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ART & ART EDUCATION IN EASTERN AFRICA_ A WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY
VERSION 5.4 June 2014 >> Edition for Conditions 2, Dakar.
Elsbeth Joyce Court MA Lecturer in World Art_Africa at SOAS: School of Oriental and African
Studies; Associate, Centre of African Studies: CAS, University of London (since 1991); formerly
research Associate, Bureau of Educational Research and Institute African Studies, University of
Nairobi (1978-86), resident in east Africa for 17 years working in art, education and textiles.
INTRODUCTION TO THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY
This ongoing bibliography with notes supports art seminars of the Centre of African
Studies since March 2011 and my presentations: Kenya’s Art Worlds and Effective Art
Education for the African Stones Talk Seminar, Kisii. Kenya, 1-3 August 2011; Akamba
Mavisa: Carving a local art world in East Africa & beyond for the symposium
‘Commemorating the Past, Creating the Future, Kenya’s Heritage Crossroads’ at the
British Library, London (below, www open.ac.uk); ACASA 16th Triennial Conference,
Panel 9.2 – EJC convenor - Uhuru@50; the emergence of contemporary visual arts in
Kenya since Independence, Brooklyn, N.Y., 19-22 March 2014: presenters: L Kiprop,
Nairobi National Museum; P-N Bounakoff, Sorbonne; K Labi University of Ghana, Legon;
discussant J Mboya, Godown Arts Centre, Nairobi (publication in process);
CURRENT: Presentation for the Conditions 2 Conference on Artistic Education in
Africa, convened by Koyo Kouoh, Raw Material Company and the Ecole Nationale des
Beaux Art, Dakar, 26-28 June 2014.
Abstract: Alternative kinds of [effective] art education in Kenya. Historically, the provision of
effective art education in Kenya is the inverse of those nations in Africa that have national art
academies or university schools with specialized education in art. Rather, the dominant providers of
artistic education are numerous, diverse formats such as art centres, private art schools, workshops,
apprenticeship (assuming an inclusive definition for the kinds of visual/plastic art that are produced in
Kenya). A limited yet significant alternative is external tertiary training, e.g. at Makerere University,
Kampala or overseas [e.g. none of five Kenyan artists in the 2014 Dak’art have Nairobi degrees].
Other, non-art critical factors are the nation’s high level of basic education, its economic growth and
relative stability [until recently]. In these circumstances, the formation of practicing, creative artists is
a varied and complex process.
This presentation begins by sketching the extent of colonial and neocolonial underdevelopment of art
and art education in Kenya. This sets the stage for a mapping of the range of alternatives, focusing on
three different but effective kinds of artistic education. These are: ethnic-based modern sculpture
movements (Kamba, Gusii), Community Peace Museums (heritage, curatorial initiative) and urban art
centers with international connections (Kuona and Godown, both with connections to the Triangle
Arts Trust aka Triangle Network). The educational trajectories of two successful artists who practice
in Kenya: Peterson Kamwathi and Gerard Motondi HSC will be reviewed to demonstrate the dynamics
of their formation. Analyses apply criteria to assess art education and creativity by Harvard’s Project
Zero – coincidentally utilized by the Godown Arts Centre (Gardner: 1993, 2005; Hetland et al: 2008).
The presentation draws on my paper Kasi ya Paa (metaphor for making improvements) and the
Uhuru@50 panel, above.
This is a working list. New books and other texts will be added occasionally. Your
comments and suggestions are most welcome via e-mail: ec6@ soas.ac.uk.
KENYA, EAST AFRICA, AFRICA
Abdullah, Z Winter, 2011: Objects of Desire Shopping for Identity and the
Meaning of Africa at the Harlem Market. African Arts. 44(4). Several photos of
Akamba kind of wood sculpture were not specified, American perspective.
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A Comme Afrique/A for Africa. 2012: Exhibition catalogue. France:
Grandvaux/EPA. To commemorate and assess fifty years of independent Africa, A for
Africa was an extensive, collaborative project to develop a lexicon for the continent in
the 21st century and culminated in an exhibition shown in Nairobi National Museum,
Kenya (2010) and the National Museum of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou (2011); it was
initiated by L’Ecole du Patrimoine Africain:EPA/School of African Heritage, Porto Novo,
Benin.
Agthe, J 1990: Wegzeichen Signs Art from East Africa 1974-89. Frankfurt:
Museum für Völkerkunde. Inputs from Etale Sukuro and Francis Msangi.
________ 1999: Tagwerke. All in a Day’s Work_Images of Work in Africa.
Galerie 37, exhibition catalogue. Frankfurt: Welkulturen. Texts in German and
English for a thematic exhibition based on the Human Right “to work”, encompassing
“all activities that require a certain degree of excellence and regularity.” Eastern African
artists include P Irungu, J Katirakawe, D Kimani, F Msangi, N Mudzingwa, C Muhandi, L
Mwaniki, D Ngwenya, P Nyamuzeresa, S Ociti, O Olale, E Onyango, J Oswaggo, H Owiti, H
Watindi (and a stunning Clothes Line by E Anatsui).
Agthe, J & Court, E 2001: Jak Katarikawe_Dreaming in Pictures, Uganda.
Exhibition catalogue [Frankfurt, Kampala, Nairobi]. Frankfurt: Museum der
Weltkulturen. Showcases the artist’s early work with his narratives; biographic detail;
cites regional artists workshops organized by Sam Ntiro in the mid-1960’s; discussions
in Dialogue. African Arts 2002-04.
Akala, W J 2007: ‘Africa [Kenya]’ (pp 35-36) in response to MA Stankiewicz ‘
Capitalizing Art Education: mapping international histories’. In L Bresler, ed.
International Handbook of Research in Arts Education. Springer. Describes Kenya as
“an area of marginal analysis with forms of art: stone tools, rock art, which predate
western culture” to the range of current practices such as “technical drawing”.
Amutabi, M 2007: Intellectuals and the Democratisation Process in Kenya. In G
Murunga & S Nasong’o, eds Kenya The Struggle for Democracy. Dakar:
CODESRIA. Discusses kinds of intellectuals and their change over time: traditional/
academic, bourgeois, organic/activist, general, the latter can include creative artists.
Anyango, C 2010:
Heart of Darkness. London: Metro Media/Self Made Hero.
A ‘dark’ graphic novel adapted from the original by Joseph Conrad and illustrated by
Anyango (b. Nairobi). Her multi-media MA addressed the fishery industry in Kisumu
(Royal College of Art, London); currently she is tutor at the RCA.
‘ArchiAfrika’. 2005: Proceedings – Conference - Modern Architecture on
East Africa around Independence (with Architects Association of Tanzania,
Dar es Salaam, 27 -29 July 2005). Utrecht, the Netherlands: ArchiAfrika. Collection
of speeches and papers given at a remarkable regional conference with thematic and
geographical speeches and papers, including Central Africa, Eritrea, Kenya, RSA, Sudan,
Tanzania, Uganda and more. Keynote and ‘Reflection’ by Nnamdi Elleh.
Arero, H & Kingdon, Zachary, eds 2005: East African Contours Reviewing
Creativity and Visual Culture. London: Horniman Museum. Research-based
papers include sculpture in East Africa, the ethics of holding Kenyan objects in a
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Stockholm museum, two on kanga, Boran age sets, Luo headresses, Joy Adamson’s
portrait paintings (on view in the NNM).
Arnold, M ed. 2008: Art in Eastern Africa. Dar-es-Salaam: Mkuki ya Nyota.
Articles range from ‘Antiquities in the Sudan’(HH Idris) to ‘Wangechi Mutu…’ (B
Wainaina) and include F Topan and A Sheriff on Swahili art and aesthetics, S Somjee on
projects involving material culture, Kyeyune on Makerere pioneers (Maloba, Njau,
Ntiro), Nagawa on women artists in Uganda and more ; weak introduction.
Ashley, C & Reid, A 2008: A reconsideration of the figures from Luzira. Azania.
An excellent example of how further research modifies the story: pushing back date,
making regional connections and likely ritual use; the object is displayed in SAG.
Bloom, S 2009: Trading Places The Merchants of Nairobi. London: Thames &
Hudson Photographic studies of 14 merchants and their decorated premises in Nairobi
city and peri-urban areas.
Branch, D 2012: Kenya Between Hope and Despair, 1963-2012. Yale U.P.
Clear and detailled political history.
Burnet, R 2002: Kuona Trust. In J Picton, R Loder & E Court, eds. Action and
Vision: Painting and Sculpture in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda from 1980.
exhibition catalogue. Triangle Arts Trust for Rochdale Art Gallery. Kuona connection.
Burt, E 1980: An Annotated Bibliography of the Visual Arts of East Africa.
Indiana University Press. Kenya has 580 entries. During the 1970’s while teaching at
KU and carrying out his own doctoral research, Burt wrote weekly columns in the Daily
Nation as ‘Bwana Sanaa’ (Mister Art).
Carline, R 1968: Draw they must: A history of teaching and examining art.
London: Edward Arnold. Several chapters address art education in the British
colonies (ref Trowell).
Chamberlain, N 2006: Report on the Rock Art of South West Samburu District,
Kenya. Azania XLI.
Chami, F 2008: The Great Lakes: a Complexity of Cultural Wellsprings. In M
Arnold, op cit.
Chege, M 2009: The Politics of Education in Kenyan Universities: A Call for a
Paradigm Shift. African Studies Review. 52(3).
Coombes, A, Hughes, L & Karega-Munune. 2014. Managing Heritage, Making
Peace, History, Identity and Memory in Contemporary Kenya. London: IB
Taurus. L Hughes as principal investigator; A Coombes; Karega-Munene academic
consultant in Nairobi, former NMK archaeologist. UK cultural historians; UK funding (po-v: Kenyan nationalism vis-à-vis UK empire). On the above themes, the book contrasts
the oldest national institution the Kenya National Museums and the more recent, local
movement of Community Peace Museums (13 are extant). Five chapters each written by
one author; brief introduction and conclusion by Drs Coombes & Hughes, the latter draw
attention to NNM progress in its displays of contemporary art. For a fuller and apt
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review of this important book, read John Lonsdale, April 2014: The Round Table: The
Commonwealth
Journal
of
International
Affairs
103(2).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00358533.2014.896101
Contact Zones NRB-02, joint-authorship, ed. Sam Hopkins. Nairobi: Native
Intelligence and Goethe-Institut Kenya. To date, the most serious and extensive
coverage of contemporary artists, innovative design; images of work supported by
interviews, several essays, some by the artists, biographies. The Contact Zones NRB
series is edited by Johannes Hossfield and Tom Odhiambo.
Contact Zones NRB-03, joint-authorship, ed.
Native Intelligence and Goethe-Institut Kenya.
Peterson Kamwathi. Nairobi:
Contact Zones NRB-04, joint-authorship, ed.
Intelligence and Goethe-Institut Kenya.
Ato Malinda. Nairobi: Native
Contact Zones NRB-05, joint-authorship, ed. 2012: Mwangalio Tofauti Nine
Photographers from Kenya with the Nairobi National Museum. Nairobi: Native
Intelligence and Goethe-Institut Kenya. Mwangalio Tofauti “a different way of
looking” referring to use of “the medium both for visual art practice and sociopolitical
documentary photography” was exhibited in the Nairobi Gallery, 2010. Works by J
Barua, J Chuchu, S Hopkins, A Kaminju, M S Kyambi, B Miniski, J Muriuki, B Mwangi, W
Mwangi; essay by K Macharia. Best yet in the Goethe-sponsored series.
Coulsen, D & Campbell, A 2001: African Rock Art. New York: Abrams.
Comprehensive photographic survey by regions; further research and activities of
TARA: Trust for African Rock Art, www below; TARA is based in Nairobi.
Court, E 1981: The Dual Vision: Factors affecting Kenyan children’s drawing
behavior. Paper prepared for the INSEA World Congress, Rotterdam; also presented at
National Association of Education through Art, New York, l982. From unpublished MA
thesis: A Developmental study of drawing characteristics of school-attending Kikuyu
children, ages 3-8, in Nairobi and Kiambu. Kenyatta: Bureau of Educational Research &
Antioch.
_______1984: Review Traditional and Contemporary decorated gourds. American
Cultural Center, Nairobi, January, 1984. African Arts 18(4). New works by Peter
Nzuki and Wilson Mwangi displayed in the wider context of gourd practices in Kenya;
collabortion with African Heritage, UNbi Material Culture Collection and KIE.
_______1985: Margaret Trowell and the development of art education in East
Africa Art Education, journal of the National Art Education Association, USA
[mid-1930’s -1950’s establishment of specialized education in art at Makerere, the
Uganda Museum and publications to support both].
_______1992: Pachipamwe II: the avant-garde in Africa? African Arts 25(1).
Account of Triangle International Workshop near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 1989.
_______1992: Researching Social Influences in the Drawings of rural Kenyan
Children. In D Thistlewood, ed. Drawing, Research and Development. London:
Longmans. Chapter associated to the exhibition ‘Drawing on Culture’ at the Institute of
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Education, U London and toured to Kenya and Zimbabwe, with art education
conferences at the BM, London and KIE, Nairobi.
_______1994: How culture influences children’s drawing performance in rural
Kenya. In E Thomas, ed International perspectives on culture and schooling:
A Symposium proceedings. London: Institute of Education. A further,
unpublished, Power Point version ‘Andika Picha: writing pictures_Picture-making and
art education in eastern Africa’ focuses on the influences of formal schooling. London
2005, ‘07 & Viana do Castelo, Portugal ‘06.
_______1996: Kenya. In Macmillan Dictionary of Art. London; OxfordartOnline
[being up-date 2015].
_______2002: Dream Jackets: the growth of Kenyan modern art in Nairobi. In J
Picton et al op cit.
_______2011: Peterson Kamwathi. …Matter of Record… Exhibition catalogue.
London: Ed Cross Fine Art.
________ 2013: Edward Samuel Njenga’s Human Art In Edward Njenga: A Son’s
Dedication_1962-2013 Ceramic Collection [terracotta figurines] Exhibition
catalogue. Kenya: Nairobi National Museum.
_______ Summer 2014: Review Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle. African Arts. 47(2).
Court, E & Mwangi, M 1976: Maridadi Fabrics. African Arts 25(1). Case study of a
mission-sponsored community silk-screen cottage industry for women’s employment in
Gikomba, Nairobi; involvement of NU designers; until today. Earlier version in Kenya
Past & Present.
Court, E with Patel, D l982: Report to Teachers’ Colleges on the Art Education
Paper for the Primary Teachers’ Examination. Nairobi: Kenya National
Examinations Council.
Cunningham, et al 2005: Carving out a Future. Forests, Livelihood and the
International Woodcarving Trade. London: Earthscan. Several chapters on the
Akamba carving, claimed to be the oldest and largest modern movement in tropical
Africa. Saving the Wooden Rhino a subsequent video by the same team has an upbeat
account of the carving movement albeit with shallow oral history (one mzee who ‘misinforms’ re WW 1 influences of Makonde; most sources posit connections with Zaramo
carving, whichever agreement on a missionary-connection) and extensive coverage of
research and action re the ecology of trees.
DAK’ART (joint authorship) 2006: DAK’ART 7th Bienniale of African
Contemporary Art. Dakar. Profiles for Kenyan associated artists: Joseph
Bertiers, Jak Katarikawe, Ingrid Mwangi-Hutter.
Della Rosa, A
2008: The Art of Recycling in Kenya. Milan: Charta. Texts in
English, Italian; a range of materials, places and projects including Ecounique (‘flip
flops’), Kitengela glass, Ki[G]ikomba with Kioko Mtwitki.
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Deliss, C ed. 1995: Seven stories about modern art in Africa. Exhibition
catalogue. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery. Curator: W Nyachae, ‘Concrete
Narratives and Visual Prose (Uganda and Kenya)’ pp 160-189; 272-287; ‘Sisi kwa sisi’:
Etale Sukuro pp 283-87; ‘Notes: Kenya workshop activity and modern art’; E Court pp
300+. 1997: received Arts Council African Studies Association USA’s Rubin Prize
Honorable Mention.
Digolo, O 1986: A Proposal for Effective Implementation of Art Curriculum in A
Changing Cultural Environment: The Kenya Case. KU: Bureau of Educational
Research.
Digolo, O & Orchardson-Mazrui, E 1988: Art and Design for Form 1 & 2.
Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers. A survey of techniques, minimal
context of a few photographs of local art practices; the most widely-used art education
school text in eastern & southern Africa, reprinted 10x as of 2006.
Eisemon, T, Hart, L & Ongesa, E l988: Schooling for self-employment in Kenya.
The Acquisition of craft skills in and outside schools. International Journal
Educational Development. This investigation concerns the conditions for becoming
a skilled carver of Gusii stone, the second ethnic-based modern movement in Kenya. It
finds that such skill can not be learned in formal education due to the lack of expertise
and time required in contrast to acquisition in the community, through apprenticeship
and peer learning.
Esbin, H 1998: Carving lives from Stone: Visual Literacy in an African Cottage
Industry (Kenya). Unpublished Phd Thesis, McGill U.
______ Spring 2000: Soapstone Carvers of East Africa: Not Isolated and Not Alone.
Inuit Art Quarterly, 15.3.
Fall, N & Pivin, J-L, eds 2000: An Anthology of African Art in the 20th Century.
Paris: Revue Noire & New York: DAP. Includes G Kyeyune on Makerere art school, S
Sanyal on art education in Kenya and Tanzania; Jules-Rosette on ‘Airport Art’; images:
Kyalo: 1923, Maloba: 1940’s, Ong’esa: 1978.
First Word
[joint authors] Autumn 2011: ACASA Arts Council African Studies
Association (USA) Fifteenth Triennial Symposium 23-27 March 2011, Los Angeles.
African Arts 44(3) pp1-9. The ACASA Triennial is the state-of-the art symposium for
African art; the 2011 edition had 46 panels comprising 210 presentations albeit with
scant attention to the eastern region -- two panels (Pido, below) plus a few other papers.
In a five-section review, only one writer gave an example from Kenya/east Africa.
‘Theoretical Trends’ by S Anderson cites a presentation that discusses the
phase/moment in which matatu public transport vehicles were decorated in ‘gangsta’
style (note that any painting on such vehicles other than a yellow line was outlawed in
2003 by the Ministry of Transport; and again in 2004 by Parliament; in 2011, the law
was being enforced.). Anderson’s account states that the matatu genre “synthesized
Nairobi urban culture” and for some “is celebrated as the only ‘true’ Kenyan art” (p8).
Gachanga, T 2008: How Africans view Peace Museums. An unpublished paper;
shorter version on-line: www. Hiroshimapeacemedia.jp.
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Galavu, L ed. 2011: Visionary Women: An Art Exhibition Marking
International Woman Day & the Centennial celebration 1911-2011. Nairobi
National Museum. Introduction by M Odundo.
Gerschultz, J. 2013: Navigating Nairobi: Artists in a Workshop System, Kenya. In
S Kasfir & T. Forster, T, eds: African Art and Agency in the Workshop. Indiana
U.P. Gerschultz provides a substantive overview and critique of the “dynamic workshop
system underlying production and exhibition” of art which has developed in Nairobi and
environs over the past twenty years. She stresses the system’s fluidity, how artists
construct and negotiate it, with examples from a range of groups: Triangle Network,
Banana Hill Art Studio, ‘Healing through Art’; she stresses the key importance in human
agency and social media.
Gregory, P. 2012: The Art of the Impossible? A Case Study and Reflections on the
Experience of Art in a Rural Kenyan Primary School. International Journal of Art and
Design Education. 31(3). Within the framework of postmodern theory and wholistic art
education, this visiting art educator to Ukambani writes candidly of the difficult conditions
for teaching art in a primary school and a teacher training college; he found scarcity of
materials, chalk-and-talk methods, lack of local context. He compares children’s drawing
performance with my post-graduate research (1981, 1992, 1994) indicating less influence of
traditions. He reports positive responses to his efforts to extend drawing and introduce
papier maché. Gregory’s account is bracing but adds to the literature that is documenting
the decline in the quality of education in most parts of east Africa (possibly as part of UPE).
For further insights, see Odoch Pido (2014).
Guille, J 2006: Crafts, Enterprise and Intersectoral Partnership in East and South
Africa. In E Court, ed [forthcoming] Artists and Art Education in Africa. London:
Saffron Books. Available on-line http://www saffronbooks.com/index.php (under
Artists and Art Education in Africa).
______2010: Health, Design, Community: Creative approaches to craft in Uganda_
Transferring the Siyazama project to Uganda. Paper presented at TATU Visual
Traditions
of
Eastern
Africa,
Oxford,
23
July
[http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/scd/research/news/siyazama].
2110.
Hirst, T Summer 1971: New Art from Kenyatta College. African Arts.
Hughes, L, Coombes, A & Karega-Munene August, 2011: Introduction. Special
Issue on ‘Managing Heritage, Building Peace: Museums, Memorialisation and
uses of Memory in Kenya’. African Studies. Clear framing and discussion of issues
concerning heritage, with attention to tensions between the local communities and the
state. I prefer this sampler to their book below.
ISCAFEE: International Society for Ceramics Art Education and Exchange.
Tertiary level collaboration between University of Creative Arts, Farnham, England and
the Dept Fine Arts, Kenyatta U, on the initiative of Prof M Odundo, Farnham.
Jager, N 2011: Becoming Transnational Insights into Transformations of the
Contemporary Art Scene in Nairobi, Kenya. In H Belting, J Birken, A Buddensieg,
P Weibel, eds. Global Studies Mapping Contemporary Art and Culture.
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Germany: ZMI|Karlsrule & Hatje Cantz Verlag. Delimits Kenyan contemporary art to
two generations (omitting developments prior to 1985): (1) Shaffner’s Watatu; (2)
Kuona’s less market-driven environment, posits a third generation for artists whose
practices are transnational (critical, conceptual) with three examples: Miriam Syowia
Kyambi, Jimmy Ogonga and Ato Malinda. Apt if brief analysis of the effects of political
liberalization and transnational exchange on art in Kenya.
Jules-Rosette, B 1984: The Messages of Tourist Art An African Semiotic
System in Comparative Perspective. New York: Plenum Press. Includes a case
study of the Akamba carving movement.
Kader, T 2000: Material Culture and Art Education: Examining cultural artifacts
of the Bohra [Asian] from Mahaan to Masjid (Kenya). Unpublished Phd Thesis,
Penn State. Kader was once an art teacher at Lenana Secondary School during the early
years of the 8-4-4 curriculum when it included the study of material culture, see Somjee.
Kagia, M 2003: Drawing As Process. MA Thesis, Kingston University. For Mercy
Kagia, drawing as process is a means of thinking, exploring, “a way of knowing” the
world that is based upon creative interaction with what/whom is observed. In a new
kind of academic research in which the researcher investigates her/his own practice,
Kagia is analyzing her drawings in relation to discussions with other reportage artists
and her own photographs. In her 10.03.11 SOAS presentation, she discussed a sample of
her drawings, some associated with her teaching (in London and Nairobi) but most from
her field research in Kisumu, western Kenya. Ironically, she selected the city for her PhD
study because “it didn’t have connections”, but by the time of her research the location
had experienced post election violence in 2008 and, the timing of her research could
have affected the nature of her experience. Rather, the very presence of a person
drawing in the Kisumu market stimulated varied conversations about drawing “what is
it for”, remarkably with little reference to politics. She observed a very low level of
public awareness of drawing, of drawing as a career or “that there are people who just
draw.”
Kagia, M 2013: Documenting Daily Life through Reportage Drawing. PhD thesis.
Kingston U, UK. Advocacy for reportage drawing; applies western theory on drawing to
fieldwork in Kisumu town (as above).
Kakande, Angelo 2008: Contemporary Art in Uganda: a Nexus Between Art and
Politics. Unpublished Phd thesis. Johannesburg: U Witswatersrand.
Kasfir, S 1999: Contemporary African Art. London: Thames & Hudson. Kasfir’s
contribution is a thematic, systems approach with many examples from eastern Africa
examples, eg. Kamba wood carvers, peri-urban Nairobi art collaboratives, Makerere
artists, eg. Francis Nnaggenda.
______2005: Narrating Trauma as Modernity Kenyan Artists and the American
Embassy Bombing. African Arts 28(3), 66-77. A Nairobi exhibition on the theme of
the 1998 bombing is the basis for discussions of ‘popular art’, Kenyan nationalism;
comparison of the works by “wananchi with brushes” (mostly the Banana Hill group)
with academically-trained painters.
______2007: Jua Kali Aesthetics Placing the city as a context of production. Critical
Interventions. 1:1, 35-45.
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______2012: Up Close and Far Away Re-narrating Buganda’s Troubled Past.
African Arts 45 (3), 56-69.
Kasfir, S & T Forster, eds. 2013: African Art and Agency in the Workshop.
Indiana U.P. A most significant volume in that illuminates the significance of the
workshop in its many forms to African art, especially contemporary practices.
The book is in four sections: Education & Learning, Audience & Encounter; Patronage &
Domination, Comparative Aspects in fourteen chapters: seven concern eastern Africa.
Three essays by the editors provide their observations and theorization of the topic;
don’t miss Kasfir’s ‘CODA’ with her observations on ‘Twenty years of workshop
changes, 1987-2007.’
Kasule, Kizito Maria 2001: The Independence Decade as the Renaissance of Art
in Uganda. Unpublished Phd thesis. Kampala: Makerere University.
Kenya Arts Diary 2011. Nairobi: Kul Graphics. Fifty artist profiles cite only 2
trained at a Kenyan university; Gallery Watatu - 4, Kuona Arts - 6, Creative Arts Centre 5, Buru Buru Institute of Fine Arts - 2; rest/most are self-taught plus non-African
Kenyans and residents.
Kenya Arts Diary 2012.
Nairobi: Kul Graphics. Selection of artists is more
contrastive than 2011, inclusive of well-known pioneers omitted in the 1st edition: Njau,
Ongesa, Robarts, Waite, cartoonists, jewelry-makers and many painters of daily life.
Kenya Arts Diary 2013. Nairobi: Kul Graphics. Selection from submission.
Kenya Arts Diary 2014. Nairobi: Kul Graphics. Selection from submission.
Kenya Institute of Education 1986: Primary School Syllabus.
______ 2002: Primary School Syllabus.
______ 2002: Secondary School Syllabus, Volume 4.
______2010: Summative Evaluation of the Primary School Education Curriculum.
Assessment of “gaps in achievement of objectives on appreciation of aesthetic value…
learners have not attained skills in areas such as creativity... respect for the dignity of
work… non-coverage of the syllabus is due to heavy workload of teachers and high
pupil-teacher ratio”; on-line www. kie.ac.ke.
Kenya, Republic of 1988: Presidential working party on education and
manpower training for the next decade and beyond. Kamunge Report: ‘8-44’. Nairobi: Government Printer
Kenya Republic of, MOEST Ministry of Education, Science & Technology 2005:
Kenya Education Sector Support Programme 2005-2010. Delivering
Quality Education and Training to all Kenyans. Candid assessment concerning
the weaknesses in formal provision. An objective of TIVET is “To produce skilled
Artisans, Craftsmen, Technician and Technologies for both formal and informal sectors”
(pp 208-9).
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Kenyatta, Jomo 1938: Facing Mount Kenya. London: Secker & Warburg. 1978,
Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers. “Education might help to promote
progress and at the same time to preserve what is best in the traditions of the African
people and assist them to create a new culture which, though its roots are still in the
African soil, is yet modified to meet the pressure of modern conditions ” (p128).
King, Kenneth 1996: Jua Kali Kenya Change and development in an informal
economy 1970-95. London: James Currey. Second edition of King’s seminal 1970’s
text.
Kingdon, Zuleika 1998 [video, 118min]: Visions and Dreams. Uganda’s
contemporary art worlds through case studies of artists Nabulime, Sserulyo,
Banadda, Tumwine in the context of recovery from war and Makerere Art
School’s resilience.
Kirumira, Rose Namubiru 2009: Art Residency Programs: The Formation of An
African Artist. Unpublished Phd thesis. Kampala: Makerere University.
Kirumira, Rose Namubiru & Kasfir, S 2009: An Artist’s Notes on Triangle
Workshops, Zambia and South Africa [and Uganda]. In S Kasfir & T Forster, eds.
2013: African Art and Agency in the Workshop. Indiana U.P. Drawing on the above,
the authors: Kirumira, a leading sculptor and university don and the prodigious
Professor who has long engagement with the Makerere Art School, explore the notion
that these especial workshops are “all-inclusive and formative spaces in artists’
endeavors to become versatile in a global environment”. Comparison is made between
academic education in art (students, syllabus/assessment, youthful) and the
international artists’ workshop (no set plan, emerging artists, open age) “each artist
becomes a learner and a teacher”. Discussion is wide, covering kinds of artists, the
responses of the artists, their work, their attitude toward critique, general openness,
repeaters and the Triangle’s increased reliance on the internet (virtual communication
is deemed as less effective in establishing links due to lack of access and loss of direct
personal relationships). They note the benefit of an “international” experience to
woman artists who might be unable to travel overseas.
Kiruthu, F M 2009: A History of the Informal Enterprises in Kenya: A Case Study
of the Artisan Subsector of Nairobi 1899-1998. Unpublished PhD thesis, Kenyatta
University.
Klumpp, D & Kratz, C 1993: Aesthetics, Expertise and Ethnicity: Okiek and
Maasai Perspectives on Personal Ornamentation. In T Spear & R Waller, eds.
Being Maasai Ethnicity and Identity in East Africa. London: James Currey.
Kuona Trust (joint authorship) 2003: Thelathini: 30 Faces of contemporary
art in Kenya. Nairobi: Kuona Trust. Minimal if disappointing text.
Kwesiga, Philip 2005: Transformation in Arts Education: Production and use of
Pottery in Nkore S.W Uganda. Unpublished Phd thesis. London: Middlesex
University.
11
Kyeyune, G 2003: Art in Uganda in the 20th Century. PhD Thesis. Dept of Art &
Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
_____2008: Pioneer Makerere Masters [Maloba, Njau, Ntiro]. In M Arnold, ed., op
cit.
Labi, K. November 2013. African Art Studies in Kenya. Third Text Africa. 3(1). A
summary of the author’s enquiry into the gap between Kenya’s extensive system of
higher education (with provision in fine arts and design), recently increased production
of gallery art and the dearth of conventional academic art scholarship. His study, 20082012, based upon on a review of literature and interviews with 25 university dons and
artists, is candid, if depressing. Reasons given by respondents were: theses are more
accurately reports of projects for industry and tourism, institutional priority is given to
commerce over academic research, lack of research culture, lack of adequate teaching of
art history (outmoded books, lack of method/theory and mentors), “chauvinistic
division of east African historians”, a perception of art as “jua kali” (hot sun, connoting
makeshift, casual) with “a naïve art methodology”, apathy. His findings indicate gross
underdevelopment of historical and cultural context from which to understand and
draw from the past while charting the future. Labi opines awareness may generate
interest in systematic research. (Compare these lacuna with the situation at MTSIFA,
Makerere University, Kampala, which has awarded some 14 PhD’s since the recovery of
the Art School .)
Lagat, K & Hudson, J eds. 2006: Hazina: Traditions, Trade & Transitions in
eastern Africa. Exhibition catalogue. Nairobi: National Museums Kenya with the
British Museum. Lagat’s MA project: a regional survey by theme: trade, well-being,
leadership, contemporary art; p 31-33 kanga with hujui kitu: you don’t know anything.
Lagat heads the Department of Cultural Heritage, Nairobi National Museum,
Lagat, K 2008: Traditions, Trade & Transitions in East Africa: A collaborative
educational project between the National Museums of Kenya and the British
Museum. In K Yoshida & J Mack, eds. Preserving the Cultural Heritage of
Africa. Oxford: James Currey.
Larsen, L 2013.
Power, politics and public monuments in Nairobi, Kenya.
Provides a useful survey of political monuments taking an historical, imperial
perspective. This perspective ignores art-type public monuments, such as Nnaggenda’s
Mother and Child at the NNM. [Note a modern approach is apparent in the 2013 50th
Anniversary sculptures by Gerard Motondi HSC for Heroes’ Corner in Uhuru Gardens,
which embody shared, national values such as athletic excellence.]
www.
opendemocracy.net/laragh-larsen/power-politics-and-publicmonuments-innairobi-kenya. A version is in African Studies August 2011.
lo Liyong, T, ed 1972: Popular Culture of East Africa. Nairobi: Longman.
MacGregor, N 2010. A History of the World in 100 Objects. British Museum
Press. The BM Director begins with Olduvai tools: a core and hand axe).
Mack, J 1995: Eastern Africa In Tom Phillips, ed. Africa Art of a Continent.
Exhibition catalogue. London: Royal Academy of Arts.
12
________2000: East Africa. In Africa Arts and Cultures. London: British Museum
Press.
Mazrui, A 2000: Cultural (re)construction and Nation Building in Kenya. In B
Ogot & W Ochieng, eds Kenya: The Making of a Nation A Hundred Years of
Kenya's History 1985-1995. Maseno: Kenya University Press.
Mboya, J 2007: The story of the Godown Arts Centre: A Journey to Freedom
through the Arts. In K Njogu & G Oluoch-Olunya, eds Cultural Production and
Social Change in Kenya Building Bridges. Nairobi: Twaweza Communications.
Director of the Godown, Mboya retells a story about a chicken who had been tied by a
string to a tree which restricts her movement and nourishment. Even after being
released, she remained in her small space. Mboya posits “that in East Africa, artists
behave like the chicken. The string has been cut but we are afraid to move into the wider
civic space, to play our part. We are still tethered in our minds” (p 184).
Mboya, J 2010: (Over)riding the Rainbow Ethnic Diversity and the Kenyan
Creative Economy. In K Njogu et al, eds. JM reiterates J v Miller on the ethnic,
tradition-based carving movements of the Kamba and Kisii, calling for them to be
reframed as national movements (which non-Kenyans usually do); then p 65 she
identifies two individual artists Mwitaki and E Ongesa who extended conventional to
unique practice; pp 68-9: JM concludes with 5 policy points, including
1
“comprehensive mapping the creative sector”, 2 “consolidate K’s creative economy
sector”, 3 “financing the sector”, 4 p69 “the arts must be reinstated in the education
system as a core subject in schools. At the same time, a broader offer of vocational
training, one that would include creative sector-related courses in areas such as arts
management and technical courses such as sound engineering and lighting design ought
to be developed.”, 5 “dynamic and timely policy and laws.”
Maingi, D 2003: ‘Secondary School Art teachers and administrators’ viewpoints
on the role of Art Education: Nairobi and Central Provinces, Kenya.’ Unpublished
MA Thesis, Kenyatta University. In his presentation of 3.10.11 at SOAS, Donald Maingi
described the social science/art education methodology that he employed to profile and
investigate the attitudes of educators who are and are not specialists in art but have
responsibility for the subject in secondary schools, in order to ascertain “the main root”
of the subject’s marginalization in secondary schools. His evidence from two adjacent
Provinces (and not Western which has the highest provision for secondary art) was
inconclusive, in part because most teachers’ knowledge about art was limited. Most
respondents agreed the purpose of art teaching was for “societal concerns” eg.,
“improving the appearance of the school” and as having both individual and
utilitarian/vocational purposes. His key observation is that “school culture is more
particular than the national curriculum”. For his Phd, Maingi has shifted disciplines to
the history of art; his path breaking research addresses the development of modern art
in Kenya from the perspective of nationhood.
Mahoney, D April, 2012: Changing Strategies in Marketing Kenya’s Tourist Art:
From Ethnic Brands to Free Trade Labels. African Studies Review. 56(1).
Miller, J 1975: Art in East Africa A Guide to Contemporary Art. London:
Frederick Muller. Mid-1970’s comprehensive survey of art movements: Kamba, Kisii,
Makonde; art institutions and many artists in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, though it
does not include material culture.
13
Ministry of State for National Heritage and Culture. 2009: Guide to Kenya’s
National Heritage and Culture. Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau. Jointly
authored between the Ministry and the National Museums of Kenya; 11 chapters
have temporal and culture range, continued emphasis on natural heritage and
include ‘Threats to Heritage in Kenya’; 110 pp.
Motondi, G O 2014: Creation of Monumental Sculptural Forms to Commemorate
the Spirit of Sportsmanship in Kenya. MA Fine Arts Report for the School of
Visual and Performing Arts, Kenyatta University. Motondi describes the process he
followed in the creation of an ensemble of stone sculptures to amplify the theme of
sportsmanship, which he does briefly unpack with local and international examples. No
mention is made of non-political public monuments in Kenya or elsewhere in Africa
(most relevant are Zimbabwe’s genre of modernist hard stone sculpture). The bulk of
his Report focuses on the practical work involved, at times collaborative, in executing 10
maquettes, 10 small sculptures in Kisii stone and one monumental granite sculpture,
with considerable technical information about power tools and kinds of stone. His
report supports Labi’s assertion (above) that tertiary level research(in state-sponsored
institutions) is conceptualized as a project report rather than a thesis that addresses a
problem that is then systematically explored and argued; also Odoch (below) in what I
read as a gap, not a clash, between academy and home. Motondi, who learned his skills
through a focused Kisii apprenticeship in conventional/generic stone sculpture (some
1000 have), is amongst the few sculptors (?less than ten) whose works are exhibited in
the fine arts sector. In fact, two of his recent sculptures, form the centre of the national
monument that commemorates Kenya’s 50th Anniversary of Independence, one Hero’s
Move is an expression of the sportsmanship theme.
Mount, W 1973: African Art The Years Since 1920. Indiana University Press.
Pioneer book on colonial and post-colonial conditions for art in south of the Sahara
nations. Nine chapters w ref to eastern Africa include 2: ‘Mission-Inspired Art’ (Cyrene
Mission); ‘3: Souvenir Art’ (Akamba, Makonde), 4:‘The Emergence of New Art’; 6: ‘Art
[tertiary] Schools in English-Speaking East & Central Africa’ (Kampala, Addis Ababa,
Khartoum), 8: ‘Artists Independent of African Art Schools’ (NO examples of traditional
styles for east Africa).
Musa, H Winter 2010: The Party of Art: When the People Entered the Gallery.
The South Atlantic Quarterly 109(1). Durham, N.C.: Duke U. With reference to
Khartoum in the 1970’s and 2008, Musa describes and analyzes the transformative role
of modern art exhibitions, curated mostly by artists with Leftist politics, which he likens
to improvisational theatre; instructive to compare with conditions for art in Nairobi,
Kampala and/or Dar.
Mwangola, M 2007: Leaders of Tomorrow? The Youth and Democratisation in
Kenya. In G Murunga & S Nasong’o, eds Kenya The Struggle for Democracy.
Dakar: CODESRIA. Discusses different attitude of the post-colonial Uhuru Generation
and role of expressive arts - music and drama – in political protest; omits visual art.
Nabulime, L 2007: The Role of sculptural forms as a communication tool in
relation to the lives and experiences of women with HIV AIDS in Uganda. PhD
thesis. Newcastle University, UK.
14
Nabulime, L & McEwan, C 2010: Art as social practice: transforming lives using
sculpture in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in Uganda. Cultural
Geographies 18 (3) 275-296. Ugandan Lecturer of Sculpture moves out of the
gallery into the community to use art/soap sculpture as a form of social practice to
modify gender relations and improve understanding of this medical ‘elephant in the
room’.
Nagawa, M 2008: The Challenges and Successes of Women Artists in Uganda. In
M Arnold, ed., op cit.
Nairobi Arts Trust| Centre for Contemporary Art of East Africa. 2008: AMNESIA
Story One. Broad sheet document for a project/?exhibition devised by Jimmy Ogonga,
director of the Centre and uber-curator Simon Njami, comprised of paired artists as
writers (for each other’s works), P Kamwathi’s candid response to DakART’08 (for him,
a game-changer) and professional writer Bertha Kang’ong’oi’s polemic and poetic texts.
Several contributors criticize the GOK’s abandonment of art and culture subjects from
the primary syllabus. Raises rather than extends understanding of the prevailing
context for amnesia, silence, rootlessness, presentism; its subtitle “A Nairobi Arts Trust
Party” is apt.
Nakazibwe, V 2005: Barkcloth of the Buganda People of southern Uganda: A
record of continuity and change from the late 18th to the early 21st c. Phd Thesis,
Middlesex U, London. 2007: Arts Council African Studies Association USA Triennial
Award for outstanding doctoral thesis.
NNM (Nairobi National Museum) 2013: Edward Njenga: A Son’s Dedication
(1962-2013). exhibition catalogue (exhibition 31.07.13 – 31.02.14). Pioneer
Kenyan sculptor’s retrospective show of his figurative ceramic works of daily life in
colonial and Independent Kenya. Essays by E Court, M Ndekere, L Kariuki. Clear images.
Ngugi, Catherine 2004: Kenyan Artistic Narratives Across the Generations. In
KWANI? 2. Nairobi: Kwani Trust.
Ngugi wa Thiongo 1981: Writers in Politics. Nairobi: East African Educational
Publishers. Critical essays on education and culture.
________ 1993: Moving the Centre The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms. Nairobi:
East African Educational Publishers; London: James Currey. Unpacks neo-colonial
habits.
________ 2011: Dreams in a Time of War A Childhood Memoir. London: Vintage
Books. Regarding the struggle over the content of formal schooling during the author’s
childhood, “The syllabus would be determined by colonial masters. The effects were
immediate. In the new Manguo [‘old ‘was an independent school], music and
performance died. The interschool sports festival became a thing of memory. The
marching band too. The school no longer was the centre of community festivities”
(p167).
Njogu, K, Ngeta, K, Wanjau, M, eds. 2010: Ethnic Diversity in Eastern Africa
Opportunities and Challenges. Nairobi: Twaweza Publications.
15
Nyairo, J 2006: Modify: Jua Kali as a metaphor for African’s urban ethnicities and
cultures. In J Nyairo & J Ogude, eds Urban Legends, Colonial Myths Popular
culture & literature in East Africa. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. (on-line
Google: Kingsley Lecture, London: AEGIS, 02.07.05). Seminal essay on the appropriation
of the non-formal economic category (used by the ILO and Moi government) to describe
broader, urban culture, especially visual art though not by Prof Nyairo, a literature don.
Being unpacked in current discourse.
Odoch Pido. J P 2014: Pedagogical clashes in East African Art and Design
Education. Critical Interventions. Journal of African Art and History and Visual
Culture. 8(1). Affective participant observation -- autobiographical -- about the writer’s
suffering due to the dissonance between cultural knowledge he learned at home (from
his grandmother) and the neo-colonial, western art education that he met in school.
East Africa herein refers to his homeland, Acholi in Uganda and his professional home in
Nairobi since the 1970’s. He documents, ironically, what he terms “mismatches” when a
designer has insufficient understanding of local visual literacy and devises
inappropriate imagery. Many generations of students give highest respect to Odoch
Pido as a lecturer/doer in the design domain. His lack of references to academic and
other texts in his field and art history – his perception of phantom lacuna -- are
indicative of the lack of a reading and research culture amongst even the most
outstanding university dons. Compare with P Gregory, K Labi, G Motondi, S Somjee.
Ogude, J, Masila, G & Ligaga, D, eds. 2012: Rethinking Eastern African Literary
and Intellectual Landscapes. New Jersey: Africa World Press. A rich collection
of 19 essays by Kenyan and Ugandan academics and specialists, mostly based in Kenya
and South Africa. Focus on literature and print media; two articles discuss recent,
locally-produced critical journals: Kwani? (T Odhiambo) and Jahazi (G Oluoch-Olunya),
several articles about film but without mention of material culture or gallery art.
Oketch, M & Somerset, A 2010: Free Primary Education and After in Kenya:
Enrolment impact, quality effects and the transition to secondary school.
Research Monograph 37. University of Sussex & IoE, London: CREATE.
Okworo, B 2009: Ong’esa: The Master Artist. Nairobi: The Artisan World.
Includes Ong’esa’s criteria for an effective art education to “uphold professionalism”: 1
“training for the acquisition of necessary skills and conceptualization of original ideas”,
2 sufficient “practice to become resourceful… innovative” 3 theory/context, “understand
the historical background of art”.
Ong’esa, E 2010: Artists’ Day Speech, Nairobi National Museum. (unpublished,
EC can provide a copy) critical of government; note his criteria above. Ongesa HSC is
one of the few practicing Kenyan artists and art innovators of his generation.
[Onyango, R] 1992: Richard Onyango: The African Way of Painting 1992.
Exhibition catalogue for Gallery of Contemporary East African Art, Nairobi National
Museum, Kenya & international tour. Malindi Artists’ Proof printed in Italy. Includes
the artist’s autobiographical statement and interview, 98pp art works; title on dust
cover The Paintings of Richard Onyango: Vehicles, Vessels, Trains and Planes 1992
Salvatore ala Gallery New York.
16
Orchardson-Mazrui, E 1986: ‘A Socio-historical perspective of the art and
material culture of the Mijikenda of Kenya’. PhD thesis. SOAS, U London.
_______ 2006: Aliens at Home. In Jahazi. Commissioned firstly for Thelathini 2003, op
cit. A brief history of gallery art before 1995; ‘Aliens’ = KU art department!
Osako, J, Muyela A, Odula V, Shiundu L 2003-6: Creative Arts, Standards I-VIII.
Nairobi: Jomo Kenyatta Foundation for the Kenya Institute of Education. Primary
school text books designed for the 2002 syllabus, incorporating the art of ‘8’ in the 8-4-4.
Ready for the next GOK change? Once for sale at the Texbook Centre, Westlands.
Ose, E Dyangani 2006: Africalls? DVD Barcelona: Casa Africa. Castellan and three
languages (without English subtitles for French and Portuguese); text pp 26; curated by
Dyangani Ose; curator; produced by ‘we are here! films’, 188 minutes. A quick-paced
documentary video in which ‘calls’ refer to the artist-organizers of arts projects in seven
cities in Africa which question status quos. Ose’s sampler of encounters includes:
Capetown (Lolo Veleko), Doulala (Doularts), Dakar (Mamadu Gill), Luanda (Nastio
Mosquito), Maputo (Jorge Dias), Rabat (Myriam Mihindu); for Nairobi - Kwani?
Binyavanga Wainaina reads his satirical essay ‘How to Write about Africa?’ with a brief
images of Kuona Arts Trust then located at the Godown.
Owuor, Y A 2013: Dust. Nairobi: Kwani?, New York: Knopf, London: Granta.
Caine Prize Odwuor’s first novel in which she poetically retells the political story of
Kenya’s post-colonial violence and silence, focussing on the present. The protagonist is a
woman artist; leit motif is the personal value of art for its maker.
p’Bitek, O 1986: Artist the Ruler. Essays on Art, Culture and Values. Nairobi:
Heinemann.
Petrovich-Mwaniki, L & Kaderbhai, T Fall 1995: The Traditional arts of Kenya as
reflected in school art textbooks. Journal of Multi-cultural and Cross-cultural
Research in Art Education.
Pido, D 2011: The Flashless Spirit: Ignoring cultural history and belief systems in
contemporary life. Paper presented at Arts Council ASA (USA) Triennial Conference
March, 2011 in the panel session ‘Kenya in the Fusion Period: Art, Esthetics and
Development’ chaired by JP Odoch Pido.
Picton, J, Loder, R & Court, E eds: 2002: Action & Vision Painting and
Sculpture in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda from 1980. Exhibition catalogue
Rochdale Art Gallery. London: Triangle Arts Trust. Loder’s collection is largely from
Gallery Watatu during the Schaffner phase.
Republic of Kenya Ministry of Education, Science and Technology 2005: Kenya
Education Sector Support Programme 2005-2010. Delivering Quality
Education and Training to All Kenyans. Nairobi.
Rychner, R-M 1996: Contemporary Art in Uganda. Catalogue for 12 artists to
document their participation in the 1995 Africus-Johannesburg-Biennale ’95.
Kampala.
17
Sanyal, S 2000: Imaging Art, Making History: Two Generations of Makerere
Artists. Phd Thesis. Atlanta: Emory University.
Sicherman, C 2005: Art and the Educated Man. In Becoming an African
University. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.
Sifuna, D 1990: The 8-4-4 Education System in Kenya: A Study of prevocational subjects in primary school. Nairobi: Kenyatta U.
Somjee, S 1993: Material culture of Kenya. Nairobi: East African Educational
Publishers. Somjee articulates his theory of material culture as the basis for art
education, allowing past and present objects/cultures to be studied and compared. This
book was written as a guide for the 8-4-4 while the writer was an advisor;
unfortunately, its publication was delayed almost ten years (?politics). Somjee, a KU
grad, designer by training in Copenhagen and a Phd in the anthropology of education,
was founder of the UNbi Material Culture Collection (Institute of African Studies),
lecturer in anthropology UN, head of ethnography National Museums of Kenya, founder
of the local Peace Museums movement. Currently, he lives, writes and teaches in Canada.
________1996: Learning to be indigenous or being taught to be Kenyan, An
ethnography of teaching art and material culture in Kenya. PhD thesis.
Montreal: McGill University. A short version ‘Learning to be Indigenous and Being
Taught to be Modern: The Ethnography of Lessons in Art and Material Culture in Kenya’
is in D Boughton & R Mason, eds. Beyond Multicultural Art Education: International
Perspectives.
Munich, Germany & NY, NY: Waxmann Publishing for INSEA:
International Society for Education through Art.
________ 1997: Honey and Heifer: Grasses, Milk and Water: A Heritage of
Diversity in reconciliation. Nairobi: Mennonite Committee & National
Museums of Kenya.
________ 2008: Building Kenyan Identities: Art Education, Material Culture,
Indigenous Aesthetics and Community Peace Museums. In M Arnold, ed. op cit.
________ 2012; second printing 2013. Bead Bai: Of imitation pearls we are
genuine merchants. [motto is written in Gujarati] South Carolina: CreateSpace.
The writer debut novel, part memoir, concerning how beads affect the life of an illiterate
Asian woman, the making of an Asian-African; with ethnographic details for Satpanth
Bohra (Ismailis) and Maasai.
________ 2014:
exhibition.
Conference paper for the Workshop_Journey of Peace traveling
Spring C 2008: Angaza Afrika African Art Now. Laurence King. Small section
on Nairobi sign painters and metal workers; essays for M Charinda, J Katarikawe,
R Ntila, M Odundo, S Wadu.
______ 2009: African Art in Detail. British Museum Press.
The curator’s
introduction to the BM’s African galleries which exemplify an inclusive approach for
global, modern Africa; organized by mterials, eg. textiles, wood, ceramics, metal). Kenya
18
objects include those by Maasai, Kikuyu, Giriama and modern examples eg. a national
cricket shirt, kanga and two ceramic vessels by Magdalene Odundo.
_______2013: African Textiles Today. British Museum Press.
Wide scope for the whole continent and diaspora; kanga; includes a print by Peterson
Kamwathi which is now on display in the African Galleries.
Swigert [wa Gacheru], M 2011: Globalizing Kenyan Culture: Jua Kali and the
Transformation of Contemporary Kenyan Art: 1960-2010. Phd thesis. Dept of
Sociology. Chicago: Loyola University. On-line, query www.
Topan, F 2008: Swahili Aesthetics: Some Observations. In M Arnold, ed. op cit.
Triangle Arts Trust [joint authorship] 2006: Triangle variety of experience
around artists’ workshops and residencies. London: Triangle Art Trust.
Concerns the Triangle network which then included Kuona Arts; contributions by Rob
Burnet, founder of Kuona and others involved in artists’ workshops in the region.
Trowell, K M 1937: African Arts and Crafts: Their Development in the School.
London: Longmans. Classic for art education in eastern Africa; KMT lived in Ukambani
and Nairobi, Kenya (1929-35) before her many decades in Uganda where she founded
the art school at Makerere and made collections for the national museum (and the BM);
author of many texts that document the late 1920’s to mid-1950’s.
Vikiru, G 2006: Skilled Talent vs Talented Skill. In Jahazi_Culture, Arts,
Performance. 2006:1.
Visona, M et al eds 2007: East Africa. In A History of Art in Africa. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.
Vohora, A 2011: Wall Art in Kenya. Nairobi: Ramco Printing Works.
wa-Mungai, Mbugwa & Gona, G, eds. 2010: (Re)Membering Kenya Vol 1.
Identity, Culture and Freedom. Nairobi: Twaweza Communications. 12 essays
on the post-2008 election violence by younger generation Kenyan scholars; excellent,
engaged, thoughtful coverage of timely and challenging issues of being and becoming
Kenyan in the 21st century.
Wekesa, C 2013: Freedom. Exhibition catalogue (exhibition 7.12.13-31.01.14).
Nairobi National Museum. Explores artistic and political freedom: works by E
Dawelbait, P Kamwathi, J Kyalo, C van Rampelberg, S Wadu, C Wekesa. Nairobi: Orkedi
African Fine Art.
Wong, L, ed. 1999: Shootback: Photos by Kids from Nairobi Slums. London:
Booth-Clibborn Editions.
Wright, K 2005: Ethnic Identities and Cultural Commodization in the Jua Kali Art
World of Lamu Kenya. Unpublished MA Thesis in Art History, U Illinois at Chicago.
____ 2012: Zarina Bhimji. Exhibition catalogue. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery
& Riding House.
19
THEORY
Andersson, I & Andersson, S 2009: Aesthetic representations among
Himba people in Namibia. In International Art in Early Childhood Research
Journal 1(1). Compares drawing and modeling performance of a small sample of
rural, unschooled children.
Apple, M, Au, W, Gandin, L, eds. 2009: The Routledge International Handbook
of Critical Education. NY & London: Routledge.
Axt, F & Sy, E, eds. 1989: Anthology of Contemporary Fine Arts in Senegal.
Frankfurt am Main: Welkulteren (formerly Museum fur Volkekunde). Tri-lingual
texts in German, French and English. Documents a pioneer effort to integrate
contemporary art from Africa in an ethnographic museum, herein the systematic
collection of Senegalese art in collaboration with a leading artist-curator. This was
during the early-mid 1980’s before Magiciens de la Terre and Africa Explores
‘discovered’ Africa’s contemporary art.
Barber, K , ed. 1997: Readings in African Popular Culture. Oxford: James
Currey.
Becker, H 2008: Art Worlds. revised edition from 1982. Los Angeles: UCLA
Press. The Art Worlds model posits an inclusive contemporary notion: all forms
happening at the same time; it fits well with the plurality of art practices in Kenya;
notion of ‘Art World’ associated with the philosopher Arthur Danto, 1964.
Bruner, J 1996: The Culture of Education. Harvard U Press. Excellent
theoretical grounding for culturalism, i.e. culture-based education/ cultural
psychology, building on Vygotsky, Cole, Wertsch.
Cole, M 1992: Culture in development. In M Bornstein & M Lamb.
Developmental psychology: an advanced textbook. New Jersey: Erlbaum.
Court, E 1999: Africa on Display: Exhibiting art by Africans. In E Barker, eds.
Contemporary Cultures of Display. London: Yale & Open U. Discusses themes in
the display of ethnic art traditions traces the entry of contemporary African art in UK
galleries/museums with reference to the africa’95 art season. Note Open U series for
their course Histories of Art.
Eisner, E & Day, M 2004: Handbook of Research and Policy in Art Education.
New Jersey: Erlbaum. Excellent scholarship, 6 sections: history, policy, learning,
teaching, assessment, visions in 36 chapters, including L Hetland & E Winner, G Sullivan,
A Efland, B Wilson.
Efland, A 1976: The School art style: A functional analysis. Studies in Art
Education. 17 (2).
Gardner, Howard. 2011 (1st ed 1993): Creating Minds: An Anatomy of
Creativity. NY: Basic Books. Gardner argues for shared characteristics across
domains for exceptionally creative 20th c persons, e.g. Freud, Picasso, Martha Graham,
20
Gandhi. Two chapters (2, 10) explain the criteria he employs to examine and compare
their careers: ‘Triangle of Creativity – Individual (cognition, motivation, endurance,
strategy, management of talent), Other Persons (support of a person and in a social
‘field), The Work (in a domain, discipline)’; Gardner assumes very high levels of
competence, usually taking ten years for mastery. One of the founder and longtime
director of the path-breaking Project Zero for the study of creativity, largely in the arts,
Situated in the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Geertz, C 1983: Art as a cultural system. In Local Knowledge Further Essays in
Interpretative Anthropology. New York: Basic Books.
Harney, E Summer, 2007: Canon Fodder: The Battles over Contemporary African
Art. Art Journal. 66 (2).
__________. 2004: In Senghor’s Shadow. Art, Politics and the avant-garde in
Senegal, 1960-1995. Duke University Press.
Hetland, L, Winner, E, Veenema, S, Sheridan, K 2008: Studio Thinking: The real
benefits of visual arts education. Harvard UP. Criteria: mastery of skills;
ability to create work that expresses an idea – in control of his/her symbols;
familiarity with sources (heritage/material culture, history) – can adapt to own
needs.
Hopkins, D 2000: After Modern Art 1945-2000, Oxford History of Art.
King, K & Palmer, R 2010: Planning for technical and vocational skills
development. Paris: UNESCO IIEP.
Kresse K & Marchand, T 2009: Introduction: Knowledge in practice. In K Kress
& T Marchand, eds. Knowledge in Practice: Expertise and the Transmission
of Knowledge. Africa. Special Edition 79(1).
Lindstrom, L, ed 2000: The Cultural Context Comparative studies of art
education and children’s drawings. Stockholm: Institute of Education Press.
Madoff, Seven H, ed. 2009: ART SCHOOL (Propositions for the 21st Century).
Cambridge, MA & London: MIT Press. Many ‘names’ including C Deliss on her
project Future Academy; Madoff is Senior Critic at Yale University.
O’Farrell, L 2010 Final Report -- of the closing session of the Second World
Conference on Arts Education, 28 May 2010]. Seoul: UNESCO.
Oketch, M 2007: To vocationalise or not to vocationalise? Perspectives on the
current trends and issues in technical and vocational education and training
(TVET) in Africa. International Journal of Educational Development 27:220234. Relevant to Kenya, though not a case study; more recent research on Kenya’s Free
Primary Education with CREATE, www below.
Phillips, R 2007: Exhibiting Africa after Modernism: Globalization, Pluralism and
the Persistent Paradigms of Art and Artifact. In G Pollack & J Zemans, eds.
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Museums After Modernism Strategies of Engagement. Oxford: Blackwell.
Stimulating volume in which Phillips’ chapter interrogates new approaches to the
display of African objects in historical museums of the North, noting changes due to the
entry of contemporary art by Africans, cf Court:1999.
Smith, N 1992: Development of the Aesthetic in Children’s Drawings. In D
Thistlewood et al, eds. Drawing, Research and Development.op cit.
Stankiewicz, MA 200
Capitalizing Art Education: mapping international
histories. In L Bresler, ed. International Handbook of Research in Arts
Education. Springer. Uses P Bourdieu’s model of capitals: human, cultural, economic,
fits well with conditions in Kenya.
Sullivan, G 2005: Art Practice as Research Inquiry in the Visual Arts. NY &
London: Sage Also in E Eisner & M Day, eds. op cit.
Wertsch, J ed 1986: Culture, communication and cognition: Vygotskian
perspectives. Cambridge U. P. See M Cole’s ‘The zone of proximal development:
where culture and cognition create each other’ and other essays by J Bruner, M Cole, S
Scribner, all Vygotsky-philes.
Wilson, B 2004: Child Art after Modernism Visual Culture and New Narratives. In
E Eisner & M Day, eds. op cit. Critique of the concept ‘Child Art’/’School Art’.
UNESCO 1995: Our Creative Diversity. Report of the World Commission on
Culture and Development. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
UNESCO 1995: The Cultural Dimension of Development Towards a Practical
Approach. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
UNESCO 2010: Seoul Agenda: Goals for the Development of Arts Education.
The Goals are to (1) Ensure that arts education is accessible as a fundamental an
sustainable component of a high quality renewal of education; (2) Assure that arts
education activities and programs of a high quality in conception and delivery; (3) Apply
arts education principles and practices to contribute to resolving the social and cultural
challenges facing today’s world. (This policy statement incorporates the Road Map that
was developed collaboratively during and after the 2006 World Conference and before
the 2010 World Conference, latterly with Kenyan participation.)
KENYA MAGAZINES/JOURNALS that have art content
Chonjo (2006-) Lamu, Malindi & the North Coast (Ed: H Bwanaadi Ernst)
Jahazi culture, arts, performance; Twaweza Communications (2006- )
Kenya Past and Present; Kenya Museum Society (from 1971)
WajIbu April-May 2006 Special issue ‘Voices from the World of the Arts’ (Ed: J SibiOkumu); ceased publication
Msanii contemporary art; RaMoMA (2001-09, 25 issues, ceased publication)
KWANI? critical literary (from 2003 Founder: B Wainana, current Ed: B Kahora).
SELECTED WEBSITES
www kie.ac.ke (Kenya Institute of Education)
www onbi.ac.ke (University of Nairobi, School of Arts and Design)
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www ke.ac.ke (Kenyatta University, School of Visual and Performing Arts, Department
of Fine Arts)
www. kuonatrust.org (model networking; also site for Footnotes)
www unesco.org/en/arts education [for 2006 (Lisbon) and 2010 (Seoul) World
Conferences in Creative Arts Education; 2010: ‘Seoul Agenda, Report of the survey
results on the implementation of the Road Map for Arts Education’, Final Report by
Larry O’Farrell.
www
researchkenya.org (national site for theses and dissertations with over
12,000 listings, some 2000 of which 18 relate specifically to art education; regarding
local art movements/worlds, one entry for Kisii stone and none Akamba wood carving.
www for startjournal.org Journal of Arts and Culture, Kampala Arts Trust.
www.
acp-mts-programme.org/en/geographical-indications-conference
(local
materials & knowledge)
www. africanchildforum.org (‘Picture Gallery’ offers comparison with paintings by
Ethiopian children)
www. africancolours.net (on-line contemporary art and culture news)
www. africanrockart.org (site for TARA: Trust for African Rock Art which is based in
Nairobi; includes education & community programmes)
www. annosafrica.org.uk (arts education for orphans and children from the slums; 3
month programmes with existing child care institutions)
www. apesinspace.net (animation by Kwame Nyong’o, e.g. Tinga Tinga Tales, 2011:
Legend of the Ngong Hills).
www. art2bebodymaps.com (international exposure includes ‘Our Positive Bodies’
exhibition at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, 2008)
www. awbkenya.com (Art Without Borders, directed by James Mbuthia, Nairobi)
www. thebritishmuseum.org (check under Research for Collections)
www. circleartagency.com
www. create-rpc.org (CREATE: Consortium for Research on Educational Access,
Transition and Equity, Centre for International Education, Sussex; includes Free Primary
Education in Kenya)
www. drawing-research-network.org/uk (cited by Mercy Kagia)
www. fliplopiwas.com (Uniqueco-designs, Nairobi)
www. gatsby.org.uk (Kenya Gatsby Trust, support for development of craftwork)
www. thegodownarts.com (houses 12 arts NGOs plus artists’ studios)
www. harambeearts.org
www. hawaartists.com (NGO to promote women artists)
www knatcomunescoyouth.org (Kenya National Commission for UNESCO, specifically
‘UNESCO Youth’ with portal intended for the AST Seminar papers.
www. kwani.org (check for photography project ’24 Nairobi)
www.lamuchonjo.com
www. maryknoll Institute of African Studies, Nbi (East African Art course)
www. masaimbili.com (Kibera art group; see C Halliday’s video on U-Tube)
www. mobileartschoolkenya.org
www. museums.or.ke (3.11 Nairobi Museum’s temporary exhibition is ‘Visionary
Women’)
www. nairobi-artsrust.org (Nairobi Arts Trust/Centre for Contemporary Art in East
Africa, Godown; director Jimmy Ogonga)
www. open.ac.uk/Arts/ferguson-centre/memorialization (for Peace Museums)
www. portraitsofnairobi.wordpress.com (London-based Kibera project ‘Koinonia’)
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www. sarakasi.org (performing arts, Nairobi)
www. shujaaz.fm (development radio in Sheng [slang Swahili with English], monthly
cartoon supplement in Nation newspaper)
www. sil.si.edu/SILpublications/Modern African Art/
www. slumkidsart.com
www. sussex.ac.uk/education/research/cie/projects/tpa/Kenya (pre-school, technical
education)
www. triaidcraft.co.uk (product development, ‘Good Wood’)
www. trianglearts.org (on-line is full video coverage of ‘NETWORKED: Dialogue & Exchange in
the Global Art Ecology’, London, 26-27 Nov 2011; ongoing projects with Nairobi’s Kuona,
Kampala’s 32 East amongst others)
Who I am, who are we: the Kenya@50 Project devised by Xavier Verhoest and Wambui Kamiru
for Kenya’s Jubilee year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTzoasWrAYQ
www. ugandart.com (Uganda Art Consortium with focus on art education, based in
Washington, DC, organizer Tom Herriman)
http//the beadbai.blogspot.com/ (Dr Sultan Somjee, formerly with UN Material Culture
Collection, NMK Ethnography, founder of the Peace Museum movement)
http//margarettawagacheru.blogspot.ca/ (“Margaretta’s ‘jua kali’ Diary” is the most efficient
way to keep abreast of Nairobi’s art worlds; wa Gacheru has been tracking the growth of urban
art in Kenya for decade where she lectures at a private university)
‘Google’ for sites featuring the local movements of Kisii stone on U-Tube (Kisac Fair
Trade, Smolart Self Help amongst others; KISEF: Kisii Soapstone Industry
Empowerment Forum) and Akamba wood carving (co-operatives: Wamunyu,
Nairobi_Gikomba, Mombasa_Changamwe amongst others.
NGO & community-based art groups >
a notional, partial listing of an estimated 60 or more
Anno’s Africa, Nairobi
Art in Kibera (NGO sponsored by GAIN: Georgetown African Interest Network)
Banana Hill, Limuru
Culture Boyz, Lamu
Kyanika Adult Women Group (KAWG), Kitui District (conserving the ‘traditional’ gourd
plant)
Lake Basin Arts Group, Kisumu
Maasai Mbili, Kibera
Ngare Ndare, Laipikia
Ngecha Artists, Limuru
Lily Pond Art Centre, Nanyuki
Sane Wadu Art Trust Studios, Navaisha
Wildebeeste Environmental Workshops, Athi & Lamu
For suggestions, thank you to Lydia Galavu, Curator for Contemporary Art at Nairobi
National Museum, National Museums of Kenya: NMK; Prof George Kyeyune, Makerere
University; Dr Lillian Nabulime, Makerere University; Dr Donna Pido, Technical
University Kenya; Donald Maingi; Dr Sultan Somjee, formerly with UNbi and NMK; Janet
Stanley, Librarian, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C and Ruth Thomas.
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In progress, please check on-line http://www.eapgroup.com or
http: //www.saffronbooks.com/index.php
(cover design by Hassan Musa).