Artist decries govt’s neglect of major cultural festivals
By Taiye Olayemi
Nigerian artist, Moses Oghagbon, has decried the neglect of major cultural festivals in the country, adding that revival of the events will spur economic growth and tourism for the country.
He urged the Federal Government to invest more in cultural festivals in the country, especially the Argungu Festival.
Oghagbon, also a photographer, made the call on Saturday during the closing ceremony for his 10th series of documentary exhibition which began June 15 at O’DA Art Gallery, Victoria Island, Lagos.
“When you mention Argungu, what comes to mind is the fishing festival in Kebbi State, Argungu Emirates. It is a pity that the festival is no longer an annual thing.
“The last one was in 2020, which I came back and four days after, we had a lockdown in the country.
“It is no longer an annual festival. I wish the festival will hold every year. The government of the day needs to invest in the festival as well to support the Emirates.
“The festival is for us Nigerians, people out there celebrate Argungu festival as well, and people travel from all walks of life to witness the festival,” he said.
Speaking on the exhibition, he noted that it conscientiously documents and represents the vast landscape, lifestyle, culture, fashion, history, religion and everyday life of the entire people of Argungu Emirate.
He said that photography and visual arts would support promotion of the nation’s indigenous tourist attractions to domestic and foreign audiences.
According to him, the allure of photographs depicting Nigerian cultural and historical places as well as festivals will entice prospective visitors and help document tradition for future generations.
“Photography and visual arts gives publicity to tourist sites, cultural festivals and heritage for the world to see at large, thereby boosting tourism in the local and international sphere and generating revenue for the country.
“I have placed upon my shoulder, the crusade to make the vast cultural heritage of the Argungu Emirate of Kebbi state, Nigeria, to be a global showpiece with my colours, lens, hues, techniques, and images of the very essence of Argungu people,” he said.
Earlier, Emir of Argungu, Alhaji Sama’ila Mera, gave brief history of the evolution of Argungu Festival.
He said the evolution of Argungu International Fishing and Cultural Festival began over 500 years ago, with the declaration of independence from Songhai Empire, by the founder of Kebbi Kingdom, Muhammad Kotal Kanta in 1515AD.
The Emir disclosed that in 1934, Sultan Hassan Dan Mu’azu of Sokoto, historically visited Argungu, after over 100 years of hostilities between Sokoto Caliphate and the Kebbi Kingdom, paving the way for the birth of the festival as it is known today.
He said that following that visit, the Argungu international fishing and cultural festival evolved to become the largest riverine festival in Nigeria.
“Through his visual anthropology, Moses Oghagbon has spent a decade bringing to the fore, the rich cultural traditions of Northern Nigeria by activating our landscape to publicise the ways of our people.
“On behalf of the good people of Argungu Emirate of Kebbi State, Nigeria, it is my pleasure to invite everyone to savour the beauty inherent in our culture and land as colourfully presented from Oghagbon’s artistic perspective,” he said.
Curator for the Argungu series, Asibi Danjuma, described Oghagbon’s work as an embodiment of the majesty of nature’s grandeur, which serves as an aesthetic reference to the philosophical school of the sublime.
Danjuma said that historically, depictions of Argungu rarely veered further than the singular lens of its renowned fishing festival, paying little regard to its visual ethnography.
“With his sharpened sense of colour and atmosphere, Oghagbon has countered convention, by bringing to the fore, the customs of this civilisation, in relation to its landscape.
“For almost three decades, Moses Oghagbon has concentrated his efforts toward painting Argungu, an emirate wedged upon the Sokoto River in Kebbi, Northern Nigeria.
“Oghagbon developed an affinity for Argungu, his wife Fatima’s birthplace, which he started compulsively visiting in 1999, also engaging in its ways of life.
“He then began to employ photography and painting to record his observations, in a revelatory and impressionistic style,” he said. (NAN)
Edited by Folasade Adeniran
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