AfricAura Art Expo was inaugurated in Yaoundé in July 2004, at the headquarters of the sub-regional office of the International Labour Organisation for Central Africa.
We express our deep gratitude to all who believed in the project and who sponsored it up to the present stage.
Professor Simo David
The Resident Mission of the World Bank in Cameroon
The Franco-Cameroonian Alliance of the Adamaoua Province in Ngaoundéré
The International Federation of the Red Cross Societies
The Japanese Firm Euromirai
Association Yokuso Africa International
The University of Ngaoundéré
Nicholas Thaw
Robert Lacy (World Bank)
Roger Bracke
(Red Cross International)
Professor Maurice Tchuente, Rector, University of Ngaoundéré
Reverend Ursuline Sisters Adriana, Marcelinna, and Jayne of Ngaoundéré
Kadry Yaya
Fujiyama Terou
Elise Djuimou Tankio
Jean Pierre Bouwe
Paul Ngougnou
Terry Jenoure, Ed.D
Cameroon Radio Television Corporation (CRTV)
And in blessed memory :
Holvert Chaves
Madame Phyllis Jansyn
(The American Princess of the Savannah)
AfricAura Art Expo is brought to the United States thanks to the International Music and Art Foundation and the Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
AfricAura is a visual tale, over time, images and paintings...
Like a voyage across faces, symbols, places, facts, and ideas...
Outstanding validation of memory, traces of the African soul on a palette rich in its diversity and plurality. A dual perspective, merging and completing itself at the horizon, thus is revealed to the senses and to logic. All together it gives off an aura that, beyond the historical disruptions, continues to reveal itself and shows the path to follow. On one side lies the trajectory indicating the meaning of life which is the foundation of African happiness. On the other side lies the axis revealing the logic underlying different solutions to daily problems and existential angst.
The line of convergence of these two trajectories ultimately rests on the working potential of Africa as it confronts modernization and globalization. Through this catalogue AfricAura proposes to offer a unique narrative. This is with a method and logic for sure, but especially with an immense joy to share with you an African cultural narrative seen with new pathways of intelligence. The weave of this narrative will be unique since it must speak to the illiterate as well as to scholars; it must make children laugh as well as give developers food for thought.
The challenges that Africans must address are numerous. But how do they proceed without a clear vision, one that mobilizes their indigenous genius and foresight, one that inspires new ways of thinking about fundamental change? A clear vision, like a thirst for the future, implies a forceful dynamic. In this collection, the approach is to show that when this thirst for the future is put to the service of culture, it becomes hope for a new beginning. Its challenge in going forward is to accommodate the many axes of change without sacrificing its vision of life.
In fact, it is a widespread error to think that Africans are only worshipers of the past, firmly attached to predetermined values, unchanging and fixed once and for all. However, a new ideology, open and creating new values, is today very difficult to formulate given the historical betrayals of leadership. To suffer in silence, which is untenable, and to consistently avoid honest critical thought is to lack the courage to tackle one’s own ambitions. To resign oneself to the thought that there is nothing to be done for a lasting development in Africa is unacceptable to one’s conscience. Even though models of rational thought differ from one culture to another, the current exhibition is an exalted and determined effort to support African humanism and the universality of its creative genius by identifying its underlying intentions, motives, beliefs, and feelings.
Development, as a legitimate aspiration of the world’s people, is a beautiful dream. Emanating from these fifty-two paintings, both descriptive and abstract, is the intention to show that one of the essential functions of culture is to depict and imagine development. The art students, who were brought together by the AfricAura workshop in Yaoundé and Ngaoudéré in Cameroon, simply tried to sketch some of the adornments and colors of this beautiful dream. The overall structure and layout of this catalogue will provide a deeper understanding of the meaning and significance inherent in African symbolism.
The world village in which we are all involved favors a visual reading of reality. Today, the making of visual cultural images is the preferred means of communication worldwide. Our ambition is to earn your trust in the creation of a television series, the logical follow-up to and one of the main reasons for creating this exposition. The ideal would be for this work to allow each visitor, art or television viewer, to perceive current and positive aspects of authentic development on the African continent. In the eyes of the world, this television series would restore someof the soul of Africa. When broadcast on future programming on URTNA (L’Union des Radios et Television Nationale d’Afrique), this production would reach a wide audience of millions of people in Africa and throughout the world. Development would then be understood and experienced as a shared process, a contemporary global blossoming.
We maintain the hope, however, of being worthy of a greater partnership, widespread and relevant, whether cultural, technical, or financial. Our ambition is simple and straightforward: to create a cultural documentary series that will make a mark in pan-African television history. And we invite you to discover this vibrant exhibition, begun in order to probe the imagination, inspire conversation, and share the visualization of a simple idea, the African Way. May this be a model of progress, in harmony with the deep desires of the sons and daughters of the continent.
