Un/making difference through performance and mediation in contemporary Africa

This special issue of the Journal of African Cultural Studies grew out of a panel the editors organized at the European Conference on African Studies in Lisbon in June 2013.The different contributions to this special issue stress that in order to develop new directions in the study of identity, belonging and politics of difference, we need to take the connections of aesthetics and politics as a starting point. The articles investigate in diverse settings and types of action how we can through a focus on aesthetics approach diversity and the politics of difference and similarity in fresh ways. Contributions: Un/making difference through performance and mediation in contemporary Africa (Heike Becker & Dorothea Schulz); Dancing to the rhythm of Lopoldville: nostalgia, urban critique and generational difference in Kinshasa’s TV music shows (Katrien Pype); Making Manding in the concert hall – Jali Pop in Paris. Ka Manding ke sumung-bungo kono – Bii jaliyaa Pari saatewo kono (Hauke Dorsch); Positioning and making citizenship through Obama K’Ogelo Cultural Festivals in Siaya County, Kenya (Steve Ouma Akoth); Performative ethnography: difference and conviviality of everyday multiculturalism in Bellville (Cape Town) (Ala Rabiha Alhourani); ‘C’est d’abord moi’: performing the identity of a professional female choreographer (Nadine Sieveking); A hip-hopera in Cape Town: the aesthetics, and politics of performing ‘Afrikaaps’ (Heike Becker). [ASC Leiden abstract]