AACHRONYM

Amazon’s profligate shipping...

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 15:57:00 +0000

Amazon shipping for a single sketchbook. Photo by Sylvester Ogbechie

The ongoing pandemic has revealed a lot about the unsustainability of the current global economy. Unfortunately, it has also contributed to unsustainable practices, none more obvious than in the ongoing demand for online purchases. For too long, tech companies have sold us on the idea of a better life in which one’s needs are fulfilled as if by magic, through online purchase and delivery of relevant goods and services. Of course, they underplay the armies of overworked and underpaid grunt workers that make such delivery possible, or the gargantuan amount of waste generated by how their products are shipped. Retail companies are very guilty of such infractions and in this regard, I want to comment on tech giant Amazon’s profligate shipping practices.

Two months into the lockdown (around the end of April), I noticed that Amazon was shipping small sized goods in large boxes. At first, I thought this was a minor error, but after experimenting by purchasing several small items on Amazon only to see them arrive in very large boxes, I now think the company doesn’t really care about the issue, or about any kind of sustainability in the long run. And why should it? Amazon has made out like a bandit during the pandemic, with Jeff Bezos’ personal wealth now estimated at over $200 billion (that’s two hundred billion US dollars), all while he runs a company that essentially uses protocols akin to slave labor in its ironically named “fulfillment” / shipping operations and so-called mechanical turk programs (see “I am not a Robot: Amazon Workers condemn unsafe, grueling conditions at Warehouse")

Amazon, like many American retail giants (I’m looking at you Walmart) doesn’t pay its workers a living wage. The company has also been criticized for its lackluster response to workers’ concerns about work conditions during the covid pandemic (see Amazon workers stage vigil at Jeff Bezos Beverly Hills Mansion")

So here’s the thing: the so-called global economy is a giant middle finger to our planet and our future. It doesn’t factor into its accounting the true cost of doing the kind of business that Amazon does. Overpackaging is an ongoing problem with product makers and retailers but Amazon’s recent infractions in this regard are truly alarming. Amazon shipped my purchase of two regular sized novels in a box that could have easily held 25 such books, and stuffed the box with giant wads of paper to hold the books in place. We’re talking here about boxes made out of strong corrugated cardboard, which are notoriously difficult to break down. Flattened, the boxes don't necessarily take up less space in garbage bins. In my housing development, managers are already complaining that huge quantities of such cardboard boxes were overflowing garbage bins. Multiply this kind of waste by the millions of deliveries Amazon makes in a single month and you can see my point about the sheer profligacy involved in getting its goods to consumers. Sure, some of these cardboard boxes can be recycled but that doesn’t solve the problem. Much of it still ends up as waste and clogs up landfills and other disposal sites.

Would Amazon’s profits be so high if they were taxed on the waste generated by their profligate shipping boxes? I don’t think so. However, tech companies have been allowed to write their own rules and most don’t give a damn about doing anything decent. All are simply interested in their profits, Earth be damned. In this scenario, Jeff Bezos’s wealth will continue to skyrocket, his workers will continue to be underpaid and overworked, Amazon will continue to generate unholy quantities of material waste, and future generations will surely curse the memory of our age of profligacy, for our role in destroying this good world we have been given. There's no way this ends well.

Amazon shipping of two purchased items. Note size of items in relation to size of box.

Photo by Sylvester Ogbechie

A Concrete Vision for Black Lives Matter Policy Demands...

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Sun, 02 Aug 2020 17:25:00 +0000

As I said in my previous posts, money alone won't resolve the war that the USA has waged on black people since the time of slavery. Among the policy demands I came across in my investigations, this one by The Movement for Black Lives is among the clearest and most significant. Actualization of some or all of the demands included here is needed to turn the tide. It correctly identifies the murder of African Americans by police as a war on black people and demands its immediate cessation. PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY.

MONEY ALONE WON'T SOLVE THIS...

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 07:31:00 +0000

Credit...
©Damon Winter/The New York Times

Sometime in 2017, I came across an amazing report: Agnes Gund, notable New York philanthropist and a big kahuna of the art world (she was at one time president of MoMA) has sold her Lichtenstein and was donating the $100 million from the sale to founding Art for Justice, a non-profit foundation whose objective is to advance criminal justice reform in the USA. According to the report, Gund said she founded Art for Justice because “the criminal justice system in its current state, particularly in its treatment of people of color, is unfair and unjust…and that “the facts are clear: Black and Hispanic women, men, and children are far more likely to be arrested and incarcerated than white people.” Gund says her epiphany came from witnessing how the world treats black people differently through her personal experience as the grandmother to African American children. I took this to mean that one of Gund’s own children married an African American and Gund was surprised to see that her wealth and influence did not stop her black grandchildren from experiencing racism.

Two things jumped out at me from this report: the first was about the $100 million value of a single artwork by Roy Lichtenstein. I was pretty sure that the combined value of artworks of the top 100 African American artists is not equal to the value of that single Lichtenstein. This is the clearest evidence that racism undermines the value of art by, and the life of, black artists. The second was that it took “personal experience” of people demeaning her African American grandchildren to make Gund reflect on the structural racism that defines America, and move to support changes to the prison industrial system that has perpetuated slavery under a different name. Better late than never, I thought, and

filed the report away.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I became concerned over the implications of this news and in the past three years, that report flashed into my mind every once in a while. It wasn’t until this year of public protest against the wanton killing of African Americans by the police that I finally understood what has made me uncomfortable, all these years, about Gund’s push for prison reform: her claim of personal experience. Would Gund have started her foundation if she didn’t have her personal experience/ epiphany? Why did it take her black grandchildren getting mistreated to make Gund care about the structural racism that has oppressed African Americans since the time of slavery? Since most of the children of people in Gund’s 1% elite class did not marry black people, does it mean they can continue to be ignorant of these issues like she was? Doesn’t such ignorance show their general lack of humanity and empathy?

The New York Times described Gund as “a wealthy white woman who spent her life fighting for racial justice”. However, Gund’s city, New York, was notoriously foundational to the increased police brutality against black people, when then mayor Rudy Guiliani weaponized the NYPD against the city’s black population. It wasn't his actions alone; the American police system had brutalized blacks since the time of slavery. And they almost always got away with it. Among notorious examples, in 1997 New York policemen assaulted, brutalized and sodomized Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant. The four NY Police officers who killed Guinean immigrant Ahmadou Diallo were acquitted; they shot him 41 times and were still found not culpable. Stop-and Frisk arrests swelled the flow of black people into the criminal (in)justice system. Prison population grew exponentially and the prison industrial complex gained credibility as mayors of most cities handed management of American prisons to private corporations, some now listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Other cities instituted similar practices, resulting in a commensurate boom in the prison population.

In a country that already oppressed African Americans through established forms of institutional and personal racism, the rise of the prison industrial complex proved catastrophic. Under the reign of the current administration, private prison stocks have gone up 100% and continue to rise. A full one third of all African American males are either in prison or out on parole. The wanton killing of African Americans by law enforcement officers through particularly brutal means has escalated since that time. The recent killing of George Floyd lit a match that is still burning but we have seen such protests before, in LA in 1992 over the brutal beating of Rodney King (the cops involved were acquitted even though they were recorded on video); in 2012 when Trayvon Martin was shot by a vigilante who had been explicitly warned by the cops to leave the boy alone; the killer was acquitted; in Ferguson in 2014 over the shooting of Michael Brown and now in 2020 over the Louisville (Kentucky) shooting of Breona Taylor by plain clothes officers executing a no-knock warrant, and the brutal murder of George Floyd who died after a policeman knelt on his neck for over 8 minutes and 46 seconds. None of these protests have seriously dented what is clearly a general perception by cops that black life is worthless and can be taken without consequences.

There is no recourse here: the system will not work for blacks. It wasn’t intended to. In fact, it was designed to work against them. I don’t know what impact the Art for Justice foundation has had since its inception but it’s safe to say there hasn’t been any noticeable dent in the prison industry. There are two lessons to take from this: money alone won’t solve this problem of ongoing injustice and brutality against African Americans; and we need to understand that the country has made black people into a permanent underclass that can be exploited indefinitely. It is good to have important people like Gund contribute to criminal justice reform but I wager their efforts will not cause much change. We also need to understand that ongoing protests (in its multiple variations since the time of the Nat Turner's slave rebellion of 1831) has not done much to mitigate police killings and the perpetual marginalization of African Americans in the land of the “free” and home of the brave. Money alone won’t solve this problem, and neither will the “goodwill” of white philanthropists who support criminal justice reform only because their personal tastes are offended.

(This is Part I of a series titled The Age of Impunity)

CHRISTIES IS TRAFFICKING IN STOLEN AFRICAN ART.

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 23:59:00 +0000

In the middle of the debate about restitution of African artworks to their countries of origin, European auction houses (Christies in this particular instance) is aiding and abetting collectors in selling of pieces of their contested collections. Christies is putting up for sale African artworks that are clearly major items in the restitution debate, such as Benin bronzes. These activities are clearly meant to undermine the ongoing discussions about returning such African artworks to their countries of origin. Ten years ago, I called out Sotheby's for a similar failing. In a decade of important developments in the cultural patrimony restitution debate, we can see that the mindset of these auction houses have not changed. We need to more forcefully state that by their actions, these auction houses are basically serving as fences for stolen goods. This is blatant criminality.

Art and Decolonization in 20th Century Nigeria...

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 21:27:00 +0000

Recently published:

Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, review of Chika Okeke-Agulu's Postcolonial Modernism:Art and Decolonization in 20th Century Nigeria". Journal of Art Historiography

In Memoriam: Sydney Littlefield Kasfir (1939-2019)

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 19:57:00 +0000

Sidney Kasfir in Kenya in 2004. Photo credit: http://arthistory.emory.edu/home/people/faculty/kasfir.html

The esteemed historian of African art Sidney Littlefield Kasfir passed away on December 29, 2019. It has taken me this long to come to grips with the fact of her death and I have been in mourning since. We are at the twilight of an age and the passing of the greats is now a fact of life; this doesn't mean we shouldn't mourn those who passed or forget them. Many have written and others will write about Sydney, highlighting her influence as a historian of African art, her erudite contributions to the field, her acute mind, and total devotion to an idea of knowledge that emphasized change, in-depth research, and longevity of focus. Instead, I want to write here about my mentor and friend whose intervention in my early days as a graduate student helped shape my understanding of American academia. I was never her student, but she was for all the time I knew her my mentor and supporter.

Fall 1993. I had just arrived at Northwestern University as a graduate student in art history. My enrollment was enabled by a Gwendolen Carter Fellowship of Northwestern's Program of African Studies, and required I participate in that year's roundtable--a gathering of scholars around specific themes. In the 1993 to 1994 academic year, the PAS theme was "Inscriptions of the Material World." For one year, I sat next to Sydney at the roundtable and absorbed the vast range of conversations going on about various aspects of African arts and material culture. Postcolonial theory was in the air and there were spirited debates about its validity and application to ongoing research in African history, politics, culture and arts. Coming from a university (University of Nigeria--UNN) where an economic downturn had minimized the funds available to the library for purchasing books, many aspects of the discussions I heard were quite new to me. I read voraciously, guided by astute questions Sydney posed to me, and by my own research interests. I was full of questions. Always, she answered my questions and guided me through the thornier aspects of our discussions and readings. By the end of the PAS roundtable in 1994 and through my conversations with Sydney, I had gained a decent grasp of issues that helped me make sense of the vicissitudes of graduate school. During this period, I was also a practicing artist and Sydney encouraged me to exhibit my artworks despite the negative attitude of my professors in the art history department who told me in clear terms that one either worked as an artist or art historian but not both.

I remained in touch with Sydney after the PAS roundtable and consulted with her at all key points of my graduate education and subsequent career. She invited me to participate in a conference at Emory University in 1995, where I was the only graduate student among the participants. Touched as I was by the invitation, I was even more grateful for the validation it provided in a context in which I was dealing with the usual trauma arising from culture shock and the sudden realization that no matter how smart you are, there are always smarter people. The trick, Sydney said, is not to dwell on how many are better than you, but to strive to better yourself always.

Sidney wrote one of the most significant papers in African art history ("One Tribe, One Style? Paradigms int he Historiography of African Art.") that challenged the assumption that African cultures were stable unchanging contexts and launched the field in a totally new direction. It is a widely quoted paper that makes its extraordinary analysis through straightforward language; accessible and deeply meaningful. Her work in Nigeria and Kenya are paradigms of how to engage indigenous African cultures as a researcher, through humility, genuine interest and above all, a devotion to allowing the culture to narrate its own stories. It is not surprising that she passed away in Kenya where she lived with her husband--Kirati Lenaronkoito -- since she retired from Emory University in 2011.

Among my peoples (the Igbo and Yoruba peoples of Nigeria), a life well lived is celebrated in death. Yes we mourn, but we also praise the worthiness of the life of the departed. Humans come and go; Earth abides. Yet not all who live deserve to be praised, and definitely not all who die become esteemed ancestors. Let us all now praise Sidney Littlefield Kasfir, who has passed into the great realm of the revered ancestors. My people say, "onye me'nye o na" (ones does one's best and then departs). May her exemplary life remain a song we sing to console ourselves in this time of great sorrows.

Behold, The Blacksonian...

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Sun, 18 Aug 2019 22:01:00 +0000

Image credit: Smithsonian Institution

Spoke to a Washington DC-based friend of mine this morning who informed me that the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture is now popularly referred to as "The Blacksonian."

In Memoriam: Christopher Roy (1947-2019)

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 17:59:00 +0000

Prof. Christopher Roy. Photo Credit ©

We are indeed in an age of great loss. It turns out we have not one, but two great scholars to mourn. Prof. Christopher Roy, Professor of African Art History at the University of Iowa, and one of the true greats of the field, passed away on February 11, 2019. A Student of Roy Sieber, Prof. Roy began teaching at the University of Iowa in 1971, after receiving his doctorate from the University of Indiana. I dare say no scholar of African art in recent times have failed to notice Prof. Roy's immense work on the arts and cultures of Burkina Faso, his Peace Corps service, and dedication to producing several generations of African art historians from his base at UIOWA. Prof. Roy pioneered a channel on YouTube to which he posted several insightful videos of life and cultures of Africa with specific focus on transformations in indigenous cultures over the longue durée of his research, which is unique by locating him in a particular context of analysis for a very significant and long time. Like Simon Ottenberg's work among the Afikpo Igbo, Rowland Abiodun on the hermeneutics of Yoruba arts, Herbert Cole on Igbo and Akan cultures, Sydney Kasfir in Nigeria, Kenya and Southern Africa, Dele Jegede on Nigerian arts, Monica Blackmun Visona among the Lagoon peoples of Cote D'Ivoire, Polly Roberts (of blessed memory) and Allen Roberts in Central Africa, to name a few other greats (and with due respect to those unnamed), Christopher Roy became seriously embedded among the peoples his research focused on, achieving indigineity in the process. This is classical research methodology, of which we see less and less today. We must celebrate Prof. Roy and these great scholars for their intellectual achievements and the immense contributions they have made to the field of African art history.

I have used a lot of Prof. Roy's videos in teaching and I'm sure they will continue to be used for a while to come. Sometimes, the best research comes from persistent observation, and in Prof. Roy's videos one sees the unfolding of daily life, recorded by someone who is known and respected by members of the cultures he documents. By providing us with important records of transformations in these cultures, Prof. Roy establishes a methodological platform that reminds us that our theories of African cultural practice must derive from the lived experiences of Africans themselves. Prof. Roy lived an exemplary life of scholarship. He has left us bereft, and way too soon. May his soul rest in Peace.

In Memoriam: BISI SILVA

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 17:39:00 +0000

Bis Silva, 1962-2019

I woke to the devastating news that my friend, Bisi Silva (or as I fondly called her "Bisi-Daughter of the River") has died yesterday Tuesday February 12, 2019. Bisi Silva is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Center for Contemporary Art Lagos (CCA-L), which one can say undoubtedly moved contemporary art in Africa into the global arena. Before Bisi, most of the notable contemporary African artists showcased in blockbuster exhibitions in the West were artists of African ancestry who lived and worked in the West. By locating CCA-L in Lagos and insisting that the global art world engage contemporary African art on the African continent, Bisi created a whole new network and trajectory for contemporary art practice in Nigeria. From that base, she expanded her operations across Africa and has been instrumental in bringing into conversation with each other, many new and increasingly important art initiatives located in several African countries. CCA-L has been the most successful of these new initiatives, many founded by visionary African women such as Bisi herself.

When Bisi's CCA-L began operation, she invited me in March 2008 to present a paper on "managing Nigeria's cultural patrimony: the need for social entrepreneurs", which elicited a lot of discussion. I was struck by how eager Lagos-based artists were for her project, which everyone could see, was of a different intellectual caliber from everything that was going on then. Bisi told me of her plan to start an arts library at CCA-L and I in turn, donated some copies from my journal, Critical Interventions, which I had just started publishing at that time. I prayed that CCA-L would avoid the fate of most initiatives in Nigeria, which usually have a very public start only to fizzle out after one year. CCA-L indeed survived and it did so mainly through the energy and foresight of Bisi Silva. It has since become THE primary site of discourse on global art in Lagos, visited by many foreign curators all of who were attracted by the intensity of Bisi's vision for contemporary African art.

In the past few years, my colleague Eva Maria Ocherbauer and I have situated our annual Photography workshop --FotoFactory Lagos-- at CCA-L. Bisi's support has been crucial for this event and we were looking forward to this year's version, which we also planned to host at CCA-L. We are both heartbroken by the news of Bisi's death and will mourn her for a while to come. Few people really deserve the title of "Change Agent". Bisi was the greatest change agent I knew and her life sets an example for all to follow. May her gentle soul rest in peace.

"Deep Time and Crisis" Conference, Berlin May 25-26, 2018

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 15:32:00 +0000

As part of its exhibition Neolithic Childhood: Art in a False Present, c. 1930, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures) in Berlin organized the Deep Time and Crisis, c. 1930 conference which took place May 26 to 27, 2018. The conference used Carl Einstein's theoretical texts to interrogate the social, economic and cultural upheavals that marked the period of starting of the 1920s to 1940s, and how these relate to the present. Einstein is notable in African art history as the author of the first book to evaluate African art as art (Negerplastik, 1915). My paper reviewed how the book established a protocol for presenting African art that persists to this day. The proceedings of the conference have just been uploaded and are now available in the HKW Mediatek.

Okwui Enwezor Resigns from Haus der Kunst...

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 15:08:00 +0000

Okwui Enwezor. © Der Spiegel, June 4, 2018

German news magazine Der Spiegel reports that Okwui Enwezor, Artistic Director of the Munich-based Haus dar Kunst, has resigned his position citing health reasons. Enwezor has been at the helm of the prestigious institution since his appointment in 2011. During his tenure, he vastly increased the global reputation of the Haus der Kunst through innovative exhibitions and his own fame as director of top line contemporary art events such as Documenta XI and the 56th Venice Biennale. Since his emergence in 1995 as publisher of Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Enwezor (among other curators) has been instrumental in bringing contemporary African art to a global purview. We await with interest his next assignment or project.

R. Lane Clark's film: Ghana's Electric Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Thu, 17 May 2018 13:42:00 +0000

MATERNITY: MOTHERS AND CHILDREN IN THE ARTS OF AFRICA

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 16:14:00 +0000

In 1976, the Nigerian-Cameroonian Afropop musician Prince Nico Mbarga’s megahit “Sweet Mother” summed up the debt owed to mothers by every human being. It has since become of the greatest examples of African popular music. Herbert Cole’s Maternity is the textual and analytical version of this megahit and deserves to be equally recognized as one of the greatest narratives about African interpretations of a central archetype of human culture—motherhood. The visually stunning and deeply learned magisterial tome reflects Cole’s lifetime of devotion to the arts and visual cultures of Africa. The vast historical range (roughly 7000 years of image making) and cultural complexity (the book examines archetypal images of mothers and children from over 100 different African peoples) make this an important document of scholarship. In addition to the excellent examples of canonical African artworks illustrated, the book examines how contemporary culture has shifted the meanings and politics of maternity. This link between historical and contemporary representations of motherhood attests to the continued vitality of African art and its transformations through the ages.

Anti-Apartheid Campaigner WINNIE MANDELA (1936-2018): In Memoriam

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 15:11:00 +0000

Acclaimed anti-apartheid campaigner Winnie Madikizela Mandela, "Mother of the Nation," passed away in the early hours of Monday, aged 81. Born in Transkei in 1936, Winnie Madikizela trained as a social worker and got involved with the anti-apartheid struggle through which she met her future husband Nelson Mandela. They were married for 38 years but were separated for most of that time due to her husband's imprisonment by the apartheid government of South Africa. Though it is common to think of Nelson Mandela as the principal figure of the apartheid struggle, it is conceivable that his fame might have been much less without the active campaign waged on his behalf by Winnie, who took up Mandela's mantle and very much led the anti-apartheid movement during his long imprisonment. When Mandela was released from prison, scandals related to Winnie's supposed involvement in strong-arm tactics against those considered enemies of the struggle (see Mark Austin's insightful comments on this aspect her life here) led to her marginalization and eventual divorce from Mandela.

Obviously, the merits and demerits of Winnie's leadership of the anti-apartheid struggle remains to be written. What is important to note here is that she was railroaded and shunted aside after Mandela's release from prison in an effort to provide the hero with a scandal-free reputation upon which he can be celebrated as the light of the new nation. No one doubts Mandela's credentials but I posit that Winnie had a much greater impact in generating the freedom that black South Africans enjoy today. I mean, if we are to condemn everyone who was involved in the anti-apartheid struggle alongside those involved in propping up the apartheid state, we would obviously find many guilty of gruesome crimes.

It is therefore important that we celebrate Winnie Madikizela Mandela, Mother of the Nation, for her own unique contributions to the struggle for black freedom, as well as for her courage and unflinching support of Nelson Mandela during his long imprisonment. She has paid for whatever faults she had with the unbearable condition that she was forced into, as a young wife who saw her husband imprisoned and was thus compelled to raise two daughters alone. The new South Africa was built on the idea that a reconciliation process can allow the country to move away from the heartbreak of its history. History in this regard, is mostly heartbreak. Winnie Mandela paid her dues. We should all, in light of her contributions to the uplift of Africans everywhere, take a moment to salute this great daughter of Africa. She was truly the mother of the nation.

Winnie and Nelson Mandela upon his release from prison in 1990

Critical Interventions Volume 12 Number 1 published...

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 14:45:00 +0000

Cover Page of CI 12-1-2018

Announcing publication of Critical Interventions Journal Vol. 12, No. 1, March 2018. Guest Edited by Silvia Forni and Christopher Steiner, "The African Art Market as Ego-System" evaluates the social construction of the African art market ego-system -- the dynamic network of complex interactions among people and things that produce criteria of value and taste in the market for African art. The volume extends CI's focus on the economics of cultural patrimony and interrogates the meanings created for and imposed on African artworks as they move through various networks of discourse and value. The authors included in this issue --Silvia Forni, Christopher Steiner, Monica Blackmun Visona, John Warne Monroe, Enid Schildkrout, Paula Girshick, and Elizabeth Perrill -- engage important questions about the disposition of value in African artworks, especially in relation to the wide disparity between how this value accrues to Western collectors rather than African producers of these artworks.

French President Macron Creates Commission to Repatriate African Art

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 20:40:00 +0000

President Emmanuel Macron of France, right, and President Patrice Talon of Benin held a joint press conference after a meeting at the Élysée Palace in Paris on Monday. Pool photo by Etienne Laurent, published in the New York Times

After pledging that African heritage cannot be a prisoner of European museums, French President Macron has set up a commission of two experts to make plans for the repatriation fo African artifacts held in French Museums. The New York Times identifies the two experts as the Senegalese writer and economist Felwine Sarr and the French art historian Bénédicte Savoy., who will consult over the next few months and return their findings by November 2018.

President Macron's appointment of this commission represents a major step forward in the longstanding debate about African ownership of its cultural patrimony. His pledge to engage the matter is already a historic statement and this follow-up action is commendable. It remains to be seen whether these initiatives will yield any new outcomes and I agree that the matter of determining how best to accomplish Macron's goal is quite difficult and will require much negotiation. That said, we should still praise Macron's willingness to move forward on this issue.

Africa cannot afford to live in the 21st century without a global reckoning of how negative forces both foreign and increasingly local, have contributed to the debilitating condition of the continent. I have insisted always the central issue here is not merely the restitution of looted African artworks but a global recognition of the right of Africans to their own bodies and resources, all of which have been plundered endlessly in the past five centuries to promote development of predatory colonial and postcolonial powers whose control continue to place a chokehold on the continent. Discussions about restitution is but an initial phase of the required global reckoning. We can only hope it opens the door to more serious discussions of how to afford the African continent a share of global wealth and resources.

Felwine Sarr

Bénédicte Savoy

Ben Enwonwu's Painting Auctioned for £1.2m

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 22:25:00 +0000

Ben Enwonwu, Tutu, oil on canvas, 1974.

Ben Enwonwu's painting "Tutu", one of a series of three paintings Enwonwu produced, all titled Tutu, has sold at auction in London for £1.2m ($1.65 million). I believe this marks the first time Enwonwu's artworks have sold for above a million pounds or dollars. The discovery of the painting recently was marked by international news. Bonhams, the auction house that conducted the sale, asked me to write a brief description for their catalog profile of the artwork. Excerpts of that text has been used for almost all the comments on the Tutu painting but without mentioning my name as author (though I am credited in the auction catalog). I include the full text of my essay on Tutu below.

BEN ENWONWU'S TUTU
Few artists have the honor of having their works become true cultural artifacts and Ben Enwonwu’s Tutu series of paintings are easily the most enigmatic artworks produced by a modern Nigerian artist of the 20^th century. In the period after the Nigerian/Biafran conflict (which lasted from 1967-1970), Ben Enwonwu contributed to a spirit of national reconciliation by accepting a position as the first Nigerian Professor of Art at the University of Ife. In the ancient city of Ife, the spiritual and royal heartland of the Yoruba peoples, he used his art’s principal focus on Negritude ideology to explore issues of cultural identity and political contestation that the Nigerian civil war had laid bare. Enwonwu created many of his principal artworks during this period and in 1973 and 1974, painted three portraits – all titled Tutu – of a young Yoruba woman named Adetutu Ademiluyi, a granddaughter of a previous Oni (king) of Ife, working within his standard practice of producing series of paintings about subjects of interest.

Enwonwu described their initial encounter as a chance meeting during one of his frequent trips to document cultural activities and produce sketches of the Ife countryside. According to his account, he was impressed by her unusual features and decided to have her sit for a portrait. Enwonwu’s fascination with royalty (he descends from a royal lineage – Umuezearoli of Onitsha – and his veneration of indigenous Nigerian culture, meant that the young woman’s identity as a royal princess of Ife may have factored into his desire to paint her portrait. In addition, Enwonwu also desired the approval of the Ife royal house whose patronage offered him protection from any problems arising from his Igbo ethnicity, a contentious issue in post-war Nigeria. Although the Ife royal family initially viewed Enwonwu’s overtures with much reluctance given his identity as an Igbo man reaching out to one of Ife's royal princesses, Enwonwu finally got her parent's approval and painted three portraits of the young woman. In these artworks, Enwonwu depicted Tutu dressed in formal and informal Yoruba attire. He captures her youthful visage and constructed the portrait around a three-quarter view of the young woman looking backwards, her long neck, brought into sharp focus against the folds of woven cloth draped over her left shoulder. Details of costume were subsumed while swift brushwork and a diaphanous treatment of forms impart a haunting quality to the regal pose of the young woman.

Recurrent images in Enwonwu’s art usually indicate points of conceptual transformation and the Tutu portraits explored a new concept of femininity in his art. Enwonwu considered the Tutu series very important to his development as an artist and indeed, they marked a turning point in his career, dating to the core of his postcolonial practice and late stylistic period. The principal painting in the series (Tutu, 1973) was his most prized possession and held onto it until his death in 1994. Afterwards, the painting became a subject of much controversy in Nigerian art history mainly because its location was unknown. Many copies of the painting held by various collectors were found to be print versions produced sometime between 1976 and 1978, no doubt to take advantage of the FESTAC ’77 celebration (the 1977 World Black Festival of Arts and Culture held in Nigeria). For a long time therefore, “where is Tutu” became a persistent question that is still asked to this day in Nigeria.

Ben Enwonwu, Tutu, oil on canvas, 1973: this is the primary painting

The reappearance of Tutu 1974 is therefore a momentous occasion, since it is a version of the iconic series of paintings. It is important to note that this is not a copy; it is an original version and the second in the three versions of the Tutu series that Enwonwu painted over a period of two years from 1973-1974. The three Tutu paintings show Adetutu Ademiluyi dressed in different types of formal Yoruba attire, and they all share the same pose of the young woman captured in a three-quarter view looking over her shoulder. The serenity of Tutu’s calm visage in Tutu 1974, in contrast to her edgy look in the 1973 portrait, shows a greater accommodation of the process of modeling and suggests the subject was more comfortable sitting for this portrait. Enwonwu’s ability to impart a spiritual appearance to his portrait also shines through here, providing an appropriate enunciation of Tutu’s youthful innocence.

LOOT IN LOOT - BENIN HEAD OF OBA IN NAZI LOOTED JEWISH ART COLLECTION TO BE AUCTIONED

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 18:39:00 +0000

Head of an Oba, Benin Nigeria, part of Nazi-looted art, now to be auctioned

Guest Blogger Kwame Tua Opoku draws our attention to the ongoing injustice against Africans in questions of restitution....
__________
LOOT IN LOOT - BENIN HEAD OF OBA IN NAZI LOOTED JEWISH ART COLLECTION TO BE AUCTIONED

‘These Benin works stand among the highest heights of European casting. Benvenuto Cell could not have made a better cast himself, nor anyone before or after him,even to the present day. These bronzes reach the very heights of what is technically possible.,

Felix von Luschan, Die Altertümer von Benin, 1919.

According to information on the homepage of the auction house, Zemanek-Münster, Wurzburg, Germany, the above Oba head as well as a commemorative head and 9 other Benin bronze relief panels will be auctioned on 10 March 2018.(1)

Provenance research established that the Benin objects were part of the Rudolf Mosse art collection that the Nazis confiscated and compulsorily auctioned in 1934. After several changes in ownership, these Benin objects became part of the estate of Gerda Bassenge (1915-1995) who acquired them in 1966 and are still part of the Bassenge property. Restitution negotiations and an amicable settlement were agreed upon between the heirs of Rudolf Mosse and the heirs of Gerda Bassenge and thus opened the way for the auction.

Thermoluminescence analysis revealed that the Benin objects were 175 years old (+/- 20-35%). The auctioneer’s statement declares: ‘It is a work of art belonging to the high culture of Benin and whose artistic mastery was already recognised by Felix von Luschan (1854 -1924), scientists, Benin researchers and explorers, who did not hesitate to compare it with objects from the Italian Renaissance’.

The auctioneer further informs us that ‘R. Mosse was one of the first art collectors who, together with the art critic Fritz Stahl (1864-1928), at least on occasion used a consultant for his purchases. Felix von Luschan and Hans Meyer Mosse were well known to him. If Stahl was the consultant for paintings, he could have helped him buy African art objects. Luschan (1854-1924) was director of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin from 1905 to 1910. Hans Meyer (1858-1929) put together a significant collection of 53 Benin objects, which went to the Ethnological Museum in Leipzig between 1900 and 1919 and is now one of the largest treasures of the house.’

We are not told where Rudolf Mosse got his Benin artefacts from. The provenance research stops at Mosse’s possession and does not seem interested in the earlier lives of the objects.

It is by now well- known, and confirmed by Felix von Luschan, that there were no Benin artefacts in Europe before the invasion, looting, and destruction by British forces in 1897.(2)

The Benin artefacts to be auctioned are therefore clearly part of the loot the British soldiers seized in 1897 and brought to Europe. This case then is interesting in being what I will call a case of ‘loot in loot’. The property looted by the Nazis in 1934 contained looted objects i.e. Nazi loot contained British loot. The loot of 1934 contained looted objects of 1897.

Benin head with panel from Lepke's catalogue
Ex: Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus, Berlin 1934
(Photos: Kunstbibliothek Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)

Looting has been condemned by all. What could the auction house Zemanek-Munster do? The auction house could halt the proposed auction of 10 March 2018 until further notice and inform itself about the status of the Benin bronzes and consult the Oba of Benin and the Nigerian government. No doubt the auction house will soon be contacted by the Nigerian authorities. Could the auction house contact the German authorities? Would they give the correct advice?

When Sotheby’s announced the intention to auction a queen-mother Idia sculpture in 2011 the public outcry against the sale of the looted artefact was such that they finally cancelled the proposed auction. (3)

What could the successors do? They could follow the example of Dr. Mark Walker, and after consultations and advice, return the looted artefacts to the Oba of Nigeria and his people. (4)

The question which one could ask is whether there are any other cases of ‘loot in loot’ in the various restitutions of Nazi loot in Europe. It could well be that with little respect for Africans in the Western world, many of the institutions that dealt with Nazi looted art and property did not pay much attention even if they recognized the presence of African art objects in the restitution of Nazi loot. However, given the number of cases of Nazi loot, it will be surprising if there were not a few cases of ‘loot in loot’ involving Benin or other precious African artefacts.

Notes

1. http://www.tribal-art-auktion.de/de/news-detail/aufgespuert-koeniglicher-beninkopf-aus-der-sammlung-mosse/

The auctioneer gives the provenance of the Benin artefacts as follows: Provenienz:
Rudolf Mosse (1843-1920), Berlin
Hans Lachmann-Mosse, Berlin / Oakland, USA
Rudolph Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus, Berlin, 29 May 1934, Kat.Nr.178
H. Benninghaus, Oberhausen
Galerie Bassenge, Berlin, 3 - 7 May 1966, lot 2248
Gerda Bassenge, Berlin
Familienbesitz Bassenge, Berlin.

2. K. Opoku – PARZINGER'S MISCONCEPTIONS AND ...

https://www.toncremers.nl/kwame-opoku-parzingers-misconcepti..

3. Sotheby's cancels sale of 'looted' Benin mask | The Independent

www.independent.co.uk › Culture › Art › News

Sotheby's cancels sale of disputed African mask - Elginism

www.elginism.com/similar-cases/sothebys-cancels-sale.../3556

Queen Idia Mask's sale sets Sotheby's against art world - Culture in ...

www.cultureindevelopment.nl/.../Queen_Idia_Mask's_sale_sets_S...

Was the decision to cancel the Benin mask based on moral principles,or merely a tactical withdrawal?

www.elginism.com/similar-cases/...cancel...moral.../3512/

4. K. Opoku, Return Of Two Looted Benin Bronzes By A Briton: History In The Making

https://www.modernghana.com/.../return-of-two-looted-benin-br

Ben Enwonwu's TUTU

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 17:21:00 +0000

Ben Enwonwu, Tutu, oil on canvas, 1974

The past few days have seen a flurry of news about the recent rediscovery and impending auction of one of the major artworks from Ben Enwonwu's Tutu series. In 1973 and 1974, Enwonwu painted three portraits of an Ife princess Adetutu Ademiluyi all of which he titled TUTU. He considered the principal painting (Tutu, oil on canvas, 1973) his most prized possession and since his death in 1994, there has been a great controversy over the location of these artworks. The rediscovery in a London flat of the second painting in the series, Tutu 1974, is therefore justifiably a discovery of global importance.

The Telegraph, London, published the first announcement of this rediscovery and this was followed today by a post on the subject from Art Daily. In 2008, I published a comprehensive analysis of the Tutu paintings in my book (Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist. Rochester University Press, 2008: 181-184). The book properly positioned Enwonwu in the transnational contexts of modern art in which his professional career unfolded. I have since worked with many interested parties to locate and identity many Enwonwu's artworks, including this portrait and others from the Tutu series.

Ben Enwonwu is having a moment, as they say on TV. After a period of low visibility, the acclaimed artist has seen much global awareness of his career and artworks since major auction houses in the West (Bonhams especially, but also Sotheby's) began to include modern African art in their offerings. So far, Enwonwu's artworks occupy the top echelons of sales. This is a good development but still quite inadequate. Relatively speaking, Enwonwu's artworks are selling for not much more than the artist himself received for his works while he was alive. Besides, none of them have still cracked the million-dollar mark, which is a travesty given the immense fame and professional reputation Enwonwu accrued in his life.

Ben Enwonwu working on the Cathedral Sculpture Series

Enwonwu is easily the most famous Nigerian artist of the 20th century, and his name and public sculptures have become synonymous with the physical and mental landscape of the country. His Sango sculpture is used as a principal marker in Lagos: if you ask anyone for directions on the Lagos Marina, they say "turn right two blocks after Sango" or something similar. His Anyanwu at the National Museum might easily be the most recognizable sculpture by a Nigerian artist.

Ben Enwonwu, Sango, bronze, 1964

Enwonwu was the first African to attain global fame as a top-ranked modern artist and he was famous on four continents where he was highly regarded as Africa's first modernist of note. However, modernist art history and recently some misguided scholarship have attempted to write the artist out of history, essentially ascribing Enwonwu's important discoveries, experiments and commentaries on African art to postcolonial Nigerian artists (I call this the Pathfinder Paradox). Between 1950 and 1965, Enwonwu's transnational career and impressive engagements with the practice and discourse of modern art laid a major foundation for postcolonial African art, especially in the tumultuous post-independence period when he fought a major battle against Western culture brokers such as Ulli Beier, who supported by the CIA, sought to redirect modern and contemporary African art away from a Pan-Africanist focus championed by Enwonwu towards an uncritical celebration of Euromodernist abstraction. The implications of this struggle is yet to be fully accounted for in our analysis of modern African art.

Enwonwu's Tutu series are a very important aspect of his work as an artist but we should also locate them among other important series such s the Agbogho Mmo and Ogolo series (comprising of masquerades Enwonwu painted and sculptured from 1946 to 1994), his paintings of Igbo titled men (Ozo series), and his public sculptures based on representations of iconic Yoruba, Benin and Igbo archetypes (the Yoruba thundergod Sango, Benin Iyoba, Igbo Ikenga). The rediscovery of this important artwork is worth celebrating and it should be interesting to see what it is sold for when it comes up for auction.

Ben Enwonwu, Anyanwu

RIGHT AT EQUATOR, Exhibition Opening...

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 15:21:00 +0000

Ongoing at at the Depart Foundation in Malibu, an exhibition of contemporary African art titled RIGHT AT EQUATOR. I curated the exhibition in collaboration with co-curator Valerie Kabov. The exhibition opened as part of the LA Contemporary events and will run until February 28, 2011. Posted here, pictures of my exhibition tour from the opening ceremony, which took place January 27, 2018.

Right At Equator: Exhibition of Contemporary African Art

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 15:13:00 +0000

RIP Hugh Masekela...

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 18:43:00 +0000

Legendary Jazz musician Hugh Masekela has died. The South African musician, a giant of the anti-apartheid struggle and globally recognized maestro trumpet player was renowned for his haunting jazz rifts on the black struggle but also for his great smile and love of humanity. For several decades, Masekela played South African-inflected jazz music on the global stage and collaborated with eminent musicians such as Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon and Herp Alpert. Masekela was married to the great songbird, Ndlovu Miriam Makeba, for two years and their names are often conjoined in discussions of the globalizing of South African music, given their immense contributions. Makeba passed away a few years ago and Hugh Masekela's passing marks the end of a golden age of giants of the struggle for black emancipation. May his soul rest in peace.

Image credits: top: The Guardian, London; bottom: CBS News.

Is Google's Art and Culture App Racist?

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 15:45:00 +0000

Benjamin Goggin (writing on digg.com) explores how Google's Art and Culture App produce racist representations of African and Asian peoples, due to its limited archive of Asian people, compared to its vast archive of white people. The choices for Africans are even more limited. I flag this news because it speaks to how the algorithms that power our contemporary AI-inflected world continue to reproduce longstanding racial and cultural bias, even as we assume their neutrality. Since Google now basically controls our lives, the company needs to pay more attention to its algorithms to ensure greater diversity of its representation of various peoples.

MACRON PROMISES TO RETURN AFRICAN ARTEFACTS IN FRENCH MUSEUMS: A NEW ERA IN AFRICAN-EUROPEAN RELATIONSHIPS OR A MIRAGE?

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 17:00:00 +0000

Guest Blogger Dr. Kwame Opoku Comments on French President Macron's Promise to Return African Artifacts:

… our research methods resemble the interrogations of an investigating magistrate much more than amicable conversations, and because, nine times out of ten, our methods of collecting objects involve forced purchases, if not requisition. All this casts a certain shadow over my life, and my conscience is only halfway clear. When all is said and done, as much as adventures like the taking of the kono finally leave me without remorse, because there is no other way to obtain such objects and because sacrilege itself is a rather grandiose notion, still all this constant buying leaves me perplexed, because I have a strong impression that we are going in vicious circle: we pillage the Negroes under the pretext of teaching people to understand and appreciate them-that is, ultimately in order to mold other ethnographers who will go in turn to ‘’appreciate’’ and to pillage them…

Michel Leiris. Phantom Africa.

There comes a time in life that a person starts believing that certain situations will never change unless a miracle occurs but if you do not believe in miracles even this poor consolation is not available to you. I have heard for years, intelligent persons, both European and African, state that the fight to recover Africa’s looted/stolen artefacts from the West is hopeless and that we should not waste precious time and energy on what they consider impossible. Neil MacGregor, James Cuno, Phillipe de Montebello, the scholars from Ethnology Museum, Berlin, Ethnology Museum, Vienna, now World Museum, and officials from the Humboldt Forum have been telling us for years that African cultural artefacts are best kept in Western museums. The high priests of the so-called universal museums, with their infamous Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums (2000) convinced themselves and others that the West had almost a God-given right and duty to keep looted and stolen African artefacts for the benefit of Africans and humanity. We began wondering whether they might not, after all be right. We consider as necessary the fight to recover what our predecessors have created, especially as Westerners are quick to argue that Africans have created nothing worthwhile but at the same time high-jack our cultural artifacts.

Then comes Emmanuel Macron, the young President of France, ’la Grande Nation,’ who declares that African artefacts must be returned to Africa and that this is a matter of priority for him. Moreover, he made such a declaration in front of some 800 students in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on 28 November 2017:

“I cannot accept that a large part of cultural heritage from several African countries is in France. There are historical explanations for that, but there are no valid justifications that are durable and unconditional. African heritage can’t just be in European private collections and museums. African heritage must be highlighted in Paris, but also in Dakar, in Lagos, in Cotonou. In the next five years, I want the conditions to be met for the temporary or permanent restitution of African heritage to Africa. This will be one of my priorities.” (2)

That there are Westerners, including even a Western president, who also believe that African artefacts should be seen not only ‘in Paris but also in Dakar, in Lagos, in Cotonou’, was exciting, considering the contrary views that have been expressed in the last decades in which we have been writing on this subject. (3) I thought, even if Emmanuel Macron does not do anything more than what he has said about the need to return African artefacts in France, he has already made history in a matter where all the French presidents before him, even those who presented themselves as friends of Africa, such as Giscard d’Estaing, or as admirers of African art, such as Jacques Chirac, only thought of keeping our treasures in France. (4) Macron would not need to worry about building monuments for his remembrance, as George Pompidou, François Mitterrand, and Jacques Chirac did. (5) His remembrance will be written in the hearts of many Africans who will recognize his concrete contribution, if he succeeds in returning a respectable portion of the thousands of African artefacts in France. Musée du Quai Branly seems to have most of these artifacts.

Emmanuel Macron has not only made a historic speech. He would be starting a cultural revolution in France where requests for restitution of African or other arts looted during the colonial era are considered impossible and routinely dismissed. Recently in 2016, a request by the Republic of Benin for recovery of some of the 5000 artefacts stolen by the French during colonial invasions was rejected by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the basis that the artefacts were part of French national heritage and thus inalienable- an open letter to then-French President François Hollande . Since the Edict of Moulins,1566, that provided that property inherited by the State was inalienable, all such demands have been rejected. Macron would thus be reversing a practice of several centuries and ushering in a new practice.

I was blown over by Macron’s speech on 28 November 2017 as reported in the newspapers, but the news seemed too good to be true, so I got the full text and decided to subject that part relating to restitution to further examination.

Macron’s statement that he wants the conditions for the return of the artefacts to be achieved within the next 5 years, subjects the promise of return to serious conditions that will not be easily and quickly achieved. He added that this presupposes

‘a great deal of scientific and museological partnership, because, make no mistake, in many African countries, it is often the African museum officials (conservateurs africains) who organized the illicit traffic and sometimes, it was the European museum officials or collectors who saved the African artworks for Africa by taking them away from the African traffickers, our common history is more complex than our reflexes! The best homage that I can pay not only to the African artists or the Europeans who have fought to safeguard these works is to do everything so that the works return and to ensure also that there is security, that there is also care for the protection of these work. Therefore, the partnerships will ensure that there are well-trained conservators, that there are academic commitments, that there are State to State commitments to protect these arts, that is, your history, your patrimony and if you permit me, our history’. (6)

Macron is putting responsibility for the presence of African artefacts in France, at least partly, on

African museum officials who organized illicit traffic and adding that European collectors and

conservators saved these artefacts. This is a completely inaccurate explanation of the looting and

stealing of Africa artifacts. It is not our business to defend corrupt museum officials. They will do

that themselves, but I suggest that the portion of our artefacts that were sent out of the continent

through the connivance of museum officials would be a small proportion compared to looting

carried on by the French army in Dahomey in 1892 under General Dodds or the British invasion of

Benin in 1897. One must also not forget the so-called scientific expeditions that carried away

thousands of African artefacts. The best-known example is the French Dakar-Djibouti Expedition that

has been well-described by Michel Leiris in Afrique Fantom. What Macron perhaps does not realize

is that the illicit traffic exists because Western museums have been willing to buy objects they know

must have been looted or stolen. So, the idea that European museum officials and collectors have

somehow saved African artefacts from African dealers and museum officials cannot be accepted. One

could also think about Leo Frobenius and his various dealings with African artefacts. We still do not

know where the Olokun is that disappeared after Frobenius had looked at it in Ife. (7)

Ma Macron sets as pre-condition for the return of African artefacts the presence of well-trained conservators as well as adequate security and care of the artifacts before they are returned. In order to achieve all this, he proposes partnership between France and the African countries. When the 5 years period Macron sets out expires, he may well say the necessary conditions have not been fulfilled

because the African governments have not done their part. It reminds us of the argument the British

always made that there were not adequate premises in Athens for the Parthenon Marbles. But when

Greece built a top ultra-modern museum at the Acropolis, the British Museum Director, Neil

MacGregor declared that the location of the Marbles was never an issue.

The real question though is, what right do successors to looters have to set conditions under which

they will return looted artefacts to the owners? Can someone who has stolen my Mercedes Benz

declare his willingness to return my vehicle on condition that I build a suitable garage of specific

dimensions and hire a driver with a certain level of experience? Where do Westerners derive such

arrogance from that even when they are clearly wrong, they still want to dictate the rules of the

game?

If Macron is serious, he should unconditionally declare his intention of returning the looted artifacts.

He should also abandon any idea of having a supervisory role regarding the security of the artifacts

once returned. This should not be his business. This is the duty of the African States to look after

their artifacts as well as after all their other resources. We will never be free and independent as long

as some others assume a supervisory role to intervene whenever they believe things are not being

properly run in Africa. We should have the opportunity to make our own mistakes. If after all that we

know about security of artefacts, we are not able to protect the looted objects after their return from

hundred years of exile in Europe, the world can form its opinion.

Despite the novelty of a French president declaring an intention to return our artefacts, Macron is not really, on serious examination, very far from the positions of the various European museums that are constantly complaining about the lack of security in Africa even though they themselves have been

buying the looted artefacts and are often the inspiration and motivation behind such activities. The

difference though is that Macron sounds optimistic about restitution whereas the museum directors

and dealers do not envisage the eventuality of restitution.

The French president could demonstrate his seriousness by setting up immediately a committee of

Africans and French specialists to study the issue and report in six months about what artefacts could

be returned immediately, whilst we await a further list in a year of further objects that could be

returned. The need for further information or knowledge should not be an excuse for postponing

indefinitely the restitution.

We do not know whether Macron discussed his intentions with French specialists in African art or will do so after his remarkable speech in Ouagadougou. If he does, he will be surprised by the objections many will raise. He would be told how absolutely necessary African artefacts are for the French museums; how they constitute a great attraction for tourists and above all, their importance for the French economy, especially as regards job-creation. Paris is the centre for the international art market in African art. The prices of individual pieces have sold in the recent period for 5 million euros and above. The dealers in African art at the rue de seine will not forgive Macron for having the idea of returning African artifacts.

In any case, we can expect resistance, perhaps indirectly, in a form of delays in everything that concerns restitution of artefacts from French museums. A museum such as Musée du quai Branly that holds thousands of such artifacts will not be in hurry to fulfill the wishes of Macron assuming they are genuine and seriously meant and not a publicity stunt. That museum has almost all the artefacts that the French stole during the infamous Dakar-Djibouti Mission.

There is no question of ‘temporary’ and ‘permanent restitution’. As we have often said, we would expect African artefacts, especially those relating to political power, e.g. kings and queens, to be returned; it would be up to African States, in discussions with Western museums, to determine which artefacts are to be physically returned whilst those that should remain in the Western museums will be symbolically returned, with appropriate ceremonies and events, at the African embassies in Paris or consulates elsewhere. These ceremonies should be widely publicised to impress on the consciousness of all, African and Western, that a new era has begun in the relationships between Africa and Europe.

Emmanuel Macron seems to be the first Western leader who understands how Africans feel when we see our masks and artefacts displayed in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, London, Geneva, New York, Paris, and Vienna which we cannot see in Abidjan, Accra, Bamako, Benin City, Cotonou, Kinshasa and Yaoundé because the best African art has been sent to the West. Having taken away our gold, diamonds, timber and other resources, and as if to complete our defeat, denigration and denudation, the colonialists took away our symbols of power, rule, family, beauty, joy and sheer delight in the power of creativity. Having denounced as pagan, they took away our religious symbols and objects of ancestral remembrance. They wanted to deny our humanity by robbing us of all that indicated creativity and inventiveness in African society.

But what are the African States doing or saying on all this? Republic of Benin has submitted a request, but what about the other countries such as Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo. They could improve their museums and ensure better security. Often the impression is created that it depends on the European States to decide all. Many African States have not as yet drawn up a list of artefacts they seek to recover from Western States even though at the Cairo Conference on restitution in 2010, held under the leadership of Zahi Hawass, this was requested. (8)

Our countries have not taken the opportunity of preparing a list of national treasures which would also contribute to teaching the general public about national culture. It is almost as if nobody cared and yet, we have statutory bodies that are entrusted with the preservation and conservation of our national treasures. Those institutions that apparently pursue a policy of quiet diplomacy as regards the restitution of cultural artefacts from Western States, seem almost embarrassed when the issue is even mentioned and therefore are not in a position to teach the general public about the issues involved. When will African States ratify the important international conventions that relate to artefacts? The 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means for Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property has so far been ratified by 32 States from the African Continent. The 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects has been ratified by 11 African States. These conventions can help us recover some of our artefacts stolen or looted since 1970. Though these conventions are not retroactive, they do not ban recovery of artefacts stolen before their entry into force.

Should Macron succeed in returning some of the African artefacts in France to their African countries of origin, he would be finally fulfilling the demands of several UNESCO and United Nations resolutions on cultural property which Western States and their museums have been regularly disobeying for decades.(9) Nor have Western States paid much attention to Athens International Conference on the "Return of Cultural Property to its Country of Origin.(10)

Whatever may be the final assessment of the performance of Emmanuel Macron in Ouagadougou on 28 November 2017, as far as concerns the restitution of African artefacts, we believe he performed creditably. He found the right words to convey the need to return African artefacts. His choice of phrases could have come from any of us who are deeply committed to this matter. What remains is the actual implementation of his lofty promises.

Macron has put Western States and their museums to shame. Whilst the French President is talking about returning our artefacts, others are busy trying desperately to devise ways and means of postponing the return of the artefacts that natural justice requires. We have the so-called Dialogue Group on Benin proposing a strange scheme whereby some of the looted Benin artefacts would be displayed in Benin City but ownership of the artefacts would be with Western museums. And they find some Africans to approve of such a ridiculous and insulting proposal. There are also the Humboldt Forum scholars in Berlin who are busy propagating a theory of inventive ignorance which throws a mantle of amnesia and doubt around African artefacts, suggesting that there is a lot to be researched about the artefacts that would require resources and time. The idea here being to postpone any discussion of restitution. To achieve this aim, they are willing to throw doubt not only on the knowledge acquired by their predecessors but also on what they themselves are proposing. In a general atmosphere of acknowledged ignorance, relating to the makers of the artefacts as well as their place of origins, restitution would be pushed into a distant future.

With the declared intentions of Macron, we sincerely hope that Austria, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Switzerland, and other Western countries will also consider returning finally African artefacts taken away during the colonial era. Macron is proposing what the Western States should have done many decades ago. This is a great reconciliatory gesture which will reduce some of the pains and the feelings of deprivation caused by colonialism and imperialism if it is implemented. We cannot be peoples of culture without our cultural artifacts.

As Aminata Traoré , former Minister for Culture, Mali, observed (11):

‘At this time when the museum is opening its doors to the public, I keep wondering to what extent the mighty and powerful will go in their arrogance and violation of our imagination. We are being invited to day to celebrate with the former colonial power an incontestably magnificent architectural monument as well as our own decline and the complicity of those, African political representatives and institutional authorities who consider that our cultural objects are better kept in the beautiful edifices of the North than under our own skies. In our opinion, the Musée du Quai Bradly is built on a deep and painful paradox since almost the totality of the Africans, Amerindians, the Australian Aborigines whose talents and creativity are being celebrated, will never cross the doorstep of the museum in view of the so-called selective immigration. It is true that measures have been taken to ensure that we can consult the archives via Internet. Thus, our works of art have a right of residence at a place where we are forbidden to stay’.

Images (all artworks currently held at the Musee du Quai Branly)

1. Edo Kingdom of Benin, Bronze Head, 16th Century.

2. Kingdom of Dahomey, Throne of King Ghezo (ruled 1818-1858)

3. Dahomey Royal Statues

4. Dogon Nommo (Androgynous Figure)

5. Statue of Guo, Dahomey God of War

Notes

1. Leiris letter to Zette, September 19,1931 cited at p.163 in Phantom Africa by Michel Leiris, translated by Brent Hayes Edwards, Seagull Books, 2017, ISBN: 978 0 8574 2 3771. With this recent English translation of Afrique Fantôme by Michel Leiris, first published by Gallimard, Paris in 1934, English readers have now the possibility to appreciate the significance of this historic book by Leiris. Anyone interested in the restitution of African artefacts or colonialism will do well to read this major work which is available also in German, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian: The German translation of the French original, Afrique fantôme is entitled, Michel Leiris, Phantom Afrika - Tagebuch einer Expedition von Dakar nach Djibouti 1931-1933, Band 1 und Band II, 1980, Syndikat Autoren-und Verlagsgesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main. The Portuguese version is entitled A África Fantasma, 2007, published by Cosac Naify, Sao Paulo, Brasil. The Spanish edition is entitled: El África fantasmal, by Tomás Fernández AZ and Beatriz Eibar Barrens, 2007, Ed. Pre-Text’s. The Italian edition is entitled, L’ Africa fantasma by Aldo Pasquali, Rizzoli Editore,1984.

2. Emmanuel Macron Says Return of African Artifacts Is a Top Priority ...https://www.nytimes.com/.../arts/emmanuel-macron-africa.html

Will French Museums Return African Objects? Emmanuel Macron ...

https://news.artnet.com/art.../french-president-promises-restitutio

Emmanuel Macron Says Return of African Artifacts Is a Top Priority ...

latest.news.real-english.com/.../emmanuel-macron-says-return-of...

What restitution experts have to say about President Macron's pledge ...

theartnewspaper.com/.../restitution-experts-react-to-president-ma...

Ce qu'il faut retenir du discours de Macron au Burkina Faso - Les Echos

https://www.lesechos.fr › Monde › Afrique - Moyen Orient

3. Dr. Kwame Opoku writings about looted cultural objects – Museum ...

https://www.toncremers.nl/.../dr-kwame-opoku-writings-about-lo..

Columnist: Kwame Opoku, Dr. - Modern Ghana

https://www.modernghana.com/author/KwameOpoku

Arts of Nigeria In French Private Collections - Modern Ghana

https://www.modernghana.com/.../arts-of-nigeria-in-french-priva.

Would Western Museums Return Looted Objects If ... - Modern Ghana

https://www.modernghana.com/.../would-western-museums-retur...

A History of The World With 100 Looted Objects Of ... - Modern Ghana

https://www.modernghana.com/.../a-history-of-the-world-with-1..

4. From Benin to Quai Branly - Dr. Kwame Opoku - AFRIKANET.info

www.afrikanet.info/archiv1/index.php?option=com...task...

The Logic of Non-Restitution of Cultural Objects from Musée du quai Branly ...

www.afrikanet.info › Home › African Ar

What Are They Really Celebrating at The Musée Du Quai Branly, Paris?

https://www.modernghana.com/.../what-are-they-really-celebratin..

More Dogon artefacts are in the Musée du Quai Branly than in Mali's ...www.elginism.com/...musee-du-quai-branly...museum/.../3944

Musée Du Quai Branly changes name | Pambazuka News

https://www.pambazuka.org/.../musée-du-quai-branly-changes-n..

5. It has been a long tradition in France that the president encourages the construction of an imposing cultural project that will be named after him when he passes away. So, Georges Pompidou had the Centre Pompidou named after him, Francois Mitterrand had the Bibliothèque Nationale named after him, with some calling the Louvre Pyramid, Pharaoh François’ Pyramid. Jacques Chirac had the Musée de Quai Branly named after him.

6. See Le Monde online for the full text of Macron’s speech at Ouagadougou on 28 November,2017. Le Monde.fr[Document] Le discours d'Emmanuel Macron à Ougadougou ... www.jeuneafrique.com/.../document-le-discours-demmanuel-ma

Présidence de la République: Accueil www.elysee.fr/

7.K. Opoku, Can An English Artist Use Classical Nigerian Art Image As He Likes ...

https://www.modernghana.com/.../can-an-english-artist-use-classi.

8. K. Opoku, Reflections On The Cairo Conference On Restitution: Encouraging Beginning..

https://www.modernghana.com/.../reflections-on-the-cairo-confer..

9. nigerian treasures | No Humboldt 21

www.no-humboldt21.de/information/nigeria_treasures/

K. Opoku, Declaration On The Importance And Value Of Universal Museums ...

https://www.modernghana.com/.../declaration-on-the-importance..

10.See annex.

11. Aminata Traoré, Ainsi nos œuvres d’art ont droit de cité là où nous sommes, dans l’ensemble, interdits de séjour » Droit de cité - 23 juin 2006 - L'Obs tempsreel.nouvelobs.com › Culture “droit de cité”, par Aminata Traoré - Connaître l'histoire coloniale ... ldh-toulon.net/droit-de-cite-par-Aminata-Traore.html

« Nouveau millénaire, Défis libertaires »
http://1libertaire.free.fr/ArtPremierInterditSejour.html
http://www.afrikara.com (Translation into English by Kwame Opoku) Those who can read French would benefit from reading the whole statement by Aminata Traoré, one of the most formidable intellectuals of our times. Traoré’s statement made in 2006 when the Musée du quai Branly was opened is to date the most powerful statement made on behalf of the African peoples in their quest to recover their artefacts looted/stolen or acquired under dubious circumstances during the colonial period. See From Benin to Quai Branly - Dr. Kwame Opoku - AFRIKANET.info www.afrikanet.info/archiv1/index.php?option=com...ta

‘A l’heure où celui-ci ouvre ses portes au public, je continue de me demander jusqu’où iront les puissants de ce monde dans l’arrogance et le viol de notre imaginaire. Nous sommes invités, aujourd’hui, à célébrer avec l’ancienne puissance coloniale une œuvre architecturale, incontestablement belle, ainsi que notre propre déchéance et la complaisance de ceux qui, acteurs politiques et institutionnels africains, estiment que nos biens culturels sont mieux dans les beaux édifices du Nord que sous nos propres cieux…

Le Musée du Quai Branly est bâti, de mon point de vue, sur un profond et douloureux paradoxe à partir du moment où la quasi-totalité des Africains, des Amérindiens, des Aborigènes d’Australie, dont le talent et la créativité sont célébrés, n’en franchiront jamais le seuil compte tenu de la loi sur l’immigration choisie. Il est vrai que des dispositions sont prises pour que nous puissions consulter les archives via l’Internet. Nos œuvres ont droit de cité là où nous sommes, dans l’ensemble, interdits de séjour’.

Ventura County Fire

noreply@blogger.com (S. Okwunodu Ogbechie) — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 02:47:00 +0000

The Thomas Fire is burning through Ventura County, and the Santa Anna Winds are literally fanning the flames. Huge smoke haze on my drive to and from UCSB campus resulting in extraordinary seascapes. The pictures here were taken at 12.45pm, and no, this is not your usual California sunset. I stopped to snap these shots because the sunlight on the ocean waves looked just like volcanic lava. Another day in paradise, I guess....