Guardian

IN four months, Fulbright, U.S. scholar, Erica Licht-led You and I Teach Each Other (UNITE) initiative engaged youths across Lagos, via diverse creative activities with the aim of promoting justice and non-violence approach to conflict resolution.

Licht’s project employed the visual arts, among several creative areas in taking a space in mentorship as painter Duke Asidere and video artist, Jude Anogwih took the young participants in the Ajegunle sections of the project through the world of contemporary art.

A few days ago, the project berthed at Freedom Park with a graduation ceremony after the participants shared their experience of the past four months with the audience at U.S. Consulate in Lagos. But ahead of the conclusion of the activities, Licht took a guest through the aims of UNITE and the formats, which had 30 young participants from each community mentored on a weekly basis at workshops in Ajegunle, Ogudu and Lagos Island. For the visual arts sections of the project, it was quite instructive that two genres from the extreme ends of modern and contemporary art – painting and video art – found spaces in UNITE.

Also employed were other creative areas such as music, performing arts and yoga.

According to Licht, “UNITE is s justice programme that engages youth in Lagos, from age 15, in an experiential learning project using criminal justice, environmental and life skills curriculum”.

At this period of challenge in Nigeria’s nationhood, securing the future through better orientation of the youth could be very crucial. Perhaps, exposing the youths to areas of the arts such as visual arts, music, performing arts and seeing established artists working among them, among several activities of UNITE, could take the mentality of the young ones away from divisive and hate characteristics that make conflict resolution difficult. This much appears to be the goal of Licht.

While speaking about the workshops, Asidere recalled how it was fascinating for him to engage the young ones in painting, photography, and even in the area of art as complex as dealership. Asidere, whose studio is situated in Egbeda, did not go to Ajegunle for the workshop alone, saying, “I had film practitioners Aondofa Saaka and Ralph Anire with me in Ajegunle. We all spent time talking, learning”. The core of the workshops, he stressed, was “to tell every one to put their best in whatever they do”.

Clearly, whatever could be used to prepare the minds of the youths for a better tomorrow is worth all the trouble and sacrifice, with Litch adding that the project, “teaches positive behavioural skills to youths through education on security and justice issues in Lagos”.

She argued that for youths to learn and cultivate decent attitude, “supplemental programming in nature provides a classroom to teach conflict resolution practices such as stress management, personal development and interpersonal group skills free from the distractions of the urban environment”.

While watching Asidere at work during the workshop, Licht, particularly saw an exciting side of the painter, even at her level of exposure. This perhaps, suggested that the memory of the workshop would reverberate in the lives of the participating youths for a long time.

For example, she noted how “Asidere made a point that you can make a career doing what you love”. In selecting artists for the project, Licht found Asidere a fascinating artist who “creates an art piece within an hour and a half”.

Just returned from a residency in Vienna, Austria, Anogwih, a member of Video Art Network, Lagos, narrated his experience of the Ajegunle side of UNITE. He recalled how the youths had brilliant interactions during the workshop, particularly sharing amazing views on creativity, art and technology, adding, “I was amazed by their keen interest in the use of moving and still images in creating experimental videos”.

A consistent advocate of new media art, Anogwih also screened videos from previous workshops in Lagos and Khartoum.

He, however, confessed how “my myopic view and stereotypes of Ajegunle were totally nullified as I saw a community in all senses orderly, beautiful and eager to engage positively”.

From the perspective of African contemporary art, the participating youths must have been fortunate that they were exposed to video art so early; it could provide a wider perspective in information dissemination should any of the young participants choose to improve their environment in the future though activism.

This much Anogwih reflected by introducing unfamiliar application of video as a different form of art to the participants. He showed some works of other artists who have used video to make statements about their environment, stressing how it could be shot, even with common technology as the camera of a cell phone.

On video as an art form, Litcht expressed delight that the participants were able to see video from other perspectives apart from the regular one. With the assistance of Goethe Institut, Lagos, which provided the projector, it was a great experience, as enthused by the visiting scholar.

Before heading to Nigeria, Licht had taken the project to New York, Wyoming, Uganda, Trinidad and Jamaica. Despite all the warnings from some countries of the west about security concerns in Nigeria, why did Licht choose the country?

“I did not choose Nigeria”, she quipped, and quickly clarifying, she added: “I chose Lagos”. Licht argued that the difference between Lagos and the rest of Nigeria is so huge. Within her four months’ stay in Nigeria, she said she had traveled in and out of Lagos quite a number of times, noting, “I travelled out of Lagos a lot, but the moment I returned to Lagos, it’s like I am in another place”.

Selecting the young participants didn’t seem such a difficult task, she said. In each community, she worked with a local partner who selected the participants that were mostly secondary school students. From one community to another the ages of participants varied. “Secondary school students were about 18 years in Ogudu; in Lagos Island and Ajegunle, the participants were much older, from 24 years”.

The UNITE partners are Youth Concerns and Development Initiatives Africa, Gifted Generation, Central Lagos Island Police Station and Ogudu Senior Grammar School.

Apart from visual arts, the visitor also took the young participants through Yoga with the input of an expert, Dayo Adegoke. And why inculcate yoga? “I see yoga as a particular art form; for relaxation and self-control”.

Still on Ajegunle, music, she said, was not left out as youths were exposed to the production aspects of creating music with the assistance of Jahoha Music Studio.

In another aspect of the workshop, which she called Alternative to Violence Project (AVP), performing art, she said, was used in creating drama that inspires “solving problems non-violently”. And, as a conservation enthusiast, the project also afforded Licht an opportunity to share her passion with the young people. She offered her “cameras to the participants to take photographs and videos at the Lekki Conservation Centre.

Whatever the youths have learnt over the past months, it was time to share with others, and to get recognition as well. So, at the U.S. Consulate, there was a presentation and graduation at Freedom Park, Lagos, end of May through June 1st.

Quite passionate about building justice and good behaviour into the youths, Licht took her campaign to the radio airwaves. She hosted a weekly radio show Justified Nature on UNILAG FM on Tuesdays at 2:30 to 3:00pm, stating, “It’s about creating a conversation on bridging together the fields of criminal justice and environmentalism”.