Today’s Black. Britain’s fluorescence [1] - Ayoola Adeyanju

Black. Amazing how dominant it has become these days. Originally described by the Oxford dictionary with the gloomiest choices of words as gloomy itself, angry, colourless from lack of light, wicked, sinister, deadly, portending trouble and more importantly, human group with dark coloured skin, especially African. But the colour seems to have turned its fortune around and rather than cringing to these sordid descriptions, it has chosen distinctiveness for wide and general acceptance. It has gained so much popularity that for you to stand out in a crowd today, just adorn black. And for advertising professionals of the last decade, we remember how two prominent advertising agencies had slugged it out on which of them exposed more client’s adverts in black background in the dailies making it (black) more popular in the psyche of unsuspecting targets (I need to crave your indulgence) I have become used to picking interest in advertising materials of all shapes and sizes in their minutest details. As a matter of fact by virtue of continued research into the various faces of advertising within the global communication spectrum, modern advertising media has become a way of life to me.

Though I wasn’t particularly researching when I saw this advert play off telly on BBC, it was the sort of ad that would grab anyone’s attention from the very start all the same. Not because it started with a noise, very far from it. But this advert was essentially smooth. Exploring intense emotional angle, the introductory music reminds you of the work of Handel, soft and slow with unmistakable message of a weak cry of loud helplessness. The picture opens with a clean-shaved white man’s head on a plain black background. He was looking good. At least so it seemed. Until several hands began to appear one after the other, each with a brush, writing in black ink (on his white head), their individual messages of intent in United Kingdom (or was it England). As the soft music continued, carrying on in perfect harmony with the message of its accompanying picture, suddenly, like every good advert, the high point came. A beautiful female hand had just written in Yoruba language “Mo feran ilu oyinbo” (meaning I love United Kingdom). I was awed. In all honesty, on this white face, there may have been up to 20 different writings in 20 different languages which may have translated into any other meaning as far as I am concerned, I recognized no other one but mine at this time and I have to admit it was outstandingly remarkable…then finally, the advert came to end with a voice over “Is the white working Britain becoming invisible?” by which time the white face had all been covered with writings from black ink, blended to the black background with different writings from all across the world…Black!

It was a smashing 15 seconder! Simply effective. No equivocations. I couldn’t help carefully considering the objectives of its authors in every ramification which from that message must have been - put in one sentence - to whip up emotions of all and sundry toward the imminent ‘danger’ in United Kingdom’s present immigration policy which appears lax in control of both legal and illegal immigrants all alike. And from every professional point of view, this commercial without a doubt exuded a high level of creative ingenuity. Its message hits you with purposeful single-mindedness, making no obvious attempt to sway viewers’ judgment. No issues belaboured. And as often put in contemporary advertising parlance…Missile fired; target hit!

Now, before I am made one final recipe for tribal delicacy back home by ivory tower politicians, I hereby do solemnly declare: I write this view not as Northern Nigerian. I write not as South-eastern Nigerian; I write not as South-southern Nigerian neither do I write as Western Nigerian. I do write as a Nigerian. And therefore, it will be very important to relate to the message as one unifying us all in our neglect for our dear nation.

Moving on, would it surprise anyone living in Britain that, of 200 random dialectal picks in the United Kingdom, there may be a Nigerian? And narrower still, one member of the Yoruba clan? The answer is NO. In actuality, there may be twenty Nigerians, ten or twelve out of which may be Yoruba people. In fact, there are certain areas in South of England like Peckham, Thamesmead, Woolwich, to mention but a few, where one may almost safely say the ‘official’ language has become Yoruba. Get on the bus and the most likely medium of communication is Yoruba. One day I counted the number of Yoruba speaking people on board the lower floor of a double-decker bus which I was travelling on – 10 people out of 15 (that was not to include 2 black people not speaking at all) The situation is so strong that some white people within proximity now learn the language - talk about cultural integration, Nigerians proudly flying flag abroad - And I remember how an enthusiastic white bus driver had said smilingly, when I wanted to get off the bus – S’o fe bo’le? (You want to get off?). While acknowledging that records and statistics are second nature in Britain, every immigrant’s tribe is commonplace in the immigration records. Little wonder why it is easy to sniff out which tribes have proliferated the United Kingdom most. Albeit, anyone who works in money transfer industry can almost easily come to the exact percentage figures in tribe segmentations judging by the number of money transfer entries sent and received and as such can determine which tribe towers above the rest in terms of representation. Whereas some may argue that the recognition of the Yoruba clan in the international arena calls for celebration, for me, a critical look at the advert taken, its content and value strongly considered, it is time for sober, sober reflection. The message of the advert is clear: Other races of the Less Economically Developed world (LEDCs) have continued to troop into the United Kingdom and as such are now believed to be usurping the natural privileges of the white (working class) man.

The consequent programme which was to be introduced by the advert was in series. Together, they sought interviews from white people on their opinion about the imperceptible infiltration of foreigners in their country. About 89% of those interviewed expressed their bitterness saying no one cares about their feelings anymore wondering why anyone who is not British should be allowed access to free medical prescription/and treatment in Britain. About 2% were non-committal while the remaining 9% saw cohabitation with foreigners as a welcome development opining that after all, foreigners bring money into UK, some of them work here and since they all pay taxes, it will be unfair to deny them access to free medical care.

However, the relationship between advert message and the main presentation parameters (the programme) was quite ironic. It is interesting to note that the 89% who saw their government’s gesture as absolute foolishness by encouraging ‘uncontrolled’ immigration thereby fostering multiculturalism (for instance, one white man scowling, asked the interviewer, how could somebody dress like that?, referring to four Nigerian women and a child dressed in their native attires and walking majestically the way they would back on the streets of Ibadan), were mostly above 50 years of age. The rest interviewed were aged between 18 and 45 years (the main working class). The irony got worse when much later after that programme (around 0300 hours) on the same BBC channel, I had stumbled on a tutorial programme called GCSE Bitesize (at this time dealing with causes/effects of overpopulation and control of overpopulation). Of particular note is population pyramid. Though I am not a good student of history (and this is geography) but I learnt through that programme that Britain’s population used to maintain normal pyramid shape until 1945 after World War II. While pestilence pervaded the air in Africa, celebration rented the length and breadth of Europe but apparently, with more emphasis on Britain. The celebration was so much that it resulted in unprecedented astronomical figures of births unmatched overtime by mortality rate. So there came population increase. In fact, this accounts for why Britain’s population today is characterized by more people over fifty years. Britain consequently, yearned for more people to shore up its working class who will be expected to work and pay taxes to maintain the aged. This quest to support their ageds who can no longer work to support themselves informed the immigration policy that forced Britain to throw open its doors to foreigners of all races. The idea was that the more immigrants that worked the more revenues that will be generated in form of taxes and that would mean better support for the older, non-working generation. Today these same people feel threatened by the same invention geared towards their own social security.