Who Owns Africa's Cultural Patrimony? (Call for Papers)
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[I don't know what’s up but I’m currently experiencing problems with the editing. That’s a bit nerving … I sometimes joke that mine might be a mild form of Dyslexia because it just drives me mad if the layout’s not well organised and clearly arranged. I can’t focus on the content if the text’s not aligned … or rather, I find that difficult if I’m even the slightest bit tired. So, my apologies to everybody if the editing’s running riot again (and of course to everybody who actually has Dyslexia for trivialising the condition).]
I found that on S. Okwundodu Ogbechie's blog and was wondering whether it might be of interest to anybody …
Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture
Fall 2010
Critical Interventions invites submissions for a special issue on the question of Africa’s cultural patrimony in Western museums, especially in the context of recent international debates about repatriation of historical artworks relocated from one culture to another through conquest, colonization or looting. In the first decade of the 21st Century, demands by various countries for repatriations of significant artworks and cultural objects have shaken up established ideas about the ownership and location of historical cultural objects. While many Western museums have been willing to reach agreements about repatriating or compensating for culturally important artworks in their collections claimed by other Western countries, there has been no acknowledgment of the right of Africans to ownership of African artworks looted from Africa during colonialism, which are now held in the so-called “Universal Museums” of the West. Aside from the fact that Western museums hold large quantities of looted African artworks (the case of the British Museum’s holding of the Benin bronzes being a canonical case in point), these museums also appear to claim ownership of the cultural patrimony of these objects by enforcing copyright claims to the artworks. Since African artworks emerged as part of complex knowledge systems in various indigenous African cultures, such claims deprive Africans of any share in the economic value produced by these objects as a result of their redefinition as a canon of artworks with discursive and financial value. Western countries also routinely deny Africans access to these artworks through enforced localization (no Western country will grant an African a visa merely to visit any museum in Europe or America), which invalidates their claim of housing the artworks in “universal museums”.
To paraphrase Ivan Karp (1991) demands for recognition of Africa’s ownership of its cultural patrimony in Western museums assert the social, political, and economic claims of African producers in the larger world and challenge the right of established Western institutions to control representation of African cultures. In this regard, the proposed issue of Critical Interventions posits a fundamental question: who owns Africa’s cultural patrimony and why are African claims to their looted cultural objects held in Western museums denied in contemporary discourses of repatriation and reparations?
We seek papers that posit or contest African ownership of its cultural patrimony in the dual contexts of the relationship between African artworks in their contemporary locations (Western museums, Western private collections, the art historical construction of meanings), and the history of their origins as part of communities of objects, whose use in religious, ritual, secular, and social space formed part of knowledge systems and cultural heritage of particular African peoples. We particularly encourage submissions that interrogate the commodification of African cultural patrimony and cultural identities in the context of global capital, and examine the representational, legal, political, and cultural positions that support or deny African claims to ownership of historical art objects as relevant aspects of contemporary African cultural patrimony.
Please send articles (5000 to 9000 words preferred) and CV, by December 10, 2009, to the editors:
Critical Interventions is a peer-reviewed journal of advanced research and writing on African art history and visual culture. Submission and subscription information can be found at
P.S. can somebody pls. explain to me why my library doesn’t have that journal? There was an article by Asonzeh Ukah about Pentecostal advertising in Lagos in the Spring 2008 issue I’d have loved to read as background to my own chapter on religious posters:
Since the liberalization of the Nigerian economy in the 1980s, the media marketplace has interpenetrated with an increasingly plural religious space to give rise to new contingencies of urban religiosity and commerce. Nowhere is this state of affairs more visible than in Lagos, which, according to Allan Anderson, is “arguably the most Pentecostal city in the world.” Over the last decade the urban centers of Nigeria have been transformed into sacred galleries, giving rise to what I call “roadside Pentecostalism,” that is, the signage produced by independent Christian Pentecostalist churches that is displayed on urban roads, streets, and driveways. These signs take form as billboards; posters displayed on pedestrian bridges, utility pole, and walls of buildings; banners that straddle roads; and signboards. They relay the messages of Nigeria’s new Pentecostal churches, for whom we could say, following Chris Lehman (with a nod to Marshall McLuhan): “the medium is the messiah.” In this essay I describe the key ways that the public presence of Nigerian Pentecostalism has been constituted through advertisement. The images are diverse, and they form an ever-expanding image economy. As I will show, the image economy of Pentecostal advertising has played a significant role in the construction of niches of appeal for churches and their leaders. Advertising is a central mediatory institution of modern market economies—it is the means whereby commercial interests create a mass public for their goods. Through this capacity of advertisement to create a mass public, Nigerian Pentecostal churches have asserted themselves, dominated their environment, mediated a modern, corporate, and “successful” character, and recruited new members. This essay examines how roadside Pentecostalism constructs social visibility, sells personalities, goods, and ideas, and, above all, mobilizes the public in support of the new charsimatic churches.
On my way back from Lagos to Maidguri I had another stop-over in Abuja and I used the day there to meet up with Hussein Akar, the owner of Signature Gallery in Abuja. He wasn’t around when I first popped by on Thursday on the way from the airport to Ella’s place but I was able to make an appointment for the next day. I was a bit nervous about meeting him because, despite the recommendation to see him by his uncle at the Signature Gallery in Lagos and Nabil’s friends, I wasn’t really quite sure whether I had enough questions for him to justify disturbing him. However, it turned out to be a really useful and interesting discussion. In fact, he was kind enough to call one Zaria graduate during our conversation to pass on one of my questions and provided me with his number and that of somebody at the Society of Nigeria Artists before I left. At the same time, his emphasis on Zaria graduates, Lagos as an important place of residence for artists from different parts of the country and also t
When I flicked through the papers this morning – online, if you must know – I came across an article in the Daily Trust that extolls the virtues Usman dan Fodio and his generation of northern Nigerian political leaders. It sets them up as good examples of leadership and argues that current President of Nigeria Muhammad Buhari should take inspiration from them to solve the current crisis of leadership in his government. Now, I don't want to get into political arguments here. I only mention this article – here, in a space that I said I'd use to organise my thoughts for my art historical writing – because it was illustrated by a photograph of a smiling elderly man. The caption underneath the photograph identifies the man in the picture as 'Shaikh Usumanu Danfodio'. Now, the founder of the Sokoto caliphate may not have been the only Sheikh named Usman (or Osman or Usumanu) in the family. However, the article makes it pretty clear that it is him that the author
Once again I have been procrastinating for few minutes to get over a temporary writing blog and what did I find? Look, the iconography of the Sheikh Ahmad Tijani poster I have collected in Kano has been more influential in West Africa than I originally would have thought. Granted, this is again an image from Senegal, a country with a strong tradition of Sufi Islam and adaptation of imported religious prints into new media, behind glass painting, followed by the subsequent extension of this artistic practice to include a variety of other religious and profane subject matter … anyway, its related to my research so I’m excited about it! So here you go, this is what I found: I guess, the choice of this image speaks of its ubiquity and iconic power in Senegal at least – iconic, here, in the sense of the image’s potential to symbolise not only the depicted person but also the ideas and philosophy associated with his name. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find out when the boo
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