The Another Roadmap Africa Cluster (ARAC) would like to honor the life and legacy of Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, an inspiring artist-educator and significant Another Roadmap contributor who passed away in 2023.
Born to Ugandan parents in Glasgow, Emma focused her energies on layered practices of archival research, critical arts scholarship and film installations. Her work focused on interrogating colonial history and activating localized methods for arts education rooted in African knowledges, among other interests.
To create a forum for exchanging ideas, research, practices and learning about creative arts education methods on the continent, Emma convened a gathering of arts education practitioners in Namulanda, Uganda 10 years ago in 2015. The rich conversations from this initial gathering sparked and metamorphosed into a collective body known as the Another Roadmap Africa Cluster (ARAC) – in relation with the global Another Roadmap School and yet also sovereign. The ARAC formation became a creative home to working groups based in Kampala, Cairo, Maseru, Nyanza, Johannesburg, Lubumbashi, Lagos and Kinshasa.
In the years that followed, Emma was a crucial force who regularly convened ARAC members to conduct arts education research in our locales, catalog arts practices, and stage large-scale exhibitions. With Emma’s humble influence, we found fresh avenues for our artistic languages and sharpened our experience of the joys and challenges of horizontal collective action.
Reflecting on the last decade, our work has been most animated through numerous in-person events where ARAC members deepened connections with Emma and each other, advanced incredible collective experiments and lived fully the manifesto that people who think together dance together.
Emma’s passing in 2023 was a profound loss. Her undeniable brilliance, fierce wit and depth of knowledge are deeply missed. She impacted all of us who knew her in ARAC and Another Roadmap in different ways. For anyone who did not interact with Emma, we encourage you to seek out and explore her work. So here, during this global general assembly of the Another Roadmap School we offer this tribute to Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, who continues to inspire, and we give thanks for the life she shared with us.
We welcome you to join us in a moment of silence for Emma.
Thank you all.