ENE: The Girl Child
Ene is painted by Silas Onoja in 2018.
The canvas on which Ene is painted measures
36 inches by 47 inches and the piece is done in
oil paint.
It is a painting of a girl child in a colorful dress
displayed from the waist up, against a white background. She opens the lapel of her dress showing her nipple and looks straight into the viewers’
eyes.
Her hair’s greying.
The girl seems to have stopped suddenly to lock eyes with the viewers. Her eyes reacting
differently. She’s curious and bothered by
something she sees, looking at her left eye. The ears too, picking words from a distance.
The interaction between her eyes and the
viewer’s is the real focal point in the painting.
Ene is a constant reminder of the place of the girl child in the African societies. The ordeals they
go through from cradle to grave, the battles they
fight and conquer on their sexuality.
Some days back I had an actual experience of
how some men see the girl child. It’s been a total realization of how girls are put in bondage
because of their sexuality, the pains experienced
in the bondage is the evident of her grey hairs
even though she is still that little girl.
So a girl has to be given out in marriage at an
early age to prevent her from being promiscuous or a girl has to be sexually harassed because she is busty, beautiful and has a full body.
It is also a reminiscence of how much
responsibilities parents and the society place on young children, girls. You bring them into the
world amidst joy and gladness and as they grow, you put them at the mercy of the harsh
patriarchal society and they must survive in it.
On the streets I see girls not old enough to be out, hawking daily needs at the wee hours of the
morning into the dead of the night. They go about with metallic, plastic or wooden trays with
chipped edges on their heads, dressed in clothes near tatters. Or they may be bits and pieces of
the memories of children seen at various motor
parks clinging to the body of travelers, begging
for money or edibles across the states in Nigeria. These children as young as they are, are already burdened with survival and life’s problems. This
painting still speaks to us concerning the giving
out of young girls as brides to dying old men.
The children in Onoja’s works are often depicted
in an expressive facade that tells to the uniformity in his subject matter.
This is a painting that passes a subtle message
on the emancipation of women. That there’s a
whole lot going on inside aside the outward look. That the society is changing and women are
standing up to liberate themselves.
Onoja uses a girl child as it is only through a child we can understand true feelings. We are already complicated as adults.
Do you think the African girl child is being represented well? Or not?
To read more on the review of Silas Onoja’s first work, click https://wp.me/p9bSmA-1z
Connect with the artist on
Instagram: SilasOnoja
Twitter: SilasOnoja
Art review by iambalogunadenike
the roses petal 
13 responses to “ENE: The Girl Child”
We’ll done Rosie, more grease to your elbow.
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Thank you
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Weldone sweetheart God bless u with more words to put together….
To add a little, there seem to be no place in the society where a girl child is not adored. But the irony is all of this adorations may likely result differently depending on who does such adorations. Do you blame a girl child for being innocent or a lady from radiating her beauty? Somehow it must stop and if it starts with your writings it’s a good start. Weldone girl.
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Weldone sweetheart God bless u with more words to put together….
To add a little, there seem to be no place in the society where a girl child is not adored. But the irony is all of this adorations may likely result differently depending on who does such adorations. Do you blame a girl child for being innocent or a lady from radiating her beauty? Somehow it must stop and if it starts with your writings it’s a good start. Weldone girl…
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Thanks babe
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Captivating premise howbeit skewed towards the girl. A child should be representative of all children regardless of gender. Just saying.
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I won’t so focused on the female child in my next post hopefully
It’s time the male are “seen”
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Wow….Tanks for this Rosemary.. This piece is of great sense..keep up the good work baby
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The travails of the Girl Child in a chauvinistic Society like Africa and the Middle East can not be over emphasized. The statistics, documentaries, newspaper reports etc are too ominous to disparage the views and the voices of the most affected either as Victims, concerned individuals or child rights advocates. The Artist presentation is apt and poignant with meanings. The irony of this inhuman action is that the society bares the brunt eventually because these voiceless children will become adults, mothers and what result should we expect? A generation of mentally deranged offsprings. The reason being that if you train a girl child; you not only train a nation but a generation.
The habit of assaulting ladies because of their physical endowment is highly reprehensible and condemnable. Recently, some brave young ladies dared the notorious Tejuosho Market in Lagos by staging a protect match there because men in the market are noted for physically assaulting ladies who go there to buy wears by pulling them, touching their sensitive parts and going as far as spanking their buttocks or verbally “raping” them in broad day light with people having resigned to fate saying “it is their way”. This is pure malady which has to stop.
No one in this 21st Century should hide under the Umbrella of Tradition or Religion to perpetrate heinous crimes of Child marriage, girl child deprivation of education and necessities, or of their rights. These are monsterous acts against the Girl child or feminine gender in general.
#StopItNow.
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Thank you very much sirs
I was surprised last week when a woman was advising me to “hide” my boobs even though I was well covered and I wondered! “ how?”
I’m busty, so what?
So much for decency 🙄
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We agree dear, (our soon to be crowned 2019 Prize winner). So much for the double standards. The scriptures tell us if your eyes causes you to sin, plug it out…” Why can’t people just confine themselves to seeing, appreciating & taking a walk. Opari!
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Hey! Nike nice art work you have here. The girl child needs a voice. Well done dear
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Thank you so much dear
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