Aunty Nike Okundaye, the Yeye Oba of Ogidi Ijumu, the land of my father, is 74 today and I so revel in telling a bit of her story which is still unfolding having just received another garland, alongside Prof. Soyinka, from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Senate for their contributions to the Nigerian and global art.
In 1995, Kim Marie Vaz, author of WALKING RADDY: THE BABY DOLLS OF NEW ORLEANS, a professor of education who’s concurrently a Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Xavier University of Louisiana, published Chief Okundaye’s biography, THE WOMAN WITH THE ARTISTIC BRUSH: A LIFE HISTORY OF YORUBA BATIK ARTIST NIKE OKUNDAYE. In about 150 pages, the American restoried with clarity and admiration what can be taken as a good representation of Okundaye’s life. But the reel is still rolling.
Since 1968, when Okundaye did her first solo exhibition at the Lagos office of Goethe Institute, the German globally renowned culture centre, she has never ceased to be a phenomenal personality who uses the poetic license of the artistic world to give the finest revelation to the fertility and fecundity of the human mind.
An expert in Adire and Batik, the indigo cloth-dyeing technique, Okundaye unveils with precision the mythologies of life underpinned by Yoruba history and her own life experiences. Her forte is the visual, musical, and performing arts, and through four art centres she established, this unique woman has shown industry, creativity, and purpose in their antiseptic fashions. The result is over 7000 artistic works that took life from her heart and mind or sprouted under her tutelage.
Noted for uncommon philanthropy, Okundaye deserves to be studied as a rarified case of charitableness. She practically submits her art centres as artistic hubs, offering free training to the young and old, delivering hands-on didactic on the unique techniques of indigo cloth-dyeing and other artistic expressions Chief Okundaye has been a living spirit of Ogidi Day, Nigeria’s largest culture event in June, attended by people from all continents of the human earth. Thus, she’s a leading light in the pantheon that took the land of my fathers to the world.
Being restless about doing good works, Aunty Nike is a great representation of how Ogidi Ijumu, indeed Nigeria and Africa, changed the world. Like a smoke that can not be hidden, she has featured in many media systems of communication, including CNN, CNBC, and Nubia Africa. She has also given lectures and workshops in many leading universities across the world.
She’s being deservedly honoured with a doctorate by Rhodes University in Eastern Cape, South Africa, and would easily earn a professorship of practice in any civilised part of the world. Indeed, her works adorn great centres of repository systems, including the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington DC and the British Library in London.
Friends, I invite you to join me to wish this phenomenal woman a happy birthday celebration. I wish you all a great, blissful weekend.
