December 2005 saw the rare publication of a new volume on East African
visual culture: Hassan Arero and Zachary Kingdon (eds.) East African
Contours: Reviewing Creativity and Visual Culture (Contributions in
Critical Museology and Material Culture Series, Horniman Museum)

Eastern Africa is often neglected in surveys of African 'art'. Masks and
sculpted human figures, which are generally the main focus of interest for
historians of African 'art', are most notable for their relative rarity
when compared with the rich and accomplished traditions of the Zaire basin
and West Africa. Various theories have been put forward as to why East
African sculptural traditions are apparently "inferior" to those of west
and central Africa, but there is no evidence, in the end, to suggest that
East African peoples are significantly less concerned than other African
peoples with 'beauty' (however it is defined) and with appreciation of apt
or meaningful form and with creative expression. The real challenge is not
to explain why one culture produces more or less in the way of material
objects than another, but to establish how particular expressions or forms
of creativity relate to their makers' and users' intentions and how they
function and are given meaning in particular social contexts. Eastern
Africa is a region of enormous environmental and cultural diversity. A
complex history of migrations and dispersals of peoples and the various
impacts of trade, conquests colonialism and 'post-colonialism', add to
both the opportunities and challenges involved in studying the cultural
productions of this fascinating region. Eastern African cultural
landscapes, and the visual and material expressions they give rise to,
challenge us to abandon our preconceptions about what categories of
material item represent 'legitimate' objects of study and appreciation. If
we move beyond historical preoccupations with the objects in themselves
and apply ourselves to the particular problems that eastern African
material presents to the researcher, we will not only generate fresh
insights into cultural questions relevant to the region, but will create
new, and potentially fruitful, directions for the field of study as a
whole. This publication is intended to play a small part in that process.


Contents
Forward by Prof John Mack

Introduction: Visual Culture and Creativity in Eastern Africa, Re-viewing
a Neglected Branch of the Discipline Hassan Arero and Zachary Kingdon

1. Creative Frontiers: Sculptural Innovation and Social Transformation in
Eastern Africa Zachary Kingdon

2. Tracing Contours of Creativity in Pastoralist Visual Culture
Hassan Arero

3. Joy Adamson, The Peoples of Kenya and the Desire for Eden
Dominic Marner

4. Acts of Acquisition: Five Narratives of Collecting for a Museum of
Ethnography Wilhelm Östberg

5. Not Really African? Kanga and Swahili Culture
Chris Spring

6. The Politics of Pattern: Interpreting Political and National
Iconography on Kanga Cloth Simon Clark

7. Mapiko Masquerades of the Makonde: Performance and Historicity
Paolo Israel

8. Luo Head-dresses: Researching Material Culture in Northwestern Kenya
Gilbert Oteyo