African Artists under Mission Patronage

The development, promotion, and status of African art and African artists in twentieth-century Africa is linked to several stakeholders and agencies, including Western Christian missions. Fadhili Safieli Mshana, in African Artists under Mission Patronage, surveys how mission patronage of African artists influenced twentieth-century African art, presenting specific case studies of Oye-Ekiti Workshop (Nigeria), Cyrene and Serima missions (Zimbabwe), Grace Dieu and Rorke's Drift missions (Republic of South Africa), Kungoni Center of Culture and Art (Malawi), and Nyumba ya Sanaa/NYS or "House of Art," Bujora Mission, the Hernnhut Brethren of Urambo Mission, the Benedictine Abbey Ndanda, and Maneromango Lutheran Mission (Tanzania). Mshana considers the philosophies and policies of these missions, their approaches in training artists, the processes of knowledge exchange surrounding art-making and attitudes toward art, the role of visual traditions, the use of art objects, the status of artists, and the socio-economic climate of the cultures hosting the missions. He concludes that the artists and the missions that supported them made significant contributions to the history of contemporary African art.

Fadhili Safieli Mshana is professor of art history in the Department of Art at Georgia College and State University.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Questions of Patronage: Artists, Missions, African Art
Chapter One: An Overview of Western Missionary Art Patronage in Africa
Chapter Two: Sister Jean Pruitt and Nyumba ya Sanaa (NYS)
Chapter Three: Father David Clement and Bujora Church in Tanzania: Sukumaizing Church Design to Spread the Christian Message
Chapter Four: Art Patronage Lessons from Abbey Ndanda and Maneromango Mission
Conclusion: Implications of Mission Art Patronage of African Artists
References
About the Author