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Africa’s rich history was featured in a number of articles this year. Here’s a selection of the best.
We start with the controversy surrounding the use of photographs taken by South Africans by American visual artist Hank Willis Thomas. Kylie Thomas unpacks the issues, arguing that acknowledging the source of the images he uses in his work more fully would amplify - rather than diminish - the power of his political art.
Unearthing another area of controversy, Rory Bester argues that the South African art market still represents the resilience of apartheid era tastes and preferences. This means that the quality of concurrent black artists is often overlooked.
The thorny issue of ownership of the continent’s treasures is tackled head on by Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes. He explains why a recent exhibition in London of treasures looted from Ethiopia underscores the point that the issue hasn’t been resolved.
And finally onto crate diggers - those obsessive record collectors provide a unique way of engaging with the past. Michael Shakib Bhatch suggests that while a book might provide information about a particular place and time, a record can provide a unique sensory experience.
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Graeme Williams’s photograph he took in Thokoza township, near Johannesburg, in 1991. Police watch an ANC rally.
Graeme Williams
Kylie Thomas, University of the Free State
Acknowledging the source of the images would amplify rather than diminish the power of Hank Willis Thomas's political art.
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Archives, museums and memory
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Ruth Simbao, Rhodes University
The persistence of Sam Nzima's June 16 photograph is remarkable. The shadow in the photograph can be read as a metaphor for the rich debate that this image continues to bring to the surface.
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Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, Curtin University
For Ethiopia, there is no connection between the Maqdala war in 1868 and the stolen treasures at Maqdala
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Rory Bester, University of the Witwatersrand
South Africa's government reneged on opportunities to cement artist Gerard Sekoto's legacy.
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Michael Shakib Bhatch, University of the Western Cape
A crate digger essentially builds a personal library of sonic texts that often can't be found on the internet or in official archives.
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