Nigeria

Nigeria

Modern Nigeria is an archetypal cauldron, enmeshed with a variety of cultural groups and traditions, nevertheless united by the prospect of forging a unique

independent national identity. Hausa, Fulbe, Yoruba and Igbo are among the largest of those, in the forty -three years since the end of colonial occupation, struggling to maintain their linguistic and cultural affiliations while simultaneously converging t o create a syncretic sense of Nigerianness. Subsequently, as one means of understanding art, in essence, is as a celebration of identity, artwork in the post -independence era manifests this struggle; thus, placing artists at the epicenter of cultural iden tification.

In the 1960s, artist Uche Okeke emerged as an integral figure in the development of Nigerian art, and thus, Nigerian identity. Drawing from his Igbo heritage, Okeke effectively appropriated pre -colonial artistic traditions and applied them in an “art for art’s sake” context. Okeke’s work, however, is not a mere recontextualization and revitalization of “old” forms. Rather, informed by historical situation, Okeke’s artworks are personal testimonies of struggle characterized by a natural synt hesis of traditional and contemporary form and context. As an emblem of identity in post -colonial Nigeria, however, the doctrinal aesthetic of “natural synthesis” promoted by Okeke is not a simple combination of old and new; it’s true nature is multi -tiered and specific to individual interpretation. Evident in Uche Okeke's 1982 etching Ana, Asele and Badunka, “natural synthesis” represents a merger of uli design forms and Igbo cosmology; a synthesis of traditional design and contemporary applications; and a unification of writing and drawing in which theme...

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...nd Nigerian Contemporary Art.

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Ejiogu, N.W. “Body Decoration and Mural Painting in Oraifite and Aquleri ” Unpublished B.A. Thesis at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. 1971.

Forde, D. and G.I Jones. The Ibo and Ibibio Speaking Peoples of South Eastern Nigeri International African Institute, London. 1962.

McCal, John C. “Social Organization in Africa ”. Africa. Indiana University Press.

Okeke, Uche.

Creative Conscious. Asele Institute, Nimo, Anambra State, Nigeria. 1993. Otenberg, Simon. “We are Becoming Art Minded”. Vol. XXI. No. 4. pg.58 -67. 1988.