Art Review
Oseloka Obaze*
POWER DRESSING -Men’s Fashion And Prestige in Africa
Sunday 23 October 2005
In an era and time when news items out of Africa are inevitably bad and foreboding, the African exhibition which formally opened yesterday at the Newark Museum in Newark New Jersey is something enchanting, pleasant, and ennobling. The exhibition, which spans the African continent, from Cairo, Egypt to the Cape of Good Hope and from Dakar Senegal to Mombassa, Kenya, offers us a glimpse into the soul of Africa.
Curator Dr. Christa Clarke,
a one-time student of Dr. Ekpo Eyo -- the former Director of the Nigerian
Museum at
Onikan, Lagos, has done a splendid and passionate job putting the POWER
DRESSING - Men’s Fashion And Prestige in
Africa
exhibition together. The turnout for the opening of the exhibition was equally
impressive. This eclectic crowd of art lovers and Friends of the Museum
numbered well over six hundred. The presence of the Ambassadors and senior
representatives United Nations Missions and Consulates from Angola, Cote
d’Ivoire, Morocco, Portugal, Nigeria, and Rwanda spoke volumes to the importance
Africans attached to the showcasing of their rich heritage. This point was
further underscored by the fact that Honorable Donald Payne, Honorable Barrack
Obama and Professor Emeritus Chinua Achebe agreed to serve as that Honorary
Co-Chairs of the Advisory Committee. A cast of forty other Honorary Committee
members supported them, each bringing to the table some added value from their
respective fields of endeavor.
Art exhibition in museums worldwide involve a degree of high politics of the industry as well as navigating the maze of putting together such shows, which are often capital intensive. POWER DRESSING - Men’s Fashion And Prestige in Africa, certainly could not have escaped such realities. Hence, credit must go to the Newark Museum officials, President Arlene Liberman, Ms. Mary Sue Swinney Price, the curator Dr Christa Clarke, and the museum’s indefatigable Chief Operations Officer, Mrs. Meme Omogbai. Though subtle and unscripted, it was clearly evident all evening long that Ms Omogbai was the driving force behind this present exhibition. Our kudos goes to her and her colleagues.
The fifty-piece exhibition is a discovery or nostalgic journey of the artistic “diversity and visual splendor of African men’s dress in this first exhibition of its kind in the United States.” Centered on the resplendent royal garb won by Oba Ademuwagun Adesida II, the Deji of Akure in 1959, the entire exhibition straddles icons and regalia from two centuries. These include the 20th Century Ashanti Gold Crown from Ghana and the 20th Century Tunic of the Shango Priest of Yoruba Nigeria origin to 1990s tunic from Djenne, Mali as well as the 1992 Ceremonial Gown made of baft, polyester, and cotton from the Cameroon.
According to the museum, POWER DRESSING - Men’s Fashion And Prestige in Africa “brings together fifty examples of spectacular male attire from across that continent from Morocco to South Africa, representing over a century of fashion. Drawn from the Museum’s own important collections, as well as from the private and public lenders, the works on view reveals how a man’s clothing can define, sustain and reinforce ideas about power and status on the ever-changing continent.”
On reflection, this needs to be said: Having served on the honorary committee of the exhibition in an advisory capacity, I consider the opening of the Afrocentric exhibition, which runs from October 19, 2005 to January 22, 2006, a great day for Africa and people of African descent. This is more so, since the exhibition honors African history, our heritage, and the legacy of our forebears.
Dressing is a vital strand in every culture and civilization. It is worth recalling that George Bernard Shaw once wrote of Great Britain, “We don’t bother much about dress and manners in England, because as a nation we don’t dress well and we have no manners.” Quite on the contrary, in Africa, elegant dressing has always had a pride of place. Indeed, in Africa dressing has been synonymous with power— hence there has always been an inextricable link between fashion and prestige in Africa.
More importantly, the POWER DRESSING - Men’s Fashion And Prestige in Africa exhibition is a celebration of the African man in his grandeur, intellect, and full majesty. It is a testimony that Africa has not just come of age, but has been in the realm of fashion splendor well before now. The exhibition speaks to the African man and his renown for sartorial elegance in fifty different forms. This exhibition’s pricelessness drives from its tome – for this is enchanting Africa revisited. It is perhaps also worth recalling in this instance, some lines from the poem Young Africa’s Plea by an eminent Nigerian politician and author Chief Dennis Osadebey. Concerned by attempts by the colonial masters and foreigners to define and interpret African customs, arts, culture, and norms to fit their own vision and tastes, he warned:
Don’t preserve my customs
As some fine curios
To suit some white historian’s tastes,
There’s nothing artificial
That beats the natural way
In culture and ideals of life....
As an African, I am glad and I hope I speak for many who saw that exhibition and many more who will see it before it goes off to the Smithsonian, that those in the Newark Museum who conceptualized and put together this exhibition were attentive to Chief Osadebay’s admonishment. Yes, they and the Newark Museum need to be embraced and congratulated for they have presented and preserved the essence of the African man and his dressing form in a natural way. And for that, we as Africans should thank them immensely.
Finally, the greatest asset and fo9rce of this exhibition is that it runs against the grain of conventional practice, where stories about Africa, in their historical, political or cultural dimensions are told by non-Africans. As diligent as such efforts are, there can hardly be put in their proper perspective without the direct involvement of Africans. POWER DRESSING - Men’s Fashion And Prestige in Africa represents in this regard the beginning of a collaborative effort with infinite possibilities by those who have the means and those who have the ownership of ideas and the tangible history, to work closely in selling and promoting everything good that come out of Africa. Meanwhile, POWER DRESSING - Men’s Fashion And Prestige in Africa is a must see, worth every minute and opportunity cost that might be invested in a visit to the Newark Museum (www.NewarkMuseum.org).
And please, don’t forget to take the children.
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*Mr. Oseloka Obaze, an aspiring writer, is a member of the Kwenu.com Book Review Forum, which is dedicated to the promotion of books with Igbo and Afrocentric themes. He is also a supporting Member of the African Writers Endowment (AWE). From 1999 to 2005 he served on the editorial board of INYEAKA, the journal of Songhai Charities, Inc., a New Jersey community-based charity founded and run by Nigerians based in New York Tri-state area in the United States, first as its founding Publisher and later as the Editor-At-Large. He is also on the editorial board of The Amaka Gazette, the journal of the Christ the King College, Onitsha Alumni Association in America. His collection of poems, “Regarscent Past: A Collection of Poems” was among the top three finalists in the poetry category in the African Writers Endowment Publishing Grant Program for 2004. He reviews books and arts strictly as a hobby.