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East African Art in the Fusion Period
By
Donna Pido, Associate Professor, Department of Design and Creative Media, The Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi
During the 19th Century, as the colonial incursion gained momentum, three great artistic traditions began to interact.. The interactions took many forms and were driven by several forces not the least of which were force, esthetic persuasion and material change. The result was a complex set of developments that have been largely ignored and grossly under-studied because historians and other scholars have focused on linear political and eventual realities. The European mindset of self-superiority above all others and the definition of African cultures as ‘backward’ and in need of replacement has been a major contributor to the scholarly neglect of East African esthetic traditions. In this article the author examines the three grand artistic/esthetic traditions that came together in East Africa. The indigenous African, the Indian Ocean Rim and the European. After describing the three, the author discusses specific examples of continuity, elaboration and innovation, of historical significance, of communicative value, of enablement and of dissemination of the esthetic and social ideals of several selected communities from the late 1800s to the present. We can see the many ways in which force, opportunism, defiance and innovation have enriched everyone’s artistic output.
