Category: Life – The Midweek Magazine

Clara Aden’s desire is to create and experiment with new art  forms. Her art promotes peace and mutual understanding. The marble art workshop held recently, therefore, presented her another opportunity to learn new skills.

With the objective to raise more peace ambassadors in the arts, The Ufuk Dialogue and Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF) held the three-day workshop for artists at the Nigerian Tulip International College (NTIC), .

Tagged: Art for peace workshop and exhibition, the workshop on art painting on marble featured facilitators from Nigeria and Turkey. It had as facilitators the President of Ufuk Dialogue, Mr Mehmet Ozleyen; the Executive Director, Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja, Tugay Yalcin; an England-based artist Mr Olanrewaju Olagoke; and Mr Seyri Süluk.

The workshop was followed by an art exhibition of works of members of the Female Artists Association of Nigeria (FEAAN) and other Nigerian and Turkish artists.

According to the President, Ufuk Dialogue, Mehmet Ozleyen, the symposium was meant to incorporate more artists, particularly the womenfolk, into the foundation’s campaign for peace and mutual understanding.

He said: “The workshop seeks to provide a common platform for artists to showcase their skills, knowledge transfer, promote love, peace and tolerance through art. UKUF dialogue was founded in Abuja Nigeria to promote dialogue culture of co-existence mutual understanding and opinion exchange. This is achieved through conferences, seminars, panels, publications, meetings, intercultural trips and several other activities.  The workshop is one of such medium we promote peace.”

An excited Aden, an executive of FEAAN Southwest Zone, was one of the new additions to the foundations’peace campaign whose work depicted the theme.

“We were taught the process of painting tulip flowers and leaves on paper created by each participant both Nigerians and Turkish artists. My work titled: Let there be peace, depicts the inter-religious conflicts between Christians and Muslims, despite our different ideologies. I believe if we love each other we will be able to tolerate one another and eventually there will be peace.

“It was, indeed, an unforgettable experience. I drew and painted on the marble print the acrylic painting that showed a young girl holding a placard with an inspiration in Turkish. It showed that “strength does not come from physical capacity it comes from an indomitable will”, according to Mahatma Gandhi. Mr Ozleyen, helped me translate it, which I inputted it on my placard – it is my first attempt on writing in Turkish language,” she said.

The workshop opened with an entrepreneurship training, which involved a wider knowledge on creating marble works/images on the marble background by artist and Executive Director, Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja, Tugay Yalcin.

He introduced participants to tools and materials, processing the mix and printing the marble on paper. They were then taught various techniques, including the process of painting tulip flowers and leaves on paper, which each participant was made to produce Nigerians and Turkish artists.

Founder/Chief Executive, Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF), Prince Yemisi Shyllon, said the world was in dire need of the values of peace and love, saying the workshop was meant to remind people on the significant of peace. He urged the artists to pursue their dreams and use the workshop to strive to gain more knowledge from the Turkish art community.

“The workshop was inspired by my desire and commitment to give back to the society in my chosen corner of the arts. I am always open to such collaborations. And I have held such workshops, residency programmes, fellowships in the past and even donated art monuments as a way of promoting the arts.”

On her part, FEAAN Southwest Zone Coordinator Omovo Ayoola said the new techniques/designs she learnt from the workshop were not taught in any of Nigerian institutions. “It was, indeed, a great privilege for FEEAN members to have been part of the UFUK Dialogue /OYASAF Workshop. Our association and, indeed, its executives are always open to partnerships as this which will help to educate and empower our members. The different colour tonal gradations helped to bring out the design in a stylish way which came out like hand painting. That for me was fascinating.”

For Naomi Oladipo, the workshop was “filled with knowledge and social fun”. “Thanks to Mr Ozleyen of UFUK and Shyllon, the other young artists and I acquired new skills. I met with great minds. It was not only a platform to learn new skills but also to interact and learn from other artists. Both our brains and stomachs were fed and the time out from one’s studio was worth it. We are also thankful to Messrs Olagoke and Seyri Süluk,” she said.

UNITED KINGDOM (UK)-based Nigerian writer, Dr. Akintude Akinkumi,  has described Chinua Achebe’s last book There Was  A Country as the worst the late writer ever wrote, saying it was  inaccurate in many cases.

He said though Achebe author Things Fall Apart, remained one of Nigeria’s prolific writers, he spoilt a good case with a very parochial view, adding that he might have written the book when he was declining. “But, his other books are absolutely superb,” Akinkumi said.

There was a country is Achebe’s last personal history of Biafra and published in 2012. Achebe passed on March 22, 2013. The book which is a memoir of Achebe’s early life in Eastern Nigeria, drew lots of controversies from Nigerians especially among the litteratti and his literary offspring who share most of his views about Nigeria in the book.

Akinkumi, who spoke recently at a reading session of his book Is Better Served Cold at Quintessence, Ikoyi, Lagos described Chimamanda Adichie as Nigeria’s most talented young generation writer. “One of the most-talented Nigerian writers now is Chimamanda Adichie. But, in terms of older generation I enjoy Achebe’s books. His last book, There was a country, is the worst he ever wrote. It is inaccurate in many cases,” he said.

Akinkumi, who left the Nigerian Army in 1989, but still serving in the British Army, said if given another chance of career choice, he would opt for law instead of medicine. “With the benefit of hindsight, if I am given the benefit to make career choice again, I will prefer law to medicine. My father had told me when I was much younger that my talents were better in the art than in sciences… I am a great fan of reading. I have two rooms that are stacked with books,” he stated.

Is Better Served Cold is Dr. Akinkumi’s first book and he is in the process of writing a sequel to it. But, in between the two he has completed a second book, which is a brief political history book of the Nigerian Army that will hopefully get published in October.

Is Better Served Cold looks at some themes and it is about a Nigerian-trained lawyer working as an investment banker, who returned to Nigeria and managed public privatisation issue. But, he had issue with refusing to play ball and that landed him into trouble; he and lost his wife and children. This led him to contemplate revenge. The book was first published in the United States as e-book last year, and published as a paper back in Nigeria last September. It took him six months to write the book, though he had written the foreword five years earlier.

On his next book, he said: “It has nothing to do with the Army authorities. It is a history book that looks at the evolution of Nigeria and evolution of the Army as an institution. And I try to examine how the interactions between the two have played out given the Army involvement in politics. The rough idea is that neither the Army nor the country has benefited from Army involvement in politics. It traces the period between 1963 and 1999.”

Recalling his days in the Nigerian Army,  Akinkumi, who is also a lawyer, said the Army of today is different from what it was when he served because it was during military rule and the Army was in government.

Comparing the Nigerian Army and the British Army, he said: “It is a totally different setting. Army is a reflection of the society and in the UK, the Army has never had a stint in governance unlike in Nigeria.”

Man and woman were the two people in the beginning, ordered to subdue, dominate and multiply the world    divine order.

To most people, especially the westernised, it’s a closed book that Africanism is mean to women. The westerners have gone farther in the fight for equality and the rights of women, but not far enough to forget they were in it and it’s still on. Only few women in Africa and fewer round the world really know the meanness of their place.

Born in a village in one of the sub-Saharan African countries, Mary was one of the village girls bold to run away from the traditions and cultures of the tribes that devalue women to the city where western civilisation has given it advancement. She went through trying and herculean tasks where faith, courage, brilliance, commitment as her fortes led her to where she desires.

Unlike Mary, many women for the sake of material acquisition, most of the times out of ignorance or vile for what they need or desired as human beings, venture out with the pride of the greedy denigrating the worth of woman.

Is “Adventure of ROSE MARY” an intriguingly passionate tale of a girl? Can one also say it’s a gothic story?  In my opinion, it is a common but gripping blend of these genres. The story is fiction as names of most characters and incidences are the author’s imagination yet it’s an epic with re-occurrences that are characteristics in women’s life –realities and convincing.

It is a fascinating tale of rural life as lived by Africans far away from the cities in Africa engulfed in western civilisation that signifies the triumph of modernism over traditionalism. The main character, Mary, is exposed to the devaluing impact the rural way of life has on women. The tradition as practised in the village makes women abscond to the city where they find room to exert rights and equality with men. However, the right to freedom and equality goes on to give women the power and the mind to express vile, villainy and viciousness Mary and her cousin are carried away by the new phase of a friend who like many women run to the city for what they crave unaware of the fact that unlike her cousin she cannot indulge in the vile that are common with women.

Undoubtedly, Mrs. Man, a woman who comes across Mary in her travails to survive after she runs away a second time, this time from a practise common with women which she cannot abhor, the professor who marries her are characters who indicate that impiousness or goodwill is either way; from man or woman.

The story is impressively real. It’s what goes on day in day out in humanity; traditionalism or modernism. It’s highly recommended for both sexes to realise their equality as far existentialism is concerned. By the end of the book you realise that women are as equal as men. Distorted concepts are what make up the woes of man.

The Director, United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Nigeria, Mr Ronald Kayanja, has called for policies that will boost corporate responsibility and family-friendly work environment.

Speaking at the Africa Family Life Delegates’Conference attended by over 600 delegates, Kayanja said the working conditions of parents affect their ability to play an active role in their children’s education.

“Family-friendly policies are essential and have already been proved to improve workers’ productivity and dependability,” he said.

The event was organised by Centre for Sex Education and Family Life, as part of activities marking the International Day of Families.

He said: “The International Day of Families, therefore, is a day to focus on needed policies to create a good nurturing environment at family level for children to grow. For parents to effectively play this important role of nurturers, they need time with their children as they grow up.”

Speaking on the theme: ‘The role of family life education in transforming Africa’, which aligned with the global theme of the International Day, Families, education and wellbeing, Kayanja highlighted the crucial role of the family as the centre for early childhood education.

“We know that the education a child is exposed to before reaching age eight is a determinant of what type of person we will have in society. Parents, grandparents and relatives play a major role at this stage, as they work with early childhood teachers in elementary/nursery schools,” he said.

At the event, the wife of the Lagos State Governor, Mrs Bolanle Ambode, underscored the centrality of family to development, noting that ‘without family, no country; without country, no continent and no world.’

Mrs Ambode, who was represented by her Special Assistant, Dr Arinola Oluwo, noted that the only way to have a world of our dream is to fix the family.

The Principal Consultant, Centre for Sex Education and Family Life, Mr Praise Fowowe, explained that a dysfunctional family system could not build a functional society. He called for a commitment to ‘creating and promoting an effective family life education that can deliver a developed family system, which ultimately would deliver a developed society’.

He added that the most important government might not be the government of a nation afterall.

According to him, “the most important government is actually what we have coined the ‘Family Government’. We strongly believe that the Family Government is the production factory of the society and until we become intentional about the development of an effective family system, we may not witness a developed continent we so desire.”

In 1993, the UN General Assembly declared 1994 as the International Year of the family and that May 15 each should be observed by  member-states as the International Day of Families.

The General Assembly noted that ‘families are the fullest reflection at grassroots, of the strengths and weaknesses of the social and development welfare environment, and as such offer a uniquely comprehensive and synthesising approach to social issues.’

It further observed that families, as basic units of social life, are major agents of sustainable development at all levels of society and that their contribution to that process is crucial to its success.