El Hadji Sy is one of the most significant figures in African contemporary art. Since the late 1970s, the Senegalese artist and curator has helped shape the country's thriving art scene through his innovative painting and performance art. But El Sy is also an internationally recognized activist, having founded the collectives Laboratoire Agit-Art and Tenq, which aim to create contemporary art that engages with the country's pressing social and political issues. The first comprehensive publication on El Sy, this book places the artist's work in the context of activism in Senegal since the country gained independence from France in 1960. Included are critical essays by Hans Belting, Elvira Dyangani Ose, and Pablo Lafuente who explore post independence aesthetics and the effect of postwar relations between Germany and Senegal. The critical essays are supplemented with copious illustrations from the artist's archive - many never before seen - offering rare insight into African art before the Global Turn of 1989.