Exploration of Aesthetics in African and European Arts
By: Dr Christopher Appiah-Thompson
Language: en
Categories: Arts, Performing, History
Alongside traditional arts, new art forms have emerged in Africa, including dance-drama, Yoruba Folk Opera, and writing in Western languages. These forms reflect the adaptation of traditional elements to contemporary contexts and the fusion of African and Western influences.
Episodes
William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience: A Visionary’s Journey
Dec 15, 2025In this episode, we aim to walk through Blake’s remarkable life, and use it as a doorway into the strange, beautiful world of his most famous work, Songs of Innocence, and of Experience.
Duration: 00:08:01John Donnie’s Songs and Sonets: Love, Drama, and the “Monarch of Wit”
Dec 15, 2025Welcome to today’s episode, where we explore how a 17th century poet turned love lyrics into miniature dramas packed with wit, paradox and spiritual tension.
Duration: 00:06:15Expressions of Value: The Wisdom Engraved in African Proverbs and Art
Dec 15, 2025Welcome to the Heritage dialogue, where we explore timeless wisdom and the many ways cultures express what they hold dear. We will journey through the Expressions of Values in African life-how stories, art and proverbs have kept the moral and spiritual fabric of communities intact for generations.
Duration: 00:05:26Exploring the Prado’s Collection: A Walking Tour Through Art History
Dec 15, 2025Welcome to today’s episode, where we showcase some of Madrid’s greatest art treasures, centred on Prado Musuem and its neighbouring galleries and parks.
Duration: 00:07:05Twi Mmebusem-Wisdom, Language and Life
Dec 14, 2025You are listening Twi proverbs, and its purpose for schools and every life. We dive into African stories, languages and ideas.
Duration: 00:04:48Rethinking African Arts and Theatre: History, Myth, and Performance
Dec 14, 2025Welcome to today’s episode, “Rethinking African Arts and Theatre: History, Myth, and Performance.” In this conversation, the focus is on how African art forms do more than entertain; they preserve memory, encode belief systems, and provide raw material for reconstructing African history and theatre traditions. The discussion draws especially on ideas about Yoruba theatre and the broader argument that myths, legends, tales, divination and performance are crucial archives for African pasts and presents.
Duration: 00:05:22Culture as a Political Priority- The Ghanaian Experience
Dec 12, 2025Welcome to today’s episode, “Culture as a Political Priority-The Ghanaian Experience.” In this conversation, the focus is on how Ghana, at the moment of independence, chose a new flag and anthem, but a new cultural language for politics and national life, as described by scholar-composer J.H. Kwabena Nketia in his essay “Culture as a Political Priority.”
Duration: 00:08:44Voices Between Worlds-An Interview with Kofi Awoonor
Dec 12, 2025Welcome to this episode where we explore how Kofi Awoonor’s experience of America reshaped his art and identity. We highlight the role of Ewe oral tradition in his poetry and prose. Examine how he fuses African and European influences and what this means for writers today. Reflect on his views about audience, social commitment and “art for art’s sake”.
Duration: 00:09:11Between Art and Commitment: John Pepper Clark on the African Writer’s Role
Dec 12, 2025Welcome to today’s episode where we explore how Nigerian dramatist John Pepper Clark understands the African writer’s language, audience, political responsibility and personal commitment, using his own reflections on plays like “Ozidi”, “The Raft” and “Song of the Goat” as a guide.
Duration: 00:07:13Speaking Truth to Power: Chinua Achebe on Culture, Protest, and “A Man of the People”
Dec 12, 2025The podcast introduces listeners to Chinua Achebe’s view of African culture as dynamic and living, not a museum of “old customs;
Explains why Achebe believes all African writing of his time inevitably carries a social or political protest;
Explores how his novels, especially ‘Arrow of God’ and ‘A man of the People’, dramatise power, corruption, and responsibility;
Connects Achebe’s reflections on writers, politicians, and the public to today’s debates about leadership and cultural representation.
Duration: 00:06:28Rhythms of Transformation: African Arts Reimagined
Nov 15, 2025African art is evolving! It's not just about preserving the old, but embracing the new. Think of it as a vibrant tree, its roots deep in tradition, but its branches reaching for the sky.
Duration: 00:12:22