AFRICANFUTURIST
This post relates directly to the global movements Africanfuturist and Afrosurrealist. Within the communities of African creatives, there are many artists who are engaged with the complex work, of decolonising the African Mind.
State of mind is where everything new begins. A thought, an idea, a reason, with a true purpose. Like minded people coming together, a community, and a movement begins.
AFRICA ANEW
The new Africa, the visions that the Africanfuturist see clearly, appears to be in mind only. All are aware, of the abstract nature in the word Africa. There are no state called Africa, no active African passport, no African citizenship. No unified economy, very little political unity and sovereignty, all are individual states, on a continent struggling to survive.
Africanfuturism is significant, a major shift. It signals a collective conscious awakening of artists, utilising the full spectrum of the media and creative arts, to decolonise the mind of africans, wherever they are in the world.
The movement incorporates African philosophies, traditional knowledge systems, spiritualities, cosmology, ancestral metaphysical reconnections, DNA realisation, histories, and future realities. A future that is being constructed right now.
The Africa we are witnessing today, in the present state, a huge continent of diversity, has very little to do with the indigenous populations. In reality, it is the aftermath and outcome of Arab and European led exploitations, for hundreds of years into the twentieth century. In the projected future, the past remain where it belongs, in the past. The Africanfuturist motto is this; “Step up and step into a tomorrow of your own making.”
AFROSURREALIST
Anyone entering the domain of professional popular music, could be overwhelmed by the dominance of African American music.
In a similar manner, artist entering the world of contemporary fine arts, cannot escape the dominance of the European art movements.
In Paris, France, during the 1930s, students from Africa and the French Caribbean Islands, influenced by the Surrealist movement. Started to develop ‘Negritude’ a community aimed at raising political awareness, and the consciousness of Africans. In the attempt to revolutionise the living human experiences.
Led by Aime Cesaire from Martinque, the movement utilised the surrealist ideology of political and social change, as a method to critique the negatives of European colonisation. The group began to challenge, and question the colonial authorities about their methods of power and control.
Today, many visual artist in Africa, assume the position of utilising their works, to shed light on issues that affect the life of communities, and countries around the world. Afrosurrealist use their expressionist creativity to explore sociopolitical issues, spontaneously reacting through intuition, to bring into view hidden unknown thoughts.
SURREALISM
Beginning in the early 20th century, Paris France, the ideas and concepts known as Surrealism, grew as a reaction against the horrors and destructions, in the aftermath of the First World War.
Surrealist attempted to channel the unconscious, as a means to unlock the power of the mind and imagination, going beyond accepted reality.
They believed that conscious rational thinking, repress the power of imagination. Weighing it down with imposed rules, taboos, regulations, and authorisations, block the route towards higher realities.
Surrealist teach, true revelations can be found in everyday life, all around us. If only we are able to see it. The focussed ideas were to challenge imposed values, and the status quo of society, moving into a search for personal, social, and political freedom.
The ideas and expressions of the Surrealist creative art movement, produced works in writing, painting, photography, film making, theatre, music, comedy, and other media. From the 1920s onwards, the ideologies of the Surrealist movement spread across the world, into philosophy, culture, social theories, and political thought. Remaining relevant in the present times.