Arewa Festival: Looking beyond drumming and dancing
Worried that Northern Nigerian culture is not being preserved, the Arewa Festival of Arts and Culture (ARFEST) organized a week-long festivity in Kaduna State to show case the rich culture, arts and crafts the northern states have. Speaking to Weekly Trust on the aims of the festival, the National Coordinator who is also the Chairman […]
Worried that Northern Nigerian culture is not being preserved, the Arewa Festival of Arts and Culture (ARFEST) organized a week-long festivity in Kaduna State to show case the rich culture, arts and crafts the northern states have.
Speaking to Weekly Trust on the aims of the festival, the National Coordinator who is also the Chairman Organizing Committee, Musa Gado said: “The aim of the festival is about promoting peaceful coexistence in the Northern states and indeed the entire country and it is meant to rejuvenate the culture of northern Nigeria which is dwindling and has become a thing of pity and in addition to that it is also aimed at enlightening people and to let them know that the festival is not just all about singing and dancing.”
According to Gado: “We are looking beyond drumming and dancing, we want to use this as a means of empowering the youth and women in Nigeria on arts, crafts, hospitality and tourism and one of the things we want to achieve is the establishment of Arewa International Centers in the countries of the world. There are quite a number of things that informed our thinking in this direction on of the things is the fact that in the United Kingdom, three weeks hardly pass in London without some sort of major arts-based event.”
Gado added: “We have an Association in the United Kingdom Called Arewa Association UK and they were able to get some donations in 2007, like 250 sets of computers that we wanted to bring to Nigeria and at least give to schools, NGOs and others, but unfortunately for us we could not ship these consignments to Nigeria. In 2009 we received a donation of over 20,000 books from Birmingham College in the UK but because we could not ship these books back to Nigeria they were recycled. We cannot continue on this manner, we know where to get these things and how to get them but we always have the problem of shipping that is why we want to establish Arewa Internal Center foremost in London so that when we get these things and we can ship them back to Nigeria.”
As for the establishment of the center in London, he said it is just the beginning. “Because all the states that participated in the festival here qualify for the London programme and we hope all things being equal we want to launch the center in May 2012 and we want states to give us the support to go with us to London so that we can launch the center and show the international community that we have a very rich culture.” After the launching, he said, they would then decide where in London to set-up base.
Gado noted that at the moment they have eight states present and two are on the way which makes 10 states. On the issue of challenges to make sure the festival was a success, he said there are a lot of challenges.
According to Gado: “When I was a young lad, I did not differentiate who was a Christian and who was a Muslim. When it is Christmas, we all go out together and when it is Sallah we do the same. In my own opinion, a festival of this nature will help us a great deal because there will be interaction. Muhammad will know Florence, Peter will know Hadiza and a relationship will start and it may even get to the extent of marriage and once there are issues like inter-marriage, cultural education and little things like that, we will be able to solve the problems in Northern Nigeria. I think this kind of festival will go a long way into restoring peace among our people in Northern Nigeria.”
Then the Executive Director of Niger State Council for Arts and Culture, Kabir Danasabe, said the festival is all about bringing the North together to promote unity.
Danasabe said from all indications, “We can see the problems facing the North in terms of rioting, bombings and hatred, so now we think the only way of reuniting the North is to organize a festival where people from the 19 states will come together and share their cultural heritage and also create togetherness. That is why we outlined many events like traditional music, drama, art exhibitions and traditional wrestling. All this is aimed at bringing the North back together so that we can go back to the time of the late Sardauna, where if a Kano man sees a Benue man he will take him as his brother. That is the essence of the festival.”
Danasabe called on Northern leaders, politicians and wealthy Nigerians to support initiatives like this because the only way to bring people together is through activities like these where people will come and share their cultural experiences. “We want to see that the festival is rotated from the 19 northern states so that next year we will be in another state.”
A spectator, Abdullahi Adam, said he developed interest in traditional wrestling with the exit of cinemas, but he was watching it at the Murtala Square venue of the festival for the first time. The fruit-seller said: “They are doing quite well.”