West African Arts

A H 3320/5320, Fall Semester 2016

Dr. Andrea Frohne
e-mail: frohne@ohio.edu, M/W/F 10:45-11:40
Offices and hours: 438 Seigfred Hall (Art) 11:40-12:40 Mon and Wed.
by appointment in 31 S. Court St., Room 065

Course Objectives
Description
This course offers an introduction to African visual arts through thematic, cultural, and critical frames with
a focus on West Africa. In addition, important trans-Saharan connections with North Africa, trans-Atlantic
links to the African diasporas, and contemporary arts are considered. The arts are explored through a
variety of contexts, including aesthetics, culture, society, politics, performance, religion, and gender.
African arts are multidisciplinary and we therefore study a variety of arts including oral history, poetry,
popular music, and film. The objective of the course is to introduce African arts through cultural analysis
and critical thinking. Students will become acquainted with a specific region of Africa and be able to
identify works of art and aspects of particular cultures in Africa. Attendance is mandatory. Syllabus
subject to change.
Learning Outcomes

Students will analyze and investigate arts, cultures, and geographies in West Africa through
readings and class discussions

Recognize and identify major works of West African art

Recognize and locate West African countries on a map

Discover and apply indigenous world views to your study of the arts through written responses
and exams

Demonstrate critical thinking about texts and art works during face to face and online discussions.

Flipped or Blended Classroom

This course is organized as a flipped or blended classroom. As such, one-third of class time occurs
outside of the classroom as online, and two-thirds inside of the classroom with face-to-face. To allow for
this, there will typically be no class meetings on Fridays while you conduct your work online. The flipped
classroom model facilitates advanced-level learning in the classroom and moderate-level learning online.
General schedule: Friday will have a reading, technological activity and discussion board projects,
Monday and Wednesday will have journal entries. Exams online and timed.
Please note: Friday, Nov. 4, class will be held at the Kennedy Museum of Art. Please be available to
attend.

Texts
Visona, Monica. A History of Art in Africa. NY: Prentice Hall, 2001 or 2008
Readings on Reserve: through electronic reserve on library website, or Blackboard
Course Requirements
1. Attendance
2. Written Responses as Journal Entries every Monday and Wednesday
All students will keep up with the readings. To assist with this, responses to most readings
(except from textbooks) are due at the beginning of class. The written response (WR) consists of
three parts:
First: write one sentence for each reading that summarizes the thesis of each author. What
is the article about? What does the author argue or what is the authors main point?
Second, write a critical response to all of the readings assigned for that day not found in
Visona textbook. Develop and critique one overall issue that all of the readings speak to.
Third, cite concepts, ideas, or quotes at least twice with page number(s). The objective
is to reflect and respond to ideas and issues for each class, as well as to read the material
thoroughly and understand each authors thesis.
Note: of page ONLY, approx 180 words. 1 inch margin, 12 point font. No late submissions
and NO emails. Even if you are a discussion leader, you will write one. The first three
assignments will receive feedback and thereafter spot-feedback. If I do not receive a summary, it
counts against you.
Written Response Rubric: 5 points each
2 points: correctly identify thesis of each author for that day except Visona
2 points: identify critical issue(s)
1 point: cite at least two ideas or quotes with page numbers
3. Group discussion leaders.
Two students will lead discussion of a reading for 10-12 minutes by posing questions to the
class. Do not summarize the reading.
4. Discussion Boards on Fridays
5. Two exams based on images and readings.
GRADUATE STUDENTS: Write a research paper. Select one art work or artist (traditional or
contemporary) and analyze it in 3 contexts. Examples of contexts are aesthetics, cultural, social,
political, performative, religious, or gender. The paper is 8 pages. In addition there must be a
title and flawless bibliography containing books and journal articles in the Chicago Manual of
Style, or style appropriate to your major.
Grading
Exam 1 = 32%

Exam 2 = 32%

Critical Responses = 26%

Discussion Board = 10%

Grads: Exam 1 = 20% Exam 2 = 20%

Paper = 25%

Critical Responses = 25%

Discussion Board = 10%

Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism: The Ohio University Student Code of Conduct
prohibits all forms of academic dishonesty. These include cheating; plagiarism; forgery; furnishing false
information to the University; and alteration or misuse of University documents, records, or
identification. If a student engages in course-related academic dishonesty, his or her grade on the work in
question or in the course may be lowered by the instructor. (faculty handbook section VIII.F)

Schedule (subject to change)

8/22 Introduction. Deconstructing Primitivism.
8/24 Situating Mali
Lowe, Chris. Talking about Tribe: Moving from Stereotypes to Analysis. Washington
D.C.: Africa Policy Information Center, 1997. Pamphlet.
http://kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/50/304/32-130-153D-84-Background_Paper_010_opt.pdf
8/26 Situating Mali cont (Flipped, do not go to classroom)
Watch the Youtube Film: Gates, Henry Louis. Wonders of the African World. Road
to Timbuktu, episode 5, 1999. (watch episode 5 about Mali, 54 minutes in length.
The second episode 6 concerns southern Africa and is NOT part of the assignment)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oag1eE2qMw&list=FLYxe7FcId0s8Z7sBNrBAuVA
Note Gatess perspective and attitude towards his visit to Mali.
Go to Blackboard website Week 1 and follow instructions
8/29 The Stakes of Modernism
Geschiere, Peter, Birgit Meyer and Peter Pels. Introduction. In Readings in Modernity in
Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. p. 1-7.
8/31 Rethinking Language through Art in Africa
Roberts, Mary Nooter, Elizabeth Harney, Allyson Purpora, and Christine Kreamer.
Inscribing Meaning: Ways of Knowing. In Inscribing Meaning. Writing and Graphic
Systems in African Art. Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, 2007. p. 13-27
9/2

Rethinking Language through Art in Africa cont (Flipped, do not go to classroom)

Watch the Youtube Film: African History: The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu, BBC,
59 min. (2012). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Heh_91lhenA
Note mosque architecture, French colonial history, Islam, and issues surrounding
written language. Several artworks we study in this course are also languages. Watch
for different definitions of language
Blackboard Week 2 instructions

9/5

No Class (Labor Day)

9/7 Politics as Art for Sale

Sidib, Samuel. The Pillage of Archaeological Sites in Mali. African Arts 28, no. 4, Special
Issue: Protecting Mali's Cultural Heritage (Autumn 1995): 52-55.
Ravenhill, Philip. Beyond Reaction and Denunciation: Appropriate Action to the Crisis of
Archaeological Pillage. African Arts 28, no. 4, Special Issue: Protecting Mali's Cultural
Heritage (Autumn, 1995): 56-57+110.

9/9

Interpreting Djenne Sculptures + Desert Music (Flipped, do not go to classroom)

De Grunne, Bernard. An Art Historical Approach to the Terracotta Figures of the
Inland Niger Delta. African Arts 28, no. 4, Special Issue: Protecting Mali's Cultural
Heritage (Autumn, 1995): 70-79+112.
Introduction to Terakaft (Caravan) electric guitar group from Mali
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfYe94gPxgs
Blackboard Week 3 instructions

9/12 Heroism in Clothing, Culture, and Music

McNaughton, Patrick. The Shirts that Mande Hunters Wear. African Arts 15, no. 3 (1982):
54-58.
Mandekalou : Art and Soul of Mande Griots excerpt showing the recording process of the
CD by several griots in Mali with traditional instruments. http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=utAdgZudZHw
Oumou Sangare with US banjo player Bela Fleck. Sangare is from a region in Mali famous
for griot singing and she broke the mold in a heroic way (fadenya) by insisting on being a griot
and musician even though she is female. She often sings about issues pertaining to women
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3_10RKZFmc
Ali Farka Tour with Boubacar Trour http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4-uq8cTF7o.
Tour was from the small town of Niafunk in Mali, a crossroads for several ethnic groups,
making it rich in languages and cultures. Excerpts from Toures album, The River
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6V3q-djJD8
9/14 Heroism in Clothing, Culture, and Music, cont
Schulz, Dorothea. Music Videos and the Effeminate Vices of Urban Culture in Mali.
Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 71, no. 3 (2001): 345-372.
9/16 Heroism in Clothing, Culture and Music, cont, Flipped, no classroom
Keita, Cherif. Mali: Ancient Empires to Multicultural Democracy. Afropop Worldwide
radio show. 59 min. http://www.afropop.org/wp/9858/cherif-keita-on-the-history-ofmalian-music/. You will hear examples of hunter music and discussion of heroism.
Blackboard Week 4 instructions
9/19 Aesthetics among the Mande

Brink, James. Dialectics of Aesthetic Form in Bamana Art. In Bamana. The Art of
Existence in Mali, ed. Jean-Paul Colleyn. Museum for African Art, 2001. P.237-239.

9/21 Aesthetics among the Mande cont

Rips, Michael. Who Own Seydou Keita? NYT (22 Jan. 2006).
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/arts/22rips.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all& and
http://www.seydoukeitaphotographer.com/en/full-screen-gallery/#slideshow
9/23 Pottery and Process
Frank, Barbara. More than Wives and Mothers. The Artistry of Mande Potters. African
Arts 27, no. 4 (Autumn, 1994): 26-37 +93-94.
Blackboard Week 5 instructions
9/26 Textiles
Rovine, Victoria. Fashionable Traditions: The Globalization of an African Textile. In
Fashioning Africa. Power and the Politics of Dress, ed. Jean Allman. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 2004. p. 189-211.
Film in class: Through the Eyes of a Master: Nakunte Diarras Bogolanfini (20 min. Barbara
Hoffman, 2003).
9/28 Additional Artworks
Visona, 104-105, 107-118, 124, 128-129 (Note first use of textbook)
9/30 Islam in Africa. Trans-Saharan Connections
Visona, 16-19, 28-33, 38-40, 42-43, 504-505 fig. 15-3
10/3 No Class (Reading Day)
10/5
Islam in Africa. Trans-Saharan Connections cont
Becker, Cynthia. Amazigh Textiles and Dress in Morocco. African Arts 39, no. 3 (autumn
2006).
Film in class: An Amazigh Wedding (Cynthia Becker and Addi Oudderrou; 11 min.)
10/7 Dogon Arts, Flipped, no classroom
Visona, 130-144
Blackboard Week 7 instructions
10/10 Dogon Art, Myth, and Cosmology
Richards, Polly. Masques Dogon in a Changing World. African Arts 38, no. 4 (Winter
2005): 46-53, +93.
10/12 UNESCOs Construction of Heritage in Mali
De Jong, Ferdinand and Michael Rowlands. Reclaiming Heritage: Alternative Imaginaries
of Memory in West Africa. Left Coast Press, 2008. Chapter 5

10/14

Reviewing for Exam work, Flipped, no classroom

Follow instructions Blackboard Week 8

10/17 UNESCOs Construction of Heritage in Mali

De Jong, Ferdinand and Michael Rowlands. Reclaiming Heritage: Alternative Imaginaries
of Memory in West Africa. Left Coast Press, 2008. Chapter 6
10/19 Review for exam & Cross Cultural Influences: Renaissance Europe and West Africa
Visona, 167-172, fig. 7-48
10/21

Timed exam outside of classroom

10/24 Cross Cultural Influences: Renaissance Europe and West Africa cont
Blier, Suzanne Preston. Imaging Otherness in Ivory: African Portrayals of the

Portuguese ca. 1492. Art Bulletin 75, no. 3 (Sept. 1993): 375-396.
10/26 African Arts and the International Market
Peter Welsh. Exotic Illusions. Art, Romance, and the Marketplace. Smithsonian Institution
Traveling Exhibition Service. Section on Authenticity, p. 13-17.
Film in class: In and Out of Africa (60 min. Chris Steiner and Lucien Taylor, 1993)
Graduate student paper proposals and preliminary bibliographies due. Follow correct
bibliographic style for your major.
10/28

African Colonialism, Contemporary Arts, and Oil (Flipped, no Classroom)

Frohne, Andrea. Nsibidi Inscribed Geo-Political Mobilities by Victor Ekpuk. In

Ancient Scripts/Contemporary Forms, ed. Toyin Falola. Carolina Academic Press,
forthcoming.
Listen to Powerpoint lecture on Blackboard Week 9
10/31 African Colonialism
Shillington, Kevin. The European Scramble, Colonial Conquest and African Resistance
in History of Africa, 1995, p. 301-305.
Ngg wa Thiongo. Decolonising the Mind. The Politics of Language in African Literature,
1986. p. 4-20.
Visona, p. 313 (Sokari Douglas Camp)
11/02 Yinka Shonibare and Identities Beyond Borders
Visona, p. 513
Pea, Ann Marie. A Terrible Beauty: Politics, Sex and the Decline of Empires. C:
International Contemporary Art (2012): 18-23. Graduate Student seminar meeting with
assigned readings TBD

11/4

Class meet at Kennedy Museum of Art on the Ridges (Friday)

11/7
Spirituality and the Spirit World
Adsny, Adrnk. Of Silences, Bended Knees and Sexuality: Insights on the Gendered
(Re)Presentations in Yorb Art. In Women, Gender, and Sexualities in Africa, eds. Toyin
Falola and Nana Akua Amponsah. Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2013. p. 69-100
11/9
Spirituality and the Spirit World
Visona, 228-239, 244-256, fig. 8-53.
Visona 533-535, figs. 16-21, 16-22, 16-23, 16-24
11/11

No Class (Veterans Day)

11/14 Spirituality and the Spirt World cont

Abiodun, Rowland. Ase: The Empowered Word must Come to Pass. In Yoruba Art and
Language: Seeking the African in African Art. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014.
Chap. 2.
11/16 Image and Idiom in Ghana
McClusky, Pamela. Art from Africa. Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Seattle Art Museum,
2002. p. 79-113
Visona, fig. 15-11, p. 510
11/18 Postcolonial Ghana, Flipped, no classroom
Intro to Kwame Nkrumah.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitextlo/prof_kwamenkrumah.
html
Excerpts from Freedom Now. Colonial Rule is Overthrown in India and Africa (60 min. Jennifer
Clayton, 1997).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUy_197dYX4, part 1, 6 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2903pxjYrc, part 2, 6 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HLJ0JDssaU, part 3, 6 mins
11/21 Africa in New York
Frohne, Andrea. The African Burial Ground in New York City: Memory, Spirituality, and
Space. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2015. Chap. 6
Film excerpts: The African Burial Ground: An American Discovery (30 min. U.S. General
Services Administration, 1994).
11/23 and 11/25 No Class (Thanksgiving)
11/28

Africa in New York cont and Review for Final Exam

7

11/30

no class. Professor at a conference

12/2

no class. Professor at a conference

Final exam : Monday, Dec. 5 at 10:10 am online

Graduate student papers: Thursday, Dec. 8 by email