Wednesday, February 16, 2011

20 Most Influential Africans: one is Maggie Otieno

Pardon me for not yet figuring out how to turn my images so that you can see Maggie and Kamal Shah without craning your neck. Pole sana, Sorry! But there is Maggie and I wanted to feature her today since she was just listed as one of the "20 Most Influential Africans" primarily for her work at www.africancolours.com, the online Pan African art gallery that is doing so much to enable to world to see how brilliantly contemporary African art is progressing. It's a fast moving website, vigilant to keep track of what African artists throughout the region are doing. And Maggie together Andrew Njoroge are at the heart of the website. To use Goffman's performative terms, Maggie is 'front stage', while Andrew is 'backstage'. That is not to disparage either one, just to say they work together very well. Maggie is also a gifted sculptress and painter whose work has been shown all over Africa, from Algiers to Johannesburg and from Lagos to Nairobi. I'm proud of Maggie for being named, especially as she seems unphased by all the publicity. She's busy and that's why she's understood to be influential

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