Misconceptions and Aesthetic Diversity in African Art

Africa

• ~54 countries

• thousands of cultural groups

• Conference of Berlin divided up Africa

• different cultures had different cosmologies

• ‘traditional art’ = pre-European

Nkisi Figure

• Kongo group, Congo, DRC, Angola

• has powers, delivers judgement

• wooden figure covered in nails, etc.

• functional art

• power activated to track down evil-doer

• carvings common in tropical/rainforest and savannah regions

• can’t be that old as its wood, but displayed as ‘classical’

  • removes sense of age of tradition

  • rigid understanding of ‘authentic’ art

Nok Terracotta

• Nok village, Nigerian state of Kaduna

• fired clay statue fragments discover

• dated 500 BCE - 200 CE

• named after village it was discovered in

Ooni of Ife

• Ife, Nigeria

• found in 1958, dated to 14thC

• lost wax casting process

  • also practiced in Benin kingdom

    • Benin Bronzes, Obu of Benin

Igbo-Ukwa Bronzes

• found in Nigeria

• made around 9thC

Masks

• either realistic or stylised

• wood, pottery, stone, textiles, etc.

• sometimes worn for masquerade performances

  • physical manifestations of ancestral spirits

Rock Art

• rock engravings by the San people in Southern Africa, 1st C

• cave paintings of Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria

• found more in desert regions

• some argue that Africa has the oldest record of artistic creation