I HAVE been wondering over time and space if an artist can be a spirit medium of a force beyond his or her conceptual powers or a possessor of own voice.
An artist is a public intellectual whose conscience is his or her own master or mentor, not a spirit medium. Some examples of artists include poets, musicians, writers, painters and sculptors, among others. As public intellectuals, artists have a duty to inform, educate and entertain society accordingly with respect to their specific areas of gifting. It is the intent of this opinion piece to adumbrate, analyse and discuss the attributes of a genuine artist.
A genuine artist stands with nothing else but the truth. If for instance, the artist is a sculptor depicting the narrative of colonialism, his or her work of genius should depict the otherhood or objecthood with which the colonised were treated. Artists have a touch of genius in whatever they do, hence they should use their assets for the greater good of society.
There is no euphemism in a piece of art, there is no telling less than the truth in the song of a musician, there is no cheer leadership nor is there minimising the achievements of good deeds just because the artist thinks otherwise about those doing good. True artists provide the colour of the daylight, they are the ears, mouths and eyes of the least recognised members of society.
True artists are in most cases unpopular with governments because their messages have the potential and power either to move or remove governments. Those artists whose conscience is their own masters often speak truth to power, they call a spade by its right name and not as a factor of production. In most African countries, writers and singers who, have challenged political decisions that are at odds with the promotion of collective access and advancement, have been persecuted in different ways. Artists give citizens information in various ways about social, political, economic and environmental issues obtaining in their countries. Information dissemination and distribution by artists become a point of contestation and conflict between governments and the artists because information is power. If there is one thing that governments guard jealously, it is information.
For governments, information that is objective will not promote or advance their political goals. Rather, information should just come from units within governments for the purpose of propaganda, hence the crafting of harsh and restrictive laws on media and information and the creation of ministries responsible for information. Governments give information selectively and artists give information as is, and the latter's expenditure of effort where information distribution is concerned becomes an issue with governments.
Governments in their manner of doing business usually have a proclivity towards State security whereas true artists tend to gravitate towards issues that border on human security.
Governments would rather prefer artists to grab tissues than grab issues and fortunately governments have apparatus at their disposal to use to help artistes to grab tissues, they usually win hence we see artists bending over backwards writing and singing for their breakfast, lunch and super.
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True artists are voices of reason, they are there to help citizens know what is happening without any moderation of content and context.
Once artists identify themselves with a government, they defocus to the extent of losing the bigger picture. It is hard especially for African artists to stand with the truth because of poverty and self-interest, hence artists like musicians are often cajoled by governments to sing songs that romanticise and essentialise governments’ activities, programmes, practices and projects. When musicians sing for their supper, they become corrupted and tainted, they cease to identify with the people who may not have capacities and capabilities in their various areas of artwork. True artists do not receive gifts or incentives that only serve to gag their mouths. Before an artist receives a gift, he or she should seek to understand the source of that gift. Essentially, an artist should look a gift horse in the mouth.
A gift can come from sources that are trying to dry clean dirty money when dirty money is a vice that has led to the bleeding of social infrastructure like schools and healthcare facilities. True artists do not think outside of the box, rather they think as if there is no box, they have the power of visualisation with an end goal of peace-building, projection, forward and outward thinking that enable them to understand the possible consequences of their feelings, thought patterns, behaviours and actions.
A true artist asks, “What is happening here and why?” True artists, just like institutions, should stand with vulnerable populations of society. True artists provide the checks and balances of systems that are in their society. Artists who get carried away by carrots that are dangled before them by powerful State and non-State actors do not deserve to belong to the basket of genuine artists because they are merely an occasion for wonder as they will be conflicted in their wiring.
True artists should stand more and often in need of the indulgence of their citizens and in the process become the collective pulse of the citizens through their songs, writings, drawings and sculptures.
Artists, who dance with docility to freebies are not artists, but spirit mediums of survival hood. Genuine artists are the voices of the people and should not become jelly when they are exposed to inducements that are meant to help them define a spade as a factor of production.
