Where no art history exists, critical journals and other related platforms are crucial to moulding its discourse and involve all the intellectual processes that such an undertaking implies. In a newly developing field like contemporary African art, a critical journal should play a significant role in creating the very discourse of the discipline itself. Nka represents a step forward in that direction. It is an important initiative in the field of contemporary African and African Diaspora art, which has been neglected within the art historical debate. There is certainly a growing interest in the area of contemporary African and African Diaspora art and the modernist and postmodernist experience within this field. Yet most mainstream art periodicals have marginalised African and Diaspora arts in general, let alone the contemporary forms. The few journals which exist in the field of African art either focus primarily on the ethnographic and the so-called traditional or authentic art forms, or give a cursory and mostly superficial look at the contemporary forms. Hence, Nka serves as an urgently needed platform, filling a serious gap in the field. It would be right to say that it has in a short period placed contemporary African art in a global perspective and brought significant aspects of contemporary African culture to the awareness of the world. As a serious cultural medium, Nka has in its four years of existence made an appreciable difference in the life and career of numerous African artists, especially those living in the continent who otherwise have little chance of receiving the visibility and support which they desperately need and deserve. It is the editors' conviction that Nka has made and will continue to make significant contributions to the intellectual dialogue on world art and the discourse on internationalism and multiculturalism in the arts. Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art is a triannual publication, twenty one issues of which have appeared since it started with the autumn 1994/winter I995 issue. Nka has established contacts and connections with African-based artists and art critics, academics, museums, galleries and other art related institutions. It is edited by two leading scholars, art critics and curators who are actively engaged in the field of contemporary African art: Salah Hassan, art critic and curator who is also Professor of Art History at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA, and founding editor Okwui Enwezor, a New York based curator, art critic and writer.