Wole Soyinka
Culture is closely intertwined with
tourism – the former, in fact, often drives the latter. The destination
uppermost in the minds of most tourists we know is – Culture. This
means that both share friends and – enemies. Of the principal enemies,
seeing that we
find ourselves within the precincts of governance, I
intend to engage your attention in this brief address to just one:
Insecurity. That inability of any vacationist to let go com-pletely,
relax, submit oneself completely to the offerings of a new environment –
the sounds, sights, smells, textures and taste. Of Culture itself, in
and or out of the touristic intent, there is no ambiguity in the mind of
its enemies. They make no bones about their detestation – call them
Taliban, Daesh or Isis, al Shabbab or Boko Haram. Their hatred is
pathological and impassioned to a degree that goes beyond the pale,
beyond insanity and sadly beyond cure. The duty of governance towards
such retrogressive outbreaks remains unambiguous.
After Boko Haram, what next? In fact,
at this moment, Boko Haram has no ‘after’ since it is by no means ended,
no matter what technical expressions such as “militarily degraded’
means. But let us assume indeed that we are already in the past of Boko
Ha-ram. It is now clear that the succession is already decided, the
‘vacated’ space is al-ready conceded, and that the new territorial
aspirants are already securely positioned. The entire nation appears to
be theirs without a struggle, and the continuity of an established
Nigerian necropolis north to south and east to west is being
consolidated.
Some necropoles are actually
architecturally fascinating. They attract visitors from distant places,
but those are works of veneration, artistry and dedication. They are
visual feasts, among whose structures the visitors actually picnic,
leave flowers and symbolic gifts to hovering ancestors. Latin America is
full of them. The Nigerian widen-ing necropoles leave only the taste of
bile in the mouth, the corrosion of hate, stench and rage.
When I read a short while ago, the
Presidential assurance to this nation that the current homicidal
escalation between the cattle prowlers and farming communities would
soon be over, I felt mortified. He had the solution, he said. Cattle
ranches were being set up, and in another 18 months, rustlings,
destruction of livelihood and killings from herdsmen would be ‘a thing
of the past’. Eighteen months, he assured the nation. I believe his
Minister of Agriculture echoed that later, but with a less dispiriting
time schema. Neither, however, could be considered a message of solace
and reassurance for the ordinary Nigerian farmer and the lengthening
cast of victims, much less to an intending tourist to the Forest Retreat
of Tinana in the Rivers, the Ikogosi Springs or the moslem
architectural heritage of the ancient city of Kano. In any case, the
external tourists have less hazardous options.
However there is also internal tourism,
to be considered a premium asset – both economically and in spirit of
nation building and personal edification. This was an exercise I
indulged in in the early sixties as by-product of other engagements,
such as research. A lot however was simply under curiosity. I can claim
modestly claim to be among the top twenty-five percent internally
traveled Nigerians, acquainted with the smells, textures and tastes of
their geographical habitation. I wish the late Segun Olusola were around
to testify to the sudden bouts of tourist explorations we made in his
Volkswagen Beetle in the pre-war sixties.
But now, would the young adventurous set
out to visit the mystery caves of Anambra and its alleged curative
pools from mere interest? They would think twice about it. It is not
merely arbitrary violence that reigns across the nation but total,
undis-puted impunity. Impunity evolves and becomes integrated in conduct
when crime occurs and no legal, logical and moral response is offered. I
have yet to hear this government articulate a firm policy of
non-tolerance for the serial massacres have become the nation’s
identification stamp. I have not heard an order given that any cattle
herders caught with sophisticated firearms be instantly disarmed,
arrested, placed on trial, and his cattle confiscated. The nation is
treated to an eighteen-month optimistic plan which, to make matters
worse, smacks of abject appeasement and encouragement of violence on
innocents. Let me repeat, and of course I only ask to be corrected if
wrong: I have yet to encounter a terse, rigorous, soldierly and
uncompromising language from this leadership, one that threatens a
response to this unconscionable blood-letting that would make even Boko
Haram repudiate its founding clerics.
It is now close to a year since I
attempted to utilize the Open Forum platform of the Centre for Culture
and International Understanding, Oshogbo, to launch a national debate on
the topic – SACRED COWS OR SACRED RIGHTS. The signs were already
clear and the rampage of impunity was already manifesting a cultic
intensity of alarming proportions. For reasons which are too distasteful
to go into here, the forum did not take place. We were already agreed
that General Buhari be invited to give a keynote address, based on his
long experience in such matters as former head of state, and as a cattle
rearer himself who might be be able to penetrate the mentality of this
‘post-Boko Haram’ pestilence’. That challenge remains open, but should
now involve this gathering, which surely includes tourist and
educational agencies. They should join hands with human rights
organisations, the Ministry of Agriculture, Farming and local Vigilante
associations etc. It is a gauntlet thrown down to be picked up, and
urgently, by any of the affected or troubled sectors of society, or
indeed any capable and interested party at this conference. The CBCIU is
prepared to collaborate.
Let me narrate a personal experience –
just one among many – that was brought home to me, right against my
doorstep. Before that specific happening, I had observed a change of
quality in forest encounters with cattle herdsmen over the years. These
changes had become sufficiently alarming for me to arrange meetings with
a few governors and, later, with the late National Security Adviser
General Azazi. At the time, we thought that they were Boko Haram,
infiltrating into the south under guise of cattle herding. That was
then, and of course that surmise has never been firmly proven or
disproved.
Recently however, I returned from a trip
outside the country about to find that my home ground had been invaded,
and a brand-new “Appian way” sliced through my sanctuary. That
‘motorable’ path was made by the hoofed invaders. Both the improvised
entry and exit are now blocked, but interested journalists are invited
to visit. In over two decades of living in that ecological preserve, no
such intrusion had ever occurred. I have no idea whether they were
Fulani or Futa Jalon herdsmen but, they were cattle herders, and they
had cut a crude swathe through my private grounds. I made enquiries and
sent alerts around, including through the Baale of our neighborhood
village. There has been no repeat, and hopefully it will remain the
first and last of such invasion. What it portends however is for all
thinking citizens to reflect upon, and take concerted measures against.
Herdsmen, let us appreciate, are perhaps
humanity’s earliest known tourists. They must be taught however that
there is a culture of settlement, and learn to seek accommodation with
settled hosts wherever encountered. The leadership of any society cannot
stand idly and offer solutions that implicitly deem the massacres of
innocents mere incidents on the way to that learning school. For every
crime, there is a punishment, for every violation, there must be
restitution. The nomads of the world cannot place themselves above the
law of settled humanity.
This was an address by Prof. Wole Soyinka to the National Conference on Culture and Tourism on Wednesday, April 27, 2016.
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