J.L.K Writes - Visiting the Tate Britain

Two Friday's ago, Kingston University allowed the Media class to go on a trip to an art gallery, the Tate Britain. We were tasked with finding our favourite piece in the museum, but I don't have a favourite piece per say but I do find a documentary I watched in the gallery interesting and would like to talk about it.

Our Generous Mother

Onyeka Igwe produced one of the most immersive short-film documentaries, 'our generous mother'. Her work stands to crystallise the lived experience of a hectic post-colonial Nigeria, that had just gained its independence from the British. Onyeka blends film, sound, text and spectacle as she weaves a narrative around her mother's experience in the freshly built University of Ibadan.

Onyeka showcases how Nigeria built itself up as a prestigious country in the world again with the University's famous scholars like poet and Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka, historian Bolanle Awe and Abiola Irele to name a few. With this, professors and students from Europe also gained an interest in the University, teaching and learning respectively. Onyeka, however, isn't ignorant to the harmful attitudes that many still had to African cultures, noting that the improvement was gradual and not instant.

In her work, Onyeka centres the black voice and chooses her mother to narrate directly from her memory. I think this is similar to Spivak's Education and the Silencing of the Subaltern (1988), where he suggests that colonial institutions silence the voices of the marginalised, in particular women of colour. "The subaltern cannot speak". It, then, becomes our effort to allow those voices to speak, those women to speak and their minds to learn in order to actualise decolonisation.

By having the narrator be her mother, Onyeka centres a women of colour's voice and time in education, the first person account showing control over her own narrative. For once, the lens is black instead of white.

Reflection

In this assignment, I believe I did well to hone in on a single topic from the large array the museum had to offer. I also think I matched the photographs with the topic I'm on, but understand if that's not the consensus. I should have done better to capture more pictures of the documentary but seeing how fast the frames were going, I'm also glad I managed to capture any I had intended to.

To improve, I believe I should taken more of an interest in other pieces to diversify the information I deliver. Belbin's team roles (2010) suggest that everybody within the team should act in accordance with their strengths to make the project flourish. I was adamant in understanding the art pieces myself I failed to remember that I could ask staff. If I ever visit again, that will be my top priority, and maybe seeing if I can book a tour for a more immersive experience.

Citation

Belbin, R. M. (2010). Team Roles at Work. Routledge

Spivak, G.C., 1988. ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, in Nelson, C. and Grossberg, L. (eds.) Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, pp.271–313.