Apprenticeship — Raising Masters and Maestros

By Kenneth Nwachinemelu David-Okafor 

One of the cornerstones of this blog is to promote the virtue of extra-curricular learning because of the very visible limitations of syllabic learning. This post would highlight a vital example.

For the last five years I have been involved with a not-for-profit which is determined to raise world-class entrepreneurs in Nigeria. One of the key platforms for achieving this target includes a programme on mentoring. However, I want to call attention to a traditional method of transferring skills and learning that has recently fallen into disuse and even appalling neglect — the apprenticeship system.

Apprenticeship is not interchangeable with mentoring. The word mentor comes from Greek mythology and our present day use of the word refers to teacher, guide, adviser and protector. There is a strong history to the apprenticeship model of learning, and it is all about mentorship - helping others learn. Apprenticeship is an extremely effective form of training that is widely supported and used around the world whereas mentorship is the process where an experienced person (mentor) works with and educates a less experienced learner (apprentice) to help foster skill development and professional growth. In an apprenticeship, a skill expert (journeyperson or master craftsman formally, but called ‘master’ in Nigeria) passes on knowledge and skills to learners (apprentices). The mentor shares his/her skills, knowledge, techniques, best practices and experience to provide a comprehensive hands-on training experience for the apprentice. Skill expertise is only part of the role, the mentor needs also to be a skill expert, and a learning guide.

Coming from a background, of Igbo extraction, with artisanal handicraft pedigree where my father and at least four of his brothers went through apprenticeship in blacksmithing (Ikpu’ uzu), I am fascinated by apprenticeship as a traditional method of learning and knowledge transmission / preservation. Personally I have studied several variations of the apprenticeship systems which have been in use for ages, mostly by artisans of all hues, musicians of different genres, Ogbomosho traders and Igbo traders across Nigeria.

Uwameiye and Iyamu (2002) define apprenticeship as "a contractual agreement undertaken by the master-craftsman and the apprentice through which the apprentice is trained for a prescribed work process through practical experience under the supervision of the master-craftsman. It is a form of workplace learning, which enables the apprentice to have on-the-job training."

Apprenticeship is a traditional way to learn (Image source: slideshare.net)

Uwameiye and Iyamu (2002) adds "In Nigeria and all over Africa, apprenticeship has been an age-long method used in training young people in trades and crafts, agriculture, business, and catering. During the pre-colonial days, apprenticeship was the mode of training. It is a common feature of the traditional setting to see people engage in a vocation such as farming, fishing, hunting, carving, carpentry, sculpting, painting, building, decorating, blacksmithing, catering, boat-making, mat-making, dyeing and so on. The apprenticeship system was an institution that was jealously guarded by customs, lineage and rituals."

In the rest of the world, the system of apprenticeship first developed in the later Middle Ages (14th and 15th centuries) and came to be supervised by craft guilds and town governments. A master craftsman was entitled to employ young people as an inexpensive form of labour in exchange for providing food, lodging and formal training in the craft. Most apprentices were males, but female apprentices were found in crafts such as seamstress, tailor, cordwainer, baker and stationer. Apprentices usually lived in the master craftsman's household. (Wikipedia 2013)

In recognition of the importance of apprenticeship system of labour supply, the Federal Government of Nigeria established the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) during the second National Development Plan period (1970-74) which led to the promulgation into law of a National Apprenticeship Scheme in 1982 (Agbo, 1990). The ITF described apprenticeship as ‘training for occupations in the category of skilled crafts and trades requiring a wide and diverse range of skills, knowledge, experience and independent judgement’ (Onasanya, 1988).

Though the apprenticeship system has fallen into deep neglect across Nigerian cultures, for a vast variety of reasons, I retain a healthy respect for apprenticeship as it has produced undisputed results across creative disciplines.

Let us take the arts and crafts sector for one instance. Some notable artists have the apprenticeship system, as they were trained by old masters. There are several distinguished artists that come to mind. For knowledge sake I would mention just three who were once apprentices — Benedict Enwonwu, Bruce Onobrakpeya and Taiwo Olaniyi Oyewale-Toyeje Oyelale Osuntoki (Twin 77).

Briefly, Professor Benedict Chuka Enwonwu, better known as Ben Enwonwu, was a painter and sculptor. Professor Bruce Obomeyoma Onobrakpeya is a printmaker, painter and sculptor. Prince Taiwo Olaniyi Oyewale-Toyeje Oyelale Osuntoki, better known as Prince Twins 77, was a painter, sculptor and musician. Prince Twins 77 was an original "graduates" of the 1960's experimental workshops known as The Oshogbo School of Art conducted by Ulli and Georgina Beier in Osogbo, southwestern Nigeria.

Horst Ulrich Beier, known as Ulli Beier, was a German Jewish editor, writer and scholar, who had a pioneering role in developing literature, drama and poetry in Nigeria.  For most of his career Beier was a university lecturer (in English Language at the University College Ibadan first then transferred to department of Extra-Mural Studies), but unlike most academics he participated in and actively instigated many of the developments he wrote about. His most famous enterprise was the Mbari Club, a watering hole for writers and artists in the Nigerian university city of Ibadan, convened in 1961 with the involvement of Africa’s two literary giants: the Nobel Prize-winning dramatist Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe, author of the celebrated novel Things Fall Apart. In 1962 Ulli Beier met Georgina Betts, a spirited south Londoner who was to become his second wife. For a time Beier, Wenger and Betts shared a house, living on different floors of an extraordinary Afro-baroque residence in Oshogbo, north-east of Ibadan. Georgina ran art workshops, while Beier collaborated with the local bar owner-turned-composer Duro Ladipo in the creation of the Yoruba folk operas Oba Koso and Oba Waja, which toured the world and were highlights of the 1965 Commonwealth Arts Festival.

In the dramatic arts and Nigerian theatre for another instance. Nigerian theatre, variety of folk opera of the Yoruba people that emerged in the early 1940s. It combined a brilliant sense of mime, colourful costumes, and traditional drumming, music, and folklore using themes, ranging from modern-day satire to historical tragedy. The staple themes were: the fantastic folktale, the farcical social satire, and the historical or mythological account derived from oral tradition.  Although there are more than a dozen travelling theatre companies, three professional troupes are particularly notable: those of Hubert Ogunde (author of Yoruba ronu ["Yorubas, Think! "] and Journey to Heaven); Kola Ogunmola (The Palmwine Drinkard and Love of Money); and Duro Ladipo (Oba koso ["The King Did Not Hang"] and Eda ["Everyman"]).

Each of these troupes has created a distinctive style shaped by the tastes of its founder, who generally writes or adapts and produces the plays, arranges the music, and performs the leading roles. Hubert Ogunde, Kola Ogunmola and Duro Ladipo were masters that raised several protégés hands-on. The success the Nigerian theartre was built on the elaborate and self-propagating apprenticeship system. (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2013)

In folk and traditional music, whether east, west, north and south, the same elaborate and self-propagating apprenticeship system. There are so many talented and successful musicians that learned at the master’s feet, so to speak. Across board, musicians like I.K. Dairo, Haruna Ishola, Dauda Ekpoakara, Fatai Rolling-Dollar, Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe, and Victor Olaiya raised generations of protégés. The master of the talking drum Sikiru Adepoju and his brothers Saminu and Lasisi were taught drumming very early by their father, Chief Ayanleke Adepoju. While a teenager, Sikiru toured with and recorded several albums with the Inter-Reformers Band, the band of one of the pioneers of Afro-beat, Juju artist Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey.

Apprenticeship played a huge part in the musical development and talent of perhaps the most famous musician, misconceptions and controversies apart, Nigeria has ever produced – Fela Kuti.

Fela Kuti studied music at the Trinity College of Music, and, in 1963, moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He played for some time with Victor Olaiya, trumpeter who plays in the highlife style, and his All Stars. In 1967 he went to Ghana and developed a new musical direction. What resulted was what a musical style Kuti called Afrobeat. Afrobeat is a complex fusion of Jazz, Funk, Ghanaian/Nigerian High-life, psychedelic rock, and traditional West African chants and rhythms. Afrobeat also borrows heavily from the native "tinker pan" African-style percussion that Kuti acquired while studying in Ghana with Hugh Masekela, Soth African trumpeter and former exile under apartheid, under the uncanny Hedzoleh Soundz.

In the blacksmith and metal works pre-colonial times in the southeast. Awka (in Anambra state) was famous for metal working and its blacksmiths before the 20th century were prized throughout the region for making farming implements, guns and tools. An Awka boy would start very early to learn the art of smithing – at about the age of seven or eight. He would come under the tutelage of a master and follow him on his travels, to sell products and / or batter for production materials.

At first he learned how to work the bellows; then he learned how to make chains by beating out old bits of brass into fine wire and fashioning them into links; then he learned to make the needles called ụmụmụ, formerly used as currency before the introduction of cowries. Then he went on to learn how to make razors (ọkwa isi), native pen-knives, finger rings, etc. Then larger objects like hoes and axes. In the final stage of his education, he learned how to make a gun. Making guns was not easy because the smiths did not know the technique for fashioning the hollow pipes that served as barrels. Mostly, they obtained old flint-locks, and re-fashioned them into cap-guns. So, when a student-smith was able to manufacture guns (or more accurately, re-fashion flint-locks into cap-guns), he was qualified and a ‘graduation’ ceremony (known as Mma Òtùtù) was organized for him. By this time, he was usually in his late twenties and had learned his trade intimately!

For promoting and sustaining a culture of CREATIVITY and INNOVATION, we need to revive and reinvigorate the apprenticeship system in the creative sectors.

References:

Personal Notes and Observations on Apprenticeship Systems across Nigerian Cultures

Notes from Apprenticeship – Case Studies in the Pharmaceutical Business in Onitsha Headbridge and Aba Markets

Uwameiye, R. and Iyamu, E. O. S. (2002): Training Methodology Used by the Nigerian Indigenous Apprenticeship System. DVV international Adult Education and Development 59/2002

Agbo, L.O. (1990): The role of the Industrial Training Fund in manpower training and development. Quarterly Journal of Administration. July, pp.292-301.

Lekan, S. and Munta, A. F. (2008): Traditional Apprenticeship System of Labour Supply for Housing Production in Saki, Southwestern, Nigeria Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies and Management Vol.1 No.2 June. 2008

http://apprenticeship.nscc.ca/mentoring/Mentoring.Course.Introduction.pdf

Wikipedia

Encyclopeadis Britannica

Okafor, A., 1992, The Awka People. Awka: Chudon Graphic Prints

The Ancient Town of Awka: Fragments Of Its History, Traditions And Culture

http://www.nairaland.com/1487747/ancient-town-awka-fragments-history#18996406

Promoting Creative Mindset - Building a Culture of Learning

Nigeria can become a notable learning society in the mould of countries that have achieved that status. According to the Country Comparison Index of Literacy Level by country in 2012, Nigeria ranked a dismal 161 place out of 184 countries with 66% literacy rate. This makes us one of the world’s most illiterate countries! All good thinking Nigerians ought to confront and challenge this trend. It should not be allowed to fester any longer and become irreversible. We can achieve this by building a learning society where merit and scholarship have meaning and value.

Embrace of wilful ignorance
Ignorance is a natural state except you beat it back with the instrument of learning and enlightenment. Because learning requires concentrated effort and investment, people generally tend to follow the path of least resistance – live with ignorance.

The real calamity is when ignorance gains prevalence and ascendancy, and, more tragically, the ignorant climb into leadership. Ignorance has blossomed into a growth industry in Nigeria. If knowledge is power, then ignorance is disempowerment.  The vast majority of the citizenry are deliberately disempowered by a handful of conspirators and collaborators. People prefer others ignorant so they can deprive, dispossess, and disenfranchise them. That is the simple reason it appears Nigerians who are in positions, take advantage and prefer for all others to be ignorant; they even aid and abet the spread of ignorance.

The Premium Times Columnist Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú in her column BAMIDELE UPFRONT! published on May 21, 2013 titled Wanted: A Culture of Learning wrote "Nigeria stopped learning by the late 1970′s when it started defunding education, stigmatizing vocational education and apprenticeship by excessive glorification of white collar jobs. By the early 1990′s, the failure of critical thinking and the triumph of rote learning started manifesting itself. By the 2000′s, the circle was complete; Nigeria was in full embrace of wilful ignorance. "

Curious but aloof where it matters
Nigerians are curious, I have discovered, but about the wrong things. Of course, the way and manner in which we lap up gossip is one revealing indicator. Yet the better option would be to become curious about the appropriate things and apply commitment to these issues. Many Nigerians lack a deep and sustained sense of civic responsibility. You may meet people with very strong personal moral standards but poor sense of social responsibility.

Professor Okey Ndibe makes allusion to this phenomenon in the social commentary Shaping the Future (and the Nigeria) You Want published in Premium Times on December 31, 2012. He wrote "People are apt to understand this connection between action and achievement when it pertains to their personal aspirations. Think, for a moment, about the people you know who became excellent medical doctors, inspiring teachers, first-class architects, outstanding writers or extraordinary musicians. Often, they started dreaming at quite young ages about what they wanted to be when they grew up. And, having identified their goal, they spent a lot of time preparing themselves. They read tomes of books in their desired field or practiced and practiced until they attained mastery. Many (perhaps most) people understand that hard work is significant for success in personal pursuits. Unfortunately, when it comes to social aspirations – for example, the lessening of poverty or corruption – many of us lose sight of their deep personal role."

Ending a culture of ignorance
The key is all-round education – civic, formal, informal and all kinds. I strongly recommend a good education for the citizenry.

Education, whether in the school environment or in a non-formal context has political impact as it can perpetuate inequalities and exclusion, or promote social cohesion. The former has largely been the case in Nigeria. It has thus become imperative for government to demonstrate the seriousness needed in addressing the low literacy level. Nevertheless, a good education requires rigorous planning and robust commitment to build a learning society. Responsive and effective leadership should deliberately seek to end a culture of ignorance and promote vibrant scholarship and due merit.

Again in Wanted: A Culture of Learning, Ms Adémólá-Olátéjú goes on "Education, literacy, technological knowhow and skills are mobile, ubiquitous and fluid. These have become critical factors influencing the dictates of political and economic success. We need a learning formula that will help us understand and navigate the intersection of knowledge, responsibility and accountability. Nigerians need a fresh start, a redirection, a brand new focus to help conjugate our bifurcated destiny. We need a chance to move on. We need a citizenry imbued with ethics, ideals, ideologies, morals, norms, morality and values. When we are learned, we will understand the dynamics of life and living."

Critical thinking not rote learning
The functional education I am advocating here should promote critical thinking not rote learning. This means a radical re-design of our present learning curricula across board. This position is the focus of the last PALAVER TREE COMMENTARY in this blog.

Many people have tried to paint a picture of the problem of formal education. However I like the way Kenneth Wallace, consultant and executive coach, captures it in his article Knowledge, Education, Learning and Thinking: What Does It All Mean?

Kenneth Wallace wrote "The problem is that formal education offers no heuristic that students might use to organize and focus their thinking about everything they learn or to help them discover how to practically apply what they learn to the adventure of living. How often did I scurry between classes in college going from biology to philosophy, physics to religious studies, psychology to sociology knowing the content of the courses but without understanding how they all might be mutually corroborative and collaborative in providing a comprehensive foundation for innovative thinking about how to better live and enjoy my life? It took at least a couple of decades for me to even begin to appreciate the intrinsic symbiosis of the volumes of knowledge I had acquired throughout my higher education experience."

Actually many people may never arrive at the point where they begin to appreciate the intrinsic symbiosis of the volumes of knowledge they managed to acquire throughout any of their learning experiences. However founding learning on solid critical thinking and problem solving helps learners see linkages and associations. But, no, critical thinking is not just about scientific or technological breakthroughs. It also plays an important role in solving personal problems we experience in our own life. Everything from relationships to work requires some element of thinking and problem-solving. And it is up to us to think about our lives and improve them to the best of our ability using our knowledge and experience.

Open the library doors – once more
The real death of learning in Nigeria began with the neglect and eventual abandonment of public library culture.

In his memoir, I. Asimov: A Memoir, Isaac Asimov, prolific writer and American immigrant, wrote "I received the fundamentals of my education in school, but that was not enough. My real education, the superstructure, the details, the true architecture, I got out of the public library. For an impoverished child whose family could not afford to buy books, the library was the open door to wonder and achievement, and I can never be sufficiently grateful that I had the wit to charge through that door and make the most of it. Now, when I read constantly about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that the door is closing and that American society has found one more way to destroy itself."

Ikhide Ikheloa blogger, social and literary critic, wrote in his blog post titled The Library Lives Still, "As a little boy growing up in Nigeria, I travelled the world in books. The walls of my school’s library fairly throbbed with the power of words. I loved the library and it was one place where you could find me, basking in the smell of books. I remember the few distractions that kept me from the library of my childhood."

We need accessible and well-stocked libraries once more – whatever kinds may be suitable, and whatever form is affordable. Along with extra-curricular activities which encourage interactions with books.

Anti-intellectualism is a dead end
We have a simple choice to make – ignorance or knowledge. Even if ignorance is a natural state we do not have to vote for remaining ignorant, because that would be costly and inexcusable. We can choose to avoid following the path of least resistance and cancel every traceable knowledge deficit we can find.
 
Nigeria should not be left behind and left in a lurch. Let us get educated; get informed; get creative; and get innovative. We can build the country into a true Learning Society.

Benefits of a Learning Society
A Learning Society would value learning for its own sake; it would place emphasis on learning about self, relationships and community.

A Learning Society:
•    would be challenging, questioning, creative, curious and risk-taking
•    would be compassionate, collaborative, caring and playful
•    would promote social justice, be open to change and have an international perspective

A Learning Society would be open to all. There would be access for everyone with a spectrum of opportunities, entry points, locations and routes and it would not necessarily be about formal recognition, qualifications or be institution based.

The learner would be at the heart of such a society with the natural human desire to learn acknowledged, affirmed and nurtured.

The Learning Society would be aspirational, inspirational and courageous; invest in individuality, in being in community, in persons in relationship, both with each other and the world.

NIGERIA CAN BECOME THE LEARNING SOCIETY OF OUR DREAMS.