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Harney Elizabeth. Ethiopian Passages:

Contemporary Art from the Diaspora. London:
Philip Wilson Publishers, 2003. Distributed by
Macmillan Palgrave. 128 pp. Photographs. Plates.
Chronology. Biographies. Notes. Suggested
Reading. \$30.00. Paper.

Peri M. Klemm

African Studies Review / Volume 47 / Issue 02 / September 2004, pp 197 - 198

DOI: 10.1017/S0002020600031206, Published online: 23 May 2014

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0002020600031206

How to cite this article:

Peri M. Klemm (2004). African Studies Review, 47, pp 197-198 doi:10.1017/
S0002020600031206

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 Book Reviews 197

nation of psychological insight and literary analysis. Perceptive analyses

that remain strongly in mind include an excellent description of the evo-
lution of the regime on Robben Island ("'Hell hole' to 'University'" [64])
and its reflection in the life stories that came out of and helped to change
that prison. The effects of exile on "Bloke" Modisane before his suicide in
Germany, on members of the ANC in the camps, and on Breyten Breyten-
bach in Paris receive enlightening and subtle examination. Although the
discussion of the return from exile lacks the sharp focus of other parts of
the book (perhaps because the experiences of and reactions to return were
so varied?), it is still an excellent presentation of the variety of reactions
and provides a fascinating perspective on the many members of the gov-
ernment who are themselves returnees from various exiles.
Strongly recommended.
Richard L. Peck
Lewis and Clark College
Portland, Oregon

Elizabeth Harney. Ethiopian Passages: Contemporary Art from the Diaspora.

London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2003. Distributed by Palgrave Macmillan. 128 pp.
Photographs. Plates. Chronology. Biographies. Notes. Suggested Reading. $30.00.
Paper.

Ethiopian Passages: Contemporary Art from the Diaspora accompanied an exhi-

bition of the same name at the National Museum of African Art and fea-
tures striking works of well-known and lesser-known artists from the
Ethiopian diaspora. The text was written by the museum's first curator of
modern and contemporary art, Elizabeth Harney, with shorter entries by
Jeff Donaldson of Howard University and the Ethiopian artist and scholar
Achamyeleh Debela, who is also a featured artist. Harney has chosen works
from ten Ethiopian artists; they include painting, sculpture, photography,
digital images, and mixed media. Despite the longstanding tradition with-
in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church that allows only men to paint, six of the
featured artists are women: Julie Mehretu, Kebedech Tekleab, Elizabeth
Habte Wold, Elisabeth Atnafu, Etiye Dimma Poulsen, and Aida Muluneh.
The other artists represented are Alexander "Skunder" Boghossian,
Wosene Kosrof, Michael Bethe-Selassie, and Achamyeleh Debela. While
most of the familiar names in contemporary art belong to this first genera-
tion of male artists who migrated over two decades ago from the School of
Fine Arts in Addis Ababa to Howard University in the U.S., the women,
generally younger, are part of the second generation artists to relocate
from and create art outside of the Horn of Africa. The fact that Harney has
brought these artists together is truly commendable.
Harney's goal is to "demonstrate the complexities, diversity, and vibran-
cy of artistic practice among artists of Ethiopian descent at work today" (9).
198 African Studies Review

The large color reproductions, in particular, convey the diverse repertoire

of styles, media, and subject matter; the range of experiences of displace-
ment is evident through the richness of the materials, the exquisite use of
color, line, and shapes, and the overall aesthetic sophistication. Harney's
introduction to each artist leads the reader to a deeper understanding of
their work, particularly how each artist directly or indirectly addresses issues
of migration, dislocation, and memory. She writes: "Ideas of belonging and
efforts to make place out of space center around memory as a tool for imag-
ining and capturing the features of home left behind" (18).
The transcribed discussion with Floyd Coleman, Jeff Donaldson, and
Abiyi Ford is by far the most compelling part of the catalog. Their voices
clarify the ways in which Ethiopian artists were influenced by the political
situation in Ethiopia during and after the restoration of Haile Selassie, by
American interest in Ethiopia, and by the somewhat contentious interac-
tions with the African American community. As faculty of Howard Univer-
sity, where several of the featured artists trained, they present the teacher's
perspective, a view rarely provided in the study of African artists. The
debate would have been even more stimulating if some of the artists fea-
tured in the exhibition had been included.
The major weakness of the catalog is that Ethiopia, as both an imagined
community and a place rooted in time and space, sometimes gets conflated
with notions of Africa, and Ethiopia itself becomes a religiously and cultur-
ally homogeneous entity. One cannot help wondering—what is Ethiopian
about diese works? Or for tiiat matter, African, transnational, or diasporic?
How does each artist see his or her work in relation to these ideas? Since
Ethiopia never experienced European colonization (except for the brief
Italian occupation), references to the Middle Passage and "post-colonial
expressions" (17) clearly do not address Ethiopia's unique history and
regional specificity. Second, an exhibition and a catalog centered on con-
temporary Ethiopian diasporic artists merit a closer examination of what is
meant by artist. If this refers only to someone who is academically trained
(an inherent assumption in the text but not overtly stated), then the artists
chosen here are atypical because of their privileged access to an urban edu-
cation and art school. Further, the text fails to address the fact that the
majority of the featured artists are embedded in Amhara-Tigrean culture
and language and connected to Christianity or the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church. By contrast, the majority of Ethiopians in Ethiopia identify them-
selves as Muslim, the Oromo are the largest ethnic group, and most people
considered artists by Ethiopian standards are not academically trained.
Despite these shortcomings, Ethiopian Passages: Contemporary Art from
the Diaspora is a fertile, thought-provoking catalog and an important con-
tribution to the field of contemporary African art.
Peri M. Klemm
California State University, Northridge
Northridge, California