Horizons

Africa is the name of a continent and also the name of a political idea. A large group of people living in different places round the world feel that they belong to an African cultural community. During the modern era, millions of people have been forced to leave the continent due to slavery, poverty or political oppression. They have carried cultural forms with them that have influenced societies all over the world. Texts in this book relate to Africa as a continent, as an idea or as a cultural identity. Historical perspectives on slavery, colonialism and anti-colonialism, as well as contemporary perspectives on cultural fusion & diaspora, open up some of the horizons of our globalized world. The book is a collaboration project between Museum of World Culture and Museion at Göteborg University, connected to the exhibition Horizons: Voices.... In order to base exhibitions on the most current research, the Museum has invited researchers to produce background material and to write original texts which presented here. Contents: Global Africa: Introduction / Elisabeth Abiri; Africa: Changing Meanings of African Culture & Identity / Paul Tiyambe Zeleza; Slavery & Universalism / Stefan Helgesson; Colonialism & Neo-Colonialism in Democratic Congo / Tom Turner; Ethnicity, Islam & the British: Social Gendering Among the Hausa in the 1st Half of the 20th Century / Hauwa Mahdi; Migration in the Horn: Colonial & Postcolonial Perspectives / Uoldelul Chelati Dirar; Everyday Life in the City: On Urban Policies & Shaping of African Urban Cultures / Ann Schlyter; Santería, Palo Monte & Abakuá: Three Afro-Cuban Religious Traditions / Johan Wedel; What, Where, How Is Africa? Engaging/Negotiating Contemporary African Art / Jan-Erik Lundström; African Film? Themes & Aesthetics in Sub-Saharan Film / Andreas Jacobsson; Roundtrip to the West Indies: Music & African Diaspora in the Caribbean / Krister Malm; Could You Be Loved? Bob Marley, Anti-Politics & Universal Sufferation / Paul Gilroy