Protecting our Art Heritage

This is an excerpt from a letter that was written by Professor Mrs. Ebun Clarke, an avid collector and pioneer of Traditional Art collection by Nigerians. She was also one of the pioneering lecturers of the school of drama at the University of Ibadan in 1963. From there she moved in 1965 to the department of English at the University of Lagos and was appointed the director of the Centre for cultural studies in 1983. She retired from the university in 1991.

Professor Clarke remains, to this day, a strong voice for the protection of Nigeria's art heritage and talent, going as far as calling on the Federal Government of Nigeria to invest more in the creative arts industry. 

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Excerpt..........

"I started to buy masks in 1964, when I saw colonial officers shipping our antiques out of Nigeria without any restrictions. My husband, J Pepper Clarke, along with other artists, joined the effort to preserve our antiquities. when, just before the Civil war began they too noticed that so many expatriates were shipping trunk loads of our ancient and modern arts works out of Nigeria, in droves, without anybody caring to stop them.

During the the colonial and immediate post-colonial times, up to the mid nineteen seventies, it was very easy to buy antiques from Nigeria. All that the seller had to do was just knock on a door and sell. Then, most sellers concentrated mainly on expatriates, as Nigerians were not interested in their arts, preferring to invest in land and property.

The small group of artists, led by my husband, decided that something had to be done to stop the unchecked removal of our ancient arts. So, they met with the late Ekpo Eyo, Director of National Museums of Nigeria, to start the movement to ban the export of our antiques without permission from Nigeria.

This was not an easy task as it took years to get General Gowon, the then Head of State, who was busy with a war and post-war reconciliation, to effect the decree banning the export of our antiques. Unfortunately, contemporary art was excluded from this original decree, which I have always considered a great pity.

The Gowon Decree didn't just ban EXPORT. It also banned SELLING of art antiques. And it mandated museum staff to go to known Nigerian collectors houses to take inventory of their holdings. The whole point of this was to enable the country to, thenceforth, monitor the buying and selling of our art antiques. Thus, it was intended that the museum staff would periodically check with collectors on the items SOLD or ADDED to their collections. The decree did not apply to items purchased prior to 1963.

Thus after 1963, one cannot legally sell antiques without permission.

The unknown contribution of this small group to the protection of our art heritage must not be forgotten.  So too must the contribution of indigenous collectors and Nigerian art galleries to the expansion of art in Nigeria not be forgotten. Indeed these must be written about. If you ask my opinion, I'd say that this history should be material for academic thesis, at least, for MA dissertation.  

Alas, if we keep quiet and do not write about our history, no will do it for us."