Mrs. Vivian Okeke is the Curator at the Nigerian Museum and Monument in Asaba, the Delta state capital. In this interview with Austin Oyibode of NAIJ.com, she shares her views on cultural values, the fast depletion of African culture and the need to reclaim it. She said Nigerians must imbibe their culture and never allow the white man’s life wash away the African cultural heritage.
Excerpt:
Tell us, what is museum all about?
Museum is a non-profit making government institution that is in charge of all our cultural heritage and objects both tangible and intangible. It educates and informs the public, we mount exhibitions for the enjoyment and pleasure of the public. All sorts of information is gotten from the museum.
We also organize outreach programmes. We go to prisons, schools, orphanages and old people’s homes to carry programmes for them. Museums also organize skills acquisition for members of the public. We organize seminars on thematic issues. For instance, issues like child trafficking, to inform the public on the ills of child trafficking.
Mrs. Vivian Okeke, the Curator at Museum in Asaba. She says the white man's culture that was imported is fast taken over African way of life. She said Nigerians must not allow it to continue
You mentioned cultural heritage, can you explain better?
Our cultural heritages are those things bequeathed to us by our forefathers, things like household objects, cooking utensils, you know the kind of houses we build now are not the kind of houses our forefathers built, in some museums, we have replicas of them.
We have cultural objects like staff of office, clothing, war regalia, chieftaincy and ceremonial regalias. We also have war implements, bronze and arrows, dane guns, and even bombs, musical instruments, masquerades, attires and so many things of cultural importance. We keep them.
As the years go by you see that more modern things are brought into our society, some of our children don’t even know what a hoe or a cutlass looks like, in the museum, you find such things, and of course, you know that many of them were made by our forefathers.
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We teach our children that technology did not start with the Europeans, we had technology here and we are improving on it. The only thing is that the white man came and tried to wipe away our culture. This is done so that we embrace their own and see ourselves as just starting life from them but that is not true. The museum is here to keep our cultural heritage for posterity.
But which do you prefer, the white man’s life or the African man’s life?
For now, it all depends from the angle you look at it. There are some aspects of the African man’s life in those days that we wouldn’t want to continue, like the killing of twins, circumcision of women, and some other things we should do away with.
And then, for the white man’s life, globalization is good but it has come with its own side effect. In the African man’s way, in the evening, the family will sit together and talk, parents will tell the children stories, children will learn from their parents, their mannerism and so on. Parents will watch the children, how they do things and behave.
These days, you see parents and children in the same room, but you see everybody playing with their mobile phones, gluing their eyes to the television set, watching one European programme or the other. That initial family bonding is no longer there. That is the aspect I don’t like. The aspect of wearing clothes, yes but not the type of clothes that expose their body indiscriminately.
The white man’s life has come to stay with us. But we should keep the ones that will help our society, and discard the ones that will destroy us. Family is family, it is still the basic unit of socialization. Education starts from the family whether you like it or not. Good behavior and loyalty start from the family.
Vivian Okeke, the Curator at National Museum in Asaba. She says Nigerians go back to African way of life
From what you have said, there is a decline in the acceptance or continuity of the African culture. Youths and ladies are imbibing the white man’s life, what do you think may have led to this decline?
So many things have led to that, globalization, westernization and colonialism, our people wanting to be like the white man, parents in need of extra money for the family take up jobs in different places away from their families and that leads to breakdown in family social structure.
It is only when you are there that you can train your children in the ways of your people, that is when they will learn. If you are not there to expose them to the African way of life, they cannot learn, they will throw it away and think that the African way of life is not good.
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Definitely, it must start from the family, the school, the community, then the nation as a whole. Our country does not censor what comes in for our children to watch even the books they read, these things have been affecting our children negatively.
We should put African books, movies first before the foreign ones. I think our children will be more endeared to the African culture and way of life. And of course, in the family, we speak our language to them, we cook our food for them, we encourage them to wear African attire, speak our language, behave the way Africans are supposed to behave, they will appreciate our culture more than that of the white man. And of course, our culture will last for us.
Do you think this can be corrected? Looking at society, there is a massive drift from African to Western life. Do you think it can be corrected as things are going in the present world?
It can be corrected. But we all have to put our hands together to correct it. First, there must be re-orientation in the country that families should go back and speak their indigenous language to their children. And then schools, make sure you teach indigenous languages, you should also teach in English because all of us are not from the same cultural groups. At the same time there should be room for Nigerian languages, either one or two.
The museum in Asaba, Delta state capital. This building was erected in 1886.
Make sure that on certain days, the children dress in cultural attire to school. Anambra state has started it. Every Friday, Governor Obiano made it compulsory, the children wear cultural attire to school. That is one step. When we have gatherings of people from the same ethnic group, you see most times, you hear them addressing themselves in English. It is not good.
Nigeria as a whole can decide that on two days out of the five days in a week, we come to work in traditional attire, it will help because it is what the adults do that the children will emulate and imitate.
If they know that two times in a week you go to offices in traditional attire, whether you are a banker or you are a civil servant or you are in the private sector and it’s made mandatory, you will see the children emulating it. And with time we start going back and organizing cultural festivals.
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If every state organizes cultural festival where the culture of their people will be displayed may be once or twice a year, the children will start thinking cultural and African, you see them trying to go back.
Is not that they don’t want it but in our country, anything goes. That is why our society is like that. Children do anything they like, you leave them, you see girls wearing half trousers with bodies showing and nobody says anything, you see them trying to speak English, the turn their tongue to imitate the white man.
English is not our language it is a foreign language. Therefore we should speak it as Africans. Don’t imitate the white man. If you were from my cultural group, I will be holding this interview in my language. That is me. This is to show you that I’m an African.
Watch this video and find out whether the views are African or imported
