Africa Today articles from March 1994

Africa Today archives from March 1994

Guest editor's introduction: arts and politics. (Editorial)
March 22, 1994... This issue of Africa Today is unique in focusing on the arts. We were delighted when first contacted by Ed Hawley, the journal's previous Editor, about dedicating an issue to a combined humanities and social science theme. Continued interest and...

The A.B.C.'s of cloth and politics in Cote d'Ivoire. (Ivory Coast)
March 22, 1994... Introduction Factory printed textiles are not new to the political arena in Cote d'Ivoire. Indeed, as Mona Etienne points out, the reigning Parti Democratique de la Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) has used gifts of factory produced cloth as a means of...

Negotiating power: a study of the Ben Ka Di women's association in Bamako, Mali.
March 22, 1994... Women's associations in Africa are widespread, sewing a variety of social purposes for its members and the local community.(1) Within these official female domains, women are able to make decisions, deal with problems, and hold positions of...

Political history and social commentary in Malian Sogobo theater.
March 22, 1994... Introduction Sogobo masquerade theater is a popular entertainment in Mall that had its origins in the Segou region during the precolonial era. This masquerade tradition flourished throughout the colonial period and, today, it remains a vital...

The priest/artist tradition in Achebe's Arrow of God. (African writer Chinua Achebe)
March 22, 1994... In his efforts to validate the African literary artist's vision, Chinua Achebe has frequently spoken out against art for art's sake. He insists that art is, and was always, in the service of man. Our ancestors created their myths and legends...

African arts in the academe: some thoughts on the politics of exhibition.
March 22, 1994... Introduction The products of African art traditions, though the result of creative imaginations and skills, are often presented as mere crafts or folk arts. Only rarely are African art objects presented as instruments which unite and mediate...

When mirror turns lamp: Frantz Fanon as cultural visionary.
March 22, 1994... It must go further still: that soul must become its own betrayer, its own deliverer, the one activity, the mirror turn lamp. W. B. Yeats Frantz Fanon has been called everything from the apostle of violence to the messiah for colonized...

Arab and African Film Making.
March 22, 1994... An approach to Arab and African feature films which emphasizes patterns in films and relates film making to other media, including oral and written literature, popular music, and radio and television broadcasting, makes this volume a refreshing...

African Music: A Bibliographical Guide to the Traditional, Popular, Art, and Liturgical Musics of Sub-Saharan Africa.
March 22, 1994... This bibliography of 5802 entries, but of fewer unique sources since there are multiple listings of some materials, was compiled from resources available at Columbia University and the Schomburg Center and Music Research Division of the New York...

Life in Stone: Zimbabwean Sculpture, Birth of a Contemporary Art Form.
March 22, 1994... To begin with, the title of this book, Life in Stone, is intentionally attractive, but, may be misleading. The book is more about the "extraordinary influence of Frank McEwen" and his contributions to the emergence and development of Zimbabwean...

Life in Stone: Zimbabwean Sculpture, Birth of a Contemporary Art Form.
March 22, 1994... Internationally recognized as one of contemporary Africa's most significant art forms, Zimbabwean stone sculpture owes part of its status to the manner in which it has been presented to patrons in far off countries. The weaving of an intricate,...

Teachers, Preachers, Non-Believers: A Social History of Zimbabwean Literature.
March 22, 1994... Number six in Hans Zell's acclaimed New Perspectives in African Literature Series under the general editorship of Eldred Jones, this is the most detailed and comprehensive study of Zimbabwean writing available. Veit-Wild offers a clear, lucid,...

Dambudzo Marechera: A Source Book on His Life and Work.
March 22, 1994... This second volume in the Documentary Research in African Literatures series under the general editorship of Bernth Lindfors is the most comprehensive study to date of Dambudzo Marechera, Zimbabwe's most controversial writer. With its extensive...

A New Bibliography of the Lusophone Literature of Africa.
March 22, 1994... There is a vast if little known African literature in Portuguese and Portuguese-based Creole languages from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome & Principe. It includes folk literature, novels, short stories, poetry and...

New Currents, Ancient Rivers: Contemporary African Artists in a Generation of Change.
March 22, 1994... Jean Kennedy devoted much of her life to the promotion of contemporary African art until her death in 1991. This book is a magnificent legacy profiling with 16 color plates and 174 black and white illustrations, 150 artists and 40 years of modern...