Art and Activism: 50 Years of Africana Studies at KU

Homecoming 1969 was a feat to remember.  Until that year, KU had always crowned a white Homecoming Queen. The Black Student Union, dissatisfied with the University’s Homecoming Court selection process and lack of representation, elected its own Homecoming Queen, Lorene Brown, shown in the convertible at the center of this photograph. This act and regal celebration marked the appropriation of white dominance by Black student activists. These students rejected the systematic denial of African history and culture in the general curriculum. Along with several peers, Brown visited university campuses across the United States to study existing Black Studies programs for guidance in instituting curricular changes at KU.

As part of its mission to address the needs of KU Black students and serve the local Black community, the Black Student Union (BSU) nominated a Black Homecoming Court in 1969. On February 26, 1970, the BSU released a set of demands to address the racism and lack of Black representation at KU. The demands included that every department have at least one Black faculty member, that funding be increased for BSU, and that Black representation on administrative and governance committees be expanded. Another key demand was additional and meaningful support for the off-campus Black Studies Program beyond being offered as a minor. The demands were supported by Black faculty and staff as well as other campus allies.

The Black Student Union’s actions and activism were met with resistance. The University Press refused to print their newsletter, Harambee. Chancellor Chalmers and the administration refused to honor or explore the group’s demands. Meanwhile, KU’s Black faculty and administrators indicated their support for BSU and their goals. 

This issue of Harambee features revolutionary iconography of two male figures; one man breaks the chains of enslavement while another man runs with a gun in one hand and Black Studies books in the other. What books does he hold? AAAS archives indicate that a reading list in circulation included seminal books such as African Kingdoms by Basil Davidson; the Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois and other works such as The Black Flame and Dusk of Dawn; Frederick Douglass: Selections from His Writings; Facing Mount Kenya by Jomo Kenyatta; A Dying Colonialism and Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon; Black Muslims in America by Eric Lincoln; Black Power by Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton; Message to the Grass Roots by Malcolm X as well as his Autobiography; Neo-Colonialism: Last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah; Mao Tse Tung on Guerilla Warfare and Selected Readings by Mao Tse Tung; and many others.  
 

After the Department of African Studies was established in 1970, the Black Student Union (BSU) continued to advocate for and support Black students on campus. This brochure outlines the purpose and goals of BSU, and includes information regarding Black fraternities and sororities, the Office of Urban Affairs, Supportive Educational Services, the Department of African Studies, Financial Aid, and the Offices of the Dean of Men and Women.

 
AAAS archives document that students such as Lorene Brown (BSU’s Homecoming Queen in 1969), Zetta Jones, and Gary Jackson visited Black Studies programs in Illinois and on the West and East Coasts to gather resources in support of building a department of Africana Studies at KU. 

AAAS archives also show that three full-time professors were instrumental in creating curriculum for Black Studies: Mr. T. Copeland, Mr. Clement Keto, and Mr. Edward Eddy. Part-time appointments were given to Mr. Herb Ruffin, Mr. Dan Wilson, Mr. Horace Bond, and Mrs. Lelia Waters. Mrs. Joanne Hurst served as the Black Studies Secretary. This group helped transform the program into a department that elevated public scholarship and service.

Founding Chair Jacob Gordon described the department as "an embassy of Black student affairs" that bolstered existing BSU efforts through academic counseling and providing services to Black communities. The department extended public outreach and cultural promotion to reach audiences in public schools and the Leavenworth prison system. Professor Gordon cited Kwame Nkrumah, W.E.B. DuBois, and Carter G. Wilson as major influences on his leadership philosophy, which centered on the dissemination of knowledge and continual education.

The Afro House, located at 10th and Rhode Island, was sponsored by the Black Student Union (BSU). The Afro House served as the home for KU’s Black Studies Program and reinforced the Black Power Movement’s emphasis on increasing awareness of Black culture, history, and various forms of artistic expression. Ongoing efforts from the BSU, KU faculty, and administrators led to the creation of the Department of African Studies, which was officially approved and organized on August 25, 1970 within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The objective of the department was to pursue the systematic study of African civilizations in Africa and the Americas. Unlike the Black Studies Program, it was based on campus. The Kansas Board of Regents approved the baccalaureate degree in African Studies in 1972. 

Founding African Studies Chair Jacob Gordon led students and faculty in negotiating the name of the new department. Should it be called Black Studies or African Studies? 

In 1986, the department changed its name to African and African-American Studies (AAAS) to emphasize the historic and contemporary ties between African and African-descended people in the Americas.

Watch Professor Dorthy Pennington interview Professor Gordon.

Rick “Tiger” Dowdell was a Lawrence High School graduate and activist. He attended KU and was a member of the Black Student Union (BSU). After withdrawing from KU, Dowdell remained actively involved in the community and was a known presence at the BSU Afro House. On the evening of July 16, 1970, 19-year-old Dowdell was shot and killed by a Lawrence Police officer shortly after leaving the Afro House. Dowdell’s death galvanized protests, rallies, and strikes on campus and in Lawrence. The pictured protestor holds a poster memorializing Dowdell and calling for action. 

Watch a short video documenting Dowdell’s funeral procession, shot by KU Professor Emeritus Roger Shimomura. This and other videos related to Dowdell and his legacy can be viewed via the Langston Hughes Center. Student activists spray-painted calls for strikes as one strategy for bringing justice to the violent killing of Dowdell by a Lawrence Police officer. 

The Black Student Union’s written response to Dowdell’s death stated that he was murdered because of the color of his skin. Portraits of Dowdell accompanied calls for the campus to strike.

At a Black Student Union rally on the steps of Strong Hall, protesters held signs in remembrance of Dowdell and called for the Lawrence Police officer who shot him to be charged with his death.

AAAS students and faculty remain committed to this history of anti-racist activism and social justice through organizing and participation, community-engaged scholarship, public lectures on Islamophobia, film screenings on the Arab Spring revolutions, symposia on Race and Sports in Society, seminars on racial disparities in health care provision and #EndSARS, and courses on Black political thought, theater, music, and the Black Lives Matter movement, to name but a few.  
 

This quilt, made of cotton and batik fabric, features four silhouettes decorated with cowry shells, Austrian crystal, and metallic thread. These figures—defined by their Black bodies, bright headdresses, and skirts—are a direct reference to the monochromatic compositions of Aaron Douglas, a notable figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Jackson created this quilt in 2007 when the Spencer Museum of Art organized a major retrospective of Douglas’s work. Beyond this connection to the Spencer Museum and African American history, a central narrative of this work is the Ghanaian notion of sankofa. Defined as an embodied practice that translates from the Twi language as “go back and get it,” this philosophical and meditative process involves the exploration of forgotten histories and past deeds in order to move into a better future. In this quilt, Jackson employs the philosophy of sankofa to pay homage to African American artists of the past by reflecting on their artistic concerns and embedding their creative essence in the fabric. In this act of remembrance, Jackson weaves her vision of a collective African narrative and history into the very fiber of her creation.

Written by Natasha Welsh

“The right of Black and Native peoples to the ‘full dignity of Man;’ The right of women to civil, social, and political equality; the right of the aged to a secure old age.”  

Each print from this series corresponds to a line from Fidel Castro’s “Declaración de la Habana.” Adopted by the General Assembly of the People on September 2, 1960, the declaration condemned United States imperialism throughout Latin America, defended Cuba’s diplomatic relations with all socialist countries, and proclaimed the rights of Black and Native peoples, workers, peasants, women, and all those who were oppressed and exploited. The Declaración de la Habana also decried racism in the United States and extended a hand in friendship to the people of North America, a stance that both delegitimized the United States government and linked the liberation of Black people and Afro-Latinos across regimes and national borders. Here, Cabrera Del Valle boldly foregrounds three faces before a home for the elderly, positioning women, Black people, and Native people in recognition of each other, and charging them with the duty to fight for all of their rights in solidarity. When read in concert with the Declaración de la Habana, Cabrera Del Valle’s composition echoes the antiracism and anti-imperialism that characterized Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government and the new socialist state. 

Written by Mica Mendez

Daniel S. Williams’s photograph represents a Caribbean-American Labor Day Festival in Brooklyn, New York. This image encapsulates some of the complexity of Diasporic legacies: the people represented here descend from a lineage that began in Africa, then traveled to the Caribbean and eventually landed in Brooklyn. This carnival began in Harlem in the 1930s and was originally a pre-Lenten festival that took place in February. Due to the cold, it was originally held inside, but eventually took to the streets each year on Labor Day with costumed parades to music. Williams studied painting with abstract artist Ad Reinhardt but later pivoted to photography. His works typically depict the lives of African American people, and he had the first one-person photography show at the Museum of Harlem in 1975. 

Written by Liz James

Kara Walker is a world-renowned artist who challenges viewers to consider race, inequality, and histories of violence with her silhouettes. During the 18th and 19th centuries, silhouettes were a popular art practice mostly used by women as a way to keep a record of their loved ones. 

In The Means to an End...A Shadow Drama in Five Acts, Walker shows gruesome depictions of violence against Black enslaved people in the United States. The figures have stereotypically African American characteristics. In five “acts:” The Beginning, The Hunt, The Chase, The Plunge, and The End, Walker crafts a narrative that grows progressively more powerful and dramatic.

This exhibition is looking back at the past to examine the present day, to see what we are and what we have come from. We tend to look at the good times of the past and celebrate that, but this series encourages us to take a different turn, to look at times that most people tend to overlook or censor. Walker’s imaginative visualizations force the viewer to face the violence of the past.

Written by Corey Williams

In this painting, artist and calligrapher Yelimane Fall embraces the historical practice of calligraphy to create modern African art. This piece is one of a series of twenty-nine, one for each ode of the poem “Jawartu.” 

“Jawartu” was written by Sheikh Amadou Bamba and was meant to bless and protect anyone who read it. Bamba was a Senegalese Sufi saint and religious leader who lived from 1853–1927 and passively resisted French colonial power during this time. Even after he was exiled from Senegal by French colonial officials, he remained peaceful in his resistance, seeking to free the colonizers from their violence and the oppressed from their oppression. Bamba founded the Mouride Brotherhood, also known as Muridiyya or Murids, a sect of Sufi Islam in Senegal. 

 
Fall intends his work to radiate the purpose of the Sufi faith. Like Bamba’s poems, Fall’s works are meant to bless any viewer. He views himself as a “Messenger of the Faith,” and therefore signs each piece with MF. This signature can be seen in white in the lower right corner of this piece. Of the messages his work carries, Fall says, “No one is left out, everyone is included, the whole world belongs.” Fall’s layered images draw the viewer in and ask them to consider the many layers and colors, regardless of one’s ability to read Arabic or Wolof.

With his art, Fall looks back to the traditions and inspiration of Bamba, to create works that represent the message of the Murids, which encourage finding happiness despite economic hardships and to be tolerant and positive. 

Written by Heather Snay

Unlike the iconic strip-woven kente cloth commonly associated with African weaving, this particular wall hanging is a tapestry with figurative imagery. Set on an off-white warp, the wall hanging depicts a rural setting of villagers at work: carrying materials, doing laundry, and wading in the river. Each moment is separate from the next, all existing freely in space against the cream-colored background. This style can be traced back to a weaving school founded by Marjorie Pope-Ellis just outside of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Pope-Ellis opened her school to provide girls with the opportunity to learn technical skills and complete commissioned works of art.

The Pope-Ellis School of Weaving, founded around the 1930s, is similar to other art schools that opened in South Africa around the same time. Sites like Rorke's Drift Art and Craft Centre and the Grace Dieu School employed European instructors and combined European techniques with African-inspired imagery in an attempt to “foster pride and heritage.” The tapestries produced at Pope-Ellis are recognizable for their use of cream-colored backgrounds, unlike other South African tapestries whose geometric patterns went to the edge of their compositions. Works from the Pope-Ellis School of Weaving still incorporated geometric forms and flat colors, but depicted more pictorial images of livestock and people rather than abstract shapes and patterns.

Written by Rin Scholtens

Pot covers are commonly made of raffia (a plant fiber derived from palm leaves), but can also be made using materials such as plastic, and may incorporate other elements, such as mirrors and printed images. The object’s colors depend on the material used, ranging from synthetic or natural dyes to the bright colors of the plastic. Many of these pot covers were likely created using some form of coiling technique. Woven pot covers have a variety of uses depending on their materials and level of adornment. They can be used for the purpose their name implies: covering pots of food in order to protect it from bugs and debris. However, the more intricately decorated covers are also used for decoration and are frequently given as gifts. The covers displayed here were either given as gifts to or bought by Dr. Beverly Mack, Professor Emerita of African Studies at the University of Kansas, during her time living in and around Kano, the capital city of the Kano state in northern Nigeria, from 1979 to 1983. These covers were made by artists from the Hausa-Fulani culture. Pot covers like these play an important role in people’s everyday lives and visual culture, and beautify the presentation of food during Islamic religious holidays.   

Written by Brenna Rulis 

Pot covers are commonly made of raffia (a plant fiber derived from palm leaves), but can also be made using materials such as plastic, and may incorporate other elements, such as mirrors and printed images. The object’s colors depend on the material used, ranging from synthetic or natural dyes to the bright colors of the plastic. Many of these pot covers were likely created using some form of coiling technique. Woven pot covers have a variety of uses depending on their materials and level of adornment. They can be used for the purpose their name implies: covering pots of food in order to protect it from bugs and debris. However, the more intricately decorated covers are also used for decoration and are frequently given as gifts. The covers displayed here were either given as gifts to or bought by Dr. Beverly Mack, Professor Emerita of African Studies at the University of Kansas, during her time living in and around Kano, the capital city of the Kano state in northern Nigeria, from 1979 to 1983. These covers were made by artists from the Hausa-Fulani culture. Pot covers like these play an important role in people’s everyday lives and visual culture, and beautify the presentation of food during Islamic religious holidays.   

Written by Brenna Rulis

Professor Emerita Beverly Mack commissioned this tailored set commemorating the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Nigeria. Though Nigeria gained independence from England in 1960, the queen’s visit remained an honored memory when Mack lived in Kano in the late 1970s. 

Dutch wax resist cloth was the most valued and expensive material for tailoring in late 1970s Kano. Wax resist is a process where the artist creates a design using wax on cloth, then covers the textile with dye. Afterwards, the wax is removed, and the dye has only penetrated those parts of the cloth where there was no wax. In multicolor designs such as this one, the process is repeated multiple times.

Written by Liz James

Queen Elizabeth visited Nigeria in 1952. The material for this ensemble was created 25 years later to commemorate the visit, and was available for purchase by the yard. Following Nigerian custom, Dr. Beverly Mack purchased a six-yard piece of fabric to create a complete outfit, which included a head tie, top, shoulder covering, and wrap for the lower body. The ‘tee’ form top paired with the skirt wrapper was a basic and practical design for the time and region.

The most valued material for making tailored garments was imported Dutch wax fabric. In the wax resist process, wax is applied to selected areas of the fabric in order to preserve the color beneath. During the dye process, the wax may crack and let dye into the masked-off areas, resulting in colored striations between images in the motif. The British flags on the blouse demonstrate this effect in the dark blue striations running though the gold stripes. 

At the time she purchased the fabric, Dr. Mack met several Hausa women who recalled getting to see the new young queen during her visit to Kano. 

Written by Jenny Welden

In conversation, the pictured works illustrate how Yoruba spirituality and the early Christianity of the Kongo kingdom syncretized. Displaced Kongolese and Yoruba people, enslaved and brought to America, created new spiritual beliefs and practices unique to their cultural circumstances.

In the Yoruba tradition, Eshu is an Orisha—a god that rules over the forces of nature. Eshu guards the crossroads between the human and the divine, and acts as a messenger between the almighty god and humanity. He wears a crimson feather atop his head and is sometimes depicted with snakes.

Renée Stouts lithographs call upon themes of ritual, dreams, and the interaction between the divine and humanity. In Recurring Damballah Dream, a figure holds a pouch of something and appears asleep. Dreams are an example of a meeting of the divine and human worlds. Damballah, like Eshu, is an Orisha, in this case, the force controlling the sky.

Written by Trevor and Sam

In conversation, the pictured works illustrate how Yoruba spirituality and the early Christianity of the Kongo kingdom syncretized. Displaced Kongolese and Yoruba people, enslaved and brought to America, created new spiritual beliefs and practices unique to their cultural circumstances.

In the Yoruba tradition, Eshu is an Orisha—a god that rules over the forces of nature. Eshu guards the crossroads between the human and the divine, and acts as a messenger between the almighty god and humanity. He wears a crimson feather atop his head and is sometimes depicted with snakes.

Renée Stouts lithographs call upon themes of ritual, dreams, and the interaction between the divine and humanity. In Recurring Damballah Dream, a figure holds a pouch of something and appears asleep. Dreams are an example of a meeting of the divine and human worlds. Damballah, like Eshu, is an Orisha, in this case, the force controlling the sky.

Written by Trevor and Sam

In the 1900s, Cubans struggled with discrimination and called for a revolution for political freedom. Both of the pictured prints portray key issues addressed in the “Declaration of Havana” by Fidel Castro. The proclamation used early Cuban Nationalist rhetoric and called for an alignment of different social groups in order to fight back against oppression. 

Dumois’s print shows that women and Indigenous and Black people were subjugated to the worst forms of marginalization in society. The Cuban nationalist movement of this era called for a unification of marginalized groups to oppose the oppressive regime of Fulgencia Batista (1952–1959). In the second print, Sosabravo shows Castro demanding that all people fight for their rights, and claiming that the revolution was a civic duty for all Cubans. Depicting themes of racism, revolution, and decolonization, the prints allow for a discussion of the social and cultural environment of Cuba and Cuban nationalist thought.

Written by Haleigh and Zach

In the 1900s, Cubans struggled with discrimination and called for a revolution for political freedom. Both of the pictured prints portray key issues addressed in the “Declaration of Havana” by Fidel Castro. The proclamation used early Cuban Nationalist rhetoric and called for an alignment of different social groups in order to fight back against oppression. 

Dumois’s print shows that women and Indigenous and Black people were subjugated to the worst forms of marginalization in society. The Cuban nationalist movement of this era called for a unification of marginalized groups to oppose the oppressive regime of Fulgencia Batista (1952–1959). In the second print, Sosabravo shows Castro demanding that all people fight for their rights, and claiming that the revolution was a civic duty for all Cubans. Depicting themes of racism, revolution, and decolonization, the prints allow for a discussion of the social and cultural environment of Cuba and Cuban nationalist thought.

Written by Haleigh and Zach

Wilfredo Lam was born to parents of Chinese, European, Indian, and African descent and grew up in a Cuban environment and culture. Lam was very close to his roots in both Africa and Cuba, centering much of his artwork on his cultural inheritance. Lam asserted that his art was anti-colonial, and he was against oppressive influences in Cuban culture. He fought these influences in his artistic practice by returning to his roots and creating pieces that reflect a synthesis of cultural backgrounds. Discussing his art, Lam stated “The figures in my canvases are neither black, nor white; they lack a clearly identified race.” Referring to one of his works, Lam further noted, “I employed Cézanne’s pictorial conquests in this painting, a painting also tied to Africa in terms of its poetry, as well as to Western culture and to Cuba. The painting is a synthesis, because I have worked in both directions.”

These quotations can only give us a small idea of the various cultures and themes that Lam used to create his works, representing not only his diverse backgrounds but his attitude toward colonial dominance as well.

Written by Marina and Matt

Trade connected the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt to the Akan confederation in Ghana, as well as many locations in-between. Along with Islamic beliefs, traders exchanged materials such as brass and silk for gold dust, textiles, and other goods. Asante kings, believing in the sacred power of Islamic prayer and Qur’anic script, collected items such as Mamluk ablutions vessels—containers holding water for ritual cleansing before prayer—for use in Asante traditional religion. Akan artists drew inspiration from the inscriptions and motifs of Islamic trade goods, as well as Akan proverbs, to create the small geometric and figural weights used to measure gold dust. The weights served an important commercial function and were also highly valued for their imported brass material and artistry. Similarly linked to trade, men’s embroidery, exemplified on caps worn by Muslim men throughout West Africa, indicates piety and prestige.

Written by Ashley Offill

Trade connected the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt to the Akan confederation in Ghana, as well as many locations in-between. Along with Islamic beliefs, traders exchanged materials such as brass and silk for gold dust, textiles, and other goods. Asante kings, believing in the sacred power of Islamic prayer and Qur’anic script, collected items such as Mamluk ablutions vessels—containers holding water for ritual cleansing before prayer—for use in Asante traditional religion. Akan artists drew inspiration from the inscriptions and motifs of Islamic trade goods, as well as Akan proverbs, to create the small geometric and figural weights used to measure gold dust. The weights served an important commercial function and were also highly valued for their imported brass material and artistry. Similarly linked to trade, men’s embroidery, exemplified on caps worn by Muslim men throughout West Africa, indicates piety and prestige.

Written by Ashley Offill

Jellal Ben Abdallah, a member of the artist group the École de Tunis (Tunis School), was renowned for his miniature painting, watercolors, and monumental design. He portrayed female musicians, octopi, and starfish in Orchestre sous-marine, a study for a ceramic tile mural in the Hôtel les Palmiers, a modernist hotel designed by Olivier-Clément Cacoub. This painting is featured in Jessica Gerschultz’s book Decorative Arts of the Tunisian École. Similarly, the small sketch depicts five musicians, fish, and sea urchins on the seafloor. Ben Abdallah’s signature, written in Arabic, forms the oud (lute) strings. 

These works are rare examples of Arab surrealism in a U.S. museum collection. The untitled still-life represents the artist’s lifelong practice of painting miniatures and Arab instruments. Ben Abdallah, like other members of the École de Tunis, engaged with historical art forms found in Arab and Islamic lands as part of his modernist practice. His miniatures, particularly desired by Tunisian collectors, have been displayed as paintings, inserted into precious jewelry, and circulated as postage stamp designs. Ben Abdallah passed away at the age of 96 on November 9, 2017, and continued painting until the end of his life.

Jellal Ben Abdallah, a member of the artist group the École de Tunis (Tunis School), was renowned for his miniature painting, watercolors, and monumental design. He portrayed female musicians, octopi, and starfish in Orchestre sous-marine, a study for a ceramic tile mural in the Hôtel les Palmiers, a modernist hotel designed by Olivier-Clément Cacoub. This painting is featured in Jessica Gerschultz’s book Decorative Arts of the Tunisian École. Similarly, the small sketch depicts five musicians, fish, and sea urchins on the seafloor. Ben Abdallah’s signature, written in Arabic, forms the oud (lute) strings. 

These works are rare examples of Arab surrealism in a U.S. museum collection. The untitled still-life represents the artist’s lifelong practice of painting miniatures and Arab instruments. Ben Abdallah, like other members of the École de Tunis, engaged with historical art forms found in Arab and Islamic lands as part of his modernist practice. His miniatures, particularly desired by Tunisian collectors, have been displayed as paintings, inserted into precious jewelry, and circulated as postage stamp designs. Ben Abdallah passed away at the age of 96 on November 9, 2017, and continued painting until the end of his life.

Jellal Ben Abdallah, a member of the artist group the École de Tunis (Tunis School), was renowned for his miniature painting, watercolors, and monumental design. He portrayed female musicians, octopi, and starfish in Orchestre sous-marine, a study for a ceramic tile mural in the Hôtel les Palmiers, a modernist hotel designed by Olivier-Clément Cacoub. This painting is featured in Jessica Gerschultz’s book Decorative Arts of the Tunisian École. Similarly, the small sketch depicts five musicians, fish, and sea urchins on the seafloor. Ben Abdallah’s signature, written in Arabic, forms the oud (lute) strings. 

These works are rare examples of Arab surrealism in a U.S. museum collection. The untitled still-life represents the artist’s lifelong practice of painting miniatures and Arab instruments. Ben Abdallah, like other members of the École de Tunis, engaged with historical art forms found in Arab and Islamic lands as part of his modernist practice. His miniatures, particularly desired by Tunisian collectors, have been displayed as paintings, inserted into precious jewelry, and circulated as postage stamp designs. Ben Abdallah passed away at the age of 96 on November 9, 2017, and continued painting until the end of his life.

This wall hanging is an example of an Egyptian khayamiya appliqué. Its design challenges art historical narratives that attribute movements such as Egyptian Revival, Arts and Crafts, or Art Nouveau solely to Euro-American artists and theorists. Rather, African artists also shaped global decorative arts movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, which were inseparable from colonial and imperial contexts. This object’s Pharoanic theme reveals that Neo-Pharoanic imagery was not the exclusive domain of Europeans who were inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. Egyptian artists, such as khiyamiya-makers and the sculptor Mahmoud Mokhtar, adopted ancient motifs and symbols during a period characterized as the Egyptian Awakening. At the time this piece was collected, Egypt was experiencing a wave of nationalism that reclaimed and celebrated Egyptian art and culture from European authority.

In the 11th century, African leaders brought Islam into the lives of people living in what is now Nigeria, Niger, and Chad. In 1804, Fulani religious reformer Uthman dan Fodio formed the Sokoto Caliphate. This caliphate was an expansive Islamic empire that incorporated multi-cultural Hausa city-states and centers inhabited by Nupe and Yoruba people, many of whom were Muslims or practiced multiple faiths. The Sokoto Caliphate exemplified the urban cosmopolitanism of many West African cities. Often, royalty of the Sokoto Caliphate patronized male weavers, tailors, and embroiderers who created a range of stunning textiles similar to the style of this horse covering.

Saddle blankets continue to be emblems of royalty used by elite Hausa and Nupe men during equestrian travel and special processions during Islamic holidays. The bright colors, intricate decoration, and intensive labor of their creation signal the wealth, status, and personality of the rider. This example was used by His Royal Highness Alhaji Sanda Ndayako, the Etsu Nupe (King) of the Bida Emirate in northern Nigeria.

Strip-woven cloths illustrate the longevity and vigor of artistic exchanges on Islamic trade routes. They were historically made by itinerant male Muslim weavers in open market spaces who used narrow, portable looms to weave long, slender bands that once served as currency throughout West Africa. Weavers assembled these strips to form patterned cloth for ceremonial fabrics and clothing. 

The play between horizontal and vertical lines in this cloth from Kano, Nigeria, illustrates the gendered expertise required for cultivating indigo, hand-dyeing fibers, and weaving cloth. In this example, a male artist carefully pieced together the woven strips so that the blue and white patterns span the width of the cloth. The deep indigo color is associated with Kano, where the dyeing of textiles in pits with a mix of indigo, water, potassium, and ash was passed along family lines from the late 15th century.

Written by Ashley Offill

Arts worn on the body signify identity, social status, and personal taste. They can also reflect women’s creative contributions to commercial networks and markets. An artist’s gender may govern choice of medium for making jewelry and other personal objects. Often, female artists in Eastern and Southern Africa work with beads, shown in these examples of Maasai and Ndebele beadwork. Although lingering colonial perceptions fostered a simple and binary view of some African jewelry as inauthentic “craft,” artists created personal adornment for many reasons. Through artistic production, these artists rejected societal marginalization, expressed cultural values, and experimented with trade beads and other valuable materials. The geometric designs in this Ndebele beaded panel reflect murals that women painted on the outside of homes to resist apartheid policies. These policies forced the removal of Zulu families to “tribal homelands” in rural areas in order to strip Black South Africans of their citizenship and render them invisible. Under these oppressive conditions, women artists asserted their creativity, identity, and resistance through murals and beadwork.

Arts worn on the body signify identity, social status, and personal taste. They can also reflect women’s creative contributions to commercial networks and markets. An artist’s gender may govern choice of medium for making jewelry and other personal objects. Often, female artists in Eastern and Southern Africa work with beads, shown in these examples of Maasai and Ndebele beadwork. Although lingering colonial perceptions fostered a simple and binary view of some African jewelry as inauthentic “craft,” artists created personal adornment for many reasons. Through artistic production, these artists rejected societal marginalization, expressed cultural values, and experimented with trade beads and other valuable materials. The geometric designs in this Ndebele beaded panel reflect murals that women painted on the outside of homes to resist apartheid policies. These policies forced the removal of Zulu families to “tribal homelands” in rural areas in order to strip Black South Africans of their citizenship and render them invisible. Under these oppressive conditions, women artists asserted their creativity, identity, and resistance through murals and beadwork.

Carrie Mae Weems’s Magenta Colored Girl was the 2017 KU Common Work of Art to accompany the KU Common Book, Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine. The photograph and book call into question the arbitrary nature of racial ordering and coloring, of identity and identification. The recognition of skin color as a cultural value aligns Magenta Colored Girl with the pursuits of Citizen, as each demonstrate aspects of racism through form and content.

Ligon uses the texts of African American authors as images to address issues of racial identity. The black-on-white text is from the 1928 essay by Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” and the black-on-black text incorporates the first lines of Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel Invisible Man. These prints, reproduced in Citizen and included in numerous Spencer Museum of Art exhibitions, are frequently used in teaching by AAAS faculty.

Ligon uses the texts of African American authors as images to address issues of racial identity. The black-on-white text is from the 1928 essay by Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” and the black-on-black text incorporates the first lines of Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel Invisible Man. These prints, reproduced in Citizen and included in numerous Spencer Museum of Art exhibitions, are frequently used in teaching by AAAS faculty.

Ligon uses the texts of African American authors as images to address issues of racial identity. The black-on-white text is from the 1928 essay by Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” and the black-on-black text incorporates the first lines of Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel Invisible Man. These prints, reproduced in Citizen and included in numerous Spencer Museum of Art exhibitions, are frequently used in teaching by AAAS faculty.

Ligon uses the texts of African American authors as images to address issues of racial identity. The black-on-white text is from the 1928 essay by Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” and the black-on-black text incorporates the first lines of Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel Invisible Man. These prints, reproduced in Citizen and included in numerous Spencer Museum of Art exhibitions, are frequently used in teaching by AAAS faculty.

AAAS was one of many KU partners that sponsored artist Alexandra Bell’s visit to install three temporary murals on campus buildings as part of programming related to the 2017 KU Common Book Citizen. These murals edit and reframe examples of racial bias found in articles within Bell’s regular newspaper, The New York Times. Watch Bell’s lecture during her visit to KU.

On the east side of Chalmers Hall, Bell installed the piece Charlottesville. In this work, Bell reframes coverage of the 2017 Charlottesville protests, allocating more space for coverage and documentation of the deadly violence. Bell encourages viewers to prioritize discussion of the white nationalist rally in a college town and the violent aftermath of the counterprotests.

On the east side of Watson Library, Bell installed A Teenager With Promise, Annotated. In this work, Bell radically edits media coverage of Michael Brown and Officer Darren Wilson of Ferguson, Missouri, creating a memorial to Brown rather than intertwining a story of a policeman and his victim. Bell rejects the newspaper's "both sides" set-up and returns the focus to the beloved life lost. 

Three prints from Willie Cole’s series Beauties were selected as the 2016 KU Common Work of Art to accompany the KU Common Book Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The gouged and architectural surfaces of these printed ironing boards resemble shrouded figures as well as diagrams of slave ships that were circulated by abolitionists in the 18th and 19th centuries. Cole’s evocations of servitude and slavery through domestic objects such as irons and ironing boards connect many aspects of his history and career. His great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother all worked in domestic service, and his studio in Newark, New Jersey, was once a sweatshop. When asked if he projects associations with slavery onto these objects Cole countered: “I bring it out. The objects have a memory and history of their own. So if you have a slave, or just a domestic worker, people working for little money, their objects have a memory of that experience.”

Ulrick Jean-Pierre’s portrait of Marie Laveau was the 2018 KU Common Work of Art that accompanied the KU Common Book, Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work, by Edwidge Danticat. The painting was part of the exhibition The Ties that Bind: Haiti, the United States, and the Art of Ulrick Jean-Pierre in Comparative Perspective, a project supported by AAAS, with significant contributions from faculty member Cécile Accilien as the Spencer’s fall 2017 Integrated Arts Research Initiative fellow. Marie Laveau was an important Creole manbo, or priestess, who was integral to the development of the Vodou religion in New Orleans—where it is known as Voodoo. This religious practice has roots in Haiti and mixes elements of Catholicism with African and West Indian spiritual beliefs. In this way, Vodou/Voodoo and its practitioners exemplify the complex connections among Haiti, the United States, and other parts of the world. Laveau’s portrait contains many symbols that reference this blend of religious and cultural traditions: a bell, asson (sacred rattle), rooster, dove, candles, crucific, and Bible.