African Arts: Past, Present, Futures

Description

This course examines the connection between the calls for the restitution of African arts and African futurism. Its premise is that the 19th-century Scramble for Africa was not only a quest for territorial control and market expansion. It was also a scramble for African cultural artifacts. Over the years, creative and artistic expressions by African and African diasporic creators have reimagined alternative scenarios to the displacements of African art objects. Focusing on these artistic and creative productions, the course examines the historical contexts, ongoing debates, and contingencies that surround alienated African art objects. The creative works we will engage with invite students to analyze the historical and futuristic values that pre-colonial artifacts embed. Chronicling the circumstances under which the objects left different parts of the continent, these texts charge students to contribute to current debates about restitution, authorship, and ethical stewardship. As imaginative texts that seek (p)repossession, these artistic and immersive work of arts task students to grapple with the moral and ethical complexities around calls for the return of African cultural heritages. At the heart of this course are the following questions. Who owns African arts? What is the historical significance of the art objects to their originating societies? How are the artifacts represented as documents of history and culture and as sources of liberated futures?