commercial endeavours and The Story of 
Ibeji. The latter presents one of the most 
popular of Yoruba beliefs which is that twins 
are special spiritual beings that must be revered. 
This myth is. skilfully depicted in a 
brass work of many faces. There is also The 
Story of the Sango Priest, a devotee of the 
Yoruba deity of thunder and lightening. 
illustrated tueaklu 
•\M;E IU VS NEWSLETTER FOR THE ARTS' 
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ferentiate it from the scores of ragsheets with adverts because I was not getting the 
type of advertisers I need to help the newslet- churned out from obscure presses secreted in 
equally obscure corners of Lagos. 
But what it lacked in size, the Arts Illustrated 
Weekly, a publication devoted exclusively to 
chronicling events in the culture sector and 
beaming the limelight on artists, made up for 
in aspirations and philosophy. 
First published on Thursday May 4, 1989, 
Arts Illustrated Weekly was a welcome drop 
of moisture in a terrain surfeited with all sorts 
of magazines and newspapers giving all the 
attention to politics but precious little to the 
arts, as is pretty much the case these days. 
The anxiety over what appeared to be its 
demise with its last outing on Thursday March 
24,1994, after almost five years of gallantly 
braving the challenge of publishing, prompted 
not a few questions from those concerned. 
Long published as a solo effort, its publisher, 
Hakeem Shitta, a photojournalist who operates 
from his two-bedroom apartment in the 
Amuwo Odofin Housing Estate says that 
Arts Illustrated Weekly is not dead but temporarily 
stalled. 'I have to be dead before the 
publication can die,' he adds defiantly. 
'I had to go to hospital for surgery and it was 
getting from one to two and so on. So it 
naturally got stalled; that's how much the 
surgery has taken.' The sessions with surthe 
attention and funds that should have 
sustained it for the period. 
But Shitta holds stubbornly to the original 
purpose and philosophy of Arts Illustrated 
Weekly, which was, as he puts it, 'to mould 
the arts and artists within my own kind of 
small resources, to celebrate the artist. It 
occurred to me that if the artist can't make as 
much money as his counterparts elsewhere 
maybe he'll get as much celebration as he got 
elsewhere. It's part of the arts to make the 
limelight and not only money in those other 
parts of the world.' 
In what appears to be its first phase of existence, 
the publication carried a major cover 
story surrounded by news from the Nigerian 
cultural sphere, a column featuring the birthdays 
of artists, titbits on prominent cultural 
personalities, notices and advertisements. 
'It was originally designed for contributions, 
artists telling their story, critiques, an open 
gate meant to publish the writer as he writes. 
That's why there's noeditor,'explains Shitta. 
Presented in this way, Shitta necessarily had 
a one-on-one relationship with such contributors, 
who were given a predetermined 
space to fill beyond which they had to do 
their own editing. 'I always find it distasteful, 
except for obvious grammatical errors, 
to tamper with a contribution because I know 
that the way a person writes, the kind of 
words he uses and the way he uses them 
There are others of the sculptor's works all 
over the campus of Obafemi Awolowo University 
such as a larger-than-life metal sculpture 
of Hezekiah Oluwasanmi, the university's 
second vice-chancellor mounted in front 
of the University Library named after him. 
If going through the campus says something 
about Folarin's prolificity, what about visiting 
his home at the University Quarters? 
Chairs are hewn out of wood trunks, stools 
are made of teaks, all over shelves and book 
stands are sculptures not to talk of the walls. 
He has an impressive collection of other 
artists' works too, C1R 
explain his style and character and make him 
different. So, what I always do is send the 
material back to the contributor and tell him, 
"your material is over-spilling",' 
Another quality of the newsletter which he 
was determined to retain was its editorial 
independence. As if to repudiate the suspicion 
that could be harboured that the publication 
went off the streets due to financial 
problems, Shitta says he never had real financial 
problems publishing it. Rather, the only 
problem he had was with editorial matter, 
which did not always come in from contributer. 
Since editorial materials were not coming 
in as scheduled and as advertisers wanted 
to see the publication on its publishing date, 
I needed advertisers who were patient enough 
to tolerate the shifts we sometimes had to 
make and who really cared for their corporate 
image.' he explains. 
According to Shitta, direct financial assistance 
in the form of grants or monetary gifts 
from companies or individuals would compromise 
his editorial independence and put 
him under obligation to such 'sponsors'. 'I 
don't need that sort of 'assistance' beyond 
advertisements that would appear in the paper 
and leave no weight on my conscience.' 
Shitta plans to re-launch the publication 
'within a month,' after re-adjusting to the arts 
scene. But not before fulfilling a condition, 
which is the concurrent publishing of a directory 
on Nigerian artists, adocument which he 
has long planned and is almost ready for 
publishing. 
He looks forward to the launch with optimism 
as the climate in which he used to 
publish has changed considerably from the 
days he used to encounter problems with 
typesetting. He now sets the pages on a 
personal computer he recently purchased for 
the purpose. But he hints that the cover price, 
which had changed from an initial 50 kobo in 
80
1989 to N5 in 1994, may not be the same 
because of rising costs. When times were 
better, he says, the newsletter was published 
with N2,5OO, but the situation has changed 
considerably. 
'It wasn't initially designed as a profitable 
venture but to stand on its own and to be 
circulated free of charge. If for instance we 
got a little assistance from advertisers in 
terms of improved advertising support, that 
could cover the overheads and we could 
afford to circulate free. But the assistance has 
to be appropriate; it should not be the proverbial 
gift horse with pre-conditions,' Shitta 
says. 
Publishing Arts Illustrated Weekly has been 
an outgrowth of Shitta's career as a dedicated 
photographer of the arts and artists. He started 
devoting exclusive attention to cultural photography 
in 1983 and declares the performer 
to be the primary focus of his photography, 
'because performing is a transient art form. A 
painting is permanent and can always be 
admired after it has been exhibited, but a 
concert is something that is not always there. 
That's why I give performers emphasis. When 
I attend exhibitions, it is as an event, to 
photograph the personalities who will be 
present, and not the works.' 
His larger purpose, however, is to have a 
photo-library on every Nigerian artist and 
performer of contemporary times so that 
anybody from any part of the world can tap 
into an on-line computer network and get the 
information he needs on any artist or visual. 
This documentation which he started a long 
time ago is continuous. 
'Anything may happen to me, but if I have 
this information where others can reach it 
and use it for the benefit of all then it won't 
have been a wasted effort.' 
Hakeem Shitta 
ADOTEY BING 
On January 18 after about two years of planning, the Africa Centre played host to 
a group of invited business people, diplomats, members of the British arts 
establishment, journalists and well-wishers who were treated to a twenty minute 
slide presentation of the Centre's plans to become a flagship for Africa in Europe. 
The presentation, given by myself and Ms Elizabeth Biggin (its development officer for 
public relations and fund-raising), was preceded by a short but powerful speech by the 
High Commissioner for Uganda, Professor George Kirya, who is on the Council of 
Management for the Africa Centre as one of the three representatives of African High 
Commissioners and Ambassadors to Great Britain. 
The presentation consisted of a brief history of the Centre, an introduction to the building, 
an overview of its events, an outline of the redevelopment plan, the support received to 
date and the fund raising strategy. 
The Africa Centre was established in 1961, and formally opened in 1964 by Dr. Kenneth 
Kaunda, then President of Zambia. In 1968 it purchased 38 King Street, in London's 
Covent Garden, which at the time was the site of London's main fruit and vegetable 
market. Today Covent Garden is one of London's major tourist attractions. 
The Centre is a stone's throw from the Royal Opera, and is close to Bush House from 
which the BBC's Africa service is broadcast, the Savoy Hotel, Trafalgar Square with its 
famous Nelson's Column and the National Gallery. Four Africa High Commissions - 
those of Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa - are within four 
minute's walking distance. 
The list of Africans that have spoken or performed at the Centre over the past three decades 
reads like a roll call of Africa's 
brightest. They include Wole Soyinka, Mahtar m'Bow, Presidents Julius Nyerere, 
Kenneth Kaunda and Yoweri Museveni, OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Sahm. 
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, the Right Reverend Desmond Tutu, Gracia Machel, Chinua Achebe, 
Bernard Chidzero, Sally Mugabe, Ousman Sembene and Ben Okri. Among British 
politicians that have spoken at the Centre are Malcolm Rifkind, Baroness Chalker and 
David Steel. 
The Centre's exhibition of Zimbabwean stone sculptures at the Barbican in 1988 was 
opened by HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales. Artists such as Malagatana and 
Ablade Glover have exhibited there. 
The Centre's present building, which is of considerable historic interest, houses a 
restaurant, bar, book shop, craft centre, meeting rooms, a gallery and resource room. Over 
160,000 people visit it each year. From 1776 when the doors first opened, it has served a 
number of different purposes. For the bulk of the time it was the Stephens Auction Rooms. 
The purpose of the plan is to provide an attractive, functional and inviting building, inform 
and educate people about Africa through high profile events about African arts, culture 
and opinion, and - last but by no means least - make the Centre's building financially selisustaining. 
The plan will involve re-designing the Centre's programmes and extensively redevelopffi"