received simultaneously a copy of 
the brochure of PACA's biennial 
exhibition and the maiden edition of Letter From 
Africa. It will be naive of anyone who has been 
following the current intellectual drought in 
these parts not to commend the resourcefulness behind 
these noteworthy accomplishments of the people at 
PACA. PACA is perhaps the most remarkable art phenomenon 
on this continent today. 
But one hopes that Krydz's introduction to the 
brochure (erudite as it, undebately, is ) is not intended as an 
official declaration by PACA, Krydz after all is the head of 
the international secretariat of this great association. Censorship 
What is disquieting in the piece is the whiff of 
censorship it contains. Between a redundant theory and 
even the best-meaning act of censorship, it is the arbitrarity 
that is more pernicious to the time-honoured effort to deal 
with the human condition. 
In attacking postmodernism Krydz's action is in tune 
with the very essence of serious scholarship. The human 
mind has not yet evolved to a level where it is capable of 
producing a flawless theory. But in implying a forcible 
isolation of works of practitioners with a conviction that is 
different from his (for how else does one read such dicta 
of his as, 'No installation here'?) I become reluctant to give 
him a 1 00-percent support. 
My reading of postmodernism (a la Lyotard) is that it 
is merely a bold understanding of the ancient, salutary 
intellectual laissez faire that forms the spine of scholarship. I 
am, of course, unable to share the excitement of its more 
zealous supporters, for the preeminent reason that, below 
the surface, it really says nothing new You don't claim o 
new birth by rechristening an old child. All the formulations 
that underpin postmodernism are the same single 
thread running through liberal scholarship from the 
earliest of times to the present. The insipidity of 
postmodernism may only be compared with the boredom 
that attend the products of the cybernmania that now 
pervades all sphere of human activity. 
Nor do I think it is worth the trouble to decree to 
Africans to accept or reject any of theory or the other. It 
seems inadvertently insulting to the intelligence of individual 
Africans, or for that matter member of any other 
human group, to think that they are not capable of recognizing 
a helpful or worthless theory when they see one. 
Onuxulike Ozioma, 
When Krydz goes on to say, apparently regarding PACA's creed, ' No Stoneware, 1997. 
installation here', one is made all the more apprehensive. Censorship is the very 'Africa: Stories of Pain, 
stories of Hope'. worst that can happen to any domain of art, or intellectual enterprise. In art, let 
time alone be allowed to treasure what it deems fit and burn what is loathes GR 
African Quarterly 
on the Arts 
Vol 2/No 4 GLEN DOR A