The Marriage Of Art And Peace In Nigeria: Infants, Stories And Mass Movements August 18, 2008 |  Clarius Ugwuoha (Archives)

 

 

 THE MARRIAGE OF ART AND PEACE IN NIGERIA: INFANTS, STORIES AND MASS MOVEMENTS

 By Clarius Ugwuoha

 

 

Our key operative words in this discourse are: Music, Art and Peace.

Art is appropriately defined by the Oxford advanced learners dictionary as the _expression of human creative talent especially in visual form, while music, according to the same source, is the arrangement of sounds in a pleasing sequence to be sung or played on an instrument. I will take liberties in defining PEACE, which I style as “ WAR WITHOUT WEAPONS”

 

Music is the universal language that cuts across tongues, family affinities, race and colour. Detribalized and de-ethnicized, it appeals to all shades of peoples and nations. Sight should not be lost of the fact that music can be categorized too. We are concerned here with those music that promote peace and healthy interaction among peoples and nations. These have precedence as a liniment that soothes frayed nerves. In the bible, for instance, David restored Saul to sanity by the art of music. He did this by striking some melodious tunes whenever Saul’s evil spirit descended on him. In another part of the bible, Moses saved the Isrealites by sending up a sculpt serpent, a work of art!

 

The role of music in modern day world is still as dramatic. Almost every festive occasion is spiced with music: football meets, wrestling bouts, student get-together, name them; as is other expressions of art. What many people will find incredible was that during the Nigerian-Biafran civil war, the warring parties observed a truce to watch the great Brazilian footballer, Edson Arantes De Nascimento (King Pele) ply his art in the 1970 world cup! There is no clearer testimony of the great power of arts to bring about perpetual world peace if very well harnessed.

 

An atmosphere of continuous suggestion affects the mental development of the child and the world by extension.  Inner peaceful coordination is indispensable in outward peace. Music restores this. From the process of composing, to the final song or tune, the effect is the same. It creates an aura of peace beyond human understanding, that is, where the music itself is peaceful, since there are instances where violent music has stirred the worst form of violent reactions.

 

Artists are usually seen as role models by the world. People style themselves - gait, carriage, manner of talking and sometimes reaction to issues – after their role models. Fads catch up, attitudes ebb and flow, in the wake of some dominant creative prototype.

 

It should be indisputable then that personages of art can exert positive influence on world peace if they are to act in concert, concentrate their great creative energies and lead their collective admirers to mutual understanding. A synergy of effects beyond our imagining can be obtained in this form.

 

In almost all cultures of the world, mothers and baby-sitters lull troubled babies to sleep with a lullaby. Dulls, a parody of sculpts, are also used in concentrating the attention of the toddler on the particular. It will not be surprising then that an extrapolation of these acts will certainly refocus our war-minded leaders in the larger society. Sculptors that promote peace, music that tilt against war, composed sometimes in ironical eulogy of leaders who’d fallen short – where the dramaturgy of their inadvertent doings had altered the peaceful course of civilization, widowed and orphaned the innocent – might force these leaders to reconsideration. What is believed to deaden the conscience of these warmongers is the deliberate sensationalism of their exploits, which creates in them the impression that belligerency was their own forte that must be promoted to enable them maintain relevancy. Thus they gain sadistic pleasure in inflicting harm and in being described in unwholesome terms. This is the pregnancy that gave the world such leaders as Benito Mussolini of Italy, Adolph Hitler of Germany, Auguto Pinochet of Chile, Idi Amin Dada of Uganda, and others.

 

 

The role of music and other arts in the unfolding scenario is multi-faceted. They can be used to reorient our psyche, and create a culture of PEACE. Peace is in fact an attitude that can be inculcated in our minds through continuous suggestions using music and other arts. The marriage between art and human psyche is one that has the potential of PERPECTUAL PEACE on earth.

 

Coming nearer home to Nigeria, to the Niger Delta area long abandoned to deprivation, insurrection and hostage taking, the imperative of peace through music and arts is achievable and sustainable. The deprivation in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria is telling. The region that produces the entire oil wealth of Nigeria is, ironically, grappling with decades of environmental degradation, complete disregard in the scheme of things and abject poverty. In an attempt to muffle the expression of the people of the region, a lot of injustice was perpetrated. Adaka Jaspa Boro, died in the struggle for emancipation of his people; Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa, the well-known environmentalist, was hanged by the Nigerian State for the same reason and lately, Alhaji Muhajid Asari Dokubo is on trial for sundry charges including treason. The firm belief that only the gun can be listened to is well entrenched in the psyche of – not only the Niger Deltans militarised by unfair and insensitive policies, but  - the entire federation of Nigeria. The rash of ethnic militias in Nigeria, now under clampdown instead of peaceful reorientation and consideration of the voices behind the movements, is a testimony. With the scenario in Nigeria, a volcano of immense dimension is being reactivated albeit surreptitiously. Reclamation has to be immediate. A global Non Governmental peace and Environmental initiative that takes over the agitations of the area will drastically reduce violence. The taking of hostages is a way of expressing disenchantment at the International Community seen as culpably complacent or tacitly in support of the economic rape and deprivation foisted on the area by successive Nigerian Governments.

 

The rise and rise of mass movements in Nigeria seeking expressions can be well contained or refocused to peaceful and masses-friendly initiatives. The remove a weed, one must not pluck from the shoot. The root of these movements is disenchantment over the status quo and the hallmark is mass mobilization of youths and under aged. These catchments are in the formative stages of life given to wild dreams and impetuosity. Where the shoots bend, there the tree grows. These youths nurtured wrongly grow up with the mentality of violence.

 

There are several outlets to peace. A situation whereby maintaining the peace becomes more involving and difficult than outright confrontation, is only a mindset. The cost and gains, if any, of confrontations, tilt heavily against the perpetrators. The minds of youths are highly impressionable. Sound indoctrination into peaceful approaches and appropriate channelling of grievances will certainly go a long way in addressing the pockets of violence in Nigeria. Periodic trouble-shooting by Peace NGOs (which I believe are very few at the moment in Nigeria) can isolate undercurrents of discontent; such bodies can reorient the kids and youths to cultivate and espouse PEACE by creativity, by words and actions.

 

 

 

Being Text of a paper presented by Chief Clarius Ugwuoha in 2006 at the IPRA Int’l Conference in Calgary, Alberta