The Book: Kongo Accross the Waters Is it the missing book or just a starter to discovering what really Kongo was and how many of Kongo people live in North America, South and the Caribbean? The book : KONGO accros the Waters, Université de Floride A taste of what will be discovered through this new book: A powerful statement through both word and image of how individuals of African descent have negotiated African cultural practices, whether through remembrance or rediscovery, as strategies for their physical and psychological health.- Jean Borgatti, Boston University Uses an interdisciplinary approach to understanding Kongo culture in Africa and its transformation in North America. Valuable in its scope and coverage, this is an important collection of studies from the leading scholars on Kongo.- Mariana Candido, author of an African Slaving Port and the Antlantic World The Kingdom of Kongo, situated in todays Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had already developed a sophisticated artistic and cultural life by the time the Portuguese arrived in 1483. Europeans soon admired and collected particular forms of Kongo art while Kongo elites converted to Christianity and started communicating with European courts through writing. With the development of the transatlantic slave trade, many less fortunate Kongolese were transported to the New World. From the Chesapeake Bay to New Orleans, Kongo peoples left their imprint on the life, art, and cultures of the African diaspora. Only recently have scholars begun to fully understand the extent of this influence. Immersing readers in Kongo history and culture, the contributors to Kongo across the Waters investigate how an African culture with considerable historical depth evolved over five centuries in West Central Africa and also contributed significantly to the process of culture formation in communities of enslaved Africans and descendants of enslaved Africans in North America By looking at art from Kongo and from African American communities in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, Kongo across the Waters brings to light historic links between West Central Africa and North America. This volume invites leading scholars of Kongo history, anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, and art to examine the history of Kongo peoples from the fifteenth century through today. These essays probe the historical interactions between the Kongolese and the Atlantic world, Kongo presence and influence in the United States, and Kongo-inspired artistic expression in contemporary art. Visually and textually appealing, Kongo across the Waters is an overdue and valuable contribution to the literature on African history and its Atlantic connections. Susan Cooksy is curator of African Art at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. Robin Poynor is professor of art history at the University of Florida. Hein Vanhee is curator of African collections at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium. University Press of Florida upf ISBN: 978 - 0 - 8130-4945 - 8 $30.00
Posted on: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 07:16:37 +0000
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