This workshop will discuss new ways of looking at culture (in the sense of the arts) in Africa as integral to the study of social change. We invite abstracts for papers which look at these issues in different ways, both with empirical substantiaton and with theoretical reflections.
This workshop will discuss new ways of looking at culture (in the sense of the arts) in Africa as integral to the study of social change.
There seems to be a hidden/assumed hierarchy in African studies based on the notion of a dichotomy between primitive/traditional and modern/contemporary, positing social sciences as supreme in getting to grips with the modern/contemporary development problems, and anthropology generally dealing with the residual traditional patterns. Studies of culture either belong to the study of traditions, or, when it comes to contemporary cultural genres, are seen as fringe entertainment, far from the core of the study of social change. This is the scenario which we will challenge in the workshop. We also want to discuss what challenges these reconsiderations pose to the received social science approaches.
We invite abstracts for papers which look at these issues in different ways, both with empirical substantiaton and with theoretical reflections. Do we have to construct new concepts of arts to get away from the Eurocentric notions of the arts as an arena separate from social life in general, as expressed and symbolised by the stage separating performer from audience. Can an analysis of the sources of creativity assist us in challenging the indigenous-foreign dichotomy, or does the concept of indigenous knowledge point to overlooked dimensions? For example, what is the role of the arts and the artists in social change? How do the arts express social dimensions of change and expectations in its genre-specific language, in ways where the languages of mere words fail? How do the arts link to the maintenance and legitimisation of power, and to resistance to power?
Many critics assume that texts by writers of Africa and its diaspora which are not realist, chronological narratives have "evolved" in the direction of Euro-American modern and postmodern texts. I argue that aesthetics present in indigenous African cultures including oral arts, as well as conditions of the Yorbua diaspora in the case of Nigerian Amos Tutuola, and conditions created by migrations and diasporas within Zimbabwe in the case of Yvonne Vera, enabled the creation of their texts first published in 1952 and 1992, respectively.
In relation to my project as a whole, I use the term 'African Diasporic' as an inclusive term to connect all the writers in my study from various locations within Africa and the Diaspora, and in order to take into consideration the complex identites of the writers as well as the complexity of the ideologies and aesthetics of texts that are in part, even if not necessarily in every case, the result of various migrations. It is the aim of my research overall to explore links among the texts and the writers across geographic boundaries.
As an academic discipline, folklore covers a wide range of genres such as jokes, slurs, folk-speech, superstition, rituals and folk-medicine. In practice, however, folklore studies in Africa have often concentrated on a few genres such as proverbs, riddles, songs and folktales. This paper takes as its central concern to look at the psychological power of omens to influence behaviour. The paper sets out to illustrate that power by using examples from Tanzania. Belief in omens (or signs and portents) is a pervasive feature of human life that cuts across cultural, racial and sexual barriers. In Africa, folklore provides the principal means of transmission and dissemination of omens. The universality of omens should have demonstrated the academic worth of studying this phenomenon. Surprisingly, however, this genre has generated little interest among scholars. This paper proceeds from the assumption that since beliefs are to a large extent dispositions to behaviour, omens are potentially a powerful psychological spur in influencing attitudinal change. A clear understanding of their nature and functions could therefore pay handsome dividends, both theoretical and practical. The focus of the present paper is on gauging the psychological impact of omens by using as a case study omens collected from four high schools in Tanzania. It seeks to explain how beliefs in omens may significantly affect human relations as well as social economic prospects. It is hoped that this modest attempt may encourage scholars to make further inquiries into this question.
This is a discussion of American Barbie doll and Igbo (Nigeria) Agbogho-mmonwu mask as icons of popular culture that function in the construction and maintenance of feminine ideology. Focus is on the encounter between two ideas of femininity represented by Agbogho-mmonwu on one hand and Barbie on the other. Backed by global support and as part of the global network of femininity, Barbie is influencing the dynamics of beauty in the world. There are African-American, Asian, Hispanic, and other Barbies clothed in ethnic costumes and used to sell American standards to different races and nations. What is the impact of this packaging? This question is addressed through an assessment of Agbogho-mmonwu as the representative icon of beauty in Igbo nation of Nigeria, and the role of Barbie in the dynamics of change.
African mask is a composite art that consists of form, spirit, action, oral saga, and symbolic meaning, as well as audience-performer interaction/context. All these communicate meaning in themselves and in combination. Mask has character, communicates societal ideology, maintains norms, and performs aesthetic, legal and judicial functions in traditional African societies (Cole and Aniakor 1984, Horton 1966, Okafor 1997). Agbogho-mmonwu is the popular maiden spirit mask of Igbo (Nigeria) mask ensemble. It is comparable to the Barbie doll experience in American popular culture that also communicates societal ideas and notions. Barbie is very popular with girls, women, and men, and has gone beyond the depiction of beauty and femininity to exhibition of material wealth, gender, and sexuality (Rogers 2002). It is a friend and companion contrary to Agbogho-mmonwu that is a sacred and esoteric model.
Both icons are central in projecting the ideology of women and gender, because of their popularity and special places in women’s experience within their original settings. The dynamics of political economic changes in the era of globalization have propelled Barbie to the centre stage. What is the effect of the globalization of Barbie on women of Agbogho-mmonwu’s cultural space, America, and on the rest of the globe? This is the main question that is engaged in this discussion of Agbogho-mmonwu‚s and Barbie’s standards of femininity.
This paper discusses different perspectives on the role of arts in today’s Africa, and their relevance for the study of African societies. The paper distinguishes between three modes of looking at arts in Africa: (1) A sociological gaze at the audience reached by contemporary African arts, (2) An anthropological gaze locating African arts in the received and/or transformed community traditions and practices, and (3) A cultural studies perspective on arts as the expression of the transformation and fluidity of identities in the crossroads of modernities and traditions. Arguments against the representational validity of modern artistic expressions are examined but in turn questioned.
Compounding myth and ritual in narrative processes entails focused description on the secular and the sacred, the social and the spiritual, the physical and the metaphysical dimensions of cultural heritage, tradition and everyday happenings. During most religious services and ceremonies, such as rites of initiation, mythical narratives concerning social and cultural origins tend to feature prominently as composed texts that need to be pronounced in their entirety and in correct sequence. In most cases, however, they appear in bits and pieces throughout the whole ritual cycle and since rituals are often studied as performed communications between the natural and the supernatural worlds; such text, though predominant, are usually ignored as literature. In other words, they are described as part of religious communications - prayers, sacrifice, etc. and not as part of oral literature.
For sometime now, I have been closely following and studying one of such mythical narratives, the bagr myth among the Dagara of northern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso, which is also unique in its kind. This is so because its existence as myth depends on rites and religious services conducted as part of initiation ceremonies and the use of other kinds of oral narratives (riddles, proverbs stories, tales, descriptions of technical processes, etc.) which are put together to form sacred text. Various specialists compose bagr myths using their own creative skills and recite them during such ritual occasions. In my presentation I will briefly describe and analyse the mental processing and artistic techniques of putting together bagr mythical compositions reproduced and published as oral narratives during series of initiation ceremonies. The presentation will show how much African culture art is foregrounded in a common stage where artist and audience collude to produce a common narrative text of culture.
Zouglou, a popular musical movement born in the early 1990s at the University of Abidjan, provided a platform for Ivorian youth to express their frustrations and to many an extent their worldview. The connection between the failure of National Education to dish out its promises as THE passport for social success, and the destruction of the youth’s expectations is what I set out to explore in this paper.