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Environmental degradation, tree felling: Osundare, others differ with UI

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3 months ago

To what end should literature, especially the poetic kind, serve man and his society? Should poetry and its currency continue to solely be art for art sake? These questions and more raged through the minds of literary scholars and creatives who gathered in the Drapers Hall of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan (UI), to watch and listen to how the earth is being treated like a place of no consequence by people and organisations who should be protecting it.

The scholars and creatives converged on the evening of February 6th, under the auspices of the Thursday Film Series (TFS), a weekly gathering of film enthusiasts and writers, to discuss pressing issues bordering the earth and nature.

Professor Niyi Osundare, renowned poet and scholar; Ms Molara Wood, writer and cultural activist; and Ms Adeola Aderemi, writer and scholar were the panellists for the event tasked with enlightening the audience on what the TFS team presented as: ‘A special screening and discussion on environmental degradation’.

Before the panel session, the audience was entertained by Osundare’s poem ‘Hole in the Sky’ and later clips of news reports published by the National Association of the Students of English and Literary Studies (NASELS), UI, on the recent cutting of all the trees and vegetation’s at the Heritage Park in the university.

Shortly after the poem and news clip presentation, a three-minute documentary highlighting the history of tree felling on the UI campus in 2019 by Alain Kassanda was shown. Later, ‘The Poets’, a 99-minute documentary, filmed in Sierra Leone and Nigeria in 2016, and produced in 2017 by American filmmaker Chivas DeVinck, was shown.

‘The Poets’ is about two influential African writers: Syl Cheney Coker of Sierra Leone and Niyi Osundare of Nigeria. The documentary captures the lives of the two poets in their respective parts of Africa and the historical, cultural, and social factors that shaped their lives as poets. It also encapsulates how critical it is to keep in touch with the ageing facets of the African culture.

During the panel session, Osundare began his intervention by stating that he has not read any work of art that does not protest and that the more the writer tries to avoid protest, the more protestant he becomes. He further stated that, quoting someone, “Every work is a work in politics. The question is, what and whose politics?”

The poet lamented that Nigerian universities are no longer what they used to be and that the more universities the country produces, the more illiterate Nigerians become, adding, “I love Nigeria, but I am ashamed of the way we are behaving. We are like slaves who do not want to remove their chains.”

Ms Wood described the tree felling at the Heritage Park in UI as something that looked like a massacre, like the aftermath of a mindless and thoughtless battle scene. In light of this, she urged Nigerians to have a multi-focused look at things that have to do with the environment, and to jettison the idea that the solutions to some of the problems facing the country would come from Europe of the West.

Wood lamented that environmental degradation is happening almost everywhere in the southwestern part of the country. She cited the Osun River as an example, where the once-clean river is now murky due to the dirt and mining activities that have degraded it. She also cited some other places where neglect and abuse of the environment are causing harm to people and the natural ecosystem.

Ms Aderemi approached the discussion from the angle of people and governments not placing priority on things that have to do with their weather and climate realities and cultural and spiritual values.

She stated that in Nigeria, people want to build big cement houses, mine for minerals, and construct luxury estates that add little or no value to the majority of the common people, yet are detrimental to the environment.

Professor Nelson Fashina, the Head of the Department of English, UI, stressed that the word “degradation” should be replaced with “regeneration” when speaking about the environment and the tree felling on the campus.

He argued that the environment cannot remain the same for a long time, adding that the “environment is kept regraded and upgraded to support the needs of humanity in contemporary society.”

Speaking about the felling of trees on the UI campus, Professor Fashina stated that people will always react to change. He further stated that Heritage Park could not remain there forever and that the trees in the park had to be cut down to build the gigantic seven-storey senate building of the university.

Fashina emphasised that, as far as he was concerned, the felling of the trees to build the senate building was environmental regeneration and not a degradation, adding, “There is no way that there will not be an argument regarding this. Some poetic instincts will neglect some of these things, and that negation is part of it.”

Dr Rosalie Ann Modder-Oyefeso, co-founder of Save Our Green Spaces Group and member of the Save Ogunpa Forest Reserve Team, differed with Professor Fashina’s assertions on the Heritage Park tree felling. She stated that cutting down trees does not amount to change, that people cannot live without trees—and, therefore, what happened at Heritage Park was uncalled for.

Dr Modder-Oyefeso recalled in a lamenting tune that over five thousand trees had been removed from the Ogunpa Forest, and despite all their pleas and letters to the Oyo State government, not a word that they said was considered by the government.

“When you cut down a tree, you are removing the oxygen and altering the soil, which will also alter the water table. This is not about change. It is about environmental catastrophe waiting to happen, and they cannot get away with it,” she said.

Still, on the issue under consideration, Dr Modder-Oyefeso said that the Americans and the Europeans have made their mistakes regarding environmental matters and are looking for ways to remedy them, adding, “Climate change and global warming are here. They know what they have down—yet, we are still following them without knowing what is going on.”

Reacting to Professor Fashina’s contributions, Ms Aderemi warned that politicising the Heritage Park issue will not help anyone. She said, “We are digressing from the main problem, and the main problem is that we are destroying our environment. Nature will always remind you that she is the mother, the powerful one; that we are the ones who cannot survive without her.”

Ms Wood, addressing Professor Fashina, reminded him of the role he played in the film about the house that Professor Wole Soyinka lived in while he was in UI. She said that that film was an invasion of the original Arcadian paradise that Soyinka envisioned when he lived and loved that house.

“And you yourself (Professor Fashina) speak very much in line with the ethos and tune of that film. Therefore, I will put it to you that your submission today is a contrary position to your inspiring role in that film,” she said.

Wood went on to say that many Nigerians travel to Europe and America for environmental conditions they do not care to nurture, protect, and preserve in Nigeria. She added, “I am a Londoner. I have lived in London for over two decades and we are very proud that London is by definition a forest because it has over eight million trees. But, in Nigeria, we say our society is ugly. We will continue to make it ugly.”

Professor Osundare, giving his concluding remarks, said that an educated, enlightened, and reasonable person loves their culture and that he is proud of his Yoruba and culture.

On the other hand, he laminated that Nigeria has rulers and not leaders who put their selfish interests first before true service to the people. He added that those who rule Nigeria, from the university level to the politicians in Abuja do not think about others other than themselves.

Osundare noted that Professor Fashina was playing the devil’s advocate in his defence of the stance and justification of the university on the felling of the trees at the Heritage Park for the construction of the senate building.

“There are times when things happen and you ask: Why do people not think? We are in a university. A university has a universe in it that should make people think. We act first and think later. We are a country of foolish people. It is our foolishness and stupidity that our politicians exploit. They take us for granted,” he said.

In light of this, Professor Osundare charged Nigerian universities to teach their students how to ask questions. “WHY, is the most important question in all the philosophies,” he concluded.

Some staff of the Institute of African Studies and the Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique attended the event.