The seminar proceeds from a period in history after World War II that is crucial for the development of socialist art in Africa. With their independence, African countries adopted one of the political currents advocated by the United States and the ex-USSR: In a first stage, some countries like Kenia, Uganda, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Benin, Congo or Senegal took up the “capitalist model,” whereas states like Tanzania, Ghana, Mali, or Guinea (Conakry) developed politics of (an African) socialism. In a second phase in the 1970ies, some countries still struggling for their independence such as Angola, Mozambique, and some independent countries for example Benin, RP Congo or Ethiopia also adopted politics of socialism. In countries as for example in Ethiopia, RP Congo, Tanzania, Mozambique or Benin, artistic practices and themes were then characterized by socialist ideologies and aesthetics. Socialist Realism became the dominant aesthetic paradigm in these environments: The principles of Socialist Realism embraced the assumption that culture and arts do change and become a total process that transforms life, and no longer make up a factory of objects intended to distract the bourgeoisie. Socialist Realism required from artists a presentation of reality in a historical perspective, but were tied to the development of revolution. Artists were obligated to adopt a socialist aesthetic – also to attend the large-scale artistic events such as Intergrafik Triennale organized regularly in East-Berlin. In the first part of the seminar, we will address the impact of these past struggles on the different (trans-)national socialist art contexts in Africa. We will study the visual culture of socialism in African countries, as symbolisms of flags, monuments and public places. We will also explore the role of institutions for the constitution of a socialist art as well as the specific role of the artists in the political systems of socialism. In the second part, we will discuss specific artistic case studies, as on Makonde sculptures and Tinga Tinga art from Tanzania, but also on modern and comtemporary artists like Koffi Atubam of Ghana, Sam Ntiro of Tanzania, Valente Malangatana, Mankeu Mahumana of Mozambique, Koffi Gahou or Phillippe Abayi (Benin) with regard to their specific (trans-)national contexts and their socialist aesthetics. Finally, we will have opportunity to interrogate the paradox how a range of works of ‘socialist artists’ were collected by Western museums. close

Introductory reading: Amin Samir: Delinking: Towards a Polycentric World, London 1990. Ayodele, Langley J.: Ideologies of liberation in Black Africa, 1856-1970, Documents on modern African political thought from colonial times to the present, London 1979. Balandier, Georges: Doctrines: de la négritude au socialisme, Jeune Afrique, No. 39, 1963. Beier-Red, Alfred: Von der Assoziation Revolutionärer Bildender Künstler Deutschlands zum Bund Revolutionärer Künstler, in: Bildende Kunst, No. 2, 1959. Bernard, Charles: Le Socialisme Africain Mythes et Réalités, Paper presented at the International Congress on African French speaking peoples, Washington 1964. Clarke, Richard: What do Marxists Have to Say about Art? Published online: 14 October 2017. Geering, Corinne: A Future Lost: Artistic Appropriations of the Socialist Internationalist Legacy in Africa [Review on: Nash, Mark (Ed.): Red Africa. Affective Communities and the Cold War. London: 2016.], in: KULT_online No. 50, 2017. Greani, Nora: Le fond de l’art était rouge. Transferts artistiques entre l’ancien bloc socialiste et la République populaire du Congo, in : Cahiers d’études africaines, No. 226, 2017, pp. 379-398. Hütt, Wolfgang: Junge Bildende Künstler der DDR. Skizzen in Situation der Kunst in unserer Zeit, Leipzig 1965. Ibhawoh, Bonny/ Dibua J. I.: Deconstructing Ujamaa: The Legacy of Julius Nyerere in the Quest for Social and Economic Development in Africa, in: Afr. j. polit. set., Vol. 8, No. 1, 2003, pp. 59-83. Iwanow, Vassili: Der Sozialistische Realismus, Berlin 1965. Leed, Susanne: Abstraction as International Language, in: Art of Two Germanys: Cold War Culture, New York 2009, pp. 118-133. Masset, Pierre-Alexandre: Is Art a socialist phenomenon? Published online: 31.01.2018. Matthews, Ronald: African powder keg. Revolt and dissent in six emergent nations, London 1966. Nash, Mark (Ed.): Red Africa. Affective Communities and the Cold War, London 2016. Palmier, Jean-Michel: Lénine, l’art et la révolution, Paris 2006. Senghor, Léopold S.: Democracy and socialism, Ibadan 1964. Tchibozo, Romuald: Les arts à l’époque de la gouvernance révolutionnaire au Bénin: 1972 à 1989, in: Godo-Godo, Abidjan, No. 28, 2016, pp. 101-112. Tchibozo, Romuald/ Gnonhouevi, David : L’art socialiste et l’idéologie communiste au Bénin: le cas de Philippe Abayi, in : Afrique noire : l’histoire racontée par 14 chercheurs, Paris 2017. Zavedeeva, Irina: Socialist Realism and Socialist Realist Romantism, in: Art in translation, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2016, pp. 259-277. close