ABSTRACT African aesthetics at the intersection of borders and erasure can do philosophy by design. The analysis examines South African artist Aaron Curme’s rule-based procedures, apertures, soft gates, spatial choreographies, and counter-archival grids, to show how artworks generate knowledge rather than illustrate theses. Four dimensions structure the findings: epistemology under occlusion (reasoning with missing evidence); ethics of opacity (refusal and care); political philosophy of bordering (protocols that pre-sort recognition); and the counter-archive (absence as institutional obligation). The analysis reconstructs viewers’ inference paths, specifies justified suspension, and links aesthetic constraints to contemporary regimes of logistical and algorithmic governance. It concludes with implications for documentation, restitution, and custodial design. The result is a compact method for treating constraints as philosophical instruments within African and diasporic debates on visibility and power today.

ABSTRACT Osaga Odak first described the Kakapel rock art of western Kenya in 1977. His sketch concentrated on the site’s main central panel, capturing only the clearer images and he categorised the images present into humans, animals, artefacts and non-representational designs, proposing a sequence of two styles painted by two different groups. Odak further argued that Kakapel’s paintings were drawn before the arrival in the region of the Kalenjin, placing them before the reach of oral history and thereby making it impossible to ascribe an authorship or age to them. Fieldwork in 2011 was undertaken to answer Odak’s call for further research at the site. This paper presents the first millimetre-accurate redrawing of the main panel at Kakapel and places the site within the broader context of eastern African rock art to propose an age and authorship for the different painted traditions represented there. It thus builds on and extends current understandings of the rock art sequence of eastern Africa.

Drawing on the extensive resources of the International Library of African Music (ILAM) in Makhanda, South Africa, this article examines the African Musical Arts Programme at Rhodes University as a case study in decolonial music education. Established in 2017, the programme integrates the knowledge systems of African musicians and teachers with ethnomusicological scholarship to address the structural and epistemological challenges of transformation within higher education. Through a narrative qualitative approach, the study draws on data gathered between 2017 and 2024 from students, lecturers, and community musicians involved in the programme. It critically analyses the programme’s evolution, highlighting both its successes and ongoing challenges. The findings show how Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and community-based participation have been central to curricular design, teaching strategies, and assessment models. The programme demonstrates how embodied learning, participatory and performance-based pedagogies, and transgressive approaches can contribute to more sustainable and inclusive music education practices. At the same time, it reveals persistent institutional constraints related to the recognition of community knowledge holders, the development of African theoretical frameworks, and the implementation of non-traditional assessment methods. By situating the Rhodes University case within broader continental debates on sustainability, revitalisation, and decolonial pedagogy, the article contributes to the themes of the Mapping Africa’s Musical Identities special issue. It illustrates how locally rooted and globally relevant African musical arts education can challenge Eurocentric models while advancing the preservation and creative renewal of African musical traditions. In doing so, it offers a framework for sustainable knowledge transfer that supports the ongoing transformation of African music education in the 21st century.

Ashley Miller, ed. Decolonizing Islamic Art in Africa: New Approaches to Muslim Expressive Cultures. Intellect, University of Chicago Press, 2024. 316 pp. Bibliography. Index. $149.95. Hardback. ISBN: 9781835950005.

ABSTRACT This study examines expressions of queerness, sexuality, and resistance in Afrobeats through a multimodal analysis of three significant contemporary songs; Angel Maxine’s ‘Wo Fie’ (2021), Teni’s ‘YBGFA’ (2023), and Amaarae’s ‘Co-Star’ (2023). Building on the foundational scholarship of Queer African Studies, the study conceptualizes the framework of African Queer Expressive Strategies, demonstrating how African artists employ music and visual representation as dynamic platforms for critiquing societal norms, asserting queer visibility, and celebrating non-normative identities within African contexts. In critically reading Angel Maxine’s deployment of direct political activism and critique of institutional homophobia and cultural hypocrisy in Ghana; Amaarae’s navigation of queerness through symbolic aesthetics, sensual metaphors, and unapologetic eroticism; and Teni’s articulation of defiant self-affirmation that confronts restrictive gender expectations through introspective lyrics and nuanced symbolism, the article contends that queer presence in African popular music is articulated through overlapping registers of overt confrontation, aesthetic transfiguration, and strategic opacity. Consequently, it posits multiplicity as a key modality of queer expression and highlights the importance of intersectional, culturally grounded frameworks that both decentre Western queer epistemologies, while recognizing the critical role of popular culture in theorizing and resisting normative regimes of gender and sexuality.

ABSTRACT This study examines the traditional cultural elements in Sam Ukala’s works, with specific focus on Akpakaland and The Slave Wife as a way resisting western aesthetics and asserting African indigenous cultural aesthetics in dramaturgy, To achieve this, the study hinges on ‘Indigenous peoples’ paradigm theory’ which is concerned with the deconstruction of the consequences of colonialism among the indigenous people and the need for them to uphold the indigenous cultural values. This study employs qualitative content analysis of Ukala’s plays, supported by secondary literature. The findings reveal that since the inception of colonialism and African countries gaining Independence African creative artists and scholars have been making efforts to preserve, promote and propagate their own African indigenous Arts and culture to create distinct identity in the African dramaturgy. The study contributes to exiting knowledge by showing how Sam Ukala’s traditional dramaturgical characteristics contribute to the growth, maintenance, and dissemination of African culture in accordance with the continent’s cultural rebirth. This study therefore recommends the need for African scholars to integrate African traditional elements into scholarship and evolve traditionally viable cultural theories as shown by Sam Ukala that would be driven towards the development and expansion of drama in Africa.

ABSTRACT The cultural and aesthetic significance of beadwork serves as a potent symbol of initiation into womanhood, communal unity, and cultural identity. This study aims to explore how traditional bead-making practices reflect evolving cultural identities and local innovation within contemporary African art discourse. Field observations and semiotic analysis reveal the specific significance of spiral and flower bead motifs, which represent fertility, family morality, and protection in Krobo cosmology. However, the tradition faces challenges from cheap mass-produced bead imitations that undermine traditional bead-making expertise and threaten Krobo heritage. Despite these challenges, Krobo women and bead artists sustain the tradition by preserving age-old techniques and transmitting them through Dipo rites. To safeguard the tradition, the study recommends establishing online marketplaces for authentic Krobo beads and organizing community-based workshops to facilitate intergenerational knowledge transfer. Overall, the findings affirm that specialty Krobo bead-making is a living tradition essential for maintaining cultural identity and artistic heritage in modern Ghana.

Despite existing research on generational consumer behaviour, South African arts festivals still employ generalized marketing strategies and live theatre offerings at arts festivals, assuming homogeneity among audiences. This study, therefore, investigates and compares factors that influence the purchase behaviour of different generational cohorts. Using a quantitative method, which included 1748 (N) live theatre attendees across four national arts festivals, this research reveals significant cohort-specific differences in purchasing influencers. The findings suggest that factors such as Production quality and Quality facilities, Artistic value and Marketing could enhance live theatre ticket purchases among the identified generational cohorts, but only when focus is placed on the individual influencers within each factor, linked to specific individual cohorts. Based on these results, practical recommendations for festival organizers and marketers are proposed to foster broader art participation and appreciation, supporting the sustainability and growth of arts festivals.

ABSTRACT This article introduces the concept of ambidlala as a reflexive methodology for play studies and performance art practice. Developed through doctoral practice research, where I critically examined my own past performance practice that took place in a post-apartheid South Africa, and its relationship to privilege, race and implicit violence, ambidlala combines ‘ambi’ (both) and ‘dlala’ (play in isiZulu) to create a reflexive methodology addressing ambiguity, privilege, and power in post-apartheid contexts. By investigating play theory's colonial roots and their enduring impact on African scholarship and art, the article exposes how play studies have often perpetuated inequality through othering and classification. Ambidlala emerges as a tool for acknowledging the complexities of race, class, and power in postcolonial African settings, contributing to ongoing efforts to decolonize knowledge production and artistic practice across the continent.

The dossier discusses Senegalese artistic expressions that emerged from the city of Dakar or in dialogue with it, highlighting connections, contradictions, disputes, movements, and interregional reinventions. It brings together contributions from the 1st International Seminar Affluences dans les arts depuis Dakar, with a focus on the integration of local and external legacies, exchanges between African artists and institutions, and the influence of Senegalese creative production in Brazil, France, and beyond. It analyzes the role of cultural dynamics, collections, festivals, exhibitions, and curatorial practices in shaping art and museums, as well as the relevance of the 2023 and 2025 São Paulo Biennials for contemporary African presence, with particular emphasis on Senegalese participation. The dossier also discusses the centrality of Dakar as a hub of artistic production and circulation, highlighting the role of Léopold Sédar Senghor in consolidating debates on Negritude, Pan-Africanism, and the independence of former French colonies. It further addresses the impact of journals and festivals, such as the World Festival of Black Arts and the Pan-African Festival of Algiers. The processes of collecting, circulation, and commodification of African art are examined, as well as the creation of the Agit’art collective, which opposed official cultural policy. The text also highlights contemporary forms of resistance and critique, such as the RBS Crew collective, and the innovative role of artists (Dior Thiam, Alioune Diagne), curators (Koyo Kouoh), and choreographers (Germaine Acogny) in Senegalese and African arts. Finally, it underscores the vitality of the Senegalese presence at the São Paulo Biennials and the displacement of centers of production, circulation, and critique of African art, pointing to current epistemic challenges and transformations.

This paper will analyze a selection of artistic works that deal with the topic of HIV/AIDS and women to determine how art has provided responses to specific issues, from a gendered perspective, which have remained marginal within the global context of studies on the epidemic from an artistic point of view. The objective is to study the specific characteristics of these manifestations and their social and artistic impact. The study of HIV/AIDS and women also involves reflecting on the position of women in contemporary society, which is the basis for many of the works that address this subject and use public spaces to openly condemn the issues that make women more vulnerable to HIV infection. Moreover, a review of these works of art and initiatives entails an engagement with art of recent decades which, both from conceptual and technical standpoints, proves inseparable from the significant scientific advances that have taken place. The methodology implemented focuses on a qualitative study with an interpretative approach, through a multiple-case study strategy. Two frameworks were established for selection. A temporal framework limits the study to practices developed in the 1990, and a geographical framework identifies Spain and South Africa as principal areas of focus. The main findings indicate that women face a dual vulnerability, derived from both biological and social factors, and that the art of the 1990s represented a turning point regarding three fundamental issues. First, artistic activism emerged that fostered and brought to public attention the necessity of addressing a gendered perspective in relation to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Secondly, the proposals of South African artists highlighted the unequal impact of the epidemic, and finally, the artistic practices developed in Spain advocated for active social engagement, with strategies inherited from the mass media that mobilize the political positioning of the social and civic fabric in response to the virus.

Literary and artistic works, whether oral, visual or written, have always banked on prevailing media spaces for their composition, performance and transmission. The implicature of this is that the dominant media surfaces at the disposal of an artist at any given time play a big role in shaping and influencing the nature and characteristics of creative oeuvres in any given society. This is because artists patronise surfaces within their reach to showcase their creativity. Resultantly, this review paper seeks to explore the intersection between different media platforms and artistic outputs across different literary and creative epochs in Africa. The paper traces technological revolutions that have shaped and enhanced the growth of creative arts from pre-literate to the postmodern society, which is characterised by an avalanche of techno-digital advancements that have significantly revolutionised media spaces. The paper adopts a qualitative research design in appraising the influence of media spaces on artistic productions spanning the aforementioned societies. As such, the study reviews literature that is germane to the subject under investigation to make the argument that artistic outputs cannot be fixated on certain media platforms but predate on the readily, convenient and suitable media spaces at any given time for their manifestation. Intrinsically, therefore, the paper seeks to rationalise proliferating artistic emergences in the wake of media revolutions in the 21st century and beyond. The discussions in this paper affirm that African artists and writers have always relied on the prevailing media platform to compose and disseminate their works. The media platforms that have shaped artistic and literary works include traditional media, print and mass media and lastly social media. All these mediascapes have supported varying artistic and literary works ranging from oral and written literature as well as present-day proliferating popular art forms such as internet memes and sketch comedy, which heavily rely on social media surfaces for composition and dissemination.

ABSTRACT Using the example of two community gardens in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa, this paper identifies core principles for decolonized food system communication, using the lens of Afrokology. In the violent community in which these two gardens are embedded, convivial, esthetic communication re-enchants the lives of those involved in the gardens, allowing them to rebuild connectivity and collectivity. While food system communication is at the core of the gardeners’ activities, other modes of communication include African philosophy, art, music and performance, and recipe sharing. The gardeners recognize the value of making space for convivial, esthetic communication for community conflict resolution, building solidarity, and individual quiet, contemplative moments. As such, community food gardening is about more than food security: it points the way forward for a decolonized food system rooted in convivial, esthetic modes of communication, based on five principles: (i) recognizing what is broken can be healed; (ii) creating communicative spaces for community building and individual reflection; (iii) giving full attention to beauty; (iv) keeping things free; and (v) recognizing existing indigenous knowledge, while making way for new knowledge and innovation. However, Afrokology recognizes the incomplete process of communication, so addressing the socio-political concerns in Khayelitsha remain an ongoing challenge.

Stereotypical and sexualised representations of Black women's bodies have long been scrutinised in academic literature. The presentation of Black women in hip-hop videos, in particular, in both an international and South African context, has been hypersexualised and typified. Scholars in western feminism and Black feminism have demonstrated how Black women musicians have challenged one-dimensional portrayals of Black women by taking ownership of their sexuality and rebranding stereotypical language and images with more empowered messages. Less examined in current literature on the representation of Black women in music videos is how Black African women musicians use music videos to exercise creative control in their self-expression. In this article, we use a Womanist perspective to interpret South African artist Zoë Modiga's SINENKANI (2022) music video. We argue that in SINENKANI, Modiga engages in a Womanist gaze, combining elements of Afrosurrealism and Zulu indigenous culture to create an empowered intra-communal perspective. We argue that far from just countering stereotypical representations of Black women, Modiga creatively constructs a complex identity of Zulu African womanhood which can only be fully understood intrasubjectively.

Visualising positive masculinity in three contemporary South African artists’ works

Ziyankomo and the Forbidden Fruit (2012) belongs to that corpus of cultural productions that are all-black cast but are produced and financed by white, mainstream finance. This position of being black-themed production financed by white finance brings multi-layered complexities. In the case of Ziyankomo, its composition: the libretto and music compositions are by African artists, just as its cast is black, but its financing and production are by a white-owned company, Opera Africa and mixture of corporate and post-apartheid government linked entities. This black-art-white-finance arrangement does not auger well with the ideological positions of the black-white politics in South Africa, in that it introduces into the production ambiguous, irreconcilable clashes that pit Africans’ call for liberation on one hand, with the maintenance of the logic of coloniality on the other. Ziyankomo selection of its historical narrative adds to this ambiguity in that it eschews honest reflections about Africans, in this case the Zulu historical experience and the violence of the colonial encounter. Instead, it opts for selective experiences that recreate detached, ahistorical surface representations, which fly in the face of the calls for decolonisation (Ngugi 1986) and decoloniality (Mignolo 2018). Arguably, Ziyankomo’s take on the motif of the figure of the dancing Zulu warrior locates it with a collection of South African productions whose revisiting of the image of the dancing Zulu warrior marks continuities with racist, colonial British representations of the Zulu warrior of the Empire Exhibitions. In South Africa, anthropological politics of the 1930s undergirded some constructions whereby there were massive calls for the retribilisation of the Bantu, the indigenous people of South Africa. Drawing from interdisciplinarity of epistemologies of whiteness studies, Eric Hobswam and Terence Ranger’s notion of invented traditions (1983) and Walter Mignolo’s concept of Decoloniality this article, intends to explore the historical underpinnings of ideological ramifications of the anthropological turn, which betrays long shadows of colonialist-apartheid values and their constrictions of post-apartheid contemporary African performances. The article argues that Ziyankomo is firmly located in cultural productions meant for exotic entertainment while simultaneously obfuscating contingent historical realities affecting Africans. The question the article raises relate to the extent to which ethnic nationalism can be tied to ontological understandings of pre-colonial value systems within a whiteness culture of erasure? Who funds black opera and how can such funding structures be seen to be advancing a decolonial question? Ziyankomo then in this discussion becomes anchor and site to investigate black opera production and issues of social justice within the current structures of its funding model.

This article examines the material-driven practices of Allan Kyakonye (Uganda) and Frederick Ebenezer Okai (Ghana), and how they work with ordinary substances to think with memory and history. Methodologically, it combines close readings, exhibition analysis, hands-on curatorial fieldwork, and side-by-side comparison. The study focuses on Kyakonye’s medallion-and-cameo portraits—egg tempera on fire-scorched tinfoil—and Okai’s sculptural reworkings of indigenous pottery and alchemical clay experiments staged with immersive digital technologies. The study rests on three simple theoretical commitments: matter bears memory (Bachelard); African material cosmologies, such as those of the Dogon, remind us that substance and spirit meet in things; and the human and the nonhuman share the same ground (Meillassoux). From this vantage, materials in both artists’ work act as mnemonic agents rather than neutral carriers. Kyakonye stages the fragility of collective memory by pairing sacred iconography with marks of heat, abrasion, and decay. Okai unsettles linear heritage narratives through imagined crossings of cultures and forms of spectatorship that ask the viewer to move, linger, and look again. Together, their practices signal a turn in contemporary African art toward material poetics and make visible the exchanges that link East and West African scenes. The broader claim is straightforward: materiality is not a backdrop but engine—capable of reanimating history, opening futures, and proposing new sites of world-making.

The article provides an overview of the cross-border and cross-continental cultural exchange between Polish and South African artists in the second half of the twentieth century, especially in the field of visual arts and in the period of the Cold War. Having identified several instances of creative dialogue between Polish and South African art (e.g., Teresa Tyszkiewiczowa, Chris Ledochowski), the essay focuses on the work of South African-born writer and playwright Deborah Levy, herself a descendant of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants to South Africa. The article aims to reconstruct and trace the trajectory of Levy’s transnational affinity with Poland. Particular attention is given to the influence of post-WWII Polish visual culture on Levy’s work (e.g., Tadeusz Kantor) and her collaborations with three Polish visual artists: Andrzej Maria Borkowski, Zofia Kalińska, and Andrzej Klimowski. The study also explores the conditions of South African-Polish artistic dialogue during the Cold War, including an analysis of the mediating role of the metropolis and the subject positions of those engaged in the aforementioned dialogue.

This text discusses illustrations that presented various visions of Africa and were published in subsequent editions of the novel W pustyni i w puszczy (In Desert and Wilderness) and in a selection of other children’s books. It also seeks to address the following questions: How did Polish illustrators depict Africa in illustrations for children? What issues and subjects interested them most? To what extent was colonial discourse legible in their portrayals of African people and cultures? What formal means and stylistic approaches did the artists use to create their visions? How faithfully did the illustrators adhere to the literary texts in their compositions? And how did they reconcile their individual styles with the achievements of contemporary art and the influence of African art, which served as an inspiration for many of them?

In this interview, South African artist Sitaara Stodel speaks with researcher Julia Rensing about the shifting meanings of family photographs as they are relocated and recontextualized. Together, they explore the value of such images, how they can be reactivated, and made meaningful in unintended ways—particularly when they carry the weight of complex or troubling histories. Stodel links these themes to her experiences of displacement, uprootedness and the need for perpetual home-making in South Africa. The interview reflects on Santu Mofokeng’s conception of “home,” and Lebohang Kganye’s take on family photography and family identity to explore Stodel’s strategies of refining the meanings of home and family in her collages. Beyond personal concerns that inform her practice, the artist also addresses the notions of belonging and longing as universal preoccupations central to her work and engages with the ethical implications of refiguring family images.