To be Educated is to know the TRUTH

As we landed into Lagos on the 29th of November, we were invited to a panel on the next day, it’s the last day of the TRUFESTA (solo and duo dance) festival – The topic; “Empowering the younger generation through dance”. For some reasons, i had blocked my mind to a state of stillness that I won’t bother to get involved in any serious talks in such gathering. My indifference was due to the fact that, this society i know so well, and i can’t be easily proven wrong about my opinion on what the general psyche understands as education. Before long, my assumptions began to gain outward appearance.

"You must go to University; if you don’t go to school you will be nobody.”

I remember while in primary school, in primary 3 i think, i couldn’t be more than 6 to 7 years old, our class was mixed up with another class, due to the illness of our class teacher, so for one reason or the other, i was denied of my usual first position, but second. I was so frightened by the reaction i was going to get at home that i refused to go home. I suspect that, that incidence must have added to the reason why I am generally troubled by adults, who out of their own fear for the real, has headed for the easier way out, and now, so passionate about projecting their fears upon the kids, telling them to go to school for no other reason than.

“A time will come when you can dance no more, then you will have something to fall back to...”

Nonsense of that sort. I don’t understand why the incertitude of the future, should lead to a condition of going to school, to learn what they have no interest in, how could that lead to a self realisation of any sort? BUT I KEPT MY MOUTH SHUT.

3rd December 2010

Tonight is our show in Lagos, the venue: University of Lagos. Everything around reminded me of the panel discussion, and each time i walk pass the students in their unruly behaviours, i smile. It’s about 1:30pm on my watch. It’s the first Friday in the month of December, and also my first Friday in Lagos in 2010. So i decided to go to the mosque to observe Jumat service with the congregation. Islamically it is nobler to worship in the assembly of fellow saints, so i decided to walk down to the university mosque. The walk from the theatre to the mosque took me about 20 minutes, for i met a long time friend on the road, whom i haven’t seen in a while, so guessed our brief salutation had made my arrival to the mosque five minute before 2pm.

Come rain - come sun, the imam will lead the salat at the dot of 2pm, so there was a rush all around. I entered into the little room made available for ablution but the taps weren’t running, so i walked further back the building to see if there was an alternative. Eventually i found one; there was a big drum of water, in which a brother was using a bowl to serve water to the entire students and saints. Water for what, you may ask? Yes, water to purify themselves and go meet with their God. Looking at my surrounding and all that it represents, – A holy mosque, in a prestigious academic institution – knowing that their religious education is to love and live in peace with their neighbours, while their academic education also teaches them to be orderly and to respect the humanity of the other. One should have no difficulty in thinking that these saints and students must be well organized in their queue for water. But NO, in a very aggressive manner, there was a grave struggle, for who gets his or her kettle filled first. DISTASTEFUL!

My rationality was not just able to grasp the least sense in their quest for being the first, is it to be quick and go back to their miserable school lives, or anticipating a front row position in paradise? Is it not right, that religious and academic institutions should help us, as we grow, to perceive the importance of bringing about a humanity, in which there is no conflict either from within or without? A world in which you are not in conflict with your neighbours, by first quenching your push for ambition, position and power? However, our education has been useful for the contrary, pass exams and get a job, a means of escaping the burden of insecurity, which the uncertainty of the future brings to our existence, and that’s what we call success. Our religion has been – on the other hand – reduced to symbols that we begin to lose the meanings at which these symbols carry; so how efficient can this schools be, in leading us to the truth and self realisation?

I stood by the side, as i hopelessly held my kettle, however, on my watch, time was running out. Eventually its 2pm and there goes the call to prayer, the tussle became even more intense, the brother serving the water – in a fair underlying principle – filled his own kettle, dropped the bowl and left to catch up with the congregation. The rush for the bowl became even grosser; nothing – i know of – could ever get so rough, not even in a rugby match. Both males and females, young and old, none of them could make a link between the purpose of life and the significance of that particular prayer, between love and the fear of God for the sake of life, between education and the need to build one’s mind to a state of spiritual verticality. Now the innocent bowl at their disposal is already suffering from their sins, they will totally break the bowl if something is not done in due time to save the situation.

It took me a while to get out of a state of being a mere audience to this human comedy, so i summoned courage to join in, in the struggle to get the bowl. After few failed trials, I eventually get hold of the bowl. This bowl in my hand became another statement about my desired world.

I’m no preacher, I’m no religious leader and I’m no professor to you all, but my educations (in plural) thought me that to be just is to be in harmony with the moral law – or the commandments of God. – And to be unjust is to be uprooted from eternal and natural law. Any education that uplifts human personality is just, any education that degrades human personality, human dignity and destroy lives is unjust. So, when your religious leaders and your professors tell you that this TRUTH shall set you free, they may be right. But first we must strive to set the TRUTH free of our fears.

I began to serve everyone water to go join the congregation, i didn’t raise my face up to see who amongst them has a pretty face, who amongst them has any form of affiliation with me, I didn’t care how much they screamed.

"Me, Me, brother i have been here since.”

I made sure that my decision to give water was as random as my hand motion could be. From the back of the mob around me, came a voice from a young man, who had apparently been amazed by my actions. "Hey brother, are you not going to pray"

I paused for awhile, for i want them all to hear my response and get the message clearly. There was no hesitation, and there was no second thought before i replied,

What other prayer can be better than what i am doing right now...?”

I left them all with that question and i continued to serve the water, my response calmed them down a bit. I made sure that everyone of them got their kettles filled and left before i served my kettle. As i was doing my ablution, i felt good with myself, even though the prayer was already over, but deep down in my heart I knew that even God will be happy with my actions.

After my prayers, i walked back to the theatre, and once again, i thought about the school those elders were talking about. Could it be this same one? This same school i stepped out from in 2004 – I didn’t drop out mind you; i stepped out by choice – not that i was too cool for school, but because i felt that to be educated is to know the truth, to know the truth is to be vertical and not conforming to the norms of a malformed social order. Education and our social structuring has been prearranged in a way that it continues to breed self-cantered monsters, that are particularly stimulated by their quest for ambitions and positions, with a mind that is weary and totally unintelligent. Everything – from our childhood till adulthood, from our video games to soccer games, from reality TV shows to the simple idea of giving awards, all – has been built on this egocentric notion of being the best, the first and of course the most cunning.

The first thing our education teaches us is FEAR! The fear of being the last, the fear of failure, the fear of insecurity, our parents and society wants us to live safely, and living safely means living like machines, in imitations and uninterrupted repetitions, but is the true function of education merely to help us conform to the pattern of this rotten social order – built on our reaction to fear – or to free us from our fears? Is the purpose of religion merely to help us seek a front row seat in paradise? Or to help us in finding what is true, so that perhaps, we may become intelligent again, so that we are able to face the world and understand it. To have total freedom to grow our mind and create a different society, so that inwardly we are in total revolt.

But when we head towards this noble living, we become a danger to all that is false; to be such a rebel is to be a danger to the benefactors of the status quo and those who are frightened by change. When you are constantly inquisitive, constantly observing, constantly learning, that’s when the truth surface, that’s when we find God accurately, that’s when we understand the simplicity of love, the fulfilment in just being, and we learn to live effortlessly. We cannot find the truth if our lives is built on fear, if we are always afraid. The function of any kind of education or empowerment – be it formal or informal, familial or traditional, religious or academic – is therefore, to totally eradicate this fear that destroys human thought, human relationship and the love and respect for one another. To be educated is to realise your gift in life and to know the purpose of life.

(c) DIARY OF A MODERN TUAREG

Welcome to my LAGOS

1. What defines Lagos for you?

What define Lagos for me are just the informal people’s resourcefulness and the creative energies that flow around everywhere, every time. Lagos is like a huge musical comedy where people substitute roles, those watching now might be the biggest performer in the next minute. Sometimes when I am bored I just travel round the city in public transit and for a creative person, what more do I need to have a swell day. Each period of the day comes with a different flavor and emotion.

2. What distinguishes Lagosians from others in your view?

When you say “others” do you mean other states or other cities around the world? I’m not a huge expert of other states outside Lagos (in Nigeria). I was born here and I grew up here, until 17, I didn’t step out of that city, but after then, I have been to various cities around the globe and I tell you, I only felt a similar homely feeling in cities like New York, Johannesburg and Sao Paolo. I just don’t know what it is, but Lagos has a color that you can’t just define in few words.

3. What do you miss in Lagos when you are out of Nigeria or in any part of Nigeria for a period of one week or more?

If I compare Lagos to a place like Paris (where I am presently) for instance, I think people here have lost a certain kind of animal instinct that makes us all a living thing, that spontaneity that triggers our actions directly from the nerves and not the one that travels first through the brain. That is really what I fear to lose when I stay so long out of Lagos.

4. What do you think the experience would have been like if you were to be doing what you are doing for a living now anywhere outside Lagos.

Inasmuch as I love to be in Lagos, unfortunately I cannot do what I’m doing in Lagos for now, let me summarize it to say, being a Nigerian and being a dancer are two things that doesn’t go well together, so at some point I had to choose between Dance and Nigeria.

5. What is it that you think Lagos has got right?

That very thing that makes Lagos what it is, I think is a natural mystic, so Lagos itself should not try to find ways to comprehend it, we should only grow to its appreciation, because that thing might not be looking so much like our idea of a good and noble living, it might not be in building wide roads that contains 15 huge cars in a row, it might not be in perpendicular and beautiful architectures, it might not be in how organized we could be as a people, it might not be in the amount of tourist that comes in yearly – because if that is what Lagos is heading towards, I fear we might lose that very thing we’ve gotten right, if not why is Paris or London that I know so much yet to get it right even after acquiring all the aforementioned symptoms of a “good living”? Lagos I think has understood the wisdom of improvisation through organized disorderliness in town planning, and you don’t learn that in school.

6. What is Lagos not getting?

I think when we talk about what Lagos is not getting, then we can only talk about those managing Lagos, so in essence we are addressing the “government” I mean the formal government, because government has different meaning in Lagos. Lagos I think is making a basic mistake, i.e looking up to Dubai as the model, that is the biggest jokes I have heard in a while, as a creative person I deal less in artificial aesthetic values. if Lagos needs a practical model, I think it is Sao Paolo, no one goes to Sao Paolo for tourist attraction, yet millions of people pop in yearly, do you know how they did that? They invested in the people, in their culture, they made the night life one the best you could imagine, they invested in the energy that flows around, now you can say that is too abstract, but I think the Lagos energy is the exact thing the government needs to invest in, but unfortunately they won’t, Why? Precisely because it is not those educated (or middle) class or their kids and cousins who will benefit such project, because those who make Lagos what it is, usually don’t have a family in the decision room.

7. Take a look at the Lagos of your past and of the present and let me know what you think living in Lagos in the next fifty years would be like.

I don’t gamble, because I don’t see ahead of time, I don’t drink because I want to be in control of my actions, I cannot say what living in Lagos in the future will be like, the future of Lagos also depends on the future of our collective democracy, globalization, pop culture and capitalism. Do I think us going too far with the way we push things? Yes I do, do I think globalization and capitalism is pacing too much? Yes I do, and Lagosians are part of those who I call the “receivers” they are the ones in the receiving end of every action taken in the name of humanity, the assimilators, the consumers and the pendulum is already getting weak, I cannot say what it will be like but there are lots of things I wish will stop at some point, and wish we inculcate new habit and characters on the way; more respects for human lives, more respect for the rule of law, more attention paid to the kids and not just force them to formal schools when their heart is in fashion design, more alternative spaces created for all identified insanities that our kids want to be identified with, more security for both citizens and foreigners, price control and standardization of basic amenities that presently comes with awful prices, and finally I hope the people’s creative energies be compatible with the official Lagos energy, so as to avoid people fleeing from their beloved Land.

8. In a sentence or two, or more, capture Lagos.

My signature quote on Lagos - Every morning in Lagos, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle... in Lagos, when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.

A brief MUSE on revolution. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !!!

A brief MUSE on revolution. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !!!

These days i have learnt to keep my mouth shut and ignore comments about the state of the Nigerian polity and pockets of UPRISINGS calling for a REVOLUTION, most of which i have tried to put my force behind, (at least being the number 1001 man, whose importance is as important as the crowd mentality required) but i think we talk too much of our desired world, and too much talks hinders the possibility of action, we scream ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !!!, we stood up against the status-quo to update our FACEBOOK and TWITTER status. I'm no man of experience in all these, but i am aware of a certain kind of libido that comes with this virtual beer parlour talks.
The human and social sciences have accustomed us to see the figure of man behind every social event, just as Christianity taught us to see the eye of the lord looking down upon us. Such forms of knowledge project an image of reality, at the expense of reality itself. If you do a search on Sahara reporters, you will perhaps find my article THERE WILL BE NO REVOLUTION lingering somewhere in the archives. In Nigeria we are so much bind by talking in figure terms, iconic modes and that of signs and slogans. (i.e CELEBRITY CULTURE - Youth culture) And the reality of power as it subjugates us, whose real function is to tame, and the result is the fabrication of docile, patriotic and obedient citizens. When we set for such politics of desire, that drives our wishes and actions into a revolution (a kind that is directed against all that is egoistic - and heroic- in man,) we are prompted by an instinct of self-affirmation and self-preservation that cares little about affirming or preserving a real cause

Here comes my propositions:

1. * Let's free political action from all unitary and totalitarian paranoia and take a journey through ego loss.
   


2. * Develop action, thought and desire by proliferation, juxtaposition, and disjunction, and not by subdivision and pyramidal hierarchization.(e.g, i need no Audu's Picture to see how important a cause is)


3. * Do not think one has to be sad (or be known) in order to be militant, even though the thing one is fighting is abominable. it is the connection of desire to reality (and not its retreat into the forms of representation) that possesses revolutionary force. (So, let's ask us all, does the general psyche call for a real life REVOLUTION, away from twitter and facebook or sahara reporters?)


4. * Do not use thought to ground a political practice; nor political action to discredit - as mere speculation - a line of thought. Use political practice as an intensifier of thought, and analysis as a multiplier of the forms and domains for the intervention of political actions.

AND FINALLY, WHEN WE ADHERE TO A NATION-BUILDING THROUGH LOGOS AND SLOGANS, IT MAKES ABSOLUTE NO SENSE AND HENCE DAFTLY ILLOGICAL - (don't get me wrong, we can tear our selves apart, or reunite with a slogan; GHANA MUST GO, MAKE NIGERIA ONE, COME WITH US OR GO TO HELL, BOKO HARAM etc. BUT IT HAS LITTLE OR NOTHING TO DO WITH NATION BUILDING.)
THE VALUES WHICH WE LIVE BY ARE THE VALUES THAT LED US "HERE" IN THE FIRST PLACE - THESE DISTORTING MISTS OF NATIONAL (YOUTH) EUPHORIA AND MORAL NEGLIGENCE AND IDEOLOGICAL BARRENNESS WHICH LED US TO THIS POINT ARE STILL SEEN AS CONTINUING IN THE IDENTITY OF THE NATION; SINCE THAT IDENTITY HAS NOT CHANGED, HAS UNDERGO NO REVOLUTIONARY PURGE EITHER IN ITS GUTS OR AT THE HEAD-

THEREFORE, A REVOLUTION MUST BE MADE OF FRAGMENTS, AND NOT AS A WHOLE BODY (OF TV PEOPLES), IT MUST SHATTER THE FOUNDATIONS OF THOUGHTS AND RE-CREATE. OUR COLLECTIVE BREAK/DOWN MUST RESULT TO OUR COLLECTIVE BREAK/THROUGH.

ONLY IN THIS WAY DOES EVERY INDIVIDUAL SHARE IN THE HOLY MESS AND UNDERSTANDS THE REAL PURPOSE OF THE SACRIFICE.

...then we can all scream ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!! But how soon will this be?

I wish us all the best.

Lagos destination Paris

Curled from my travel diary.

9th July 2006 (Sunday)

...Joy, fun, fear, encounters and memorable events are often my sky team partners during each trip, beautiful hostesses and cute hosts who adds glamour and splendor to the trip, aside from some few carriers who I think experience matters a lot to them, who recruits mass of frail boned papas and mamas with make ups as that of ancient porn-stars celebrating the remembrance of their days of sunshine. Not withstanding, they all seem to make me laugh during turbulence, they try to be relax and do as if all is well to make me and other half hopeless passenger like me get over our fear and panic, while deep down in their heart one could feel the fear in them and I often imagine how I could be flying every now and then as my profession and not putting all the risk and stress in mind. This brings me back to the only part I find really risky and stressful in my profession. It is the joy of every artiste to export and exhibit his/her product out of the shores of his country, being it African, Asian, American or European.

One other moment that annoys me most in traveling is when I’ve finally got to my destination or transiting through any of the so called western European countries. On sighting my Green ever popular Nigerian passport, then I know at this point I must be ready to sacrifice my precious time for the often long mustached immigration officer who for all he cares you didn’t get your visa in the legal way and your passport might have been fabricated or retouched at OLUWOLE. So all he is looking for is the sign of face changing, data changing or how the visa page was attached to the existing international passport. If he finally didn’t find any fault then he begin to imagine how a black Nigerian as I am could get visa from or for a civilised white western world, which opens to another phase of interrogation, ranging from; where are you going to? What are you going to do there? Where is your invitation? And other document you used in processing your visa? - as if one could get a visa without these documents but one just need to be patient with them, eat, chew to ruminants and swallow your ego if that trip is important to you because this is just the result of the mistake our great grand fathers had made so we are just a victim of the 21st century that nothing could be done to restore at this stage - Moreover the questions continue; for how long will you be there? Can I see your return ticket? Your hotel reservation? Name and address of your employer or that person who is expecting you.

I mean series of those same stupid questions that I was actually asked while applying for my visa. After all asked and properly answered with care, it doesn’t end there because he might not be contented and so he will be obliged to call another officer who is often a slimmer and maybe shorter version who will then take me through series of closed doors that could only be accessed by an immigration officer or other airport officials, as I was victimized at the Milan Malpensa airport. Italy. To get me more shocked, sitting on the waiting room were series of unfortunate Blacks who are waiting to be tested or screened. So i joined the queue of the children of sinners, so for no clear reason i'm still waiting, i see some mustached guys coming to check on me from far from time to time, this is when i realised that waiting could mean so many things, the time can tick so very slow when you are in the hands of official kidnappers but, it is only when you have something to hide that you try to proof that you are clean. Finally it got to my turn, i walked towards this irritating guy with Italian accent, "can you keep your bag please" obviously he was going to search it again, making it the sixth time, "Please take off your shirt" i thought it was a joke, not knowing that i was still going to take off the last fabric that covers my dignity and take my urine, it seems to me that they got a clear information that i had something on me. Well they got it wrong, after a moment of stripping, debates and interrogation, I got acquainted and discharge without bail. 

The price i paid costed me more than i could afford, its memory stays with me forever. I felt raped and it reminds me a similar case at the London Stansted airport where I actually missed my flight because I was still being stripped by the time my flight was leaving for Paris, yet the only word that comes out of their mouth is “you can go sir” i.e. polite at last and no more. Getting to the boarding gate another polite flight mistress at the gate of the just departed flight telling me “sorry sir you’ve missed your flight” then at this moment I knew I could do but just be polite enough to sleep right there at the airport to wait for tomorrow’s flight. Wow twenty four hours at that airport which is at the outskirt of London is just nothing good to talk about, but did i survive it, yes i guess cos here i am writing it...

-DITTO-
For some one like me who got his roof in between borders and abode often tapped in an economic class of a flying box, this is my forth international passport, three filled with visas and stamps, so you can imagine that the war is far from being won, where do i start from? do i have to lament about the over rude perfect visa officer behind the window, the battle with the local thugs at the airport, the professional hospitality you get in the plane, to the international clowns welcoming you, and stripping you off your very last pant, in search of one white substance that you've only seen or hear about on tv... its sad ahn, but what can you do when it becomes part of your job, profession and life, you can choose to be arrogant if you want, but does it change a thing? when they are just puppet of some powerful guys behind close doors, all through my life, i have searched for other human policy that is worse than immigration policy.

-DITTO-
I know this might sound ODD, but when people tell me to be careful about what i put on facebook, cos of their privacy policy, i tend to blush in silence, when i got all my fingers stamped to get Nigerian passport, got all my fingers printed at the embassy, on getting to the newark airport, i didn't just got my fingers printed but also had to look into some machine that looks like a microscope - even to the extent of taking another picture of me, and i wonder if i was applying for an american passport. So i think we are just trapped all ways always, but lets be aware of fascism, lets redefine what globalisation is suppose to mean and let the world order not just treat Africa as the poor little sexy continent, but a geographical location with people born just the same way as those across the atlantic, so if we claim to love to see children play, love to show them love and see them grow, so nothing makes the African child different, so lets ask them, why do we extract the juice of the sins of the fathers from the child ? what do we make out of our common shared history? who bears the heavier baggage of history? how come the third world citizen pays a more expensive visa fee? how come the so called benefit of globalisation, industrialisation and our technological advancement cost more than 50% of what is required in the west? At a very tender age of my life i felt the urge not just find but seek answers to some illogical questions, later i realised that the solution is to create more questions to add to the existing questions.