Contemporary African Art and Post-Colonial Theory, Research Paper Example

Colonialism in the world imposed a great impact on the cultures of different ethnicities. The historical events of colonialism are exhibited in the cultures due to the impacts of westernization that disrupted social, economic and political aspects of life in different communities in the world. The post-colonial era comprises the shifts from traditional to modern ways and civilization. The assimilation of foreign culture affected African art and artists worldwide because they find it cumbersome to embrace their original culture due to the changes in sociocultural development with time. The post-colonial theory depicts colonialism’s impacts on the original cultural norms and values due to interactions and contrasting ideologies that forced individuals to change their ways of lives to be in congruence with the modern trends and traditions. This paper will discuss contemporary African art and post-colonial theory by looking at the effects in different parts of the world.

Post -Colonial Theory

European colonial rule between the 18th and 20^th centuries included political, social, economic, aesthetic, and historical challenges it accompanied. Post-colonial theory comprises the knowledge that explains that the colonized worlds stand at the forgotten center of universal modernity.

The events of colonial rule have shaped different ethnic communities. It has also resulted in modern artwork that is admirable and socially unethical. In Africa, the colonial era changed the traditions of leadership, marriage, religion and dressing codes. The African art of designing houses, jewelry and other things has been abandoned or mixed with colonialists. The post-colonial theory changed the education and assimilation of new religions such as Christianity and Islam. The African dressing code combined the combination of European culture and African culture. Therefore it is not easy to design art that is purely Africa in the modern world.

Contemporary African Art

The art made by Africans and African diaspora in the period after independence is commonly described as contemporary African art. It reflects a particular art that is absorbed in the international markets in the current world as from the 1980s. During this period, the United States and Europe absorbed the awareness of the art of African origin, therefore bringing to end colonialism assuming the ethnicity and tribe for the ethnographic works. The art is perceived to have characteristics of African aesthetics and a little property of other international contemporary arts. Hence, it is both fashioned by feeding into the worldwide arts and markets.

Exhibitions of these artistic work are from artists who dwell permanently in Africa, non- African artists using the aesthetics similar to Africa traditions and by Africans living in the west but practicing artwork related to the ethnic origin, traditional African customs and rituals and urban African art that shows the modern experience of diversity in culture and a combination of cultures.

Remarking Urban Life in Africa

The article is a thought-provoking article that identifies substantial development aspects, associations, and economic aspects that are informal and urbanization in Africa. The author uses small and large analysis, nuances, and imagery of urban life in the current days, which are not considered by most analysts. The political issues are well described as daily activities. For example, Africa’s burgeoning metropolises are expressed as declined cities that cannot support livelihood by offering important services and lack creativity in different contexts. The African cities have been popular for providing refuge and opportunities for sourcing livelihood when life becomes difficult in rural areas. The African cities service matters of external interests such as tourism. These foreign agendas have changed the physical and social issues that hindered the developmental procedures. These cities image particular distinctions from the popular trends of urbanization that focus on financial increment and technology.

Urban Projects in Africa

African cities have a series of ongoing and incomplete projects to date. Among the projects also include the sourcing of income for individuals and maintaining social relations. There are also projects concerning individuals of a particular age group and for memberships and religious bodies. For example, youth developmental projects to support their education and provide job opportunities. As narrated by different individuals, urban life includes several challenges that one encounters to fit in the normal urbanization. These narratives exhibit the tensions between post-colonial and colonial and outsides and local histories that constitute the cities as administrative centers. Assimilation to western cultures is a key element to which local ranks are explained and sanctioned.

The negotiation of all urban projects, thoughts and weighing them need understanding so that the related things do not appear as conjoined. Across Africa, the buildings in urban centers are designed with architecture related to its residents’ life history. The African cities also appear to be evolving and static at the same time because the changes are so drastic, while other times, some are so slow that they even make the projects impossible to complete. Other projects are also based on the trends of leadership.

The cities are also characterized by large populations of people with different perspectives based on post-colonial and modern views. The cities are also associated with trickery and constraints in major development services. These problems are assigned to political leaders to mitigate problems. Consequently, the leaders stratify the urban communities in distinct lines and bring about competition and collaboration. The resulting social strata are more polarized and rigid compared to those that were open-ended and interlinked like in the past. Another challenge affecting urban cities is economic constraints. This is because both formal and informal employment is difficult to access. This causes increased responsibilities in members coming from extended families. Almost 75% of basic needs in families come from informal employment in urban cities. Unemployment is a major concern, is being concealed with the idea of large imports of cheap commodities, limiting the local consumptions.

The Narratives Concerning the Urban Cities In Africa

Adjame Gare

Traveling in several parts of the west is usually not a direct process because a lot of hitches accompany it. Adjame gare is a representation of several streets in Abidjan on the Ivory Coast. The transport process is full of continuous interruptions by a network of businessmen who reorganize the process in a manner that is difficult to tell the map of the route. When entering the city, one encounters middle-aged men who act as guides to get the views of the passengers. They not only encounter the passengers directly but also characterize the passengers based on their linguistics and dressing.

The different bus companies working on the same route also have differences in the amount of the payments made on the road paid to certain officials and different charges for the quality of goods and products being acquired or sold during transportation. The purpose of this hustle is the compensation to supplement passenger compositions for the benefit of the drivers and their assistants. Other issues in the transport process are the positioning of the load, minimizing the time to refuel and police checkpoints. All these are associated with little currency because the men involved in the exchange processes cannot be supported fully by the companies who use their abilities. They maintain their positions because none of them is irreplaceable. The style of travel and all intermediary processes is cumbersome. The young men in this city have a difficult time furthering on.

Bapenda

A state of emergency was declared in the city, and the military brutally handled the residents. The military was involved in the theft and harassment of young boys to the extent of denying them their right to communicate with their families. The city is also associated with child labor as young girls are sent off from their rural homes, which can barely afford food to become domestic workers in the city residents. When they reach the city, these girls escape and leave traces of messages to communicate the mistreatment they encounter in the homes they work. They meet up in certain places and indulge in other activities without considering whether they are immoral or immoral.

Johannesburg

The city of Johannesburg is not a reflection of what it actually is because it has undergone evolving stages. During the stages of reform and ruin, the city was associated with violence, dictatorship and moral decay. The post-apartheid period was characterized by a lack of spirit of cohesion as most communities were dispersed and had no sense of belonging in the city.  In trying to reassemble the city, the municipal authorities could not be fully engaged because of the economic and social procedures. These are characterized by illicit and legitimate businesses taking place in the city.

Development in Other Parts of the World

African countries are made up of several ethnic groups. This is similar to other countries in other continents, as shown in the article Development of the underdevelopment in many countries may have been undeveloped but not underdeveloped. The contemporary developments of countries are in social, economic and political growth. Underdeveloped countries have features of dual societies and economies due to inequalities to access resources. A major hypothesis drawn from the metropolis satellite structure explains that regions that are less developed are full of conflicts in the present world and had a closeness to the metropolis in the previous centuries. These regions were the largest exporters of primary products and the largest sources of income and finance for the metropolis regime. However, they seem to be neglected due to unsuccessful and collapsed businesses. This contrasts with the assertion that the reason for the underdevelopment of a particular region is its isolation and the former capitalist organizations.

The metropolis ideology is confirmed by the previous super -satellite development and present ultra -underdevelopment of sugar-producing countries and mining districts. This principle applies to Latin America’s development stages and is still ongoing, making the region’s economy impaired or underdeveloped. Major regions in Latin America are poor, yet other regions like India. India’s regions embraced capitalist development in the metropolis, which gave them their splendid prosperity, “the golden age.” When the sugar market and minerals subsidized and the metropolis neglected them, the pre-existing economic, social and political structures of those regions prevented the economy’s autonomous growth and shifted to alternative means to dissolve them into the ultra-underdevelopment as seen in the current world.

Caribbean islands like Barbados were changed to be sugar exporting regions for their economy several times between the seventeenth century and eighteenth century. This led to the emergence of Latifundia in these islands. Latin America is consistently struggling with a commercial response to hiked demand, and that it does not show the movement of foreign institutions that are far much beyond reaching capitalist development. However, Japan’s industrialization is rapid compared to other countries because of the adoption of a capitalist system to replace the former Meiji restoration, which made Japan’s development to be diverse and not limited to structures only.

Ground Level Opportunities for Africa Urbanization

The population in Africa is immensely increasing, but the economic sector is consistently diminishing. This is because almost all African countries are major importers rather than being exporters. Instead, the rising population should be reflecting on the value of income of each individual rather than poverty. The population is estimated to reach 1.7 billion by 2030, and most of the population will be dwelling in the cities, thus making it the fastest-growing urban region in the world. At the same time, the income is projected to be rising in individuals, and the content will have new businesses. The businesses will be generating income and opportunities for consumers. By 2030, the expected expenditure by consumers every year is $6.66 trillion.

African countries should utilize the opportunity to expand and specialize in the industrial sector to manufacture more products. This will reduce the dependence on exotic products and also generate more income for the development of infrastructure and other areas. Production of goods will also attract foreign global investors. African countries should also service their infrastructure to improve transport and housing as well. Africa is also popular for its abundance of mineral and agricultural resources. The continent is fumbling to change these riches to shared wealth and make it useful in generating income to ensure economic stability and growth. Innovations and investment can solve this problem and generate platforms for venturing a variety of businesses. For example, Africa is rich in oil and gas. These can be exploited to meet the high demand for energy.

Obstacles for Urbanization in Africa

The obstacles to urbanization in Africa are institutional and physical problems. They are constraints that can be regulated by African leaders. Besides, African cities lack land markets and coordination of infrastructure, making them local cities enclosed to regional markets and limited to producing local goods. This also limits the urban centers to competing internationally. Africa is also troubled with disconnected lands, unavailability of jobs and overpopulation leading to slums. The slums are characterized by low-income livelihood, crime and diseases.

The scattered lands have densely populated neighborhoods with poor roads making the transport system slow and costly. Africa households are also expensive and relatively higher than that of the GDP.  The health and sanitation in Africa face challenges as well. The healthcare system is costly due to several private clinics and limited access to public hospitals, which also lack modern technologies and adequate healthcare personnel to provide medical care for patients. The cost of pharmaceutical products is also high and cannot be afforded by patients who completely rely on health insurance. May African cities also have individuals living with HIV, and this impairs individual productivity. The sanitation in slums is poor and a major source of diseases.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the colonial era affected several countries’ development cutting across social, political and economic growth. Several countries worldwide have assimilated different modern cultures that have affected their development both negatively and positively. Trends of trajectory development, economic and political instability are exhibited in different countries. The African continent is stumbling to stabilize, especially in the urban cities where many disoriented activities are affecting social lives and source of livelihood among individuals.