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This is why Samb is such a seminal artist in our field today and why his work is extremely empowering. I was heavily influenced by that generation— by their acuteness and their boldness. Similarly, people today have an incredible amount of self-assurance about being Africans in the world. I know that for the younger generation after me, it’ s not even a question anymore of whether you are African or not. There is no need to prove oneself. What is important is the power of your ideas, your creativity, your talent. Anyone can speak three, four, or five languages. We are global citizens.
Flashmag! Issue 161 June 2025
Pan-Africanism failed as a political idea, obviously, but in the past ten or fifteen years, we’ re seeing that its ideological potential survived and is being revived by a new, interconnected generation. Partly this is a result of technological transformation. We all belong to an advanced technological order that places us in this limitless, boundless virtual sphere, and people really want to see that boundlessness realized in their own physical environment. This is perhaps why I rarely hear young people talking in nationalistic terms. It’ s never a question of whether you’ re from Senegal or Côte d’ Ivoire or South Africa or Ethiopia. It’ s about urbanity or nonurbanity. It’ s about educated or not educated. It’ s about cosmopolitan or not cosmopolitan. I don’ t call it a front line, but these are the divisions that structure our political reality”.
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