DECEMBER, 1964

DECEMBER, 1964 American Society of 15 East 40th Street New York 16, N. Y. NEWSLETTERVOL. 7 NO. 3 Affiliated with the Socidt6 Africaine de Culture whose Journal is Prdsence Africaine (Paris) AMSAC Sponsors Exhibit and Lecture by Leading Ethiopian Artist At the opening Afewerk greets E. Harper Johnson, artist and illustrator, who is currently working on the book on African history being written by Professor William Leo Hansberry. Professor Hansberry, as Alewerk, was a recipient of one of the I Prize Trust awards last fall. Dr. John A. Davis, President of AMSAC, is on the right. At an opening held on November 24th the works of Afewerk Tekle of were formally shown in New York for the first time. The AMSAC-sponsored exhibit of sixty-three of Afewerk's oils, monochromes, gouaches, pencil drawings and stamp designs remained on display at the Carnegie Endowment Building through November 29th. The 150 people who attended the opening were also able to meet the artist, who was in the United States as a participant in the State Department's Foreign Leaders Prgoram. Afewerk Tekle, at the age of 32, is one of the leading artists of Ethiopia. "When we realize how young Afewerk Tekle is," Dr. Richard Pankhurst of Haile Selassie University has said of him, "it becomes clear that the contribution of this versatile and prolific artist to Ethiopian and world art is only beginning. But already by his creative imagination and his hard work he is an example to his generation: a man of vision and a man of energy." Trained in London at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and at the Slade School in the University of London, Afewerk has combined in his paintings, ,,mosaics, drawings, stamp and costume designs, what he has learned from the international movement in art as well as from the traditions of Ethiopian painting. His subject matter ranges from interpretations of Ethiopia's traditional religion and history to portrayals of contemporary events and persons in and the rest of the world. Afewerk has been the recipient of a number of awards for his work. In 1959 he received Ethiopia's National Prize for painting. In 1964 he received the first Prize for Fine Arts given by the Haile Selassie I Prize Trust, one of the most important AMSAC Contributes to New Nnamdi Azikiwe Lectureship On the occasion of the sixtieth birthday of H. E. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Chancellor of the University of Nigeria (Nsukka), the university's Hansberry Institute of African Studies established a lectureship which will be known as "The Nnamdi Azikiwe Lectures." These lectures will be given annually by a distinguished scholar, statesman, or other specialist in the field of African affairs, in President Azikiwe with AMSAC's President, Dr. John A. Davis, and Dr. Horace Mann Bond, former President of AMSAC, in October 1961, during the celebrations for the opening of AMSAC's Lagos office. group of awards made by the Emperor. Afewerk's award cited the "versatile and disciplined artist for his outstanding paintings, drawings, landscapes, oils, and portraits which eloquently express his particular world environment, and for his contribution in being among the first to introduce contemporary techniques to Ethiopian subject matter and content." The artist's major works include murals in the Ethiopian Parliament, mosaics and murals in St. George Cathedral in , and stained glass windows in the capital's Africa Hall. He recently received official commissions to do portraits of Em(continued on page 2) particular, and of contemporary international relations of the Afro-Asian states, in general. The lectureship is endowed by contributions from friends, admirers and colleagues of Dr. Azikiwe in Africa, Europe, Great Britain, the United States and the Caribbean and AMSAC was proud to be among these contributors. The Society's sentiments were best expressed in the remarks of James K. Baker, Director of African Programs, at the presentation ceremonies held at Nsukka on President Azikiwe's birthday, November 16, 1964: "The American Society of African Culture is immensely pleased to make the enclosed contribution in the amount of $1,000 to the Nnamdi Azikiwe Lecture Fund of the Hansberry Institute of African Studies. "The Society's pleasure in the establishment of this Fund is embodied in these, among other, considerations: "The respect and esteem in which the Society holds His Excellency, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, growing out of a long association with a number of the Society's officers and members dating back to His Excellency's university days in America; the high regard and respect in which the Society holds its member and distinguished African scholar, Dr. W. Leon Hansberry, for whom the Institute has been named; and, finally, the sincerest wishes of the Society's directors, officers, and members for continued excellence in the study of Africa at the University of Nigeria." AMSAC NEWSLETTER / page 1

EXHIBIT AND LECTURE (continued from page 1) peror Haile Selassie, President Senghor of and Prime Minister Banda of Malawi, and has already completed a portrait of President Nkrumah of Ghana. In addition to a number of one-man shows in Ethiopia, the artist has been exhibited in group shows in England, France, Italy, Yugoslavia and Czechoslavakia, as well as in a one-man show in the Soviet Union. On December 1st, just before he left New York to visit other major cities in the United States, Afewerk spoke about his work before an audience of some ninety people at the AMSAC offices. He began his talk by stating that "every artist, except for the non-objective artist perhaps, looks to his own heritage when he is trying to express himself. The Ethiopian artist is fortunate to have a rich cultural heritage from which to draw inspiration." Using slides to demonstrate, the artist talked about the ancient obelisks of Ethiopia, about the castles of Gondar, about African Movement (Gouache, 1963): "There are many traditional motifs from all over Africa which can provide the raw material for contemporary African artistic expression. In "African Movement" I have tried to use some of the shapes and forms of traditional African wood sculpture, masks, symbols and musical instruments, and also show the movement that is taking place in the Africa of today." Ethiopian handicrafts, and about the Coptic churches and their decorations; and he noted the recurring motifs, particularly in the art of the Coptic Church, the monolithic forms, and the simplicity and grace of line in traditional Ethiopian art, all of which had served as inspiration for his own work. "It is not enough, however," Afewerk said, "to be inspired by your own tradition. You must transcend the boundaries of your own country and know what artists in other AMSAC NEWSLETTER / page 2 works he had executed. Some of these comments are noted under the pictures of his work shown on this page. In passing, he emphasized again his eclectic approach in terms of style: "I like the subject to inspire the style, to determine whether the painting will be realistic or Studies for a Portrait of President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana (Gouache, 1963): "When I was asked by President Nkrumah to do an official portrait of him, I was scared because I knew he expected so much. But I had to do it. 1 went to Ghana and began by making preliminary pen and ink studies. I tried to express the tension between what he is and what he wants to be, his fears and his aspirations." parts of the world have done and are doing. All good art is part of the heritage of every artist. If an artist thinks of his works only as Ethiopian or West African or Japanese, then his art can serve only a limited community. My work is not purely Ethiopian but draws upon what I have learned in Europe and what I want to learn here." Then, with the help of slides again, Afewerk spoke in detail about specific Study of an Old Poet (Monochrome, 1964): "The old man is ninety-eight and one of Ethiopia'& great poets. I did this portrait of him while his son was recording his memories of Ethiopias's history in the last century. I tried to express the usefulness of his mind despite his physical weaknesses." Vision of St. John (Oil, 1958): "My first important commission after finishing my studies was to execute the interior decorations for the cathedral erected to commemorate those who had died in the famous 1896 Battle of Adowa (at which the Ethiopians defeated the invading Italians). When the Italians invaded Ethiopia again in 1935, they burned the interior of the church. Because it had such historical signicance, Emperor Haile Selassie wanted to have the cathedral rebuilt. He commissioned the son of the architect of the original structure to restore the interior and then he asked me to do the decorations. It took me two and a half years. "The Vision of St. John" was one of the studies for this work. abstract. I don't want to get myself into a stylistic yoke from which I can't get out, so I look everywhere for inspiration. Maybe when I'm sixty or seventy I'll settle down." He spoke about the many demands made on the African artist: "There is one difference between the African and the European artist today. The European artist can afford to specialize in a particular medium and allow himself the luxury of waiting to be inspired. From the African artist-and there are far too few at the moment-a great deal is demanded, so he better be technically accomplished in a variety of media as well as prepared to work hard. "It is difficult to say 'no' to an official commission when you know the government is counting on you, but the need may be for such diverse works as monuments or mosaics or stained glass windows. I have been asked to do huge stained glass windows and have had to know how to do everything from cutting the glass to putting it in place." He spoke about the difficulty of painting for churches: "Church history has always been of interest to me as a subject for my art, for the church is rich in costume, ritual, pomp and color. Tradition demands, however, that historical religious figures be represented in a certain way, and I have Guests at the opening look at Afewerk's pencil drawing, "Portrait of an Old Warrior" (1964). Behind them is an oil entitled "Jonah and the Whale" (1964); in the corner, "Study of an Old Poet." often had to spend as much time arguing with church officials as to whether my paintings were 'correct,' as I have spent painting them." And of the difficulty in doing works on political subjects: "It is a very delicate matter when an artist is asked to express a political subject. He has to be very careful not to step on toes and at the same time give his work an artistic integrity. For instance, in dealing with Africa, if we treat the subject emotionally, our work will lose its artistic value in years to come. Therefore, as much as we feel the problems and the turmoil of our countries today, we must use our capacity to weigh and balance so Afewerk meets newly appointed Ambassador Franklin H. Williams, who is serving with the U.S. Mission to the U.N. as representative on the Economic and Social Council. They are standing in front of Afewerk's oil, "The Meskal Flower." that we convey the most significant and lasting aspects of events." As a final indication of the diversity of his artistic interests and his versatility, Afewerk showed slides of some of the costumes he had designed "for relaxation." Not only has he adapted traditional Ethiopian dress for men to modern use, but he has added a number of innovations to Western dress for men. The artist's explanation of the unique features he had designed for his own suit drew particular applause from the men in the audience and was a delightful ending to a full and informative evening with Afewerk Tekle. For those who were not able to see Afewerk's exhibit in November, some of his works have remained at the Afra-Art Gallery, 328 Convent Avenue, , which is open Tuesday through Saturday, 1:00-5:00 p.m. Reporters note Afewerk's comments on his trip to the United States. Mal Goode, who is with the American Broadcasting Company, does the interviewing for them. Wilbert Chagula, New Principal of University College, Dar es Salaam Last spring, as a result of meetings between AMSAC's Executive Director, Calvin H. Raullerson, and Dr. Wilbert K. Chagula, then Vice-Principal of University College, Dar es Salaam, AMSAC gave a grant to the Tanganyika Society of African Culture (also an affiliate of the Society of African Culture (SAC) in Paris) to sponsor a field research project in indigenous African culture. Recently, we were pleased to note in the news bulletin of the University College that Dr. Chagula, one of the founding members of TANSAC, had iust been appointed Principal. Tte following is a vignette of him, by one of his former colleagues at Makerere College, which appeared in the bulletin and which we thought would be of interest to our readers: "Dr. Wilbert Chagula, who was born in Fabruary 1926 in Lake Province, Tanganyika, had an early schooling at the Government Secondary School, Tabora, and came to Makerere College to study medicine in 1945. After a distinguished career as a student and prizeman, he received the Licentiateship in Medicine and Surgery (East Africa). "He returned to Tanganyika and as a young doctor made a great impression, in particular by giving talks on health promotion to the public. In 1953 he returned for a short period on the staff of the Department of Anatomy at Makerere College where I first had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Chagula as a colleague. "He then went to Cambridge to take his Part II Tripos. At this time Cambridge was full of East African postgraduate students, most of whom subsequently have occupied positions of great prominence and importance in the life of the three countries of East Africa. Dr. Chagula had a particularly brilliant academic career at Cambridge and acquired a special commendation from his scientific colleagues. He was also a most popular member of King's, where his rooms were a meeting place for a wide variety of visitors from far and near. "After receiving his B.A., he returned as Lecturer in Anatomy to the Makerere College Medical School, a position which he fulfilled with distinction for five years. During this time it was my privilege to work closely with Dr. Chagula both as a medical colleague in the Student Health Service and as an academic and research colleague in the Department of Anatomy. It was clear from the beginning that he was marked out for high academic or public office. "In 1961, Dr. Chagula went for further postgraduate studies in the field of histo(continued on page 5) AMSAC NEWSLETTER / page 3

AN ACCOUNT OF A RECENT TOUR OF EAST AFRICA by Elton C. Fax Elton Fax, artist, illustrator and lecturer, is best known to friends of AMSAC as the author of West African Vignettes, a volume of 42 sketches with commentary, based on Mr. Fax's 1959 trip to Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea and Senegal. Last spring, under the auspices of the United States Information Services, Elton Fax toured six countries in East Africa - Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, , Tanganyika and the United Arab Republic - where he visited over 200 secondary schools and some universities to sketch and talk on the theme of how much people from diflerent cultures all over the world have in common with each other. We knew that after three months in East Africa, Mr. Fax's sketch book would be filled with impressions of the cities and towns he visited and the people he met there, and we asked him if he would draw upon these sketches in order to give Newsletter readers a word picture of his experiences. The following is his account. It is all but impossible for any American travelling in Africa today to avoid having Africans ask him something about civil rights, Martin Luther King, Cassius Clay, and the state of affairs in Mississippi and Alabama. When that American happens also to be a Negro travelling on any kind of a mission for the U.S. government the questions he is asked are likely to be sharp, challenging, numerous, and continuing. That is what I fbund on my recent tour of East Africa. I can still hear one question in particular: "Please tell us, sir, who is paying your expenses on this tour?" The frosted tone revealed that my questioner knew very well the government of the U.S.A. was paying my expenses. It also told me that I was suspected of being "planted" in East Africa as an apologist for American racism that was making headlines all over the globe. What my questioner had no way of initially knowing (but what he soon found out from me) was that I had not endured better than a half-century of Jim Crow plus two weeks of painful inoculations to present myself to East Africans in the role of Uncle Tom. And this also I want to make quite clear. To the credit of the State Department's Division For Americans Abroad that arranged for my tour, I was given a free hand. No one told me what 1 could or could not say! My training and experience equip me to combine quick sketching and public speaking. I used this skill in Africa to relate a segment of the American story that was at once quite personal and quite parallel to the experiences of Africans engaged in establishing their identity with dignity. Elton Fax puts final touches on one of the forty-two drawings included in his book, West Africa Vignettes, published by AMSAC. The book is based on Mr. Fax's 1959 trip to West Africa. In 1963 he visited Nigeria again for a short time to give a series of chalk-talks under the sponsorship of AMSAC. For eighty-three days I spoke in more than two hundred schools, clubs and public meeting halls in Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanganyika and Egypt. I appeared in new schools recently built by the legendary Aga Khan, and I appeared in the mouldy old buildings erected years ago by the British and other European colonialists. Some schools were all-African, others, allAsian, and there were those in which token integration of the two reminded me poignantly of home. I talked with head-masters and teachers whose feelings ranged from paternalistic reaction to outright accord with the current African freedom movement. And I recall individual Africansthe lettered, the unlettered, and the proud, and the snobbish little men who had learned their colonialist lessons well. In telling my story of America I spoke frankly of the positive and the negative, and of the wealth of opportunity, and of the patterns of sectional and national bias that wedge themselves between many Americans and those vast stores of opportunities. I cited the good and the evil forces that mould and motivate creativity in America and that impel certain Negro artists to develop and use their skills in seeking a correction for American weaknesses. The African response to what I believe and the fervor with which I said it was warming in a way that I like to remember. And I shall include a few memorable quotes in the paragraphs that follow. My first contact with our U.S. Foreign Service in East Africa came in Uganda when Horace G. Dawson, Jr. met me at the Entebbe airport. Southern-born and a former teacher, Dr. Dawson is one of four American Negro cultural affairs officers with whom I worked while on tour. He is a man whose intelligence and integrity command instant respect, and I learned much from him as we drove 1,400 miles together into the Uganda bush. Uganda is stunningly handsome. Its capi- tal city of Kampala looks both European and Asian, what with its modern office buildings and shops intermingled with white mosques and Hindu temples gleaming under the tropical sun. Uganda's indigenous Africans dominate her population, with Asian (East Indians) and Europeans following in that order, but Africans do not live in large numbers in the attractive capital. Most of them commute to the city daily from the outskirts. By car, bus, motor-scooter, bicycle, and on foot they come and go to jobs in offices, hotels, shops, markets, and private homes. Asians are the country's merchants. Aggressive and enterprising immigrants, they are bitterly resented by most Ugandans. The obvious affluence of the non-citizen Asian merchant cuts through the consciousness of the average Ugandan as a stinging reminder of his own material poverty. To offset this ill-feeling some Asians are slowly integrating Africans into businesses that formerly offered the latter only hard work, low wages, and little hope of advancement. But all Asians do not incur the wrath of Ugandans. There are the turbaned and bearded Sikhs who are the skilled artisans and craftsmen, not only of Uganda but of Kenya and Tanganyika as well. They, along with the vibrant and western-oriented Goans, are better liked by Ugandans, and their presence lends the country the flavor of their artistry and their love of the cultural. Uganda's fertile land belongs to the Uganda government, but British banks and powerful British civil servants are very much in evidence throughout the country. Most of the Uganda schools I visited are under British supervision, and the visitor is seldom allowed to forget it. I well recall one head-master whose reception of us was chilly enough to create a massive cold front right there in the heart of the tropics. By contrast, the Leon Gowers, who were in charge of Butobere College at Mbarara put us up in their home where they graciously made us feel their restrained British approval of our offering to their students. Significantly, I ran across only one African headmaster of a secondary school in Uganda, and that was at the St. Henry's Roman Catholic School at Masaka. The boys at St. Henry's were among the brightest I met throughout the entire trip. Before leaving Uganda I talked with several American teachers working there. Among them were the secure and thoroughly capable pace-setters whose example was a thing of beauty to see and to contemplate. Others were bravely applying average skills to un-averagely demanding jobs, while the rest were seeking to establish rapport with freedom-thirsty Ugandans even as they insisted to me that the American Negro push for civil rights was moving too fast, and worse still, too furiously. Thinking collectively of them now causes (continued on page 5) AMSAC NEWSLETTER / page 4

ACCOUNT OF EAST AFRICA (continued from page 4) me to marvel-and then to shudder. Although my work in the Sudan confined me to the northern city of Khartoum, I was soon made aware of the Sudanese division between north and south. In describing the people of the Sudan to me several white Americans there insisted that the northern and "more advanced" Muslim Sudanese were "Arabs." A varying mixture of black African and Arab, northern Sudanese resemble many of my own relatives whose wide range of skin tone, facial features, and hair textures are commonplace in American Negro families. Southern Sudanese, showing little or no mixture with Arabs, also looked like other relatives of mine. I was told by white Americans that these "less advanced" southerners were "Negroes," which was to say that these were my folks since I, too, am described as a "Negro." That was not all. I was further informed that "northern Sudanese never consider themselves Negroes." Well, that was entirely accurate because my Sudanese hosts in Khartoum told me they call themselves simply, "Sudanese, northern and southern." But my cup of merriment really overflowed when several Sudanese friends affectionately referred to me as an "American Sudanese," for, you see, that made me a "free American," an "advanced Arab," and a "retarded Negro" simultaneously, a miracle that could take place in Africa only through the white magic of our distorted American theories on race and color. No statement that I could make on the Sudan would be worthy if I failed to say that my visits to the Fine Arts Department of the Khartoum Technical Institute were rich and elevating experiences. Its divisions of drawing, painting, caligraphy, sculpture, ceramics, and textile design reveal an extraordinary high degree of aesthetic development, combining the finest traditions of the ancient past with contemporary concepts and techniques. Their top artists are first rate in every way. Ethiopia's dry, rugged mountains form a dramatic foil for its thousands of handsome, rugged people, many of whom are wretchedly poor. I saw Addis Ababa, and I saw the smaller communities of Asmara, Gondar, Adigrat, Makelle, Jimma, Dira Dawa and Nazareth. I sketched and I spoke in the capital city where new buildings are rapidly going up and paved streets are made wider to handle the swell of traffic. Simple folk were models for sketches, and so was the Crown Prince who spoke in cultured tones as he relaxed, under guard, in his sumptuous residence. On my first night in Addis I listened as a pair of attractive young women publicly and brilliantly debated the question, "Free Choice or Pre-Arranged Marriage- Which is Better?" The spirited and highly articulate stand those women took against their male opponents symbolized the Ethiopian woman's current fight for full emancipation from the restrictive mores of the past. I performed in dozens of Ethiopia's schools and at her national University; and before leaving the country I shared the sentiments of an India-born teacher who spoke to students of his own bitter encounters with color discrimination in Cincinnati, Ohio. I supported that teacher in his insistence that man's dignity is never negotiable, and when I had finished talking and sketching the president of the student group closed with these words: "Our brothers in America are fighting for justice and this artist has shown us how a poor boy in America can develop a talent and use that talent in his fight for justice." One does not easily forget Kenya. Its rolling hills, rich coffee, tea, and sisal plantations, handsome beaches, and fertile highlands all seem to lead the wanderer to one place-Nairobi. Nairobi is the rendezvous of sophisticates, the lifeline of its working residents, and the hope of its hopeless migrants. It is the smart city of broad, tree-lined avenues, European-type shops, swift-moving traffic, and a complex of modern government buildings. And Nairobi is the fetid back-street slum teeming, as do similar areas in New York, Chicago, Peoria, and Knoxville, with black humanity in search of the fulfillment of a long dream. It was in Nairobi that I was greeted in Swahili by friendly citizens and hailed in clipped, accented English by bright young men of the nearby famed Alliance Boys High School. In Mombasa a British hotel clerk sought to shunt me off to the servants' quarters, while a few blocks away an Asian gentleman of the scholarly Goan Institute assured me his group would be honored if I would address them. And I talked with scores of Kenya's students at Bura, Wusi, Machakos, and Thika. It is these young people along with their teachers and their townsfolk who complete the picture of Kenya that I remember so clearly. It is also the Kenya where a young woman student said to me: "But, sir, you are of our blood. Why do you no longer speak the language of our people?" Briefly, I told her the how and the why of the American Negro's loss of direct cultural contact with Africa. And intelligent woman that she is, she understood. Tanganyika and Egypt revealed to me the same basic man-in-the-street feelings toward America. Simply stated they are, the African's ready acceptance of our wealth of opportunities for what they mean to his advancement; and his equally ready rejection of any American commitment to the doctrine of white supremacy. We have succeeded in establishing in the African consciousness both our Achilles heel and two major columns of our tower of strength. Africans have been told and shown a great deal about our industrial and (continued on page 6) Summer Travel Programs in Africa The Experiment in International Living welcomes applicants for its 1965 summer programs in seven African countries: , Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, Tanganyika, and Uganda. Each of the programs, designed mainly for college students, but open to anyone over the age of 19, includes a four-week stay with a host family and three or four weeks of travel in the country in which the program takes place. In Ghana the travel part of the program is replaced by a three-week work camp project and, in Tanganyika, by a ten-day agricultural work project with Tanganyikan students and a tenday trip in another country. Also offered for students of medicine and medical practitioners is a medical program in Nigeria which includes a three-week home-stay in Ibadan to observe private medical practice and public health services, and a service period of four weeks with assignment made according to individual interests. For further details of these programs and for information about costs, write to The Experiment in International Living, Putney, Vermont, or Henry Hudson Hotel, 353 W. 57 St., New York City, or 291 Geary St., San Francisco. Applications should be made by March 10. Applications for scholarships or loans must be made by February 15. Also write for information on becoming a group leader for these programs. WILBERT CHAGULA (continued from page 3) chemistry to the Pathology Department, University College of the West Indies, and later to the Department of Anatomy in Yale University. Alas for Makerere: when he was due to return to take up a senior appointment on the teaching staff there, he decided that his best contribution to his country was to undertake the heavy responsibility of Deputy Principal and Registrar of the new University College, Dar es Salaam. "The news of Dr. Chagula's appointment as Principal to the University College, Dar es Salaam, brings our warmest good wishes and affection for an old academic colleague and friend, knowing that in the task of coping with this youngest part of the University of East Africa, all Dr. Chagula's past training and able personality will be well and completely utilized. We wish him many decades of happy and successful leadership of our sister College." DAVID ALLBROOK AMSAC NEWSLETTER / page 5

AMSAC Exhibits Nigerian Paintings by Mr. & Mrs. Jacob Lawrence in Lagos Just before they left Nigeria in November to return to the United States, Mr. & Mrs. Jacob Lawrence were the guests of AMSAC's Director of African Programs James K. Baker & Mrs. Baker at a reception at which paintings and drawings done by both the Lawrences while they were in Nigeria were shown. This was the third time that AMSAC was privileged to exhibit Jacob Lawrence in Nigeria. Along with the works of other Mr. and Mrs. Tayo Aiyegbusi study one of Jacob Lawrence's paintings. Mr. Aiyegbusi, a prominent member of the Nigerian Society of Artists, designed the Christmas card entitled "Mother and Child" that the AMSAC office in New York sent to its members and friends this year. The paintings and drawings by Mr. Lawrence that were shown and others that he did subsequently have also been exhibited at his New York gallery, Terry Dintenfass, 18 East 67 Street, during the month of January. Lawrence Scott-Emaukpor (c.), Assistant Director of Nigeria's Ministry of Information, discusses the Lawrences' paintings with Cyprian Ekwensi (I.), Director of Information in the Information Ministry and Eldred Fiberisima, a staff member of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation and director of the Fiberisima Players, whose recent production, "The Centre Cannot Hold" (based on Chinua Achebe's novel, ThingsFall Apart), AMSAC hetped to sponsor. well-known American Negro artists, his paintings where shown at the opening of AMSAC's Lagos office in 1961. In 1962, 35 of the paintings from two of his famous series, War and Migration of the Negro, were displayed at the AMSAC Center for three weeks. This exhibit occasioned the artist's first trip to Nigeria, where he visited not only Lagos but also Ibadan, to open the exhibit of his works at the Mbari Center there, and Oshogbo. So impressed was Mr. Lawrence with Nigeria, its people and its art, that he decided to spend several months there. Last spring he and his wife took up residence in Ibadan and spent the next eight months observing, painting and meeting fellow artists in the Ibadan and Lagos area. The works that grew out of this experience were also on display at Mbari-Ibadan this fall. H.E.M. Cheikh Selle Gueye, Ambassador from Senegal to Nigeria, looks at one of Gwendolyn Lawrence's paintings. EAST AFRICA (from page 5) military might. What they demand to see more of now is that column of strength that takes direct and unequivocal action against the American assaults upon itself and its own freedoms. Show them this and we will be heard and we will be believed as we proclaim our commitment to their freedoms in Africa. PHOTO CREDITS p. 1, col. 1: Ed Bagwell for News Voice International p. 1, col. 2: AMSAC office, Lagos p. 2: CourtesyAfewerk Tekle p. 3: Ed Bagwell for News Voice p. 3: International p. 4: Ed Bagwell p. 6: AMSAC office, Lagos The AMSAC Newsletter is issued monthly, September through June, by The American Society of African Culture, 15 East 40 Street, New York 16, New York. Subscription, $2.00 per year. Permission is granted to reprint any materials appearing herein except those credited to another publication. The American Society of African Culture is devoted to the dissemination of information on the culture of the peoples of Africa and of African descent. It is affiliated with the Soci6t6 Africaine de Culture, 42 rue Descartes, Paris V, France, and also has a West African Cultural Center at 4/6 Oil Mill Street, Lagos, Nigeria. John A. Davis Calvin H. Raullerson President Executive Director James K. Baker Director of African Programs Joseph C. Kennedy Research Director Yvonne 0. Walker Managing Director Brooke Aronson Newsletter Editor American Society of African Culture NON-PROFIT ORG. 15 East 40th Street U.S. POSTAGE New York 16, N.Y. PAID New York, N.Y. Permit No. 149 Dr. Allard X. Lowenstein 25 West 81st Street New York, N.Y. #2C