Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Arts  

Re: Rhythm of Lagos@50 waxes intellectually stronger

By Babatunde Olaide-Mesewaku
14 August 2016   |   4:41 am
The above title by Kabir Alabi Garba in The Guardian of Sunday, July 31, 2016, on the paper presented by Dr. Wale Adeniran at the second festival colloquium of the 50th anniversary of the creation of Lagos State ...
PHOTO: lagosairport

PHOTO: lagosairport

The above title by Kabir Alabi Garba in The Guardian of Sunday, July 31, 2016, on the paper presented by Dr. Wale Adeniran at the second festival colloquium of the 50th anniversary of the creation of Lagos State – Lagos@50 was as sensational and fascinating as the content of the presentation itself. It was no doubt an erudite work on Badagry’s ethno-linguistic and the dynamics of its tangible and intangible cultural heritage symbolising a ‘treasure trove of culture and tourism’ development for Lagos State and Nigeria.

Adeniran illuminates the topographical advantage of Badagry as a transit station for human and commercial traffic and the immense economic prospects this symbolizes for Lagos State if harnessed. The highlight is the recommendation of Zangbeto heritage for listing by UNESCO as world cultural heritage, and a huge publicity for the Ogu people and culture, no doubt.

However, there is need for further clarification on some information disseminated in the presentation in order to put it in the right perspective. The first is the implicit political theory of migration, an appendage consciously deployed recently in the political parlance of Lagos State to imprint in the people’s consciousness and psyche the notion of ‘stranger-hood’ in Lagos State, hence the statement they ‘recognize the fact of their having migrated into the zone from place currently in the Republic of Benin may be about 200 years ago’. This is absolutely erroneous and ethnocentric!

The history of human evolution itself is replete with the history of migration from one space to the other for various reasons. So is the history of the ethnic configuration of the contemporary Nigerian State. The Ogu people (erroneously referred to as Egun) never migrated. Badagry had been in existence long since the 15th century before the creation of Nigeria in 1914. As a matter of fact, the Union Jack (British Flag) was first hoisted on the soil of Badagry in 1843 by Great Britain and this singular act metamorphosed into what later became known as Nigeria.

Badagry, just like the history of every ethic community in Nigeria, found itself carved into boundary areas of Nigeria consequent on the artificial creation of continental boundaries by the imperialist West between 1881-1914. This ctystalises the vicissitude of Badagry and similar ethnic groups in the periphery of the borderline, who still maintain kinship ties transcending imperialist artificial boundaries. The Ogu people, contrary to the long-held view of their trajectory in space, never migrated to their present location and if any ethnic group did, within the context of the space being described, it was logically and certainly NOT the Ogu people. And because they still have cultural affinity and kinship ties with their relatives across the border should not be used as political appendage to stigmatize them as strangers in Nigeria and especially in Lagos State.

Secondly, the issue of differentiating Ogu language from other linguistic variance in the ‘zone’ is equally misconceived. These linguistic varieties such as Seto, Whla, Toli, Athome, Thevi, Tofin, Wheme, Allatha, and Ganyin are all dialects spoken under the umbrella name gungbe, meaning Ogu language. All these ethno-linguistic configurations are referred to as Ogu people. See Badagry: The Cultural Heritage co-authored by this writer and published by African Renaissance Foundation.

The work does not reflect the macro coverage of the cultural landscape of the Ogu people, as only a segment of the Ogu people is concentrated upon, hence the error of describing Zanholu, as being peculiar only to Aklokoji. Zanholu is one of the many forms of Zangbeto cult and it is peculiar to every Ogu community, but the cult of Zangbeto is deep like Ajido, Pota, Koga, Tohon and many other communities in the ‘zone’.

However, in preserving this verdant culture of the people there is no void. The effort of African Renaissance Foundation, a non-governmental organization in Badagry, becomes a handy reference point.

* Mr. Babatunde Olaide-Mesewaku wrote in from Badagry

In this article

0 Comments