THE SECOND WORLD BLACK and AFRICAN FESTIVAL of ARTS and CULTURE: LAGOS, NIGERIA Author(S): Ife Enohoro Source: the Black Scholar, Vol
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THE SECOND WORLD BLACK AND AFRICAN FESTIVAL OF ARTS AND CULTURE: LAGOS, NIGERIA Author(s): Ife Enohoro Source: The Black Scholar, Vol. 9, No. 1, BLACK LABOR (September 1977), pp. 26-33 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41066960 Accessed: 09-11-2018 00:13 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Taylor & Francis, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Black Scholar This content downloaded from 130.126.162.126 on Fri, 09 Nov 2018 00:13:38 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Mask of Benin PAGE 26 THE BLACK SCHOLAR SEPTEMBER 1977 This content downloaded from 130.126.162.126 on Fri, 09 Nov 2018 00:13:38 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE SECOND WORLD BLACK AND AFRICAN FESTIVAL OF ARTS AND CULTURE: LAGOS, NIGERIA by If e Enohoro THE FESTIVAL EMBLEM Our smiles and laughter needed not a common THE ROYAL IVORY Language to be understood. MASK OF BENIN To be appreciated. Welcome brother they said to me. 16th Century Ivory Mask from Welcome Home ! Benin has emerged through the years Lidge Daily Soledad Prison as one of the finest examples of known African and black art. It was worn as a pectoral by Benin INTRODUCTION Kings on royal ancestral ceremonial occa- The "Scramble for Africa" ravaged sions; was last worn by King Ovaramwen Africa's human and natural resources and who was dethroned at the fall of the gave impetus to the establishment of insti- Benin Empire in 1897. The same year, it tutions which have continually deprived fell into the hands of the Consul General Africans throughout the world both socio- of the Niger Coast Protectorate, Sir Ralph psychologically and materially. For the Moor, and now rests in the British past four hundred years the essence of life Museum. The tiara formation at the crest for black people has been the search for of the Mask is made of 10 stylised heads the effective theories and methods to im- and symbolises the King's divine suprem- plement decolonization, encompassing acy and suzerainty. The two incisions bothon the internal and external com- the forehead which were originally filled ponents. with iron strips are royal tattoo marks As a necessary ramification, many prag- round the neck; the artist has carved the matic prescriptions have been contra- coral bead collar which is a common fea- vened, conjoined and/or repudiated dur- ture of the King's paraphernalia. ing theoretical discussions, yet there is no indication that these doctrinal disputes "FEST AC 77" are near an end. In fact, if these disputes desisted today, it would cause an insur- I shared a feeling with my people. I looked into their faces mountable set-back in the growing sophis- and saw mine. tication of the liberation struggle for THE BLACK SCHOLAR SEPTEMBER 1977 PAGE 27 This content downloaded from 130.126.162.126 on Fri, 09 Nov 2018 00:13:38 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Africa, for the self-acknowledged African At the end of the Nigerian civil war, the matter was resuscitated, and the Festival descendant in the New World, and the was rescheduled to be held at the end of yet-to-be ideologically defined "Third 1975. But consequent on changes in the World Alliance." There has been, how- Federal Military Government of Nigeria ever, one carefully elaborated concept, (the host government) in July 1975, the Festival was postponed 'in view of the ob- and that is Négritude.* The essence of vious difficulties in providing all necessary Négritude ¿s the black "consciousness," facilities.'2 that which perceives the real and causes the question of unity, contem- understanding. This essence gives Négri- porary Négritudinists generally feel tude its cultural foundation, which Presi- that one of the major prerequisites for dent Senghor promotes as the basis for unification of black people towards a African Unity. federation is knowledge of 'who we are.' The phenomenon of Négritude in its It is necessary to know each other on a contemporary form- that as a conscious personalized basis in order to develop as a reality- can be traced back to the period people. Part of this knowledge is an of 1804 to the present, although founda- awareness of the past, of our heritage, our tions were laid long before then. For ex- history; and thus an understanding and ample, the documentation of suicides and appreciation for our cultural achieve- rebellions aboard the slave ships. For, any- ments, for example, religion, philosophy thing threatening the essence of a person and art. must be resisted and destroyed. In this article we will describe the ex- Historically, the term was used in the ternal forces of the Second World Black first issues of ¿'Etudient Noir, a student and African Festival of Arts and Culture, review edited in Paris during the 1930s by Aime Césaire of Martinique and Leopold and the internal impact, "the spirit of Sedar Sénghor of Senegal. Drawing inspira- FESTAC," held in Nigeria, 1977, hope- tion from DuBois' Pan Africanism and fully demonstrating the importance of Alain Locke's concept of the New Negro, FESTAC as an international forum for these two figures, in company with Damas and others, launched a movement which both the development of the black com- found a brilliant fruition in Presence Afri- munities in and outside the continent and caine, both a journal and a publishing the survival of black culture within our house, which from its Paris home has or- ganized two cultural congresses of persons respective visions as artists. •* of African descent and inspired the first World Festival of Negro Arts, held in Dakar FESTIVAL FLAG in April, 1966.1 The flag of the festival is a tricolor flag Evolving to the Second World Black of Jthree equal perpendicular rectangles. and African Festival of Arts and Culture The two outside rectangles are in black held in Nigeria, January/February 1977: and the central rectangle is gold. Over the At the end of that First Festival in 1966, gold is superimposed centrally the festival Nigeria-was invited to host the Second Fes- emblem. tival in 1970. Nigeria accepted the invita- tion, but because of the internal situation The black color represents the black in the country, it was not possible to hold people of the world. the Festival that year. The gold color represents two ideas. It represents the wealth of the culture of the * "Négritude has been defined as the whole complex ofareas and peoples embraced by the festi- civilized values- cultural, economic, social and political -which characterizes the black peoples, or more pre- val. It also stands for the non-black cisely, the Negro African world." Walter A. C. Skurnik, The Foreign Policy of Senegal (Northwestern University peoples associated with black people in Press, 1972), p. 201. the festival. PAGE 28 THE BLACK SCHOLAR SEPTEMBER 1977 This content downloaded from 130.126.162.126 on Fri, 09 Nov 2018 00:13:38 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms AIMS OF THE FESTIVAL barriers and also to reach all oppressed black and African peoples everywhere. The principal aims of the festival It alsoare: stated that it was meant to re- (i) to ensure the revival, resurgence, move the yoke of feudalism, imperialism, propagation and promotion of black and African culture and black and African cul- neo-colonialism, all forms of human op- pression and also, to serve as a moral tural values and civilization; support for those engaged in the struggle (ii) to present black and African cul- to liberate themselves. This spirit- this ture in its highest and widest conception; motivation- is exemplary of the messages (iii) to bring to light the diverse contri- brought to the festival from the fifty- butions of black and African peoples to seven representative contingencies. the universal currents of thought and arts; His Excellency Lt.-General Olesegun (iv) to promote black and African Obasanjo, Head of State of Nigeria and artists, performers and writers and facili- Festival Patron, in his numerous ad- tate their world acceptance and their ac- dresses, charged the participants and visi- cess to world outlets; tors at the festival with the responsibility (v) to promote better international and of continuing and spreading the "Spirit of interracial understanding; FESTAC." (vi) to facilitate a periodic return to origin in Africa by black artists, writers Most expressedly said in his opening address at the Durbar: and performers uprooted to other conti- nents. In a sense the whole of FESTAC is one grand Durbar in which African peoples with their kith and kin are in one simple FESTAC 77 event trying to recapture their common identity and pride which is the beginning Although the emotion, the life, the ofsen- a new independent collective future. We sual feeling of the rhythm of joy, of mustfear, derive pride and inspiration from each and every contribution no matter of love, is subdued when we use literary from what African country and which part forms of communication, it often of be-the black world. I do hope Your Excel- comes necessary in order to share anlencies ex- will carry away lasting impressions of this Durbar and all other contributions perience with a broader audience.