African Luxury

Aesthetics and Politics

Edited by Mehita Iqani and Simidele Dosekun

Edited by Mehita Iqani and Simidele Dosekun

Distributed for Intellect Ltd

180 pages | 6 halftones | 6 2/3 x 9

Paper $33.00 ISBN: 9781783209934 Published October 2019 Not for sale in the United Kingdom or Europe

Moving far beyond predominant views of Africa as a place to be “saved,” and even more recent celebratory formulations of it as “rising,” African Luxury: Aesthetics and Politics highlights and critically interrogates the visual and material cultures of lavish and luxurious consumption already present on the continent. Methodologically, conceptually, and analytically, this collection dismantles taken-for-granted ideas that the West is the source and focus of high-end and hyper-desirable material cultures. It explores what the culture of consumption means in Africa in both historical and contemporary contexts, studying diverse luxury phenomena including fashion advertising, reality television, retail, gendered consumption, and gardening to re-center the discussion on existing contemporary luxury cultures across the continent.