Gbenro Adesina
A Professor of African Art, Ohioma Ifounu Pogoson of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan (UI), has reiterated the need for funding for cultural research in general, and African Art in particular, stressing that there is an urgent need for local arts collectors and institutions to fund research. This, according to him, will remove the constraints often encountered in relations to the Greek gifts that many outside grants offer.
Pogoson stated this on Thursday, September 30, 2021 while delivering the institution’s 502nd Inaugural Lecture, titled “They Speak: African Art as Historical Evidence.”
In attendance, were the Acting Vice Chancellor, Professor Adebola Ekanola, Principal Officers, Deans and Provosts, his wife, Professor Aituaje Irene Pogoson of the Institution’s Political Science Department, their children, students, colleagues, eminent individuals, Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu, who was represented by his Senior Special Assistant, Irene Abiodun Olubola Oshinbolu, Professor Bolanle Awe, a retired professor of Oral History, Dr Charles Diji Akinola, Chief of Staff to the Governor, State of Osun, Chief Charles Uwensuyi Edosomwan, SAN, the Obasuyi of Benin, family, friends and well-wishers.
Laying the foundation for the lecture, Pogoson noted that a stone slab accidentally found by the French army during the Napoleonic campaigns in Egypt in 1799 ushered in formal study of an object of African art. The stone, which became known as the Rosetta Stone, after the place where it was found, is a grandolite stele bearing inscriptions in three different languages: ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, the less formal Egyptian Demotic and ancient Greek.
He pointed out, “Hieroglyphics are essentially pictorial, containing images and carvings of signs and symbols. It took French and British scientists and linguists, as well as scholars from elsewhere around the world, a couple of decades to decipher and decode the meaning of these inscriptions”.
The lecturer argued that reference to all material culture in Africa as art is faulty. According to him, in Africa, material culture is valued beyond its aesthetic qualities alone, noting that the western construct of art is grossly inadequate when applied to African material culture as a descriptive concept.
He stated: “As a referent, it is even pejorative to label something as ‘African art’ simply because it came out from Africa, considering that Africa is a continent with a multiplicity of ethnic nationalities, each with its specific culture and each of them producing materials that serve the culture in ways that are beyond aesthetic enjoyment”.
He noted that the 1887 British attack on the Ashanti kingdom and the carting away of thousands of Ghana gold weights, the British-Benin punitive expedition of 1897, and the forcible removal of Benin material culture both from the palace and other parts of the kingdom, the wholesale movement of African artistic production at the turn of the 19th century, all caused a significant number of African art to reach Europe.
In what has often been referred to as a revolution, European artists turned to African art for succor, empathy and inspiration. He noted, “They recognized African art as ‘true art’ free of the guiding conventions that compelled, limited, and curtailed their creativity to imitating and copying from nature. So Western artists wanted to be free, as free as the African artists that did not have to represent naturalistically and were allowed to express themselves (even though this wasn’t quite true)”, he noted.
He stated that this was how modern European art took its origins and drew inspirations from African art. It freely borrowed ideas from African art, sculpture in wood, and other three-dimensional works from Africa that had then just reached Europe.
The don showed how he interrogated theories including formalism, iconography/iconology and semiotics in his engagement with African art over the years, noting that he belongs to the second generation of Nigerian art historians and one of the very earliest locally trained.
He pointed out that his engagement with African art has basically been in three major areas. First, was the study of Yoruba arts using the Esie stone carvings to understand the interrelatedness of groups in southwestern Nigeria. Secondly, he studied northern Edo relationship with great Benin, with a view to explaining the filial relationship between Benin and the peoples of that part of Edo land. Thirdly, he has carried out research in contemporary Nigerian art and museum studies.
He said: “While the first two areas of interest engaged my attention fresh out of the graduate programme and up to the realization point in my career, I have pioneered the use of art exhibitions to study contemporary art and then developed the multilayered approach to the discussion of Nigerian contemporary art, thereby writing our own history of it”, he explained.
Pogoson listed some of the challenges he faced in carrying out his research to include the spate of insecurity in the country, pointing out that his work in northern Edo land has suffered since 2014 because it has been quite dangerous to embark on any serious fieldwork in that area owing to the activities of kidnappers and robbers; as well as paucity of funds.
Professor Ohioma Pogoson is a collector of ‘things’, including arts from many cultures, books, and fountain pens. He currently maintains a collection of over two hundred vintage and contemporary fountain pens, in the middle and top ranges, from over twenty countries.
