Kongo King Festivals in Brazil: From Kings of Nations to Kings of Kongo

by Marina de Mello e Souza Abstract Popular culture in Brazil owes a great deal to African cultural elements that have been reorganized and reassembled through various and multiple historical processes. One particular festivity that takes place in many regions and has occurred since the beginning of Portuguese colonization consists of the coronation and celebration of […]

De-centering Theatrical Heritage: Forum Theater in Contemporary Senegal

by Brian Quinn Abstract The current state of Senegalese theater is a source of concern for a number of the country’s most prominent directors and performers, many of whom have come to doubt the efficacy of the centralized cultural policies that have led to the construction of two grandiose national theaters just a few kilometers […]

Counterfoil Choices in the Kalabari Life Cycle

by Nimi Wariboko Introduction Kalabari ethnic identity is under enormous pressure as a result of modernization and Western influences. One Kalabari response to their exposure to foreign values, styles, cultural artifacts and ways of life has been to select, incorporate, and transform borrowed values, styles, and artifacts to create a new combination or ensemble uniquely […]

The Crisis of Cultural Memory in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”

by F. Abiola Irele Introduction If there is any single work that can be considered central to the evolving canon of modern African literature, it is, without question, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. The novel owes this distinction to the innovative significance it assumed as soon as it was published, a significance that was manifested in […]

The Cultural Identity of Africa and the Global Tasks of Africana Studies

by Kwasi Konadu Abstract This essay is concerned with the cultural identity of Africa and the appropriate study of Africa (ns). It is a direct response to the notion of conceptually and pragmatically situating Africa, in all its scope and dimensions, back into Africana Studies. The paper raises a fundamental question: whether the vocation of ‘African Studies’ is really about […]

African Studies Quarterly

Tag: Cultural Identity