In the year 1977, at the height of Nigeria’s
past glory, the entire (global) black race converged on the Nigerian soil in a
global feast we called FESTAC ’77. It is rather very unfortunate however that a
few unlearned minds, sometimes even highly placed, have come to link the
nations recent misfortunes, (which actually are attributable to barefaced
misrule and corruption), to that global fiesta that brought fame and
recognition, and also development to the country.
FESTAC actually means the world Festival of
Arts and Culture (being the second edition of the world black and African
festival of its kind) in which all black people and people of African descent were
fully represented, and Nigeria just excelled herself in that memorable carnival
of awesome colours . The symbol of that great gathering was the carved mask
image of the Queen-Mother, Idia, during the reign of the irrepressible Oba Ovomramwen
of the great ancient Benin Kingdom. That great kingdom is today a part of
modern Nigeria.
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| The original FESTAC mask |
In the month of February
1897, the British conquering colonialists carried out a raid which has been
popularly tagged the “Punitive measure” on the then reigning monarch and his
kingdom. Oba Ovomramwen who was said to be recalcitrant towards the colonial
rule had his empire sacked and he was subsequently deposed to Calabar. Many of
his chiefs were killed in that coercive move, and the climax of it all was the looting
carried out on the vast artistic treasures of Benin. The stolen works of art
from the private collections of the royal house are said to number more than
3,000 pieces of treasured artefacts which were
carted away to the United Kingdom by the British.
Among the numerous treasures carted away stands out one particular piece
– the carved mask of Queen Idia, the queen-mother herself. It is instructive to
note that the FESTAC mask or symbol, which was employed during the festivities,
was actually a replica of this stolen mask. As the British refused to return,
donate or sell it back to the country, the Nigerian government of the day
commissioned a skilled craftsman in the modern day Benin area (which is still
famous for its rare quality traditional craftsmanship) to produce a copy of the
original mask. And this was what was used at FESTAC ’77. As it stands
therefore, the original mask that was stolen from the Benin treasures is sadly
sitting in the British museum where many tourists world-wide, including
Nigerians sometimes, come to pay to see this beautiful work of ancient Benin
artistry among other works in the museum.
