Oguibe’s enigmatic use of the Biblical verse, “I was a stranger and you took me in”.

Yannis Androulakis
4th May 2023

On the 3rd of October 2018, the city of Kassel decided to dismantle Olu Oguibe’s monumental pillar, which was previously commissioned by Documenta 14 during its hundred days of the exhibition. The sculpture titled Das Fremdlinge and Fluchtlinge Monument (Monument for Strangers and Refugees, (2017)) had emblazoned onto it, the biblical verse (Matthew 25:35): “I was a stranger and you took me in”, in Germany’s four predominant languages (German, Arabic, English, and Turkish). “The Monument for Strangers and Refugees” (2017) later became a topic of heavy dispute among German society, and the city of Kassel in particular.

This essay takes the aforementioned event as the main catalyst of artistic and academic enquiry and addresses the reasons for which the Monument, conceived by the Nigerian-born, US-based artist, Olu Oguibe lead to the provocation of disparate sentiments between officials and Kassel’s residents.

To understand how this came to pass, one must know Olu Oguibe’s mindset and existential principles, whose magnitude has moulded his attitude towards his art. In his collection of poems, “A Gathering Fear” (1992) an excerpt of which is quoted here, his use of language reveals the trauma and stressors linked with migration. The artist’s further preoccupation with the idea of collective trauma is apparent in his work exhibited in 1989, “National Graffiti”. The latest of his before being sent to exile, due to the military dictatorship in Nigeria. The Graffiti, whose language stated the unsettled political situation in Nigeria, was drawn from the Igbo mural art, of Oguibe’s ancestors. While the Igbo community remains a pivotal stimulus in Oguibe’s practice, the Nigerian-Biafran War (1968-1970) has long been the landmark of his professional career. The memories he underwent as a child when men were being burned and decapitated in the streets shaped his psyche.¹ The Biafran War (1968-1970) is considered to be one of the deadliest Civil Wars in human history. In the span of the two years approximately three million people died, 20% of Nigeria’s population. A high proportion of whom were children.²

“Monument for Strangers and Refugees” (2017), evokes a political discourse similar to the poetic volume, “A Gathering Fear Fear” (1992). Although, instead of contemplating the effects of migration on the psyche and well-being of the victims, Oguibe’s sculpture bears the parable “I was a stranger and you took me in”.

The “Monument for Strangers and Refugees” (2017) caused a plethora of negative reactions. On January 23rd, 2018 for example it was vandalised. In my opinion, the violent and hostile behaviour towards “Monument for Strangers and Refugees” (2017) is rooted in three parameters. First on its title, the parable, and Olu Oguibe’s ethnicity.

Unfortunately, due to the restrictive nature of the current essay, I have decided to structure my paper into two sections of comparative analysis

The first chapter explores the encoded theme of the two works produced by the artist, activist, scholar, and renowned poet Olu Oguibe’, during Documenta 14: Biafra Time Capsule (2017) and Monument for Strangers and Refugees (2017). The second and final chapter examines the meaning of the parabolic phrase “I was a stranger and you took me in.” Most specifically, I argue for a new interpretation of the parable, using Jacques Derrida’s’ notion of hospitality.

^1._{Oguibe, Olu. “Lessons from the Killing Fields.” Transition, no. 77 (1998): 86–99. https://doi.org/10.2307/2903202.}
^2._{Achebe Chinua. 2012. There Was a Country : A Personal History of Biafra. London: Allen Lane.}

Chapter I.

Monument for Strangers and Refugees (2017) (for short Monument) and Biafra Time Capsule (for short Biafra) (2017) were manifested during Documenta 14 in both Kassel and its iteration in Athens in 2017. On the one hand, Biafra, exhibited at EMST (National Museum of contemporary art) in Athens, commemorated the victims of the Nigerian Civil War. And on the other hand, Monument was a site-specific installation, sited at the centre of Königsplatz (King’s Square). Both Biafra and Monument, while being built at different times and places and having substantial differences in their content, shared a common understanding of the traumatic experiences of individuals in times of political turmoil.

In the case of Biafra, it was envisioned as a memorial space and a revival of remnants dating back to the state’s history. While Oguibe requested his work to be sited within a museum setting, documenta’s curatorial team, due to the archival material of the work considered a library setting to be most appropriate. Eventually, the work commissioned by documenta 14 was sited within the walls of EMST. In its totality, Biafra was an audio-visual installation comprised of Oguibe’s personal collection of items (i.e. media, academic studies, vinyl records, photographs of soldiers, children, and politicians) relating to the Nigerian Civil War (1968-1970). Biafran Child Survivors was an event separate from the installation, conceived long before the latter. However, the child survivors of the Nigerian Civil War came to meet each other at a public gathering, adjacent to Biafra. Amongst them was Oguibe himself. Its impetus was the reflection upon the traumatic experiences one is subjugated into, when living through a war zone, as in the case of the Nigerian Civil War, the Syrian Civil War, or the War in Palestine

Here we can observe Oguibe’s direct relation with the struggles of the refugee. Being a migrant himself he adopts an experiential and intimate way of communicating with his audience.

Meanwhile, a Monument whose shape resembled that of an obelisk was installed at the centre of Königsplatz into a monumental installation. It was a site-specific work built in response to

the history of the site and Kassel. Oguibe, in his effort to construct the obelisk, sought for a very particular moment in the history of Kassel, dating back to the seventeenth century.³

“In 1685, Louis XIV of France (1638–1715) issued the Edict of Fontainebleau revoking the Edict of Nantes, which had enshrined the confessional coexistence of Catholics and Huguenots in law since 1598”.⁴

He considered France’s bi-confessionalism an obstacle to his dynasty. He thus commanded the wrecking of the protestant churches and the conversion of their followers. The edict of Fontainebleau precipitated the migration of over a million Huguenots from France. The Huguenots refugees were given shelter by, among other hosting kingdoms, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel.⁵

Here, there is a coinciding moment. Oguibe, while using the aforementioned historical event as the reason for the production of the Monument, transcribes into it the plights of migrants during 2015 - the period when a massive influx of people migrated via the Mediterranean Sea towards the European Union.

“Of course, today, several other refugee communities call Kassel home, not just the Huguenots. So, it was Kassel’s history that led me to the subject of flight and refuge, but also the appropriateness of gratitude”.⁶

Therefore, the monument’s inscription, “I was a stranger and you took me in” not only commemorates the previous historical event but also relates to the most recent refugee crisis that took place in German and European political history.

The Monument came to be a meeting place for activists, migrants, and Kassel’s residents, as well as docuemnta’s tourists. Simultaneously, it was used by right-wing politicians and fundamentalists to express their hatred against asylum seekers. Kassel’s AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) city counsellor, Thomas Materner, had the audacity to describe the work as “ideologically polarised, distorted art.”⁷He was also threatening the city council, while being in negotiations of purchasing the obelisk (on September 5, 2017, when they were about to make their final decision), that if the Monument were to permanently remain in the city, AfD would demonstrate in front of the it “each time a terrorist attack was carried out by a refugee or migrant.” Martener’s racist statement (once again) is undeniable reminiscent of the term degenerate art used by Nazi regime in 1937.

In response, Adam Szymczyk said

“I see no way how this quote from the New Testament should be read as divisive or controversial. It is simply human. In the history of the square, the reference to the difficult condition of being a stranger—or being taken for one, which is one and the same thing—appears as early as in Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Campagne in Frankreich 1792”.⁸

Szymczyk’s description of Monument as a work whose inscription serves as a mere statement of the seventeenth’s century historical event, is partly false. Although he is right in denouncing Martener’s comment when describing the work as “distorted art”, at the same time his statement rather than ascribing the appropriate historico-political value towards Monument, it victimises it. Its victimisation is caused due to Szymczyk’s need to justify Monument’s existence by comparing it to Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s “Campagne in Frankreich” (1792). Its justification nonetheless, other than diminishing its complexity, also subtracts from it its socio-political importance.

A. The Case of Biafra

In the case of Biafra, Oguibe rather than passively commemorating past historical events, relates himself directly to the struggles of the refugee. Being a migrant himself, the artist adopts an experiential and intimate way of communicating with his audience. His recalling of memories from the Nigerian Civil War, in association with the Monument provides a useful understanding of the present crisis, manifested in the Mediterranean Sea. In evoking the suffering of the Biafran War and writing in the first person “I was a stranger and you took me in”, both of the works function as a metanarrative of an autobiographical experience. Both Biafra and Monument relate to the artist’s experience as a migrant. The indirect retelling of his personal experience simultaneously provides a thorough depiction of a migrant’s struggle when being forced to resettle in a new land. In other words, Oguibe’s works manage to transcend a past experience into the current socio-political issue of forced migration.

His preoccupation with the traumatic experience of migration, and the further adaptation to a new land is equally prominent in his poetry through his “traumatic figurative language” as Caruth Cathy observes.⁹ In his poem “I Am Bond To This Land By Blood” while the poet narrates his blood relationship with Nigeria, he simultaneously associates himself with the human suffering of his fellow Nigerian citizens.¹⁰

I am bound to the dying mother the widow
The man with a weight on his loins
I am tethered to their moan they are my own
I belong with they who have no voice
They who trudge outside the gate
Those who sigh in their hearts
Who only shake their heads ¹¹

Here, Oguibe once again is in a state of recalling his past via the memories he had before in exile. Evidently, the poem, together with Biafra and Monument, exhibit Oguibe’s preoccupation with the idea of collective trauma. Despite the different occasions on which they were written or manifested they all speak to the same issue, the migrant’s struggle with belonging. Oguibe, whose works blends the personal with the universal, stands in solidarity with the struggles of the refugee and minorities. An indistinguishable feature of his is the conduct of mutual help, laid out in both his poetic volume “A Gathering Fear” (1992), and his works commissioned by documenta 14. Reciprocity in that manner, is an essential and prevalent element of Oguibe’s work. Thus, Oguibe could be described as a world citizen, whose works leitmotif relates to the human condition.

³_{AdminRevista. “The Curve of Time.” Atlántica, 5 July 2021, https://www.revistaatlantica.com/en/the-curve-of-time/.}⁴_{“Confessional Migration of the Reformed: The Huguenots.” EGO. Accessed February 3, 2023. http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/europe-on-the-road/confessional-migration/ute-lotz-heumann-confessional-migration-of-the-reformed-the-huguenots.}^{5 .}_{“Confessional Migration of the Reformed: The Huguenots.” EGO. Accessed February 3, 2023. http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/europe-on-the-road/confessional-migration/ute-lotz-heumann-confessional-migration-of-the-reformed-the-huguenots.}⁶_{AdminRevista. “The Curve of Time.” Atlántica, 5 July 2021, https://www.revistaatlantica.com/en/the-curve-of-time/.}

⁷_{In 1937 Adolf Hitler undertook one of the most dreadful acts in modern history. The Nationalist Socialist German Workers party, wanting to shape every aspect of the German state, assaulted the cultural scene. Works made during the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), were all considered to be a threat to society and thus to the stability of the nation. Nazis considered the works of avant-garde artists (such as Emil Nolde, and Kurt Schwitters) to represent a sort of disorder, criminality, and decay. Thus, they named their art as “degenerate”. They finally hold an exhibition, named “degenerate art”, to depict their disturbed nature. Soon after their display most of the works were either burnt or sold.}

⁸_{March 26th, and 2019 Laurel V. McLaughlin. n.d. “As Strangers and Refugees: Olu Oguibe’s Performing Monument.” Monument Lab.}⁹_{Shittu, Ayodeji. (2021). MIGRATION, MEMORY AND TRAUMA IN OLU OGUIBE'S POETRY OF EXILE.}
¹⁰_Ibid
¹¹_{Oguibe, Olu. A Gathering Fear: Poems. Yaba, Lagos: Kraft Books, 1992.}

Chapter II.

The Ideal of Hospitality

In brief, Monument, as well as his poetry, does not preach nor demand. Although the appropriation of the parable obtains a form of responsibility within itself, which also caused the annoyance of the local Kasselers. In Matthew’s Gospel in specific the “least of these” are Jesus' disciples who proclaim the gospel, while the righteous are those who gladly received the word and demonstrate their faith through their hospitable behaviour.¹² Although, the responsibility’s hidden element, I argue, does not necessarily relate to the evangelical connotation. It rather obtains a decolonial way of thinking, whose context is very well framed by Jacques Derrida’s notion of hospitality.

His approach to the idea of hospitality has been constructed by the etymological deconstruction of the word. Even though it derives from the Latin word hospitalitis, it is rooted in two Proto-Indo European words, which have the meaning of “stranger “guest and “power”.¹³In that sense, the idea of hospitality obtains an apparent “self-limitation”, which distinguishes the host from the guest. Derrida goes on to argue that the term entails a form of hostility, which, accordingly, defines hospitality in itself. The norms surrounding any hospitable act or behaviour are all associated with the host’s right of retaining the mastery of his home:

“Make yourself at home”, this is a self-limiting invitation…it means: please feel at home, act as if you were at home, but remember that is not true, this is not your home but mine, and you are expected to respect my property”.¹⁴

Here, Derrida determines one of the two terms of hospitality, that of conditional hospitality. Conditional hospitality requires the a priori knowledge of oneself, either being a migrant, an absolute stranger, or an outsider. It serves as a set of norms whose function associates with the restriction and institution of certain ethico-political rights given to the refugee, asylum seeker or guest. Accordingly, the phenomenon of conditional hospitality takes place within a certain political framework. Due to its strict legal content, not every person has the right of being treated as a guest. Not having the legal right of entering a country or a state could constitute the outsider as being a “parasite”.¹⁵ The foreigner, according to Derrida could be defined either as a guest or a parasite:

“In principle, the difference is straightforward, but for that you need a law; hospitality, reception, the welcome offered have to be submitted to a basic and limiting jurisdiction. Not all new arrivals are received as guests if they don’t have the benefit of the right to hospitality or the right of asylum, etc. Without this right, a new arrival can only be introduced “in my home” in the host’s at home, as a parasite, who is wrong, illegitimate, clandestine, liable to expulsion or arrest”¹⁶

On the contrary, the law of absolute hospitality requires a break with the tradition of the conditional one. Unconditional hospitality entails the utter welcoming of the stranger. It does not demand the foreigner to adjust her or his behaviour in accordance with the host’s rules. Likewise, the stranger could exercise their rights as they deem necessary.

“Absolute hospitality requires that I open my home and that I give not only to the foreigner (provided with a family name, with the social status of being a foreigner, etc.) but to the absolute, unknown, anonymous other, and that I give place to them, that I let them come, that I let them arrive, and take place in the place I offer them, without asking of them either reciprocity (entering into a pact) or even their names”.¹⁷

Although, the selective admission (considering the humanitarian crisis of 2015) of refugees constitutes the law of absolute hospitality an impossible ideal. To Derrida’s note there is no country that allows unconditional hospitality. Nonetheless, according to the Derridean interpretation, the impossibility of the absolute hospitality to take place is not meaningless. On the contrary, it is due to the law of unconditional hospitality for which the conditional one exists in the first place. The law of conditional hospitality “takes place due to the impossibility of the unconditional one”.¹⁸ Thus, it is due to the latter’s idealistic nature for which the conditional hospitality can take place. Likewise, in order for the unconditional hospitality not to be dealt as utopic, there should be a law that determines the administrative rights and moral duties of the stranger. Even though the conditional hospitality distorts the values of the absolute one, it also permits the existence of the latter’s conceptual framework.

¹²_{Michaels, J. Ramsey. “Apostolic Hardships and Righteous Gentiles: A Study of Matthew 25:31-46.” Journal of Biblical Literature 84, no. 1 (1965): 27–37. https://doi.org/10.2307/3264070.}

¹³_{O”Gorman, kevin. “Jacques Derrida’s philosophy of hospitality”.}¹⁴_Ibid.¹⁵_{Ayoub, M.A. (2019), "Understanding Germany’s response to the 2015 refugee crisis", Review of Economics and Political Science, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/REPS-03-2019-0024}¹⁶_Ibid.¹⁷_{Derrida, Jacques, “Of hospitality”. Dufourmantelle, Anne. Bowlby, Rachel. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000. p.25}

¹⁸_{O”Gorman, kevin. “Jacques Derrida’s philosophy of hospitality”.}

Conclusion

The parable inscribed onto Monument, absorbs the Derridean dialectics and thus entails within its inscription the binary power relation between guests and hosts. “I was a stranger and you took me in” manifests a two-fold reality. On the one hand, while speaking from the perspective of the refugee, it poignantly displays the linkage between people of different ethnicities, while on the other hand it addresses the deteriorating condition of European politics; when it comes to international affairs. Instead of stating and commemorating a historical event of the seventeenth century, the parable touched upon the Achilles heel of both the German state and EU.

The period between 2013-2015 the EU received a large number of asylum applications. In 2013, the twenty–eight member states of the EU registered 398,000 asylum applications, an increase of 32% in comparison to the year before.¹⁹Likewise, the year 2014 Europe received 714,300 asylum applications of which 570,00 were registered.²⁰ Finally, during 2015 the number of applicants was skyrocketed at 1.3 million.²¹ The year before 2015 most migrants were attempting to reach EU via the Central Mediterranean route. On the contrary during 2015 the flow of migrants; the majority of whom were Syrians, Afghanis, and Iraqis, was shifted towards the Eastern Mediterranean. According to the UNHCR the 84 % of those arriving in Europe in 2015, fled from conflicts and persecution (i.e., Syrian Civil War).²² Unfortunately, since the start of 2015 and until the seventh of December more than 3500 lives were lost during their journey to Italy and Greece.²³ Likewise, EU’s inability to form a consistent policy around migration, lead to the mass exploitation and suffering of those travelling along the Western Balkan Corridor. The further piecemeal approach of the European member states towards migrants when attempting to reach the Austrian and German borders could only worsen their suffering.²⁴ Although Angela Merkel’s position, when Suspended (on August 25th, 2015) the EU’s Dublin Regulation for Syrians implied a form of political generosity, it only manifested due to Hungary’s geo-political coercion against the Austrian borders. In addition, the law of unconditional hospitality was about to last for just ten days, since the flow of people immigrating towards Germany overwhelmed its accommodation centres. Furthermore, anti-immigrant sentiments escalated the heated debate around the continent’s political identity. Opinions that came to prominence well before the sudden influx of people into German territory. Although the humanitarian crisis of 2015 escalated the already tense situation, while allowing high ranking officials to use the issue in their political agenda.

First and foremost, by Germany’s populist movement AfD, a nationalist conservative party, whose ideology, accordingly to Beatrix von Stroch (one of the leading voices of the party) is rooted on a “Christian view to humanity”.²⁵ Probably Beatrix Von Stroch refers to the Christian missionaries of imperialist’s Europe. Missionaries responsible for the conversion of Igbos when Nigeria was subjugated to British colonialism.²⁶ AfD, whose foundation lies on its opposition to the bailout packages, provided early on in 2008-2009 by Germany to the Southern European countries, came to prominence during 2015. The forced migration issue provided them with the opportunity to expand their xenophobic speech, in order to appeal to German citizens. Once entering the parliament in 2017, racist statements such as “Der Islam gehoert nicht zu Deutschland,” (Islam doesn’t belong in Germany), were normalised.²⁷ Unfortunately, AfD’s concern towards the newcomer’s religion, and ethics was shared by different conservative members such as CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and CSU (Christian Democratic Political alliance).

One has to wonder if a portion of the German population forgot its colonial past. Tongo, Cameroon, Tanzania, and Namibia were all colonised by the German empire (1884-1914). In fact, in each and every one of the countries dominated by the German empire, a minority of the population descends from both African and German heritage.²⁸ Nevertheless, in the case of Germany’s expedition to Africa, the guests or strangers were imposed themselves on the host and extracting their recourses, while in contemporary politics, the guests were forced to the systemic position of the stranger.²⁹

Oguibe’s meticulous choice of words, by highlighting the humanitarian crisis unfolded within the European territory, questions not just the restricted nature of national hospitality but rather the incompetence of the member states to resolve the issue of forceful migration. The parable serves as a reminder of the host’s historical responsibility, that according to Mireille Rosello deprives others of the pleasure and pride of taking their place. It thus prompts António Guterres’s (UNHCR chief) “key-guidelines” towards the members states, when he highlighted their collective responsibility of resolving the humanitarian crisis and provide shelter to those in need.³⁰ Even in the aftermath of its removal, the parable preserves its performativity and contemporary significance, since the EU has done the bare minimum to prevent smugglers and traffickers (both within and outside of its borders), who are profiting out of people’s suffering. It managed to expose the schisma within the fragile political ideology of both Germany and Europe. The further displacement of Monument, portrayed the hypocrisy of a nation, whose politicians praised its Christian and democratic democratic values.

¹⁹_{UNHCR., “UNHCR., Asylum Trends 2013, Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries .” (UNHCR, March 28, 2014), https://www.unhcr.org/5329b15a9.pdf (accessed February 21, 2023)., 2/3.}²⁰_{UNHCR., “UNHCR., Asylum Trends 2014, Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries .” (UNHCR, March 25, 2015), https://www.unhcr.org/551128679.pdf (accessed February 21, 2023)., pp.2/3.}
²¹ _{Connor, Phillip. “Number of Refugees to Europe Surges to Record 1.3 Million in 2015.” Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project. Pew Research Center, August 20, 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2016/08/02/number-of-refugees-to-europe-surges-to-record-1-3-million-in-2015/.}

^{22 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Over One Million Sea Arrivals Reach Europe in 2015.” UNHCR. UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency. Accessed February 23, 2023. https://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2015/12/5683d0b56/million-sea-arrivals-reach-europe-2015.html.

23}_Ibid.²⁴_{On the 15th of September 2015 Hungary completed its first construction of a fence, running along its borders with Serbia. In October of 2015 the Hungarian government raised a second fence along the Croatians borders. Likewise, the Croatian government closed its borders with Serbia, while Slovenia constructed temporary fences to redirect migrants to formal border crossings. Austria together with Hungary and Slovenia authorised their military forces in order to repel “illegal crossings”.}²⁵_{Ramswell, Prebble Q. Euroscepticism and the Rising Threat from the Left and Right: The Concept of Millennial Fascism. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018.}
²⁶_{Ekechi, F. K. “Colonialism and Christianity in West Africa: The Igbo Case, 1900-1915.” The Journal of African History 12, no. 1 (1971): 103–15. http://www.jstor.org/stable/180569.}²⁷_{Gedmin, Jeffrey. “Right-Wing Populism in Germany: Muslims and Minorities after the 2015 Refugee Crisis.” Brookings. Brookings, March 9, 2022. https://www.brookings.edu/research/right-wing-populism-in-germany-muslims-and-minorities-after-the-2015-refugee-crisis/.}²⁸_{Gedmin, Jeffrey. “Right-Wing Populism in Germany: Muslims and Minorities after the 2015 Refugee Crisis.” Brookings. Brookings, March 9, 2022. https://www.brookings.edu/research/right-wing-populism-in-germany-muslims-and-minorities-after-the-2015-refugee-crisis/.}²⁹_{Their policy, in the case of Namibia for example, led to the revolt of the Herero people (citizens of Namibia’s central region). lead to the revolt}³⁰_{United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “UNHCR Chief Issues Key Guidelines for Dealing with Europe's Refugee Crisis.” UNHCR. UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency. Accessed February 24, 2023. https://www.unhcr.org/55e9793b6.html.}

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Barefoot

Barefoot

Oguibe’s enigmatic use of the Biblical verse, “I was a stranger and you took me in”.