ARTD 3138/7138: Journey to Wakanda: African Art and Popular Culture: Schedule

August 27, Week 1 – Introduction to the course and Reflections on the film

• • “Black Panther and the Invention of Africa”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/black-panther-and-the-invention-of- africa

• • “Black Panther is Not the Movie We Deserve” http://bostonreview.net/race/christopher-lebron-black-panther
  • “Ryan Coogler: Why I Needed to Make ‘Black Panther’” https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/features/ryan-coogler-why-i-needed-to-make- black-panther-w517100
  • “Black Panther: A Groundbreaking Celebration of Black Culture” https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/2/23/17028826/black-panther-wakanda-culture- marvel
  • “Ghanaian Fans Have One Nit to Pick But Otherwise Adore ‘Black Panther’” https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/02/20/587224592/ghanaian-fans-have- one-nit-to-pick-but-otherwise-adore-black-panther

September 3, Week 2 – Theoretical Frameworks: Afrofuturism, Appropriation and Identity

*This week has particularly difficult readings, but please do not let that deter you! We will discuss and work through them together, so that all of you feel confident in these important theoretical frameworks.

• • Geschiere “Introduction” in The Perils of Belonging, pp. 1 – 38.
  • Hamilton “Afrofuturism and the Technologies of Survival,” pp. 18 – 23.
  • Ziff and Rao “Introduction to Cultural Appropriation: A Framework for Analysis,” in

Borrowed Power, pp. 1 – 27.

• • Keeshig-Tobias “Stop Stealing Native Stories,” in Borrowed Power, pp. 71 – 73.
  • Bristow “What is Afrofuturism to Africa” http://impakt.nl/archive/2012/essays/tegan-bristow-what-is-afrofuturism-to-africa/
  • Bristow “We Want the Funk: What is Afrofuturism to the Situation of Digital Arts in Africa,” pp. 1 – 9.
  • “How do we Talk about Cultural Appropriation Between People of Color?” http://www.vulture.com/2018/03/bruno-mars-cultural-appropriation-between-people-of- color.html?utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=fb&utm_medium=s1

September 10, Week 3 – African art/culture and the Museum

• • “What Black Panther Gets Right about the Politics of Museums” https://hyperallergic.com/433650/black-panther-museum- politics/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sw
  • “Why Museum Professionals Need to Talk About Black Panther” https://jhuexhibitionist.com/2018/02/22/why-museum-professionals-need-to-talk-about- black-panther/

• • “Outrage over Hiring a White Woman…”

https://frieze.com/article/outrage-over-hiring-white-woman-african-art-curator- misunderstands-expertise

• • Klesmith “Nigeria and Mali: The Case of Repatriation and Protection of Cultural Heritage in Post-Colonial Africa,” pp. 47 – 75.
  • Eyo, Ekpo, “Repatriation of Cultural Heritage: The African Experience,” pp. 330 – 350.

September 17, Week 4 – Ancient and Historical African Empires

• • Benin Empire – Igbafe “A History of The Benin Kingdom: An Overview” in Benin: Kings and Rituals, pp. 41 – 53
  • Mali and Ghana Empires – Selections from Medieval West Africa, pp. ix – xi, 9 – 22, and 50 – 65.
  • Kingdom of Dahomey – Bay “Along the Slave Coast” in Wives of the Leopard, pp. 1 – 39.
  • Nubian Empire – Redford “Egyptians and Nubians” in From Slave to Pharaoh, pp. 5 – 10.
  • Nubian Empire – Kendall “Kerma and the Kingdom of Kush,” pp. 1 – 17.

September 24, Week 5 – Wakanda: The Setting

• • The African City, Simone “Remaking African Cities” in For the City Yet to Come, pp. 1

– 19.

• • Ndebele House Painting – Powell “Mural Art” in Ndebele: A People & Their Art, pp. 46

– 68.

• • Sotho House Painting – Van Wyk, “Litema: Art of Earth” in African Painted Houses, pp. 78 – 81, 88 – 111.
  • Djenne mosque architecture – Marchand, “The Djenne Mosque: World Heritage and Social Renewal in a West African Town,” pp. 4 – 15.
  • Baskets – Smith, “Gurensi Basketry and Pottery,” pp. 78 – 81.

October 1, Week 6 – Zuri (Forest Whitaker)

• • Costume Designer Ruth Carter - “Interview: All Hail the Fashion Queen of Wakanda” http://afropunk.com/2017/12/interview-hail-fashion-queen-wakanda-costume-designer- ruth-e-cater/
  • Using African Fabrics – Rabine “Translating African Textiles…” in Contemporary African Fashion, pp. 205 – 219.
  • Robes - https://ruthecarter.com/designing-for-forest-whitaker/
  • Robes (agbada) – Abiodun, Beier and Pemberton, Selections from Cloth Only Wears to Shreds, pp. 28 – 32, 44 – 48.
  • Facial Markings - Faris “Nuba Personal Art,” pp. 55, 58 – 70, 83 – 90.

• • Robes and Amulets – Rasmussen “Dress, Identity and Gender in Tuareg Culture and Society,” in The Art of Being Tuareg, pp. 138 – 157.

October 8, Week 7 – Eric Killmonger

• • Mask – Cole Selections from Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos, pp. 111- 135.
  • Scarification – Schildkrout, “Inscribing the Body,” pp. 319 – 344.
  • Scarification - Roberts, Allen F. “Tabwa Tegumentary Inscription” in Marks of Civilization, pp. 41 – 56.
  • Scarification - Drewal, Henry John “Beauty and Being: Aesthetics and Ontology in Yoruba Body Art” in Marks of Civilization, pp. 83 – 96.

*TAKE-HOME, MIDTERM EXAM DUE SUNDAY, OCT. 11 by 11:59PM

October 15, Week 8– T’Challa and Shuri

• • T’Challa Embroidered ensemble - Oladipo “The Yoruba Clothing Culture, its Forms and Contents,” pp. 120 – 132.
  • T’Challa Embroidered Ensemble - Heathcote, David “Aspects of Embroidery in Nigeria,” in The Art of African Textiles, pp. 38 – 40.
  • T’Challa bogolan shorts (fight scene) – Rovine, “Bogolan: Shaping Culture Through Cloth”, pp. 15 – 26, 37 – 52.
  • Shuri Beaded Girdle (fight scene) - Gott, Suzanne “Ghana’s Glass Beadmaking Arts in Transcultural Dialogues, pp. 10 – 29.
  • Shuri Beaded Girdle (fight scene) - Kratz and Pido, “Gender Ethnicity and Social Aesthetics in Maasai Beadwork” in Rethinking Pastoralism in Africa, pp. 43 – 71.

FINAL REFLECTION PODCAST – TOPIC DUE

October 22, Week 9 – T’Chaka and Ramonda

• • Ramonda’s Crown - Arnoldi and Kreamer, “Introduction” and “Zulu Woman’s Hat” in

Crowning Achievements, pp. 9 – 25, 40 – 41.

• • Ramonda’s earrings - Schildkrout “Les Parisiens d’Afrique: Mangbetu Women as Works of Art” in Black Womanhood, pp. 71 – 93.
  • T’Chaka’s Black Panther costume (kente) - Ross “Asante: Kingdom of Cloth” and “A Beautiful Cloth Does Not Wear Itself” from Wrapped in Pride, pp.31 – 57.
  • T’Chaka’s adinkra wrapper (dream sequence) – Boateng “Selections from Introduction” in “The Copyright Thing Doesn’t Work Here,” pp. 22 – 33.

October 29, Week 10 – Okoye and W’Kabi

• • Female Warriors – Law, Robin “The ‘Amazons’ of Dahomey” pp. 245 – 260.
  • Female Warriors - Bay, Edna “The Military in the Late Eighteenth Century” in Wives of the Leopard, pp. 129 – 142.

• • Neckbands and Armbands – Powell “Beads and Adornment” in Ndebele: A People & Their Art,” pp. 108 – 135.
  • Head painting - Willis “Uli Painting and the Igbo World View,” pp. 62 – 67, 104.
  • Blankets - Khau, Mathabo, “Gender and the Politics of the Basotho Blanket,” pp. 95 – 111.
  • Blankets - Bosko, Dan “Why Basotho Wear Blankets,” pp. 23 – 32.
  • Facial Scarification - Vogel, Susan “Baule Scarification: The Mark of Civilization” in Marks of Civilization, pp. 97 – 106.

November 5, Week 11 – Mining Tribe and River Tribe Elders

• • Mining Tribe Elder, Headdress - Bollig and Heinemann “Nomadic Savages, Ochre People and Heroic Herders: Visual Presentation of the Himba of Namibia’s Kaokoland”
  • Mining Tribe Elder, wax print ensemble – “Introducing African-print Fashion,” in

African Print Fashion Now, pp. 23, 27,32-49, 274-277.

• • Mining Tribe Elder, Amber beads – Simka “Amber” in African Beads, pp. 53 – 59.
  • River Tribe Elder, beaded adornment – Drewal “Beads, Body and Soul,” pp. 16 – 27, 54- 55.
  • River Tribe Elder, Suit - Gondola “La Sape – Exposed!” in Contemporary African Fashion, pp. 157 – 173.
  • River Tribe Elder, Lip Plate - Turton “Lip-plates and ‘the people who take photographs’: Uneasy Encounters between Mursi and Tourists in Southern Ethiopia,” pp. 3 – 8.

FINAL REFLECTION PODCAST – DRAFT SCRIPT DUE (with bibliography)

November 12, Week 12 – M’Baku (Jabari Tribe) and Merchant Tribe Elder

• • Jabari Tribe, ensembles - Elliott “The Magic Land of the Xhosa,”pp. 83 – 95.
  • Jabari Tribe, Fighting Sticks - Carton and Morrell “Zulu Masculinities, Warrior Culture and Stick Fighting: Reassessing Male Violence and Virtue in South Africa,” pp. 31 – 53.
  • Merchant Tribe Elder, Headwrap – Stylianou, Nicola “Designing for a New Nigeria: Hayes Textiles Limited and the British Banufacture of Gele in the Postcolonial Period,” in Design Objects and the Museum, pp. 41 – 50.
  • Merchant Tribe Elder, Robes and Adornments – Loughran Tuareg Women and Their Jewelry, in “The Art of Being Tuareg,” pp. 167 – 193.

November 19, Week 13 – Beyoncé, Black is King

• • Watch the film in class
  • Make observations regarding possible African inspirations in her film

November 26, NO CLASS – HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!