Reaching Sideways, Writing Our Ways: The Orientation of the Arts of Africa Discourse

• Published in: African arts Vol. 50; no. 2; p. 10
• Main Author: Simbao, Ruth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles African Studies Center 01.06.2017
• Subjects: 21st century; African art; Attitudes; Dialogue; Radio; Sound; Africa
• ISSN: 0001-9933; 1937-2108
• DOI: 10.1162/AFAR_a_00341

Dialogue is about horizontal relationships; it is an existential necessity and an act of creation rather than an instrument of domination of one person over another. When one listens to a radio, voices can be tuned out selectively. Opinions exist as waves out there, but statements can be blocked with the turn of a dial. At times there is a crackle--a disruption of signal or an interference caused by the receiver. If one were to hold an old transmitter radio, one could attempt to receive better sound if one moved around, changing one's orientation. This multivocal dialogue reaches sideways as it opens up the dominant international discourses of the arts of Africa to include a higher percentage of voices from the African continent. Here, Simbao discusses the orientation of the international discourse of the arts of Africa in the twenty-first century.