Perani, Judith, and N. H. Wolf, eds. Cloth, Dress, and Art Patronage in Africa. New York, N.Y: Berg, 1999.

Drawing examples from a wide range of African cultures, this ground-breaking book expands the continuing discourse on the aesthetic and cultural significance of cloth, body and dress in Africa and moves beyond contextual analysis to consider the broader application of cloth and dress to art forms in other media. In blending the concerns of Art History and Anthropology, the authors focus on the art patronage systems that stimulate production, consumption, commodification and cultural meaning, and emphasize the overriding importance of cloth to aesthetic and cultural expression in African societies. Through this approach they reveal complex processes that involve a series of actors, including textile artists, commissioning-patrons and consumer-patrons, all of whom shape cloth and dress traditions. These individuals not only influence production but are a key to understanding the cultural meaning of cloth and dress and, by extension, the body in Africa.

[Source: Bloomsbury Collections].

Sheila Petty

Professor, African and African diasporic cinema, University of Regina

E-mail: sheila.petty@uregina.ca

Phone: 306-585-4188

uregina.ca/mediaartperformance/faculty-staff/faculty/f-petty-sheila.html

Pfaff, Françoise. Focus on African Films. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004.

Emphasizing post-independent films released since the 1950s and the burgeoning commercial film production of the last decade, Focus on African Films provides unique and pluralistic perspectives on filmmaking throughout Africa. As a whole, the collection highlights the distinct thematic, stylistic, and socioeconomic circumstances of African filmmaking. Individual essays show how conditions in Africa have generated a broad range of views and techniques, from the stylistically innovative documentaries of Jean-Marie Teno and Abderrahmane Sissako and the "documentary fiction" of Mahamat-Saleh Haroun to the vibrant art films of Jean-Pierre Bekolo and the new films from South Africa. Contributors also outline the direction of increasingly popular, less didactic sub-Saharan filmmaking in films such as Daniel Kamwa’s Pousse-Pousse, Ngangura Mweze’s La vie est belle, and Imungu Ivanga’s Dôlé. Up-to-date and richly informative, Focus on African Films will be essential reading for students and scholars of African film.

[Source: Amazon].

Seth Phalatse

Chairperson, Institute for Global Dialogue

NGO

South Africa

info@igd.org.za

John Picton

Emeritus Professor, History of Art and Archaeology, University of London

jp17@soas.ac.uk

Pierrat, Emmanuel. Comprendre l’art africain [Understanding African Art]. Paris: Chêne, 2008.

In this book, Emmanuel Pierrat answers all the questions that people may have about African art, such as the idea of falsehood, the multiplicity of ethnicities and styles, the materials (from gold to ivory), the voodoo fetish, daily objects or symbols of power.

[Source: Amazon, adapted and translated from French].

Edgar Pieterse

Director, African Centre for Cities, South Africa

University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa

Website: africancentreforcities.net

Piotrowska, Agnieszka. Black and White: Cinema, Politics and the Arts in Zimbabwe. London: Taylor and Francis, 2016. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315745473.

In Black and White, Piotrowska presents a unique insight into the contemporary arts scene in Zimbabwe – an area that has received very limited coverage in research and the media. The book combines theory with literature, film, politics and culture and takes a psychosocial and psychoanalytic perspective to achieve a truly interdisciplinary analysis. Piotrowska focuses in particular on the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) as well as the cinema, featuring the work of Rumbi Katedza and Joe Njagu. Her personal experience of time spent in Harare, working in collaborative relationships with Zimbabwean artists and filmmakers, informs the book throughout. It features examples of their creative work on the ground and examines the impact it has had on the community and the local media. Piotrowska uses her experiences to analyse concepts of trauma and post-colonialism in Zimbabwe and interrogates her position as a stranger there, questioning patriarchal notions of belonging and authority. This book also presents a different perspective on convergences in the work of Doris Lessing and iconic Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera, and how it might be relevant to contemporary race relations.

[Source: Routledge].