Shouldn'n art transcend culttural and racial boundaries

For the longest time, art has been an important aspect of religion, society and is in fact synonymous with culture. We’ve all heard the saying that art imitates life and life imitates art.

Pictures and other artistic mediums have been used to tell a story and capture important moments in time. More than that, they cause people to think and reflect. The arts and culture have been an important factor in educating societies.

This happened more so in African communities where stories were told over fire places, were told through music and were often intended not just to entertain but to teach their audience social norms and values.

Stories were told of how children that did not obey would end up being eaten by some creatures. I’ve heard of songs that spoke about how if one sings at night a witch was likely to take away their voice for disturbing the night.

The arts have therefore taken a number of forms and have existed not just as a way to entertain but as a way to teach lessons to the community.

The arts are both the manifestation of culture as well as the means of communication of cultural knowledge. Each culture has

unique artistic expressions and cultural practices. As a result there has been a lot of debate and arguments on the subject of arts, society and the artist. The previous two have been much easier to answer as art and society cannot exist without each other.

This is because art is a mirror of society, as has already been mentioned above it has been used as a medium of depicting life, telling stories and sharing experiences.

But what about the artist? Should his/her work be a reflection of society? Does it need to be?

This past weekend Tanzania hosted its 12th Annual Sauti za Busara Festival that is a celebration of African music as well as other art forms such as visual art, and films both local and international

Musicians and people from all over the world flock in to be a part of this event. Is it therefore important that African music should play at this festival?

And what is African music? Would it be alright if say a European came in and played “African” music? Or would it be a problem if an African musician got on stage and did not play African music?

Should a Tanzanian artist only be allowed to portray music or art that reflects what the Tanzanian society is about?

What if the said artist’s world and society are bigger than just Tanzania? What about notions of universal truths that transcend cultural and racial boundaries?

After all we do exist in a technological period where the idea of culture is not necessarily what it used to be. We have the ability to incorporate other types of cultures in our lives, in our idea of the world and thus in our art.

Art has always been a reflection of the emotions, personal struggle, and the path breaking events of a contemporary society. When a society demands or undergoes a change, art has mostly subtly complied with it.