ACASA

The African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) is pleased to announce that the 2026 ACIP Workshop will be Revisiting and Reimagining “Imvo Zabantsundu”. The project was proposed by organisers Athambile Masola (Historical Studies), Litheko Modisane (Film and Media Studies), Sanele kaNtshingana (African Languages), and Wanga Gambushe (African Languages) at University of Cape Town and Sisanda Nkoala (Linguistics) of University of the Western Cape. Revisiting and Reimagining “Imvo Zabantsundu” will take place in Cape Town, South Africa in March 2026.

Revisiting and Reimagining Imvo Zabantsundu 

Revisiting and Reimagining “Imvo Zabantsundu” will be a two day immersion workshop delving into the newspaper Imvo Zabantsundu, the first Black-owned newspaper
in South Africa. Established in 1884 by John Tengo Jabavu (1859-1921), this newspaper not only laid the foundation for Black journalism but also generated a print culture that was challenging the colonial print culture that was emerging in the region. The newspaper has become a cultural artefact many refer to as a pioneering moment but few have engaged with it as a historical, cultural, and political artefact worth revisiting as a living and breathing archive. This workshop will bring together academics, students, journalists, and creatives to reinvigorate the newspaper towards a longer project which will culminate in a book that will revisit Imvo through scholarly and creative responses. This workshop will include collective close reading of the newspaper (those available), analyses of changes in the language
used over time, as well as a film screening which situates the newspaper within a broader
intellectual tradition of the world of letters in the southern African region.
In a context where English dominates public culture, it has become harder to imagine that South Africa once had a rich culture of multilingual newspapers such as Imvo as well as other newspapers that came later, such as llanga lase Natali, The Bantu World, and Koranta ea Becoana.
This workshop aims to challenge this narrowing of public culture by taking seriously the
newspaper as a cultural artefact which can reinvigorate contemporary public culture.

Founded in 2012, the African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) is a partnership between the Centre for Humanities Research at University of the Western Cape in Cape Town and the Laney Graduate School of Emory University in Atlanta. Supported by donations to the Ivan Karp and Corinne Kratz Fund, the ACIP fosters thinking and working across public cultural institutions, across disciplines and fields, and across generations. It seeks to advance inquiry and debate about the roles and practice of public culture, public cultural institutions, and public scholarship in shaping identities and society in Africa through an annual ACIP workshop and through the Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards, which support African doctoral students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences enrolled at South African universities.

Information about applying to organize the 2027 ACIP workshop and for the 2026 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards will be available in November 2025.

The deadline for both workshop applications and student applications is 1 May 2026.

For further information, see http://www.gs.emory.edu/about/special/acip.html and
https://www.facebook.com/ivan.karp.corinne.kratz.fund.

Beyond the “Mask:” Towards a New Paradigm of Collecting and Displaying African Art in U.S. Museums

Wednesday, May 14th, from 12:00 PM -1:30 PM CST | 10AM PST | 1 PM EST | 6 PM WAT/BST | 7 PM SAST/CEST | 8 PM EAT/EEST

A pair of Kimi masks (headpiece carved by David Sanou in the studio of André Sanou) performing greetings with the lead griot Tchiedo playing his drum behind them, Bindougosso district, Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkino Faso. Photo by Lisa Homann on May 3, 2022.

Join us on Wednesday, May 14, for a thought-provoking webinar discussion that examines how museums can reshape their approaches to collecting and displaying African art through ethical transparency, inclusive narratives, and critical practices. Inspired by the New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations exhibition (April 4–August 10, 2025) at the New Orleans Museum of Art, this panel explores case studies that honor artist agency, cultural authenticity, and global accountability by centering the voices of African artists and their communities. Beyond celebration, this dialogue challenges us to rethink, reimagine, and drive actionable change toward a more just and accountable future for African art curation.

This virtual event, presented in partnership between the Arts Council of the African Studies Association and the New Orleans Museum of Art, is free with registration. Registration via the link below is required to receive webinar credentials before the event. Registration closes one hour before the event.

Register Here

Panelists:

Aindrea Emelife is a Nigerian-British curator and art historian specializing in modern and contemporary art, with a focus on questions around colonial and decolonial histories in Africa, transnationalism and the politics of representation. Emelife has been the inaugural Curator of MOWAA (Museum of West African Art) in Benin City, Nigeria since 2023. Emelife is on the Board of Trustees for New Curators.

Genevieve Hill-Thomas is an art history professor at Ringling College of Art and Design where she combines her love of African art history with her background as a textile artist. Occasionally she works with local museums that hold collections of African art. She volunteers with the nonprofit Florida Craft Art in St. Petersburg, Florida to teach crochet to local middle school students during the school year, and with DIMA, a non-profit art school, in Niamey, Niger to help faculty and students in the weaving department.

Jean Borgatti is Consulting Curator – Global Africa, First Peoples – N. America & Oceania at Fitchburg Art Museum and long term affiliate of Clark University and Boston University. She is one of the pioneering theorists and scholars committed to recognizing, documenting, and advocating for the individuality of masquerade artists. Dr. Borgatti’s research and advisory role will connect some of the earliest scholarship in individual masquerade artists to that of this project, which puts a contemporary spin on her foundational work.

Jordan A. Fenton is associate professor of art history at Miami University, with an emphasis on the visual and performed expression of Nigerian masquerade arts, secret societies, esoteric knowledge systems, funerary rituals and installations, dress, economics and ways in which so-called “traditional” arts and artists operate in metropolitan cities. At Miami, Fenton teaches introductions on non-Western art and courses and seminars exploring Africa and its Diaspora. He is the co-curator of the New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations author of Masquerade and Money in Urban Nigeria: The Case of Calabar (University of Rochester Press, 2022).  

Paul R. Davis is Curator of Collections at the Menil Collection in Houston, TX. His academic research and publications focus on the visual arts and sociopolitical histories from the colonial and post-independence eras (18th–20th century) in West Africa. He was an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Centre for the Creative Arts of Africa at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa and a Fulbright-Hays DDRA Fellow based in Mali (West Africa). Davis was a co-director of the Collections Analysis Collaborative (CAC), an educational and object-based research initiative on the Menil’s ancient Mediterranean holdings with Rice University and University of Houston Clear Lake. His exhibition projects at the Menil have included ReCollecting Dogon (2017), Mapa Wiya (Your Map’s Not Needed): Australian Aboriginal Art from the Fondation Opale (2019), Enchanted: Visual Histories of the Central Andes (2021), Samuel Fosso: African Spirits (2022), Art of the Cameroon Grassfields, A Living Heritage in Houston (2023), and A Surrealist Wunderkammer (2024).

Please reach out to Caroline Bastian, ACASA Admin, with any questions at bastian@acasaonline.org.

Applications are open for African Critical Inquiry Programme’s 2025 Ivan Karp
Doctoral Research Awards to support African doctoral students in humanities and
humanistic social sciences at South African universities conducting relevant dissertation
research. ACIP seeks to advance inquiry and debate about the roles and practice of
public culture, public cultural institutions, and public scholarship in shaping identities and
society in Africa. Ivan Karp Awards are open to African postgraduate students
registered in South African PhD programmes working on topics related to ACIP=s focus.
Maximum award ZAR 50,000.
For full information see ACIP Opportunities at
http://www.graduateschool.emory.edu/about/special/acip.html.
ACIP is a partnership between Centre for Humanities Research at University of Western
Cape and Laney Graduate School of Emory University

The African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) invites proposals from scholars
and/or practitioners in public cultural institutions in South Africa to organise a workshop
in 2026. ACIP seeks to advance inquiry and debate about the roles and practice of
public culture, public cultural institutions, and public scholarship in shaping identities
and society in Africa. Applications may be submitted by experienced scholars and
cultural practitioners at universities, museums, and other cultural organizations in South
Africa who want to create or reinvigorate interdisciplinary, cross-institutional
engagement and understanding and are committed to training future scholarpractitioners.
Maximum award ZAR 75,000.
For full information, see ACIP Opportunities at
http://www.graduateschool.emory.edu/about/special/acip.html.
ACIP is a partnership of Centre for Humanities Research at University of Western Cape
and Laney Graduate School of Emory University

Deadline Thursday 1 May 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) Releases Best Practice Guidelines for Provenance Research and Restitution

New Resource Emphasizes Collaboration with African Institutions and Communities

Responding to an urgent and growing need for guidance on ethical stewardship of African collections in museums, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) has produced best practice guidelines for provenance research and restitution. The new resource, the first-ever for museums in the United States, emphasizes collaboration and communication with Africa-based peers, descendant communities, and other knowledge-holding constituents in assessing and determining the futures of collections. Developed with support from the Mellon Foundation, this foundational document is publicly accessible and recommended for sharing with all U.S. collecting institutions.

The guidelines were developed over a three-year period by a working group of over seventy specialists from the United States, Africa, and Europe. The initiative began in 2021 and was informed by ongoing dialogue with Africa-based institutions, professionals, and community members. The final document, ratified by ACASA in August 2024, encourages museums to uphold their ethical responsibilities in their stewardship of African objects, in addition to any legal requirements. This includes promptly responding to return concerns and claims. It also recommends that U.S. museums demonstrate an institutional commitment to:

• transparency regarding collection holdings and information about object histories
• working with interested parties on the African continent on collaborations, including returns, within this field-wide framework of accepted practice
• prioritizing research on collection holdings
• disseminating information about African arts collections in accordance with ethical computing standards

The resource includes guidance on provenance research, criteria and parameters for determining research priorities, case studies with recommendations, and resource material on relevant law and policy precedents.

Chika Okeke-Agulu (Princeton University), a leading international voice on African restitution, hailed the guidelines as “the most ambitious initiative ever by ACASA.” He added, “In its depth and scope, I can say that no one in the U.S. has gone this far to provide a compelling road map, a useful pathway to the complex matter of restitution and repatriation of looted African cultural heritage.”

Erica P. Jones (Fowler Museum at UCLA) and Amanda Gilvin (Davis Museum at Wellesley College), who co-led the working group that produced the document, expressed gratitude to the “many ACASA members who sought ways to honor past makers, descendent communities, and diaspora communities by embracing the push toward ethical returns. After over a century of requests, negotiations, and debates, we hope that this guidance will be an important step towards reshaping museological practice.”

ACASA’s current President, Paul Basu (University of Oxford), emphasized that the publication is only part of ACASA’s ongoing work to expand dialogues and networks with African institutions and communities. “The need to put ethics at the center of scholarship and collections stewardship is clear, and ACASA is well placed to play a central role in advocating for, sharing information and advice, and even coordinating training in all matters relating to provenance research and restitution. This important work is a key part of ACASA’s future vision.” As an immediate next step, ACASA will work toward the creation of a digital resource that will help Africa-based institutions and communities connect with African objects in U.S. museum collections.

ACASA is a U.S.-based professional organization, with over 1,800 members worldwide. For more than four decades, ACASA has championed African arts scholarship, connecting artists, researchers, curators and collections on the African continent, in North America, Europe and beyond. For more information about ACASA and how to join, visit acasaonline.org or contact ACASA administrator, Caroline Bastian Retcher at bastian@acasaonline.org.