countries you have visited or are they out of personal curiosity and professional calling?
PH: Which series are you talking about”
ON: I mean most of the series you have done all over Africa.
PH: Most of the works that I did in pre-2007 were based on commission and after that I would be on commission for a foreign newspaper or magazine and I would find my own things to photograph while I was there. At one time it was a very interesting way for me to work and it managed to get me into many interesting places then after that I would go back. I mean I would see interesting things during the course of my commission and after I would go back to those places and re-photograph again. For instances the Liberian Boys Scout came about when I was on a commission to photograph the Liberian’s president Sirleaf Johnson. So which I was there I found the Boy’s Scout and photographed them.

ON: Ok. I had wanted to ask how you raise the finances. But now I understand.
PH: But now I don’t do commissions any longer because I am now in a stable financial position to do my own works.
ON: Coming to another level, I have looked at most of your subjects from a psychological and perhaps traumatic point of view. And I know most works of art are reflective of the artists’ sensibilities. Are your motivations ever linked to your upbringing and why do you relish so much in the traumatic disposition of your subjects?
PH: I still want to talk about the issue of finances then I will come back to your question. For instances in 2004 when I went to Rwanda to re-photograph the Genocide 10 years later, I spent a few months on my own expenses, traveling to mass graves, visiting scenes where the genocide had happened. To me that relates to the politics of what I was doing as a photo-journalist, I mean why does one want to deal with the extremities of the human conditions. I think that is a very personal issue that relates to the issue of mortality and that has always been a pre-occupation of mine. I was always drawn to the darker side of life since I was a child.
ON: I think it also answers the question of how certain artists work. For example if you really watched Van Gogh you would see how he was pre-occupied with violent colour reactions of which people questioned actually. But it was out of his personal thoughts that he did those things.
ON: Beneath the physical looks of your models I see a facial gaze which suggests deep psychical disquiet? Perhaps you have answered this question but do you feel that life is so fraught with unsettlements that one needs not bother to smile?
PH: Well I think it depends on the context of what one is trying to convey. I would say that definitely there are some pictures that are always celebratory without the subjects needing to smile. It all depicts the politics of human countenance and disposition.
ON: Thank you very much and perhaps as you said you have an intention of coming back to Nigeria in I hope to meet you then.
PH: Yes… I will see you in October.

Title: Iphiliphi, Size: 100cmx85cm, Year: 2007, Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, Artist: Okey Nwafor.

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Title: My Grandfather's Family, Year: Before my father got married to my mum, My dad is the first on the right side ofthe second row, sitting.

2009-03-19T01:48:00.000-07:00

Title: Endlessness, Size: 112cmx90cm, medium: oil on canvas, Artist: Okey Nwafor, Year: 2000

2009-03-19T01:42:00.000-07:00

Title: Please don't do this to me, Size: 112cmx90cm, medium: oil on canvas, Artist: Okey Nwafor, Year: 2000

2009-03-19T01:39:00.000-07:00

Title: Entanglement, Size: 112cmx90cm, medium: oil on canvas, Artist: Okey Nwafor, Year: 2000

2009-03-19T01:37:00.000-07:00

Title:self portrait, Medium:pencil on paper, Size:20cmx24cm, Artist: Okey Nwafor, Year: 1999

2009-03-19T01:35:00.000-07:00

Title:self portrait, Medium:pencil on paper, Size:20cmx24cm, Artist: Okey Nwafor, Year: 1999

2009-03-19T01:33:00.000-07:00

Title: Self Portrait, Medium:pencil on paper, Size:20cmx24cm, Artist: Okey Nwafor, Year: 1999

2009-03-19T01:32:00.000-07:00

Title: Self Portrait, Medium:pencil on paper,Size:20cmx24cm, Artist: Okey Nwafor, Year: 2000

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Title: Uche Nwafor, Medium:pencil on paper, Artist: Okey Nwafor, Year: 2000

2009-03-19T01:18:00.000-07:00

Okada, New Market, Enugu, Eastern Nigeria, 2008. Photo by Okey Nwafor

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With Chris during my exhibition at Cape Africa Platform, Cape Town, 2008.

2009-03-19T00:59:00.000-07:00

Gardens, Cape Town, 2008

2009-03-19T00:50:00.000-07:00

Arrival

2009-03-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

It has been almost four days since I arrived in Cape Town. I have participated in the reading group at the Centre for Humanities Research of the University of the Western Cape. The reading group is concentrating on Edward Said and his works. The specific reading is Said's "Power, Politics and Culture" which is hinged on his (Said's) discourse on Orientalism. The critical engagement with Said's Orientalist philosophies impinges on humanity's attempt at assuming an objective disposition towards 'the other'. Said may not be the noblest thinker that existed but I think his impact is no less instrumental to the realisation of an Orientalist and Africanist historiographic reconstruction. My interest in the activities of the Centre for Humanities Research of UWC is beyond my own containment. My zeal to engage in the legion theories that abound exceeds ordinary imagination.