Ideas of Culture in Post-Colonial Nigeria

Introduction

This piece was written by Uche Okeke in 1960. Okeke was born and, at this point, only educated in Nigeria. He was born to Igbo family and while learning about his roots he learned his mother was a practitioner of uli, a form of drawing long practiced among Igbo communities. This helped inspire him on his artistic journey and while at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science, and Technology, he was a founding member of the Zaria Art Society. This organization was critical of the Western influence seeping into Nigerian art. The Society’s goal was to take the valuable parts of Western art, techniques with modernist expression, and mix them into traditional art, a process its members described as natural synthesis. The Zaria Art Society hoped to create a Nigerian perspective through this process by showing traditional Nigerian thought in a modern light. 

In this piece, Okeke speaks directly to his peers, the young artists of Nigeria. He sees them as the people who can facilitate the change that he views as necessary. By the revitalization of traditional culture in the modern world he is hoping to inspire these artists to create a renaissance of Nigerian culture. This shows that he is directly calling on Nigerian tradition in hopes of a cultural revival. Moreover, Okeke wrote this piece in the same year Nigeria gained independence from Britain. Therefore, I believe this piece was also a call to create a uniquely Nigerian form of nation building through the Nigerian Renaissance. However, just like the Italian Renaissance, Okeke understands that Nigeria needs to establish this new cultural identity through a synthesis of the old culture with new innovation.

Natural Synthesis by Uche Okeke

“Young artists in a new nation, that is what we are! We must grow with the new Nigeria and work to satisfy her traditional love for art or perish with our colonial past. Our new nation places huge responsibilities upon men and women in all walks of life and places, much heavier burden on the shoulders of contemporary artists. I have strong belief that with dedication of our very beings to the cause of art and with hard work, we shall finally triumph. But the time of triumph is not near, for it demands great change of mind and attitude toward cultural and social problems that beset our entire continent today. The very fabric of our social life is deeply affected by this inevitable change. Therefore the great work of building up new art culture for a new society in the second half of this century must be tackled by us in a very realistic manner. 

This is our age of enquiries and reassessment of our cultural values. This is our renaissance era! In our quest for truth we must be firm, confident and joyful because of our newly won freedom. We must not allow others to think for us in our artistic life, because art is life itself and our physical and spiritual experiences of the world. It is our work as artists to select and render in pictorial or plastic media our reactions to objects and events. The art of creation is not merely physical, it is also a solemn act. In our old special order the artist had a very important function to perform. Religious and social problems were masterly resolved by him with equal religious ardor. The artist was a special member of his community and in places performed priestly functions because his noble act of creation was looked upon as inspired. 

Nigeria needs a virile school of art with new philosophy of the new age — our renaissance period. Whether our African writers call the new realization Negritude, or our politicians talk about the African Personality, they both stand for the awareness and yearning for freedom of black people all over the world. Contemporary Nigerian artists could and should champion the cause of this movement. With great humility I beg to quote part of my verse, Okolobia, which essayed to resolve our present social and cultural chaos. The key work is synthesis, and I am often tempted to describe it as natural synthesis, for it should be unconscious not forced. 

The artist is essentially an individual working within a particular social background and guided by the philosophy of life of his society. I do not agree with those who advocate international art philosophy; I disagree with those who live in Africa and ape European artists. Future generations of Africans will scorn their efforts. Our new society calls for a synthesis of old and new, of functional art and art for its own sake. That the greatest works of art ever fashioned by men were for their religious beliefs go a long way to prove that functionality could constitute the base line of most rewarding creative experience. 

Western art today is generally in confusion. Most of the artists have failed to realize the artists' mission to mankind. Their art has ceased to be human. The machine, symbol of science, material wealth and of the space age has since been enthroned. What form of feelings, human feelings, can void space inspire in a machine artist? It is equally futile copying our old art heritages, for they stand for our old order. Culture lives by change. Today's social problems are different from yesterday's, and we shall be doing grave disservice to Africa and mankind by living in our fathers' achievements. For this is like living in an entirely alien cultural background.”

Analysis

Natural Synthesis speaks to the people of the newly created Nigerian state in hopes of inspiring an unconscious shift to a culture that is entirely Nigerian. To start this piece, Okeke calls his fellow young artists to action by addressing the history of their nation. He states, “We must grow with the new Nigeria and work to satisfy her traditional love for art or perish with our colonial past.” This quote shows the importance he places on Nigerian tradition as he believes that they must be established on the Native values if they want to escape the colonial mindset. This approach to state building is incredibly interesting to see, especially in conversation with the idea of the gatekeeper state. In Frederick Cooper’s book Africa since 1940: The Past of the Present he discusses how many African nations became gatekeeper states post-colonialism developing their nations with colonial ideas as their base. In most contexts of post-colonial state building, we have seen attempts to recreate colonialism under new African leadership; however, Okeke calls for a system with African traditions as the base.

Moreover, throughout this piece, Okeke is seeking an African community. He wishes to see Nigeria develop as a place where traditional African culture is at the core and can be developed. He discusses how “the artist was a special member of his community” and calls his fellow artists to work to promote the freedom of black people around the world. Furthermore, throughout this piece, Okeke discusses the ideas of a Nigerian Renaissance. I find this idea incredibly interesting as the Italian Renaissance was a period defined by innovation based on antiquity, and I think this idea is precisely what Okeke wants. While he wants this revitalization of traditional African art and culture, he also recognizes that “Culture lives by change.” However, he feels that that change needs to be accomplished through an unconscious synthesis. This idea of an unconscious synthesis is interesting as we saw Nkrumah enact almost the opposite ideology. When developing Ghana, he was attempting to force the country to work within the Western world. He was developing the state around the ideas of nation building established within western society rather than looking back at his nations roots

Enwezor, Okwui, Chinua Achebe, and Museum Villa Stuck, eds. The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-1994. Munich ; New York: Prestel, 2001.

Cooper, Frederick. Africa since 1940: The Past of the Present. Second edition. New Approaches to African History 13. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2019.