{"id":1230,"date":"2019-11-04T14:21:34","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T14:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/masobebooks.com\/ng\/?p=1230"},"modified":"2024-05-22T13:44:05","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T13:44:05","slug":"capturing-the-heart-of-nigeria-and-mandelas-socks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masobebooks.com\/ng\/capturing-the-heart-of-nigeria-and-mandelas-socks\/","title":{"rendered":"Capturing the heart of Nigeria – and Mandela’s socks"},"content":{"rendered":"

How a self-educated boy rose \u2013 via cutting the hair of Lagos\u2019s elite \u2013 to become a celebrated photographer who has recorded significant events in Nigeria and beyond.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunmi Smart-Cole, now 78, remembers how as a teenager he left behind family problems to move in with a friend in Nigeria\u2019s southern city of Port Harcourt.<\/p>\n

He had completed primary school but had no means to fund his education to secondary school. With the little money he earned from a job teaching much younger children in a rural school, he bought a transistor radio.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nSights and sounds: \u201cSchool Bus\u201d \u2013 2006, taken in the Niger Delta<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nSight and sounds: \u201cTeacher Brutality\u201d \u2013 1984<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That was how he discovered and fell in love with the BBC World Service. The radio waves soon became his classroom and the presenters and announcers his teachers, making up for the formal education he could not afford.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery morning, I got up early and tuned the radio, and they read the news every hour on the hour. They had a programme called News of the African World,\u201d he said. \u201cI was in love with the British accent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before then, he regularly purchased old copies of magazines like Time, Newsweek and National Geographic. He was fascinated by the new words he learnt, especially in the \u201cincrease your word power\u201d section of Reader\u2019s Digest.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the problem is, you could know all the words but how do you pronounce them?\u201d he said. That problem was intensified in the predominantly Pidgin-speaking environment of Port Harcourt. \u201cMany people spoke poorly and I didn\u2019t want to join them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

By listening to the BBC, Smart-Cole learnt how to pronounce words correctly, and imbibed the sonorous tones of the newscasters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nSights and sounds: \u201cRight Job, Wrong Attire\u201d \u2013 1987<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nSights and sounds: \u201cSolitude\u201d \u2013 1976<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When he moved to Lagos and mingled with students from some of the most prestigious higher education institutions, few had any idea that his education had not gone beyond primary school.<\/p>\n

Many people he met were fascinated by the vast knowledge he displayed in conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a girlfriend who went to Cambridge. Her father was a professor and her mother a professor. She said she was so surprised about my story and would not have believed it if I did not tell it to her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But, as invaluable as the ability to speak excellent English in post-independence Nigeria was, Smart-Cole needed to earn a decent living and establish himself in some endeavour.<\/p>\n

He got a job as a trainee draughtsman but was sacked months later when an audit of his personnel file showed that he had no school certificate. Many other organisations refused him employment for the same reason.<\/p>\n

At various times he worked as a drummer for musician Fela Kuti, and in different jazz and soul bands.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Smart-Cole decided to set up a barber\u2019s shop where \u201cdecent people could get a decent haircut\u201d and approached his friend\u2019s father for assistance with the initial capital. The man was outraged.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nPortraits: \u201cFela Over-Dressed\u201d \u2013 1986. Fela Kuti, the Afrobeat king, was musical and political giant in Nigeria<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nSights and sounds: \u201cChristmas Dinner\u201d- Monday 25 December 1978<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cHe said he had always used me as an example to his sons,that I spoke very well. He told them to emulate me and now I wanted to go and do a low-class job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But after Smart-Cole explained his situation, that he actually had no proper formal education, the man was both shocked and impressed.<\/p>\n

He then agreed to give him the money: \u00a320. Sunmi\u2019s Place soon became the favourite barber shop of Lagos\u2019s elite and expatriate community. His customers were treated to jazz music and copies of his favourite international magazines which Smart-Cole always had stacked.<\/p>\n

One of his expatriate customers invited Smart-Cole to an event in Lagos where he met US civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, who then invited him to the US to attend a music festival in 1971.<\/p>\n

Smart-Cole took another trip to America in 1976 and enrolled for a community college course in photography, which until then had been a side interest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nPortraits: \u201cOmotola Adanna Akintola\u201d \u2013 1979<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nSights and sounds: \u201cTwo Tired Souls\u201d \u2013 1983<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In 1978, he held his first solo exhibition, titled One-man Show, at Stanford University in California. That same year, he held his second exhibition at the National Theatre in Lagos. Since then, he has held exhibitions in five continents of the world.<\/p>\n

In 1983, the year the civilian government in Nigeria was overthrown by a military coup led by Maj-Gen Muhammadu Buhari (now Nigeria\u2019s elected president), Smart-Cole was invited to be the pioneer photo editor of Nigeria\u2019s Guardian Newspaper.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nLeaders: \u201cPower!\u201d (Gen Muhammadu Buhari) \u2013 1984, a photo of Nigeria\u2019s current president after he led a coup in 1983<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nHistory: \u201cNever Again!\u201d (Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s coup) \u2013 31 December 1983<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Every Sunday, a different one of his photographs was featured on the front page of the popular newspaper, usually with a witty title, increasing his popularity across the country.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nHistory: \u201cWhy\u2026 No Buses\u201d \u2013 1984. During Gen Buhari\u2019s \u201cwar against indiscipline\u201d, Nigerians were forced to stand in queues \u2013 an unusual sight<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nSights and sounds: \u201cWake Up, Nigeria\u201d \u2013 1984<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In the wake of a military coup in 1985, he stood with an eager group of journalists outside the Bonny Camp barracks in Lagos, waiting to see who would emerge as Nigeria\u2019s new leader.<\/p>\n

The image of a grinning Ibrahim Babangida that was wired around the world, giving the international community their first glimpse of Nigeria\u2019s new head of state, was Smart-Cole\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nLeaders: \u201cPresident Ibrahim Babangida\u201d \u2013 1985<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He eventually rose to become the managing editor of the Guardian, a position he held until he quit in 1989 and became a freelance photographer.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of his most powerful images are his street snapshots,\u201d wrote Jane Bryce, a professor of African Literature and Cinema, in the preface to Smart-Cole\u2019s second book, Sunmi\u2019s Lens \u2013 Medium Between Man and Nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeightened moments caught on the fly by someone who, we feel, is never off his guard, camera always at the ready for spontaneous outbreaks of human drama.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nSights and sounds: \u201cThe Arresting Officer, Judges And Executioners\u201d \u2013 1984<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nSights and sounds: \u201cMeanwhile In Lagos\u201d \u2013 1985, showing a street fight<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cA civil defence man and a mini-bus driver confront each other in tatters after a fight; a thief is made to crouch on his haunches by a policeman; another thief is tackled to the ground by plain clothes police outside a tube station in London; a boy does a back flip on a piece of waste ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

One afternoon circa 1989, a military vehicle pulled up in front of Smart-Cole\u2019s residence in Lagos. Neighbours who saw him whisked away were worried that he had been arrested for some unknown offence.<\/p>\n

But it was simply a summons from the then-First Lady, Maryam Babangida, who wanted him to take photographs of her one-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

Smart-Cole soon became the private photographer of the then-head of state, and also of several prominent families in Nigeria, thus earning him the status of Nigeria\u2019s first celebrity photographer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nPortraits: \u201cFirst Lady Maryam Babangida, and daughter, Halima, on her first birthday\u201d \u2013 1991<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

No high-profile event was complete if he was not there to capture the sights and faces and publish them in the ThisDay newspaper, where he was later appointed a contributing editor and director of photography.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nPortraits \u201cActress Omotola\u201d \u2013 2004. Omotola Jalade Ekeinde is one of Nollywood\u2019s biggest stars<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nHistory: \u201cHow to be a Nigerian\u201d \u2013 1998. Former military leader Olusegun Obasanjo (L) pictured a week after he left prison with the Commonwealth\u2019s Emeka Anyaoku \u2013 and a year before he was elected president in the return to civilian rule<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Smart-Cole turned down opportunities to work in an official capacity for subsequent Nigerian leaders, but his intimacy with power is revealed in a number of his portraits, such as a Nigerian leader rubbing his tired eyes, a major general asleep on a private jet, and Nelson Mandela with his shoes off.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nLeaders: \u201cThe Ultimate Observer\u201d \u2013 1991. Nelson Mandela pictured the year after he left prison as he was negotiating an end to white-minority rule in South Africa<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\nLeaders: \u201cNelson Mandela at ease\u201d \u2013 Kampala, Uganda, 1992. This photo of the anti-apartheid leader was taken two years before he became South Africa\u2019s first democratically-elected president<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

All these decades later, Smart-Cole\u2019s attachment to the BBC has not waned, although he now watches more TV instead of listening to the radio. But, he doubts that he would have learnt as much as he did then if it were today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese days, it is not like before,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the old days, people were made to write everything they put on air. They had to write it first and it was edited. But now, I don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUNMI SMART-COLE
\n\u201cStormy Times In The Niger Delta\u201d \u2013 2006<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Today, Smart-Cole still takes photographs, although not for commercial purposes. He prefers his professional camera, and maintains that there is a distinction between photos such as those which he takes and those taken with a phone, such as selfies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey take \u2018snaps\u2019, not photographs,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s OK for people who want to see what they look like before they go out every morning, but that\u2019s not photography.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, you couldn\u2019t catch such memories. You had to get somebody else to take it. It\u2019s OK for today but not for something that will last.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

CUBA\u2019S MINISTRY OF INFORMATION
\nThis is one of Sunmi Smart-Cole\u2019s favourite photos of himself, taken in 1999 with Cuba\u2019s then-leader Fidel Castro in Havana<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Article was culled from\u00a0BBC<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How a self-educated boy rose \u2013 via cutting the hair of Lagos\u2019s elite \u2013 to become a celebrated photographer who has recorded significant events in Nigeria and beyond. Sunmi Smart-Cole, now 78, remembers how as a teenager he left behind family problems to move in with a friend in Nigeria\u2019s southern city of Port Harcourt.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-1230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-pick","thb-post-share-style1"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCapturing the heart of Nigeria - and Mandela's socks - Masobe Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/masobebooks.com\/ng\/capturing-the-heart-of-nigeria-and-mandelas-socks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Capturing the heart of Nigeria - and Mandela's socks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How a self-educated boy rose \u2013 via cutting the hair of Lagos\u2019s elite \u2013 to become a celebrated photographer who has recorded significant events in Nigeria and beyond. 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