This article was downloaded by: [Florida State University] On: 26 December 2014, At: 03:48 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Third Text Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ctte20 Published online: 06 Feb 2007. To cite this article: (2005) , Third Text, 19:4, 419-426, DOI: 10.1080/09528820500123877 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09528820500123877 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. 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Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions CTTE112370.fm Page 419 Friday, July 8, 2005 3:30 AM Third Text, Vol. 19, Issue 4, July, 2005, 419–426 Forum TaylorCTTE112370.sgm10.1080/09528820500123877Third0000-0000Original2005194000000JulyRasheedAraeen12044thirdtext@kalapress.freeserve.co.uk (0)20 Greencroft Text and& Article7372 Francis (print)/0000-0000Francis 2005 0826 GardensLondonUK Group Ltd Ltd (online) to be done than simply shouting at the Europeans The True Location of about their Eurocentricity. But he ends up recom- mending that we preoccupy ourselves with pointing Ernest Mancoba’s out the inhumanity of Eurocentrism, which brings everyone back to the same thing; preoccupation with Modernism Eurocentrism. That is the problem with the contest for modernism; it is a contest for a place in Europe’s narrative of the world, a mere ‘We were there, too’. Olu Oguibe Of course we were, but then what? My own work on modernity and modernism in Africa, which Araeen helped me tremendously in clarifying, was to propose that in order properly to Rasheed Araeen has raised issues that require further locate colonial and postcolonial achievements, we and deeper thought, as well as responses, especially must begin to force a wedge between modernity and from Africans. The problem with Africa is that there modernism rather than continue to treat both as seems to be little truly great thinking on the level of synonyms. Mancoba’s achievement was not that he Fanon and Nkrumah going on at the moment, or, if was part of a modernist movement that erased him there is, some of us are certainly not aware of it. If from its history (as it was bound to), but that he my reading of the situation is correct, then obviously helped define African modernity. I illustrate that in something has to change. my paper1 by showing the turning points in his work I would make two further observations that are and tracing what I understand to be the sensibilities linked. One is that there is indeed some assessment underlying those turns: from a concern for the mere of the importance of Mancoba that does not simply liturgical within the European tradition to an inter- locate him within a supposedly important European est in the mechanics and syntax of African sculpture, movement. My assessment of Mancoba in fact pays and eventually a personal resolution of the divergent little attention to his membership or affiliation with historical trajectories that constitute a colonial or CoBrA. That affiliation has its significance, magni- postcolonial modernity, including expatriation and fied by its exorcism from the history of the move- nostalgia, Mancoba arrives at a stage of resolution ment. However, as Araeen argues, it is far from the analogous to the emergence of modern individualism most significant of Mancoba’s achievements. From in African consciousness. where I stand at the moment, it is in fact far from When we direct our energies to this kind of read- significant. So he was affiliated to CoBrA through ing and enquiry, we overcome ‘shouting’ at Europe his wife. So he associated with an avant-garde move- for its Eurocentrism, and begin to ask the right ques- Downloaded by [Florida State University] at 03:48 26 December 2014 ment in Europe. So they all stole ideas from him and tions related to Africa or Asia or wherever our then even have denied him. So what? As Araeen also concerns lie. With frames such as these, we may rightly points out, that is the norm, not an excep- begin to ask: how did Uzo Egonu’s work relate to tion. Nothing new there unless one wants to Mancoba’s? How does Emmanuel Jegede’s? How do continue preoccupying oneself with the story of Chinua Achebe’s and Ngugi wa Thio’ngo’s writing, Eurocentric erasure. It is time to move on. Araeen Frantz Fanon’s analyses, Amílcar Cabral’s polemics, makes that point, too. And that brings me to the Ousmane Sembene’s cinema all relate to that art and second observation. What is the merit of preoccupa- the project of forging an African modernity? What tion with the contest for modernism? I believe that it was apt about these activities? What was historically has its place, but we all ought to go beyond it. faulty? Where were the philosophical rifts and short- There is the irony in Araeen’s call. He uses the comings that would eventually produce the present wrong illustration and thus leads back to the very postcolonial predicament? point he wishes us to depart from in order to proceed. The contest for acknowledgment in modernist He begins by rightly pointing out that there is more narratives is a no-brainer and a no-winner. Shouting Third Text ISSN 0952-8822 print/ISSN 1475-5297 online © 2005 Kala Press/Black Umbrella http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/09528820500123877 CTTE112370.fm Page 420 Friday, July 8, 2005 3:30 AM 420 against Eurocentrism is a been-there, done-that. discourse which begins to show appreciation of his What is required now is that we read within the seminal role. Dialogue was central in Mancoba’s frames of a larger historical moment than modern- world-view. ism ever was, namely the struggles of colonised First let me reassure those who are interested peoples to contest their predicament and forge their that a project is already under way which will allow modernity, as well as subsequent complications and us to revisit and appraise Mancoba’s legacy. I am reconfigurations of that predicament and their part of an organisation called ‘Art and Ubuntu’ meaning and implications in the postcolonial milieu. which has been established to explore the aesthetics I have been planning to iron out the ideas I have for and philosophy of Mancoba’s work and generate a a new book called The Postcolonial Predicament, discourse in South African society about it. but I do not really have the privilege of support to This process was begun by Johannesburg art devote myself to useful philosophical inquiry. historian Elza Miles whose role in bringing I think that Araeen’s call is pertinent, but it ends Mancoba and his work back to South Africa in by suggesting the wrong preoccupation. We cannot 1994, after 56 years away, laid the foundation for afford to stay with the question of Eurocentrism and any future work on his legacy. It was through her its discontents. We must return to the more pertinent book Lifeline Out of Africa and the exhibition question of where the rain began to beat us, as ‘Hand in Hand’ that South Africans came to meet Achebe suggested long ago, what some of us have Mancoba again. done to help avert it, and where we go from here. ‘Art and Ubuntu’ are picking up this baton and We must locate artists like Mancoba within this working to widen the discussion on Mancoba by larger frame and not dwell on whether or not preparing an exhibition for SANG (South Africa Europe cares about him. National Gallery) in 2006, and also a film, a book, and a series of art-making and art-educational work- shops. We will continue to explore Mancoba’s Notes aesthetics and philosophy and leading South African intellectuals and artists will contribute to this 1. See Olu Oguibe, ‘Reverse Appropriation as Nationalism in process. Elza Miles’s intimate knowledge of Early Modern African Art’, Third Text, 16:3, September 2002, Mancoba’s life and work will inform us as our work pp 243–59. unfolds, as will Wonga Mancoba, the artist’s son. Although Ernest Mancoba’s work towers inter- nationally, he is by no means well known in South Africa, so let me share some background on his South African roots as our work is intended to explore exactly this. Ernest Mancoba left South Africa for Paris in 1938. He was 34, a mature adult, and had already The African Spiritual made a huge impact on his generation as a thinker.