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Arts & Communication African art: Former passions, current concerns

urban centers are now preferred. For anyone from the and/or art market demands. An early well known example
Global North to be “passionate” about “exploration” or of such an identity twist was noted with Yinka Shonibare
just “discovering something new” in the South would now CBE, a London born artist, criticized during his training
be seen as a demeaning enterprise. And anyway, there is at Byam Shaw art school for failing to produce “African-
nothing of a cultural order to be “discovered;” it has always like” imagery, as if his black skin should have contributed
been there in oral tradition or intentionally left to die and to a Nigerian mindset of his origins. Shonibare cleverly
1
not necessarily preserved in documentary form as in the turned the tables on this simplistic, racially stigmatized
West and in its institutions. view and began making life-size sculptures or mannequins
Finally, “remoteness” is just an illusion cultivated in the referencing African, often headless individuals dressed in
minds of Westerners with nostalgic dreams of exoticism what was widely perceived as typical African resist-dyed
and escape from their current realities. Moreover, it is cloth but which was, in fact, European industrial export
2
4
difficult to talk about a remote place today; there are only wear (Figure 1).
abandoned ones beyond central urban settings that lack Unlike Shonibare, not all black artists have managed
basic facilities yet are all somehow connected with cell to free themselves entirely of Western expectations or
phone networks and often the Internet. the impositions of the “diaspora” label. Moreover, I am
What has happened since the 1970s? Which not sure how many artists questioned the standardized
developments have brought about shifting perspectives in meaning, relevance, and longevity of the term “diaspora.”
this field and what are the possibilities for the future? It is I cannot help wondering how long “diaspora” lasts and
important to add here that there are multiple viewpoints when integration becomes possible. This question is
and differences between the North American and European worrying in European cities like Paris and Brussels,
contexts, between the UK and continental Europe, and where the “banlieues” (outskirts) with their racially mixed
even between different linguistic zones in single countries populations continue to be sidelined and stigmatized, and
such as in Belgium where I spent most of my university people with non-European origins face harsh realities that
career. almost oblige them to cling on to their fading identities.
Interest in African contemporary art was kindled
2. Tracing the path in 1989 with the somewhat exoticizing Paris exhibition
The African art history that began to take shape in the Magiciens de la terre at the Pompidou Center when world
1960s has transited through anthropology, material arts were finally displayed alongside western creativity,
culture, and visual culture and is now divided between although moreso as cultural tokens. In the 2000s it truly
historical art (objects of the past like those in ethnographic took off with the emergence of various noteworthy curators,
museums) and contemporary art, both also referred to as curatorial studies, and exhibitions. Okwui Enwezor was
expressive culture. Much of the current interest that began one of the outstanding figures, whose itinerant exhibition
1
with a bang in the 1990s is in the latter and, if fieldwork is The Short Century: Independence movements in Africa
conducted, it is in the major urban centers of Africa. From 1945 – 94 (2001) covered a panoply of diverse African
those initial explorations much emphasis was attributed arts from a historical viewpoint and included visual arts,
to what was labeled as “diaspora” contemporary art – the film, music, photography, architecture, and performance.
creativity by individuals of African descent – wherever Soon after, Simon Njami brought individual artists into
they may reside in the Euro-American world. Africa, as focus with another itinerant show, Africa Remix, which
we now know all too well, is not a geographic entity but a began in Düsseldorf at the Museum Kunstpalast (2004).
cultural and ideological one that has expanded worldwide The publications of contemporary art journals such as
embracing black and colored people everywhere. Revue Noire, Nka and Third Text also nourished the field
That being so, “diaspora artists,” many of whom were alongside African Arts, the journal that had turned more
born in the West or acquired residency in the U.S. or other to historical arts at that time in contrast to its early 1960s
European countries have drawn inspiration from the Africa beginnings.
of their dreams and imaginations, as well as from current Not too long after Njami’s show, when I introduced
politically charged topics characterizing our world. Often coverage of contemporary African art in my undergraduate
they nurtured that diaspora identity or were simply trapped and postgraduate classes, students expressed extraordinary
within it due to constricting western visions of identity curiosity and enthusiasm. Such was not only my experience

1 For insight into the development of African art studies but also that of colleagues in multiple African studies
and the history of ethnographic collections see the recent college programs particularly in the US and the UK. Not
publications by Peter Probst and Adam Kuper. 3 surprisingly, many university advisors today who engaged

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2025) 2 doi: 10.36922/ac.4894