In 1963, Frantz Fanon warned that the cleaving apart of Africa during the Berlin conference would render the continent perpetually dependent on the west. Today, with the proliferation of global capitalism, Africa has fallen deep into the enslavement of dependency, becoming the dumping ground for waste and second-hand gadgets generated from Europe, North America, and Asia. African nations reeling under the yoke of foreign debt profile fall prey to western opportunists who look for such nations to dump toxic and solid wastes. Consequently, sprawling trash is destroying livelihoods and wiping out communities in urban centers in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. However, junk has become puissant media for artistic expressionism throughout the continent, with which many artists challenge the adversities of global capitalism. This lecture highlights the impact of global economic domination on Africa and the postcolonial artistic responses to the waste menace through upcycling as environmental, social, and political activism.
Clement Akpang is an associate professor of African art theory and GIAS Fellow at the Institute for Advance Studies, CEU. His research explores frameworks for contextualizing African artistic expressions in postcolonial perspectives. The decolonization of art history and conceptualizing African modernism constitute the core of his teaching and research interest.
Chair: Martina Kopf/ Arno Sonderegger
Tuesday, 18th April 2023, 5:15 pm
Department of African Studies - Seminar room 1 and online
University Campus, court 5.1., Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna
afrika@univie.ac.at, http://afrika.univie.ac.at
Zoom link: https://univienna.zoom.us/j/65988059038?pwd=em0xMzdiQWprZGsyR1hYdFVQRHdpZz09
Or through Zoom-Client with the following codes:
Meeting-ID: 659 8805 9038
Kenncode: 968042
