Introducing African Object Lessons

When thousands of objects were gathered into museums at the end of the nineteenth century it was argued that they could provide object lessons in human culture.

The object lesson was thought of as a tangible example of an abstract principle, but was also supposed to teach people how to act by showing the details of a bad situation.

In the early twentieth century LĂ©opold Senghor felt that African art was itself a kind of philosophy, a contribution to the humanism of tomorrow.

What lessons do African objects have for us in the twenty first century? What can we learn from them about Africa’s long relationship with Europe? What can they teach us about being and becoming human?

Through a series of conversations with scholars, curators, artists and activists, this podcast will keep returning to these questions. Hosted by Benjamina Efua Dadzie and Chris Wingfield, both born in Africa but educated largely in Europe, the podcast will bring a range of perspectives to the challenges of what Achille Mbembe has called learning to remember together.

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