Spirit of the Artist

THE ARTIST IN THE SMOKE OF BATTLE
By Nnimmo BASSEY
We see in Ken Saro-Wiwa the portrait of an artist who stepped out of the canvass, out of the written pages, intervened for the empowerment and emancipation of his people, and stepped right back into the canvass, into the open pages of his written works.
His retreat leaves us huge literary as well as environmental space to act or merely to debate or pontificate on the interventionist possibilities of the artist. We have in Ken Saro-Wiwa a good template of cumulative and people-powered intervention. But we must examine a few issues.
If what we have is satisfactory why intervene or is every situation perpetually calling for intervention? What is the place of intervention within a deregulated or dis-interventionist economy? How do you intervene in a land where sacred cows live above the law and selected common cows that imagined they were sacred end in handcuffs with the real possibilities of encountering fisticuffs?
I recollect that some years ago, an activist from Chad declared (in the middle of a tour of the desolations of the Niger Delta) that if he had been born there he would have since become a revolutionary. A comrade from Colombia retorted that the objective realities of every nation demands that we all become revolutionaries. The basic credential is that we must hate injustice. You don’t need to be Ogoni or Ijaw or Yoruba to take a stand.
Will we be causal or dormant interventionists? Let it be said at this point that you cannot draw solid fence lines between these. The actor acts, the people respond or choose not to. The actor refuses to act; the people respond or choose not to. The suggestion here is that there is always the real possibility of the outcome being wide off the mar of the interventionist’s expectations. But this cannot deter the determined artist.
How do you breakthrough the roadblocks in the Nigerian system when you are continually told you have no locus standi as you seek to challenge acts of executive extortion or godfather type Ghana-must-go interventions? Give us activist judiciary!
THE ARTIST SOWS SEEDS
Every living seed is an object of intervention. Take the case of the Ogoni Bill of Rights (1990). That charter of demands for economic, environmental and political rights has since propelled others. Consider: The Kaiama Declaration (December 1998), the Oron Bill of Rights, the Urobho economic demands, etc. Consider the now popular overarching matter of community control of community resources. MOSOP under the inspirational leadership of Ken Saro-Wiwa fired the imagination of youths and peoples’ across the Niger Delta. When the oil mogul Shell was forced to retreat into its shell and leave Ogoni in 1993, other ethnic nations read the signal to mean that they can equally stand up to demand and defend their rights. Of course Ogoni blood flowed. Over 2000 lost their lives. Many went into exile and some still are. Key leaders were executed: first 4 chiefs and then Ken Saro-Wiwa and his 8 compatriots on the orders of Abacha’s kangaroo tribunal within the time limits set for appeal.
CULTURAL RESISTANCE
After the historic formation of the Ijaw Youth Council in December 1998, January of the next year was set as a season of protests in what was partially known as Operation Climate Change. This operation as the name suggests meant a snuffing out of gas flares light by transnational oil corporations in the Ijaw nation.
This campaign was heralded by Ogeles or street dances. Youths took to the streets, singing, dancing and waving leaves. The state responded with hot lead. Many were slain others were raped and maimed. This is what inspired my poem: We Thought It Was Oil but It Was Blood.
By 2000 Ijaw women seized the initiative and took over flow stations in the Escravos as well as Egbema-Gbaramatu areas. Talk of equality of the sexes!
Could the bloodletting be foreseen and could it have been averted? Can we expect to win our liberty without a struggle?
WHEN ARE VICTORIES WON?
The question arises, is the artist helpless after she has intervened? We can answer that question by simply stating that interventions are not one-shot events. Interventions often spawn other interventions. The artist must remain in the trenches, in the smoke of the battle! The artists must be excellent in reading situations and be adept at creating and seizing opportunities.
The artist may not see the ultimate victory in her lifetime, but there are milestones at which glasses may be clinked as a step is made towards the attainment of our dreams. These milestones are identifiable if the artist is methodological rather than erratic.
Saro-Wiwa started with his ethnic nation. He unleashed a movement that has spawned other movements. Today his ideals mobilize otherwise unconcerned peoples from around the world. He utilised his unique gifting as an artist to effect real change in society. Art is a weapon; the artist a soldier.
The scale at which we start is not as vital as overcoming inertia and getting started. The ultimate size of a tree is not determined by the size of its seed. The important matter is the genetic or creative or artistic content of the seed. The vital thing is that the seed must be alive.
UNDERSTAND THE OPPOSITION
When the artist understands the opposition or the objective reality to be confronted, outcomes can be predictable and predicted. The artist must understand that intervention is a process and not an end. We must not be shy of taking stands and making this known. In the smoke of battle what will mark you out is the standard or flag you hoist. If you operate without a banner you will be a sitting duck for every side of the fray.
Did ken Saro-Wiwa the interventionist die in vain? The answer is a capital NO. Without this writer/activist the environmental woes of the Niger Delta would have remained firmly covered up by flowery language and false promises of governments and exploiting oil corporations.

Today, we need more people with the vision of Ken Saro-Wiwa in Nigeria. We need men and women in the hills of Jos to rise and demand ecological debt and environmental remediation at the bleeding veins of the abandoned tin mines. We need people in Enugu to ask what happened to the coal mines and on whose mandate they were mined. We need artists and activists to rise up in Ondo states and others in the bitumen belt to rise and insist that there must be no repeat of the Niger delta debacle in their territory. This is the time for Nigerians to arise in Mambila plateau, in Lagos and in Sokoto to claim ownership and control of the resources that represent their very hope of dignity and survival in a dog-eat-dog society.
The time to arise is not tomorrow. The time is NOW.

Statement made at the Art Stampede of the Committee for Relevant Art, CORA