Category: Arts & Life

Come October 26 to 29, authors will gather in Abuja to deliberate on various issues distorting and disturbing the nation.  It is another moment for the annual international convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).  The venue is the Mamman Vatsa Writers Village, Mpape, Abuja, where scholars, writers, authors, visitors from all over the world will in be attendance to forge ahead on matters of writing.  EDOZIE UDEZE reports. 

As the year draws to a close, there are already series of literary activities and events put together by the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).  Almost all the programmes are tied to its annual convention which is meant to take-off on October 26 and end on 29.  The theme of this year’s annual convention is: Literature and National Consciousness:  The story as a Catalyst.  The second programme has to do with a topic titled Nigeria: a nation in a state of critical fervent.  It is a lecture topic and it has to do with the state of Nigeria where not only social life is at its critical ebb, but where even writers do not have ample space to ply their trade.

There is also a constitution review committee set up to reappraise the national constitution of ANA.  For far too long, pressures from all over have been mounted on the previous and present executives to fashion a way to rework or review or update the ANA constitution.  Now that committee is ready to hit the road running.  On the whole everybody is eager to see a new or fresh constitution that will kick-start a new era for the writers’ body.

Also in the offing is the list of ANA members nominated as follows.  ANA has consistently made it clear that from time to time, it will recognize and honour those who have done their best to lift the body.  Now that moment has come.  And no one who is familiar with the workings of ANA will dispute the appropriateness of the list.  It is all encompassing, taking into consideration those who had in the past and at the moment staked their careers, lives and all, to keep the spirit of the body and writers generally on the front burner.

The guest lecturer for this year’s convention is Professor Abdul Rasheed Na’Allah.  Na’Allah is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja.  A graduate of the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Na’Allah is an author of many books.  Beyond that, he is an international literary scholar, mostly known a as poet, critic and administrator.  He was also vice-chancellor of Kwara State University, Molete.  He will treat the topic Literature and National Consciousness – the story as a catalyst.  Based on this, ANA President Camillus Ukah has even reassured the writers body that the association is ready to deliver a memorable convention, one of the hottest in recent memory.

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In a more detailed information signed by ANA publicity committee for the 41st International Convention the event will hold in Abuja.  In other words the headquarters of ANA which is Mamman Vatsa Village, Mpape, Abuja will be agog with various literary activities for those five days of the convention.  The idea of the venue is incontrovertible.  ANA has laboured relentlessly over time to build the place for its glory and to have its own place for programmes.

It will therefore be an appropriate time to see the whole and total beauty of the writers village.  The statement equally stated “this is going to be the biggest annual convention by ANA.  It will encompass the commissioning of the first place of ANA hotels/apartments”.  The hotels signify certain level of comfort in the village.  Named after some notable writers in Nigeria, the hotels show a place built to give guests, writers, all enough room to relax, reflect and write more incisively and meaningfully.

The library will also be commissioned.  This is in addition to a guided tour of the city of Abuja and the Writers Village.  This will enable writers, visitors, guests from all over the world to see firsthand one of the most glorious writers resorts the world-over.  There is no gain-saying the fact that ANA has taken its time to establish this centre in spite of the bad economic situation world-over.

Some of the nominees for the fellowship include Nduka Otiono, Vicky Sylvester, Linsay Barret, Abdul Rasheed Na’Allah, Anaezi Okoro, Raginat Mohammed, Udenta Udenta.  Others are Emmanuel Ojukwu, Emmanuel Frank Opigo, Mark Nwagwu, Tony Marinho, Dul Johnson, Yusuf Adamu, Ademola Basylva.  And more.

Among the honourary fellows are John Asein, Chidi Osuagwu, Zainab Ahmed, Abubakar Maigandi.  It is hoped however that the nominees will accept their offers in good faith.  No doubt, therefore, that it will be the biggest moment for ANA to shine its light of progress.  Over the decades it had suffered in the hands of some state governments for lack of its own property and venues for the annual convention and other sundry programmes.

So, this moment is meant to be classical, a sort of apogee for a body that faced very many years of humiliations occasioned by those who starved it of places to host its conventions.  This is time to look back and smile, and be merry and joyous.

Book:                    Between Survival and Annihilation

Author:                Clement Oluwole

Reviewer:           Prof. E. E. Sule

Name of Publisher: Amazon

Date of publication: 2021

Pages:              128

 

Clement Oluwole’s 128-page novel is a story of misfortune and mishap. It is driven by a sustained suspense marked by intrigues that can make a reader sit at the edge of their seat. The story’s capacity to arrest a reader, in the tradition of a thriller, is an experience that is worth having.

The book is divided into 10 chapters. As the title suggests, it is a story of a young man, Ambrose, who survives a fatal shipwreck. As the lone survivor, marooned in an island and rescued after more than three years, Ambrose is celebrated by the King of Theso and made a prince in the kingdom. But Ambrose’s story is more than this post-survival recognition. The reader first encounters Ambrose as a young graduate of Mechanical Engineering in his country, Ementa. At home, he minds the family garden, and it is while doing his round one day that an accident occurs, which will determine the course of his bitter-sweet life. With his catapult, Ambrose “took a shot at the thieving boy and the pebble located his skull…. He (the boy) lost grip of his hold atop the six-foot high fence as he heaved himself up and his little frame came crashing down like a sack of apples”. The boy later dies. This tragedy brings a misfortune that sees Ambrose, a brilliant graduate with aprospect of a fulfilling career, going to prison for manslaughter.

In misfortune, as in mishap, Ambrose has a talent for survival, which people around him, especially his grandmother, acknowledge, and a reader will surely admire. His survival tactics appear inborn, but they are also hinged on his training as a mechanical engineer, and indeed his ability to deploy his acquired skills to sustain himself in conditions of adversity. This point is perhaps the greatest thematic thrust of the novel, one of the clear messages that a reader can take away from the story. In schools, anywhere at all, skills are acquired for functional purposes, and well-acquired skills do not only guarantee a fulfilling career but they may also extricate one from deathly situations. Through his skills to repair vehicles and computer, Ambrose becomes a privileged prisoner enjoying a number of pecks. He also meets Hela, the elder sister of the boy he accidentally kills, and she ironically becomes his wife, thus bridging the inevitable gap between the two families.

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And yet another misfortune will occur when Ambrose attempts to save his future wife, Hela, from her lecherous boss. Ambrose barges into the man’s office and demands that he stops harassing his fiancé sexually. Uncharacteristically, he tells the man, who is also his senior colleague, that he has recorded their conversation. The man, frightened by the possibility of being roped in by the recording, makes a moveto seize the recording device from Ambrose and loses his balance, falling. Ambrose is later shocked to learn that the man has been hospitalised. He later dies and, in a twist of fate, Ambrose is back to the prison. While his recording device can exonerate him, because it is clear that he did not hit the man, it fails to work as a result of a mechanical fault. It is in the process of escaping from the prison, as the hangman’s noose is imminent, to the Kingdom of Theso through the sea that Ambrose suffers the fatal shipwreck.

Between Survival and Annihilation, Oluwole’s first published thriller, is a smooth reading, with a fairly straightforward plot structure, packed with intrigues, and it may be read in just one sitting. The story is purely fictional, presenting strange names and places. It is the kind of story one can escape into when frustrated by one’s social reality. While the story may totally remove a Nigerian reader from their socio-political reality, the series of misfortunes and the terrible shipwreck dramatized in the story may give a picture of Nigeria, a rather dysfunctional society, where citizens contrive survival tactics to sustain themselves. To survive in Nigeria, you have to be like Ambrose, able to deploy your skills for practical purposes.

A reader may pick a quarrel with the structure of the book: its lengthy blurb, the rather unnecessary Preface, and the glaring absence of the name of the publisher. The book is, however, excellently proofread, saving the reader the problem of having their reading experience marred by annoying errors. It is a book people, especially young ones, should be encouraged to read for its gripping story and beautiful language.

An Independent expert of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights in Africa, Prof. Damilola Olawuyi (SAN), called for a right-based approaches to trade, investment, banking and business practices across Africa.

The frontline energy lawyer and global vice-chair of the International Law Association (ILA) stated this while speaking on a new book titled: “Business and human rights law and practice in Africa” published by Edward Elgar, United Kingdom, co-edited by Olawuyi and Oyeniyi Abe, a lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom and senior fellow in business and human rights law at the Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (OGEES Institute), Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria.

He stated that a vast volume of literature has been generated on its application in Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America amongst others since the adoption of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in 2011.

According to him, what however remained absent for many years was an in-depth, exhaustive and book length exposition of the application of the UNGPs in African countries.

He added that the book fills a significant gap in this regard.

“Since the adoption of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in 2011, a vast volume of literature has been generated on its application in Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America amongst others.

“What however remained absent for many years was an in-depth, exhaustive and book length exposition of the application of the UNGPs in African countries.

“This book fills a significant gap in this regard,” he said.

He noted the new book is the very first book-length examination of business and human rights law and practice in Africa.

While describing the book, Olawuyi noted that it unpacks good-fit and home-grown approaches for advancing business and human rights norms across Africa.

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The Energy expert added that it explores the latest developments in law, regulations, policies, and governance structures across the continent, focusing on key legal innovations in response to human rights impacts of business operations and activities.

He stated dedicated the book to Aare Afe Babalola, SAN a frontline business and human rights lawyer, trailblazer, proprietor and founder of ABUAD, who for several decades has utilized his legal expertise to provide ethical guidance and wisdom to business enterprises operating in Africa and beyond, in key economic sectors.

Olawuyi said he was inspired by his exemplary leadership and achievements in the field; hence, they have put together this book to provide a simplified toolkit for lawyers, investors, students, corporations, ministries, arbitrators, courts, and international tribunals, to understand the corporate strategies for managing business and human rights risks when investing in the African continent.

Speaking also, Professor Surya Deva, a professor of law at the Macquarie Law School, Australia and former independent expert of the United Nations Working Group on business and Human Rights expressed that this volume provides much-needed African perspectives on the business and human rights landscape.

Surya said such work should help in promoting business respect for human rights and corporate acceptability in different world regions.

A Professor of Law at Hamad bin Khafila University Qatar, Ilias Bantekas, noted: “The in-depth and systematic approach of this book makes it a must-read for students, academics, practitioners, policy makers and business leaders in Africa and beyond.”

For over two decades, Olawale Fasuyi, son of Master artist, Pa Timothy Adebanjo Fasuyi, worked in several banks at senior level until recently when he founded Tim and Carol Gallery of Art Ikeja GRA, Lagos.To him, leaving banking hall for art gallery is a decision borne out of passion and love for art. He spoke with the Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME on how he started collecting art, his early interactions with art, and how his passion for art took him away from bank industry, among other issues.

Chief Executive Officer, Tim and Carol Gallery of Art, Mr. Wale Fasuyi, has described the activities of art auction houses in the country as the impetus needed for the growth and development of the visual art sector.

He said the roles being played by the auction houses had raised the bar on the value of art and artists in the creative industry, saying their consistency and pricing of artworks enabled collectors and buyers to benchmark artworks in their collection.

Fasuyi, who spoke at the weekend during the unveiling of his new art space, Tim and Carol Gallery of Art in Lagos, said African art and artists are making waves in the global art market. He noted that the ongoing African and Black consciousness across the globe is becoming a major force since the death of George Floyd in the United States.

“It is like Afrobeat music which is as strong as any other brand. With time Nigerian art will be that powerful. We are going to represent the whole of the black race,” he said.

At Tim and Carol, the primary target audience is African art market using the Nigerian market as a fulcrum. “Our unique selling point is to make Africa our main market, though Nigeria will be the fulcrum. For us, the art renaissance is very pleasing to us. And it is driven by the Afrocentrism,” he added.

Though the gallery has a large collection, but specifically the emerging African artists are the focus of the gallery. “We are going to invest in the art by adopting four schools for mentorship while building them from cradle. It will be two private, two public schools in Lagos that will be adopted. Our next project is getting a multipurpose built gallery,” Fasuyi hinted.

He stated that passion remains one of the key elements that sustain the growth of any art enterprise especially at this trying time. He recalled that his interactions with the art since childhood days have been driven by passion, which has evolved into commercial enterprise.

“For me, my interaction with art is driven by passion, which turned into business.  If you don’t have the passion, no matter how savvy you are, you will make money for some time but you will later get tired. It is not for the money part, but passion. We discovered that if we didn’t do something about our collection, the works will lose its value. In the next three years we would have conquered the market such that collectors can be bold to visit Ikeja to buy art works. About 90 per cent of the works here are my personal collection,” he said.

But what was the journey into the art world like? According to Fasuyi the journey leading to the unveiling of the gallery started about 30 years ago. “Our collection is wide and from almost every part of Africa like Ghana, Mali, Congo etc.  Anywhere I went I buy art work. We are not limited to Nigeria. I used to work with a bank and I travelled extensively,’’ he said.

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Again, I come from the family of art. My father is an artist and he is the first graduate of painting in Nigeria. So that has brought out the love for art in me. Growing up, I was surrounded by art pieces.’

Reacting to why Victoria Island and Ikoyi-Lekki areas are perceived homes to most art galleries in Lagos and why he chose Ikeja as location for his gallery, he said: “The preponderance of galleries has always been on the Island, Ikoyi and Lekki. The excuse has been that the purchasing power is on the Island. I beg to differ. There is a lot of purchasing power on the mainland too.

“Ikeja GRA is the area with the greatest development per capital in Lagos. The next level of urban generation is in Ikeja. We have the concentration of world-class hotels. In Ikeja GRA, we have about 75 hotels, including global brands like Sheraton, Radisson Blu and Marriot. Also, lots of corporate activities are happening in Ikeja.

At the start, we wanted to open on the island but I decided to dare Ikeja GRA. With internet, you can shop anywhere. You don’t have to visit us physically to patronise us. Our online and social media presence will be pushed to all outlets in order to make it convenient for patrons.  Also, strategic for us is our proximity to the airport. Many may want to dash in and pick an artwork on their way to airport. We are not scared of geography or location, and we will give it an equal measure of fight to get our share of the market.”

Like a one-stop shop for art, Fasuyi said an art and craft shop and café will open next week for clients. “We have also created a resource centre for those wanting to read up any issue in a book. We have lots of Nigerian artists telling our stories across the globe even in the visual art sector. El Anatsui, Bruce Onobrakpeya and others are representing us very well and they are well sought after by collectors,” he noted.

On which categories of artists form core of his collection, he said: “I don’t collect works I cannot display because our storage is limited. I have enough works to move around for months without repeating any. Again, we are very careful on the kind of works to collect especially works that are faked or forged. I hardly buy works from second party. To be on the safe side, if you are in doubt on the authenticity of a work, leave out.”

Tobi Adebule’s second solo exhibition, which opened last Sunday, delves into the nuances and intricacies makeup of man.

Through his photographs or what he likes to call ‘visual evangelistic materials’ Adebule examines the correlation between the physical and spiritual self, marriage, opportunities, competition, support system, birth and destiny, through his photography.

With the theme Tales of the inner man, the exhibition, which opened at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Yaba, Lagos, was curated by Mathew Oyedele.

For Adebule, there was no need for the  competition that man engages with people he may or may not know because he was born free.

According to him, man is presented with opportunities to scale, and grow, but he also tends to miss and squander these opportunities through ego, laziness, arrogance, procrastination and ignorance.

These tendencies are what the artist refers to as the ‘Dark Veil’ that covers the eyes of man from seeing and identifying golden opportunities. Such ‘Dark Veils’ can be procrastination, laziness, addiction, and covetousness, among others.

He also took a detour into the marriage system of Yorubaland where the bulk of prayers, advice, faults and counsel usually go to the woman.

He said: “The woman is usually the first to be tagged barren and encouraged to invoke the spirit of children through the romanticisation of baby dolls, in the case of infertility in the marriage. She is the one who hears “ilé oko, ilé èkó ni (The husband’s house is a home of knowledge)”in times of challenges. She is also the one who is told “èyìn ìyàwó ò ní m’ení (The wife will not be barren)” on the wedding day. Here, the spotlight is on the woman, to question and interrogate our perception of marriage in Yorubaland.

With no fewer than 25 works on exhibition, Adebule said that his visual evangelistic materials originated from his encounter with his spiritual self last year, the scrutinisation of his environment and by extension, investigation of social construct.

“After my first solo exhibition in 2015, I aimed to have an exhibition every year, but I could not do that between 2016 and 2021 due to lots of factors. I fell ill at the time and the encounter with my spiritual self-happened in the process.

“The research, planning and conceptualisation of this exhibition, therefore, began in 2016 and that was when the direction to use my work as evangelistic materials to bring the spectator to the realisation of self and discovery of purpose came to be.

“The works also serve as a connection between metaphysics and the reality of the human mind where the audience will have a spiritual connection that searches their thoughts. This proves that my works are not just art but visual evangelistic materials,” he explained.

Through merging sound, photography and objects of representation, the artist invites the audience into states of retrospection, epiphany, enlightenment and awakening of self that exalts the necessity for questioning and connection with one’s metaphysical self.

Adebule is a photographer with a keen interest in metaphysics, happenings and the nuances of life.

He had his first solo exhibition in 2015 where he addressed issues of terror, grief, loss and aesthetics of human existence. The highlight of the exhibition was his documentation of loss, memory, regret and grief that followed the Jos crisis of 2010 where churches, houses and mosques were set ablaze and possibly more than one thousand persons were killed.

Adebule has worked as a  photographer for Guinness Nigeria, Etisalat, Malta Guinness and Haier Thermocool.

The yearly Life In My City Arts Festival (LIMCAF) for the Enugu Region has been declared open by a retired Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Chinwe Iyizoba, who called on the rich in Enugu State to support the event by setting up an art endowment fund in honour of their loved ones.

The ongoing 15th edition of the festival, with the theme: “Paradox of Muted Echoes”, is featuring 65 artworks done by young talented and enterprising Nigerian artists resident in Enugu State at the venue where it all started 16 years ago – the Alliance Francaise in Ogui New Layout, Enugu.

The art works included sculpture, terracotta, mixed media, paintings, charcoal drawings, photography, ceramics, oil on canvas, acrylic on canvas, fabric on card, and textile, clay.

Justice Iyizoba appealed to wealthy individuals to support the festival to encourage and empower upcoming artists so that they can develop their artistic skills and compete with their counterparts outside the country’s shores in international art competitions.

She said: “I will use this opportunity to urge all the rich and wealthy people in Enugu State to remember that this is a worthy venture. I urge you to make endowments for your name or on behalf of your loved ones.”

She said LIMCAF has given the Enugu people a good opportunity to witness the art exhibition live and also encouraged the young artistes to exhibit their works live in Enugu.

“There are many of you here who have been to arts exhibitions and there are others who have never been to a live art exhibition. So LIMCAF has given everybody the opportunity to witness it live,” she said, adding that so far, the festival has recorded sufficient levels of feats in helping young artists to develop and promote their skills as well as showcase the artistic potentials of young Nigerian artistes.

The Executive Director, LIMCAF, Chief Loretta Aniagolu, who represented the chairman of the Board of Trustees, LIMCAF, and a former Chairman, Union Bank, Elder Kalu U. Kalu, said it would be a remarkable event for artists in Enugu to participate in showcasing their creativity during the festival.

Aniagolu also said: “It’s amazing that this level of creativity exists in the young artists, despite the socio-economic and political challenges in the country.

“So, many of them that won awards, have gone on to international events. Some of the artists have made good use of the opportunity. About 18 of them had the opportunity of flying to Dakar, Senegal for an international arts festival to showcase their works.”

The Art Director, LIMCAF, Dr. Ayo Adewunmi, said there were 65 entries from the Enugu region, stressing that by organising the event, the management of LIMCAF was preparing for the future as some of the young artists were being celebrated internationally.

Adewunmi, who is the Chief Lecturer, Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, said the theme for this year’s edition, “Paradox of Muted Echoes,” suggested that things might not always be the way they are perceived.

“It also seems to suggest that sometimes, silence being a vital part of sound, may be a potent device to enable us to hear from within, but it still presents a paradox,” said Adewunmi.

Adewunmi said: “We have been through this event for 15 years; this would have been the 16th edition but for the sudden outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are looking forward to a better event. We hope we can make Enugu a tourist destination for visual arts, and we are preparing the young artists for it.”

According to him, was established in 2007 and registered as a Trusteeship in 2012 under the name Life In My City Art Initiative as a yearly celebration of creativity featuring young talents in the art landscape.

He said LIMCAF “is the biggest youth art event in Nigeria featuring visual art competition, festival lecture, school children’s and art teachers’ workshops, as well as multimedia workshops. The Gala and Award Night is the climax of the festival in Enugu, Nigeria in October every year.”

Adewunmi recalled that for over 15 years, LIMCAF has created and sustained a platform which has empowered more than 1,500 young artistes, promoted art pan-Nigeria through the annual competition that offers young people an avenue to showcase and commercialize their productions, win handsome prizes and interact with the larger art community on a national and progressively international basis.

Explaining the selection process for the LIMCAF 2022, which he said was in three stages, he said that the stage one “is online election by the National jury of works that are suitable for Regional Exhibitions,” while stage two “is the physical exhibition of selected entries at the Regions.”

He added that at this stage two, the Local jury will take a critical look at the physical works and select the best artworks that will be part of the Top 100 for the Grand Finale Exhibition in Enugu.

Adewunmi added that the stage three is the Grand Finale exhibition of the Top 100 Artworks in Enugu, noting that at this stage, the National jury will assemble in Enugu to review, rank the Top 100 Artworks as well as decide the various Awards. He also said that the grand finale exhibition will be held between 22nd and 29th October 2022 at the International Conference Centre, IMT, Enugu.

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Teenage Friendship: Tips For Healthy Social Interactions

Author: Tofunmi Akinyemi

Reviewer: Cyrus Ademola

Publisher: Jochebed Publishing House
Pagination: 96

For many, the teenage world can be bewildering, complex and complicated. It’s a world full of uncertainties, adventures and a bout of disengagement with established authority. Young people are virtually and practically searching for something; even though most of them don’t know what is it that is missing in their formative years.

What this implies is that any attempt to penetrate and navigate the muddle waters of this juvenile world requires careful and tactful guide and wisdom. While this can be quite challenging for parents and guardians alike, there are others who with a creative vision and seasoned insights offer organic steps on how to influence the young ones and their world.

This creative vision is aptly expressed in the newly revised book entitled: Teenage Friendship: Tips for Healthy Social Interaction by Mrs. Tofunmi Akinyemi.

The book, which is a maternal guide on teenage relationship and its effects on young individuals, provides succinct and honest insights on the sundry subjects that concern young people. It also gives practical tips on how teenagers can formulate healthy interactions among their peers, while avoiding the loopholes that come from unwholesome relationships.

The author, Tofunmi Akinyemi alias Mama JOCH, shares her personal and biblical experiences to motivate and inspire young people to hone and harness the possibilities and potentials integral to teenage interaction, while offering a helping hand to avoid and avert potential damage that comes from poor decision-making in relationship.

The subjects the book explores are both interesting and challenging. They include subjects such as social interaction among teenagers, the anatomy and boundaries of healthy relationship, teenage sexuality, teen challenges, bullying, and even teenage abortion. The author never shied away from these sensitive discussions, but was graceful enough to suggest boarder line tips on how a teenager can navigate through all these complexities.

In the introduction, for instance, the author tells the reader what she intends to accomplish by writing the book. According to her, the book isn’t some straitjacket solutions on teenagers’ issues, but rather an organic process and conversation the author engages the reader in in order to have a shared and mutual experience of what is like to live through the grey times of pre-adulthood.

She writes: “I want you to bear in mind that the teenage period is a very delicate and important stage of your life; and so, must be carefully lived. This is to avoid choices (especially in social interactions) which can bring shame and regrets. As a teenager, the choices you make during this period will determine to a great extent your quality of life now, and in the future, and maybe your eternal welfare too.”

Moreover, the book is unapologetic Christian in motif. The author, being a pastor and a mentor, draws scriptural and biblical allusions and characters as guidelines to buttress every point made. These scriptural references serve as the authority and body of knowledge upon which each theme is built.

The author treats each chapter as unique and distinct, offering step-by-step tips on how to explore different challenges as teenagers and overcome them by applying the tips and lessons in the chapter. For instance, in the chapter Friendless Teenager, the author speaks on the aching difficulty on teenage loneliness and the imperative for the teenager to have make effort to have friends. It also gives certain reasons why most teenagers are friendless, despite the advent of social media and smartphones that can bring about friendliness. Her diagnosis includes emotional trauma, lack of time and misplaced priorities, among others.  She also includes tips that can help the teenager escapes and overcome this challenge.

It’s important to point out that one of the reasons why this book seems interesting and engaging as a body of knowledge on teenage treatise is because of the author’s insights to communicate difficult and sensitive subjects in a graceful and creative way. As a mentor and an individual with a motherly heart, the book speaks directly to the heart of the issue of teenage interaction. The author, who has written over twenty books before most of which are centered on Christian living, takes the bold step to explore the teenage world and offer a maternal guide to help these young individual sail through.

The pages of the book are covered with nuggets, sound bites, scriptural quotations, stories, anecdotes as well as practical examples to engage and provoke the reader that none of the issues are in themselves novel or unsolvable. Even on the subject of teenage sexuality, her honesty shines forth as she speaks to the heart of the matter rather than beating around the bush. She makes it clear that sexual purity is an admirable virtue a teenager must embrace, despite the decaying and empty lies of pop culture. Added to this, she offers seasoned counsel on how a teenager can overcome sexual improprieties and live a sexually clean life throughout his or her teenage years.

There are so many subjects like that in the book, but not without the tincture of grace and empathy to engage teenagers on how to live. Overall, the book is an interesting, well-written and timely work of art that speaks to  issues affecting most teenagers. In a world such as ours where young ones are left to their own devices, the book gives a breath of fresh air of moral rectitude on how to navigate the formative years of being a teen.

Many people might have  heard of, or seen a collection of artworks probably in someone’s house, on the walls, or on top of shelves indicating that the person may have love for collecting such items.

Also in the traditional setting, you may have seen objects of strong human being and animal shapes. Some represent recognisable human beings and animals. You can also have them in great grandfather’s hut – items of war, work, personal use, white man’s helmet, gun, bicycle all of ancient origin, often looking anachronistic in the contemporary world. All these could be drawn, painted, sketched, etched or fashioned with and from many materials like clay; raffia; mud; leather; wood etc.

One thing binds all these together; they are no longer in eloquent use. They have presented as evidence that people had lived in the past and how they lived. These collections can be grouped into two areas:

Utilitarian is for inquisitive minded while the aesthetic is for those looking for beauty of form and expression. Thus there is need to have a “Haven’’ (museum) for this items.

Museum, according to International Council of Museum quoted in Nyamah (2002: 16) is a non-profit making, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, and open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for the purpose of study, education, enjoyment, material evidence of man and his environment.

A number of words used in the foregoing demand attention for us to properly situates the write up “Beyond the museum as an Artistic Haven’’ The words are “Exhibit’’ “Education; “Enjoyment,’’ Artistic,’’ and aesthetic.

You exhibit to show what you have to spectators for their education and enjoyment. This pleasure is achieved largely through the objects on exhibition and manner in which they are arranged.

Hence the specialisation of museum in many parts of the world. Some museums are devoted to specific aspects of life:- Fine art, applied arts, craft, archeology, anthropology, archaeology, ethnology, history, culture, military, science, technology, children and numismatics (i.e to do with coin, medal, memorabilia etc.) and so many others even with the recent innovation of the world wide web or the Internet. There are new virtual museum which of course have no counterpart in the real world.

The “making’’ or “plastic” arts are things that are made, for instance, painting, sculpting, carving, weaving, moulding etc. do not require the presence of the artist to be appreciated. They can be studied at leisure. This is why they are useful and constitute a large chunk of museum pieces.

Also, the basic characteristic of art includes its being created (a re-presentation of life; not an original thing) as well as giving pleasure to the senses (Aesthetic quality/beauty of museum) much of what is found in the museum possess artistic qualities.

Artefacts such as weapons – bows, arrows, dane guns, canoes, stone, clubs, daggers, spears, ritual objects, house hold utensils, clay woks, and artistic works from the past are preserved for us to view an to be appreciated. They give us idea about the food, culture of the time, their life style, mode of worship etc.

This is why culture (way of life of the people) and religion are so intricately linked to the extent that often, a religion object from the past which has been preserved and displayed as art, having lost it religions significance is misunderstood as fetish item of worship.

Even today, there are elements of religion in our daily lives though the actions are not intrinsically religions. An example: people pray before they eat. This does not make eating a religious act. The infusion of a religious act in culture has made religion fanatics and bigots claims that the museum is a place where idols are venerated by display and they detest anything ancient. No, this is wrong, museum is rather an “Artistic Haven”.

If nothing takes you to the museum, its art/culture content should because is ideally organised to create maximum aesthetic effect and to appeal to the eyes.

The young should visit the museum regularly the way one would go to see a film, a play or window shop because it is an artistic show room for historical purposes.

In conclusion, it is worrying that youth of today have allowed condemnable distraction to overwhelm them.

Tares Oburumu, Bayelsa born writer, poet, and literary essayist, who has just won the Sillerman literary prize for African Poetry is one of Nigeria’s brightest young poets. The prize is an exclusive preserve of the African Poetry Book Fund. At an early age Oburumu realised he was going to be a writer and he pursued the dream diligently. In this chat with EDOZIE UDEZE, he made it clear that being a writer pays handsomely well and that the prize means a lot to him.

What inspires you to write?

Water, childhood, grief, hunger,  fishing, loss, my mother; the two brothers we lost: their tenderness, the hope that we will grow into a family full of boys, because we had just one sister. My father’s insensitivity, the small bookshelf he built, his coming and going which placed our welfare in the hands of my grandmother and my uncles. With these, I was able to see the world clearly. I couldn’t have placed my inspiration elsewhere. They gave me a threshold to stand on and look at what defined my existence, my experiences. Literally, I was hemmed in, and everything I saw as a child had life because of my father not being there, the water which surrounded us, and how we survived, depending on how it flowed during the flood as we farmed, fished, told stories, and resiliently gave our lives for it. Derek Walcott provided that door by which I opened my own windows and walked into my experiences which were made of water, my mother, and everything that was made to kill us as an extended family living by the banks of the River Forcados. My father’s small library also gave me to the world of books, offered me that opportunity to see knowledge as the point on which the earth turns. Chike And The River was my first book, read with so much love and vigor, as it introduced me to the written word on paper, afterwards, directed my sensibilities toward the sublime experiences I had as a child growing up by the  bank of the River Forcados. If I am asked again and again, what inspires me, I have no better answer than this: water. I come from water; my survival, my story, my life, the breath I breathe comes from it. It is difficult to separate me from it, and difficult to say which one loves the other more. I think I that what inspires me, loves me more than I love it. It’s water that connects me to mother, to my father’s own experiences, to loss, to hunger, to grief, to the brothers I lost, to my only sister, to my grandmother, to the uncles I grew up with, to Derek Walcott, to Seamus Heaney, to Tomas Transtromer, to the young Ocean Vough, and to the small bookshelf I was submerged in as fish in water.

When you read a book, what are the salient things you look out for you?

Syntax. Words fascinate me. How they are arranged and the forms in which they appear on a book draws me closer, first, then binds me to it. The depth with which they are arranged in clauses and phrases, lines and verses, stanzas, and in harmony, is the spell that will tether me to it for hours and days without giving in much to the other things that equally need my attention. I grew up in a home where order was seen as something close to being holy, and at a point in my adulthood, looking back at when I was a child, I thought order to be something holy. It was what led me into Ben Okri’s “ Famished Road” and planted me in that book for hours without knowing that I have not eaten for hours. It was what led me to Derek Walcott’s “ Omeros” and I closed myself in its walls bound to the room as if nothing existed save the words I ate minute by minute. When I took up Mandela’s “ No Easy Walk To Freedom” the words succeeded in trapping me in the pages for hours until I finished reading it in a day, and I had to deal with the migraine after. That fierce headache lasted for two days, not until I listened to my mother and saw a medical doctor. I have come, not easily, to the conviction, that a good book is rated so because of the words it employs in telling the plot of the story, in dramatizing the scenes of the play, in the versification, or putting into poem, of the world it’s building.

The world of writers is a world of words. We live for them. And if one must tell a story, write a poem or perform a play, one must live in the words, and for the words. Make the words live the life they should live on the pages. Three months had me stuck with “ Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy, not because it’s a classic but because he made the words live. Books are living things and it’s the words skillfully employed in them that make us breathe as humans.

At what point in your life did you realize you would be a writer?

A few days ago when the African Poetry Book Fund announced me as the winner of this year’s Sillerman prize for African poets. At every point of my twelve years journey in writing pieces of plays, short stories and poems, I never see myself as a writer. I only believe in what I do; writing, having the semblance of a writer, I never had the idea I would become one. They are thousands of people out there who just write for the fun of writing; just a string of words put together and let a few friends look at them; isomeric with authorship, in a resigned fashion, nothing more than being a village minstrel who never dream of being a poet, but sings his heart out to a few people who care to listen; this was what I was doing on the social media: Facebook, and I was dubbed a Facebook poet. I remember one renown poet calling me a Facebook book poet. In his words “ you have never been long or shortlisted for any major prize, nor have been given an award, so to call you a poet or writer is calling a bird an angel. It’s this bird-stage I resigned to. It’s in this bird-stage, never dreaming to become an angel, that I wrote all of my manuscripts, not as someone who knew he would become a writer but as one who doesn’t know how fate works and who is not ready to know.

Of all the books you have read, which character struck you most, how, why?

I do not read much of prose works. I read books of poetry more than any genre. I would instead say that about a character I read in a poem by Seamus Heaney. The character in “ Digging” from the book “ The Death Of A Naturalist” who took something from me, which I thought was not mine and made it mine. These words of Andrew Spacey, for me, defined the will rather than the essence.

“ I now believe that the “digging” poem had for me the force of an initiation: the confidence I mentioned arose from a sense that perhaps I could do this poetry thing too. And having experienced the excitement and the release of it once, I was doomed to look for it again and again”

I substituted fishing for farming and saw in the little boy that Seamus Heaney was, the long history of the water that surrounded my family, the means to survive in it and left the identity question unanswered. Though I admired the courage of the farmer in “ digging” as much as I did in my mother as a fisher, I knew I had no future with the River Forcados. The boy character’s personality was my mien; the doggedness that was my initiation into something different from what the river offered me as a boy.

What book or books triggered the muse in you?

I owe Derek Walcott a lot that I cannot, in my lifetime, pay. After reading his book of poems “ The White Egrets” I submitted myself wholly to the responsibility to my mother, to where I come from and the stories that bind both family and place of birth. If I am to be buried inside a book, it should be the “ White Egrets” or if a book could mean a place of origin, it should be the “ White Egrets”

In what genre of literature do you express yourself more and why?

Poetry. At some point in my twelve years journey writing, I have the feeling that I was born with it. If I had studied it, perhaps I won’t have been able to come up with a line of poem. Perhaps. But I did like to think that I find it beautiful with poetry because I have read more books on poetry than any other genre.

What is the significance of the literary award you just won?

It has made me believe that I would be a writer, opening the once closed doors, I personally locked against myself, to world of books where I think I belong.

In other words, has literature bettered your life?

It has. Even long before now, the little help I get, in my resolve against suicide, trying hard to feed my daughter, is from the friends who believe in literature, who think I have a future in writing.

Who are your favorite authors ,why, how?

Derek Walcott, Seamus Heaney, Tomas Transtromer, and the young Ocean Vough. The duty of a writer is, first, to the self, and the self is the story that needs to be told. They embodied their stories and told them with so much belief in where they come from. What makes a writer is the origin. They wrote about it and I am indebted to say the least of how fascinated I am.

Are you a rereader repeating a book again, why, why?

I do not read a book again after the first read, just as I do not look up a word again and again. I spend months reading a chapter or a piece of poem, slowly, taking one word, one line, one moment, one scene at a time.

How do you arrange your library, at home, in the office?

I do not have a library yet. Neither do I have a home, nor an office. I do not know how I  arrange it when I have one.

What book are you reading now what lessons?

I am still reading “ Time Is A Mother” by Ocean Vough. Until I finish reading it, I won’t know what the lessons or objectives are.

(To Kenule Beeson Saro Wiwa in memoriam, part of an anthology)

So stuffy and fluffy is my flute

Shall I borrow now a poet’s lute?

To help me spin this yarns on stage

…this yarns of rage?

Of one wronged heart

Of a miscarriage of justice

Of dogs eating dogs

Of such callous mediocrity!

So stuffy and fluffy is my flute

Shall I borrow now a poet’s lute?

To help me spin this yarns on stage

…this yarns of rage?

Of a man betrayed by

A tribe of Judas

‘cause he never tired

To speak the ills;

Of a man who all his life

Gave voice to the dictum

‘Whatever persecution a man may face TRUTH will out!’

So stuffy and fluffy is my flute

Shall I borrow now a poet’s lute?

To help me spin this yarns on stage

…this yarns of rage?

Of a tragedy of the oppressed

Of the bestiality in man

Of the crude rape of innocence!

So stuffy and fluffy is my flute

Shall I borrow now a poet’s lute?

To help me spin this yarns on stage

…this yarns of rage?

Of a gory sad tale

Of a rooted sorrow

Of a man shanghaied to

A fortress of torture;

To suffer a rainbow of abuse

And then burn to ashes;

I tell you of a man

Who have ceased to be forever more!

So stuffy and fluffy is my flute

Shall I borrow now a poet’s lute?

To help me spin this yarns on stage

…this yarns of rage?

Of a man caused

To hurry off this life;

At zero-zero hours

Without even the benefit of

His swansong!

But nay! Some dreams come true

Even when callously truncated

The same goes for a glorious revolution

Only if you don’t mind the

Death of your Age!

So stuffy and fluffy is my flute

Shall I borrow now a poet’s lute?

To help me spin this yarns on stage

…this yarns of rage?

Of a man who laid down his life

‘cause he wanted no one

To SHELL their dream

Even after knowing that the stage was

Obviously an arrangee;

He yelled ‘Aluta Continua!’

Believing that Que sera sera

So stuffy and fluffy is my flute

Shall I borrow now a poet’s lute?

To help me spin this yarns on stage

…this yarns of rage?

Of a people whose final abode

Shall be the nethermost region

Then will they know that only

God is Nemesis

And at the crack of dawn

There will be no more victor nor vanquish

Then all shall indeed receive Poetic Justice

Nay! I’m yet at my tethers end

Can my heart yet amend?

Indeed our hearts bleed

With eyes tears are shed

But where wailing faces be

Happiness shall never again be!

Well now my Saro

As you listen to this

Songs of sorrow for Saro

Here’s saying cheerio!