Cultural Images and Expressions

This research cluster involves the following project:

• Cultural Images in and of Africa

with sub-projects:

• The Nordic Colonial Mind
• The State of the Arts in Zimbabwe
• Cultural Constructions of Zimbabwe
• Cultural Dynamics in Africa

The cultural self-images of Africa have in the past decade undergone changes, which both merit new research and also attention as a factor in social change. The post-independence nationalist agenda stressed on nation-building with its emphasis on national unity, the return to traditions as a source of pride and identity, and a universal subject’s quest for liberation. This agenda was modified with the recognition of the multiethnic city as a site both for contest and power struggle and cultural creativity and protest. In the more recent phase, there is a questioning of the national cultural agenda, with recognition of a great number of volatile and changing sets of identities. Female writers have been in the forefront in showing the complexities of the liberation process, and the inadequacies of the universal (male) subject.