Some Preliminary Responses to “Beyond Single Stories”

In the following responses to our Winter 2019 First Word essay, “Beyond Single Stories: Addressing Dynamism, Specificity, and Agency in Arts of Africa” (African Arts vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 1–6), Leslie Wilson, John Monroe, Salia Malé and Marguerite de Sabran, Maxime de Formanoir, and Joshua Cohen separately expand upon our thought that we must reimagine language for writing and presenting so-called historical arts of Africa to disparate audiences. Their insightful comments indicate general agreement that scholars must continue to reflect critically on the language we use in our presentations of African arts in museums as well as in universities or anywhere else in the world. As Formanoir importantly observes, language we use about the arts has the potential to shape political discourses and thus the lived experiences of people within a country. Monroe, Formanoir, and Cohen also acknowledge uneasy and varied relationships between past constructions and present realities....