Returns to Africa: Diasporic Artistic Practices and the Memory of Slavery
This article examines contemporary forms of “returns to Africa” in African American artistic practices, beyond nostalgic or essentialist perspectives. Through the works of Kara Walker, Nona Faustine, and Nick Cave, it analyzes how the memory of Africa and the history of slavery become critical resou...
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| Publicado no: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles, |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
| Publicado em: |
Angles
2025
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| Acesso em linha: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_9759 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_9759 https://doi.org/10.4000/159ou urn:doi:10.4000/159ou en https://journals.openedition.org/angles/9759 2025-12-03T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/159ou https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Returns to Africa: Diasporic Artistic Practices and the Memory of Slavery Angles Société des Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2274-2042 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles Michael, Androula performativité histoire coloniale Art afro-américain contemporain diaspora noire retour symbolique mémoire de l’esclavage corps-archive Afrique imaginée pratiques de résistance spectralité performativity colonial history contemporary African American art Black diaspora symbolic return memory of slavery archival body imagined Africa artistic resistance spectrality This article examines contemporary forms of “returns to Africa” in African American artistic practices, beyond nostalgic or essentialist perspectives. Through the works of Kara Walker, Nona Faustine, and Nick Cave, it analyzes how the memory of Africa and the history of slavery become critical resources for thinking about the present. These artists engage with absences, erased traces, and the legacies of colonial violence not to restore a lost origin, but to re-inscribe Black bodies, stories, and gestures within contemporary spaces marked by inequalities and structural racism inherited from the history of slavery. Here, the “return” becomes a performative and creative act, a tool for active memory and resistance, where Africa is less a geographical place than a symbolic space of struggle, reinvention, and creation. Cet article interroge les formes contemporaines du « retour à l’Afrique » dans les pratiques artistiques africaines-américaines, en dehors de toute perspective nostalgique ou essentialiste. À travers les œuvres de Kara Walker, Nona Faustine et Nick Cave, il s’agit d’analyser comment la mémoire de l’Afrique et l’histoire de l’esclavage deviennent des ressources critiques pour penser le présent. Ces artistes travaillent les absences, les traces effacées et les héritages de la violence coloniale non pour restaurer une origine perdue, mais pour inscrire les corps noirs, leurs récits et leurs gestes dans les espaces contemporains marqués par les discriminations et les inégalités héritées de l’histoire esclavagiste. Le « retour » devient ici un geste performatif et créatif, un outil de mémoire active et de résistance, où l’Afrique est moins un lieu géographique qu’un espace symbolique de lutte, de réinvention et de création. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
performativité histoire coloniale Art afro-américain contemporain diaspora noire retour symbolique mémoire de l’esclavage corps-archive Afrique imaginée pratiques de résistance spectralité performativity colonial history contemporary African American art Black diaspora symbolic return memory of slavery archival body imagined Africa artistic resistance spectrality |
| spellingShingle |
performativité histoire coloniale Art afro-américain contemporain diaspora noire retour symbolique mémoire de l’esclavage corps-archive Afrique imaginée pratiques de résistance spectralité performativity colonial history contemporary African American art Black diaspora symbolic return memory of slavery archival body imagined Africa artistic resistance spectrality Michael, Androula Returns to Africa: Diasporic Artistic Practices and the Memory of Slavery |
| description |
This article examines contemporary forms of “returns to Africa” in African American artistic practices, beyond nostalgic or essentialist perspectives. Through the works of Kara Walker, Nona Faustine, and Nick Cave, it analyzes how the memory of Africa and the history of slavery become critical resources for thinking about the present. These artists engage with absences, erased traces, and the legacies of colonial violence not to restore a lost origin, but to re-inscribe Black bodies, stories, and gestures within contemporary spaces marked by inequalities and structural racism inherited from the history of slavery. Here, the “return” becomes a performative and creative act, a tool for active memory and resistance, where Africa is less a geographical place than a symbolic space of struggle, reinvention, and creation. |
| author |
Michael, Androula |
| author_facet |
Michael, Androula |
| author_sort |
Michael, Androula |
| title |
Returns to Africa: Diasporic Artistic Practices and the Memory of Slavery |
| title_short |
Returns to Africa: Diasporic Artistic Practices and the Memory of Slavery |
| title_full |
Returns to Africa: Diasporic Artistic Practices and the Memory of Slavery |
| title_fullStr |
Returns to Africa: Diasporic Artistic Practices and the Memory of Slavery |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Returns to Africa: Diasporic Artistic Practices and the Memory of Slavery |
| title_sort |
returns to africa: diasporic artistic practices and the memory of slavery |
| publisher |
Angles |
| publishDate |
2025 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/159ou https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/angles/9759 |
| _version_ |
1877291862298984448 |