THE SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF SELECTED NIGERIAN MASKS AND HAUSA WALL DECORATIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN EDUCATION

THE SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF SELECTED NIGERIAN MASKS AND HAUSA WALL DECORATIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN EDUCATION

ABSTRACT

THE SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF SELECTED NIGERIAN MASKS AND HAUSA WALL DECORATIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN EDUCATION Rufus Boboye Fatuyi Under the supervision of Professor Ronald W. Neperud In the past, Nigerian art was functional in the sense that it was an integral part of the traditional societies comprising Nigeria. Several factors have affected the once traditional roles of art in Nigerian society: colonialization, technological advance, and rapid urbanization. The socialization processes associated with art and its functions within Nigerian society, once perpetuated by custom and tradition, have been disrupted by rapid social changes. It was believed that formal education could reacquaint Nigerians with the social functions performed by traditional arts, thus serving to foster the social identity, cohesion, and cultural continuity that was formerly provided by art functioning in custom and traditional ways. The purpose of this study was to identify the social functions performed by a selected group of traditional Nigerian art forms and to suggest ways in which such material might be incorporated into contemporary Nigerian education. Sixteen art forms, mostly masks and Hausa wall decorations. were described, the social categories in which they functioned identified, and analyzed for performance of social functions within traditional society using literary and personal sources of v i i i ix information. Functioning within social categories such as religion, politics, law, entertainment, education, and decoration, it was found that the traditional art forms functioned: (1) to promote the perpetuation of communal association, (2) as technology, (3) to attract people’s attention and reform their attitudes, (4) to promote conceptual knowledge, (5) to provide entertainment, and (6) to maintain social reality and enhance human aspirations. Against a view of society provided in Donald W. Oliver’s Education and Community (1976) it is suggested that the social functions performed by traditional Nigerian art forms are in many ways a fulfillment of, or comparable to, the social functions outlined by Oliver as necessary for qualitative life in a society, particularly since Nigeria is, developmentally, at a point between the modern aspects of the human community and the state characterized by the existence of smaller traditional social units. Several suggestions are offered for reintroducing traditional art forms into contemporary Nigerian education, including art education

THE SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF SELECTED NIGERIAN MASKS AND HAUSA WALL DECORATIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN EDUCATION