Africanfuturism: African Imaginings of Other Times, Spaces, and Worlds by Dr Kimberly Cleveland offers an introduction to Africanfuturism – a body of African speculative works that is distinguishable from, albeit related to, US-based Afrofuturism.

In this excerpt from the book, Cleveland focuses on the work of ceramicist Andile Dyalvane, in particular his Docks Table (2013), which explores the physical and digital movement of information and goods in the Cape Town neighbourhood of Woodstock. With its assemblage of interlocking ceramic forms, Dyalvane's table alludes to the trade of goods, ideas and people via technological processes – connecting it with Africanfuturist expression.

The below excerpt is from 'Chapter 4: Technology and the Digital Divide'.

In 2013, Dyalvane began to produce different versions of his Docks Table. Embodied in these one-of-a-kind works are the contrasting ideas of rural and urban, traditional and contemporary, and digital and physical movement.

Beneath the custom cut-glass top of Docks Table is a collection of different-colored ceramic blocks in various modular shapes, which Dyalvane made from clay pressed in plywood molds. Clay is a material that the artist first experimented with as a child, collecting it from them riverbanks when he was not herding his family’s cattle. He created the table base and legs from raw steel, which he coated with beeswax and red enamel. In keeping with the designer’s usual approach, he sketched the template for the various parts to fit together like a puzzle prior to physically constructing the piece.

The main themes of Dyalvane’s functional table are movement and change in Woodstock, which are represented by the assemblage of interlocking ceramic forms. In the seven years since Imiso Ceramics opened, the area had transitioned from a somewhat run-down neighborhood to a trendy, multiuse district with bars, restaurants, and shops popular with tourists. The multiracial population who lived and worked locally found it difficult to keep up with the rising costs, as developers snatched up properties that largely catered to White patrons. Gentrification became a common topic among community members and in the local press.

Woodstock’s primarily industrial character, evidenced by the daily flow of goods in and out of the dockyards in shipping containers, changed with the arrival of Bandwidth Barn, Google, and other tech-oriented businesses that enable the movement of information and products around the world in seconds via the internet. Dyalvane noted the transformation as he moved through the streets and looked out from the large windows of his Albert Road studio:

"Walking and driving through the area daily, allowed for recollection of what was and what was becoming—we felt a sense solidarity for community losses and, as a business, that our systems would be better streamlined online; . . . virtually we could fast track showcas[ing] what Imiso Ceramics was up to."

Dyalvane’s allusion to the movement of goods and ideas via technological processes connects Docks Table with Africanfuturist expression. He approaches Cape Town’s dockyards and growing tech presence via a conceptual lens in the work. The clay blocks, which Technology and the Digital Divide symbolize shipping containers and pieces of information, become the mobile elements of Tetris. It is easy to imagine the static modules beneath the glass top in motion.

Though Dyalvane created his table in response to the change taking place in Cape Town, the movement of people and information was also a part of his family history. His father came to Cape Town to work as a welder in the dockyards at about the same age that Dylavane was when he made the first version of Docks Table. Like many other migrant laborers from the countryside, the artist’s father lived in a hostel—a long trainlike structure that resembled some of Dyalvane’s block forms. When he was able to return home to the Eastern Cape at the holidays, his father brought discarded pieces of metal and other bits of materials that he would use to fortify the family homestead. Dyalvane’s father contributed to the family home through his expertise as a welder, bringing goods, ideas, and labor from the city. Dyalvane brought his knowledge of clay to the city, where he was able to use the goods, manufacturing, and business technology available in Woodstock to create his table and other works. Docks Table then speaks to transitions within family and area histories, as well as from manual labor to creative production.

Docks Table is a utilitarian artwork that embodies the ideas of movement involving people, information, and goods related to technology, in addition to change over time. On the surface, “tradition” and technology may seem incongruous; similarly, clay might not appear to be an obvious choice of material to artistically address growth of the technological sector in Woodstock. Something sleeker and shinier might come to mind. However, just as Dyalvane creatively associates his piece with Tetris and Cape Town’s various movements, so does he assert that clay is the right medium for him to “bridge the gap between the past, the now, and the future.” From his point of view, a material indigenous to the continent is the most fitting to conceptually and symbolically represent a changing African environment.

Read more about Africanfuturism at this link.

Author: Dr. Kimberly Cleveland

Publisher and Year: Ohio University Press, 2024