Historical Africa as It Relates to Cultural Memory Art
The period of decolonisation in the 1960s and 70s in Africa allowed fine art to flourish and nurtured an infectious spirit of pan-Africanism and public dialogue of ideas. Newly independent nations used fine art every bit a manner to clear their freedom and promote the value of African culture.
Panafest is an online platform that captures stories near four of the largest gatherings in the history of the African continent: the Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres (Fesman '66), which in those times translated to First Globe Festival of Negro Arts, held in Dakar in 1966; The Outset Pan-African Cultural Festival (Panaf '69) held in Algiers in 1969; Zaire '74 held in Kinshasa in 1974 and the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Civilization (Festac '77) held in Lagos in 1977. These four festivals are yet unrivaled in their celebration of African art, politics and culture
Speaking from her base in Paris, Panafest co-director Dominique Malaquais calls the platform a web cartography and a web documentary. It is an interactive archival site besides and an altogether impressive body of work.
Earthworks into memory through 54 interviews, Panafest brings together scholars, activists, musicians, photographers, filmmakers, actors, writers and dancers who took part in the four festivals. The goal is "to memorialise and bring to life for new and for future generations the power, the complexity and the richness of these four pan-African festivals", says Malaquais.
The project was born 10 years ago, when synchronicity brought a collective of researchers together. Malaquais paired up with Cédric Vincent and researchers in other parts of the world. Steadily, they collected information and travelled extensively to come across people who could share their experience of the festivals.
Chimurenga, a pan-African literary and cultural hub based in Greatcoat Town, is the host platform for Panafest. While processing this research, Malaquais suggested working together with them.
Since inception in 2002, Chimurenga continues to play a central role every bit a publication that connects South Africa to the rest of the African continent and the global Black diaspora.
Overlaps and connections
The Panafest project research ran parallel to the Festac '77 book Chimurenga published in 2019.
Inquiry uncovered past Panafest reveals overlappings and parallels exist between the historic festivals when looked at collectively and with fresh optics. Each host country and its leaders were driven by political desires, for case. Dakar '66 was a platform for the philosophy of négritude, while Panaf '69 historic pan-Africanism and liberation. Festac '77 drew from both festivals to imagine Black solidarity.
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In a panel discussion held at the Academy of Chicago, Malaquais says: "The political heft of the four festivals tends to be understated in mainstream historiography. They tend to be presented every bit 'merely arts and culture' events… In fact, they were powerful actors in the emergence of phenomena that significantly impacted the second half of the 20th century."
Malaquais adds: "As coming together grounds betwixt creators, intellectuals and political personnel on the one paw, and extremely large and varied audiences on the other hand, they provided an important way for ideas that had been previously bars to the elite to make their way into the public sphere."
Fesman begins it all
Launched as a celebration of fine art in Africa, Fesman '66 took place in Dakar, Senegal in 1966. Festival contributions included poetry, sculpture, theatre, fine art, film, architecture, dance and design. More than ii 000 people contributed.
It was a month-long arts festival instigated by President Léopold Senghor and sponsored by the land. The festival was an extension of Senghor'due south involvement in the concept of Négritude which, with Aimé Césaire, he helped develop. It is an idea rooted in the self-affirmation and celebration of Black and African identity on its own terms.
Delegates included important African cultural figures like the South African poet Keorapetse Kgositsile and Nigerian author Wole Soyinka. Some came from away as well, like Langston Hughes, William Greaves and Duke Ellington. A massive colloquium examining African fine art was held, bringing together intellectuals from around the earth. The festival was widely praised and criticised by many. For example, by the historian Cheikh Anta Diop whose human relationship with Senghor's politics and worldview was to say the very least fraught. Kgositsile too, it must exist said, was quite critical of Fesman.
More inclusion at Panaf '69
In many ways, Fesman ready the phase for Panaf, held three years afterward in Algiers. Though commonly seen as a rebuke to its predecessor, it was far more complex than that.
In Dakar, the invitation to participate was extended just to countries recognised by the international community, whereas in Algiers liberation movements from around the earth were included. Fesman '66's focus on Négritude meant that much of Northwest Africa was excluded from participating. Panaf '69, on the other hand, presented a much more inclusive festival, opening upward to various nations from the region.
Algiers was dubbed "a revolutionary Mecca" when Panaf was held there in July 1969, 7 years after People's democratic republic of algeria'southward independence. The festival was mandated by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1967. Information technology ran for 10 days with a line-up of artists and radical activists from all over the world. A festival designed to be an anti-colonialist and anti-capitalist gathering, information technology was significant for its focus on nation-edifice, pan-Africanism and fighting for freedom. A rare documentary past the late Guevarist Théo Robichet shows free-jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp improvising on the streets of Algiers, surrounded by hundreds of onlookers.
Taking a leaf from Fesman, an exhibition celebrating classical and modernistic African fine art was held. There was an of import colloquium too, this time reflecting on African unity. Several participants at the colloquium, notably philosopher Stanislas Adotevi, heavily criticised the concept of Négritude.
In an interview, Vincent notes: "For 10 days or and so, the Panaf was the eye of a world in the process of creating itself, of discovering a sense of cultural and political pride, of belonging, and the ability to exert an influence on the world."
The festival too brought together liberation movements from all over the world. The Blackness Panthers, who had in parallel set up a base in Algeria nether Eldridge Cleaver's leadership, were a big role of proceedings, for example. Other liberation movements struggling confronting colonial powers who were present at Panaf included Frelimo from Mozambique, the Palestine Liberation Organization from Palestine and the ANC from Southward Africa.
Puzzle of Zaire '74
Largely excluded from the dominant narrative of these thousand festivals is Zaire '74.
A brainchild of and then-president Mobutu Sese Seko, it would also double as a promotional event for the iconic heavyweight championship boxing lucifer between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, famously billed equally The Rumble in the Jungle. Mobutu wanted this festival to take a similar feel to its predecessors. Instead, it became a three-day music festival taking place from 22 to 24 September 1974 in Kinshasa, attended by an estimated 80 000 people.
Malaquais was doing extensive research on Zaire '74 at the time of getting involved in the Panafest project. "No one had ever talked well-nigh Zaire '74 as it relates to the other festivals," she says.
"What's interesting virtually Zaire '74 is that, fundamentally, it's an act of plagiarism. Mobutu looked at what had happened in Dakar and Algiers. And he had his eye on what was going on – what was about to happen – in Lagos, considering he saw Zaire as existence in competition with Nigeria, in terms of representing what was the country of reference in Africa at the fourth dimension. So he ended up borrowing widely from Fesman and Panaf and from the preparations for Festac. He took and remixed – borrowing or pilfering vocabulary, symbols, tropes from the two previous festivals; inviting artists who had been invited to Fesman, Panaf and Festac – and behaving, in the process, similar a brilliant, if deadly DJ."
The concert was organised by Hugh Masekela and producer Stewart Levine curated the line-up, every bit a way to connect with artists based in the U.s.. Amid those who played to packed audiences were James Brownish, Bill Withers, Miriam Makeba, the Fania All Stars and Tabu Ley Rochereau.
Mobutu initially sought the OAU'due south permission to create what he chosen the second Panaf. Permission was non granted. Art and spectacle in the service of politics drove his goal of cartoon the attention of the international community. He as well meant to explore the festival as a manifestation of the principles of "Authenticité" under which he ruled. It was one of many ways with which he hoped to legitimise his rule.
Festac '77'south cultural significance
Out of all the festivals, Festac, held from 15 January to 12 Feb 1977, was the most lavish. It was an incredible display of Nigeria'southward new oil-rich economy. Artists and scholars from all over Africa and the Blackness diaspora gathered in Lagos – the uppercase at the time – and Kaduna, in the due north of Nigeria.
As in the previous festivals, huge structures were built, transforming the metropolis into a modernistic hub. A massive country-of-the-art national theatre was congenital to stage the festival. An entire neighbourhood, dubbed the Festac Hamlet, was created to house the 17 000 participants who arrived from 59 countries. All were guests of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
To date, it is the largest single cultural outcome held on the African continent. Musicians who took part include Miriam Makeba, Sunday Ra, Gilberto Gil, Stevie Wonder, Franco Luambo and Bembeya Jazz National. Its core aims were to revive the promotion of Black culture and values.
The opening anniversary was a parade from participating countries. A central colloquium, theatre performances, flick screenings, exhibitions and musical performances ran throughout. In the colloquium, there were discussions around what constituted "Blackness" and being African.
Malaquais reiterates that one of Festac's main goals was "to restore the link betwixt culture, creativity and mastery of modern technology and industrialism so as to endow Black peoples all over the world with a new society deeply rooted in our shared cultural identity, and ready for the dandy scientific and technical task of conquering the future".
South African activists and artists led by the belatedly trombonist Jonas Gwangwa performed a dramatisation of the 16 June 1976 events, in the class of music, dance and poetry. This later led to the formation of the Amandla Cultural Ensemble.
The official festival emblem was a replica of the famous 16th-century Benin ivory mask, Queen Idia's head. The Nigerian government made an official request to the British Museum for the return of the original, at least for the length of the festival. The request was denied. This started one of the primeval conversations of restitution and return of African artefacts and works of art held by Western museums obtained illegally through colonisation and conquest – a disquisitional conversation that continues to this 24-hour interval.
Chimurenga questions past and present
In 2019, Chimurenga published a book titled Festac '77.
One question the book asks is: "Tin can a past that the present has non still caught upwardly with be summoned to haunt the present as an alternative?"
The seed for the volume was planted in 2010 later Southward Africa hosted the Earth Loving cup. Information technology was roughly x years in the making. Beyond official details, information technology was tough to notice written accounts nigh the festival.
In an interview, editor Ntone Edjabe says: "This intrigued me. The people who experienced Festac seemed unwilling to write information technology, as if bound past an unspoken nondisclosure agreement. Then, its stories circulated in the manner of a family hugger-mugger, a family of millions of people."
Merely there are about 40 albums [in LP records] that exist of artists who performed at the festival. Hence, sound became the entry point through which Chimurenga began their research. In this sense, it tin can all-time be described as a mixtape.
"Information technology refuses to be written, but is spoken, sung and performed on record more widely than any other historical effect I've researched… Together, these LPs constitute a sound world in which the memory of Festac is equally active equally it is missing in print," says Edjabe.
Hence the introduction to the volume says: "…decomposed, an-arranged and reproduced." It is a reference to the sonic aspect, along with personal and artistic encounters. It becomes a book that tin be at once read and listened to.
Like with Panafest, the aim was to tell the Festac story through the words and experiences of people who were at that place. These later led to newspaper clippings, posters, diary pages, artworks, advertisements, essays, photographs, manufactures, films and dwelling-made recordings beingness nerveless over the years. It is a book, Edjabe says, that "could just be made past many hands, page by page".
For assembling, inspiration was drawn from Toni Morrison'due south The Black Book – a collage of works arranged into ane volume – to allow the musicality and stories of people to smoothen through.
Like once again to Panafest, there is no singular and linear story told, and the volume tin can be experienced from whatever management. Reading begins where the eye lands.
Information technology was impossible to know who was at the festival from official records, so a different approach was taken. Events were organised around the world to notice more people who attended the festival. Chimurenga also looked into archival cloth from The Centre for Blackness and African Fine art and Civilisation in Lagos, which holds of import documents and recordings of performances. Side projects similar the Chronic – Chimurenga'due south publication – were also used to advance the research.
A collaborative reading
Despite Fesman '66, Panaf '69, Zaire '74 and Festac '77 being of import atypical moments in each country's history, there are powerful connections which tie the 4 events together. Malaquais notes: "There are these four moments that brought the entire African earth together. And they're all linked to each other. People, objects, music, words can be seen travelling dorsum and forth between them." The result, she says, is akin to a Möbius strip that keeps coming back on itself even as it moves forwards and out.
Panafest's involvement lies in a not-linear reading of the festivals. Information technology is especially interested in the highly personal accounts of those who took role and in unlike perspectives that it highlights, all of which are centred on lived experience.
From her enquiry, Malaquais remembers ane stand up-out moment told by Koffi Kwahulé, an writer who visited the festival every bit a young man:
"His near striking memory of Festac was of the railroad train ride between Lagos and Kaduna. And the massive jam sessions and the partying and the poetry readings occurred on the train throughout that journey. That, to me, speaks to some of the well-nigh interesting, and least-known aspects of these festivals."
Malaquais stresses the collectivity of the project. Those that did the research and anybody who shared their story are equal contributors. As opposed to trying to tell an organised official story, the Panafest squad were interested in human details. They were interested, for example, in what it felt like to walk through the streets on a detail festival day. This meant treating everyone as equally important, no matter their experience or background. Research gathered by Panafest (everything from photographs, books, newspapers to programmes, maps, T-shirts, ashtrays, bags) is now housed in the archives of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.
Panafest allows us to understand how art became a vector for diplomacy, reflection and at times confrontation between newly liberated countries, colonisers and struggle movements.
"I think that what makes these festivals and then exciting, is not only that these were amazing events that happened before long later on independence, only that they take very articulate reverberations in the nowadays," Malaquais says.
Visit Panafest here and purchase Chimurenga's Festac '77 volume here.
Source: https://www.newframe.com/long-read-digging-into-pan-african-cultural-memory/
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