Postcolonial archival fever and the musical archiving of African identity in selected paintings by Elias Jengo
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Date
2014-01-10
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis Group
Abstract
This article examines the way music is figured in selected paintings by Tanzania painter Elias Jengo. It also identifies and discusses musical figures in these paintings that are used to archive African or Tanzanian identity. Through these paintings Jengo participates in constructing and enacting African/Tanzanian identity by invoking and depositing Tanzanian cultural heritage. The article argues that the archiving of Africanness in most postcolonial cultural productions is an expression of a fever that torments African postcolonial souls, a fever caused by a fear of the possibility of cultural loss. The article also discusses Jengo's influence on his students and other young artists in Tanzania as an act of archiving. It argues that the future of Jengo's work lies not only in his influence on these young artists but also in his own ability and readiness to take plastic forms, as well as his students' eagerness to archive him in plastic forms.
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Keywords
Elias Jengo, African archives, postcolonial fever, plasticity, painting in Tanzania, music of Tanzania
Citation
Sanga, I., 2014. Postcolonial archival fever and the musical archiving of African identity in selected paintings by Elias Jengo. Journal of African Cultural Studies, 26(2), pp.140-154.