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From the Editor
- Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art
- Duke University Press
- Number 2, Spring/Summer 1995
- p. 7
- Article
- Additional Information
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EDITOR To be forewarned is to be f o r e a r m e d . This saying should have been u p p e r m o s t in our minds when we embarked on this project —viz, to bring t o an i n t e r n a t i o n a l audience t h e m a n i f e s t a tion o f a discourse t h a t had been for t o o long dispersed and subsumed within many hegemonic critical structures. As a n y o n e w h o has been involved in putting t o g e t h e r a few lines o f t e x t o f any kind could i m a g i n e , publishing a magazine on such fecund a topic as c o n t e m p o r a r y African art, but one which also i n h a b its a truly f r a g m e n t a r y terrain in terms of o r g a n i z a t i o n , is no easy task. Suffice it to say t h a t our premier issue was t h e o f f spring o f a " d i f f i c u l t b i r t h " as our friend Alix du Serech put it t o me. But here we are a g a i n , having made t h e necessary a d j u s t m e n t s , and voila! we have a n o t h e r issue o f N k a . Readers of t h e first issue might notice a visible difference between t h e present edition and t h e last o n e . While an i m a g i native , critical discourse underwrites this project, we would be f o o l i n g ourselves if we fail to recognize t h a t t h e quality of reproductions counts as m u c h . T h a t , o f course, would be a f o r e gone conclusion, and we would n o t belabor t h e p o i n t . A t any rate, t h e most crucial a d j u s t m e n t we have m a d e , o f which we are most happy for is our t w o new editors. As a critic, writer, and artist Olu O g u i b e is a name t h a t anyone familiar with current criticism in c o n t e m p o r a r y practice will surely recognize. N o t only in t h e fact t h a t he has written extensively on t h e s u b j e c t , but also because he has productively and brilliantly engaged t h e t h o r n y issues o f identity, nationality, and difference in a m a n n e r t h a t frustrates prior readings o f such topics. A n d no less recognized in his critical expansion of notions of c o n t e m p o r a n e i t y in African art is our second editor, Salah Hassan. Salah, a scholar, curator, and professor of African art has been a presence in t h e domain o f discourse on c o n t e m p o rary African a r t . The terrain of contestation for any productive dialogue in art and cultural studies t h o r o u g h l y disallows t h e kinds of revisionist practices t h a t are built on anachronistic pedagogy. Nka obviously aims for s o m e t h i n g different. The f r a g m e n t a r y nature of cultures, w h e t h e r enclosed...