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The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945–1994

Okwui Enwezor, Editor, with Museum Villa Stuck


For much of Africa, the 20th century was overshadowed by the experience of colonial rule, with political independence arriving for most peoples only in the last fifty years. The Short Century Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945-1994 is a broad survey of cultural life in Africa from the independence movements through the post-colonial era to the end of apartheid in 1994. Expansive, wide-ranging and lavishly illustrated, this book studies achievements in all areas of the performing and fine arts, photography, literature, theatre, architecture, music and film. The Short Century includes the works of over fifty artists, from the paintings of Ernest Mancoba and Gerard Sekoto during the 1950s, through the drawings and theatre projects of William Kentridge up to the installations and video works of Kay Hassan and Oladele A. Bamgboye.

The great writers of the continent – Wole Soyinka, Léopold Sédar Senghor and Aimé Césaire, among others – in addition to Africa’s filmmakers, architects and musicians, all of whom left their mark on the process of decolonialisation, are studied here in depth. Renowned historians and cultural philosophers discuss the background of developments and analyse the ideological strategies employed by western colonial powers to preserve their grip on African countries and peoples. A chapter on photojournalism supplemented by a detailed chronology of events and political movements presents the main stages of Africa’s political history. A comprehensive anthology in the appendix contains some thirty historical documents such as essays, speeches and political manifestos, shedding light on the key issues of the period.

Including essays by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria/US), Ulli Beier (Germany), Chinweizu (Nigeria), John Conteh-Morgan (Sierra Leone/US), Manthia Diawara (Guinea/US), Nnamdi Elleh (Nigeria/US), Okwui Enwezor (Nigeria/US), Mahmoud Mamdani (Uganda/US), Maishe Maponya (South Africa), Valentin Y. Mudimbe (Congo/US), Mark Nash (UK), Chika Okeke (Nigeria), John Picton (UK), and Obiora Udechukwu (Nigeria).

Okwui Enwezor, a curator, art critic and poet, is the founding editor and publisher of ‘Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art’. In 2002, he was the artistic director of Documenta XI, Kassel.

 

The Short Century

isbn 3791325027
publishers Prestel Publishing with Prince Claus Fund Library, 2001
hardback, 24 x 30 cm, 496 pages.
Approx. 250 colour and 200 b&w
illustrations.
price US $ 75.00
rights world, Prestel Publishing

Prestel Verlag

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