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Stephen Chifunyise

The International Conference on African Cultures (ICAC) is nigh and will feature over 50 speakers from across the globe, local and international.

Some of the local speakers include Tapfumanei Gutsa, Admire Kamudzengerere, Christophe Till, Godfrey Mahachi, Stephen Chifunyise, Ancila Nhamo among others. On the International scene Bisi Silva, Gabi Thcobo, Jan Pather, Mulenga Mulenga, Tumelo Mosaka the list is endless.

To begin the profile review is a renowned professor of African American Studies at Temple University Keke Molefi Asante. He is an award winning lecturer, writer and has lectured on five continents, has held research and visits positions in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, China and South Africa. Molefi has authored and edited 95 books among them an African Manifesto in 2007 which won the Cheikh Art Drop Award.

Paul Godwin is one of the keynote speakers to grace ICAC conference. He is an independent curator, urban theorist based in London. His curatorial research and writing projects extend across the interdisciplinary field of contemporary art and urbanism with a particular focus on black and the diaspora. His curatorial projects include a number of internationally significant exhibitions including Migrations, Journeys into the British Art, Tate Britain (2012), Thin Black layers, Tate Britain (2011), Berado collection among other. Currently Godwin is curatorial director of the 3D Foundation International Sculpture Park and residency Verbier, Switzerland.

Moresore, Lupwishi Muyambi is currently Executive Director of the Observatory of Cultural Policies in Africa (OCPA) based in Maputo Mozambique. He was former UNESCO regional cultural advisor for Africa and its representative to Angola and Mozambique. Prior to that he served as Director of the National Institute of Arts in Zaire and has authored several books and articles on culture.

Abdellah Karroum is Director of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Moden Art and has organised and cocurated numerous international exhibitions for various institutions. These include capc Musee d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, where he worked from 1993-1996. Abdella is member of the Prince Pierre Monaco Foundation Artistic council for its contemporary art prize.

Ruth Simbao is a professor in Fine Art Department at Rhodes University, South Africa. She received a PhD from Harvard University Department of History, Art and Architecture in 2008 and was an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) post-doctoral fellow as part of the Humanities in Africa programme in 2010.

Ernestine White is also a curator of Contemporary Art at the Iziko South African National Gallery with over 16 years of visual art experience. She is also an artist whose works have featured in a number of major local and international collections. A career highlight has been the inclusion of her work into the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Mhoze Chikowero will also be amongst the speakers. Mhoze is an Associate Professor of African History at the University of California in Santa Barbara and ACLS Visiting Research Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is a research consultant at the Mbira Centre and a founding Fellow of the Mbira Institute, both based in Harare. He is the author of African Music Power and Being in Colonial Zimbabwe (Indiana University,2015 press)

Francis Grant Kwese Gbormittah lectures Radio, TV, Video, Media and Society at the Department of Theatre arts. Gbormittah studied at the University of Glawgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, and M. Phil in screen studies (Media and Culture)

To add on, Jimmy Ogonga will be part of the proceedings at ICAC 2017. He is an itinerant Artist and producer whose works interweaves between artistic practice and curatorial strategies. He is an alumnus of the Rijkoakademic van Beldeende Kunsten, Amsterdam. His curatorial projects include The Mombasa Billboard (200) Amnesia (2006-2009) Nairobi) and he recently spearheaded 1st Kenya Palic on the 2017

Samuel Sidibe is the current Director of the National Museum of Mali, holds a master’s degree in Art History and Archaeology and a PhD in History of African societies. From 19964-1996 as associate curator of the Niger Valley exhibition, he managed the itinerancy of this exhibition which has been presented in Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mauritania, Guinea and Nigeria..

Papa Ndosuunje Shikangeni is a founder of the Tulipamne International Artist workshop and boasts many accolades throughout his career. He has received several honorary awards which include certificate at the International Sculpture Symposium which was held in China years ago. His works have seen him participate in several exhibitions in South Africa, Botswana, UK, Germany, China and Russia.

On the local scene is Dr Shasekant (Sasha) Jogi. He is the managing director of Arup Zimbabwe (Private limited and has served as a managing director of centre for the Building Environment (Pvt) Ltd. Dr Jogi has more than 15 years experience in environmental, urban and regional planning. He has worked in various movements capacities in land use, planning, environmental design, teaching and research.

Azu Nwagbogu is founder and Director of the African Artists Foundation (AAF) based in Lagos, dedicated to the promotion and development of contemporary African arts and artist’s. Nwgbogu is founder of the National Art competition, an annual arts competition in Nigeria that provides a platform of exposure to emerging Nigerian artist. He is also founder and director of the Lagos Photo Festival of photography which brings leading local and International photographers into a dialogue with multifaceted stories of Africa.

Dana Whabira’s percentage and cultural heritage echoes from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Russia and Argentina making her an artist that hosts a unique set of cultural influences. She is a trained architect, artist and cultural facilitator. Whabira’s work is a snapshot of all media including experimental assemblages, installation, spatial intervention, sculpture painting and photography which incorporates performance as process.

Finally, John Giblin who is head of Africa within the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the British Museum. Prior to this Giblin was once a lecturer in the Heritage and Tourism group at the school of Social Science, psychology and a member of the Institute for culture and society, University of Western Sydney, Australia.

These are some of the regional and international speakers to deliver at ICAC in sub thematic concerns such as The Historical Dimension of Art in Africa, Development of contemporary art on the African Continent, Building from Scratch and Plugging the holes: Space for contemporary Africa, The Design Tradition in Africa and its impact on arts and culture and the role of Heritage in Formulating Identity.