One of my first public performances in Nigeria was called beauty, a meditation on the relationship that women have to each other and to their hair. One afternoon at the bustling Obalende Motor Park,four other women and myself had our hair braided together. We stayed connected in this fashion for four hours. This was an act of endurance, a show of solidarity and an invitation to the public for questions. But just before we started the performance a Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) worker walked over to us and demanded money. A friend asked how much I was willing to pay but one of the performers bravely interrupted and said, “No. Do not pay them anything. We are artists. We have a right to be here. We have a right to express ourselves.” This opening interaction completely changed the dynamic of our performance. Rather than allow our experience to be defined by the supposed rules of the state whether formal or informal, through the voice of one artist rightfully and forcefully speaking out, we were able to proclaim our presence and assert our power in that public space – a seemingly small act.
It is my deep belief that change begins with the small actions of brave individuals that then grow to impact many people. Change comes from the margins, from the outskirts and the beyond, from alien perspectives, from those with the ability to see the world and its accepted contexts in entirely new ways. Change does not spring from the familiar centers of power that too often work to preserve crumbling structures. Change requires that we completely trouble this system. Change requires that we the people make wahala.
The writer Audre Lorde says, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.” So it is that those with the desire to completely invent new tools are the ones who will enact long-lasting, visionary, and significant social, economic and political change in Nigeria – and the world. We are not here to recreate new versions of old systems. We are here to push boundaries and to constantly ask the questions that guide us to discover possibilities that we may have previously considered unimaginable.
The most exciting thing about Nigeria’s changing future is that a new vision relies on the vision and energy of our country’s young people. We live in societies that revere and respect age and experience. This is beautiful and important, but at the same time we must acknowledge that half of the population of Africa is currently below the age of nineteen. The same is true for Nigeria. Young people here have the potential to dramatically alter the future of this nation, but we cannot do this by using the same ways of thinking that have guided older generations. We must push ourselves to to imagine, innovate and think independently from those who have come before. We must push ourselves to continuously ask questions.
The urban scholar and writer Edgar Pieterse talks about the right to the city as a right to dignity. When I first heard him say this I began to wonder wether the right to dignity is a truth that everyone living in this nation, Nigeria, should expect? And, if so, what constitutes dignity? Human rights? Clean water? Electricity? Education? Housing? The ability to have a seat on public transportation? Being able to trust the police? Leisure time? The questions go on.
I am deeply interested in the power of art, not only for its beauty and ability to transform people on personal, spiritual, political and social levels, but also as a model for re-envisioning how we organize the societies and nations in which we find ourselves. If we acknowledge the creative capacity of artists and activate the immense innovation that living in Nigeria requires on a daily basis, then we can radically reinvent who we are as a people, who we are as a country. What is possible? Absolutely everything. As Ben Okri writes in Infinite Riches, “One great thought can alter the future of the world. One revelation. One dream. But who will dream that dream? And who will make it real?”
In Nigeria, it will be the youth, the artists, and all those people who thoughtfully, imaginatively, and innovatively choose to disobey.
