By Emeka Anokwuru and Damiete Braide
They came from far and wide in their large numbers, displaying their rich culture to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC ’77) in grand style in Lagos State.
The opening ceremony at the University of Lagos Sports Complex, Akoka, witnessed participating countries march in their different attire, to the admiration of guests.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in his welcome address, commended Dr. Ferdinand Anikwe, the director-general of CBAAC, for re-enacting FESTAC ’77, “because human memories are really short and unless we do occasionally remind ourselves, we may even lose our memories, and that is why history is very important. To forget history is to lose memory and, if you lose your memory, you won’t even remember what you did yesterday.”
Obasanjo, who was head of State in 1977, added that, “We must remind ourselves about having done certain things that we need to talk about. Some people had said FESTAC ’77 was a fetish festival, but I would say it was not a fetish celebration rather it was a cultural extravaganza. Culture is the totality of the way of life of a people, their food, dance, songs, the way they marry and bury their dead; so, if you kill or destroy any group of people, and take away their culture, they would have no identity left.
“What did we do at that time? It brought to light the diverse contributions of Black and African people to the universal current of thoughts and applications. Some people even said, we have no history and yet human existence began here in Africa. We are the ones that globalised Africa and yet they say that we have no history, so it is important for us to remind the world that we all emanated from Africa and that was one of the things that was relayed in FESTAC.
“ FESTAC was also a period to provide forum for the recovery of tides, which bind us together that the whole black and African people, the world over, people came from all over the world and what were they clamouring for?”
Obasanjo used the occasion to commend and celebrate Joseph Alufa Igbinovia, the artist who produced a replica of the symbol of Africa, after it was taken away by the British government.
According to Obasanjo, “ We are not as poor as the people think we are. We must not accept the narratives of poverty, helplessness, Africa has nothing to offer the world, that people live in trees, which is not our own form of human existence. This is where human beings moved out to occupy the world as we have it now,” he said.
The elder statesman asked, “when we gather to remember and celebrate, what should be our objectives? As a people, we should resolve to stop and change the narratives of what others have given us, such as names that are not our names that they have called us. Africa is not a poor continent and we should forget what other people have done to us but we have shown resilience otherwise, how many other continents have we found where they took more than 10 million people and that continent is still as strong, resilient and resourceful as Africa? My word to you, yes, we celebrated FESTAC to show the world the commonality of what Black and African people have, the unity that we have and where we want to go. We want to be part of the world that we live in. We want to be part of decision making, we want to have our own fair share of division of labour and we can do it and we must do it. That is what FESTAC ’77 is all about, that is what the struggle that we are having today is about, the struggle to make us relevant in the world we live in. Let nobody deceive you, culture and development are not anti-thesis. If you are going to develop outside your culture, it will be a miss-match, you must develop within your culture. Culture is dynamic and not static.” he concluded.
Minister of Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, equally said FESTAC ’77 was an unusual forum that brought together, in a hitherto unimagined dimension, the entire Black and African countries and communities in a rare show of solidarity and cultural display.
The minister recalled that it was through the instrument of enslavement, colonization and subjugation of the Black race which desperately sought to consign or if possible, expunge the contributions of peoples of African descent to world civilization. This same process tends to colonize the mentality of Black people and consign them to the lowest ebb of the societal rung. It was the desire to challenge and debunk unsavoury and unmitigated assault on the Black race, decolonize her mentality, and the quest for freedom, recognition and equality with other races of the world that necessitated the hosting of FESTAC. Till date, FESTAC ’77 remains an unqualified success story that witnessed the greatest assemblage of the entire Black and African communities. CBAAC has continued to keep alive the spirit of the 59 Black and African countries that participated in FESTAC ’77.
Reacting, Dr. Anikwe, DG, Centre for Black African Arts and Civilization, (CBAAC), thanked God the actualization of the aims and objectives of FESTAC ’77. “Though we believe that it is difficult to re-enact FESTAC 77, what we have done with this programme is create a semblance. The fact that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and admiral O.P. Fingesi and other heroes like Prof. Victor Uwaifo, Chief Joseph Igbinova, are alive and present today, are a symbol of the greatness and continuity of FESTAC.
“ This edition is a success and we urge our youths to look inwards because there are a lot of reflections of what happened in 1977 and the way we are encouraging it. If FESTAC were to be anything that people can wish away, we couldn’t have wasted the time and elaborately dealt with matters of reflection, the way we did today. We should properly package our arts and culture for the world to see which other countries are using to feed their populace. I think Nigeria today is the mission point for all the tourists in the world today.”
The artist, who replicated the FESTAC ’77 mask that was taken by the British government, Chief Joseph Igbinovia, recalled that when Nigeria was preparing for FESTAC ’77, they looked for a beautiful artwork to use as an emblem and they decided that the one that the British looted from the Oba of Benin in 1897 was ideal, so, they brought the photograph of the original one which he replicated for FESTAC ’77.
“I am a born artist, and art runs in my blood, whenever, I want to do a particular work, I look at it and would do it correctly. It took me about two weeks to do the artwork,” he said.
Former Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to Nigeria, Mr Wallace W. Williams, who attended FESTAC ’77 as a delegate, had the opportunity to also attend the 40th anniversary and had this to say, “It is a great and significant chapter in the development and history of FESTAC. We must continue to recognise and celebrate FESTAC so that young people will remember that FESTAC is a platform that was created for so many artistes to showcase their talents”.
Other activities that took place during the festival include expo/exhibition on Africa’s creative industries by participating countries, African food fair, traditional performances, traditional wrestling, international colloquium on Black and African Arts and Culture and the 21st century imperatives, tour on tourist sites in Lagos and gala night and awards event.