If "tradition" is simply that which is handed down, and "modern" denotes only that which is current, there is much to be considered within the engagement of artistic practice in Africa that reflects the temporal nature of these categories. The discussions presented in this panel concern trajectories of diverse practices, which bear roots from both local and faraway sources. They seek to recognize the temporary, shifting nature of these engagements, and to more precisely pinpoint the nature of those modernities.
If "tradition" is simply that which is handed down, and "modern" denotes only that which is current, there is much to be considered within the engagement of artistic practice in Africa that reflects the temporal nature of these categories. Already many pre-20th century developments in African visual practice bear trace of their eclectic sources, ‘modern’ cannot be about a single set of conditions and practices mediated via "the West"; and the idea that the ‘modern world’ in Africa was ushered by Europe is at best a gross over-simplification. The discussions presented in this panel concern trajectories of diverse practices, which bear roots from both local and faraway sources within Africa and beyond. They seek to recognize the temporary, shifting nature of these engagements, and to more precisely pinpoint the nature of those modernities. The importance of the import is relevant primarily within the local context; and as we learn, these things shift, evolve, and disappear as artists and audiences and patrons see fit. An engagement within the context of local cultures is as much a part of the story as anything else. The modernities we investigate here attend to the temporal nature and historical conditions in which the practices come together.
The question of how we divide up our subject into manageable pieces continues to concern us. We recognise that ethnic categories are contingent, anything but "timeless', but part of the story we tell; but what about that other taken-for-granted categorization, the 'traditional' versus the 'contemporary'? Tradition (from the Latin 'tradere' to hand over) defines one set of possibilities of change; and most traditions bear some trace of eclectic engagement between the local and the further away. In that case, 'modern' cannot be about some single set of conditions and practices mediated via "the West", but simply about the conditions of just now.
The paper summarises the formal developments of the masks and masquerades of the Dogon people, Mali, as a direct response to social and other changes in the latter half of the 20th Century. Processes of change and innovation will be discussed in what has hitherto been presented as a “timeless” and essentially “traditional” African Society.
This paper will examine the milieu that fostered the Gold Coast’s earliest photographers and comprised their oeuvre in the last half of the 19th century. This imagery registers a wealth of influences, as it was formulated by local patronage and framed via travelling photographers sourcing a range of Atlantic visual influences. Unlike many parts of west Africa, coastal Ghana’s history of photographic traditions materialized before the consolidation of colonial power. The evolution of localized photographic genres, as well as people’s heightened awareness of the routes by which images were liable to travel, bear witness to the embedded nature of local representation.
In discussions on African dress and textiles, the use of these fabrics as a marker of ethnic identity is often taken for granted. However, the relation between textiles and identity is far more complex. Weavers from the Ewe-speaking region in southeast Ghana and adjacent Togo make a wide variety of textiles; the ‘modernisation’ of textiles, locally articulated in these terms, has been an ongoing process. Some of the design innovations in the last 50 years are the adaptation and reworking of Asante and Yoruba cloth traditions. These newer innovations are mainly used by the local Ewe elite on public functions, in and outside the Ewe-speaking region. In the same period, a sense of local cultural pride has been rising. At the end of the 1990s, this even resulted in a heated debate on the Ewe or Asante origin of hand-woven textiles in southern Ghana in the media of Ghana, at important events such as festivals and in local discourses. This debate had been initiated in the Ewe-speaking area, on the yearly textile festival of the Agotime people, one of the main weaving centres in the region. In this paper I will explore the local perceptions of being modern and on group identities in relation to the use and local evaluation of (developments in) Ewe textiles. I will argue that it is primarily this search for modernity - rather than the importance given to ethnic and other identities - which influences the use, and development of local cloth production.
Circus, as an art form, is new to Ethiopia. Yet, although foreign, the circus arts have been quickly adopted and deliberately made Ethiopian, evolving into a unique and popular form of performance, used to entertain and educate audiences both at home and abroad. This paper considers the development of these circuses, paying particular attention to the ways in which they have been consciously made 'Ethiopian'. It examines how circus staff and performers, donors, and spectators engage in a dialogue - at times intentional and public, at others unconscious and private - about what it means to be an Ethiopian circus. The paper considers the roles played, in the creation of this identity, by styles and forms of dress, music, and dance that are labeled zemenawi (modern) or bahelawi (traditional). It argues that, like so many art forms, Ethiopia's circuses are neither wholly 'traditional' nor 'modern' but something altogether different and label-defying.