Community Arts & Traditional Arts

Following the little bird with Oscar Mokeme

Nwa nunu fee ne'enu; eso'm gi!
Nwa nunu fee n'ani; eso'm gi!
Nwa nunu fee n'mili; eso'm gi!

Little bird, if you should fly upwards, I will follow you!
Little bird, if you should fly downwards, I will follow you!
Little bird, if you should fly into the river, I will follow you!


	Oscar Mokeme is passing on traditional music, dance and healing practices from the Igbo culture of Nigeria with support from the Maine Arts Commission's Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program.

Seated opposite each other across a drum, Oscar Mokeme and his nine-year-old son Obi begin singing, Nwa Nunu, or Little Bird. The little bird in the traditional Igbo song is a metaphor for following one's life passion wherever it leads, says Mokeme.

Descended from the Igbo people of Nigeria, Mokeme is part of a tradition of healing that stretches back for generations. It is a healing tradition that Mokeme says helps people develop their vision and provides guidance during transition. Mokeme learned the arts from his grandfather and he is the first generation from his family to bring them to the United States. Thanks in part to a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant from the Maine Arts Commission, Mokeme is working with his son Obi to make sure that his family's traditions live on in this country.

"When I look at [my sons'] lives," says Mokeme, "I see they don't have those things my ancestors put in me and I find that I'm obligated to teach them this tradition."

When Mokeme moved to Boston to study business administration, he says he found that he had very different priorities from the Americans he met.

"There seems to be a doctrine for material desire in the Western world - what you have and what you see," says Mokeme. "But the things that are important for me are the things you don't see - being true to who you are, being humble to yourself and to God. Things that are invisible — that is where the strength is."

Mokeme is passing these values on to Obi through traditional song and healing practices.

"It's what my ancestors did," says Obi. "My grandfathers and my family's done it for many generations. It's part of my blood and it's part of me."

Mokeme moved to Maine after finishing his schooling in Boston because he found a strong cultural life in Portland. He started a small gallery to bring American and African cultures together. Mokeme now operates the Museum of African Culture, at 121 Spring Street, in Portland. The museum is filled with hand-carved masks used in healing ceremonies. Each mask has a different personality, says Mokeme. They serve as metaphors or represent historical events.


	This Ekoi spirit mask from Cameroon celebrates the sacred and mysterious nature of womanhood. The mask's two faces deal with feminine duality and balance. This mask is on display with many others at the Museum of African Culture in Portland.

Some of the masks have clear eyes, explains Mokeme, and those masks speak of a clear mind. Colors and symbols can serve as metaphors as well. A black mask speaks of mystery, while green speaks of prosperity. A star on the forehead of the mask might mean self-knowledge. Mokeme says, "When you see a mask with horns, you know this mask comes to tell us about strength, to have courage. We must be brave."

Mokeme says the masks have an ancient wisdom that sees farther than science. He believes it is his duty to bring that wisdom back into people's lives.

"Science - they want validity, things you can duplicate, things that you can measure, but the truth is that nothing is measurable," he says. "The creative process is something that's not tangible, you cannot touch it, you cannot feel it - you are inspired. It's almost like a spiritual essence."

But those differences have not stopped Mokeme from offering some assistance to science. He has used some of his skills in hospitals and psychiatric wards - helping the patient confront problems like substance abuse.

"What I do is change how they see their world," says Mokeme. "The condition they find themselves in does not make them; it's simply a condition. When you remove the condition from you, the condition becomes separate from yourself and you can do ritual to that condition to have it dissipate."

Mokeme takes no payment for his work as a healer. Instead, he counsels the recipients of his healing to go help someone else. That, he says, is his payment.

Part of Mokeme's healing art includes dance and movement, which he uses as a means of asserting and affirming a prayer, much the same way Christian culture might use a resounding 'Amen.' Dance is also a means of balancing energy and finding strength. In dance, Mokeme says, "you are aligning yourself with the forces of the universe. In allowing and inviting them you will be matched with people who will help you."

Watching Mokeme sit across the drum and sing with his son in Portland's Museum of African Culture - and listening to him speak of the philosophy developed in an ancient culture - it is not hard to imagine that Mokeme has succeeded in following the little bird of his passion.