Africa 05: February 10-October 31, 2005 venues throughout London

February 2005 ushered in the beginning of "Africa 05," a year-long cultural exchange between the United Kingdom and Africa. Visual arts institutions, concert halls, and cinemas offered viewers a forum for debate and discourse on African culture and life. The November 18, 2004, press release described it as "a series of major cultural events taking place in London that celebrates contemporary and past cultures from across the continent and the diaspora." Also in the press release, Gus Casely-Hayford, "Africa 05" Program Director, said that he hoped the events would "challenge many people's preconceptions about Africa and place many African artists firmly within the UK and international arts scene."

Certainly 2005 was the "year of Africa" in the United Kingdom. Only one month after the launch of "Africa 05," Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's Commission for Africa published its report on how developed nations can help many African countries out their crippling states of poverty. The twentieth anniversary of the ground-breaking Live Aid concert was marked with the Live 8 Concert, which appears to have had overwhelming success in promoting awareness about African debt relief in the form of an enormous Make Poverty History campaign. Canceling the debt of the poorest African nations was one of the most important debates to emerge from the G8 summit in Scotland headed by EU president Tony Blain In response to the political climate in early 2005, Casely-Hayford noted: "Just as there are sustainable changes being brokered politically, organizers of 'Africa 05' want to create changes that will draw African culture into the mainstream where it belongs, and to deliver the infrastructure to make those changes permanent."

While much has changed politically, in both the United Kingdom and continental Africa, since "Africa 95"--the inaugural celebration of the arts of Africa in the UK--much has also remained the same. Ten years ago, the "artist-led series of events" featured "exhibitions and programs divided into the visual arts, cinema, music, the performing arts, and literature. All were supplemented by conferences, workshops, and residencies to maximize the goal of promoting exchange and collaboration between artists and audiences in Africa and the UK," as Doran Ross noted in his "First Word" for the Summer 1996 issue of African Arts. "Africa 95" was conceived as complement to the blockbuster exhibition "Africa: The Art of a Continent" at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, which failed to include contemporary art in its survey of the continent, while "Africa 05" began with the "Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent" exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. Both "95" and "05" purported to be celebrations of Africa in the UK as a whole but were staged almost entirely in London.

"In and Out of Africa: Art and Identities" was a conference held at the British Museum in conjunction with the opening events of "Africa 05." At the beginning of the conference, Chris Spring, curator of the African galleries at the Museum, offered this explanation for the conception of the year-long celebration: "When Gus Casely-Hayford and I began to dream about 'Africa 05' back in 2001, it was with a view to seeing how far we had come since the last big festival of African arts and cultures in the UK, 'Africa 95." A conference seemed to us the best way to assess this progress." In attendance at the conference were artists from "Africa 95," workshop and artist-in-residency participants, and several individuals included in the "Africa Remix" exhibition including curator Simon Njami.

The discussion between the artist participants and academic panelists focused primarily on identity and authenticity. Simon Njami, in a talk titled "In and Out of Africa: Art and Identities" (February 12, 2005), reminded the audience of the Hegelian notion that "Africa has no history," offering "Africa Remix" as a response. He followed this statement with the question that seemed to be the theme of the conference, "What kind of African are you?" A number of the artists included in his exhibition of contemporary African art are living and working in non-African locations and thus the question of representation was called into play. From the beginning of the conference and throughout "Africa 05," the topic of African artists living and working in diaspora was consistently revisited.

In stark comparison with the two dozen exhibitions in "Africa 95," the "Africa 05" website listed a multitude of venues. There were so many events associated with Africa in London in 2005 that there was simply no way to take them all in. However, it was the "Africa Remix" exhibition that served as the springboard for the year-long celebration. The thematically organized group show was curated by Njami, editor of the Paris-based journal Revue Noir. Questions about the inclusion of artists living in diaspora again surfaced, as many of the artists no longer reside on the continent. However, the curator's structuring of the exhibition in thematic sections allowed for a coherent review of work about (and in reaction to) Africa rather than presenting an idea of some coherent "Africanness." Artists such as El Anatsui, Dilomprizulike, and Romuald Hazoume commented on consumption in their use of transformed objects; Zwelethu Mthethwa and David Goldblatt looked at labor and production through photography; video/installations by Theo Eshetu, Loulou Cherinet, and Zineb Sedira challenged the exhibition viewer to experience a more intimate moment of contact; while Jane Alexander, Yinka Shonibare, and Ingrid Mwangi questioned the very idea of "Africanness" in their installations. While the exhibition as a whole challenged the viewer and reminded the public that Africa is an active participant in the world of contemporary art, the question remains: When will the need for these all-inclusive exhibitions of the "art of a continent" cease to be necessary?