Visual Redress in Africa from Indigenous and New Materialist Perspectives

Through an indigenous and new materialist thinking approach, this book discusses various examples in Africa where colonial public art, statues, signs and buildings were removed or changed after countries' independence. An African perspective on these processes will bring new understandings and assist in finding ways to address issues in other countries and continents. These often-unresolved issues attract much attention, but finding ways of working through them requires a deeper and broader approach. Contributors propose an African indigenous knowledge perspective in relation to new materialism as alternative approaches to engage with visual redress and decolonisation of spaces in an African context. Authors such as Frantz Fanon, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o and George Dei will be referred to regarding indigenous knowledge, decolonialisation and Africanisation, and Karen Barad, Donna Haraway and Rosi Braidotti regarding new materialism. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual culture, heritage studies, African studies and architecture.

Elmarie Costandius is Associate Professor in the Visual Arts Department at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Gera de Villiers is Postdoctoral Fellow for Visual Redress at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Introduction: Originating, (re)creating and (re)futuring visual redress Part I: Theoretical perspectives on visual redress 1. Engaging in Indigenous anti-colonial knowledge production 2. Feminist new materialism and visual redress Part II: Visual Redress in Africa 3. "Africanising" a modern art history curriculum in Nigerian universities: Development and constraints 4. Reflecting on post-apartheid heritage redress: From unsettled pasts to unsettled presents and uncertain futures 5. Change and stasis in the semiotic landscape of a school for young offenders in Eswatini: Towards a decolonial space 6. Visual redress at Stellenbosch University, South Africa 7. Whatever happened to Cecil?: Monuments commemorating Rhodes before and after #RhodesMustFall 8. Postcolonial monuments in Bamako, Mali: Encoding heritage, history and modernity 9. Landscapes of memory: Ake Centenary Hall and the making of Egba identity, 1934-1999 10. The art of (de)colonisation: Memorials, buildings and public space in Maputo around independence. 11.The Faidherbe statue and memory making in Saint-Louis-du-Sénégal, 1887-2020 12. The removal of colonial names, symbols and monuments in Uganda 13. From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe: Renaming of places and streets in Zimbabwe Part III: Visual redress abroad 14. From the monument to the museum: Controversy and diversity in dealing with toxic monuments in Germany 15. Reclaiming the Monument: Processes towards dismantling symbols of oppression in Richmond, Virginia 16. Dreaming of destruction: From direct action to speculative iconoclasm in Aboriginal protest, Australia, 1970-2021 Postscript