Same and other : negotiating African identity in cultural production

Abstract

The idea of African Otherness has occupied a central role in discourses on cultural production in Africa, whether film, literature, music or the arts. These claims, articulated both by 'Western' and 'African' critics and consumers, means that particular criteria and standards are adopted in relation to cultural production in Africa. The claim to African Otherness is gaining new strength in the wake of globalisation, but it is also increasingly challenged by a number of contemporary artists. This book deals with the question of relevance and meaning of the signifier in various fields of contemporary cultural production in Africa: literature, film, sculpture, music, popular drama.

CONTENTS -- Introduction: African Identity and the Postcolonial/Maria Eriksson Baaz -- Black Atlantics/Stefan Helgesson -- Musical Otherness and the Bhundu Boys: The construction of the 'West' and the 'Rest' in the discourse of 'world music'/Johannes Brusila -- Tourism industry and local music culture in contemporary Zanzibar/Annemette Kirkegaard -- In Search of Psychological Worlds On Yvonne Vera's and Chenjerai Hove's portrayal of women/Carita Backström -- Africa's Modern Cinematic Griots: Oral tradition and West African cinema/Eva Jørholt -- Sankofa and Modern Authenticity in Ghanaian Film and Television/Anne Mette Jørgensen -- "The shame of money": Criticism of modernity in Swahili popular drama/Siri Lange -- 'Imagined Families' in South African Women's Autobiographies/Maria Olaussen -- Questioning 'Authenticity': The Case of Contemporary Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture/Elin Skogh -- A Continent without Culture?/Mai Palmberg