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Art
Summit│Forward│Peace and the Artists│Absolutism
A speech at PACA's 2001 Peace Day
at
Institute of Management and
Technology, Enugu
By: P-J Ezeh
I am not aware of any of the 3000 odd languages of the world where an
expression which may translate the word, peace, does not exist.
But this does not make a discourse of the topic essay. The first
challenge is that the expression even in English, refers to more than
one state; one phenomenon. In a word, it is polysemous. It
bears multiple meanings. But it seems that no matter any other
layers of meaning the expression embody in the various languages and
culture, one of them remains constant. Peace in all those settings
has in addition to any other of its significations the antonym of
antagonism; of hostility; of fight, of war.
Achtemeier (1985:766) notes that in its Hebrew form, shalom, peace
implies wholeness or wellbeing in both religious and secular senses.
Although antique Greek's eirene used to denote only the
absence of war or antagonism. nevertheless by the Christian era the word
had in addition acquired a sense that became as wide ranging as the
Hebrew expression.
The Igbo of southeasten Nigeria will ask an acquaintance whose
countenance or acts suggest that something is amiss, Udo o dikwa?
(dynamically, I hope there is peace?) Here peace can therefore be
equated to normalcy. There is no peace in any situation where something
goes wrong. The Igbo, of course, does also have the notion of
peace as the converse of antagonism.
That all human societies recommend peace and desire it may be
illustrated with other cultural acts. It is given as names of
people or important places, independently or in combination. For
example, the Igbo might name a person Udo (Peace),
Kaudodi (May Peace Reign),
Udokamma (Peace is Preferable), and so on. Islam as
one of the three great monotheistic religions translates as peace.
When Gideon, an ancient Hebrew warrior, built a memorial in honour of
the God of his nation he named it Jehovah-Shalom, i.e. Jehovah is
Peace (Judges 6:22 - 24). The Messiah whom the people await is to be
Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). In the Presbyterian mission school
where I had my primary education in an Ebonyi State rural town, the
choirmaster made us memorize all the stanzas of song number 365 of
the Church Hymnary taken from Isaiah 2:2 - 6. It is also the
portion of the Judaeo-Christian Book where the world body devoted to the
pursuit of peace, United Nations, took its famous motto: "They shall
beat their swords into plowshares".
The human experience with peace is undoubtedly one of the species' most
paradoxical whichever perspective one decides to look at the matter.
Gideon who erected an altar consecrated to peace was on the other hand
one of the most accomplished warriors in the Jewish nation. The religion
founded on the name of the Prince of Peace spent a good part of four
centuries (11th - 14th) fighting in the Crusades against Muslims whose
religion, Islam, is considered peace personified. In contemporary
times so much violence still rage in the names of both faiths, whether
in Northern Ireland, northern Nigeria, America or Afghanistan, to cite
only a few cases.
From the remotest villages in traditional Africa and Europe, through
diverse nation-states everywhere to multinational alliances such as were
witnessed in the two great wars of 1914 - 1918 and 1939 - 1945 humans
seem never to be sated with bloodbath. Yet the same people so
romanticize absence of antagonism to the extent of employing it as
metaphors in all domains from the personal and concrete to practically
all other states, real or imagined, on Earth or anywhere.
After 10 million lives were lost in the war of 1914 - 1918, the world
reacted by setting up in Geneva in 1920 the League of Nations aimed to
stop similar experiences in the future. Of course it didn't.
Historians trace the remote cause of the demise of the League to its
inability to tackle the aggressive proclivities of its own members.
By 1939 the planet was grappling with another global bloodbath which
continued until 1945, and was by far greater in scope.
Russia alone lost 25 million lives, three times the entire casualty
records in the first World War. The United Nations Organisation with
parallel objectives as the League's was set up in New Work the same
year; the League itself being dissolved a year afterwards in 1946.
Whether the UN has served to ensure peace in the world is part of our
current everyday experience which every normal adult is competent to
comment upon.
What I may only add at this point is that one common thread runs through
all those accommodation and fellow feeling give way to antagonism or
violence of all sorts. The we-they binary (read also I-thou, in
dyadic relationships) must take the centre stage, and the emphasis
becomes the satisfaction of the first at the expense of the second part
of the dichotomy. This seems true in all human relationships and
we can all test the tenability or otherwise of this proposition by a
re-examination of all those occurrences in human relations where
instances of antagonism we have been witnesses to. To use one
example concerning the very latest of the horrors of international
magnitude, Beeman (2000:1) has seen the senseless carnage at the New
York Trade Center in terms of one man's insistence on the
supremacy of his religion at the expense of all others. Before the
September 11 event, Osama bin Laden had at different times fought the
quondam Soviet Union and more recently the Russian government on the
same account.
And as long as such self-centredness and lack of consideration for the
other (personal or corporate) is present, a bin Laden may be found in
any politician, religionist, businessman, even a spouse or paramour ...
indeed anyone. For example, there can be no religious riots in
northern Nigeria or Aba, presidential or gubernational maginalization of
any part of the polity without such an attitude.
Some ancient thinkers tried to find a solution to this seeming needless
problem by setting up what is commonly referred to as the golden rule or
golden mean. Do not do to others what you will not like them to do to
you. The Chinese, K'ung-Fotzu, reportedly used the
former formula. Five centuries afterwards, Jesus the Christ, began
preaching in Palestine using the later formula.
In present day anthropological terms, they both recognized the we-they
binary as an inevitable social fact which is not inherently harmful but
becomes injurious only in misapplication.
I suspect that accommodation is the one sure way to peace. The
Igbo encapsulates this in a maxim using animal metaphors, Egbe
bere, ugo bere (May neither the kite nor the eagle covert the
perching space of the others) The English say "Live and let live",
and unless one happens to be a pop fictional character created by Ian
Fleming for Cold-War movie, no sane person could reverse this for a
precept. The wonder is that in real life people accept the wisdom
of respecting each other's position in principle but in practice often
try to make themselves the hub on which the world should be turning.
To paraphrase Jean-Paul Sartre, hell, for them, is always the other
people.
The Pan-African Circle of Artists (PACA) must be commended for
organizing this unique forum to remind ourselves that the world is yet
to achieve peace. This is one great step. The next is to
continue in the path of eminent artists of all genres who have invested
much of their creative energy to continue to prick the conscience of the
world and their local communities in this direction. For instance,
it has been mentioned above how visual artists and musicians of diverse
nations have rendered the message of peace by the ancient Hebrew
writers.
I have also been to some of the exhibitions by members of PACA or other
visual artists from our shores where the theme of peace was explored
using literally, all colours and contours. A few examples may
illustrate this point for want of space. Obi Ekwenchi's
brown concrete sculpture, "Dialogues' and Chika Aneke's
piece on wood, "A Reason to Unite Africa" focus on this from the
position what could bring peace.
Ozioma Onuzulike's installation, "The Dove Arrives Seeking
Space", and C. Krydz Ikwuemesi's lugubrious "The Beautiful
Ones Are Not Yet Born" series lament the absence of the ideals that we
crave for society including, of course, peace. Chiemezie
Chuta
try to shock us into intensified search for peace by portraying the
devastation resulting from its opposite in "Away from Ancient Ruins".
I have no doubt that the painting session of today's event will produce
a laudable continuation of these worthy efforts.
Artists may not force the world to instal peace but they can at least
continue to remind it of the need to do so.
References
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Achtemeier,
Paul J. 1985. Harper's Bible Dictionary New York:
HarpeCollins.
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Beeman,
William O. 2001. Writing for the crisis. Anthropology Today
Vol. 17, No. 6, pp. 1,2.
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Peacock,
Herbert L. 1969. A History of Modern Europe 1789 - 1968.
London: Heinemann
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