African roots.

Emotionally, spiritually, and aesthetically, my African tap root runs deep. Living and working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia in the '60s germinated the seed of my passion for the art of storytellers and visionaries. Exploring art processes that occur in webs of cooperation in Uganda and Kenya helped to establish my research roots. Working and traveling in other African countries nurtured my growth as a lifelong learner of formal and nonformal artistic traditions berth in and out of Africa.

I have made four trips to Africa, never flying to the same place, but always arriving in the middle of the night. Whether flying across the continent from west to east or north to south, from the air I have seen only darkness. But, Africa is not the dark continent of old romance novels or nightime flights. It is bright, both literally and metaphorically. Once the sun comes up, you quickly discover that there is something magical about the brightness of the light in Africa. Once you live in Africa, you quickly discover that there is something magical about the brightness and range of the creativity that abounds in Africa.

However, it is problematic to speak of Africa or Africans in such a general way because of the rich diversity of geneology, tradition, typography, culture, and climate. There's a need to reflect on the way that we look at the African continent, its history, its people, its arts, and its legacy.

Because they are among the best-known African art forms, the masks, fabrics, and sculptures of the central and western African regions have become the benchmark for the African artistic legacy. The myth of the mask prevails However, the many forms of art production that occur in Africa challenge such restrictive stereotyping.

Artistic production in northern Africa is a commingling of beliefs, styles, and influences stemming from contacts among diverse cultures and artistic traditions to the south, east, and west. Along with distinctive artwork and objects of personal adornment from the trade routes of the Sahara and Sahel, the remarkable artwork of these regions is often overlooked.

The unique art forms of the eastern region celebrate the diverse traditions of a wide range of cultures born of the migration and mixing of people, political systems, and religious beliefs. Yet, the artistic output of the eastern region rarely gets our attention. One would hope the artistic traditions of the southern African region, dating from about 25,000 BC, would be more widely discussed as well, along with the art of ancient Egypt, Nubia, and Axum.

To many formally trained art professionals working in Africa today, the American school curriculum's focus on the mask and other conventional African artistic traditions at the exclusion of the new directions of contemporary art production is annoying. They might also argue that the work of African artists east of the Atlantic and the work of artists of African descent west of the Atlantic is multicontinental in scope and transatlantic in spirit. Ethiopian artist Wosen expressed this transatlantic connection in a statement made at a 1994 exhibition: "Besides the traditional African elements incorporated into all my work, I include the rhythm of jazz as a major source of inspiration." New York-based artist Mel Edwards expressed the multicontinental aspects of art when speaking about the search for personal processes and symbols: "... We must take ideas from India, Ghana, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt ... Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, etc. They are all ours."

The African root connection moves across boundaries, constantly changing our cultures and our notions of how art happens. How art happens in the context of understanding history and culture is the focus of this issue. Collectively, the authors and articles can broaden our perspective on approaches to teaching about heritages, world cultures, and traditions.