By Ibrahima Yakubu
It is clear that Foreign artistic product has already succeeded in dominating all Africa countries with new decorative design , and this is making most of the manufactures “made in Africa “including Nigeria seems to be irrelevant to the consumers,
The chairperson of the foundation for the protection of women and children in Nigeria comrade Ramatu Tijani made the call when she visited one of the Associate member of Blacksmith union during the weekend in Kaduna and kano market
Ramatu pointed out that there is the need for all the African Union, African commission on Human and People’s Right , Association for the Development of education in Africa , Economic community of west African states ECOWAS to team up and find mean of protecting all the indigenous crafts and other artistic work from disappearing in the continent , adding that so many have started dying or fading-out due to lack of financial support to protect those historic artistic work from all forms of extinctions in the region
“Chinese and Japan and European product has dominated our African indigenous craftman working thereby killing the local industries day by day,”
“Calling on African to be patronizing local made product of their country’s ,so as to boost their own economic”
She said that as a result of foreign good and other different design of new product coming into the country ,many locally made artistic product were not given attention to, and as such, people never take them serious,
The activist says ,globally the importance of heritages and historic things to countries, and even in developing nations like Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized. This is due to its economic, historical, tourist, aesthetic, educational and research significance,
Ramatu said, majority of Nigeria indigenous crafts are facing great challenges of extinctions, and if care is not taking, they will be only remember in history book or any places where past books ,events can be found.
She noted that, interested artistic work like Blacksmith, Gold smith, Calabash decoration, Basketry, weaving, leather works, pottery, carving, Dyeing, tradition painting, Calligraphy and graphic arts, traditional soap making from wood, Smes etc are all facing a great challenges ,and if care is not taking, they will all be found in the book of history.
Blacksmiths is a creative business in Africa,and the business is facing one of the greatest challenges as a result of the influx of foreign desigh artistic job,
Many African Blacksmiths are becoming jobless due to the continuous arrival of foreign goods that is dominating all African market
African Blacksmitters were left with just only Hoes,Cutlasses,Axes ,Rake construction ,which are uses for domestic uses
According to the activist ,Nigeria has produced a lot of contemporary artists whose creative efforts has placed Nigeria in the forefront of contemporary African art. However, the modernization of art work in Nigeria is still undergoing a process of evolution.
Nigerian cultural heritages are faced with a lot of challenges such as The influence of modernization, Christianity, commerce, civilization, change, development, looting, and antiquarians, among others. Apart from smuggling, theft, vandalism and looting of museums, another most threatening challenge facing Nigerian cultural heritage is religious dogmatism
Ramatu then said More than 400 Nigerian indigenous languages are endangered,because modernization is also becoming a great threat to tradition,culture and noms, adding that many native languages in Africa are also going extinction due to soo many factors attach to this
Indeed Some Cultural Heritages of Nigeria are also facing challenges which if care is not taking ,it will also be face out due to modernization,
She then called on AU, ECOWAS and Human right organization to find mean of encouraging African indigenous artists,
Mallam Musa sani ,one of the blacksmitting in kaduna,told journalist that Nigerian don’t pejorise make in Nigeria that is why there local design product is not getting recognition\
Mallam musa said,we need encouragement and we need finance to produce quality product that can match with international standard
