Eyin'juOdu

(Being a note contributed to the brochure of Joe Musa's current exhibition, opened Feb 3, 2008) Where did I first meet Joe? In the Street? In the Gallery? In those groves where a few artistes and journalists — outraged and agitated by the philistine attitude of rulers and ‘ruiners’ of the system to matter of art and culture — abandoned their studios, writing smithy, rehearsal halls, newsrooms… and, convoke to deploy arsenal of activism against the perceived enemies of their esteemed career… and Beings? When did I first encounter Joe? The mid… late Eighties? The… Nineties? Forever? Or maybe in the distant echoes of our past when our paths crossed at the point of making divine choices. Who knows maybe we met in life before life? My memory [recollection] of our first contact is now so blurred… I have always crossed his path... forever? There are some people who just appear to have been part of your life — all your life. For me, Joe Musa exemplifies this type of people. H...

Scene from the shows at Hebbel. 1. Giving Okonedo Omokaro a wack on te head for joking in the deep of cold, work-filled theatre rehearsal session 2. The cast of Oedipus and Amona.. during a media foto shoot at the Hebbel Theatre, Berlin. The tall singular black guy in the team is, of course, Matthias Gehrt who else do you think is pointing in the foto? INTRODUCTION AFRIKA PROJEKT was one of a series of proposals that the new Director of the Goethe Institut, Mr. Richard Lang, had to attend to in the last quarter of 1995. Certainly, before his assumption of office in Nigeria, the institute had made an indelible impact on the Nigerian cultural scene. Easily, it was a leader in the promotion of cultural internationalism in Nigeria using the arts, apart from other highly acclaimed programmes in the areas of science and technology. One thing Mr. Lang could ill-afford was to simply maintain a status. He seemed to be challenged by the records of the institute’s past and must be particu...