•Nok deserves museum, says Kpom Ham
By MAGNUS EZE
As Nigeria joined the rest of the world in marking this year’s International Museums Day on May 18; one man walked into Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, venue of the event tall, but left there taller.
He is Mr. Danladi Gyet Maude, the Kpop Ham of Jaba Chiefdom in Kaduna State. The traditional chief had witnessed the return to the Federal Government of a priceless Nok Terracotta cultural artefact stolen and trafficked through Paris but was intercepted by the French Customs officers.
The French Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Denys Gauer, who handed the Nok Terracotta figurative sculpture to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said his country was committed to the fight against illicit trafficking in cultural artefacts.
Gauer explained that France was not a destination for such illicit goods, but a mere transit point as the relic was actually being taken to the United States on October 22, 2008 before it was intercepted.
“I am very happy today that we have returned today a very beautiful statue of Nok culture. This is not the first time; we have done that in the past; objects which were discovered by the French Customs. Each time we discovered anything like that and we are able to establish the origin, we repatriated and we cover the cost for that”, the envoy said.
The minister thanked the ambassador for his country’s show of support “in our fight against illicit trafficking of cultural goods and their untiring efforts at restitution and return of such items. I wish to recommend this “French model” to other countries”.
The Director-General of National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Mallam Yusuf Usman, expressed the optimism that more of Nigeria’s cultural properties abroad were on their way back, with what the French Government had done.
In February 2013, the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation had repossessed five Nok statuettes looted by a French thief in August 2010. The pieces had been seized by French Customs agents, and were repatriated following a directive by the Nigerian government. Antiquities analysts estimated the sculptures to be between 2,700 and 3,400 years old.
About the Nok culture
The Nok culture appeared in Nigeria around 1000 B.C and later disappeared under unknown circumstances around 500 AD. It is the earliest producer of life-sized Terracotta in sub-Saharan Africa.
It is thought to have been the product of an ancestral nation that branched to create the Hausa, Gwari, Birom, Kanuri, Nupe and Jukun peoples.
Nok is a village located in Kaduna State, 160 kilometres northeast of Kwoi in Jema Local Government Area.
The Nok culture was discovered in 1928 on the Jos Plateau during tin mining. Lt-Colonel John Dent-Young, an Englishman, was leading mining operations in the Nigerian village of Nok. During these operations, one of the miners found a small terracotta of a monkey head.
The first finds or objects or cultural artefacts were excavated by archaeologists in 1928. Other finds or objects includes terra-cottas of human head and a foot. Terra-cotta is a technical work, meaning ‘baked clay’.
By 1977, about 153 Nok terra-cotta pieces had been accidentally found during mining operations. The three main sites of excavation of Nok objects include Nok, Taruga and Katsina – Ala. Archaeologists have since then discovered lot of materials.
The Nok culture is said to have belonged to a homogenous group of people who had a well ordered economy and a good system of government. A foremost archaeologist, Bernard Fagg also suggested that Nok people were ancestors of the present population of Ham people because of the similarity of economy. For example, the Ham people wear lip plug as well as ear plug, similar to those of the Nok people. Nok people knew iron-working besides making of terra-cotta objects and domestic pottery.
The Nok terra-cotta objects are used for rituals and as commemorative sculptures of local chiefs, or dignitaries, kings, queens and priests.
Kpop Ham speaks:
The Kpop Ham of Jaba Chiefdom who was elated, saw the repatriation of the Nok figurative statuette as sign of good things to come for his people.
“You see, these are things that were made by people living some 3,000 years ago, so, of course, you would be forced to think about histories; how did they come about; what were they used for and the rest of them? Definitely, it’s important to review the history of the people of that area”, he said.
On the Nok finds that were taken outside the country, he said: “It isn’t one or two or ten, they are so many of them carried to various museums in different countries of the world. You have them in America, Britain, France, and in Germany, name it.
Religious threat to culture
“It’s a huge mistake leaving out history in our educational system. Without history, we won’t know our past, record the present so as to plan for the future. So, history is very important.
“Since culture is the overall practice of the people, it’s not what could be kept static; from time to time, you find changes within a culture and it evolves. But as far as we are concerned, what we know much about our culture, we try to keep them. Yet, we have religion which has changed a lot of the culture of our people and we cannot call it back. When the missionaries came, they told us that every aspect of our culture was paganism; but eventually, now people realise that is not only religion but involves a lot of other things.
“We still retain what we call Tuk Ham festival which is marked with a lot of cultural displays. We marked it at the end of March this year and many people came to watch the displays and what we can advise the people to try to achieve during this time.
“We’ve realised that most of the things which had been termed as traditional religion had nothing to do with religion. Take for instance the way our children were raised, you have to obey your father, your mother and there are certain other aspects; you have to reverence people who are older than you. You realise that children are not the possession of the mother and father, but the whole community. So, a child misbehaving could be punished; you can admonish him without having to go to the parents before administering the admonishment.
“We also realised that some of the things that we have in Christianity are the same with our own cultural aspects. And that we have tried to highlight so that people know it. For instance, the question of incest; Christianity does not accept incest, the same way Jaba traditional culture does not accept incest in anyway.
“The only other thing that is a bit shady is the initiation which formerly, our people used to initiate all young people; that is males, not females. Now, people have realised that during that initiation, there was really nothing you can say is juju practice in such initiation. We realised that it was just a way of training the youth to be able to take over the responsibility of the community”.
What future?
Nonetheless, the head of Jaba Chiefdom expressed dismay at the way the government has treated the Nok, who represent a very important part of Nigeria’s history. He believes that his people were being neglected in spite of the fame their fore-bearers brought to the country through inestimable cultural finds.
He said: “Today is a memorable day for us of Nok origin and we are very excited. And we want to use this opportunity to call on the Federal Government to see to it that a befitting museum is built at Nok, so that people coming to visit will have something to see, not only going there and see the village without anything at all”.