African literatures and African arts have mostly been studied separately, in spite of their many connections. Here literatures include oral and written traditions; the arts include older masks, statues, etc as well as modern objects from paintings to sculptures, and performances.
Literatures create images and the material arts present narratives, in their own ways. Artists present or refer to oral and written texts, past and present popular culture, history, myths, proverbs, songs, and fiction. Thus, creation stories are related to Dogon masks and statues, Mami Wata stories appear in contemporary Congolese paintings, and there are many other examples.
Dialogues between the scholarly fields of literature and the arts include many aspects. The underlying central question for the workshop will be how to study the various connections between narratives and the arts in a more systematic way. Theoretical aspects are crucial: to what extent did African studies made a difference as far as the conventional disciplines of literary studies and art history are concerned? And what does interdisciplinarity contribute to the study of the African dialogues concerned? Papers are invited on all the above aspects, enlightening the continuities and changes related to the numerous visual/verbal interactions in the field of African arts and literatures.
In my paper I'll discuss some levels of dialogue between verbal arts and paintings: I'll explore the question as to whether there are common methodological approaches possible in the verbal and the visual arts, and as to how they are combined in Congolese arts; I'll analyse some examples of the relations between Congolese narratives and paintings (e.g. 'radio trottoir' in paintings; animal stories in paintings; Mami Wata stories in paintings; recent history told in paintings; witchcraft and religion in stories and paintings). And I'll discuss some examples of African dialogues in paintings with Western art and the 'ambiance' of exhibits.
“Lueji”, one of the most remarkable novels of Angolan writer Pepetela, tells the story of the princess Ruwej, a central heroine of the Congolese oral tradition that narrates the origin of kingship among the Aruwund (Lunda). This heroine also appears depicted in a resin mask photographed in the 1990’s by M. Jordán during his fieldwork in Zambia. This mask is quite a unique representation of the princess Ruwej and is, curiously enough, double faced.
My paper will explore the intimate dialogue between oral tradition and African art, with some incursions into a third kind of discourse: fictional literature. In this itinerary I shall elaborate on the intrinsic ambivalence and semantic ambiguity that appears to characterize Ruwund symbolic thought and, in particular, the mythical figure of Ruwej, an ambivalence of which this two-faced mask is a plastic and metaphorical expression.
My paper explores the space and role of African verbal and visual arts on the Internet. Focusing on African migrant organizations in the Netherlands, I look at 'migrant' African websites trying to track the dynamics of artistic productions online and offline. One of the most fascinating phenomena of the "technological revolution" of the past 10 years is the explosive growth of websites set up by migrant associations and individuals. Both diaspora communities and individual migrants have increasingly used the World Wide Web to overcome spatial and temporal distances in a world that seems to contract under the impact of new technologies and extensive globalisation. These websites, that I provisionally call 'migrant websites', were initially created as virtual sites of socio-political and economic communication for diasporic communities and individuals. Today they have grown into multi-lingual platforms which host and intertwine verbal genres including short stories, poems, proverbs, and songs within a visual environment involving a confluence of decoration, colours, drawings, vignettes, photos, paintings, fragments of films/videos, and other acoustic and moving elements.
However, cultural productions (verbal genres as well as visual genres) diffused by websites set up by migrants ('migrant' websites) remain largely neglected in the studies. This paper seeks to address crucial elements of the digital imagination evident in these dynamic creations by exploring WebArt on the noteworthy websites set up by African migrant associations and individuals located in the Netherlands. By engaging verbal and visual productions in 'migrant' African websites, I also address the transformations of cultural traditions and identity imagination.
In Igbo cosmology, there is the big God, Chineke who delegates His job to other lesser gods and goddesses. One of the most important of the divinities is Ala, the earth goddess, the goddess of fertility. She is seen as the source of all beauty in nature. The Igbo word for beauty is mma, which is also a synonym for good. In the worldview of the Igbo, there is a correlation between physical beauty and moral rectitude. Therefore, Ala is also regarded as the custodian of morality. Having an affinity with women, Ala is believed to have passed on this gift of painting exclusively to women in the form of uli wall and female body painting.
As the legend goes, Asele, who is the first uli painter mimicked the designs found on animals that Ala had decorated. As time went on, uli design took on other forms to reflect the world view of the Igbo peoples. Igbo values are translated in uli motifs drawn on the body. In body painting, women's bodies become the canvas for writing the text. The uli artist emphasises the wearer's well-being and health as well as her beauty and sexual attractiveness. She chooses patterns that draw attention to wearer's best features. They transcend base superficiality and as a spiritual dimension to the wearer's make-up.
The traditional artist inscribes her work within the visible world and the invisible one of spirituality. Uli is drawn on the body with a sliver of wood or the tip of a sharp knife. This act cleanses in a way. Because of this interaction between physical beauty and moral beauty, a body to be decorated with uli has to be smooth and glowing with health. These are indicators that the wearer is at one with nature. The more beautiful the wearer was, the closer to perfection she was, the more in tune her body was with Ala's wishes.
In Igbo oral narratives there is a split between physical beauty and moral rectitude. However, Igbo women writers like Buchi Emecheta and Flora Nwapa for instance, create women characters who go back to uli ideal of unity between physical beauty and spiritual beauty. It is this split and its effect on the written narratives that I propose to study.
The study of globalization and the role of the media is now part and parcel of anthropological research. Many scholars study the influence of media on 'local' culture. This research provides a new perspective by comparing the creolization of global media and rural and urban ritual in Senegal. The central theme is the kanyalen ritual, a procreation ritual of women, in the context of rites de passage in general.