Finalists Announced for Freedom Vibes Academy
Yinka Olatunbosun
Last weekend in Lagos, finalists emerged from the yearlong Freedom Vibes Academy where artists are trained on how to use their skills for advocacy and social change. At the hybrid event, held virtually and on-site in Magodo, the finalists were revealed and prizes were awarded accordingly.
The call for participation was announced first in December 2022 by the organisers, Unchained Vibes Africa. It was targeted at emerging socially conscious artists from Nigeria. No fewer than 100 applications were received, majority being male artists. The applications were also dominated by candidates from Southern Nigeria thus prompting the organisers to extend the application deadline.
In the end, 30 candidates were shortlisted and interviewed virtually. After a rigorous process, 16 candidates drawn from various artistic expressions were selected to participate in the Academy. They represent the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
In January 2023, the 16 artists took part in a three-day in-person training workshop in Lagos where they met and interacted with renowned and accomplished veteran artists, human rights lawyers, civil society organisation leaders, experts in cultural policies who were facilitators. The facilitators shared their knowledge and experiences on techniques and best practices in leveraging the power of art for positive social change.
Over the course of one year, the participants remotely benefited from virtual mentoring sessions with other accomplished veterans in the local and international creative and cultural sectors, including the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights.
To graduate from the Academy, each participant must satisfy the minimum requirements of Attendance, the Academy Task, Active Engagements on the Academy themes and submission of a viable project proposal. The evaluation was based on the following scoring parameters: Attendance (10%), Active Engagements (20%), Performance of Task (35%), Project proposal (35%).
After a careful and rigorous review of participants’ overall performance, 11 artists successfully completed the Academy. Out of these 11 participants, four participants have distinguished themselves for their outstanding performances. The four artists will be contracted to work with UVA on their proposed projects as part of our Freedom Vibes Advocacy and awarded contracts as follows. Abdulbasit Abubakar made the fourth position with the prize money of N200,000 to produce a poetry video on social justice and good governance in Kano. Next, the third position was taken by Aminu Mukhtar who will make a documentary short film with his N300,000 prize money to address sex education and girls’ rights. The second graduating participant is Shekwoyemi Kure who is expected to create a series of satirical mockumentary musical projects with his N400,000 win.
Finally, the overall winner Tijani Usman is expected to create a series of 2D animated song visualisers to seek justice in Plateau state.
Ayodele Ganiu, the Founder and Executive Director of Unchained Vibes Africa, explained the rationale for the academy. “In Nigeria, we have a lot of issues and artists have been found to be change agents,” he began. “Unfortunately, the trend in the last two years is that that power that artists are leveraging on, is declining because of the pressure to commercialise their works or do obscene things and even the fear of censorship. When artists use their works for activism to challenge bad governance, they are threatened and censored. Some have been arrested and all that.
“A lot of artists are very committed to doing this. Some are fearless regardless of all the challenges but they don’t have the advocacy skills to do so. So we bring up the academy to empower artists with those skills.”
The panel of judges who reviewed the applications include Samuel Osaze, Jahman Anikulapo, Nobert Young, Tunji Sotimirin from the University of Lagos. Nigerian pioneering rapper, Eedris Abdulkareem was one of the resource persons who shared their experiences with the participants and also the UN Special Rapporteur in the area of Cultural Rights as well as SERAP Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni who shared information on the freedom of expression as it relates to artists’ rights.
