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<\/p>\n\ud835\ude3d\ud835\ude6e: ‘\ud835\ude59\ud835\ude56\ud835\ude6e\ud835\ude64 \ud835\ude3c\ud835\ude59\ud835\ude5a\ud835\ude59\ud835\ude56\ud835\ude6e\ud835\ude64<\/p>\n
My phone died at perhaps the worst possible moment.<\/p>\n
There I was, on the fifth floor of the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, standing before something that suddenly transported me almost fifty years backwards, to Ero, Okeliwo, Ijebu-Ife, in Ijebu East Local Government Area of Ogun State.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For a few seconds, Bradford disappeared.<\/p>\n
England disappeared.<\/p>\n
I was a little boy again.<\/p>\n
And then my phone went dead.<\/p>\n
A Journey I Almost Regretted Taking<\/p>\n
When my very good aburo, Tunde Hundeyin, told me that I must visit the National Science and Media Museum whenever I had the opportunity, little did I know that he was sending me on a journey into my profession, my childhood, my country, and ultimately into the future of the DAP Experience Centre.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The journey from London had not started particularly well.<\/p>\n
I had underestimated the time it would take to get to Bradford, and what I imagined would be a relatively straightforward journey became more than three hours of trains, waiting and wondering whether I had made the right decision.<\/p>\n
Then another aburo and business partner, David Coker, called.<\/p>\n
My battery was becoming a concern, so David advised me to go into one of the big stores and buy a charger.<\/p>\n
Simple solution.<\/p>\n
Until I saw the price.<\/p>\n
Nearly \u00a350!<\/p>\n
Ah!<\/p>\n
I earn Naira, not Pound Sterling.<\/p>\n
I quietly returned the charger to where it belonged. There are certain economic decisions that require no board meeting.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Then came another wahala.<\/p>\n
My train was delayed for almost forty minutes.<\/p>\n
Still, I wasn’t worried. David was keeping me company on the phone and my battery was around 74 percent. Life was good.<\/p>\n
About fifteen minutes before the revised departure time, David suddenly said, \u201c Buoda ‘dayo, go and ask them which platform the train is leaving from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Normally, the platform should have appeared on the information board.<\/p>\n
This morning, nothing.<\/p>\n
Thank God I listened.<\/p>\n
The gentleman at information told me to proceed to Platform 0, where the Bradford train had been allocated.<\/p>\n
I got there and settled down.<\/p>\n
Then another aburo, Dupe Oyelade, called.<\/p>\n
I narrated my charger story proudly, perhaps expecting congratulations for saving myself \u00a350.<\/p>\n
Instead, she said I should go and buy a charger.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour phone may die when you need it most.\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed.<\/p>\n
But when people say women are witches, sometimes it is better not to argue too much.<\/p>\n
Because that was EXACTLY what happened.<\/p>\n
And Suddenly, I Was Back in Ijebu-Ife<\/p>\n
Hours later, inside the museum, I encountered an old puppet-like figure.<\/p>\n
I froze.<\/p>\n
It bore an extraordinary resemblance to something I had not seen in nearly fifty years, the Ero Okeliwo of my childhood.<\/p>\n
Immediately, memories came rushing back.<\/p>\n
Ero Okeliwo belonged to another world, the traditional world into which some of us were born before television, mobile phones, social media and the internet began flattening cultures into one global experience.<\/p>\n
As I remember it, these figures were already considered extremely old when I was a child. On special occasions, the community gathered around the shrine of the devotees. There would be worship, dancing, celebration, food and merriment.<\/p>\n
My maternal grandmother was deeply rooted in the traditions and culture of our people.<\/p>\n
Those occasions also meant food.<\/p>\n
And not just food.<\/p>\n
Pounded yam.<\/p>\n
Egusi soup.<\/p>\n
And correct bush meat, not the type that has merely passed beside a goat on its way to the pot!<\/p>\n
My grandmother’s husband (my maternal grandfather) was a hunter. Together, they traded and farmed around the J4 forest area, and bush meat formed part of that world.<\/p>\n
Then, sometime in the mid-to-late 1970s, we woke up to a painful discovery.<\/p>\n
The figures had disappeared.<\/p>\n
Stolen.<\/p>\n
By whom?<\/p>\n
For what purpose?<\/p>\n
Where did they eventually end up?<\/p>\n
Nearly half a century later, I still do not know.<\/p>\n
So imagine my emotions when, thousands of kilometres away from home, on the fifth floor of a museum in Bradford, England, I suddenly saw something that reminded me so powerfully of them.<\/p>\n
I instinctively reached for my phone.<\/p>\n
And that was the moment it died.<\/p>\n
Dupe Oyelade!<\/p>\n
You warned me.<\/p>\n
But perhaps there was something poetic about not being able to photograph that moment. For once, I had to use the oldest camera God ever created, the human eye, and store the photograph in the most precious archive we possess: memory.<\/p>\n
Then Bradford Began Speaking to Me<\/p>\n
The National Science and Media Museum did much more than display old equipment.<\/p>\n
It told stories.<\/p>\n
That distinction is important.<\/p>\n
I have studied photography for decades. Many of the developments in photographic history displayed in the museum were therefore not entirely new to me.<\/p>\n
What fascinated me was the PRESENTATION.<\/p>\n
How do you take an old camera and make a young person interested in it?<\/p>\n
How do you explain an obsolete technology without making it feel obsolete?<\/p>\n
How do you connect an object to the people who invented it, used it, improved it and eventually replaced it?<\/p>\n
How do you make yesterday exciting to someone born today?<\/p>\n
That, for me, was the real museum.<\/p>\n
On Level \u20131 is the Kodak Gallery, taking visitors through the development of photography, from the earliest photographic processes and cameras through generations of technological change and into the digital age.<\/p>\n
I had assumed Kodak must have sponsored everything because its presence and history are so deeply woven into the gallery. But what I later discovered makes the story even more interesting: the museum acquired the Kodak Collection as far back as 1985, and that collection became the foundation of a major gallery devoted to the history of popular photography.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, I wasn’t merely looking at cameras.<\/p>\n
I was looking at possibilities.<\/p>\n
Possibilities for DAP.<\/p>\n
Every Photographer Should See Bradford Once<\/p>\n
You have to see how enormous some early cameras were.<\/p>\n
Today, we carry cameras in our pockets and complain when a phone weighs a few grams too much.<\/p>\n
Yet generations before us needed large cameras, tripods, plates, chemicals, darkrooms and enormous patience simply to achieve what we now accomplish by touching a screen.<\/p>\n
Standing there, I thought about our own photography museum and analogue darkroom at the DAP Experience Centre.<\/p>\n
I thought about the young Nigerian who has never loaded a roll of film.<\/p>\n
The child who may never understand why photographers once entered a completely dark room to produce a photograph.<\/p>\n
The generation for whom \u201cKodak\u201d may eventually become just another strange word from their parents’ vocabulary.<\/p>\n
And I realised again why what we are building in Lagos matters.<\/p>\n
We are not collecting old things.<\/p>\n
We are preserving evidence of how we became who we are.<\/p>\n
Sound, Television, and Another Nigerian Question<\/p>\n
Then came the sections devoted to sound, television, film and broadcasting.<\/p>\n
My mind went immediately to Nigeria.<\/p>\n
I thought about NTA.<\/p>\n
I thought particularly about Ibadan.<\/p>\n
I remember how deeply saddened I was when I visited the old television facilities in Ibadan, the city where television broadcasting began in Nigeria and, famously, where the first television service in tropical Africa was established in 1959.<\/p>\n
What prevents us from preserving that history properly?<\/p>\n
Imagine a Nigerian Museum of Television and Broadcasting built around our surviving equipment and archives.<\/p>\n
Imagine young Nigerians walking through the evolution of broadcasting, from the earliest Western Nigeria Television days to NTA; from cumbersome studio cameras to portable video; from analogue transmission to satellite and streaming.<\/p>\n
Let the equipment speak.<\/p>\n
Let the photographs speak.<\/p>\n
Let surviving broadcasters speak.<\/p>\n
Let old jingles play.<\/p>\n
Let visitors enter recreated studios.<\/p>\n
Let them hear the voices with which their grandparents grew up.<\/p>\n
Let us put names and faces to the men and women who built the industry.<\/p>\n
Because when a nation refuses to document itself, arguments eventually replace evidence.<\/p>\n
Who started this?<\/p>\n
Who invented that?<\/p>\n
Who began Nollywood?<\/p>\n
Who pioneered Afrobeat?<\/p>\n
Who was first?<\/p>\n
Was it Mr A or Mr B?<\/p>\n
Soon, history becomes whatever receives the most retweets.<\/p>\n
Even more worrying is meeting younger Nigerians who cannot distinguish between the old Western Region and Lagos when Lagos was the Federal Capital Territory, before Lagos State itself was created in May 1967.<\/p>\n
That is not entirely their failure.<\/p>\n
It is partly ours.<\/p>\n
A generation cannot remember what another generation refuses to preserve.<\/p>\n
Bradford Showed Me What Preservation Can Become<\/p>\n
The museum’s newer Sound and Vision galleries particularly fascinated me because they bring together photography, film, television, animation, videogames and sound technologies.<\/p>\n
This was not preservation as burial.<\/p>\n
It was preservation as experience.<\/p>\n
Old technology was surrounded by interpretation, design, storytelling and interaction.<\/p>\n
That is precisely where my mind began racing towards Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Imagine what the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation could do with the broadcasting heritage scattered across NTA Lagos, NTA Ibadan and other historic stations.<\/p>\n
Imagine properly cataloguing the cameras, microphones, editing machines, tapes, transmitters, photographs, scripts and documents that survive.<\/p>\n
Imagine recording the oral histories of our ageing broadcasters, cinematographers, photographers, producers, engineers and performers while they are still alive.<\/p>\n
One day, their voices will be gone.<\/p>\n
And Google will not be able to bring them back.<\/p>\n
Then I Thought of Raphael James<\/p>\n
My mind went to Dr. Raphael James and the remarkable work he has been doing at CRIMMD, the Center for Research, Information Management and Media Development.<\/p>\n
Long before preservation became a fashionable word, Raphael was gathering photographs, documents, books, memorabilia and fragments of Nigerian history.<\/p>\n
His free public library dates back to 2004, while his museum project has developed into an extraordinary private repository of Nigerian historical material, including tens of thousands of photographs.<\/p>\n
That kind of work deserves far greater recognition.<\/p>\n
It is easy to laugh at the man keeping yesterday’s newspaper.<\/p>\n
Until thirty years later when everybody needs that newspaper.<\/p>\n
Then he becomes the historian.<\/p>\n
I thought also of Akinlawon \u201cLawon\u201d Adams and Loving Lagos at Onikan House.<\/p>\n
The building itself carries history. Built in the 1940s by Joseph Akanni Hollaway, Onikan House preserves elements of Lagos’s Afro-Brazilian architectural and cultural heritage and today serves as a place where Lagos history, art and culture can be encountered rather than merely discussed.<\/p>\n
These people, and I am certain there are many more across Nigeria, are doing something bigger than themselves.<\/p>\n
They are fighting against national amnesia.<\/p>\n
Uncle Tunde Kelani Came to Mind<\/p>\n
When I reached the sound section, Uncle Tunde Kelani came immediately to mind.<\/p>\n
I have seen countless photographs of old microphones, recording equipment and cameras.<\/p>\n
But photographs are not the same as standing before the real object.<\/p>\n
An object has presence.<\/p>\n
It occupies the same physical space as you.<\/p>\n
You see its size.<\/p>\n
Its imperfections.<\/p>\n
Its engineering.<\/p>\n
You suddenly understand the difficulty under which earlier generations worked.<\/p>\n
And then you appreciate their genius.<\/p>\n
The human race has travelled an extraordinary distance technologically.<\/p>\n
The tragedy would be for Nigerians to join the future while throwing away every evidence of our journey from the past.<\/p>\n
Nigeria Is Still a Land of Milk and Honey<\/p>\n
Whenever I say Nigeria is a land of milk and honey, some people look at me strangely.<\/p>\n
Some believe I say it because I am part of \u201cthe system.\u201d<\/p>\n
But they misunderstand me.<\/p>\n
When I say Nigeria is a land of opportunity, I do not mean that everything is working.<\/p>\n
Far from it.<\/p>\n
In many areas, we have almost nothing.<\/p>\n
And that is precisely where the opportunity lies.<\/p>\n
Travel.<\/p>\n
Observe.<\/p>\n
Learn.<\/p>\n
Enter museums.<\/p>\n
Visit galleries.<\/p>\n
Walk into bookshops.<\/p>\n
Look at what other societies have done with ordinary things.<\/p>\n
Then return home and adapt, not necessarily copy, what you have seen.<\/p>\n
You may be astonished by the value you can create.<\/p>\n
Every missing institution is an opportunity.<\/p>\n
Every undocumented history is an opportunity.<\/p>\n
Every neglected heritage site is an opportunity.<\/p>\n
Every Nigerian story that has not been properly told is an opportunity.<\/p>\n
I Went to Bradford for DAP<\/p>\n
Ultimately, that was why I travelled to Bradford.<\/p>\n
I went there as a student.<\/p>\n
The DAP Experience Centre is approaching an important moment in its journey, and I do not want to assume that because we have built something beautiful, we have finished learning.<\/p>\n
No.<\/p>\n
The day you stop learning is the day your project begins to die.<\/p>\n
I entered the National Science and Media Museum looking for ideas about photography and museums.<\/p>\n
I left thinking about Nigeria.<\/p>\n
I saw things we can adapt.<\/p>\n
Things we can improve.<\/p>\n
Things we should avoid.<\/p>\n
Ideas for storytelling.<\/p>\n
Ideas for presentation.<\/p>\n
Ideas for technology.<\/p>\n
Ideas for children.<\/p>\n
Ideas for our photography museum.<\/p>\n
Ideas for our analogue darkroom.<\/p>\n
Ideas for making history speak to people who ordinarily believe history is boring.<\/p>\n
And perhaps, most importantly, I received reassurance that the DAP Experience Centre is travelling in the right direction.<\/p>\n
I Have To Return to Bradford<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, I arrived shortly before 4pm.<\/p>\n
The museum closes at 5pm.<\/p>\n
One hour was almost an insult!<\/p>\n
I need two days.<\/p>\n
So I am going back to Bradford.<\/p>\n
Next time, I will arrive early.<\/p>\n
Next time, I will take my time.<\/p>\n
And, Dupe Oyelade, wherever you are reading this, I promise I will buy a charger before I go.<\/p>\n
Even if it is \u00a350!<\/p>\n
Because somewhere inside that museum may be another forgotten piece of my childhood waiting for me.<\/p>\n
Another Ero Okeliwo.<\/p>\n
Another memory.<\/p>\n
Another idea for DAP.<\/p>\n
Another reminder that museums are not buildings where old things go to die.<\/p>\n
Museums are places where memory is given another life.<\/p>\n
And perhaps that is the greatest lesson Bradford gave me today.<\/p>\n
A country that preserves its memory gives its children a foundation on which to stand.<\/p>\n
A country that neglects its memory condemns every generation to begin again.<\/p>\n
For Nigeria, with our extraordinary cultures, histories, languages, inventions, photographs, music, broadcasting, film, traditions and stories, we have too much to preserve, and far too much to lose.<\/p>\n
That is why the work of people like Raphael James matters.<\/p>\n
That is why Lawon Adams and Onikan House matter.<\/p>\n
That is why the work of countless Nigerian archivists, librarians, historians, collectors and cultural custodians matters.<\/p>\n
And, if God permits us to accomplish the dream exactly as we have imagined it, that is why the DAP Experience Centre must matter too.<\/p>\n
We are not merely building a tourist attraction.<\/p>\n
We are trying, in our own little corner, to make sure that someday, perhaps fifty years from now, a Nigerian child will walk into a room, see an object from our generation and say:<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this is how they lived.
\nThis is what they used.
\nThis is where we came from.\u201d<\/p>\n
And unlike me standing on the fifth floor in Bradford today, hopefully that child’s phone battery will still be alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\ud835\ude3d\ud835\ude6e: ‘\ud835\ude59\ud835\ude56\ud835\ude6e\ud835\ude64 \ud835\ude3c\ud835\ude59\ud835\ude5a\ud835\ude59\ud835\ude56\ud835\ude6e\ud835\ude64 My phone died at perhaps the worst possible moment. There I was, on the fifth floor of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainments-and-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23780"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23783,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23780\/revisions\/23783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}