“Graphic Design in Afrika: Saki Mafundikwa” and other links…
Saki Mafundikwa: “Well then, if Afrikan art directly influenced Cubism, and Cubism—according to Philip Meggs in his History of Graphic Design (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992; p. 240)—changed the course of painting and graphic design, how come then one never hears any mention of Afrikan art as being the forefather of graphic design? It is time that Afrika, the original home of humanity and life itself, rose from the condescending ‘darkness’ into the light. It never ceases to amaze me when in 1999, just a few months before the new millennium, I still hear of Afrika being referred to, in some quarters, as the ‘Dark Continent.’” Do see “Book Review: Afrikan Alphabets” here in the kinté space.
“Mahmood Mamdani: Lessons of Zimbabwe”
Mahmood Mamdani: “What distinguishes Mugabe and Amin from other authoritarian rulers is not their demagoguery but the fact that they projected themselves as champions of mass justice and successfully rallied those to whom justice had been denied by the colonial system. Not surprisingly, the justice dispensed by these demagogues mirrored the racialised injustice of the colonial system. In 1979 I began to realise that whatever they made of Amin’s brutality, the Ugandan people experienced the Asian expulsion of 1972—and not the formal handover in 1962—as the dawn of true independence. The people of Zimbabwe are likely to remember 2000–3 as the end of the settler colonial era. Any assessment of contemporary Zimbabwe needs to begin with this sobering fact.”
“What Nigeria is to me, by Achebe”
Clipped from The Nigerian Guardian: “I find it difficult to forgive Nigeria and my country men and women for the political nonchalance and cruelty that unleashed upon us these terrible events, which set us back a whole generation and robbed us of the chance clearly within our grasps to become a medium range developing nation in the 21st Century. My immediate response was to leave Nigeria at the end of the war having honourably, I hope, stayed around long enough to receive any retribution due to me for renouncing Nigeria for 30 months. Fortunately, the Federal Government proclaimed general amnesty and the only punishment I received was the general financial and emotional indemnity that war losers pay and some relatively minor harassment like the denial of passport.” For more Achebe, see “Dr. Ernest N. Emenyonu: Achebe and the Problematics of Writing in Indigenous Languages” here in the kinté space.