African Arts

Dans le cadre de la 9e édition des Rencontres des Études Africaines en France, qui se tiendront à Aubervilliers (Campus Condorcet) du 29 juin au 2 juillet 2026, nous organisons un atelier dédié à la discipline histoire de l'art appliquée à l'Afrique.

Les propositions (500 mots maximum) doivent être accompagnées d'une brève présentation (nom, affiliation, intérêts de recherche) et adressées au plus tard le mercredi 05 novembre 2025 à lola.mirti@ehess.fr (EHESS-IMAF) et pauline.monginot@univ-rennes2.fr (Université Rennes 2-HCA).

This is the second part of a quadripartite paper about the material culture of sickness masks worldwide. It reviews sickness masks in Africa and is followed by reviews of sickness masks in Asia (4P-22c), and in the Americas and Europe (4P-22d).

Se presenta la lista de especies, incluyendo algunas de sus características, así como la descripción florística de los tipos de  vegetación del Parque Nacional Huatulco. El estudio consistió en 18 recorridos de campo durante los cuales se recolectaron 4,382 números de plantas vasculares, en altitudes entre 0 y 200 m. De estas colecciones se han determinado 3,312 muestras y hasta el momento se tienen 91 familias, 391 géneros y 736 especies. Las familias dominantes por su riqueza de especies son Leguminosae (146), Euphorbiaceae (48), Asteraceae (42) y Convolvulaceae (37). Los tipos de vegetación reconocidos en las 6,374.98 ha del Parque son: bosque de galería, manglar, sabana, selva baja caducifolia, selva baja espinosa, selva mediana subcaducifolia, vegetación de dunas costeras y vegetación secundaria.

Medieval Arabic-language written sources on the history and ethnography of Africa contain some information on architecture and fine arts. African art historians rarely refer to them, although these sources themselves are not rare or little known. Thus, al-Bakri left a short description of the ‘city of Ghana’, which contains important information on construction techniques. The same technique is used in modern traditional architecture of Mali. This same message, combined with the place in Tarikh al-Sudan where the ‘city of Kumbi’ is mentioned, leads one to assume that the “city of Ghana” does not correspond to Kumbi Saleh. Ibn Battuta left a very interesting story about a ceremony at the court of the Malian Mansa Suleiman. It describes an event involving the ‘sacred jesters’ of the Koredug. What is most interesting is that this passage probably contains the first mention of masks in Mali, and possibly a mention of puppet masks. Mentions of
beliefs related to marionettes, and possibly marionettes themselves, are contained in both Tarikh al-Fattash and Tarikh al-Sudan. Thus, medieval Arabic-language written sources have preserved, albeit few, but extremely important information about the history of architecture and fine art in West Africa — sometimes they can even change the idea of the history of certain types of traditional art. In any case, this information constitutes the most important source base for the history of African art. But the true meaning of what is written sometimes becomes clear only with the involvement of archaeological and ethnographic sources. Thus, the mention in Tarikh al-Sudan of a fish "with a ring in its nose" indirectly confirms the message of the leader of the Sogolon society, Yaya Coulibaly, that the tradition of ceremonies involving marionettes masks has existed since ancient times. However, it ‘spoke’ only after the marionettes’ masks
became the subject of close study, i.e., since the end of the 70s of the 20th century.

In 1984, Robert Farris Thompson's pioneering book Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy examined the influence of Yoruba, Kongo, and Cross River cultures of Africa on the cultural traditions of black people throughout the diaspora. The insights that he provided inspired generations of scholars to study in greater depth the evidence of deep-seated belief systems and elements of culture that were brought from Africa to the New World through the infamous slave trade. One of Thompson's pupils, Ivor Miller, has now produced a noteworthy study, concentrating specifically on one particular secret society, Ekpe, of the Cross River region of southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon; its transfiguration on Cuban soil into the Abakua society; and the ensuing effect of Abakua in shaping all aspects of the social, political, and metaphysical traditions of Cuban urban life. The book's title, Voice of the Leopard, refers to the belief in both locations that the mystic voice of the leopard is the most important symbol of political authority in autonomous communities. The subtitle, African Secret Societies and Cuba, is something of a misnomer, since the text deals with only one West African secret society. The book itself charts Miller's original research in Cuba and its verification by more recent research in the Cross River. Miller went to Havana to study Yoruba influences in Cuba. However, introduced to a number of elderly men, descendants of Cross River slaves who were walking repositories of Abakua history and ritual, he recognized a unique opportunity. He spent the next few years interviewing these informants and 1

In light of current debates surrounding collecting histories and possible restitution of cultural heritage, it is not a stretch to say that our field is in the midst of a significant self-reevaluation. This journal is no exception. African Arts currently has no policy requiring authors to document the provenance of objects addressed in its pages, although the editorial consortium has initiated the adoption of a set of standards. While unease over publishing works of questionable provenance is not new, the concern is a particularly vital one for African Arts, which publishes scores of high-quality color images in each issue, both online and in print. The recent publication in African Arts of a Research Note spurred discussion among the journal’s editorial boards. The essay focuses on archaeological ceramics identified as Bura and includes nineteen full-color photographs of the objects, whose provenance is unclear. They are held in private collections, which the author keeps anonymous...

How many of you know the machete fencing that every jíbaro knew, the stick fencing, the dagger fencing, the saber fencing, the foil fencing, the arts of self-defense? In the times of Spain, that was cultivated; but now you can all talk a lot, insult each other, but you cannot challenge a man to the field of honor. ... ...How

Drag performances at bars, clubs, pageants and shebeens are wildly popular in South Africa. This can be gauged by the number of websites and posts on various media platforms. However, despite these popular cultural manifestations of drag, academic interest in theorising drag is limited. In this article I attempt to ignite academic interest in theorising drag in the South African context. The reason why I use the term 'ignite' is that after an extensive data base search I only found four published articles on drag, the last of which was published in 2004. In addition, no South African gay and lesbian non-fiction book has included a discussion of drag since Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa (1994), edited by Gevisser and Cameron. The five chapters on drag in Defiant Desire have been used by the researchers above to corroborate or illustrate their arguments about drag in South Africa but have never before been the object of an academic investigation. In this article I 'drag up the past' by foregrounding the five chapters on drag from Defiant Desire and I investigate in particular how the language used by the various writers positions the role and place of the drag queen in political and personal political discourses of the time.

ABSTRACT:
      An adage says " Ọ̀rọ̀ ní ń bá mokó morò wá." Words brings about explanations, sameness to "Ẹ̀là lọ̀rọ̀, bí a kò bá làá kò leè yé ni." Every human utterances demand clarity and precision, for an accurate understanding there must be a clear definition.
      Yorùbá tribes are versatile in creation of words, which are always associated withing the Yorùbá sociocultural context, creation of words materilizes with event and circumstances. For instance "Sọrọ sókè" of end SARS, "Depression tí wa" of cashless policy, "Ẹ lọ fọkàn balẹ̀" of general election, "Ṣo ti gba palliative" of coronavirus, others include idán gangan, wàhálà, ṣáyó, mágà, wótò wótò, to mention but few.

Dr Christine Checinska's creative practice as an artist/writer/curator examines the relationship between cloth, culture, and race. The cultural exchanges that occur as a result of movement and migration, creating creolized cultural forms, are her recurring themes.

Accumulating behavior of the third stage larvae (L3) of Strongyloides ratti toward Na + was found on agarose assay plates, but not to K+, Ca++, and Mg++ ions. Accumulation to the Na+-applied sites were suppressed when sodium compounds were previously dissolved in agarose plate. These evidences suggest that L3 of this nematode are provided with Na + sensitive receptors which probably play an important role in the migration in host's body.

The issue of the artist's identity and functions has become worrisome in the contemporary discourse. Who is an artist, in the face of this eclectic milieu? And what makes him one? What distinguishing paradigm draws a line between art and craft? Or are they the same instruments bearing separate names? Hanging artistry on an avid intellectual clientele is being threatened by a bourgeoning influx of "outsiders" crying more than the bereaved. What then becomes a perfect beacon for demarcating the boundary between both genres or what overcomes the distinctions? Or is there any overlap occasioned by the duo's verisimilitude? This study exposes the blurring margin between "low" and "high" art through analytical survey of the controversies and overlaps in artistry. It also presents possible tendencies for historical rethinking.

Writing in "Further Considerations on Afrofuturism" Kodwo Eshun asks us to "imagine a team of African archaeologists from the future […] excavating a site, a museum from their past: a museum whose ruined documents and leaking disks are identifiable as belonging to our present." 1 Kongo Astronauts, an artist collective founded in 2013 by the Kinshasa-based artists Eléonore Hellio and Michel Ekeba, are the image of the Afrofuturist archeologist par excellence. Kongo Astronauts are perhaps best known for their images of travel-the lone astronaut, dressed in a metallic suit plastered with digital detritus made from minerals mined in Democratic Republic of the Congo and subsequently returned to it in the form of technological waste. The costume painfully expli cates the crises of extractive capitalism and environmental racism. Kongo Astronauts' multi-media practice includes photography, film, sculpture and performance, and engages with Kinshasa's alternative cultural network. In their creative practice, both the urban postcolonial pandemonium and the forces that have shaped the artists' immediate environment are intertwined with a critical lens, through which they assess human condition in contemporary Congo. Kongo Astronauts' work eludes easy classification: it is both ephemeral (their walks thought the urban landscape of Kinshasa) and tangibly material (the astronaut's suit). Their works respond to place and site and are processual and unstable. Although pointedly contemporary, Kongo Astronauts' performances speak to the longue durée history of rare-earth mineral extraction in West and West-Central Africa. Understanding this history goes some way to demon strating the significance of their work for exploring postcolonial Congolese identity. Within the precolonial Kongo Kingdom (to which the Astronauts' name refers), precious and semi-precious metals such as copper and gold held spiritual, ritual and religious value as well as economic value. For example, copper manillas were used as currency, in the ritual performance and for the production of artworks. By contrast, the "calculative rationality" of the accu mulation of African metals by European colonizers purely for their economic value created a divergence in access to capital, which underpins the continued European exploitation of African mineral resources today (for instance, in the indiscriminate mining of Congolese cobalt for the production of lithium-ion

This article explores the cultural, social, and political significance of Nigerian female drummers who challenge long-standing gender norms and reclaim traditionally male-dominated musical spaces. Focusing on Aralola Olamuyiwa (Ara) and Blessing Ibrahim (Starblessing), the study highlights how these women navigate cultural expectations, religious restrictions, and institutional barriers to establish themselves as respected drummers within Nigerian music traditions. Drawing on theories of gender performativity (Butler), cultural entrepreneurship (Swedberg, Gehman), and embodiment (Merleau-Ponty, Csordas), the article positions drumming not only as a musical act but also as a site of resistance, identity-making, and social transformation. Through ethnographic methods including interviews, digital ethnography, and performance analysis, the article uncovers the strategies used by these drummers to assert their presence, build their personal brands, and engage in cultural advocacy. Ara's mastery of the talking drum disrupts the Yorùbá cultural belief systems that have historically excluded women from drumming due to spiritual taboos and patriarchal ideologies. Her innovation in blending traditional rhythms with contemporary styles has created a genre she terms "Gangan Fusion." Starblessing, on the other hand, has leveraged digital platforms to build a global following, utilizing her technical skill on the drum set to assert authority and visibility in genres like gospel, Fuji, and Afrobeats. The article situates these drummers within broader transnational movements that include women percussionists from Latin America and West Africa. It argues that their careers exemplify the potential of cultural entrepreneurship to drive both cultural preservation and social change. By reframing musical spaces through performance and innovation, Ara and Starblessing demonstrate how embodied musical practices can become powerful tools of resistance and empowerment. Their work not only challenges the hegemonic masculinization of rhythm but also contributes to global conversations on gender equity in music and the dynamic evolution of African musical traditions.

Parmi les oeuvres les plus puissantes et les plus expressives de l'art centrafricain figurent les statues de maternité du peuple Yombe, un sous-groupe de la sphère culturelle Kongo. Ces figures sculptées en bois ou en pierre, représentant généralement une femme avec un enfant, sont bien plus que des représentations de la maternité ; ce sont des symboles culturels puissants qui reflètent les croyances Yombe à propos de la fertilité, de l'ascendance et de la protection spirituelle. Les statues de maternité des Yombe sont immédiatement reconnaissables à leurs détails naturalistes et à leurs traits expressifs. La mère est souvent représentée assise, allaitant ou berçant un enfant sur ses genoux, le regard des grands yeux en forme d'amande, semble transcender le monde environnant. Sur le modèle en bois, couramment appelé Phemba, les yeux sont souvent incrustés de verre ou peints en blanc, signalant la capacité de percevoir au-delà du domaine visible. Les marques de scarification sur le torse, le dos et les épaules, ainsi que des coiffes finement sculptées, identifient la figure comme une femme de statut élevé et d'importance culturelle. L'attention portée aux détails dans ces caractéristiques reflète non seulement les idéaux de beauté, mais aussi le profond respect pour la lignée maternelle et le pouvoir féminin dans la société Yombe.

associated with ugliness, sin, darkness, immorality, and the Manichean metaphor which associated the contrast between light and darkness with the struggle between good and evil (Jackson 467). Its negative connotations are found in contexts far removed from the nineteenth-century Caribbean. Ancient Greeks associated the color black with death and putrefaction. Its etymological derivations such as "necrology," "necropolis," "necroscopy" and "necromancia" (sometimes pronounced "nigromancia"), and "magia negra" or black magic all evidence the negative meaning assigned to it. During the Middle Ages, the devil was portrayed as black and angels as white (Ortiz, Engaño 209). Negative connotations of blackness were common in the nineteenth-century Caribbean and were even reflected in Cuban anti-slavery novels of this period. In some cases, authors of these novels accepted blacks as inferiors, and their works focused on stereotypical negative traits such as docility, tranquility, and resignation to fate. Further, they did not wish to acknowledge that blacks could be esthetically pleasing. This hesitation led some of them to describe black characters using typically white features, two examples of which are found in the novels Sab and Cecilia Valdez (Jackson 467). Granted, the title characters of both of these novels were acknowledged to be of mixed racial heritage and would have more specifically been classified as mulattos. Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, the author of Sab, discusses the entire color spectrum and focuses on differences between groups such as African-born blacks, creole blacks, free and enslaved blacks, and mulattos (468). In effect she both acknowledges and perpetuates existing beliefs about the veracity and significance of their physical differences. The title character Sab is distinguished from other slaves on the plantation by his literacy and by his attempts to subvert racial and socio-economic divisions through his friendships with

O projeto “Os edificios teatrais da cidade de Sao Joao del - Rei (1782 – 1893): uma analise do espaco urbano” pretende discutir a partir da Historia Cultural a construcao da narrativa historica, entendendo que essa escrita, semelhantemente a arquitetura de lugares e de personagens de uma trama teatral, compoe um sistema de movimento que organiza uma producao textual conduzida por uma pratica investigadora com o objetivo de “recapturar” um passado. Essa “escrita em espelho”, que da lugar a uma falta, esconde o processo no qual ela foi reconstituida, pois e necessaria uma passagem entre as praticas ocorridas no passado e as praticas de organizacao de significantes desse passado.

indicates that they may extend to females, in the case of those who die at an advanced age, as well as for women diviners. 29 Author interview with Gedze. 30 Author interview with Makubalo. 31 Interview with Cebo Mvubu, Hamburg, September 15, 2014. 32 Author interview with Hofmeyr and Danais. 33 Author interview with Hofmeyr and Danais. 34 I am using Charles Peirce's definition of an index as a sign "which refers to the Object it denotes by virtue of being really affected by that Object" (1955:102). 35 There is a still further level of possible implication. Although isiXhosa speakers historically covered their bodies in red ochre, and those who continued to follow this custom in the late nineteenth century (who were known as "Red People") were normally those who rejected Western influences, the allusions to Christianity in the Keiskamma Guernica nevertheless invite one to read clay in light of its biblical associations. Allusions to clay would seem in particular to reiterate references to original sin conveyed through the inclusion of Adam and Eve in the work: "By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19).

The quest for African communities to have their looted cultural possessions returned to their creative communities has been a herculean task.  This process has been so tedious and complex that unpacking the underlying complexities has been a challenge.  The call for the engagement of community actors with deep cultural knowledge who could convey the cultural sensitivities of the community and orientate the holders as well, was the goal of this paper.

This study explores the profound role of African traditional "juju" practices in safeguarding blue ecosystems in Cross River State, Nigeria. Traditional beliefs and rituals, deeply rooted in the reverence for water spirits, have long played a vital role in the conservation of marine and freshwater environments in the region. These practices, embedded in the cultural fabric of local communities, include sacred rituals, taboos, and reverence for deities associated with water bodies. These elements of traditional juju have effectively limited human exploitation of rivers, lakes, and coastal areas, ensuring the preservation of vital blue ecosystems. The study aims to identify the various water spirits and associated rituals that contribute to the protection of aquatic ecosystems and assess their socio-cultural significance. Through ethnographic research, interviews with traditional custodians, and field observations, this study uncovers the intricate relationship between spiritual practices and environmental conservation in Cross River State. The findings reveal that the belief in water spirits, such as the revered "Mammy Water," along with other sacred entities, compels local communities to protect water bodies from pollution and overuse, maintaining ecological balance. Moreover, the research highlights how sacred forests and groves, often found near these bodies of water, serve as sanctuaries for biodiversity and are protected from human encroachment due to strong spiritual prohibitions. Some of the identified water spirits included; Anansa, Afia-anwan Idem Iboku among others. These areas remain untouched because of the fear of invoking the wrath of water spirits or violating ancient taboos. The study also examines the challenges and opportunities of integrating these traditional conservation methods with modern environmental policies, recognizing the potential of blending indigenous knowledge systems with scientific approaches. In conclusion, the role of African traditional juju in protecting blue ecosystems is both significant and underappreciated. This study advocates for a greater understanding and incorporation of these cultural practices into contemporary conservation strategies, as they offer sustainable and community-driven solutions to environmental challenges. The preservation of blue ecosystems in Cross River State, through the power of spiritual reverence, represents a model of conservation that harmonizes culture and nature.

The perception of museums as iconic spaces for preservation and display of art works, present a significant problem for thorough apprehension of many African arts in museum collection. While new museology advocates for the impute of culture-bearers in the display, labelling and interpretation of cultural objects in museum spaces, that intervention solves only half the problem. To understand the perspective of this paper, it is important to consider the correlation between African arts and ritual practice. The ritual actions associated with many African sculptures, and their function as objects of meditation, faith and communication is obliterated within museum spaces. The paper argues that African ritual sculptures in museums are institutionally confined, as these are not objects for aesthetic consumption, nor do they belong to straight jacket acrylic boxes in the museum space. Because context is lost, the understanding and appreciation of many African arts in museums are colored by valuation instruments alien to the original culture that produced them. In conclusion, the paper opines that although outright removal of African ritual sculptures from museum spaces may not be possible in many instances, culture-based interpretation of objects, and multi-media approaches to the presentation and representation of African ritual sculptures should become institutional requirements for museums, as an important step towards creating authentic cultural contexts essential to the apprehension and appreciation of African ritual sculptures in western museums.

Esta pesquisa é um recorte de um projeto em andamento que tem como objetivo compreender alguns aspectos antropológicos e etnoculturais acerca do Povo Makonde de Moçambique – África, e investigar a produção estética de sua arte escultórica e o legado dessa arte na contemporaneidade artística de Reinata Sadimba, ceramista Makonde. A pesquisa é feita a partir de levantamentos bibliográficos em diferentes fontes, sendo estudos dos pesquisadores: Margot e Jorge Dias, Gianfranco Gandol[1]fo e Lia Laranjeira; filmes dos roteiristas e diretores: Catarina Alves Costa e Licinio Azevedo; textos dos historiadores da arte negro-africana: Kabengele Munanga, Mesquitela Lima, Frank Willett e Sally Price; estudos da Arte Makonde de: Margot Dias, Roger Fouquer e Ricardo T. Duarte; além de análises de obras escultóricas de etnia Makonde e da escultora Reinata Sadimba em catálogos de exposições de arte, em websites de museus e em galerias moçambicanas e internacionais.

This  research  is  part  of  an  ongoing  project  that  aims  to  understand some anthropological and ethnocultural aspects about the Makonde People of Mozambique – Africa, and to investigate the aesthetic production of their sculptural art and the legacy of this art in the artistic contemporaneity of Rei-nata Sadimba, Makonde potter. The Makonde Sculpture, is the symbol of resistance against the period of Portuguese colonial oppression, as it helped finance the struggle for Mozambique’s Independence and its originality contributed to the Nationalist Movement in the country. Reinata symbolizes transformation, represents  the  passage  and  emotion  of  the  tradition  and  contemporaneity  of  the culture of Mozambique and the Makonde, articulates artistic periods, past and present, in an innovative way. The research is carried out based on bibliographic  surveys  in  different  sources,  with  studies  by  the  researchers:  Margot  and  Jorge  Dias,  Gianfranco  Gandolfo  and  Lia  Laranjeira;  films  by  screenwri-ters  and  directors:  Catarina  Alves  Costa  and  Licínio  Azevedo;  texts  by  black  African  art  historians:  Kabengele  Munanga,  Mesquitela  Lima,  Frank  Willett  and  Sally  Price;  studies  of  Makonde  Art  by:  Margot  Dias,  Roger  Fouquer  and  Ricardo T. Duarte; in addition to analyzes of sculptural works by the Makonde ethnic  group  and  by  the  sculptor  Reinata  Sadimba  in  art  exhibition  catalogs,  on museum websites and in Mozambican and international galleries

This article concerns the legal activities of The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden (Svenska Missionsförbundet) in Lower Congo (present-day Democratic Republic of Congo) between 1881 and 1908. The temporal delimitation stretches from pre-colonial Bakongo societies of lower Congo through King Leopold II's infamous colonial Congo Free State. We ask about the Swedish missionaries' theological-practical and jurisprudential approach to fulfilling the Christian mission through law and state building in Congo. The focus is on a notebook from 1904, entitled "Trials" (Rättegångar), telling of trials held by the missionaries at Kingenge mission station. We show how the Swedish missionaries ministered divine faith and executed earthly justice by adjudicating over its Christian Bakongo parishioners and non-Christian peoples from surrounding villages. We argue that rather than pursuant to a division between state and church jurisdiction (theology of two kingdoms), the missionaries acted as colonial legal intermediaries in a context of legal plurality, pursuing a theological, practical, and jurisprudential approach through multiple kingdoms as they drew on precolonial normative-cultural frameworks and authority, theological argumentation, and Free State jurisdiction to fulfil their Christian mission in Congo.

Religion is man's relationship to God (gods) and his fellow man. This calls for right morality and a pious life. Art in Africa involves creativity which is evidential. Religion and art inter-depend on each other for society's development and taste. The problem is that adequate funding of these two entities by the government is very poor. Obviously, this paper addressed religion and art as concepts in the light of their definitions or meanings. It went further to x-ray African art, the social cum spiritual perspectives of Mask in Africa, relationship between religion and art in Africa and viewing religion and African arts as vehicles for development in Africa. The research made use of analytical method as well as textbooks, journals and internet sources and caped it up with the recommendation that proper funding should be given to these disciplines for maximum impact in African nations and society by the government and pious organizations.

The Peopling of Oto Esan is seen mainly in migrations from Benin, and little is known about other people who settled and intermingled to form the present Esan people. This paper attempts to use oral traditions and migration stories to show how the Igala people contributed to settling and peopling of the present Otoe Esan (Esanland). It further shows how the role of their knowledge of the environment, over the years, influenced (and is still influencing) the mutual relationship between the people, especially in socioeconomic and cultural exchange among the peoples. Data obtained from primary and secondary sources (literature review and content analysis) were used to carry out the study. It also deployed analytical/narrative historical method. The study shows that the oral tradition of the people, as well as the migration story, emphasized the importance of natural resources in establishing a strong economic base, especially the fertile land desirable for agriculture as well as the water resources (river Niger) for both trade, fishing, and religious worship. Oral tradition on migration also identifies the environment's significant role in regulating the relationship between occupational groups.

Africa continues to suffer from European imperialism and its related
extensive ills like exploitation, ethnocide, corruption, dictatorship,
embezzlement, and murder. In his plays, the Cameroonian dramatist,
Bole Butake, handles numerous problems plaguing Cameroon and other
African countries, and one of these is bad leadership caused by
neocolonialism. This study examined Butake’s perspectives on the
connection between European expansionism and African autochthonous
spirituality. Using Cultural Resistance by David Jeffress as the
theoretical framework, the work sought to answer the question: What is
Bole Butake’s vision of the link between neocolonialism and African
sacredness? The paper, which is divided into three parts, concludes that
Butake projects African traditional religion as a solution to
neocolonialism and its negative offshoots. It opines that African spiritual
entities should be associated with governance as elements of regulation,
control, and punishment so that bad leadership and the subsequent
suffering of Africans can be mitigated or eliminated. 
Keywords: Neocolonialism, African spirituality, Postcolonialism,
Resistance, Leadership

There exists no scholarly publication espousing on the driving force behind the restless aspirations of the Nsukka artists towards searching for and using commonplace materials that the potent environment provides for supports and media for studio art production. Following this, my intent is to discuss the Nsukka artists’ creative inclinations, bordering on styles, ideas, forms, materials and technique. Through hermeneutical analysis, I examine some useful insights in the formal and conceptual principles for which their recent and current artworks are foregrounded. Relying on historical, interpretative and analytical methods of data illumination, I engage some selected unusual artworks executed between 1999 and 2017 by some selected Nsukka artists to authenticate the fact that Nsukka artists have taken a quantum leap beyond the frontiers of the human consciousness and in so doing, have mastered their oeuvres, bringing about great ingenuity and some unprecedented innovations in the e...

There is no argument that Christianity played a great and positive role in Ekori by getting rid of heinous cultural practices, providing health care services and educating the people, but it has also robbed the people of certain cultural institutions and heritage. Ekau Cult was a highly placed and important social institution that played a variety of roles in the community; ranging from maintaining ethical order and stability, judicial, economic and security roles. The qualitative method of data collection and analysis includes both primary and secondary materials. Primary data were gathered from the field through extensive oral interviews under a conducive atmosphere void of external influences which attest to the originality of the information obtained. The secondary data includes works written by scholars found in journals, textbooks and Internet. It was discovered in the course of this research that the extinction of Ekau Feminine Cult has resulted to insecurity, moral decadence, infertility and infidelity, broken relationships, domestic violence, among others. The need for cultural revivalism, self identity and religious tolerance is among the recommendations made in this work.

Resumen: Se presenta la lista de especies, incluyendo algunas de sus características, así como la descripción florística de los tipos de vegetación del Parque Nacional Huatulco. El estudio consistió en 18 recorridos de campo durante los cuales se recolectaron 4,382 números de plantas vasculares, en altitudes entre 0 y 200 m. De estas colecciones se han determinado 3,312 muestras y hasta el momento se tienen 91 familias, 391 géneros y 736 especies. Las familias dominantes por su riqueza de especies son Leguminosae (146), Euphorbiaceae (48), Asteraceae (42) y Convolvulaceae (37). Los tipos de vegetación reconocidos en las 6,374.98 ha del Parque son: bosque de galería, manglar, sabana, selva baja caducifolia, selva baja espinosa, selva mediana subcaducifolia, vegetación de dunas costeras y vegetación secundaria.

This article aims to reconstruct the social origins of 124 Swedish missionaries who worked for the Swedish Mission Covenant in the Congo Free State (cfs) from 1882 to 1908, while analysing the impact of the missionaries' origins on their work and on their interactions with Congolese peoples. The results show that most of the missionaries came from a rural background and had a low socioeconomic status. This social background affected the Swedish missionaries' relationships with Congolese people and contributed to an encounter that was both ambivalent (mixed on both sides) and ambiguous (marked by contradiction). On the one hand the missionaries' humble backgrounds, combined with the universalism of their Protestant revivalist culture, cultivated an ethos of egalitarianism. On the other hand, their position as white missionaries in a colonial society and their vocal support for the idea of civilizing mission in Africa fostered attitudes of arrogance towards Congolese society.

Author(s): Brown, Shelina Louise | Advisor(s): Taylor, Timothy D | Abstract: This dissertation involves the development of a theoretical framework for understanding non-normative gendered vocal subjectivities emergent within counter-hegemonic, experimental vocal performances. In particular, I choose to focus on the extended vocal techniques of Yoko Ono that were developed in the context of her late 1960s and early 1970s collaborations with the Plastic Ono Band, and later came to exert a significant influence upon underground vocalists from the late 1970’s to the present day. As a theoretical foundation for my work, I primarily draw upon post-Lacanian feminist psychoanalyst, Bracha L. Ettinger’s Matrixial Borderspace (2006), adapting her lexicon for the analysis of experimental vocalities. In proposing a musicological appropriation of Ettinger’s rubric, I hope to demonstrate the ways in which Ono’s vocal performances actualize a mode of “matrixial gendered resistance,” that is, a fem...

This paper investigates the concept of "natural synthesis" within the works of the Zaria Rebels, a group of pioneering Nigerian artists who sought to blend indigenous aesthetics with modernist art practices. Focusing on the artworks featured in The Nucleus catalogue, the study explores how the Zaria Rebels utilized this synthesis to challenge colonial narratives and assert a decolonized African identity. The exhibition is analyzed as a critical moment in the decolonization of African art, where traditional African motifs and techniques were intentionally merged with contemporary forms to create a unique visual language that resonated with the post-colonial zeitgeist. By examining the thematic and stylistic choices presented in the catalogue, this paper highlights the Rebels' contributions to the broader discourse on cultural reclamation and the redefinition of African art. The study ultimately underscores the importance of The Nucleus catalogue as a historical document that encapsulates the intersection of artistic innovation and the decolonization movement in mid-20th century Nigeria.

In 2020 you wrote a personal memoir for your family and friends in which you reflect upon your life and professional career as a scholar of African art history. Can we go briefly through the biographical key points? Let's start with your school years and the time you entered college. Herbert M. Cole I grew up in the Boston suburb of Newton and attended public schools, then Phillips Academy, Andover, for three high school years before going to Williams College for my BA in 1957. After graduating as an American history and literature major and only two art history courses, I taught high school for a year, then attended Harvard Summer School for two additional art history courses before spending two years in the US Army, mostly in Germany ('58-'60), where-being able to visit numerous churches and museums-my interest in art and architecture increased. I returned to Williams as an assistant director of admissions for two years, getting married in 1961, then entered Columbia University in 1962 to study medieval art and architecture. In my first Columbia semester, I took a seminar on the Art of the Congo to fill out my program and, fascinated with the then-unknown-to-me arts of Africa generally, I never looked back. I think I was drawn, as I continue to be, by the strong stylization-and its usual absence of mimetic realism/naturalism-characteristic of both medieval European and African sculpture, as well as its sculptural power and often-critical spiritual importance in people's lives.