by Jon Lackman | 15 June 2010 | Africa, Contemporary
In a recent issue of Nka (n. 25), editor Salah M. Hassan writes:
In gesturing toward a theoretical framework with which to comprehend the breadth and depth of the work of this generation of African diaspora artists, several art critics have referred to them as “Afropolitans,” which could serve to embody a sense of cosmpolitanism in regard to their existential experience … The term, as I understand it, speaks to a new, morphing identity, fluid enough to encompass a new breed of diasporic, culturally or ethnically mixed Africans who came of age or grew up outside Africa but continues to move in and out of the continent. It speaks of cosmopolitanism and a sense of belonging to the metropolis. At the very least, it foregrounds the Western metropolis as a key site for the expression of African concerns. At the same time, Afropolitan has taken on a life of its own and become part of the language of fashion and advertisement … Yet I wonder whether, by using the term Afropolitan, we restrict ourselves to the middle class and the offspring of well-to-do Africans. Also, how can we distinguish them from their counterparts in older black communities … who were in the Western metropolis before the rise of the Afropolitans? As historian Earl Lewis reminds us, the entire Atlantic world, including the United States, is constituted by “overlapping diasporas” … Exploring the works of contemporary artists continues to afford us a fresh look at the renewed importance and changing practice of exodus. Indeed, their works, as they tie to their constant mobility in and out of Africa, hold out the possibility of circular, rather than only unidirectional movement.”
