Nigeria, the land of plenty

glowing in the rain There are days when nature appears to conspire against an established program. One such day happened recently, I had an appointment at 11am on the Mainland, in Mushin. At 9.30am the wind started to blow heavily, ridding trees of old and shaky leaves. Palm trees, too, were loosing their branches and one had to be careful not to be hit by them. Plastic bags were flying high. The sky was darkening rapidly, making one wonder if the sun had an eclipse. Then the rain started pouring heavily erasing the skyline from the horizon. This went on for a while but I did not want to miss my appointment. Somehow I managed to get onto the car, soaked from the short span of time being away from my umbrella. The road progressively filled with water as gutters could not handle the amount of water delivered by the storm. Thunder joined the party too. Lightnings pierced the clouds and preceded the thunder by a few seconds. Traffic was not too thick, most people had wisely postponed ...

Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya talking about his plastocast works A black woolen beret let some cloudy white curly hair emerge. A pair of dark rimmed glasses hide a curious pair of eyes above a white moustache. Professor Bruce Onobrakpeya stands in front of us in his traditional outfit of black african print brightened up by vivid blue and red lines looking like electronically modulated laser beams. He is lively talking about his art displayed in the small courtyard of his three-storeyed studio of Oloje street in Mushin. He works there since 1973 and probably moved in around 1976. First, he looks intimidated by the crowd before warming up as he answers the first questions about his art. He is humbly talking about the technic he uses to form casts in which he pours coloured fiber glass to create a bas-relief. fiber glass coloured and painted   He mentions the work he does with copper sheets on which he is applying some patine. We see also a panel of African lace collages, apparent...