Brief Description of the Course “East African Modernism”

Makerere University and Alle School of Fine Arts and Design of Addis Abeba University

In Partnership with EAMAN and Belva Digital

Mainstream courses on African art and art history usually concentrate on West and Central African art.
This course aims to shed light on important contributions of Eastern African art of the second half of the
twentieth century. This period, marked by momentous historic events – struggles for independence, end
of colonialism, creation of the first independent states, followed by the advent of dictatorial rules and
struggles against them – has been paralleled in the history of the art of the region through modernist art
movements. Borrowing from Okwui Enwezor’s term for the period - “The Short Century” - the course
concentrates on the history of Eastern African modernism, the art movements and art schools that
constituted “the Short Century” for the region, as well as on the life stories and artistic contributions of
individual outstanding artists.

The course “The Short Century – Filling the Gap in Understanding and Appreciation of Eastern African
Modernism” will concentrate on the modernist heritage of Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda and is
meant to be the first installment in a series of art courses exploring modernist production of all of Eastern
Africa (22 countries using the UN definition).

The course traces the historical, political, and social contexts that constitute the roots of Eastern African
modernist art. It explores the ways in which Eastern African modernist artists were nurtured and in turn,
influenced local, regional, continental, and global art, art movements and thinking. Specifically, the course
touches on the early spectacular flowering of modernist art in Eastern Africa in the immediate post-
independence period. It then explores artistic production in the period steeped in political
disappointments with the dictatorial turn in many of the polities of the region. The course examines those
art institutions and art collectives which housed and shaped many of the discussions and much of the
creative thinking of the period exploring in more detail the most influential artists of the four countries.

The course is built using known artworks and sources as well as materials which have not been put in the
public domain. The primary sources include archival materials, images of artworks, interviews, video and
audio materials and testimonials coming from key informants, participants in the described events and
art movements, as well as memoirs of their friends and engaged relatives.

The course is aimed at university-level art students of the region but can be used by students of African
art from the world over. It is also designed to be the beginning of a comprehensive database and point of
reference for historians, curators, artists and students who seek to nurture their knowledge and
understanding of art history and modernism in Eastern Africa.

The course will be available online for anyone interested in deepening their knowledge and experience of
the art of Eastern African Modernism. Reading materials, images, archives as well as self-assessment
questions will be available on the platform which will be designed as an interactive one. The course
conforms to a standard art history curriculum.
Draft Course Content

Unit 1: Contexts of Eastern African Modernism

1.1. What is Modernism?

1.2. What is African Modernism?
1.3. What is Eastern African Modernism (scale and scope of the course (4 countries))
1.3.1.Historical Context
1.3.2.Political context
1.3.3.Timeline, Key Movements and Artists, Covered in this Course

Unit 2: Local Narratives Shaping Eastern African Modernism

2.1. Indigenous cosmology, legends, storytelling

2.1.1. “East Africa”
2.1.2. Ethiopia
2.2. Traditional Artistic Expression Shaping Eastern African Modernism
2.2.1. The Case of Ethiopia
2.2.2. The Case of “East Africa”
2.3. Religions, Interpretations of Religious Texts and Messages
2.3.1. “East Africa”
2.3.2. Ethiopia

Unit 3: Prominent Institutions and Art Collectives Shaping East African Modernism

3.1. Formal Art Schools

3.1.1 Makerere University
3.1.2 Alle School of Fine Arts and Design
3.1.3 Other Relevant Art Institutions

3.2 Art Collectives

3.2.1 The Nomo National Gallery of Uganda
3.2.2 The Dimension Group in Ethiopia
3.2.3 Paa ya Paa in Kenya
3.2.4 Nuymba Ya Sanaa, Mohammed Peera workshop in Tanzania, Tinga-Tinga Collective

Unit 4: East African Modernism in the Context of Historical and Political Periods

4.1 Uganda
4.1.1. Modernist Art Before Independence
4.1.2. Post-Independence Modernist Art
4.1.3. During Idi Amin Dada’s Regime and Beyond
 4.2 Ethiopia
4.2.1 During HaileSelasie’s Period
4.2.2 During The Socialist Years

4.3 Kenya
4.3.1 Pre-Independence and Independence
4.3.2 Arap Moi Years, Restoration of Artistic Freedoms

4.4. Tanzania
4.4.1. Pre-Independence Modernist Art
4.4.2. Early post-independence (Ujamaa years)
4.4.3. Liberalization, Advent of Artistic Freedoms

Unit 5: Masters of Eastern African Modernism

5.1. Ethiopia

5.1.1 Skunder Boghossian (1937-2003)

5.1.2 Gebre Kristos Desta (1932-1981)
5.1.3 Afework Tekle (1932-2012)
5.1.4 Zerihun Yetmgeta (1941-)
5.1.5 Tibebe Tarffa (1948-)
5.1.6 Wossene Kosrof (1950-)

5.2 Uganda
5.2.1. Francis Nnaggenda
5.2.2. Sana Gateja
5.2.3. Kefa Ssempangi
5.2.4. Theresa Musoke
5.2.5. Jack Katarikawe

5.3 Kenya
5.3.1. Gregory Maloba
5.3.2. Sane Wadu
5.3.3. Francis Msangi
5.3.4. Elimo Njau

5.4 Tanzania
5.4.1. Sam Ntiro
5.4.2. Makonde Artists
5.4.3. George Lilanga
References

Elizabeth W. Giorgis, Modernist Art in Ethiopia, Ohio, Ohio State University, 2019

Enwezor Okwui and Chicka Okeke-Agulu, Contemporary African Art Since 1980, Bologna, Grafichi
Damiani, 2009

Enwezor Okwui (ed.), The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa
1945-1994, Munich, London and New York: Prestel Verlag, 2001

Eva Barois. Koyo Kouoh, Mika Hayashi Ebbesen, Ugochukwu-Smooth, Condition Report: On Art
History in Africa, Latvia, Livona Print, 2020

Savage, Polly, Making Art in Africa, Slovenia, Lund Hampshire, 2014

Carol Sicherman, 2006, Becoming an African University 1922-200, Makerere University, Fountain
Publishers, Kampala

Anna Brus, Michi Knecht, Martin Zilinger-- 2022 Die Produktion- Agentur fur Druckrealisation
GmbH- Dusseldorf,

Dalda Verlag, Christian Art and African Modernity, 2020 Glien icke, Germany

Marion Arnold(ed), Art in East Africa, 2008, Mkiuki na Nyota-- Dar-es- Salaam