On the 4th of August 2011, I attended the ‘Adventurers in the Diaspora Series’ at Accra’s Golden Tulip. The topic for discussion was “Revitalising Ghana’s National Museum of Arts”, and judging by the huge turnout the subject was clearly of interest to a large number of people. There were several ‘distinguished’[1] persons on the panel. This is how members of the panel were described in the event posted on Facebook:
“Mrs. Frances Ademola -artist and owner of Ghana’s first private art gallery, the LOOM
Mr. Seth Dei—Ghana’s largest collector of contemporary art and whose Dei foundation supports various Ghanaian artists and indigenous high-tech initiatives. He is also a partner at Blue Skies industry, a pre-eminent agro-business based in several countries around the world.
Hon. Fritz Baffour, MP- Chairman of the Museum board
Hon. J.S. Annan (MP)- Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry and ex-Minister for Education
Prof, Atukwei Okai- Secretary General of Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) and professor of African literature
David Adjaye- principal of Adjaye Associates, a world-leading architecture firm based in London and New York.
Kofi Setordji- reknowned artist and sculptor, co-director of Nubuke Art Gallery”
I feel like there were a lot more panelists at the actual event than described above, and I cannot remember Professor Okai being there (but I could be mistaken).
A couple of the panelists struck me for diverse reasons. Frances Ademola struck me, because she is a woman artist, the founder of an Art gallery and was credited by many members of the panel as the one who had nurtured their appreciation of Art, yet I had no prior knowledge of the existence of either her or her art gallery. David Adjaye because I have heard so much, and read so much about this award winning Ghanaian British architect yet I had no idea that he even visited Ghana or was in any way active here[2] and finally Kofi Setordjii because he gave a compelling call to action when he spoke.
At the end of the evening I was having a drink with one of my artist friends – he’s a photographer, likes to strum the guitar, writes and has an amazing eye for fashion and style.
Me: I want to go and check out the Museum of Arts, I had no idea one even existed.
Him: Yes, let me know when you want to go and we’ll make a trip of it.
Me: I want to see what potential there could be for AWDF to work with the Museum. We want to build an African Women’s Museum but we’re putting that on the backburner for now. Maybe we can fund an exhibition of women artists.
Him: [laughing] Which women artists?
Me: Yeah, that’s the point isn’t it? I am sure there are women artists everywhere but we don’t know about them. And it depends how you think about art – there is photography, fashion, writing…
Him: True. A lot of the time people do not think of photography as art…
Our conversation got me thinking. Who are the African women artists and where are they? I am especially interested in African women artists who use their art as a tool to provoke social consciousness. I started to create a mental list of African women artists that I know are doing this and then I thought, “I should blog about this and ask people to add to the list”. So that’s what I’m doing. My list is only going to comprise of people that I know in some way, and for the sake of brevity I will highlight only 10 African women artists. Either I have read their books, watched them perform, heard them speak, seen a trailer for their movie or engaged with them in some way – even if it’s only been via twitter 🙂
Do me a favour and add on to this list in the comments box. Let’s track who the African women artists are, what they do, and where they are.
Here’s my list:
So in your opinion where all the African women artists who use their art as a tool for social justice and the empowerment of women?
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
Programme Officer for Fundraising & Communications
AWDF
[1] I believe this was how the panel was described. In Ghana and to my understanding, being distinguished usually means you’re a Member of Parliament, a Minister or a Politician of some sort. Sometimes the term ‘distinguished’ is used to refer to a person who has excelled in their profession or life work.
[2] I’m assuming David Adjaye is in some way active in Ghana’s artistic/cultural purely events purely because he was selected for the panel discussion. Of course I could be totally wrong.
[3] http://visionofthefuture.blogspot.com/2009/11/art-matriarch.html