African Wind
Chapter2
First encounter with the light in Africa
I have visited 12 African countries over 30times since I first visited Africa in 1994. What surprises me every time I am in Africa is the amazing talent for music and art that the people in Africa have.
In Africa there are countless people with unusual abilities to express themselves artistically. Their style of expression is so original that it does not show any influences from the Western cultures. I am going to write about my first encounter with the “light” of Africa.
The very first encounter with the African Art was at the gallery called “African Heritage “ in Nairobi, Kenya. The gallery collected variety of African Art and crafts and many items were on display on the gallery walls. The artists and art that the gallery represented include carved gourd (pic. 3) by George LILANGA who was the best pupil of S. G. MPATA of Tanzania, Jacob Afolabi (pic. 4) who represents the art of Oshogbo school in Nigeria, works of Femi Aro (pic. 2) to name a few. Each individual item in the gallery clearly showed the quality of the collection at the gallery as well as the quality of the Art of the African countries.
There are many interesting artworks on the street market in the city but it was nothing to compare with the items in the African Heritage gallery. Even the craft items at the African Heritage were beyond crafts in quality, and the display design at the gallery was excellent. At the main exhibition space of the gallery which was as big as an auditorium, the natural light that shines gently and the time that flows slowly enhanced the overall quality of the collection itself. Of all the arts of great quality that I encountered, I was especially found of works of Femi Aro of Nigeria. I often wondered how he creates this obnoxious yet charming paintings. And I often imagined that no matter how bad my day was, if I see his painting on my foyer wall it will make me laugh and make my day. I couldn’t help wanting to meet him.
Imagining things….
I flew to Nigeria last year with a friend of mine who was the expert on Africa.? All the information I had was his name, Femi Aro and the fact that he was a Nigerian. The staff at the African Heritage thought Femi Aro was a student of some sort, but nothing was for sure.I learned that Oshogbo was an artist colony while I was in Japan. Oshogbo’s history as an art colony started with an Australian, Ulli Beier. He taught art in Oshogbo after Nigeria was independent from the colonial power.
With the little information I obtained about Oshogbo, I imagined at my own risk that Oshogbo would be a small art colony with a community of 30 or so artists living in harmony in a relaxing field of grass. Then I would visit Aro one afternoon to his studio, he would welcome me with big slime on his face. I believed that meeting Aro would be that easy. I believed all I had to do was to go to Oshogbo to meet him.However the reality hit me when we arrived to Oshogbo. It is the third biggest city in Nigeria. All I saw was streets full of people and road full of cars. I realized that I was imagining things that weren’t here.
I only had 5 days in Oshogbo and I felt that I was in big trouble. I located an art gallery and asked if any of the staff members knew anyone named “Femi Aro”. The answer was no. After a short silence my friend asked me if Aro was really from Oshogbo. At that moment I was not sure of anything at all so all I could say was I didn’t know but I thought so.
Great surprises
A day after our arrival to Oshogbo we visited Twins 77 whose artworks were representative example of the Oshogbo school. Twins 77 himself was absent on that day however one of his staff told me that he knew someone named “Femi Johnson”. He gave us a bit of hope that may be “Femi Aro” was a pseudo name and his real name was “Femi Johnsonn”. Of course it was my rich imagination that gave us such hope. Anyhow we decided to go and meet “Femi Johnson”.
Femi Johnson was a young artist and he asked my hand for a hand shake politely when we met. I believed that it was the right person, but when I saw his paintings I knew that I was wrong. His works were fantastic but it wasn’t that obnoxious painting of Femi Aro. I purchased Femi Johnson’s works with my sincerer apologies and our search for Femi Aro was back to where we started. My friend was so upset and we were at a loss. Then the staff member of Twin 77 offered us to help find Femi Aro and cheered us up. It was such a great friendship and we decided to meet with as many artists in Oshogbo as we could.
Well.. it was the beginning of all the incredible encounters. Although all of them were in the Oshogbo school, each artist I met had different talents and different methods. Their originality and completeness surprised me so much. It was unexpected gain and whirlwind of inspiration. On our third day a few artists brought their works to my hotel. I wish I were an art producer but so many of the art works were so exciting that I couldn’t help purchasing many of them. I learned later on that the artworks that I purchased included world famous African artist such as Rufus Ogundele (pic. 1) and Jacob Afolabi. Their works are on display at the Setagaya Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan.
Finally Aro found in Oshogbo!
On the day four, I was almost giving up on meeting Aro in Oshogbo. We were scheduled to go back to Lagos on the next day and I, usually with the most positive thoughts at all the situations, started to worry. My friend suggested with ironic smiles that I should let go of the thought of meeting Aro and go back happy with all the incredible artworks that I gained instead.
It was when Waheed O.saka, who was also a young artist with interesting method of Batik in his artwork, told me that he knew Femi Aro. The news came so unexpectedly but we asked him to take us to Aro’s studio.
It was a small apartment away from the main street, and we climbed the stairs to get to his apartment. After the dark hallway there was a door to his apartment. In the apartment there was a table and we saw a small and skinny man in a tank top working. Osaka told me that it was him, it was Femi Aro. My heart was beating so fast. Again it was not what I imagined.First Osaka introduced me to Aro. As soon as their conversation ended Aro approached to me and shook hands. He was emotionally moved to hear that someone all the way from Japan came to visit him. Back then I couldn’t speak English much so I had to depend on my friend, the interpreter, to translate this incredibly emotional moments. I found Aro in Oshogbo.
After that Aro showed me his artworks. There they were, the obnoxious characters that I met at the African Heritage. It was my turn to be emotionally moved. I met Femi Aro for real. My friend told me “good for you!” with a big simile. Since then I decided to support artists in Oshogbo. I had visited Oshogbo 26 times until Osaka passed away in the car accident at the age of 29 in 1998. Aro gave his daughter my name, Noriko.
African art have depth. It is understandable that the unique colors and strong lines of African Art gave influences to Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. I would like to continue showing more African Art on this webpage.
A little bit of curiosity and courage to step ahead
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