Nigeria is indeed rich with diverse cultural heritage. It is this
cultural heritage that portrays the common man who he was; he is and would be,
to the world at large. Basically, in Nigeria today, it is a tormentor’s issue
that this cultural heritage has been flushed into the deep sea of
westernization and civilization as society now termed it as “fetish”, “archaic”
and “rubbish”e.tc. This has led to frequent damages of many cultural heritages,
geared by the spirit of Christianity to have brain washed many so called ardent
Christians famously termed the “born-again” to note now grievous it is of them
to destroy the book of their historical records and means to proof to the
outside world that they indeed have root.
Howbeit, one could view it; it is believed that they were pioneered into
such act by the mind of ignorance. Ignorance in the sense that they knew not
the potentiality, informative and educative value of these heritages; they
failed to acknowledge that this heritage could be preserve for posterity; hence
they take solace in its mass destruction. Many have erroneously believed that
museum is a place where irrelevant materials of the ancient period are kept and
many do not even know what museum is all about. Museum is a place for showing
the man who is not fully aware of himself, his capabilities and inventiveness. It is a mirror that captures the look of man
in the past and tries to link him up to the present. In another development,
museum which is an institution is known for collection, preservation and
display of objects with the basic aim of entertaining, educating and providing
materials for research on aspects of man’s heritage. Museum is for the society,
it is a collection for attracting different categories of people to have
interest in cultural affairs. Museum preserves and conserves cultural
heritages. It helps to foster a sense of local pride and maintain traditional
values. Museum helps us to be aware of the need of persevering our cultural
heritage and keeping in touch with its traditional usefulness. The museum is
filled with artistic expression of the different ethnic group of Nigeria,
making it possible for distinct ethnic group to have access to it, so as to
take some look into the cultural values of groups and to draw out areas of
divergence and convergence of cultural make up. The Nigerian artistic tradition
and works include: Ife Benin and Nok art cultures, which are the oldest civilian
of art. And through the showcasing of these artistic objects in the museum the
younger generation comes to know and study the cultural upbringing of their
society. The primary aim of a museum is as follow:
1, To
collect, protect and preserve the national identity
2, Educate
the masses on their heritage and the culture of other people.
3, To
provide entertainment and relaxation for those who visit.
4, To
protect the national image on the international scene
A CALL FOR
RE-EVALUATION OF MUSEUM
A
cursory glance into our society of today reveals that these tradition and
cultural heritage are being crushed in their thousands. This is because
colonialism brought with western education and some Nigerian has become
enslaved and brain washed by the western way of life. And as a result of this
brain washing, many now believe that they are less intelligent than the western
people and that western culture is better than theirs.
Despite all these, we learnt how Africans
prior to the western cultural infiltration highly esteemed their cultural
heritage. This however led Okonkwo in Chiuna Achebe’s “Things fall apart” to
protest brutally against the invading act of the western culture into his
indigenous culture. He stood vehemently against the intruding westerners. He
was thus moved by the mind to preserve his heritage. Could such motivation be
found in this contemporary age? Obviously the response is No the negative
because we all have unwholesomely assimilated the injunction that every
cultural object is of fetish and of talisman. What then should be done? Must we
keep eyes widely opened and see these informative objects being destroyed? This
calls for re-evaluation and re-assessment. Taking into cognizance, that the
object pass some information should be a clear reason why they should be spared
and preserved for posterity. Rather than destroying these cultural heritage
during spiritual purging, it is advisable that Christians should take these
object into the museum custody where they can be show cased to portray the
African rich cultural value, and more importantly for evidence to tell that
Africa and indeed Nigeria does not suddenly dropped from the moon. We have base
from which we emanated from.
Finally, everyone is called into this
wholesome task. Government should legislate and enforce statutes against the
indiscriminate destruction of these objects. The mass media should publicize
the relevance of these artistic expressions through the usual radio-
link-interactive programmes. The printing press must likewise give this issue
its imperative importance. The ordinary citizens both Christians and non-Christians
alike should rather present these artistic expression as donation to the museum
instead of taking pleasure in crushing them. Until this is done, we will never
be spared by our fore-fathers for tarnishing the duty of preserving these
object they faithfully left in our custody.
BY
EZEANI JOHNPAUL
TRAVEL & TOURISM CONSULTANT
ENUGU STATE TOURISM BOARD
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