A forty-year devotion to advocacy and promoting the arts fetched Nigerian culture worker Jahman Anikulapo’s global recognition of the UNESCO Defender of Cultural Rights Award 2024.
The International Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights made the recognition with the support and guidance of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
He was honoured in the Montevideo Hall of the Legislature of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mr Anikulapo interacted via a video call.
Anikulapo stated: “Art liberates. Culture elevates. Humanity is divine. Arts and culture are the two special vehicles I have relied on and deployed to advocate for promoting and preserving human values and principles in my over four decades of endeavours as a literary and performing artist, journalist, and advocate,” he said in the video.
“I’m convinced that our collective humanity’s sanity, dignity, and elevation can be easily achieved through intentional, appropriate and effective cultural education. I’m indeed doubly honoured to be recognised for the modest work I have done over these decades, and I’m assured that I should not relent in pursuing my life’s mission: advocacy for the betterment of our common humanity”.
Anikulapo, 62, founder of Culture Caucus Advocate (CCA), Programme Chair of the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), and Director of iRep International Documentary Film Festival (@irepfilmfestival), has been involved in Nigeria’s arts and culture scene for the past 40 years. He has performed on radio and TV in Nigeria and stage in local and international drama productions. He was arts editor for The Guardian of Lagos Nigeria, once the flagship of Nigerian journalism. He was, for 10 years, editor of The Guardian on Sunday. As Programme chair of CORA, he convenes the annual Lagos Book & Art Festival, which has run since September 15, 1999.
The International Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights (CIPDH) is a UNESCO Category 2 Centre that promotes human rights. It was established in 2009 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The CIPDH’s work includes:
Human rights education: The CIPDH organises the annual International Course on Human Rights.
- Awards: The CIPDH awards the UNESCO Defender of Cultural Rights Award to prominent figures who defend fundamental rights.
- Capacity building: The CIPDH offers consulting services and capacity-building initiatives to help local governments promote human rights.
- Research: The CIPDH research to help authorities deliver good governance.
The award represents the realisation of Jahman’s hopes and dreams, as he told BusinessDay in our article of 1 May 2024. “The dream at the start was to give the arts and culture as much visibility as possible, such as business, politics, and sports. I hope we have achieved that much.”
Jahman is a constant feature at one of the remarkable landmarks in the Lagos Artscape: the prison turned theatre named Freedom Park. “The Freedom Park is one of the most remarkable manifestations of “becoming” for someone like me, especially with the notion of fundamental rights and freedom behind its conception. The park is on the grounds of a former colonial prison, Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s Prison, which connotes a place of pain and anguish, shackles, and deprivations. To have such a tragic space converted to a place/space of joy, pleasure, artistic freedom, and humanistic endeavours is quite inspiring. That is the most remarkable story for me. We hope the Lagos State government, which owns the facility, allows the space to continue to flourish and realise itself as conceived by the designer, the architect, Theo Lawson of Total Consult.”
Jahman has been involved in significant arts programs and events over the last two decades, and the Committee for Relevant Arts (CORA) has been a critical platform for those activities.
He explains that CORA was founded in 1991 to — as suggested by the name — ensure the flowering of Conscious Art, hence the notion of “Relevance” in the name. “The idea is to sift the conscientizing art from the ‘popcorn’ sort of art. In other words, to ensure that the art – in all its ramifications and disciplines – flourishes in the service of the community and humanity. I believe that since June 2 1991 when it was launched, the CORA has been fulfilling its birth mandate through its various programmes, especially the Quarterly Art Stampede, the Lagos Book & Art Festival, the Arts Forum, the Lagos Circle of Critics, the Culture Working Committee, the Lagos City Arts Guide, Lagos Cinema Carnival, and lately the BookTrek, and the newly founded CORA Library & Resource Centre through which the CORA has been pushing the idea of spreading Literacy on its self-wrought 3-E agenda-Education=Enlightenment=Empowerment.”
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