By Anote Ajeluorou
The second phase of Lagos
Black Heritage Festival (LBHF) scheduled to take place next month, which was
dedicated to Brazilians of Yoruba origin in a homecoming
ritual, has been cancelled. In a press
briefing on Monday, Festival Consultant, Prof. Wole Soyinka, in company of
Erelu of Lagos, Abiola Dosunmu, said a message from Brazil’s Ministry of
Culture cited budgetary cuts as reason for the cancellation.
A letter announcing the
cancellation and signed by one Daniel Rodrigues Brasil, read, “Dear Olu, as we talked over the phone,
due to drastic budget cuts, applied horizontally to the purposive actions of
the Brazilian government, I regret to inform you that the delegation of the
Ministry of Culture to the Festival in Lagos has been reduced be four Brazilian
filmmakers who work with black culture. I am at your disposal to provide
additional information that may be necessary”.
Soyinka said in view of the drastic cut in
the delegation expected at the festival (from an initial 300, then to 60 and
now only four), it would not be possible to hold the festival that would have
meant a homecoming and reunion with their Yoruba kith and kin. Ironically,
Soyinka said the budgetary cuts cited by Barazil’s Ministry of Culture was
apparently in deference to the football World Cup Brazil would host next year
since football was some sort of religion in that country.
He quipped that football had obviously
knocked out culture since Brazilians were fanatical about the round leather
game, saying, “kicking around a ball is not something in me”.
The Nobel laureate said the Brazilian October
Festival was designed as “a huge return of the Brazilians to Nigeria in terms
of religion and culture and they would have visited various Yoruba towns; it
would have been a huge invasion of Brazilians, which would have experienced a
huge emotional outpouring and enthusiasm on both sides, but more on the
Brazilians’ part. As a result, the whole planning has been cancelled.
“That is no longer a homecoming; I don’t see
a homecoming of four people. There were about 12 Brazilians and Cubans at the
recent Osun Osogbo Festival; that was more of a homecoming”.
The literary icon said the Lagos Black
Heritage Festival colloquium originally billed to hold in October, the
intellectual core of the festival, which ought to be held around events, would
now be pointless as well. He also dispelled hope that another date would be
fixed for the Brazilian part of the festival.
Soyinka noted, “I don’t think there will be
another time for hosting the Brazilians. I’m convinced that arts and culture has
just been knocked out by the football they are hosting next year. That’s my
feeling”.
He, however, maintained that the vision of
bringing Brazilians of black origin back to Nigeria to reunite with their
Yoruba kin would not stop with this fiasco, noting, “It can’t be abandoned. In
Brazil is the deepest penetration, the reality, the vibrancy of Nigerian,
Yoruba culture outside the country, outside the continent. There’s the
possibility of using other platforms to make that vision real”.
He also noted that the timing of the
Brazilians’ pull out was too short for anything to be done for the festival to
go ahead, on account of the sheer logistics involved.
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