In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Reimagining Our Missing HistoriesEria Nsubuga SANE1 and Sikhumbuzo Makandula in Conversational Partnership
  • Sikhumbuzo Makandula (bio) and Eria Nsubuga (bio)

All images are courtesy of the artists unless otherwise noted

While an interview could be described as a view among, between, betwixt, or in the midst of two subjects—from s’entrevoir (see each other); entre (between) and vue (view)—many interviews in art history are hierarchical not only in the sense of an interviewer “authoring” the material received from the respondent, but also in the sense of the theorist or writer shaping the ideas of the practitioner. As discussed in the First Word, “Situating Africa,” there is a tendency for writers in the “north” to theorize the professional practice of artists in the “south,” developing what Gordon Lewis (2006) refers to as a geography of reason. In their book Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data, Herbert J. Rubin and Irene S. Rubin (2012:7) develop the term “conversational partnership” to describe two or more participants who play an active role in shaping content as they cocreate meaning. This conversational partnership between two artists—one based in Uganda and the other based in South Africa—developed out of the publishing workshop at Rhodes University in June 2016, which aimed to approach the creation of knowledge from the perspective of “sideways learning” (see “Reaching Sideways, Writing Our Ways” in this issue). —Ruth Simbao

SIKHUMBUZO:

SANE, in your view, what is the role of an artist within your context in Uganda?

SANE:

An artist can remind us of our own humanity and, in some cases, our stupidities. Uganda is a unique place where the elite expose the highest disregard for creativity and revel in their ignorance of all things creative. As such, I find it imperative to discuss the status quo in which politicians divide up the spoils of the country with reckless abandon while the ignorant elite either cheer on or participate in the process of self-cannibalization.

The artist’s role is to expose nakedness. In many ways our history is like a form of nakedness—nakedness hidden in the dark. Darkness may obscure information but it also makes possible the nuances of interpretation as well as the interesting possibility of transforming into the present or the future. The past—when exposed—is able to mutate its meanings and contexts. While the past can be viewed as sacred (in the sense of the sacrosanctity of a parent’s nudity), in other ways it allows one who is brave enough to look at it with scrutiny to discover what the past itself has hidden in the dark. Exposure becomes the present, and obsession with the present can obstruct what the present should see about the past. The concept of “nakedness in the dark” interests me, because I do what I may otherwise not do when exposed to light.

SIKHUMBUZO:

In our discussion about your artwork you stated, “I am not a pessimist.” I find this statement interesting. What propels you to say this?

SANE:

I say that I am not a pessimist because many people have called me a prophet of doom for Uganda. In this country, any dissenting voice is referred to as adui—the enemy. I have several narratives running concurrently in my work, and what has driven my artistic practice in recent years has been outrage. I think something has gone horribly wrong in Uganda as a whole, but I also believe that we are not on the precipice of disaster. I think we can correct the underlying problems if we wake up now. I recently attended a conference in Minerva Art Academy, Hanzehogeschool, that was themed “Being Political in Art and Design” and focused on the concept of “truthfully telling it as it is with courage.” A number of presenters discussed the distinction between the theory of parrhesia (truth saying) in art and the practice of parrhesia in art. I often need courage to say what I am saying against the backdrop of a society that is lying naked in the dark.

SIKHUMBUZO:

During your recent participation in the [End Page 68] publishing workshop at Rhodes University you screened Part I of an animation video...

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