Two eagles on iroko (1)
M. O. ENÉ
New Jersey, USA
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
History was made in Newark, New Jersey, USA on Friday, June 2, 2006. On this day, a great Nigerian artist and a great Nigerian author, both friends from the late fifties, came face-to-face in conversation at the Newark Museum for the first time in over two decades. It says something about Africans’ appreciation of art that it took a museum in faraway America to bring together in America these two legends from stone-throw-away villages in the Igbo nation of southeastern Nigeria. I had been looking forward to the day so, imagine my disappointment when this Friday morning, the weather folk saw rain in their forecast. Rain is good news, for the heavens open up when great things happen; but the forecasters didn’t say they rain would come in buckets
It did!
From my office, I drove to the unofficial “Obi Igbo” in Orange, NJ, about two miles away, to pick up two compatriots who had indicated interest in attending the session. With the pump price at $3.00-a-gallon and rising, I do my bit for the environment. Ha! The fellows at the popular joint, called Odabro, were more interested in the latest tidbits from the quicksand of Nigerian politics. One patron was betting $500.00 with another that Governor Peter Odili of Rivers State would NOT be the next president of Nigeria! Curiously, he was not betting on Governor Orji Uzor Kalu (OUK) being the next president of Nigeria, even though he was telling whomever would listen that he (OUK) was being ordained president as we talked by President Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ), with his (OUK) "Mother Excellency" as witness.
Nigerians sef!
As I got up to go, another patron wanted to know -- from me -- when OBJ was going to Arondizuogu for his Igba Nkwu (marital) ceremony. You see me see trouble! Some blokes still believe that I must know whatever is happening anywhere in the wide world. Thank God I had read only recently about the raging rumor that OBJ was going to make Ms. Onyeka Onwenu “Her Excellency”! I assured the patron that such matters were of no importance to the great event taking place downtown in Newark. He had not heard! I explained. Regardless, he wondered why Igbo women would “sell out” to men who do not particularly like Ndiigbo. Before I could formulate an answer, another patron stepped in: “Where are the Igbo men? How many of you have tried to date these ladies?” Since I am no longer in the market, I decided to close shop.
It was already 6:20 PM. The rain was coming down with barrels at this point. The evening traffic was surprisingly light, but some traffic lights were knocked into the blinking mode. The JFK Freeway was okay; Route 280 West was not bad either. Two miles down the road, inside Newark was a different ball game: The rain came down as if Niagara was overflowing. An SUV rammed into a Toyota Corolla on Central Avenue by University (Rutgers). I managed to squeeze out, connect to Washington Street, and navigate to the Newark Museum parking lot. I paid the $5:00 fee, but that didn’t cover umbrella. I did a Ben Johnson-on-steroids and entered the Museum’s reception.
As a “board member,” I was on the blue roster with a party of four, none of whom had shown up. I had a front-row seat, I was told. I sat at the next available seat, after exchanging pleasantries with Professor Paulette Longmore of Essex College . The auditorium was jam-packed, but there were some middle vacant seats, if you looked closely. It was 7:00 PM and our dear sister Mrs. Meme Omogbai, the Chief Operations Officer of the Museum, was already making introductory remarks. And what a great performance from Nigeria’s own Meme! Anticipating an oversubscription of the seats, she thoughtfully appealed to the younger ones to relinquish seats to older attendees in the spirit of age-old African ancestral injunction that demands respect for old age.
Seated nobly on the stage of Billy Johnson Auditorium were the special guests: Professors Chinua Achebe and Uche Okeke with their spouses. Meme informed that audience that the two long-time friends were meeting for the first time is two decades and that their spouses have been the strong women behind their successes. Before taking her deserved seat amongst the eagles, she introduced eventual moderator Christa Clarke, the Museum’s Curator of Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific. Ms. Clarke briefly introduced the duo and recounted that the conversation complemented the exhibition: “Another Modernity: Works on Paper by Uche Okeke.”
Then they spoke.
Recounting
the penetrating and wise sayings of the sages would be akin to interpreting the
musings of masquerades, the acknowledged depiction of our ancestral spirits. No
one, absolutely no one, could do justice to the message of masquerades. To
interpret the utterances of these two great Nigerian artistic legends is akin to
interpreting the meaning of Mona Lisa, which Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code is
further mystifying, or some other works of the great masters. Their words are
arts in and by themselves. To interpret them, especially in the absence of a
mot-a-mot transcript would be blasphemous. As in all arts, no aspect means
exactly the same thing to the other. And so it was with the artist (Okeke) and
the author (Achebe) in conversation.
Professor Okeke revealed how he got into arts during the ferment that heralded the impending independence from colonial Britannia. He reckoned that something should be done to record the artistic expression of the changing colonial era. Born in Kafanchan, where he had his early education, and schooled secondarily in Orlu (southeast Nigeria), he was able to distinguish the different designs on pots, a simple receptacle for water. The ability to distinguish Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba designs informed his thinking that the ethnic expression of art cannot be captured by the colonial concept of art.
Picking up the theme, Professor Achebe cracked ribs with his recollection of the first time he met Okeke. He (Okeke) came to him with a lanky fellow who stammered. Okeke spoke fluently, but it was the stammering fellow who did most of the talking! He was a writer; the proposal of the artists made sense, but he was not too sure what they were out to achieve. Prof. Okeke would later reveal that his companion was another legendary artist, Demas Nwoko.