On our way to Africa, we left with one hundred empty tapes and the irony behind it all is not just having all hundred tapes full of image materials, knowledge, information, experience, exposure and encounters, but we realize that we have never in any occasion been able to acquire as much experience in such a little period of time, it was so brisk but efficient, its Deja vu will remain with us forever, we had no time to think, we had no time to digest, we were only chewing and accumulating and at a point we were sick and tired of seeing one another.
if i was asked whether i got THE answers to all the questions i left with, my answer will be based on all the exuberant people we met during the one long month, i will be thinking of all those people that saw us and really wished to be us, all the wonderful interviews we made, the change in weather, change in reality, change in cultures and people, change of environment, our speakers that got burnt, better quality performance that grew with time, my response will be based on the process at which i put this whole project together, based on all those that encouraged my fearless bold step, this is my first ever big project that didn't remain in my journal of ideas and concepts, so my question needs no further answer than being there, who knows what "THE TRUTH" is, my answers has always been with me, it flow with every cell of my blood, i see it everyday on the streets of Paris, i school with it in Chalons en champagne, i lived with it in Lagos, it grew up with me throughout my childhood and i will continue to live with it all through my encounters in life.
I only feel somehow guilty for what I’m not responsible for, this is not all about me, its about the millions of consumers we've got out there, those who knows not what come behind their daily bread, those who has not gotten to that level of consciousness, those who have not asked themselves why they are so addicted to peril, those who knows what is wrong but not capable of doing right, for the youth... Our own attraction to peril is so high that i fear for the generation of my own children and children's children, remember the older generation had more to fight then, from colonial struggles, to the creation of a Nation that is still fragile for them to handle, the then dark continent was a mere land of backwardness and of primitives. but today the claustrophobic atmosphere of the west has kept all the vultures of the world focus on the land of hope, a land with no tall buildings but of wider space for us to dance, poorest in economy but richest in humanity, our objective was not to go to Africa to take some "SUN", take SOME pictures and perhaps have a nap on the green grassy grounds close to the beaches.
Our interest was not on natural resources but human resources, we were not there to teach anybody anything (moreover what do we know) we were not practically wanting them to look up to us as another Zebra colony(of blacks and whites), we know that some claws are tightly on our culture, the civilization mission is still on. So we the youth are the ones the beak of the vultures are pecking profusely at... this will only make the strong amongst us stronger and the weak weaker. so it is then the responsibility of the strong amongst us to scream and shout it out, Dance it to the deaf and dump maybe one day he will be able to read our jests, Sing it out to the ears of the blind, maybe he will understand our lyrics... if only the beautiful dance steps of the Dancer and the sweet voice of the Singer don't get them carried away. And seeing others who seem so passionate about my affairs made me understand myself better, my relationship with the group and my ability to hold on and never let go has improved.
The project has already gave an outcome, being there in the streets, at the market places, at the Malls, at the down town, at the beach and all other non conventional spaces we showcase our happening has left an out come to those we really wish to get really close to, another outcome is the present book titled CROSSING BOARDERS and the documentary film title DO WE NEED COLA-COLA TO DANCE?, this book and film represents and valorise our existence as part of the younger generation of scholars and intellectuals in the continent, our critical appraisal or our harsh criticism is not to appear as a slap to other creators or our continent nor to the west, it’s a fight against ourselves, a wake up call for a revolution.
- -MESSAGE-
I assume criticism become more delicious when it is from the left side of the story, because when the appraisal is coming from a positive view point then it becomes a praise.
This will send messages, meet the youth and creators at their point of hunger, the young generation is hungry for life, they jump on every thing that comes, and in a life where everything goes, we are confused about what to hold on to, Religion? Culture? Or the Media... we imbibe the new culture and this new culture will only lead us to a further destruction of our nullifying "Self"?
- -WEALTH-
(Our Obsession)
Above all for the average youth of this 21st Century are so poor that we don't know it, looking at the definition of poverty we have to understand under what circumstance we say someone is poor (material mongers), are we in the material world or that of thoughts and ideas? The quality of the human being, joy, spiritual richness, all these has not yet been determined by the amount of money one has. so we still need something to hang on to, in other for us not to end our lives foolishly, we still need a strong point where the older generation and the contemporary generation meets while we move on from where they stopped and not just in a quest of creating a new culture that will only rumble, mumble and stumble before sun set.
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