The two posts below start off our blog, which both accompanies and transcends our conference (at UCI on January 16 and 17, 2009) on “Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa.”
We invite comments on these submissions as well as your own contributions (the latter should be between 500-1200 words) on any aspect of humanitarianism on the continent. Submissions can be theoretical or conceptual, policy related, artistically inspired,
commentaries on current events, or a combination of any of the above.We intend to make this ongoing blog a forum for humanitarians and students of humanitarianism across a wide variety of expertise and disciplines, in Africa as well as the West (and elsewhere). We therefore welcome contact information for additional participants.
We recognize that individual scholarly disciplines, the NGO world, foundations, donors, and policy-makers each have their own vocabularies and terminologies, some of which have become well-known to members internal to the group, some of which are shared among groups, and some of which can be difficult to decipher to those outside a given group. These terms and vocabularies have social and ethical as well as practical implications.We cannot always avoid the use of particular terms, but we can strive to make them understood across discourses wherever possible.Therefore, we also welcome questions and interventions about the meaning and translatability of terms and vocabularies used in debates about humanitarianism in Africa.
To submit a post, contact Tanya B. Schwarz (tschwarz@uci.edu).
Dance and Humanitarianism – Jan 20th 2009
I am a choreographer and director by trade, Africa and its diaspora has fuelled much of research and creativity. Following the conference, I’ve the following response;
Dance in the many parts of the ‘underdeveloped’ world is paradoxically at the leading edge of contemporary exploration in the west. This ranges from Krumping in LA to the nuanced traditional dances from Senegal, Mali, Guinea and so on. The temple dances from India and the Tap and Jazz dance of North America.
These are examples of dance forms that have been and continue to be incredibly influential on the western dance canon and heavily exploited commercially but without dues being paid to those that originate these forms.
I see a parallel in the ways in which the perception of Africa is relayed and shared within the realms of the Western gaze, with its static infantile imposition. In relation to the arts this creates a serious hierarchy where dance forms of the African Diaspora and other traditional forms are viewed as unsophisticated and raw, rather like the minerals that are extracted from the earth.
The fact is however that this ever evolving and innovative source of movement created by groups of people who observe dance as a part of life, is easily manipulated, exploited and maligned by the European mindset who superimpose a set of values that have little relationship to that which is demonstrated, therefore the complexities of these cohesive dance forms is never acknowledged on par with the forms derived from the west. Nor is there clear recognition of the fundamental ways in which these dance forms have formed the bedrock of the development of certain dance styles in the west. For example Capoeira from Brazil heavily influenced Modern dance in the 1990’s. Hip-hop is the dance form that is most popular amongst young people across the entire globe. Jazz dance is at the center (from the dances of the minstrels to the explorations of Ted Shaw) of the evolution of modern dance in America and it is the unheralded partner to America one unique contribution to Art though its forms of aleatory manifest through swing.
The need for recognition of what Africa has given and continues to give to the rest of the world is tantamount in the ongoing work of humanitarianism on the continent. Ngugi wa Thiong’o comments were pertinent and rang true in my mind at least. His comments looking at domestic policy at how Western countries treat their own poor was also arresting, this ties in with my reflection on dance innovation in America, it has been poorly acknowledged and follows a pattern of becoming codified and repackaged as commercial accessory for people and institutions who played no part in creating it.