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By Steve Agbota
Maritime industry stakeholders have commended the organisers of the African Maritime Art Exhibition (AMAE) for providing artistic reminders of Africa’s shipping domain, its major challenges and numerous opportunities.
AMAE, which held in Lagos, is curated by Hazi’s Art, an arm of Maritime TV Africa to tell Africa’s marine/ maritime story using images and artistic impressions, painting, drawing, digitised photography, textile print, sculpture and many more.
Despite having the 2050 African Integrated Maritime Strategy (2050 AIM Strategy) which is a coherent long-term multilayered plans to enhance maritime viability for a prosperous Africa, the artworks exhibited at AMAE depicted the realities on the menace of marine litters, disorderly seaport terminals, value for aquatic life, coastal and riverine communities, and other maritime issues.
Sharing her experience at the event, a former Continental President of African Women in Maritime (WIMAFRICA), Mrs. Jean-Chiazor Anishere (SAN) observed that “there is a clear distinction between the media or an operator telling you about the maritime industry and an art exhibition through pictures, designs on fabrics, among others.”
While she commended the organizers for the novel initiative, she added that “it also brings to our immediate notice the beautiful and the ugly side of the maritime industry. I say this because I saw an artwork on canvass showing either Tin Can Island or Apapa Port container depot with cars littered all around. Such terminal shouldn’t have too many cars because it isn’t a roro terminal and cars shouldn’t be littered that way, even if it was a roro terminal”
“So, the artist is showing us what our container terminal looks like and invariably telling us that it isn’t the ideal scenario. The organisers haven’t just got art about the maritime sector but they sought to correct the anomalies by telling compelling stories via art.”
Also speaking, the CEO, Genero Engineering, Capt. Suleiman Baiyee described AMAE as a beautiful and innovative way of raising awareness about core maritime issues, even as he encouraged organizers of major national and regional shipping conferences to create a platform for AMAE.
“In life there are different ways of raising awareness of things we seek to change or improve. Art is a very beautiful way and it is a permanent medium for raising awareness. Art is unique because everyone would have a different way of interpreting one picture, whereas one speech can only give one message.”
