DEMOCRAZY
by
Bisi Silva
February 2008
Normal circumstances dictate that contact between peoples and cultures result in an enriching exchange that leaves each party more knowledgeable. This had been the case to a greater extent with Africa’s encounter with other cultures. Between the 10th and 14th century, the Trans-Saharan trade in gold and salt between North and West Africa resulted not only in economic prosperity for both regions but in lasting social and cultural exchange. This changed over 500 years ago when one of humanities greatest and longest atrocities began; the transatlantic slave trade which resulted – according to experts calculations - in the loss of up to 21 million Africans captured, enslaved, killed or died.
Whilst there is no denying
that slavery existed long before the arrival of the Europeans, as a result of
tribal wars and by Arab traders plying the Trans-Saharan trade routes these
were predominantly for domestic purposes. Whereas James Valvin observes that
West Africa was turned by the Europeans into ‘a creeping zone of coastal slave
trading to feed the appetite for slave labour in the Atlantic islands and
Portugal.’[1]
The repercussions of Africa’s encounter with Europeans and the impact on the
economic, political, and cultural fabric of contemporary African society
continue to be felt.
Waka-into-Bondage:The
last ¾ mile by Nigerian Artist Ndidi Dike,
takes the history and the legacy of slavery as its point of departure. Dike’s
recent project takes the form of a sculptural installation signalling a turning
point in her artistic practice. Well known for her wood sculpted totem poles –
traditionally the preserve of male sculptors within Nigerian society - and her
wall hanging wood reliefs, in 2002(?)
after over a decade of transgressive sculptural practice Dike successfully
added painting to her artistic repertoire.
In Waka-into-Bondage,
the evolution of Dike’s work takes on a more conceptual framework liberated
from spatial constraints both physical and mental to actualise ideas researched
over a considerable period such as the effect of slavery on the local
population, in this case the coastal town of Badagry. Using ‘loaded’ signifiers she creates boats
made of wood, one filled with blood red liquid, the other covered and filled
with sugar. In coalescing the evocative
potential of her materials repulsion turns to attraction. Dike attempts to revive/trigger
the traces and memories of the people as they walk the last ¾ mile from
Gebreful Island past the point of no return towards the shores of the Atlantic
Ocean.
Fast forward to the
present. Slave trading may have been
abolished in 1807 but two hundred years later the rise of what is now being
called ‘contemporary’ has become a worrying reality. As slave trading followed
by colonisation decimated the natural evolution of society, Bisi Olateru states
that today the way in which ‘human trafficking prevents us from developing a
modern democractic society.’ In her installation, the use of historic
documentary images and images of present day victims of forced migration, Dike
collapses temporal space by amalgamating images of Ebereful island, the last ¾
mile with that of young women and child taken mainly from the rural area on the
promise of a better future. The meddling of international foreign financial
institutions coupled with the greed, bad governance and the corrupt practices
of African political elite since independence has put us into bondage robbing
the people the fundamental benefit of democratic society. Dike’s work signal a form of introspection
which needs to be sustained so as to build a lasting process in Africa in which
the equal rights of individuals are respected and the collective freedom of
people enhanced. In taking a collective waka out of bondage, a possible
trajectory comes to the fore in the academic research and documentation of the
history of Ghanaian, in which Professor Albert Adu Boahen sees ‘not so much in
why the Europeans began to come to come to West Africa in the 15th
Century, as in what they found when they did arrive…but also the effect of this
on the social, economic and political and institutions of Ghanaians.’ [2]
Essentially, we need to revisit knowledge about our history and our
culture. It is important that artists
such as Ndidi Dike are taking a critical possession of their history and the
memories associated with it.
[1] James Walvin, The Origins of Atlantic Slavery in A short History of
Slavery, Penguin, London 2007, p39
[2] Cameron Duodu, in How Adu Boahen unlocked Ghana’s history, New
African, Oct 2006, p67
Installation view Waka-Into-Bondage: The Last 3/4 Mile
Installation view Waka-Into-Bondage: The Last 3/4 Mile
Installation view , A Drop In The Ocean
Installation view , One Way
Ndidi
Dike in conversation with Bisi Silva
Bisi Silva: I remember briefly discussing a few years ago
the issues that you were working on outside of your wall sculpture pieces. You
mentioned that for nearly a decade you had been collecting objects associated
with slavery. What is the background to this interest?
Ndidi Dike: As an artist I constantly troll different
environments for new ideas and media that can be used to develop my work.
Sometimes these ideas can percolate in my subconscious for years, until an
opportunity arises to actualise them. Around 1999 I started collecting different
types of manilla and related objects, then I moved on to making my own version
of branded stamps reminiscent of those used to brand slaves as property or
chattel. I also noticed there existed little or no discourse or documentation
on Nigerian Slave ports despite its centrality to the slave trade.
I visited Badagry in 2002 to see the slave route through
which large numbers of our people were taken to the Americas
B.S: There are
few artists in Nigeria I know of who have taken slavery as a subject matter so
directly in their work as you have done in Waka-Into-Bondage. Can you talk about the genesis of this
project.
N.D: The project comes out of my life’s
experiences of which 3 are the most relevant. The visits to Badagry in 2002 and
2007 were the catalyst for Waka-into- Bondage.
Secondly, tertiary education at
the University of
Nigeria Nigeria
Lastly
my formative years were spent in the United Kingdom Nigeria
B.S: The
Waka-Into-Bondage project is a move from the traditional sculpture and paintings for which you are
well known. This sculptural installation
is one of your first forays into a more conceptual way of working. How does
this new direction expand on your work?
N.D I have been working for a
while in relief and two-dimensional format. As one constantly explores new
ideas, different aesthetic representations are formed. I felt this project
would be better articulated in a different format than I normally used and a more conceptual format was
the most appropriate. It allows for experimentation in a way that the two
dimension could not. For example in my recent sculptures such as Dwellings,
Doors and Windows (2008)I appropriate harbour pallets, break them down and
reconfigure them in a way that evokes traces of the voyage. The blood
represents what was shed before, during and after transatlantic trade but also
what continues to be shed today. The photographic montage include images I took
at Badagry, documentary images and other found images symbolising a continuum
of slavery past and the rise in contemporary forms of bondage and exploitation.
B.S: I remain shocked
that Nigeria Lagos
You
are right to observe that the anniversary did not feature in any cultural or
educational calendar. I guess it comes down to our notorious collective
amnesia. But one thing is certain: if Chief Moshood Abiola, the famous Nigerian
businessman, philanthropist, pan Africanist and politician who began the
campaign for the payment of reparations to African nations for three centuries
of slavery, colonialism and imperialism had been alive, I am certain that it
would have been marked in a noticeably manner in Nigeria and other parts of
Africa. Chief Abiola deployed stupendous financial, media, literary and
intellectual resources towards this campaign.
B.S Whilst the
slave trade was legally abolished 200 yrs –– slavery in its contemporary form
seems to be on the rise. We see in the media everyday stories about human
trafficking of women and children, forced child labour, sex slavery among
others. Is this an aspect reflected in
your research and your work?
N.D As I stated earlier, slave trading may have been
abolished by the British parliament 200 years ago, but it is still in practice
in certain countries. There are so many countries where the condition of the
Black people leaves much to be desired. These new forms of slavery are not yet
captured in the current works. I hope to reflect them soon in another set of
works.
B.S It seems
our amnesia is almost total not only in Nigeria Africa . How can we begin to build our present or our
future without a critical evaluation of the past.
I
often wondered whether much has changed in Africa
in 200 years. I am referring to the worldview of African rulers. Our rulers
played a vital part in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. They supplied the white
slave merchants even after the abolition of slave trading. So many wars were
fought for so long in the desperate attempt to procure slaves. All this was to
satisfy the greed and vanity of many African rulers who were in turn rewarded
with mirrors, gunpowder, alcohol.
It
is ironic that we continue to bemoan the slave trade because among other
factors, an enormous amount of African resources in the form of human capital
was transferred abroad and was used to develop overseas countries to the
detriment of our own societies. However this trend continues. African
resources continue to be used to develop other countries but the African
continent. In Nigeria London Paris Cape Town Potomac Park
Barely a hundred years after
the infamous Berlin Conference in 1884 which saw the African continent cut up
like a piece of cake, in the 21st century. With China India Africa . Once
again African rulers are too enthusiastic to exchange the wellbeing of their
people for petrodollars. I fear that few lasting change
will occur without cognisance of the past.
2
February – 9 March 2008
Economic Fabric
Detail A Drop In The Ocean
Voyage
No Easy Walk To Freedom
Doors Dwellings and Windows
