Creative Arts-Scholarly Publications

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    Open Access
    Global Diffusion of Chinese Culture: The Case of Confucius Institute in Africa (Nigeria)
    (Peking University, 2021-05) Oni, D.
    For a rising power, China’s soft power diplomacy has assumed an unprecedented momentum. As a projection of its soft power diplomacy, the Chinese government has promoted the noble ideas of Confucius as well as the establishment of Confucius Institutes across the world. Obviously, the specter of soft power diplomacy is relatively large. It includes culture, language, public diplomacy, education systems, organization and promotion of various festivals and other related events. These are all geared towards the ability to attract and co-opt rather than coerce or use force to win international partners. In several African countries, the Chinese government and other relevant authorities have established a number of Confucius Institutes. This is done through mutual understanding and collaborative efforts with authorities of Chinese and African universities. In Nigeria, the desire to embrace the institute started around 2006, culminating in two CIs; Nnamdi Azikiwe University and University of Lagos. The CI at the University of Lagos has been designed to stimulate the study of Chinese language and culture. Since its establishment, the institute has recorded outstanding success in the promotion of Chinese language and culture across the Lagos metropolis and its environs especially through the Bridge program. In addition, the institute has organized several events to celebrate the Chinese New Year or Chinese Spring Festival, the Chinese Autumn Festival, the Chinese Independence Day celebration, among others. Similarly, the CI has also served as an avenue for the introduction of African cultures to Chinese scholars. Despite this important role, no scholarly study has been devoted to analyzing the role of the Confucius Institute in Africa with special focus on the University of Lagos. This gap in knowledge has undermined our understanding of the Confucius Institute as an instrument for the projection of Chinese culture and global diplomacy. The study aims to investigate the critical areas of intervention of the Institute in the promotion of Chinese culture and language. It adopts the narrative and analytical methodology to analyze the activities of the institute vis-à-vis the impact of the Institute on Africa. It recommends that effective management of the Confucius Institute is a sine qua non for the projection of China’s soft power diplomacy.
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    Open Access
    Larger than his Frame II: Further Critical Studies and Reflections on Olu Obafemi’
    (National theatre, Nigeria Iganmu, Lagos, Nigeria in conjunction with Alpha Crownes Publishing Ltd 107 Windmill Street Rochester, United Kingdom and Department of English University of Ilorin, Nigeria, 2021) Oni, D; Ododo, S.E
    Twenty years ago, Sunday Ododo and I embarked on an ambitious project of editing a festschri in honour of Olu Obafemi at 50. It has been two decades since that project was completed and presented to the public. How time ies! that publication which literarily and literally became an acronym for Professor Olu Obafemi was aptly titled Larger than his Frame: Critical Studies and Reections on Olu Obafemi. The publication was presented at the University of Lagos with Chief Bola Ige as Special Guest of Honour and Professor Jelili Omotola (the then Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos) as Chief Host, while General David Jemibewon was represented by his Special Adviser. Unfortunately, both Chief Ige and Prof. Omotola are late; may their souls rest in peace.
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    Open Access
    DEVELOPMENTS IN THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN DRAMA AND THEATRE A FESTSCHRIFT IN HONOUR OF DAPO ADELUGBA
    (Alpha Crownes Publishers, 2011) Oni, D.
    When the idea was proposed to publish this collection of tributes and essays in honour of Professor Dapo Adelugba, it was enthusiastically embraced by several scholars, theatre artists, critics and teachers; all friends, colleagues and students of the celebrant. However, despite the great display of affection and honour accorded Adelugba, no one could imagine the volume of contributions: tributes flooded major Nigerian newspapers and magazines, all dripping with encomiums and adulations; essayists and critics from Nigeria and abroad swamped the seminar venue of University of Lagos, turning the forum which was planned to be, at most, an assembly into a huge two-day conference; and several other contributions were sent to the editors, months after the celebrations.
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    Open Access
    Striking Expressions: Theatre and Culture in National Development
    (Society of Nigeria Theatre Artists (SONTA): National Secretariat, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria, 2008-07-09) Oni, D.
    Theatre and cinema. Tradition, innovation and change in contemporary Nigerian theatre ; Theatre, culture and change management in Nigeria: Theatre education and spectatorial participation as key to the activism and societal consciousness of the change mantra ; FESTAC 77 and the Nigerian national theatre legacy ; The role of creative arts in a society's quest for peaceful environment ; Theatre training in the Nigerian university system: A critical assessment of selected design and technology courses at Ibadan and Lagos ; Lighting: Beyond illumination ; Development of design and technology in the Nigerian theatre: From Ibadan to Nassarawa ; Design and technology considerations in contemporary Nigerian theatre performances: A critical assessment ; Scenography and dramatic atmosphere in Ukala's The Placenta of Death ; Producing Osofisan's Midnight Hotel and Tegonni: Challenges for the design team ; Multiculturalism and the predicament of African and African diaspora dramatists ; Historiographic representations of Africans and diasporan Africans in theatrical works: Performance paradigms of Walcott, Aidoo and Onwueme in perspective ; Ebenezer Obey and his musical activities in Lagos state ; The changing fortunes of the cinema in post-colonial Lagos
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    THE NATIONAL THEATRE AND THE SEARCH FOR A COLLECTIVE IDENTITY OF THE NIGERIAN NATION STATE
    (National Theatre Monograph Series: A Publication of the National Theatre, Nigeria, 2022-09-10) Oni, D.
    While the capacity of Nigerian art forms to promote national unity has been emphasized and acknowledged by scholars and critics, the part that The National Theatre of Nigeria specifically can play in this process has not received appropriate scholarly attention. Apart from newspaper articles, there is very little and no detailed study about the crucial role of The Nigerian National Theatre as space and place in promoting national unity. Hence, it is this gap in the knowledge production about the National Theatre that this study seeks to fill. The proposed study would be divided into seven (7) sections. The first section provides an overview of what the study is all about as well as the conversation into which it enters. The second section would be devoted to the conceptualization of the fundamental terminologies of the study. The study, for example, differentiates and at the same time establishes a confluence between the National Theatre as a structure, place, and space on one hand; and the National theatre as the performative acts of a nation on stage with an audience on the other. The need for this is to demonstrate how both the physical and imagined space are symbiotic and can together be exercises in nation building. The third section, offers a brief explication of what Henri Lefebvre’s theory of space is all about and its relevance to this critical intervention. The fourth section is a sort of background to the fundamental argument of the study; it underscores the urgent need for/of a collective identity in the face of national disintegration. But what nation in the face of disintegration is to be built-up? In what sense should Nigeria as a nation-state be understood? Is it in terms of the space it occupies in relation to boundary markers and cartographic placements or how the inhabitants of the space and placement see themselves? And if the latter is what is of utmost signification, how should the inhabitants see themselves? Answers to these questions dovetail into the fifth section entitled “The Vision Behind the National Theatre and the National Troupe of Nigeria.” It is curious that it is the same Section of the Law that sets-up the National Theatre that also established the National Troupe of Nigeria. Accordingly, this section of the study argues that the vision behind the setting-up or establishment of the National Theatre as space and place, and the National theatre as performative gesture in the same spatio-temporal articulation of the law is an enactment for a unitary/common purpose of national unity. Art as a performative gesture needs a space from which it could speak; and The Nigerian National Theatre as a structure is such a space. Conversely, space in isolation has no meaning without what inhabits or occupies it. It is, however, against the backdrop of this established vision as enunciated in section five that the sixth section entitled “The Role of the National Theatre in Nigeria’s Collective Identity” goes on to revisits in detail Henri Lefebvre’s theory of space to highlight “what has been” and “what should be” the role of The National Theatre. The seventh and final section is the “Conclusion,” which recaps and hammers on the arguments/findings of the study.