Moving Back into the Future : Critical Recovering of Africa's Cultural Heritage / editor, Dominica Dipio.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Dipio, Dominica, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cultural property--Africa.

Cultural property.

Folklore.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (277 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Kampala, Uganda : Makerere University Press, [2021]

Summary:

"This compelling set of essays draws from multiple sources - oral traditions, cultural practices, literature and art - to explore how the past is carried into and shapes the African present. Spanning East and West Africa, it offers essential insights to scholars in several disciplines. It deserves to be widely read." (Rhiannon Stephens, Associate Professor of History, Columbia University)."This important collection demonstrates the possibilities of rethinking heritage and memory in Africa, not as fixed marketable products but as living parts of contested pasts, presents and futures. The chapters skillfully illuminate how novelists, artists, activists and ordinary people have continuously unsettled, and even subsumed, the categories that were imposed and naturalized in colonial archives. This wonderful multidisciplinary group of scholars show how engagement with the continuities of knowledge over time beyond the academy or the state, remains critical to the possibility of justice." (Edgar C. Taylor, Lecturer in History, Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Makerere University)."This is a timely response to the calls for both the decolonizing of the syllabus and of African renaissance. I cannot think of any book in the market which has this approach and depth of a variety of articles." (John Blackings Mairi, Professor of Literary Linguistics, University of Juba).'This book essentially poses the question: Are there lessons to draw from Africa's rich past to steer through the present into the future? It is a riveting effort at reincarnating the rich diversity, accumulated and tested cultural heritage, with in situ logics of existence. Identities, tested philosophies, practices and aesthetics of communities are embedded on every page the reader turns. A timely and relevant book at this juncture when Africa seems to have culturally thrown the baby out with the bathwater." (Godfrey Asiimwe, Associate Professor of Development Studies, Makerere University).

Contents:

Front cover

Title page

Copyright

Table of Contents

Table of Figures and Images

Acknowledgements

Notes on Contributors

Abbreviations and Acronyms

INTRODUCTION

Section One: Recovering African Heritage through Folklore

1 THRIVING ON THE "MARGINS" OF SOCIETY: TORTOISE IN MA'DI FOLKTALE

Introduction

Generic Features of the Trickster

The Trickster as a Borderless Migrant: An Insider-Outsider

The Trickster as Androgynous

The Trickster as a Culture Hero

Contemporary Society's Fascination with the Trickster

Tortoise: Trickster-God in Ma'di Folktales

The Supreme Consultant

Analysis of Tortoise's Process of Intervention

Tortoise Gives Broad Guidelines

Psycho-Spiritual Interventions

Conclusion: The Trickster Phenomena in Contemporary Culture

Bibliography

2 AKAN THEORY OF MIND: TRICKSTER AND THE DIVINE MIDDLE GROUND IN THE AKAN FOLKTALE TRADITION

Analytical Framework

Ananse in the Oral Folktales

Christianity, Anthroponomy and Misinterpretation of Ananse as Sasabonsam

What, then, is Ananse to the Akan?

Ananse as the Human Mind

Ananse as God's Mind

Conclusion

Section Two: Recovering African Heritage through Indegenous Knowledge Systems

3 INDIGENOUS EDUCATION FOR CROP PRODUCTION IN BUGANDA: TRACING LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Indigenous Knowledge Transmission for Food Production among the Baganda

Hybrid Spirituality for Food Production

Ekyooto and Olujulilo: Teaching and Learning Spaces

Indigenous Education Spaces in the Twenty-first Century

4 NIGHT RUNNING IN THE POSTMODERN CITY: POSSIBILITIES FOR (RE)IMAGINING THE CITY

Historical Overview of Night Running and its Decline.

Night Running: Modernity in the City

Trickster Associations

Section Three: Recovering Africa's Historical Heritage

5 EXTERNAL RESPONSES TO THE EXPULSION OF "STATELESS" ASIANS FROM UGANDA IN 1972

Background to the Expulsion

Review of Relevant Literature on the Ugandan Expulsion

Expulsion Order and Initial Reactions of Britain

Teething Problems in the Resettlement of the Expellees in the UK

International Reactions to the Expulsion Order

Uganda's Reactions to the Responses of the UK and its "Allies"

Contemporary Ugandan-Asian Relations

6 "THE CUT WAS NOT PROPER": HYBRIDITY IN MALE CIRCUMCISION AMONG BAGISU OF EASTERN UGANDA

Imbalu in Context

Post-Circumcision Rituals and Manly Rights

Moving into the Present: European Interventions

Hybridity: Negotiating Traditional and Biomedical Circumcision

Section Four: Recovering Africa's Environmantal Heritage

7 POLICING THE ENVIRONMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF TABOOS AMONG EWES OF TSITO, VOLTA, GHANA

The Ewe People and Land

Methodology

Taboos: A Review of Some Related Literature

Theoretical Insights: Sacralisation and Sankofa

Revisiting Taboos in Tsito: A Discussion of the Findings

The Yam Festival and the Environment

Contemporary Challenges in Using Taboos to Protect the Environment

8 (RE)CLAIMING THE ECOSYSTEM: AN ECOCINEMATIC READING OF WANJIRU KINYANJUI'S THE BATTLE OF THE SACRED TREE (1995)

Women-led War against Deculturalisation and Environmental Degradation

Ecofeminist and Cultural Reading of Battle

Ecoaesthetics in Battle

Section Five: Recovering Africa's Feminist Heritage.

9 REDEFINING AFRICAN FEMINISM: A DECONSTRUCTIVE READING OF SEFI ATTA'S SWALLOW

Swallow

Reading the Past

10 RE-CENTERING WOMEN'S HISTORICAL ROLE IN GENDER EQUALITY ACTIVISM: A CASE OF "MALE CHAMPIONS" IN UGANDAN PARLIAMENT

History of Women's Rights Activism in Colonial Uganda

Women's Activism in Post-Independence Uganda

Methodology and the Theoretical Framework

Findings

Conclusion: Lessons from Historical Narratives on Gender Equality Activism in Uganda

Section Six: Recovering Africa's Fine Art Heritage

11 BEADS AESTHETICS IN UGANDA: THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE PAST AND THE PRESENT TO IMAGINE THE FUTURE

Bead Aesthetics: Interaction in Everyday Life

Beads and Beaded Forms: Transgressing Borders to Shape Visual Art

Beads Aesthetics Shaping Futures

Paper Beads in Uganda

12 HAUTE COUTURE VISUAL AESTHETIC: TRADITIONS REPRESENTING SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

Atal's Heritage Fashion: Reinvent, Reintroduce, and Archive for Social Cohesion

Senkaaba and the Barkcloth Gomesi: Activism through the Past

José Hendo's Eco-fashion: The Alternative Design Way

Gateja's Bead Tradition: For Inclusive Economic Empowerment

Index

Back cover.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Dipio, Dominica Moving Back into the Future

ISBN:

9789913603102