Page 59 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 34

Art & Culture
Cultur
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worthless…DEAD. stolen by foreign powers when they colonized

Someone even said that… Africa, it’s not just the carved head of a
…the richest place on earth is the cemetery. man that you see in the British Museum or
This is something to think about carefully. the bronze sword in the hands of private
collectors in the US that they are asking for,

Release your art it is the African story, the African spirituality,
Art is powerful and deeply communal. It not the African knowledge codes and various
only expresses the heart of the artist but also other systems of knowing which are hidden in
the mind of the community and the various that art, that is being asked for.

experiences that formed the community. It
not only tells the story of the present but it is In conclusion, as you put your pencil to
a bridge between the stories of the past and a paper, your paint brush on your canvas, or
shaper of the stories of the future. as you compose your shot on your camera,

remember two things:
In the African context, art was used
for telling stories, keeping records, 1: Your art is only as alive as your story
storing ancient knowledge, teaching, 2: Even dry bones in a grave are telling a

and transmitting spiritual codes from story
masters to students and it also represented,
symbolically, the various aspects of Divinity. Have a beautiful 2025 and beyond.

This means that when African communities
ask for the return of the artifacts that were

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