In Odantalan, the development of contemporary creative processes around a common African heritage has a dominant characteristic which is cultural, linguistic and historical. It has concrete aims such as resurfacing the writing traditions in Central Africa and their continuities in the Caribbean and South America while placing these communicative knowledge systems at the center of new creative work.

It addresses the processes of emancipation and reconstruction that have taken place in the forming of maroon, palenque and kilombos societies as well as processes of resistance in the traditions of combat performance such as Capoeira (Brazil) and Bassula (Angola). It also aims at promoting new collective work of composers, performing and multimedia artists many of whom are originally from the marginal fringes of society.

In 2002, musicians/composers, art historians, musicologists, choreographers and religious leaders met in Luanda for the first residency and creativity workshop ever of this kind. Hugo Candelário (Colombia), Barbaro Martyinez-Ruiz (Cuba), Giba Conceição (Brazil), Kituxy (Angola), Ana Arango (Colombia), Beth Huton (USA), Inge Ruigrok (The Netherlands), Ana Clara Guerra Marques (Angola) and many others were the participants that contributed to this project initiated and produced by Victor Gama with the support of The Prince Claus Fund, the Instituto Camões in Luanda and Chá de Caxinde.

IN DEPTH

The challenges set by the ODANTALAN project is to link historical truth through innovative processes of resurfacing ideological, knowledge and cultural systems while highlighting the intercultural dialogue originated from the encounters between millions of Africans, Amerindians and Europeans both in Africa and the Americas.

Specifically in what concerns the African writing traditions and their continuities in the Caribbean and South America, we would like to draw attention to the work that has been developed in the past and invite for a review of the ODANTALAN material.

We have found that these forms of communication imply a totality that can only be articulated in a language of different visual depictions, sound components, and the action of writing that connotes transformation. Therefore, they must be central to jumpstart new creative work and contributions that allow for the transmission of knowledge beyond the stereotypes of old anthropological views and preconceptions.

The Central African writing tradition known as Bidimbo in Angola, DRC and The Congo has its continuities in the Caribbean and South American writing traditions known as Ponto Riscado (Brazil), Firmas (Cuba), Vêvê (Haiti), Foundation Drawing (Trinidad) with more or less fusion with other Western African writing traditions.

The form of knowledge that generated this graphic writing functions to reconstruct the history of African people and their cultures in the Diaspora in the Americas. Secondly, through religious practices and social groupings, this graphic tradition initially created a base for cultural comprehension and understanding among African peoples and enabled a conceptualisation of their new environment, expression of their thoughts, meanings, ideas, attitudes and emotions. The graphic writing tradition in the Americas provided a sense of continuity in the process of reciprocal exchange of cultures from the colonial times to the present day.

The two-dimensional, three-dimensional and oral components of Central African graphic writing systems are considered art forms, bearers of semantic power, mediums of ideology and central strategic devices for African people and their descendants in the New World.

They include other forms of knowledge like oral tradition (mambos), musical systems, divination systems, body language like combat performance, architecture, and art production such as scarification, tattoos, textiles, ceramics and funeral art.

Furthermore, an exploration of the aesthetic meanings and uses of graphic writing provides important insight into human interaction and aids an understanding of culture on a global scale.   The manifestation of a Bakongo aesthetic in world music such as Jazz, Blues, Tango and Hip Hop, and in public performances such as Carnival are only selected examples of a broad reaching notion of style and visual value that offers many lessons in cultural transmission and resistance.