The Potential of Art in Social Development.

Lead Talk by Henry Mujunga

In Lomé there was contention as to whether there was a vacuum in the artist or in the society.

Today we have to establish the nature of the vacuum, the extent of its contribution to the backwardness of our society. It is only after understanding the nature of the problem that we will prescribe the corrective measures, if necessary.

It is a well established fact that the last aspect of an evolving society to blossom is art, and that it is art alone that indicates the truth in any human accomplishment.

Therefore, the artist has a tremendous and pivotal role to play in the establishment of a recorded history for the African, as well as drawing the road map that Africa will follow in pursuit of social advancement.

It is my contention today that unless the artist re-integrates himself/herself into society by directly addressing pressing social issues, he or she risks the danger of being relegated to the doldrums of history.

When a society is moving in a particular direction and the artist is moving in another, then it becomes nonsensical to assume that the artist is in the lead. It is on this note that I want to challenge the artist to re-examine the role he or she is playing in the day-to-day social, political and economic strife within his community. For this will indeed provide the key indicators attesting to his or her degree of preparedness for the enormous task ahead.

Discussion
Henry Mujunga: The theme of today’s discussion is “Can Art fill the Vacuum?: The Potentials of Art in Development”. I want to help throw some light on the keyword here which is vacuum. Most English dictionaries describe the word vacuum as an empty space. In Lome, the question was, where does this vacuum exist? Does it exist in art or in the society? So today I want us to establish the nature of the vacuum, the extent of its contribution to the backwardness of our society. For it is only after understanding the nature of the problem that we will prescribe the correct measure for its remedy.

It is a well established fact that it is art alone that can indicate the truth in any human accomplishment. Therefore, the artist has a pivotal role to play in the establishment of a recorded history of Africa. The artist also has the role of drawing the roadmap that Africa can follow in pursuit of future advancement. It is, therefore, my contention today that unless the artist re-integrates himself/herself into the society, it will be difficult for him to achieve success for himself/herself and the society. This is because when society is moving in a particular direction and the artist is moving in another, then it becomes nonsensical to assume that the artist is in the lead.

It is on this note that I want to challenge you the artist to re-examine the role that you are playing in the day to day socio-political and economic process of your community, for this will indeed provide the key indicators that will prove the degree of preparedness that you have for the great task ahead.

Abel Mac Diakparomre: What I intend to do is to stimulate all of us for a discussion. In Lome we partially agreed that a vacuum exist, and we also said that the vacuum was a product of art and the people (society) moving in different directions. We also agreed that art was no longer the centre around which life of the people in contemporary society revolve. As a consequence, the society has become artistically alienated and the art has become elitist.
The language of the contemporary African artist is no longer understood by the generality of the people. And if the artist is not communicating, then what is the essence of his work?

Some say that communication is going on, but the question is, how many people are able to comprehend what is being communicated. It may be necessary to look at how we got to this position. I must talk about the impact of colonialism on traditional African art. The colonial masters attributed certain values to our traditional works of art. To this extent, there was a general demise of traditional art through out African societies where colonialism was experienced. We now come to the point where art is no longer the centre of our living because of certain Western mode of art perception. We started to think the way others think, and not the way that we think. So a vacuum has been created; we are joining the global train in the middle of the track. You will agree with me that modern European art was the end of a process. Can we say that the contemporary art in Africa is a product of a process?

Before Picasso, experimentation had been made by Paul Cezanne to breakdown the whole of nature into geometric shapes. A number of European artists were already beginning to conceptualise nature in these geometric shapes. The encounter of traditional African art by Picasso and his friends merely stimulated what was already an on-going process. They marvelled at the simplicity of the objects that were coming from the traditional societies of Africa. And they discovered that these objects were conceptualised in terms of basic geometric shapes. So the simplicity that characterised early 20th century art was indeed the end of a process. This thinking that has been going on since the late 19th century. Can we say the same for contemporary African art? Is it the end of a process, or we met it mid-way and we are now in it? These are some of the things I want us to think about. I also want to pose a few other questions. Now what do we do as Africans in the midst of these myriad problems about the position of art, the role of art in contemporary African society? How do we get modern African art to the same position that was occupied by art in traditional African society? How are we going to be able to re-position African art in such a way that the essence of the activity will be felt in every sphere of society? Many of the things that I have said are purely personal opinion, and they are merely to stimulate us into discussion.

Guire Tassere: Cooperation among African artistes is possible. Without the exchange of techniques, artisan and artistic evolution in the continent will seem to be slow and difficult. To my own opinion, the colonizers cannot be a clog in the wheel of exchange. But why? The colonizers left us with a free space that favours this cultural development. It is only that we have serious problems of schooling in Africa, in the lack of initiation into artistic studies at school. There is a lack of art schools, lack of higher institutions of arts because of the content of African arts. Where does the real lack of knowledge spring? What is it based on and what kind of arts for Africa?

We are capable of two institutions that I will call; the urgent, immediate or the abstract, which is the same. This really suits Africa which possesses a lot of works full of acceptable values. I’ll like to take a concrete example; - the neo-colonialism that gushes out African values. It is really a pity that we can jettison our ancestral granary without trying to replace it with new and positive values, giving the fact that the primitive want to go to school, those who go to school want to be existentialists and that existentialists want to be academicians. As for those who are decayed they don’t want to take after anybody. As touching culture, I see that we are free in some ways to communicate. From the years of the 60s to the 70s, art has always been for the courageous and that the lack of this courage has made it to go in different directions. An art of myth and not fetish because the former which is corrosive has been replaced. Let the myth therefore spring up each time in spite of its real saturation.

Henry Mujunga: Thank you very much. I know you have a lot of questions. So I want to repose the questions the last speaker raised, “What is your role? What is your advance strategy? How are you going to re-think the role of art in all the issues raised above?

Cliff Nwanna: I have a feeling that African contemporary art is now faced with more diverse challenges than what the traditional art faced in the past.

Today the modern African artist contends with issues like globalisation among others. He also contends with the best approach to passing his message across to a more diverse audience. Now this problems have made contemporary African art appear less vibrant than the traditional art. But I have a feeling that with the way the contemporary African artist is going about the art business, there is hope that with time, art in Africa will be as vibrant as we all expect.

Donatien: My question is what is the role of the Ministry of Culture and French Cultural Centre in propagating African art?

Okey Nwafor: Western economic super-machinery is always employed by the West in the advancement of their art. We have to look for a way to address our economic and political needs because we cannot divorce art from economics and politics.

Henry Mujunga: What is the role of the Ministry of Culture?

Nikiema Peter: Africans are hungry and that is the root of our problems. Our governments do not appreciate the magnitude of the problem nor do they encourage art. I am an artist and I do not need anything from the government.

Fidel Hien: The artist should not depend on the Culture Ministry; rather, they should come together and fend for themselves. But at the same time, I think the artists have a lot to learn from the politicians. As far as I concerned, a vacuum does not exist. So why should we worry about such a vacuum?

Ayo Adewunmi: Like I said in Lome, we need to identify the vacuum because when you do not understand what the problem is, then you cannot solve it. And if we are not very articulate in the way we identify it, then we will expand the vacuum. For instance, when you talk about travels, if I ask how many people here who have travelled outside Africa, there will be so many people. But if I ask how many have visited Nigeria or Libya, for a programme, there will be very few persons. Why is it easier for Africans to travel to destinations outside Africa than within Africa? This is part of the vacuum we are talking about.

We also have a problem of projecting African values, beliefs and identity with our art. Often we play to the gallery, i.e we pander to the whims of white tourists and the West in our art productions. This also one of the problems we are talking about.

There is a vacuum associated with the dearth of publications and voices from within Africa. Most times, the publications on African art come from outside the continent. If we visit our libraries, the books we read are from the West. The question is, when are we (African writers, artists and critics) going to start publishing and writing our own books, since we have the facts and truly understand the situation of our art.

On the problems associated with the attitude or management of the ministries of culture, it will be good to ask who are the managers of the culture ministries? Are they artists? In Nigeria for instance, the people at the helm of affairs in the culture ministries are not artists. Therefore, the visual artists do not get the much needed support from the culture ministry. And if we are interested in having a good cultural policy, then we artists must come together and insist that we should occupy the position meant for us in government. If we do not occupy this position, there is no way decisions made will favour the artist.

Chikwe Eheli: I must say that the African artist is supposed to represent the African dream. It therefore behoves on the African artist to explain our situation, ideas, and interaction within his society. Our basic problem is that the African artist has abandoned his roots. He has to think Africa, work Africa. His artworks should not ape the West. That perhaps, is the starting point.
The various African governments have a lot of work to do for the growth of African art. First, they have to involve artists in all the cultural programmes in the continent. Secondly, they should be involved in cultural activities as decision makers. And thirdly, the government should fund art projects and programmes. By doing all this, they would have helped in improving the conditions of living for the African artist.

C. Krydz Ikwuemesi: I am responding to what somebody said about artists’ trivialising their work according to the politics of Africa. I think it will be wrong for the African artist to begin to emulate the politicians. Politics in Africa is problematic enough. I think the moment we begin to align ourselves to the politics of the continent, then we should be ready to write an obituary of art in Africa.

Henry Mujunga: I thank everybody for his/her contributions and I hope we have raised a few key questions whose answers we are not going to get here. But I believe the discussions of today will provoke our thoughts in new directions and eventually guide us in identifying and possibly filling this vacuum that we have been talking about.
In attendance:

1. Tony Odeh (Nigeria)
2. Fidel Hien (Burkina Faso)
3. Guire Tassere (Burkin Faso)
4. Xavier Sitti (Togo)
5. Dodji Klu (Togo)
6. Assion Adanlete (Togo)
7. Ouattara Bakary (Burkina Faso)
8. Agbozo Coovi Innocent (Burkina Faso)
9. Laukoaudi Albeetine (Burkina Faso)
10. Bayo Foole (Burkina Faso)
11. Enyo Dackey (Togo)
12. Adjino David Rhiombiono (Burkina Faso)
13. Donatien Alihonou (Benin)
14. Boly Sambo (Burkina Faso)
15. Kere Ali (Burkina Faso)
16. Sedogo Francis de Paul (Burkina Faso)
17. Souleymane Palenfo (Burkina Faso)
18. Syl. Paris Kouton (Benin)
19. C. O Chinweuba (Nigeria)
20. Chikwe Eheli (Nigeria)
21. Okey Nwafor (Nigeria)
22. Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi (Nigeria)
23. Bertrand Coulidiati (Burkina Faso)
24. Abou Sidibe (Burkina Faso/Mali)
25. Laurent Ihoudo (Burkina Faso)
26. Nikiema Peter (Burkina Faso)
27. Sama Namaigugna (Burkina Faso)
28. Marie Blanche H. Quedrago (Burkina Faso)
29. Louque Kon (Burkina Faso)
30. Mas Mahe (Burkina Faso)
31. Bognounou Imare-Francois (Burkina Faso)
32. Simplice Ahouansou (Benin)
33. Cliff Nwanna (Nigeria)
34. Moustapha Sawadogo. (Burkina Faso)
35. C. Krydz Ikwuemesi (Nigeria)
36. Hamed Ouattara (Burkina Faso)
37. Henry Mujunga (Uganda)
38. Abel Mac Diakparomre (Nigeria)
39. Ayo Adewunmi (Nigeria)
40. Magerita Del Balzo (Italy)

The Pan-African Circle of Artists

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