Postcolonial archival fever and the musical archiving of African identity in selected paintings by Elias Jengo

What is it about?

This article examines the way music is figured in selected paintings by Tanzania painter Elias Jengo. It also identifies and discusses musical figures in these paintings that are used to archive African or Tanzanian identity. Through these paintings Jengo participates in constructing and enacting African/Tanzanian identity by invoking and depositing Tanzanian cultural heritage. The article argues that the archiving of Africanness in most postcolonial cultural productions is an expression of a fever that torments African postcolonial souls, a fever caused by a fear of the possibility of cultural loss. The article also discusses Jengo’s influence on his students and other young artists in Tanzania as an act of archiving. It argues that the future of Jengo’s work lies not only in his influence on these young artists but also in his own ability and readiness to take plastic forms, as well as his students’ eagerness to archive him in plastic forms.

Featured Image