Agbo Rago is a guerilla performance
– McPhillip Nwachukwu, Arts editor Vanguard newspapers
12th November 2009

Atiku digs deeper into alternative art -Tajudeen Sowole, Friday review The Guardian newspapers 05/08 /2011
A Ram’s Ordeal : Jelili Atiku’s Agbo Rago
NEXT newspapers, Sunday October 25th, 2009

Agbo Rago was curated by Jude Anogwih, an Assistant Curator with Center for Contemporary Arts, Yaba, Lagos. It was a dense energy between artist and audience in relating contemporary issues. Jelili Atiku employed the audience interactive element and a mode of expression of psychological content. Agbo means Camp in Yoruba language while Rago means Ram in Hausa language.

The performance was the method known as a communication guerilla. A method that turns spectacle to ritual and often takes the form of street and guerrilla theatre. Agbo Rago performance was enacted as a social intervention and intersection of performance and dance. It was staged severally. The first edition was held at Ejigbo ram market, Lagos on the 27th September, 2009. The enactment at Ejigbo was done in collaboration with The Crown Troupe of Africa. A dance Troupe founded by Segun Adefila in 1996. And the troupe shares a common belief in the viability of the art as a tool for social re-engineering.

“In Agbo Rago, I strive to dissolve the boundary between the audience and the performer. For instance, in the Suya part of the performance, the audience were brought in as part of the actions. They were served and ate the Suya they bought. This metaphorically interprets that leaders either political, social or religious, only take from the peoples body and the people themselves.”

“Due to lack of moral power to challenge the status quo of their corrupt leaders ended up eating their own bodies. They have been cannibalized.”

Agbo Rago performance was an interface theater and installation. The essence was to create a borderless art.

Jelili Atiku is an Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria graduate of Sculpture. He was also the convener of Advocate for Human Rights through Arts (AHRA ) and the Movement for Creative Drawing (MCD) both association he set up to lead artists closer to the mainstream of power.

“The plain truth is that the world is gradually becoming inhabitable. Painful as it is, peoples apathy is on the rise, despite the identification of common causes of violence and war. There is also a glaring trend of callousness and atrocious attitude that are responsible for the misery, turmoil and injustice in the world.”

Pictures courtesy Google