Arts of the African Continent

“Africa” is a concept that was created during the colonial period. As such, our understanding of “African Art” is historically based on colonial models of documentation and knowledge collection. Once we understand this, we can engage more honestly with the diversity of cultures and arts on the continent. To understand this, we will read from a variety of art historical, anthropological, literary, and primary colonial sources, including Georg Schweinfurth, Joseph Conrad, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Johannes Fabian, Suzanne Blier, and Monica Visona—whose book, A History of Art in Africa, is used as the primary textbook for the course. We will also use the collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History as extended classrooms. This affords the opportunity not only to view the original objects and thus learn about the craftsmanship, scale, materials, and provenance of the pieces but also to encourage students to use the museum resources. The course will have a thematic focus on issues pertaining to the interchange of cultural ideas and art, as manifested in religion and regional exchanges between peoples. I want to encourage students to think about the impact of Western religions (Christianity and Islam) on African societies and the objects that they produce, as well as on how cultures (and objects) are interrelated with their neighbors. In other words, the class strives to eliminate thinking of African peoples as concrete units in easily definable boxes—Sub-Saharan vs North African, Kongo vs. Fang, Traditional vs Contemporary—as cultural borders are much more fluid than we imagine them to be. Finally, the class will explore contemporary art movements, drawing attention to the arts produced in modern times and bringing students’ attention to the fact that their own generation in Africa is continually updating, redefining, and restructuring the art of their times.