MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2002
Beauty and the Beast
Wole Soyinka
LAGOS: In order to stop the Miss World pageant from taking place on Nigerian soil, the fundamentalist agenda mounted a rampage of frustration.
It was not sufficient that the organisers agreed to shift the date for the finale out of respect for the season of Ramadan, the Muslim season of fasting and purification and - lest it be forgotten - peace. It was not sufficient that, as yet another concession, the absurd decision was taken that the competitors would not appear in swimsuits in the finale.
Additionally, the head of state, president Olusegun Obasanjo, had earlier agreed to receive the contestants in a courtesy call; he withdrew in deference to Muslim sensibilities. All these merely whetted the appetite of the beast of intolerance.
The newspaper that allegedly committed the offence, This Day, published fulsome apologies and retraction of the publication that gave offence. This apology was sententiously accepted by Muslim leaders and the Supreme Islamic Council, laying emphasis that the newspaper in question showed contrition and remorse.
Nothing in the statement of the Muslim leaders, however, considered an expression of remorse necessary for the loss of innocent lives nor administered a stern rebuke to the fanatic hordes that swept through the streets of Kaduna, burning and butchering.
I shall withhold comment for now on the appropriateness of the apology of This Day, the indicted newspaper, since my intention is not to fan awake the embers of mayhem whose flare-up now appears to have been temporarily doused. Sooner or later, the issue of freedom of expression must be addressed within societies such as mine, and the nature of due response that is permissible when such freedoms are held to have wo-unded the sensibilities of others. A society that tolerates the murder of innocents, or incitement to murder, as the interpretation of due and legitimate response is a society that is breaking apart beyond all remedy.
For now, let this be clearly understood: The alleged offence by the newspaper was only an excuse. Anything at all, anything or nothing, would have served as the trigger of a predictable rioting. The parameters of "offence" are now totally without definition and have turned infinitely expansible.
Perhaps at this point it is necessary for me to repeat my views on beauty pageants in general. I have always considered them a frivolity that does nothing to enhance the condition of womanhood. However, this 2002 edition, its originally scheduled location in a nation whose mostly peaceful secular co-existence has been brutally shattered, not once but repeatedly in recent times, has been a critical event. Nigeria, in case anyone has forgotten, is that nation of more than 30 states where a calculating political animal suddenly unsheathed the sword of religious fundamentalism for purely political gains, setting a dangerous example that has been followed by eight other states.
The governor of that state, Zamfara, declared his intention to rule the state on strictly Sharia principles. This, as I stated repeatedly, was an act of secession, and the various violent manifestations that we have witnessed since then, stemming from that declaration, mostly engineered, have been a pursuit of a secessionist political agenda that attempts to disguise itself in religious robes. The amputation of the hands of thieves followed shortly, in defiance of the provisions of the nation's criminal code which - let this be emphasised - does grant Sharia laws their legitimacy, but sets unambiguous limits on its application in the administration of justice.
The most notorious punitive measure of the Sharia states, however, has been the sentencing of two women to death for alleged adultery. The first was acquitted on appeal, on a technicality, while the latter, Safiyat, remains under that threat of judicial murder of the utmost sadism - to be buried up to her neck and stoned to death. This will not happen, however. No, the sentence will not be carried out. The Nigerian government has assured the world that it will not, and the Sharia states understand this. To kill Safiyat is to step beyond the line of no-return and, for a number of reasons, none of the seceding states is prepared to go that far. So what we are witnessing are simply sanguinary incursions into the cohesion of the Nigerian nation, acts of defiance intended to warn the government that the rebellious states are determined to assert a degree of autonomy that is not enjoyed by the rest of the member states.
Yes, a beauty pageant is a trivial indulgence, and some may argue that it even diminishes the status of womanhood. However, given a choice between the bearded wannabe Taliban face of any protagonist governor of Sharia, uttering his imprecations against the beauty contest on television, and the sight of sylphid aspirations of feminity on parade, I have no hesitation in opting for the latter. Never has a frivolity acquired such profundity in the pluralist character that is the very essence of the Nigerian nation! Destruction of property and human massacres are always traumatic events in a community, saddening and enraging, but the organisers of the beauty contest, as well as the participants, must understand that they are totally free of guilt. The guilty are the storm troopers of intolerance, the manipulators of feeble-minded but murderous hordes of fanaticism.
(The author is a Nobel laureate for literature)
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