Module description
Colombian legal scholar José-Manuel Barreto, in an article on decolonising human rights asks a troubling and important question: “Are we going to embrace today a human rights discourse that has been used since the times of early capitalism as a tool to legitimize violence, piracy and colonialism?” He goes on to question whether human rights are exclusively Western and if that means they are incompatible with non-Western cultures.
There are no straightforward answers. This course engages with the debate by studying artistic explorations of human rights from across East, West and Southern Africa. It starts from the premise that the arts are uniquely placed to foreground the complexities of being human. And that the arts also offer a space to explore the limitations of ethical frameworks and engage in their constant reframing.
Human rights organisations, both local and international, routinely use photography, testimony, film and music in their research, advocacy and outreach. Many artists, and individual activists also draw on discourses of human rights in their work bearing witness to injustices and petitioning for change. But these groups are often in tension. We will explore how artists question enduringly unequal and unjust lines of power and examine their contributions to contemporary societies across a range of countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Our discussions will be structured around themes such as human rights literacy, cultural agency, testimony, transitional justice, indigeneity and translation. We will draw on a wide range of contemporary cultural texts including literature (Yvonne Vera, Monica Arac de Nyeko, Antje Krog), photography (Zanele Muholi, Pieter Hugo, Yvonne Etinosa) and film (Renée Akitelek Mboya, Alrick Brown). During these conversations close reading and secondary material on cultural context will enrich our understanding.
We will create an interactive environment in the classroom and students will be encouraged to contribute their own examples of compelling artistic rights-based projects. One session will be structured around the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in Somerset House in October (student tickets around £10). This offers students the chance to engage with very recent work and the challenges of commercial frameworks. We will also include another (possibly fee-paying) gallery, theatre or performance visit, to see the work of African artists currently showing in London.
The module will appeal to students who wish to consider what literature, photography and film can do in the world. No previous experience writing about human rights, film or visual cultures is required. However, a grounding in literary studies or cultural studies is necessary.
Assessment details
4000-word essay
Teaching pattern
One two-hour seminar weekly