Cultural imperialism: Whose ‘best artist’?

I am reposting something interesting on cultural imperialism that I wrote sometimes in 2011…
I found this article on the UK’s Independent–Art of Africa: The 50 best African artists–very interesting. I can actually identify four of the artists but I think most Africans do not know them or if they do, they cannot identify with their works of art.
The list is interesting because it illustrates the idea of cultural imperialism by Hamid Dabashi (in the book, Shifting Landscapes: Film and Media in European Context) and how Europe defines what the ‘world’s art’ is. Most of these artists live or have lived in Europe and North America for a long time. It is perhaps the reason why they are not very well known in Africa.
Dabashi shows how intellectual immigrants have become Europe’s defenders of ‘world art’. Indeed, most members of the panel that selected the artists consist African intellectuals in the diaspora.