This is Africa

What does MoMA stand for? What art is exhibited in the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich? Or in the Guggenheim? Modern Art. Art is constantly being categorized into a definition, because somehow it elludes it. Exxpressionism, Abstraction, Refiguration, Post-Modernism, der Blaue Reiter, Dada, Cubism, etc. All movements are descriptive of specific characteristics attributed to artists and works during a particular period in time.

However, this is not the case when considering African art. African art is just a collection of masks and tribal statues from the dark continent. There is no differentiation made between the Ndebele huts or a traditional mask from Ghana. It seems that Africa is a country, and not a continent consisting of 58 ( with South Sudan, I think) of them . This Western notion of thinking that all Africans, that all cultures and languages and attitudes, are equal, irritates me endlessly. I would be judged for equating Poland with Portugal, or Latvia with Sweden, so please, foreigners, do not think that anywhere is like anywhere else.

On that topic, the endless ranting about racism is also upsetting to me. We might have different skin colours, but we are all of the human race. And this thread of hatred for the other has been woven throughout history: colonizers killing the colonized, be they Aborigine, Indian or African. Furthermore, there is a great hatred within skin-colour as well, with cultures not getting along based on belief rather than on whether they are green or grey.

A blog I follow for the beauty of their wedding photographs, welovepictures , recently shot a wedding in Mpumalanga where the theme was "Colonial Africa". When I hear colonial, I think about oppression and the eradication of local cultures. Also, I think about the history of colonialism. Of how everyone wanted a piece of Africa. How a continent was divided up with complete disregard for the locals. And how this still affects the societies today.

But I do think that in this case, the bride was envisioning the old-worldly beauty of tea-parties, dinner sets, lace, boots, moustaches, leather, the smell of horses and train-tracks on the horizon.  The idea probably pertained more to the look of the era and its decadence than to its political implications.

So it irritates me somewhat when words are twisted and a person not given the opportunity to defend their views: Jezebel published an insulted view on the wedding pictures, which you can read here.

If you get angry about this, why is there no backlash to Top Billing Magazine's current cover shoot? It also depicts three men in modernized colonial attire in a colonial setting.

I mean, does this shoot not also show an aspect of colonialism? It is shot at the Royal Livingston in Zambia for God's sake. Is that not the most colonial place one could shoot it at? And yet, there, it is only seen as a fashion shoot.

Every time the safari trend creeps back into fashion with its faux-zebra and -tiger prints, with the shirt-dresses and khaki colours, you too are somehow wearing a more modern take on colonial clothing styles.

When you classify something as 'African' or 'Asian', when you mark a difference between the superiority of your culture to another, when you impose your attitudes and ideas on others, when you support big business over smaller industries, when you do anything where you are subjugating the one to the other you are applying a colonizer's mentality.

So please post-post-modern enraged hipsters, fight for something more than the racist attitudes you read in wedding pictures. Hell, South Africa's population is 80% black. I would expect there to be more black waiters than white ones, especially in a rural setting such as Mpumalanga, simply because there are about 38 Mio. black people and only 4 Mio. white people.

On Monday, 18. July, it will be Mandela Day.
The idea is to spend 67 minutes of your time doing something good for another person, helping out somewhere:

"The overarching objective of Mandela Day is to inspire individuals to take action to help change the world for the better, and in doing so build a global movement for good. Ultimately it seeks to empower communities everywhere. “Take Action; Inspire Change; Make Every Day a Mandela Day.”

Individuals and organisations are free to participate in Mandela Day as they wish. We do however urge everyone to adhere to the ethical framework of “service to one’s fellow human”."

check out the website here for ideas on what you could do. 

Perhaps you could write to the couple in the wedding images and spend 67 minutes with them at a shelter or a home and together help others, instead of focussing on their ignorance. Let's all change the world for the better, let's show that colonial attitudes of separation have no place in the 21st century. Be better than what you see in the images.