Contemporary Dakar has long been a compellingly cosmopolitan city situated at the westernmost point of the African continent (Diouf 2001). Transactional geographies have made the region important to the Black Atlantic, especially during early phases of the transatlantic slave trade (see Barry 1998). Global networking has continued, such as during French occupation when Senegalese intellectuals joined progressive anticolonial debates around the world (Harney 2004), and music (Shain 2018), sports, and other international exchanges continue to this day. Electronic media increase links between the homeland and an ever-expanding Senegalese diaspora (Babou 2021; Valente-Quinn 2021; Grabski 2017; Buggenhagen 2010; Abdullah 2009). Most Senegalese are Muslim and participate in universal practices (Ware 2014), yet many remain defiantly local. Indeed, some clearly state their refusal to “become acculturated through religion into the Arab culture. Instead … though we are...
Pape Diop's Mystical Graffiti: A Twenty-Year Retrospective
Allen F. Roberts is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA. Trained as a sociocultural anthropologist, his most recent publications include essays in the UCLA Fowler Museum's exhibition book Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths (2019) for which he also served as lead editor, and in Devotional Spaces of a Global Saint: Shirdi Sai Baba's Presence (2022). He coedited the latter with Smriti Srinivas and Neelima Jeychandran, and the volume is dedicated to the memory of Mary “Polly” Nooter Roberts (d. 2018). [email protected]
Mary “Polly“ Nooter Roberts was Professor of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA and Consulting Curator of African Arts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). She was an Africanist art historian whose doctoral research with Luba people of southeastern D.R. Congo led to noted exhibitions and publications including “‘The King Is a Woman’: Shaping Power in Luba Royal Arts” (African Arts, 2013). Al and Polly were coeditors of African Arts for many years and Polly was recognized through the Lifetime Leadership Award of ACASA, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association.
Allen F. Roberts is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA. Trained as a sociocultural anthropologist, his most recent publications include essays in the UCLA Fowler Museum's exhibition book Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths (2019) for which he also served as lead editor, and in Devotional Spaces of a Global Saint: Shirdi Sai Baba's Presence (2022). He coedited the latter with Smriti Srinivas and Neelima Jeychandran, and the volume is dedicated to the memory of Mary “Polly” Nooter Roberts (d. 2018). [email protected]
Mary “Polly“ Nooter Roberts was Professor of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA and Consulting Curator of African Arts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). She was an Africanist art historian whose doctoral research with Luba people of southeastern D.R. Congo led to noted exhibitions and publications including “‘The King Is a Woman’: Shaping Power in Luba Royal Arts” (African Arts, 2013). Al and Polly were coeditors of African Arts for many years and Polly was recognized through the Lifetime Leadership Award of ACASA, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association.
Allen F. Roberts, Mary Nooter Roberts; Pape Diop's Mystical Graffiti: A Twenty-Year Retrospective. African Arts 2024; 57 (3): 66–83. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/afar_a_00776
Download citation file:
Sign in
Client Account
Sign in via your Institution
Sign in via your InstitutionEmail alerts
Advertisement