Creativity in autism: Story, feats of 13-year-old Kanyeyachukwu

In November 2009, Tagbo and Silvia Okeke welcomed their third child Kanyeyachukwu in Calgary, Canada, amid celebrations with family and friends. However, at the age of four, Kanyeyachukwu — fondly called Kanye by his family — though, physically healthy, could seldom talk or communicate his needs like his other three siblings or children his age would.

His mother, Dr Silvia Tagbo-Okeke, was worried and consulted paediatricians and doctors who evaluated and diagnosed Kanyeyachukwu with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), simply known as autism.

Coined in 1911 by Swiss humanist and psychiatrist, Dr Paul Eugen Bleuler, autism is a life-long neurodevelopmental condition that causes speech impairment and affects social interaction.

According to a 2014 publication by some scholars at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, titled ‘Autism in Nigeria: A Call for Action’ and published in the Journal of Clinical Sciences, one out of 125 to 150 children in Nigeria has autism.

World Health Organisation (WHO) reported in March 2022 that one in 100 children in the world lives with autism. In Nigeria, a study shows that 54 of the observed sample of 2,320 children in the country had autism, with the condition more common among males than females.

Coping with an autistic child is daunting and financially exhausting. Kanyeyachukwu’s mother admitted that, after accepting her son’s condition, she enrolled him in The Zeebah Place, a therapy and preparatory educational facility in Abuja. She also got him therapy support from the OLG Autism Centre in Abuja.

“You have to start looking for solutions and interventions from people that will help, and schools that will accept your son,” she told Punch Healthwise. “You start talking about your son so that others will know that being different is not bad.”

She stated that a child with autism requires more than one therapy to attain their full potential. She added that these therapies are expensive, and one is not enough.

“You have to get different therapists for different purposes,” she said.

However, as Kanyeyachukwu grew up, especially from the age of five, some significant development in his creativity was observed.

A blog post titled ‘Art and Autism: The Importance of Creativity for Children on the Spectrum’ published on The Place for Children With Autism, stated that individuals on the spectrum can be extremely creative thinkers and professional artists, and to get the most out of this potential, having healthy outlets of creativity and creation from a young age is important.

“Since they are less likely to be constrained by social norms, they are more prone to thinking outside the box in problem-solving situations,” the blog post added. “The sense of pride that completing an art piece brings is also an asset that can improve confidence and self-esteem.”

Another article titled ‘The Power of Creativity for People with Autism’ published on lexingtonservices.com noted that creativity lives within a set of rules for people with autism, that a person with ASD might not immediately express creativity, but if asked and directed, they may be able to generate something even more complex and innovative than anyone expected.

“In terms of treatment, when it comes to ASD, the accepted model relies on behaviour modification therapy,” the article added. “Art therapy is one such treatment that uses the production of art and the expression of creativity to help people with ASD process their emotions and communicate their desires, thoughts, or concerns.”

In the last six years, Kanyeyachukwu’s art and painting career has distinguished him among his peers. He has been recognised globally in the creative art world and the world of those living with special needs as an advocate of diversity and inclusion.

One of the notable people who contributed to the success of Kanyeyachukwu’s art is Sir Emeka Okwuosa, the business mogul, philanthropist, and founder of the Sir Emeka Okwuosa Foundation (SOEF).

Last year, when Okwuosa visited the young painter in his studio, he was filled with awe and offered to co-sponsor his first solo exhibition in New York, the United States (US). As his exhibition unfolded, Kanye’s art journey was again illuminated as his works were requested to be showcased in an exhibition in Washington DC and Malta.

During SOEF’s flagship Gala Night held recently in Lagos — in which one of Kanyeyachukwu’s paintings ‘Emotions’ was exhibited — Kanye’s father, Tagbo Okeke, stated that the fear of parents who have children with autism or other severe disabilities is how their children would fare and be accepted in society.

“So, for most of us, we try to build a community around our children, a community that is usually made up of people who accept the disability and challenges,” Okeke said.

Okeke also said that Kanyeyachukwu’s New York exhibitions, supported by Okwuosa, offered him opportunities to attend other global art exhibitions, adding, “We are being invited to other exhibitions in Australia and Asia because of the support of Sir Emeka Okwuosa.”

Dr Tagbo-Okeke noted that with the support of individuals and organisations like SOEF, Kanyeyachukwu can read loud and clear through his artwork.

“He is able to say, ‘Hey, even though I am under the spectrum, I was not giving up on people who believed in me; that I am able to take my art to an amazing place like New York, to Washington — and of course, to other places as well — to Malta’. In Malta, he got the Artist of the Year award,” she said.

According to a documentary video displayed at the SOEF’s gala night, Kanyeyachukwu’s earliest moments of fame and recognition was in September 2018, when at the age of eight, his work — alongside three other artists — was exhibited for the first time at the OPEC Fund for International Development yearly art exhibition in Vietnam, Austria. During the period of this exhibition, the Duke and Duchess of Austria honoured him with the Austrian Flame of Peace Award, an honour reserved for artists and members of the diplomatic call who have used their arts and positions to foster world peace and development.

In March, of the following year, Kanyeyachukwu in partnership with Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, hosted the first of its yearly multi-group art exhibitions featuring the display of artworks and talents of children living with autism and Down Syndrome all over the country.

Shortly after this exhibition, he was invited and became the youngest artist to feature at the Achain Art Festival in Casablanca, Morocco in 2019. Also, in 2019, he was honoured as a recipient of the Nigerian Independence Day Award for Social Bravery.

Also, according to the documentary, Kanyeyachukwu’s work has been on display at numerous international art shows and exhibitions in the last couple of years. This includes the New York Art Expo 2021, where he was the youngest featured artist; and the Art Vancouver Expo, where he was not only the youngest artist to feature but one of his pieces was selected and made the cover of the official journal of the event in 2022.

In line with his advocacy works, Kanyeyachukwu’s pieces are found on the walls of several embassies in Nigeria and foreign mission headquarters in various parts of the world. He was recently a guest of the president of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) where one of his masterpieces was presented to the president at the UNICEF headquarters in New York.

Also, while marking the United Nations World Children’s Day in 2022, he was recognised by the Federal Government of Nigeria, for his extraordinary talent and contribution through his drawing awareness to children living with disabilities in Nigeria, including over 61 scholarships and art supplies donated to under-privileged children living with special needs paid for from proceeds from the sales of his artwork.

In the last couple of years, Kanyeyachukwu has shown that with his paint, brush, hands, and mind, there are many unique things people like him can achieve. One of those things, according to him, is painting his own reality. He believes that, in doing this, he is telling and communicating to the world how creative and talented he is, despite his autistic condition.

On Kanyeyachukwu’s official website, it is stated that — as a contemporary abstract artist extraordinaire, who defines autism his own unique way — he daily defy the odds by painting his heart with colours and inspiring other children living with the condition.

In their quest to determine the link between autistic traits and creative thinking processes, psychologists from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the University of Stirling analysed data from 312 people.

The result of the study, published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, shows that people with high autistic traits could be said to have less quantity but greater quality of creative ideas.

Co-author of the study, Dr Martin Doherty, from UEA’s School of Psychology, stated that autistic people are typically considered to be more rigid in their thinking, so the fact that the ideas they have are more unusual or rare is surprising.

“This difference may have positive implications for creative problem-solving,” Doherty added.

In light of this, and given the creative journey and notable achievements of Kanyeyachukwu, Dr Tagbo-Okeke concluded, “autism is not a tragedy; ignorance is.”

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