A Morphing Amotekun

By

Obododimmma Oha

Art in violence and the art of violence, as two different things with an interesting intersection, could be quite intriguing in analysis. First, both reveal the use of force to get a way, and that may entail pain or death. But, second, both have representations from which, ironically, we derive pleasure and professionally discuss as encodings of craft. It is possible that those with artistic skills that suggested the name, “Amotekun,” (roughly translated as “leopard”) and its emblem, were interested in reconciling the fear-instilling meaning with the aesthetic touch. As someone keenly interested in the aesthetic, I noticed the large-cat icon and linked it with the encoding or targeting of fear as its silent statement about grace. 

(Particular artist anonymous) 

The Ekun (lion or leopard in Yoruba) is a fearless killer. A hunter that meets Ekun in the bush is certainly playing with the big boys! The large cats are fearless devourers and may be good candidates in the iconization or a countervailing of terror, a paradoxical representation of anti-terrorist terror, you would say. With the emergence of related security outfits in other regions of Nigeria, one also had to look for the aesthetic statement in the designs of the emblems. That was a good candidate for an article for Artitude, one of my blogs dedicated to politics and the artistic.

One cannot miss the recurrence of the large-cat icon in the designs of emblems of other regional security outfits. It is there in the emblem of the Northern security outfit. It is there in the one being proposed for the South-East. Are these other copycats merely copying and pasting without giving due credit, especially since Nigeria officially seems to trivialize plagiarism in artworks? So, it seems to be the same Amotekun traveling – to the North, the South-East.... Who knows where it is headed next? But when it travels to other regions, it behaves like a typical Nigerian politician at campaigns – adorning a bit of the local dress, but still wearing the true dress of self, hoping to deceive local populations that he or she identifies with them.

But it is the same Amotekun traveling as Ekun the tiger or large cat from region to region, mobilizing, campaigning for a localization of security, selling the culture of fear in the artistic and the artistic of fear... a morphing Amotekun.

If I say that it is the same Amotekun, maybe I am concentrating on Ekun the tiger! Perhaps I should also focus on difference. The South-East outfit is called “Operation Ogbunigwe.” 

(Particular artist anonymous  

Ogbunigwe may be typically Biafran and instilling fear as an explosive, but is this local security really about mass killing or a protection? Something does not quite sit very well there. I know that the outfit could kill to protect, but a loud Ogbunigwe gives a misleading impression that the outfit has set out to kill en masse! That is not true, even though it may be looking for a local icon to narrate its no-nonsense posture. Also, is it not very creative when Biafra's popular rising sun becomes a young person's fashionable shaggy hairstyle? If the sight of the rising sun annoys you, then see it in the shaggy hair. Who says ambiguity has no value? 

I know that the proponents for the South-East Security outfit may be at great pains in reconciling the icons in the emblem: there is the ogbunigwe lure and there is icon of the colonial blaster which, I doubt, captures the ogbunigwe idea. Perhaps the mass killer is "unrepresentable", not even by a leopard which kills and drags up its meat in the tree. So, I know the problem in the semiotization. But, why not we see the same anti-terrorist terrorism traveling? The paradox is admirable!

The Northern outfit is linguistically anchored in Hausa as “shege-Ka-Fasa,” which means, “I dare you to attack or surrender," and that is clearly more of a response or counter-statement. So, it is all about attack and counter-attack in Nigeria, in which the tragic conclusion may be an ogbunigwe summary in rivers of blood.

(Artist anonymous) 

This discourse, however, points at violence in the icon travelling. It is traveling now in the bloodstream of Nigeria and may rip its heart open.