ULG_RATAWA2020 - Rethinking the Artistic Trajectory of African Women Artists

This research critically analyses the artistic trajectory of two women artists in Africa as a starting point into broader and more complex conversations about the conservancy and alternative archivisation of artistic practices on the continent. The two artists include Agness Buya Yombwe from Zambia and Elizabeth Olowu who is of Nigerian descent. While there is considerable information about female artists in the West, there is a gaping lack of knowledge about African women artists of specific generations that are based on the continent. This research identifies this gap also in the study of women artists in Africa within the field of the contemporary arts of Africa, as such it foregrounds the importance of roles by women in African societies and highlights the need for their inclusion in the writing of a holistic global history. On one layer this research provides an in-depth engagement with each of the two artists’ practices, while on another level it offers a comparative analysis of the artistic discourses of women artists between the Nigerian and Zambian contexts. Last but not least, this research offers insights into how women artists navigate hierarchical and masculine socio-political and religious contexts that are prevalent in their geographic locations.