“…The struggle of black people inevitably appear in an intensely cultural form because the social formation in which their distinct political traditions are now manifest has constructed the arena of politics on ground overshadowed by centuries of metropolitan capitalist development, thereby denying them recognition as legitimate politics. Blacks conduct a class struggle in and through race. The BC of race and class cannot be empirically separated, the class character of black struggles is not a result of the fact that blacks are predominantly proletarian, thought this is true…”- (Frank Talk Staff Writers in ‘Azania Salutes Tosh’ – circa 1981)
front cover:
Tosh by Steve Gordon
back cover:
Kippie by Basil Breakey
The Geography of Fixed Things: Eastern African Artists from the ARAK Collection by EN Mirembe (Arak Collection, 2025)
The Geography of Fixed Things explores the intersections of space, identity, and belonging, as inspired by Lucille Clifton's poignant poem “for the lame.” The publication was curated by E.N Mirembe in 2023. Mirembe works with art as a curator, editor, writer and researcher. They were the first ARAK Collection 2023 Curatorial Residency Fellowship Recipient.
In 1937, and for many years after, Makerere University’s art school was the only one in Eastern Africa. This later changed but many Eastern African artists of the time were trained there. Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Kenya’s foremost writer, also attended Makerere College as it was the best school in the region at the time. There was mobility throughout geographies that informed (Eastern) African cultural production. At a time when nation-state boundaries were being so clearly defined, artistic production continued to extend beyond and quite frankly could not, cannot be contained within the ideological fiction. The history and continuing contemporary moment of cultural work in Eastern Africa defy the logic of cartography and are an exercise in connecting beyond the fixed lines. It is within this tradition that this publication is situated.