Table Of ContentA-fricA-n A-rt A-nd A-gency
in the Workshop
AfricAn ExprEssivE culturEs
Patrick McNaughton, editor
Associate editors
Catherine M. Cole
Barbara G. Hoffman
Eileen Julien
Kassim Koné
D. A. Masolo
Elisha Renne
Zoë Strother
A-fricA-n A-rt
A-nd
A-gency
in the
Workshop
edited by
Sidney Littlefield Ka-sfir
a-nd Till Förster
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
601 North Morton Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796
Fax orders 812-855-7931
© 2013 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on
Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
• The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
African art and agency in the workshop / edited by Sidney Littlefield Kasfir
and Till Förster.
p. cm. — (African expressive cultures)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-00741-4 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-00749-0
(pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-00758-2 (eb) 1. Workshops—Africa.
2. Artists’ studios—Africa. 3. Artisans—Africa—Societies, etc. 4. Art patronage—
Africa. I. Kasfir, Sidney Littlefield. II. Förster, Till. III. Series: African expressive
cultures.
N8520.A39 2013
706.096—dc23
2012036058
1 2 3 4 5 17 16 15 14 13
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
INTRoDUCTIoN
Rethinking the Workshop: Work and Agency in African Art \
Till Förster and Sidney Littlefield Kasfir 1
The Contributions to This Book \ Sidney Littlefield Kasfir and
Till Förster 24
pArt 1. production, Education, and learning
1. Grace Dieu Mission in South Africa: Defining the Modern Art
Workshop in Africa \ Elizabeth Morton 39
2. Follow the Wood: Carving and Political Cosmology in oku,
Cameroon \ Nicolas Argenti 65
3. Masters, Trend-makers, and Producers: The Village of Nsei,
Cameroon, as a Multisited Pottery Workshop \ Silvia Forni 91
4. An Artist’s Notes on the Triangle Workshops, Zambia and
South Africa \ Namubiru Rose Kirumira and Sidney Littlefield Kasfir 111
pArt 2. Audience and Encounters
5. Stitched-up Women, Pinned-down Men: Gender Politics in
Weya and Mapula Needlework, Zimbabwe and South Africa \
Brenda Schmahmann 125
6. Rethinking Mbari Mbayo: osogbo Workshops in the 1960s,
Nigeria \ Chika Okeke-Agulu 154
7. Working on the Small Difference: Notes on the Making of
Sculpture in Tengenenge, Zimbabwe \ Christine Scherer 180
8. Navigating Nairobi: Artists in a Workshop System, Kenya \
Jessica Gerschultz 207
pArt 3. patronage and Domination
9. Lewanika’s Workshop and the Vision of Lozi Arts, Zambia \
Karen E. Milbourne 233
10. Artesãos da Nossa Pátria: Makonde Blackwood Sculptors,
Cooperatives, and the Art of Socialist Revolution in
Postcolonial Mozambique \ Alexander Bortolot 252
11. Frank McEwen and Joram Mariga: Patron and Artist in
the Rhodesian Workshop School Setting, Zimbabwe \
Elizabeth Morton 274
12. “A Matter of Must”: Continuities and Change in the
Adugbologe Woodcarving Workshop in Abeokuta, Nigeria \
Norma H. Wolff 298
pArt 4. comparative Aspects
13. Work and Workshop: The Iteration of Style and Genre in
Two Workshop Settings, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon \
Till Förster 325
14. Apprentices and Entrepreneurs: The Workshop and Style
Uniformity in Sub-Saharan Africa \ Sidney Littlefield Kasfir 360
CoDA
Apprentices and Entrepreneurs Revisited: Twenty Years
of Workshop Changes, 1987–2007 \ Sidney Littlefield Kasfir 385
Contributors 399
Index 401
vi Contents
ACknowledgments
The essays presented herein began as a double panel on workshops convened
at the Triennial Symposium in African Art, held at the University of Florida
in April 2007. Several panelists were our own graduate students and former
students—including Christine Scherer, Elizabeth Morton, Chika okeke-Agulu,
and Jessica Gerschultz, a young group of scholars working in Zimbabwe, South
Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya who have, in the intervening five years, moved for-
ward in their own careers and conducted more research while acquiring jobs
and promotions.
To augment their essays we have added our own—based on fieldwork con-
ducted from Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon to Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania—
and those of our colleagues Nicolas Argenti and Silvia Forni, both working in
Cameroon; Namubira Rose Kirumira, working in Uganda, Zambia, and South
Africa; Alexander Bortolot, working in Mozambique, and Karen Milbourne,
working in Zambia. As the manuscript developed, essays by two other senior
scholars were added along the way: Norma Wolff’s study in Nigeria, and
Brenda Schmahmann’s study in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
We are grateful to the University of Basel and Emory University for pro-
viding the funds necessary for color plates—and, more generally, for their sup-
port of our own scholarly research in several countries over the years. Most of
all we thank our contributors, who have patiently stayed with us through the
involved process of putting the book together.
This page intentionally left blank
A-fricA-n A-rt A-nd A-gency
in the Workshop
