Nigeria: Freedom of Expression... How Artists Can Navigate Boundaries of an Intolerant World

13 September 2017

For many artists and cultural producers around the world, freedom of expression has increasingly become a luxury item going out of reach. Most societies are getting increasingly intolerant and repressive of artists, who use their art to speak out against rogue regimes. Some democratic settings are not immune from such repressive tendencies.

In Nigeria, bloggers have been arrested and even killed. Visual performer, Atiku Jelili spent days in jail for his performance while Nengi Ilagha, a writer, spent months in jail for his artistic work that spoke against his traditional ruler, Amayanabo of Nembe, Dr. Edmund Daukoru. At the international level, three artists immediately come to mind. Aron Atabek of Kazakhstan, Palestinian Ashraf Fayadh sentenced to life imprisonment in Saudi Arabia and Chinese Liu Xiaobo, who died recently in hospital from cancer after six years imprisonment.

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