Sight Reading Space Clearing: Africa and the Curious Case of North America
W hat if 'contemporary African art' was posed differently? What if one sidestepped its show-casing as eclectic extrusion from the African past (and exotic latecomer to international markets), and, from the broad array of visual production, began to identify aspects that seem relevant for North America's postcolonial future? That is, to seek a complex of spatial practices from contemporary Africa that are constructive precursors for the First World, not merely attractive additives to the marketplace. These questions are prompted by the recognition that both Africa and North America are explicitly defined by spatial configurations imposed by settler communities but only in Africa have nation-states with indigenous majorities emerged from within these frames. And the sense of shared histories as well as the temporal shear between North American and African 'post'colonialisms is caught by this question: when will a Native American/Canadian equivalent of Nelson Mandela be President/Prime Minister? A suitable point of departure is V. Y. Mudimbe's definition of