Toward a Unified Africa: A Concept, a Reality, a Promise

In Africa Is Not a Country (2022), Dipo Faloyin states, “A continent motivated by a collective rejection of the designated ethnic divisions of the past may choose to shape itself into something that ... looks curiously, productively, like a country.” Inspired by Faloyin’s notion of Africa as a concept, a reality, and a promise, this panel considers the potential, and perils, of the continent as a unified space in art history. While the African continent has long been marked by linguistic, cultural, and administrative divisions, as seen in the 1884 Berlin Conference, it has also been a site of unity, such as the 1963 establishment of the Organization of African Unity. Today, the continent remains divided along an imaginary line, with the Sahel serving as the boundary that separates the Maghrib from the remaining territories. Visual iconography from south of the Sahara has defined “African art” at the expense of the full spectrum of Africa’s arts. Meanwhile, the political and cultural power of Pan-Africanism has been reinvigorated by citizens of Africa and its diasporas.

With these complications in mind, this panel is organized around two questions. First, what approaches and strategies can we identify that have either reinforced or challenged these divisions and/or desires for union? Second, could the notion of a unified Africa offer a framework for interpreting African art that foreground congruities and shared threads without sacrificing local specificities? By fostering an interdisciplinary dialogue, the panel seeks to explore the scholarly stakes of visualizing a unified Africa.