Littérature en langue étrangère

Hello everyone, I’m ___- of the Zeitz Contemporary Art Museum and I would like to talk to you about the importance of Art for a new vision of Africa.

Art has an important place in the education of future generations. That’s why Zeits Contemporary art museum was opened on 2017, this not-profit museum aims to exhibit and collect contemporary art from Africa, by paintings, sculpture, wax fabrics, In addition, we design and host many international exhibitions, as well as temporary exhibitions allowing the artists to be known by the public.

It’s a secret for no one that for hundreds of years Africa has been colonized around the world, segregation and slavery is a part of it sad story. As a result, many stereotypes has been spread around the world over the years by stories or artwork in which Africa has a reputation as a wild, poor, and uncivilised continent. Like in Vison of Africa by Mike Phillips in which the author explains to us the influence of these stereotypes on the people in Britain who see Africa like a land of safari with natives with perverse sexuality. England colonised Africa for a long time which is why this pejorative vision of Africa is conditioned by the history.

In the last few years, Africa wants to give itself a brand new vision to be seen differently than a colonised country. It should be able to retell is own story. As a result, new works of art were created with a whole new vision of Africa. Like Looking for Transwonderland: Travel in Nigeria, write by Noo Saro-Wiwa in 2012 which describes Nigeria as an emerging city, the most expensive part of the lagos, with a lot of things to do like nightclub, restaurant, art galleries, sport bar described by the author as “ more exciting than England”. This proves to us that Africa’s culture life is varied with a great diversify of art-forms.

There is nothing better than art to get a message across. Indeed it allow to mark the past from different points of view (because each city has its distinctive history with colonialism) in order to educate the new generations to never forget. As Zuhura Seng’enge teaches us in his poem “do not fear the past” The poet qualifies Africa’s past as ugly and painful because there have been a lot of violence. However, the purpose of the author is to explain that we must turn this past into a force, and that it is necessary to learn from this past in order not to forget it.

I can't talk about the rebirth of Africa without talking about Afrofuturism. Afrofuturism is a expression of blackness, black struggles and black ideas with is a cultural phenomenon that combines elements of science fiction, romance, fiction, fantasy, Afrocentrism and magical realism. These elements are used as vectors for analysing historical events from a different angle and imagining a form of utopia. The term was first defined in the early 1990s by the American writer and journalist Mark Dery, Afro-futurism has been present in music, films and novels for decades. It can be found in the film Moonsoons Over The Moon who is a short movie, created by Dan Muchina, who works under the pseudonym "Omega", he has turned the capital Nairobi into a dystopia, where people are oppressed by the dictatorship. The film is in black and white and tells the story of a gang known as The Moonsoons, who return to liberate oppressed teen by helping them escape.

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