Davis O. Nejo Interviewed by Andreas Hirsch
Andreas Hirsch: There are questions that are posed in the wrong way, which is why there are no correct answers to them. But it can make sense to ask such a question anyway because doing so lets you find out what's actually wrong with the point of view that the question represents. One such question might be: Is Africa plugged-in or unplugged?
Davis O. Nejo: Plugged-in or unplugged-there's nothing wrong with the question, since it's one that is continually posed in Africa as well, whether in relation to business, politics, technology or religion.
But there's something I have to explain up front. There is a certain tendency to consider the continent of Africa as a single land, and to forget that Africa currently consists of 54 countries. Although the people in Africa accept being called Africans, they are nevertheless citizens of different countries.
It's a part of African tradition to be either plugged-in or unplugged. In African tradition, for example, a young man or a young woman gets plugged-in through a special ceremony, or he/she remains unplugged because he/she refuses to go through with this ceremony or doesn't belong to this particular group. So then, what does being plugged-in or unplugged consist of? When we speak of plugged-in today, we mean people who are connected to the so-called umbilical of the world-those, for example, who have a TV and a computer at home or who go out to the movies. But unplugged doesn't mean that people-even those in other cultures-who don't have these devices don't receive the information, since there is an informal, culturally-determined way to obtain information. It is precisely here that more should be invested, because then the question of plugged-in or unplugged will become obsolete-like a matter of fashion that is in or out-and new ways of achieving cultural communication will be opened up. I call that cross-cultural communication. If we're speaking of Africa, then Africa is plugged-in too since it's connected to the so-called umbilical of the world.
Which part of Africa do we mean when we speak of plugged-in or unplugged? ......
Read more in the Ars Electronica 2002 Catalogue
"UN-PLUGGED Art as the Scene of Global Conflicts"
Published by:
Hatje Cantz Publishers
Senefelderstraße 12
73760 Ostfildern-Ruit
Germany
www.hatjecantz.de
Distribution in the U.S.:
D.A.P., Distributed Art Publishers Inc.
155 Avenue of the Americas
Second Floor
New York, N.Y. 10013-1507
USA
phone: +1 212 6271999
ISBN 3-7757-1207-0
to order online at amazon.com