The Statues and the Man: Herbert Macaulay

The way Mr. Macauley’s statues are built, they always have the semblance of a god observing his creation. His expression is usually wry, difficult to read. Is he happy? Or sad? Or just brooding?

But then, I guess every man who wears a very formal suit, cutlass-sharp bow ties, and a splendid moustache has that gentlemanly outlook that is grand, and yet so mysterious at the same time.

I don’t know exactly why I took this picture in this manner; with my front camera, like I was taking a selfie.

Maybe I felt it would be disrespectful to face Mr. Macaulay and point my phone at him. He didn’t look like he would be annoyed. He had struck a great pose already. And he’s fine!

So it must be the other reason then: the combo of police officers and LASTMA officers right on the road before me. I’m surprised they didn’t even think I was taking a picture of them. Stories of their unreasonableness abound, that to be so bold as to even take a picture of the ground around them can earn you a free stay in a police cell.

If you don’t play your cards well, you could end up defending yourself against criminal allegations of armed robbery and manslaughter, five years down the line.

So, wisdom was really profitable to direct. And it enabled me live long to take a picture of the Cathedral Church of Christ just down the road.

Mr. Macauley reminds me of the average young Nigerian today. He is unwilling to carry hook, line and sinker, the legacy of his parents. Rather, he created his own, and was not afraid to deviate from the norm.

He was probably going to become a clergyman. His father was a great and revered Christian educator, who founded the CMS Grammar School, and served as its first principal. Thomas Babington Macaulay. His maternal grandfather was the great Samuel Crowther, revered African bishop, first of his kind.

But Mr. Macauley never became a preacher. In fact, he was rumoured to have become a traditionalist, with great interest in Ifa, and lived a very superstitious lifestyle.

He was quite the idealistic African, pushing for the end of white domination through the rise of a true African nationalism movement.

He did inherit pioneerism from his family though, I might add.

You can pick up Kole Omotosho’s Just Before Dawn, or visit the University of Ibadan Library, learn more about this African icon.