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Global Correspondent Report
ASCAFS: Stimulating Artistic Skills in
Adolescents
ASCAFS is the acronym for Annual
Schools Carnival of Arts and Festival of Songs. Founded by the
Association of Nigerian Authors in Niger State, Nigeria, in
1995, ASCAFS is held every February in the peaceful city of
Minna, the capital city of Niger State. It brings students of
secondary schools together in a three-day event and offers them
a platform to display their artistic skills in various aspects
of literature, craft, painting and music. ASCAFS has helped a
number of youngsters in Niger State to discover their talents in
the arts and pursue them with increasing interest. For this and
its cultural revivalist tendency, writers, cultural activists
and thinkers have considered ASCAFS the first of its kinds in
Nigeria—indeed a model yet to be emulated.
Since secondary schools are already aware of the annual event,
they prepare their students-representatives toward it. While
there are such ceremonies as opening speeches, keynote
addresses, drama evening and poetry night, the more engaging
package of the event are the competitions the
students-representatives participate in. The first of the
competitions is on-the-spot writing where the students, within a
specified time, are expected to write poems and short stories.
The results from this competition are usually surprising. I have
personally judged this competition and have been astonished by
the level of the maturity shown by the teenagers in crafting
poetry and short fiction in an exam-like atmosphere.
Besides the on-the-spot writing, there is an aspect called quiz
contest. The questions from this section are drawn from selected
literary texts. Usually, each school obtains the books for their
students-representatives earlier than the time of the festival
so that they read and prepare ahead. Most of the questions are
on the authors, the characters, the scenes, the themes and the
social relevance of the books.
There is also a painting competition that requires the
students-representatives to produce an artwork surrounding a
chosen theme. The theme is usually broad and relevant to the
society.
In the competition tagged “Craft”, the students-representatives
are expected to explore their technological tendencies, either
in the local or Western way, to create any object that they deem
important to humanity or that will meet the immediate needs of
their societies. In this section students-representatives have
presented fascinating things like energy-conserving substances,
motoring objects, propellers and other things.
Photography is also a subject for competition. Here, the
students-representatives present pictures to a panel of judges
who consider the various segments making up the chemistry of a
good photograph. In other words, the aesthetics of the picture
determines the chances the picture has of winning the
competition.
Another interesting section of ASCAFS is the competition known
as “Lullaby”. This is a poetic dramatization of the skills for
calming a hurt, angry, crying baby or putting a baby to sleep.
The competitors here are usually girls who demonstrate their
motherly qualities before a panel of judges that picks out the
most motherly of all. This is important to the African
girl-child because the image of the mother in an African society
is very significant in the African philosophy up till today.
Besides lullaby, there is a song competition, which brings
students-representatives on stage to show their skills in song
writing, singing and miming. This section is dedicated to
popular music since there is another section concerned with
cultural displays.
The liveliness of the section for cultural displays is
outstanding; the children are enthusiastic about displaying
Nigeria’s rich cultural traits, artifacts and dances. The
cultural group of each school is given a time, say twenty
minutes, to come on stage to display the cultural dance of the
chosen ethnic group in Nigeria. Every year, two or three ethnic
groups are named so that each school presents the cultural dance
of any of the named ethnic groups. This liberal gesture means
that every ethnic group in Nigeria will certainly be featured,
which, in a way, is a formidable means for fostering cultural
revivalism in Nigeria. Native histrionics and dance techniques
have been demonstrated in various ways in this section. The best
dancing troupe usually takes the prize.
The last section of ASCAFS is drama presentation. Every school
presents a drama group. And every drama group presents a stage
play that should demonstrate a considerable degree of
dramaturgy. Beyond the dramaturgy, the language, theme and
relevance of the drama to the contemporary society are also
considered by the judges in picking out the best of the drama
presentations.
The competitions are designed in such a way that the results are
kept secret until the last day of the event, which is regarded
as the day of honors, awards and prizes. A number of
dignitaries, both in the literati and in the sociopolitical
sphere, are invited to perform the ceremonies of giving the
winners their prizes. Both the winners and the losers return to
their respective schools more experienced than before.
Though ASCAFS creates a climate of competitions, the uppermost
concern of those who have established it is to bring arts to
secondary school children and stimulate the innate artistic
skills that some of them have. To a great extent, the aim has
been achieved. The result of this is that in Niger State, more
than in any State in Nigeria, there has been a rise in the
number of teen authors, a phenomenon that has spurred the
Association of Nigerian Authors to establish national prizes for
books written by teenagers. The challenge before ASCAFS now, it
seems to me, is to design a program that should embrace the
younger children in primary schools and kindergartens. Children
have been known to demonstrate great artistic talents from those
stages of their lives.
Let
the hope rise, Alphoncina
(Upon reading Dele Olojede’s “Genocide’s Child: A
Mother Struggles to Love Her Child of Rape.”)
By E. E. Sule
what use, Alphoncina, it is
for you
tucking this angst of rape-motherhood
in your breasts?
tell us what you reap
when you wander, fumble, teary-eyed,
inside the urethras of those savage penises
in a world of penal tragedy?
shouldn’t you
have known, Alphoncina, that
Rwanda was a whole misfired penis
aimed by man’s scything urge, blazing moans
to recreate universe with his veins of violence?
shouldn’t you, Alphoncina, have known that
the Hutus and Tutsis suddenly realized man’s miracle
in his heavens of metallic wonders
in his irrational rage
an instinct straight from Caine’s penis?
Alphoncina, your emotion startles us
your undried tears blur our vision
your unhealed yesterdays sting humanity
Alphoncina, this world harbors wayward penises
this garrulous world
this ageless stream of mediafiction
games with petty syllables of war
&
profits on the shed blood of the innocent
Alphoncina, return from your self-made pond of tears
return, oh dear, return from
the violent veins of those savage penises
step out of the lusty stings of those brutes
step out of the innards of those Interahamwe
take a bold stride over the rot
be a soldier in the stagnant sun of today
call her rays to companion and create
a hope out of those spindly arms of fate
Alphoncina, let the hope rise for Garvais
tell us the taste of your breast milk, Alphoncina
was it sweet or bitter for Garvais?
didn’t he scream out his distaste, kick at
this penis-savage world and resign
to the life that came from your breasts
when your thighs gave way to him
in your sharp cry of childbirth?
Gervais came to you
as an eye in tomorrow’s face
as a tongue in tomorrow’s mouth,
as a penis of peace in tomorrow’s waist,
as a conscience in tomorrow’s life.
live for him, let him live for you.
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