NAB XVIII 2019

African Studies around the Globe
Future Africa Visions in Time: Transatlantic and
Transdisciplinary Encounters in Salvador de Bahia
Text and Photos DORIS LÖHR
Aworkshop at the Federal University
of Bahia taking place from
25 to 26 April 2019 fostered a
transatlantic and transdisciplinary debate
on the topic of “Future Africa Visions
in Time”.
Building on a long partnership with
the Centro de Estudos Afro-Orientais
(CEAO) at the Federal University of
Bahia (UFBA), Livio Sansone, CEAO
Director, Ute Fendler, in her function as
stories that offered examples of historical
and contemporary models that allow
a counter-discourse to develop towards
the dominant neo/colonial discourses.
Th ese perspectives were enriched
by artistic practices in photography by
Aderemi Adegbite (Nigeria), painting
and animation by Carlos Smith (hierrotv,
Bogota, Colombia) and Ayodele
Elegba, founder of Spoofanimation and
Lagos Comic Con (Nigeria) that bring
into being imaginative spaces of divergent
perspectives and stories that can
orientate the construction of identity in
The poster was designed by the Brazilian artist Alberto Escobar.
post-colonial societies with a large Afro-descendant
population, like Brazil,
Colombia, or Cuba.
Rina Caceres (Costa Rica), C. Maribel
Brull González (Cuba), and Edwin Salcedo
(Colombia), the invited speakers,
complemented the case studies from the
Brazilian context. Furthermore, some
comparative studies with contemporary
African milieus allowed participants to
critically reflect on the predominance
of historical links to Africa in the Latin
American context as well as the clash of
mythic and mystic images of Africa with
conceptualisations in contemporary socio-political
contexts and their respective
artistic expressions.
the Vice Director of the Bayreuth Academy,
and Doris Löhr, Coordinator of the
Bayreuth Academy, organised a transdisciplinary
and transatlantic workshop
at the CEAO in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.
Th e topic of the workshop Future Africa
Visions in Time inspired a dialogue
between researchers and artists from
Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Cuba,
Germany and Nigeria, that concentrated
on three major themes: “Em-bodied
Past/Future: representations of the black
body”, Stories and Heroes: linking the
past and the future”, and “Visions of
Future: socio-political perspectives”.
Several talks reflected on the representation
of the black body in painting and
photography from colonial times up to
today, questioning the repercussions of
the past on the present and the future.
Fendler and Osmundo Pinho (Universidade
Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia –
UFRB) presented papers on heroes and
54
The students at Campus St. Amara engaged in lively debates with the visitors.
Ayodele Elegba gave entertaining insights into his work.
Photo: Doris Löhr
Contributions from Bayreuth were concentrated
on the panel Visions of Future:
Socio-Political Perspectives. Using
research within the framework of the
Academy’s project, Löhr presented on
“The Use of African Languages in the
Social Media and their Impact on Sociocultural
Trends and Developments,” and
Florian Stoll on “Future(s) as a Research
Focus of Lifestyle Groups – Middle-
Income Milieus and their Perspectives
of the Future in Urban Kenya.” Th e conference
was held with the attendance of
an interested wider audience; a publication
is under way.
Prior to the conference, a workshop
organised by Fendler, Kleber Amancio
and Löhr was held at St. Amara campus
of the UFBA. Th e master class students
met with the Nigerian participants Elegba
and Adegbite and engaged in lively
discussions about histories and African
futures in time and space and the conceptual
transfer into animated fi lms and
photographs.