Beyond Aesthetics: Use, Abuse, and Dissonance in African Traditions

In his most recent book, Nobel laureate, poet, essayist, and political activist Wole Soyinka offers a personal and poetic look at the politics and aesthetics of collecting. As a longtime art collector, Soyinka argues—usually passionately so—for the power of collecting as a vehicle for reclamation of Yoruba tradition and against dogmatic colonial and religious cultural cleansing. Beyond Aesthetics was developed and expanded from a three-part series of Richard D. Cohen Lectures delivered by the author at Harvard University in 2017. Of likely interest to art historians, the lectures were delivered concurrently with an exhibition at the Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art, which included objects from author's personal collection as well as the contemporary work of Nigerian artists Peju Alatise and Moyo Okedeji, among others. Following the lecture format, the book is split into three chapters: “Oga, Na Original Fake, I Swear!”; “Procreative Deities: The Orisa's Triumphal March”;...