To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
Latest editorial
Africa, but not as you know it
BOB NEWLAND applauds a demonstration of the existence of a substantial African history that contributed much to world development long before European colonialism
ANCIENT SPLENDOUR: The Great Zimbabwe dates back to the Gokomere people, an eastern Bantu subgroup, which lived in the area from around 200AD and flourished from 500AD to about 800AD. The stone city spans an area of 7.22 square kilometres (2.79 sq mi) and could have housed up to 18,000 people at its peak. It is suggested that Zimbabwe is a contracted form of 'dzimba-hwe,' which means ‘venerated houses’ in the Zezuru dialect of Shona - usually the houses or graves of chiefs. It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by Unesco. Infamously during the white government of Rhodesia it pressured archeologists to deny its construction by black Africans
[Simonchihanga/CC]
If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL
CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear
GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul
GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis
An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence
Zeinab Badawi, WH Allen, £25
ZEINAB BADAWI, reflecting today’s widely recognised view, begins this amazing story: “Everyone is originally from Africa and this book is therefore for everyone.”
She spent eight years touring Africa, researching this mammoth project. Her purpose was to write an “accessible and relatively comprehensive history of Africa” which, unlike that of most people’s experience which began with the arrival of Europeans, “reflected the continent’s rich history told by Africans themselves.”
The scene is set by a detailed exploration of several phases of man’s development on the African continent to arrive at today’s Homo sapiens-sapiens. This encompasses the first large-scale movements of populations of which there have been so many since.
Similar stories
BOB NEWLAND appreciates an important contribution to the debate about how slavery helped to build the wealth of Western companies and states
ELLIS RAE recommends a stunning history of the active role played by the British monarchy in establishing and profiting from slavery
ROGER McKENZIE expounds on the motivation that drove him to write a book that anticipates a dawn of a new, fully liberated Africa – the land of his ancestors
MOLLY DHLAMINI welcomes a Pan-Africanist and Marxist manifesto that charts a path for Africa’s resurgence