I would like to understand this question i highlight in black-
'I am not an academician, I have a different skillset and mindset. My thought is that many of these issues are steeped in uncritical mimicry. Reading Okey Ndibe's Foreign Gods Inc., I realized the full import of the plunder. What the protagonist was trying to steal from a deity's cove was NOT art to the people, but a sacred emblem comparable to that of Mary Magdalene in any shrine. But he knew the West saw it as art - and that it fetched loads of dollars. I asked the question when I visited a forum where "African Art" was being discussed. No one was prepared for the question. Why is this sacred totem art? '
Ikhide
I thought the study of sacred African art and the development of various hermeneutic strategies in its study have long been a staple of discourse in African art history and criticism?
thanks
toyin
On Sat, Nov 2, 2013 at 12:24 PM, IKHIDE <xokigbo@yahoo.com> wrote:
Ken,I am not an academician, I have a different skillset and mindset. My thought is that many of these issues are steeped in uncritical mimicry. Reading Okey Ndibe's Foreign Gods Inc., I realized the full import of the plunder. What the protagonist was trying to steal from a deity's cove was NOT art to the people, but a sacred emblem comparable to that of Mary Magdalene in any shrine. But he knew the West saw it as art - and that it fetched loads of dollars. I asked the question when I visited a forum where "African Art" was being discussed. No one was prepared for the question. Why is this sacred totem art?Ken, I am a practical person; I am not happy about the way things are, but they are preserved and kept for prosperity. I can at least go there with my kids and glower at the outrage. In my village as we speak, pastors ravage the land destroying powerful totems, in the name of their Jesus. Some of these pastors have PhDs. The conquest is beyond complete.Abeg leave me mek I sleep!- Ikhidefor me the real question is, what is the price of accepting the logic that the artifacts would be better off in the west, that a reform of the conditions of collection and preservation in africa has to come second to the priority of preservation. appiah went much further in arguing that there was no nigeria then, and that it makes no sense to talk of the preservation of a national heritage before there was even a nation.
i don't like nations, but i can accept the construction of the nation in the form of a heritage. all heritages are constructed, after all, and their value lies in what one makes of them, not their reality.
similarly, the nok sculptures are not of intrinsic value that would exist if there were no human beings; and it could be argued that we not only critique nigeria, but struggle for its ideal, one in which the production of art is valued, and the culture of art in the past is also valued. how can we struggle for it if we give up and say, those english know how to value it, we don't.
so the english display it, or some of it, the rest held in storage; they exchange it for temporary exhibits in other museums, but not nigerian. they establish a proprietary right to its display, based on their superior technology of museum arts.
and all that apart from their own horrific historical crimes, not least of which were enslavement of africans, colonization of africans, and neocolonial exploitation of africa.
all the while, protecting african art from africans.
i could write a piece about how wonderful the british museum is ,but, if you've beenthere, you must know its wonders lie in the interspace between tourist attraction, with coffee mugs and hot drinks and bm paraphenalia and the celebration, over and over, of the heritage society validated by the marvels in the marbles in the basement.
it is very hard to shut your eyes to what lies outside the cheering of the englishness, hard to ignore gikandi's work on the figure of the slave in the background.
so the trick is to turn to nigeria and say, we can't trust you.
for appiah, the we is the cosmopolitan world citizen. i wonder, however, about nigeria, and maybe, i would say, the children of today. we are wounding noo saro-wiwa andher generation, and some risks need to be taken to change things on their behalf.
ken
On 11/1/13 12:15 AM, Ikhide wrote:
I agree with Appiah. We are having this conversation precisely because the artifacts were looted and preserved, Did you ever read Teju Cole's Novella, Every Day is for the Thief? You go tire abeg. Many of the African authors carping about this theft of our artifacts and whatnot have their scholarly papers preserved, not in UI or UniBen but in some temperature-controlled vault in the West.--
I have read an advance copy of Okey Ndibe's Foreign Gods, Inc.coming out in January (here).
it will be an important contribution to this debate. Well researched, well paced and engaging. You should read it.
- IkhideStalk my blog at www.xokigbo.comFollow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
On Monday, October 28, 2013 10:39 AM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
the real question here, as well as throughout all of noo saro-wiwa's travels through nigeria, and especially its museums and national parks, is how well are the nigerians maintaining their national heritage. and if they let it decay, including nok sculptures, how can we complain when the europeans take them, plant the benin bronzes, say, in the british museum, and then refuse to return them on the ground that they are better off in england than in nigeria.
appiah defends this on the ground that this is the heritage of humanity, not a modern nation. he doesn't really seem to care that the "caretakers" are wealthy and powerful, and profit from these artifacts that had been acquired by things like theft and conquest. a story like this makes it impossible to respond to him
i returned to ny from africa, a number of years ago, when laws making the exportation of any statues and masks that were part of the national heritage illegal. i went to ny and saw a nok statue in an art shop. i went in and asked about it, and was told, the law was irrelevant, and that they would be better off being sold in the west than left in african museums.
it was infuriating. typical of western arrogance.
now this story. what can we say??
(i could recount a similar story about ifan in dakar)
ken
On 10/27/13 2:29 PM, FJKolapo wrote:
How does one make sense out of the sad and astonishing arrangements that Zachary Gundu has narrated here ? How does one begin to understand it? - as a product of--
ignorance?
carelessness?
foolishness?
irresponsibility?
lack of the capacity to appreciate the enduring?bad or poor or lack of education?
some other pathologies ???or may be, may be, colonialism and imperialism
and where does one locate the problem/s? the sphere of culture, economic or politics & with individuals or structures in, and culture or norms with which we operate?May be there's no need to jump to conclusions. Do we not need to hear the other side/s of the story, if there are...F. Kolapo
From: "Zacharys" <takuruku@yahoo.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sunday, October 27, 2013 11:10:14 AM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: jNEWLY DISCOVERED NOK SCULPTURES EXHIBITED FOR THE FIRST TIME, NOT IN NIGERIA BUT IN GERMANY.
All,
This is quite unfortunate but the blame can be laid squarely on the Nigerian authorities whose National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) is incompetent and lack basic understanding of how to manage the country's huge archaeological resources coveted by European countries. When the Germans started their archaeological investigation in the Nok valley in 2005, they had no MOU with the Commission setting out modalities and boundaries for the project. The Germans with the active support of Julius Berger were exporting every excavated materials to Germany. The Archaeological Association of Nigeria raised an alarm which was dismissed by both the Germans and the NCMM as false. The Association called for the involvement of at least two Nigerian universities in the project and it was only last year that an MOU with the Germans allowed two Nigerian universities, ABU, Zaria and the University of Jos, to participate in the project. Non of them has started any meaningful collaboration with the Germans to the point that while the Germans have had not less than eight PG students get higher degrees working on the project, no Nigerian has even registered to get a higher degree from the project. Out of close to ten academic papers published from the work, non is co authored by a Nigerian scholar from these so called collaborating institutions.
In 2007, another set of German scholars with the support of the NCMM, exported exported materials from the site of Durbi Takusheyi in Katsina to Germany claiming they would restore and conserve them before returning them to Nigeria. In 2011 these materials were put on public public display at Mainz and have still not been returned.
Kwame is right, Nigerians should see the results of archaeological researches on their soil first before others. This is the international norm. To allow the Germans to undermine this norm is extremely unfortunate. We do not even seem to have a good record of what the Germans have taken out. What if they return fakes to the country? Why is theNCMM silent on the huge income that will accrue to the Germans from this exhibition? These and many questions are begging for answers. The Archaeological Association of Nigeria is consulting widely to bring out a statement on the exhibition in the next few days. What is clear is that theNCMM is a shame to the country, aside from not understanding their role, the institution is a rogue institution. As Kwame rightly pointed out, the Nok store at the Jos museum was recently emptied and no one seems to know the circumstances of this scandalous infraction. It's really unfortunate.
Zacharys Anger Gundu
Department of Archaeology
Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria.
Sent from my iPad
On Oct 27, 2013, at 2:18 PM, "Akurang-Parry, Kwabena" <KAParr@ship.edu> wrote:
> ________________________________________
> From: Kwame Opoku [k.opoku@sil.at]
> Sent: Sunday, October 27, 2013 6:24 AM
> Subject: jNEWLY DISCOVERED NOK SCULPTURES EXHIBITED FOR THE FIRST TIME, NOT IN NIGERIA BUT IN GERMANY.
>
> I THOUGHT THE ATTACHED WOULD INTEREST YOU.
>
> Kwame Opoku
>
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> <NEWLY DISCOVERED NOK SCULPTURES EXHIBITED FOR THE FIST TIME.doc>
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