Reflecting on the plight of the Chibok girls, who are still missing while highlighting the global struggle for girls’ education, French sculptor Prune Nourry and the Department of Fine & Applied Arts of the Obafemi-Awolowo University, Ile-Ife has created an army of 108 life-size human head sculptures, representing a small fraction of the number of people taken by Boko Haram.
The contemporary reimagining of the girls titled ‘Statues Also Breathe’ as well as a documentary movie of the project is showcasing at the Art Twenty One in Lagos, Nigeria, before traveling around the world to remind of the rich and diverse history and culture of Nigeria, and the present day challenges that we must all address collectively as a global community. Upon completion of the tour, the sculptures will be returned to the permanent collection of a museum in Africa.
The project which was also in collaboration with the families of the Chibok girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria, was unveiled on November 19 at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos with the aim of making sure the public continued to remember the abduction of 276 students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram on April 14, 2014.
According to Nourry, who is based in New York, the inspiration for the ‘Statues Also Breathe’ came when the girls were abducted eight years ago and she was traveling to China at the time for her work titled ‘Terracotta Daughters.’
“I heard about the abduction of the Chibok girls and then I saw the beautiful ancestral Ife heads, then it started to raise in my mind that as a sculptor, it was my dream one day to go to Ife and use the same clay to create a rising army of girls, that is the missing girls of Chibok. My dream came true when I met with the Obafemi-Awolowo University, Ile-Ife to create the terracotta heads of Chibok girls”
For Nourry, the goal for the art is to personify their absence and for a collective memory to remember that these girls still exist.
“This is absolutely to remember the Chibok girls. These are symbols of their agony, they also represent the fact that we care for our girls.”
After meeting with the Chibok families to conceive the project, Nourry said she was entrusted with portraits of their missing daughters, which she used as inspiration for eight heads sculpted in clay – creating portraits of the high school girls imaged in the style of iconic ancestral Ife head of the region.
From the eight original sculptures, 108 heads were cast in clay sourced from Ile-Ife, by potters from a female potter’s community in the Yoruba town of Ilorin and students of Obafemi-Awolowo University.
The project which took about a year to complete was sculpted by 108 students after a 1-day workshop at the university. The students sculpted and transformed each head into unique sculptures using portraits of the missing girls.
A delegation of mothers of the Chibok girls and girls who managed to escape Boko Haram captivity was also in attendance during the sculpturing, honoring and remembering their friends and loved ones depicted in the sculpture.
In the documentary movie, all collaborators and participants voices were heard as the recounts their unique perspectives
The foundation of the project was built on conversations with mothers of the eight models and their desire to ensure the world does not forget the girls; each element of Statues Also Breathe works towards bringing continued attention from the wider world.
There was a podcast that provided listeners with an intimate look at the events that took place before, during, and after the kidnapping, as recounted by the women who experienced it firsthand and the people who contributed to making their involvement in ‘Statues also breathe’ possible.
The President of the Missing Chibok Girl’s Parent Association, Yakubu Nkeki, noted at the event that 38 parents of the abducted girls died in the first three years of the incident. He also recalled how he travelled 50km to meet the parents of the abducted girls.
Nkeki added, “Initially, it was tough putting together the parents. In fact, I have about seven of my extended family members abducted as well. I was the first person who staged a one-man protest when the abduction initially happened. A lot of people warned against this but I did not listen to them. As we speak, only one of my nieces is yet to return.
“We are not resting our oars as an association to secure the release of the remaining abductees,” he said.
While appreciating the government and the security forces for securing the release of some of the girls, he urged the government to do more in saving the remaining abducted girls.
Speaking at the art event, one of the abductees, Amina Alli, shared her experience of how she escaped from the den of kidnappers in Sambisa forest in 2016. She said, “I was kidnapped alongside others on April 14, 2014, I was in JSS 2. We were taken to different camps and I was lucky to have escaped when the Nigerian Armed Forces came to raid where I was captured. That was in January 2016.”
She, however, expressed optimism that having gone through government-funded rehabilitation, she would survive the trauma of the abduction and live a normal life. She also called on the government to intensify efforts in searching for and rescuing her abducted schoolmates.
She said, “After receiving rehabilitation and meeting with the President of the country, I have returned to school. I live with my family and I am happy. I really wish my other sisters could regain their freedom someday.”
