ABSTRACT

This edited volume, including contributions from scholars with different areas of specialization, investigates a broad range of methodologies, ideologies and pedagogies focusing on the study of the art of Africa, using theoretical reflections and applications from primitivism to metamodernism.

Chapters break the externally imposed boundaries of Africa-related works beyond the conventional fragments of traditional, contemporary and diaspora. The contributions are significantly broad in their methodologies, ideologies and pedagogical coverage; yet, they all address various aspects of African artistic creativity, demonstrating the possibilities for analytical experiments that art history presents to scholars of the discipline today. The Ìwà (character) of each approach is unique; nevertheless, each is useful toward a fuller understanding of African art studies as an independent aspect of art historical research that is a branch or bud of the larger family of art history. The volume respects, highlights and celebrates the distinctiveness of each methodical approach, recognizing its contribution to the overall character or Ìwà of African art studies.

The book will be of interest to students in undergraduate or graduate, intermediate or advanced courses as well as scholars in art history and African studies.

chapter |13 pages

Introduction

Metamodern Studies of African Art: Traditions, Innovations and Interventions

chapter 3|15 pages

Dancing Nkhoba

The Flow of Sound and Healthy Bodies in the West Usambara Mountains of Tanzania

chapter 4|8 pages

African Meanings, Western Words

chapter 5|12 pages

Chwuechology

Indigenous African Art Education

chapter 6|20 pages

Azande and Mangbetu Artists as Social Critics in the Belgian Congo 1909–1915

What Are the Implications for Contemporary Artists and Museums Today?

chapter 8|14 pages

Conflict and Peace

Gender and Spiritual Dimensions of Egúngún Performance

chapter 9|18 pages

Ìbà Fún Obìnrin

Monochromatic Mythography of Yoruba Female Power

chapter 12|17 pages

The Spirit of Fi Yi Yi and the Mandingo Warriors

Africa in New Orleans

chapter 13|6 pages

Speaking into Being

The Resonance of Empathy in the Work of Elizabeth Catlett

chapter 14|9 pages

Sacred Spaces

Antonius Roberts and Public Sanctuaries

chapter 15|6 pages

Reflections and Reminiscences Revisited

Indigenous Knowledge Systems, African-Based Worldviews, and Cross-Cultural Diasporic Connections

chapter 16|25 pages

Akwaaba/Continuum

Manifesto of an African Artist