This Week in African Art and Culture is fraught with exciting news of wins and
recognitions from practitioners across architecture, visual art and literature. These
remarkable people, whose names are being etched in history, have their roots in
Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria—a testament to the vibrant art scene
thriving on the African continent with international impact …
Burkinabe German Architect, Diébédo Francis Kéré Wins 2023 Praemium
Imperiale
Architect Diébédo Francis Kéré has been named the 2023 architecture laureate for the annual Praemium Imperiale awards by the Japan Art Association.
The global arts prize has become a mark of the arts since its inauguration in 1988. Six nomination committees, each chaired by an international advisor, propose candidates in five fields: painting, sculpture, architecture, music and theater/film.
Artists are recognized and awarded for their achievements, for the impact they have had internationally on the arts, and for their role in enriching the global community.
Each laureate receives an honorarium of 15 million yen (U.S. $101,057) and a
testimonial letter. A medal will be presented by Prince Hitachi, honorary patron of the
Japan Art Association, in the Awards Ceremony held in Tokyo on Oct. 18, 2023.
By combining local materials and skills with innovative design and smart engineering
solutions while maintaining a focus on working with local communities, Diébédo
Francis Kéré has transformed architecture not only in Burkina Faso but also across
Africa and beyond. He studied in Germany and established the Kéré Foundation to raise money for his ambition to design and build a school for his birthplace.
In all his projects in Africa, Kéré has focused on providing simple, achievable plans for
buildings that utilize the skills and energies of the local community—using traditional
building materials and marrying them with modern design. Kéré’s designs weave
together elements of traditional African design with modern architecture, as revealed inthe colors of Coachella’s Sarbalé Ke (2019), the wooden patterns of Xylem (2019) at
Tippet’s Rise in Montana, and his constant referencing of trees—of their central role in
providing shade and a social center, Serpentine Pavilion (2017).
Senam Okudzeto Wins the Paul Boesch Art Prize 2023
The British American artist, researcher, writer and founder Senam Okudzeto (born
1972) from Basel, Switzerland has been awarded one of Switzerland’s highest art
awards (50,000 Swiss francs(U.S. $55,151)). The Paul Boesch Foundation honors the
socio-politically relevant work of an artist.
Senam Okudzeto’s writing, scholarly research and art practice encompass a wide range of mediums, including painting, film, installation and social sculpture. Her
methodological practice of “Afro-Dada” forges narrative connections between
unexpected vectors, an ongoing exploration of identity politics, material culture and
critical responses to previously overlooked socio-economic and political histories. Her
installations are designed to represent forgotten or unnoticed forms of material and
architectural culture as carriers of lost or hidden histories, focusing on the genesis of
contemporary West Africa and its diaspora.
Interwoven into these broader themes are ideas such as economics as an archive of
social relations and readings of Lacan in relation to race, performance and the gendered body. These “conversations” take place within a theoretical discourse on feminism, African modernity and a general analysis of material culture. This practice locates unexpected juxtapositions in the material culture of post-independence West Africa’s modernist narratives through her fluid identity and identifications as a West African of European and American descent.
Okudzeto has a Ph.D. in cultural studies from Birkbeck College, University of London
(2022). She has taught extensively across diverse fields, ranging from African studies,
material culture, and architectural and art history to practical and theoretical
approaches to drawing.
Recently, Okudzeto was the initiator and co-curator of the exhibition Fun Feminism, at
Kunstmuseum Basel (September 2022–March 2023). Moreover, she was the founder
and director of the NGO Art in Social Structures (AiSS). This now dormant project
worked towards creating experimental educational platforms, democratizing visual
culture, and creating and supporting heritage initiatives in Ghana through teaching
workshops and collaborations with junior and senior members of national television,
radio and print media.
26 Moroccan Artists Join Forces for Earthquake Relief
After Morocco was hit by a catastrophic 6.8 magnitude earthquake on Friday, Sept. 8, so far, the country has mourned the loss of over 2,000 lives and 1,404 seriously injured
people. The World Health Organization estimates that the earthquake has impacted over 300,000 people.
To lend assistance and support to those in need, a new collective has formed to raise
vital funds for critical, on-the-ground assistance. With the earthquake’s epicenter
located deep in the Atlas Mountains, remote Amazigh villages have been reduced to
rubble, with countless people still stuck, missing or unaccounted for.
Comprised of 26 established and emerging Moroccan photographers and artists, Artists For Morocco is a collective led by Moroccan GQ Middle East editor-at-large Samira Larouci, photographer Anass Ouaziz and designer Ismail Elaaddioui. Featured artists include Hassan Hajjaj, Meriem Bennani, Yto Barrada, Mous Lamrabat, Ilyes Griyeb, Hanane El Ouardani, Mounir Raji, Rida Tabit, Ismail Zaidy, Jinane Ennasri, Yoriyas Yassine Alaoui, Yassine Sellam, Mehdi El Mallali, Abdela Igmirien, Ismail Elaaddioui, Marouane Beslem, Mohamed Amine Houari, Ali El Madani, Salaheddine El Bouaaichi, Fatimazohra Serri, Joseph Ouechen, Iman Zaoin, M’hammed Kilito, Seif Kousmate, Imane Djamil.
Through a newly launched print sale, Artists for Morocco will be donating all proceeds
to two NGOs: Amal Women’s Training Center, a Marrakesh, Morocco-based women’s
charity delivering food to victims in need and Rif Tribes Foundation, an NGO working to
bring aid and support to the affected remote villages.
South African Authors C.A. Davids and Pulane Mlilo Mpondo Win the 2023 UJ Prize
The University of Johannesburg Prize for South African Writing (UJ Prize) in English has
announced the winners for its 2023 edition. The Main Prize winner is C.A. Davids
for How to Be a Revolutionary, and the Debut Prize winner is Pulane Mlilo Mpondo
for Things My Mother Left Me.
The UJ Prize is annually awarded by the University of Johannesburg for the best creative works in each of five categories: English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Northern Sotho, and literary translation. The winner of the Main Prize receives prize money of R75,000 (U.S. $4,000), and the Debut Prize winner receives R35,000 (U.S. $1,866). All the top three nominees in the respective categories are awarded certificates of recognition.
The winners were selected through a rigorous adjudication process, where seven judges evaluated over 100 books published in 2022.
How to Be a Revolutionary, by C.A. Davids, connects contemporary Shanghai, late
apartheid-era South Africa and China during the Great Leap Forward and the
Tiananmen Uprising by depicting the shared love for the poet Langston Hughes
between a South African diplomat and a Shanghainese citizen.
Prof. Ronit Frenkel, head of the English department at the University of Johannesburg
and chair of the UJ Prize judging panel, remarked that the winning entry was an
ambitious and expansive novel:
“How to be a Revolutionary by C.A. Davids is an extraordinary book that grapples with
the failures of a revolution only partly realized. Davids’ novel links three
narratives—that of Beth, a South African former anti-apartheid activist and current
diplomat in China, her neighbor Zhao, a former communist party adherent and the
fictionalized letters of Langston Hughes in the 1950s. This is a novel of important
questions, lived ambiguities and a finely crafted novel that reflects an author at her
peak.”
Things My Mother Left Me by Pulane Mlilo Mpondo is an anthology of three short stories
and two novellas that explore the ways in which the traumas of our mothers are
inherited by and transferred through their daughters.
Prof. Nedine Moonsamy, one of the judges of the UJ Prize, was impressed by the
experimental and unique nature of both the form and content of the work:
“Both stylistically experimental and lyrically punctuated, Pulane Mlilo Mpondo’s debut
novel, Things My Mother Left Me, is a poetic force. Mpondo weaves women’s lives
together, marking the existential horror and the communal enfolding of their
contemporary existence. In this novel, South African life breaks open on various planes; the spiritual, the visual, the poetic and the humorous all reach us as a gratifying and seamless narrative flow.”
Lola Shoneyin, Aké Festival Win International Aficionado Award
Lola Shoneyin and the Aké Festival have been announced as winners of the first
International Aficionado Award.
The International Aficionado Award is a collaboration between the Aficionado
Community of international publishing professionals, the Frankfurter Buchmesse
(Germany), and the Turin International Book Fair (Italy). It is designed to facilitate
relationships, support and encourage passionate publishing professionals with the aim of paying homage to the most innovative people, companies and initiatives through original collaborations that improve the quality of international publishing; giving visibility to the most extraordinary features of the publishing world and to all
professionals inspired and eager to collaborate for the good of the sector—to learn,
teach and share; encouraging and establishing a sustainable exchange of ideas on issues central to publishing.
The nominees for the first edition were revealed at the Turin International Book Fair on
May 11 with Lola Shoneyin and her Aké Festival in the running. They were nominated
for their outstanding efforts to support the promotion of African literature both locally
and internationally.
The award winner, Lola Shoneyin and her Aké Festival, was announced by its board of
Gaeb & Eggers GmbH literature agent Michael Gaeb, London Literary Scouting’s Rebecca Servadio, Klett-Cotta’s Tom Kraushaar, and Siltala Publishing’s Aleksi Siltala on Wednesday.
Board members Servadio, Ravi Merchandani and Daniel Medin said, “The Aficionado
Award was created to recognize unusual collaborations across the publishing world,
focusing on the forging of creative and original connections between readers and
writers. We were delighted when Lola Shoneyin—festival organizer, writer, publisher,
cultural entrepreneur—and her Aké Festival were selected as an entirely worthy and
apt winner of this first award.”
Responding to the win on social media, Lola Shoneyin said, “#Nigeria ���� won. Many thanks to @Book_Fair #FBM24 and @SalonedelLibro. Endless gratitude to my family, my team, @Sterling_Bankng @Ben_Aaronovitch, Adeity and all you amazing people who have supported me these past 11 years.”
The official Aké Festival account tweeted, “We are genuinely honored to have won this.
Congratulations to the entire Aké Arts and Book Festival Team and our creative lead, Ms. Lola Shoneyin.”
Shoneyin is to be honored at a dinner honoring her and her Aké Festival in Frankfurt on
Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023.
Compiled by Roli O’tsemaye
