It was a mini festival of celebrating creativity as the founder of OYASAF, Prince Yemisi Shyllon's book on late renowned carver Lamidi Fakeye, co authored by Dr Ohioma Pogoson was presented at Freedom Park, Lagos shortly before Shyllon donated 18 sculptures to the venue.
During the book presentation, Shyllon disclosed that the publishing the book was one of three promises he made to the Fakeye before the carver died. "I promised Lamidi Fakeye when he was alive
that I will promote him in Lagos by exhibiting his work, be the largest collector
of his work and publish a book on him. I have fulfilled all the three
promises”, Shyllon said.
Book Review:
In celebration of a Master Carver, Lamidi Fakeye
By Kunle Ajibade
There is an anecdote in this well-produced coffee table book with which I
would like to begin this review. One day, when Lamidi Olonade Fakeye was about
ten years old, Banji, one of his father’s wives, the mother of Akin, the
Ibadan-based highly gifted carver, was looking desperately for him. Because she
called out his names many times, Lamidi thought he must have done something
wrong and was afraid that he was being called for punishment. Although we are
not told, eventually, why the woman was looking for him, but Fakeye, in his old
age, at 80, recalls: “When she came to where I was and saw me carving she said,
Aha-ah, Olonadee, won pe o loruko, o si
je oruko naa de le, meaning: Olonade, you are exactly what your name says
you are. Then I knew she was not going to beat me, she was simply impressed
with what she had seen. This prompted her to call people to come and see what I
had done. This was the first time anyone showed any appreciation for what I had
carved”. By the way, Olonade means the great artist has arrived. Remember that
it was also a woman who predicted that he would be a successful carver. That
woman was the grandmother of Bisi Akande, the former governor of Osun State.
The fact that what Lamidi Fakeye remembers was not the minor or major offence
he had committed but the well deserved praise of his step-mother for his art,
should give us a hint that he would be happy in his grave that we are gathered
here to appreciate his art and celebrate his talent and gift. I’m sure that this
coffee table book, Conversations with
Lamidi Fakeye by Ohioma Pogoson and Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon would please
him to no end. For 30 hours, in three uninterrupted days, in January 2009,
Fakeye spoke to these two lovers of his magnificent carvings. He spoke joyously
without any inhibition at all. The result is a self-portrait of a master carver
at the peak of his own artistic game. On the pages of this book, we encounter a
true genius. We enjoy the liveliness of the conversations even when Pogoson and
Shyllon sometimes fail to ask necessary follow-up questions. The book is
Fakeye’s way of saying to us: this is how I have fulfilled the promise of my
talent; this is how I have protected my heritage; this is how I have served my
country; this is how I have served the world. And what a great service it has
all been!
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The Obi of Onitsha, His Majesty Nnaemeka Achebe(left); Onido of Ido Oshun, Oba Aderemi Adedapo; Chairman of the book launch, Chief Ernest
Shonekan; Hon Commissioner for Tourism and Intergovernmental Relationship, Mr Disun Holloway and the Orangun of Ila, Oba Wahab Kayode Oyedotun during the launch in Lagos. PHOTO BY: OGUNTIMEHIN ARIYO
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As Pogoson and Shyllon open up the cavities of his fragmented memories,
Fakeye is expansive about his life and career, about his very expressive and
crisp originality. Even his silences speak eloquently. Fakeye shows that he is
a theoretician of his own carvings
whose appeal, on account of the syncretic nature of some of them, go beyond
their ethnic and national boundaries. Fakeye’s carvings have their own moments
and phases. They have their genesis and revelation. His carvings have a soul,
and there are so many fascinating things in that soul. If Pogoson and Shyllon’s
conversations with Fakeye are a tribute to his astonishing skill, Fakeye’s own
many conversations, in solitude, with wood, the medium of his art and the many
questions he answered with his blades and chisels and other tools of his
profession, are all a profound meditation on beauty and tradition. Fakeye shows
in this book that what define and sustain great civilisation are principles of reason, tolerance, bravery
and honesty which he encourages all of us to embrace.
When Lamidi Fakeye, for the
last time, visited the United States of America at the invitation of Western
Michigan University in October 2009, he did not only give a talk on his art, he
also demonstrated how he carved at Sangren Hall. During that visit, a very
enriching documentary was made on him by Elizabeth Morton and Joe Reese. In
that documentary titled “Lamidi Olonade Fakeye: The Life of a Master Carver,”
experts and friends venerate Fakeye almost to the point of being worshipped
because of his dazzling talent. One of the useful things he says in the film is
that he is a bridge builder between the traditional and the modern carvers. I quote
him: “I am a bridge between the past and the present”. What is this ‘present’?
What is this ‘past’ In other words, what is the peculiar essence of this
carver? The answers are all contained in this coffee table book. Here he deals
extensively with his own creative process. He offers insights into the
historical, cultural, philosophical and metaphysical context of his carvings.
He describes the differences and similarities between his works and the works
of other carvers. The Lamidi Fakeye in this book is more agile and concentrated
than the Fakeye in that documentary. Conversations
with Lamidi Fakeye is an indispensable key to the mind and personality of
this incredible carver.
T.S. Eliot, the 1948 winner
of the Nobel Prize in Literature explains in his essay Tradition and the Individual Talent: “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone.
His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the
dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for
contrast and comparison, among the dead”. The distinguished reputation of
Lamidi Fakeye lies precisely in the solid bridge that his works erect across several
civilisations, turning him into a valuable touch-bearer of his own generation.
Fakeye followed the tradition and celebrated the successes of his immediate forerunners
– not blindly and timidly. He simply measured himself against his illustrious
master, Bamidele Arowoogun, who could carve accurately with both hands. He was
very conscious of his place in time. He knew, just like T.S. Eliot knew that
novelty is better than repetition. He knew also that individual talent can only
blossom when the labour that nurture it is painful and loving.
In Conversations with Lamidi
Fakeye this master carver tells the story of his difficult beginnings, his
strivings and his triumphs. He learnt how to farm. He was a good barber. He
learnt photography. He trained as a bicycle repairer. He also trained as a
‘sawyer’. When he finished standard six, he tried to join the police because
carving was not bringing enough money to survive on. In the end, carving was
what he still settled for. It was his passion. As we navigate through the sea
of his stories, we are told of the significant role played by his artistic
family, a family that has produced five generations of wood carvers, we are
reminded of the efforts made by Reverend Father Kevin Carrol and Father
O’Mahoney in the moulding and sustenance of his confidence as a carver at very
crucial moments in his professional life. Those Reverend Fathers may be racist
in their attitude but the paradox of his relationship with them was that no one
else supported his art more consistently as they did when he was trying to find
his feet.
Artists need patrons to survive. Today Lamidi Fakeye’s carvings grace
many palaces, Churches, Museums, important buildings in Nigeria and around the
world. Indeed, Yemisi Shyllon, who used to draw excellently in secondary school
and who was a campus journalist at the University of Ibadan, has the largest
collection of his works. That Fakeye was named a Living Treasurer by UNESCO in
2006 is a testimony to his global recognition. His carvings took him to almost
everywhere in the world, particularly in the United of America where he felt
more at home in that country’s universities and colleges. In honour of his
contribution to the arts, Nigeria awarded him OFR – Order of the Federal
Republic. But he did not receive the medal until nineteen years later!
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Prince Yemisi Shyllon during
the book launch.
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Professor Bruce M. Haight of the department of History, Western Michigan
University, who co-authored Fakeye autobiography with him noted in his eulogy
to Fakeye, who died on 25 December 2009, that his father’s advice to him as a
young man played a very crucial role in the formation of his character. His
father had once admonished him: “Do not allow anger to override you. You must
try to be helpful to your neighbours. Try to be obedient and be hard working.
Any of my children who is lazy will regret, after my death. He or she will come
to my grave and weep and shout to me but I will turn deaf ears to him or her.
Believe in one God and be truthful, even at the point of death. Never avenge
any bad deed done to you by anybody. Do not serve as obstacle to the progress of
others”. Guided by the ethics of that character building, he worked his way to
pre-eminence. He too tells all aspiring carvers and artists in this book to
persevere, to be diligent, to be passionate about the job and train endlessly
for excellence. He says that masterpieces are not easy to come by.
There are forty three of Fakeye’s works on full display in this book to
prove that point. Many of them
will elicit meanings which the great carver did not intend. I find “Oduduwa”, among
several others, immeasurably pleasing. No one can deny the aesthetically
satisfying complexity of this work. The “Oduduwa” in this book was specially
commissioned by Yemisi Shyllon. The one at the Obafemi Awolowo University which
inspired this one was unveiled by Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1986, not long
before he passed on in 1987. Fakeye carved the statue when he was a Senior Arts
Fellow in that University. Largely because he respected Awolowo a lot as a politician,
Fakeye felt gratified that Awolowo graced the occasion. “On the day Awolowo died”, he tells
shyllon and Pogoson, “I buried the thought of ever running around with any
politician. The only politician we can trust is dead”.
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Artist, Adeola Balogun
explaining his work to guests and the donor, Prince Yemisi Shyllon during the
unveiling of 18 sculptural works at Freedom Park, Lagos.
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Fakeye’s profound sense of justice and fairplay shines through the pages
of this book just as his works reflect the power, the prestige and grandeur associated
with culture heroes and heroines. There is a work of his that I particularly
like which is not here. It is titled “Justice”. Done for Dr. Bruce and Ann K.
Haight, it is about the 1993 general elections in Nigeria. He deployed both the
traditional Yoruba and Western symbols to express his outrage over the mockery
of democratic values which that election signified. Honesty and hard work were
the binds that tied him to people. You stood no chance with him if he suspected
any magomago in the way you related
to him. On the list of his friends are the following: Abayomi Baber, James
Miller, Bruce Haight, Yomi Durotoye, Ulli Beier, Yemisi Shyllon, Professors
Hezekiah Oluwasanmi, Adedayo Ijalaye, Wande Abimbola, Roger Makanjuola and
Akinwumi Isola, who wrote the foreword to this book. Finally, as Fakeye pays glowing tributes to all his mentors,
patrons and friends, this book reads like his moving farewell. Let us hope that
there will be more books like this because society gains much more when its
artists are supported in a grand way.
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