Victor Ehikhamenor: Why The Gods Are Not to Blame
The Nigerian playwright, Ola Rotimi’s, “The Gods Are Not To Blame” is an adaptation of the Greek classic, Oedipus Rex. In Rotimi’s play, the protagonist, Odewale, is lured into a false sense of security, only to get somehow caught up in a trial of events by the gods. In Greek writing, fate is a common theme, where the attempt to avoid an oracle’s prediction is the very thing that enables it to happen, as exemplified in the story of Oedipus and the reworked Nigerian version of Odewale’s. Readers of both plays may be tempted to view the characters as victims of fate –mere puppets controlled by the greater forces beyond human control. This may, however, not be an entirely accurate reading.
Amid a global reassessment of colonialism and the exploitation of local populations, there has been collective clamor and increasing demand for the return of artefacts and human remains. Athenian tradition mirrors the ancient Kingdom of Benin in today’s Nigeria in the strong ties to cosmology and mythology –a belief in the supernatural, yet both were plundered with no intervention from the gods.
These artefacts now exist within institutions outside their original homes where they are believed to be tokens of collective memories devoid of their intended meanings and functions. Over a period, I have spoken about the need for artworks violently taken from the Benin Kingdom and other African communities during colonial rule and now housed in various Western institutions to be returned. Since I have been engaging with Benin bronzes and other classic African art, I realize they carry a lot of voiceless memories. It made me wonder what memories we hold and which objects they live in.
"WHY THE GODS ARE NOT TO BLAME" is a contemporary visual exploration of collective memories. By documenting people who have emigrated to Greece like some of the artefacts, I will be interrogating memories and remembrances about their past lives and what they brought with them. It will provide a tapestry for how memories are built. The works to be created in this collection will visualize the inevitability and variable complexity of fate. What role did the gods play in this sojourn to faraway lands, and in their impending return? Did they simply desire a trip and now want to return home? Or are they too, like Oedipus and Odewale, victims in man’s desire to exploit and plunder? How can we hold their memories when they are so far away?
I am proposing to create a series of large-scale drawings and paintings (Iconographies). Through the utilization of complex, ancient scripts, these works will be powerful markings that fill and shape the forms to develop a unique perspective of Black figuration. The scenes and figures will be a mix of symbols rooted in Benin Kingdom traditions and depict narratives that comment on the complex cultural and political reality of colonialism and the exploitation of local populations.
