Un-Doing Belonging: Mobilizing African Diaspora Art in the Art History Classroom

Taking the author’s pedagogical practice as a point of departure, the chapter explores the potential of African diaspora art to mobilize questions of belonging and identity in the 21st-century art history classroom. Central to this exploration is the question of how to address histories of colonial violence and racial oppression in African diaspora art without centring Europe or homogenizing Africa and its diaspora. Responding to calls to decolonize the art history curriculum in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, the chapter challenges both the colonial and imperial legacy of the discipline as well as the predominantly Eurocentric modes of teaching and the educators’ situatedness of knowledge. Focusing on case studies ranging from the 1980s until now, the author proposes to mobilize African diaspora art and its history following the methodology of Reggae, excavating layers of the past and relating them to the present. Focusing on questions related to form, material, and content in relation to questions of belonging, identity, and the utopian fantasy of an intergalactic diasporic existence, the chapter showcases the multitude of meanings of both ‘Africa’ and ‘diaspora’, highlighting ways African diaspora art and its histories can be a catalyst for change, emancipating the minds of teachers and students alike.