As I sat with my friend at the final talk that we were
attending for the day, looking ahead at the panel of 4 women discussing their
creative practices, it suddenly dawned on me that all of the talks that we had attended today had been facilitated by
African women. As a take home message for me, that was exciting and significant; hearing about art and ideas coming
from the continent and its diaspora through the voices of African women so
often left out of the dialogues that take place. I listened, I took notes, I
soaked up the atmosphere, and I fed on the information presented to me. I was
eager to hear, and eager to learn.
The first talk I attended drew me in and captivated me, I
think it was the youthful energy of the two speakers (Kiran Yoliswa and Alae
Ismail who collectively are known as Styled
By Africa). They carried the audience into their world of African design,
cuisine, music and media. I learnt many a new thing, and my friend and I nodded
and ‘mmmhmmd’ as we listened and
reminded ourselves of the potential that existed on blogging about Africa. Styled by Africa expressed to us, full
of zeal and passion why they began their blog, how they as young African women
had wanted to challenge what they felt were limited perceptions of Africa and its
people through showcasing its fast growing creative and cultural industry. They
spoke of trips to Zimbabwe and Italy, of dialogue and partnership with Kenyan bloggers
and Ghanaian designers. I left the talk my note book full to the brim with ideas,
which had spawned as the ladies spoke, on ways in which I could continue to
engage people about the Africa that I know and love. As I contemplated a future
vision for my own blog, it seemed apt that the last talk I was attending was entitled
‘Re-Imagining Africa’.
The ‘Re-Imagining
Africa’ panel consisted of visual artist Mary Evans, dancer/choreographer Funmi
Adewole, award-winning playwright Bola Agbage, and spoken word poet Zena
Edwards. I was intrigued by the panel and what they had to say about the
creative culture of Africa both on the continent and in the diaspora. Zena
Edwards talked about the possibilities of interacting and moving forward with
Africa without trying to changing it into something that it can never be. That
instead of asking ‘what is Africa?’, people
should ask ‘who is Africa?’, and ‘how is Africa?’ My friend and I contemplated
on this within the context of her upcoming relocation to Kenya, how so often in
our current society many arriving in Africa having lived in the West, would
(wrongly, we felt) come with the ways in which they wanted to change
Africa, fresh with ideas from Europe or America, truly believing in their heart
of hearts (yet totally missing the point) that turning Africa into a continent
that was a reflection of West was the way forward.
An audience member asked the panel what African utopia meant
to them. Funmi Adewole commented that she saw African utopia as drawing on and
utilising all the things in Africa that are powerful, resilient, strong and
passionate. But the reality on the ground she felt was not so rose-tinted, that
there was still a need to work through the significant issues prevalent in
Africa. I saw this as perhaps an understanding of the beauty, the wealth, the
intellect, the ideas and entrepreneurship that African countries have, but juxtaposed
within that were a large number of socio-political and economic issues that
needed to be worked through. But worked through with an understanding, as highlighted
by Zena Edwards, of who Africa is,
and how Africa is, an engagement with
its people and the life they were
currently living, rather than Africa as a monolithic continent that did not
differ from country to country or even person to person.
As I took notes, I was heartened to see and hear on this
panel Bola Agbage, a young woman who sounded like me with her London accent,
who talked of growing up in London as I had done, and who comparable to me had
found a way to express who she was through the arts. Here she was an
award-winning playwright who was interested in putting on our screens and
theatres stories about people like her, of African origin (Nigerian to be
precise) and having grown up in London. It was the fact that I could see myself
in her that really intrigued me, that she brought to the discussion issues that
I was also interested in, that she talked about how the arts had helped her
work through understanding herself and finding her place as a Nigerian and
British woman. I thought of myself and how the visual arts and literature had
helped me understand who I was, as a woman born in Kenya and raised in London. I
exited that last talk thinking about the way each person on that panel spoke to
and connected with me as a result of the ways in which they were re-imagining
Africa using their respective art forms, and I was excited about the future.
Comments
Post a Comment