An Afrocentric Approach to the Administration of 21st Century African Art: The Transformative Power of African Agency

Abstract

From African rock paintings created 50-70,000 years ago during African migrations to the art of the Nile Valley and the Benin bronzes, much of African art has been claimed and controlled by European institutions governing the capitalization and exploitation of African art and artists. The Western art world has had a vested interest in African art since the European conquest of Africa when much of it was stolen. Incorporating evidence from books, essays, magazines, reports, interviews, and documentaries, this study shows that an operational Afrocentric approach to African art administration dismantles the exploitative agency of the Western art industry to initiate a liberation process from its artistic confines. It enhances how African artists, the community, and cultural representatives on the continent and throughout the diaspora view African artistry from a cultural perspective and free themselves from the control of an industry profiting from their works by defining them from a Eurocentric racist perspective. Cultivating a creative ecosystem that functions as an organizing method by executing Afrocentric infrastructure to demonstrate creative, economic, and social values establishes a culturally sensitive platform to develop the administration, accumulation, and pedagogies of African art. It will have an educational purpose that requires becoming conscious of African cultural history and the function of art. From this perspective, it is possible to develop a cultural identity and grounded analysis of the creativity of the African world and its value from the past to the future.