The 1–54 Art Fair Brings Africa and Its Diaspora Into the Global Mainstream
Talking with Touria El Glaoui, its founder, about making a real difference in the careers of African artists.
Talking with Touria El Glaoui, its founder, about making a real difference in the careers of African artists.
April 27 marked 62 years since the African nation of Sierra Leone attained its independence from Great Britain. The local community of Sierra Leoneans in Colorado did not want this important historical event to pass by silently. So, they sent out invitations, prepared dishes, ordered a variety of drinks, and gathered in the halls of…
“It feels really good to just see everybody united for the African Heritage Festival, … All the news you need to know, every day.
When last did you pick up an actual book with the intention of reading for leisure rather than compulsory study? Well, let me attempt to convince you why this is of great importance for not just you, but all of us. Books are great sources of information. As we all know, information is power. Missionaries Introduced…
They may have left their African homeland in Cameroon’s Western Region and settled in parts of the United States and Canada, but the Bamelikes show us they have not forgotten where they came from. The Bamilekes in Cameroon, a group of African Bantu people, represent one of the more than 250 ethnic groups that form the…
CHICAGO (CBS) – This weekend, Washington Park on Chicago’s South Side will host one of the city’s most popular and riveting events: the African Festival of the Arts.It was sidelined for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic and, as CBS 2’s Jim Williams told us, the event returns this year under the banner “Back to Culture, Back to Tradition.“Dana Easter’s creations are the result of painstaking and precise work.“I dye it. I paint it. I print it. I silk screen it,” Easter said. “So, it is art, but it’s just to wear.“It’s called wearable art and it’s on the backs of people around the world.
“I’ve had people say ‘I was in London and I saw your t‑shirt or I saw your outfit. I knew it was Dana,’ ” she said.Williams: “This week though, you’re in one spot.Easter: “I’m in one spot, the African Festival of the Arts.“The African Festival of the Arts, which return this weekend after a two-year hiatus, will feature every conceivable expression of Black culture: paintings, sculptures, fashion, food and music.
“This festival is very important to me,” said Dayo Laoye, an artist and Nigerian native.The art festival reflects the rich spirit and traditions that artists like Laoye found in Chicago when he moved to the city 32 years ago.“The African culture for the last 400 years is still embedded in some part of America and some people, especially here on the South and West Side in Chicago,” he said. “So finding Africa here made me stay longer.“The African Festival of the Arts, Laoye said, has helped create a bigger market for the work of Black artists, including his own.“They represent all the gestures of our moods as Black people in America,” he said, adding, “Through this festival, I was able to build my clientele.“Patrick Woodtor founded the festival 33 years ago and has watched it blossom into a “national attraction.”“This is like a family reunion every year,” Woodton said. “Every year and people come as far as California, New York, Florida.”
And Woodtor said it’s sparked similar festival across the country.“I’m so excited about it,” said Easter.But this weekend, the center of the Black art world will be in Chicago’s Washington Park.“It’s just an exciting weekend for family, for art, entertainment,” Easter said. “It’s like no other.“CBS 2 is a proud media sponsor of the festival. It runs Friday through Monday, Labor Day, in Washington Park.For more information on the event, visit aihafa.squarespace.com.
In April 1897, Frederick Horniman, at the time Britain’s wealthiest tea trader and an avid collector, was offered an opportunity he could not refuse. Through “established commercial sources and private collections” he acquired 12 items of what was referred to as “Benin material” for the modest sum of £30. Horniman, a Quaker whose parents had been part of the anti-slavery movement and who as a Liberal MP campaigned for what became the welfare state, had become almost certainly the first person in Britain to purchase items stolen barely weeks earlier from Benin City in an 18-day rampage by 5,000 British troops sent to sack one of West Africa’s foremost civilisations. Upon its return to the UK, the booty from the openly punitive raid was sold, both officially by the Foreign Office to recover the cost of the military operation, and unofficially by the troops themselves, a number of whom had been sufficiently comfortable with their looting in present-day Nigeria to be photographed beside their hauls. Gentleman aficionados such as Horniman would have been the subject of many offers from these “private collections” and in the next two years, the tea trader continued to acquire 60 more objects emptied from the Benin citadel, among them ornamental plaques telling stories of tribal history and a key to the palace of the Oba, or king. Worth millions but acquired for the equivalent of a few thousand pounds of modern money, these “Benin bronzes” were put on display among thousands of other artefacts in Horniman’s palatial home in the plush south London suburb of Forest Hill. Shortly after 1901 a purpose-built museum on the site was bequeathed by the magnate to the then London County Council for the “recreation, instruction and enjoyment” of the capital’s populace. Horniman’s goal, as he saw it, of “bringing the world” to a suburban corner of the British empire’s capital was complete. A century or so later, the museum’s trustees, required to oversee and shape Horniman’s increasingly thorny legacy, this week recorded another first in his name. More on British MuseumAfter a two-year process of consultation and evaluation, it was announced that the 72 Benin bronzes are to be returned to Nigeria, making the Horniman the first major museum directly funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to undertake such a large-scale act of restitution of colonial-era plunder. The pledge to return the items was made all the more significant by the unvarnished recognition of wrongdoing that accompanied it. Eve Salomon, chair of the Horniman’s trustees said: “The evidence is very clear that these objects were acquired through force… It is both moral and appropriate to return their ownership to Nigeria.” Other British institutions have previously undertaken smaller returns of Benin artefacts, led by Aberdeen University and Jesus College, Cambridge last year. But there is a growing view that the Horniman Museum’s decision – alongside a similar announcement last week by Oxford and Cambridge universities to seek the return of 200 items to Nigeria – is a watershed moment in a restitution campaign which has seen the slow erosion of a decades-long refusal by cultural institutions (the UK holdings of Benin bronzes are held by 150 separate bodies) to contemplate the surrender of ill-gotten gains. It is a fact which bears repetition that nearly 90 per cent of major African works of art and artefacts are held outside Africa, most of them in Europe.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) — If you’ve never had an opportunity to try West African food, there is a new restaurant in the Midlands that specializes in Ghanan dishes.Mimsy’s Restaurant has something for everyone, those who have meats in their diets and those who don’t with vegan and vegetarian options.Today we tried some fresh vegetables, Jollof rice and Banku.Copyright 2022 WIS. All rights reserved.Notice a spelling or grammar error in this article? Click or tap here to report it. Please include the article’s headline.
Two of the renowned artifacts were given back to Nigeria on Friday, and Germany intends to give the African country ownership of some 1,100 more. Germany returned two of the priceless artifacts known as the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria on Friday, after reaching a political agreement that could soon see hundreds more return to the country…
After so many years of talk about its potential, the African continent is waking up to understand and appreciate the power of unity represented by a language. The African Union (AU) officially adopted Kiswahili or Swahili as one of the official working languages of the African continent, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government…