Avi Sooful (Pretoria) and Patrique deGraft-Yankson (Winneba) used their stay in Germany to open students' eyes to art teaching in South Africa and Ghana. Christian Römmelt invited them to his seminar at the LMU Munich.
Some statements by the two guests from an exciting 90 minutes:
- What we learnt from apartheid is that art can give a voice to the people.
- The school system we have in Africa is the system of the colonial masteres. The purpose of education provided was defined by them.
- Decolonising the school system means bringing back the traditional, indigenous values, helping to build identity.
- Art is everywhere in daily life. It is communcation, embedded in the community.
- What we need is an utilitarian view on art education, not art for art's sake. Art education has to meet the needs of our societies.
Asked about his expectations of the German education system, Patrique responded with two key messages: Africa is not a country. Avoid stereotypes.