Chapter 27: African Art

Key Notes

• Time Period: From Prehistoric Times to present
  • Great Zimbabwe: 11th–15th CE (Zimbabwe)
  • Bamileke: 11th–21st CE (Cameroon )
  • Benin: 13th–19th CE (Nigeria )
  • Luba: 16th–21st CE (Congo)
  • Kuba: 17th–19th CE (Congo)
  • Ashanti: 17th–21st CE (Ghana )
  • Chokwe: 17th–21st CE (Congo)
  • Yoruba: 17th–21st CE (Nigeria )
  • Baule: 19th–21st CE (Côte d’Ivoire)
  • Igbo: 19th–21st CE (Nigeria)
  • Fang: 19th–21st CE (Cameroon; Gabon; Equatorial Guinea)
  • Mende: 19th–21st CE (Sierra Leone)
• Culture, beliefs, and physical settings
  • Human life began in Africa. African art makes its first appearance around 77,000 years ago.
  • Rock art is the earliest form of African art. Animals are depicted most often.
  • The Sahara was once a vast grassland.
  • African art is often rooted in belief systems and ideas. It is more concerned with the spiritual and intellectual than the physical.
  • African art is involved in important stages of human life.
  • Important civic and religious centers are often placed apart from places that involve herding or agriculture.
• Cultural interactions
  • African art has been impacted by migration, world religions, and international trade.
  • For many years, African art has been thought of as primitive by the outside world. However, African art is now understood as a vibrant series of artistic traditions.
  • Contemporary African art understands artistic influences from around the world.
• Material Processes and Techniques
  • African art is seen as a combination of the work of art itself in the context of events, media, and ceremonies. There is a wide variety of materials used in African art.
• Audience, functions, and patron
  • African art is participatory. The arts express beliefs and maintain social and human relationships.
  • African works are meant to be used and performed rather than simply viewed.
  • Art is created for everyday use and important occasions. The object generally belongs to the person who commissioned it. Performances are highly organized.
  • When an artwork represents authority, it legitimizes a leader.
  • African art is presented to audiences through song and dance for specific reasons.
• Theories and Interpretations
  • African art has been generally collected by outsiders. Generally, the artist’s name and the date of creation are not known.
  • Art history as a science is subject to differing interpretations and theories that change over time.
  • African art has had a global impact.

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Historical Background

• African artists share common beliefs, such as the belief that ancestors never die and can be addressed.
• Family and respect for elders are key components of the African psyche.
• Many African sculptures represent family ancestors and were carved to venerate their spirits.
• Fertility, both of the individual and the land, is highly regarded in African culture.
• African states developed strong cultural traditions yielding a great variety of artistic expression.
• The Scramble for Africa in the late 19th century divided the continent into colonies.
• Most African states achieved independence in the 1960s, with Portuguese colonies waiting until the 1970s.
• Colonization brought African cultural affairs in direct contact with the rest of the world.
• Today African artists work both at home and abroad, using native and foreign materials, and market their work on a global scale.

Patronage and Artistic Life

• Traditional African objects are unsigned and undated due to the reliance on oral tradition for recording history.
• Written records of African art stem mostly from European or Islamic explorers who encountered artists during their travels in Africa.
• African artists worked on commission and often lived with their patrons until the commission was completed.
• Apprenticeship training and guilds were common in Africa and helped promote and elevate the profession.
• Men were builders and carvers, while women painted walls, created ceramics, and were weavers. However, there were exceptions.
• The most collectable African art originated in farming communities rather than among nomads who desired portability.
• East Africa produced a fine school of body art, while West Africans around Sierra Leone and Nigeria achieved greatness with bronze and wood sculpture.
• African art was imported into Europe during the Renaissance more as curiosities than as artistic objects.
• It was not until the early twentieth century that African art began to find true acceptance in European artistic circles.

Key Terms

• Adobe: a building material made from earth, straw, or clay dried in the sun
• Aka: an elephant mask of the Bamileke people of Cameroon
• Byeri: in the art of the Fang people, a reliquary guardian figure
• Bundu: masks used by the women’s Sande society to bring girls into puberty
• Cire perdue: the lost wax process. A bronze casting method in which a figure is modeled in clay and covered with wax and then recovered with clay. When fired in a kiln, the wax melts away, leaving a channel between the two layers of clay which can be used as a mold for liquid metal
• Fetish: an object believed to possess magical powers
• Ikenga: a shrine figure symbolizing traditional male attributes of the Igbo people
• Lukasa: a memory board used by the Luba people of central Africa
• Mblo: a commemorative portrait of the Baule people
• Ndop: a Kuba commemorative portrait of a king in an ideal state
• Nkisi n’kondi: a Kongo power figure
• Pwo: a female mask worn by women of the Chokwe people
• Scarification: scarring of the skin in patterns by cutting with a knife: when the cut heals, a raised pattern is created, which is painted
• Torons: wooden beams projecting from walls of adobe buildings

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African Architecture

• Traditional African architecture prioritizes coolness and comfort in hot weather conditions.
• It typically features mud-brick walls and thatched roofs, which are easy and inexpensive to make but require meticulous maintenance during the rainy season.
• Despite generally avoiding stonework, the royal complex at Zimbabwe from the fourteenth century stands out for its sophisticated use of masonry.
• The use of horizontally placed timbers as maintenance ladders is common in large mud-brick structures.
• There are indications of a long-standing tradition of construction using permanent materials in African architecture, although much of this knowledge has been lost over time.

➼  Great Zimbabwe

• Details

  • Shona peoples (Southeastern Zimbabwe)
  • c. 1000–1400
  • coursed granite blocks
  • Found in Zimbabwe

• Form

  • Walls: 800 feet long, 32 feet tall; 17 feet thick at base.
  • Walls slope inward toward the top; made of exfoliated granite blocks.

• Function

  • Zimbabwe was a prosperous trading center and royal complex; items from as far away as Persia and China have been found.
  • Stone enclosure was probably a royal residence.

• Context

  • Zimbabwe derives from a Shona term meaning “venerated houses” or “houses of stone.”
  • Internal and external passageways are tightly bounded, narrow, and long; occupants are forced to walk in single file, paralleling experiences in the African bush.
  • The conical tower is modeled on traditional shapes of grain silos; control over food symbolized wealth, power, and royal largesse.
  • The tower resembles a granary and represented a good harvest and prosperity; grain gathered, stored, and dispensed as a symbol of royal power.
  • Abandoned in the fifteenth century probably because the surrounding area could no longer supply food and there was extensive deforestation.

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➼  Great Mosque of Djenné

• Details

  • founded c. 1200, rebuilt 1906–1907
  • An adobe
  • Found in Djenné, Mali

• Form

  • Three tall towers; center tower is a mihrab.
  • Vertical fluting drains water off the surfaces quickly.

• Materials

  • Made of adobe, a baked mixture of clay and straw; adobe helps maintain cooler temperatures.
  • Torons: wooden beams projecting from walls.
  • Wooden beams act as in-place ladders for the maintenance of the building.

• Function: Largest mud-brick mosque in the world.

• Content

  • Crowning ornaments have ostrich eggs, symbols of fertility and purity.
  • Roof has several holes with terra cotta lids to circulate air into the main room.

• Context

  • Inhabited since 250 B.C.E., Djenné became a market center and an important link in the trans-Saharan gold trade.
  • Two thousand traditional houses survive, built on small hills to protect against seasonal floods.
  • Once a year there is a community activity to repair the mosque called Crepissago de la Grand Mosquée.

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African Sculpture

• Despite the number of sculptural traditions in Africa, there are certain similarities.
  • African art is basically portable. Large sculptures, the kind that grace the plazas of ancient Egypt or Rome, are unknown.
  • Wood is the favorite material.
  • Trees were honored and symbolically repaid for the branches taken from them.
  • Ivory is used as a sign of rank or prestige.
  • Metal shows strength and durability, and is restricted to royalty.
  • Stone is extremely rare.
  • Figures are basically frontal, drawn full-face, with attention paid to the sides.
  • Symmetry is occasionally used, but more talented artists vary their approach on each side of the object.
  • Africans did no preliminary sketches and worked directly on the wood.
  • There is a certain stiffness to all African works.
  • Heads are disproportionately large, sometimes one-third of the whole figure. Sexual characteristics are also enlarged.
  • Bodies are immature and small. Hands and feet are very small; fingers are rare.
  • Multiple media are used.
  • It is common to see wood sculptures adorned with feathers, fabric, or beads.
  • African sculpture prefers geometrization of forms.
  • It generally avoids physical reality, representing the spirits in a more timeless world.
  • Proportions are therefore manipulated.
• Important sculpture is never created for decoration, but for a definite purpose.
• African masks are designed to be part of a costume that embodies a spirit and can only become active during ceremonies.
• Each mask has a specific role and embodies a unique spirit.
• When the masks are used in a ceremony, the costumed dancer is taken over by the spirit, and his identity is concealed as every part of his body is covered.
• The masked dancer connects with the spiritual realm by responding to the rhythm of the drum and can communicate messages to the observing villagers.

➼  Benin Wall Plaque

• Details

  • from Oba’s palace, Edo peoples, Kingdom of Benin (Nigeria)
  • 16th ­century
  • cast brass
  • Found in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

• Materials

  • One of 900 brass plaques produced, each between 16 and 18 inches.
  • Metal products are rare in Africa, making these objects extremely valuable.
  • There was an active trade with the Portuguese for brass.

• Function

  • It decorated the walls of the royal palace in Benin.
  • It was part of a sprawling palace complex; wooden pillars covered with brass plaques.

• Context: Shows aspects of court life in the Benin culture.

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➼  Golden Stool of Ashanti (Sika Dwa Kofi)

• Details

  • Ashanti peoples (south central Ghana)
  • c. 1700
  • gold over wood, and cast gold attachments
  • location unknown

• Form

  • Entire surface inlaid with gold.
  • Bells hang from the side to warn the king of danger.
  • Replicas often used in ceremonies, but each replica is different.

• Function

  • Symbol of the Ashanti nation, in Ghana.
  • Contains the soul of the nation.
  • Never actually used as a stool; never allowed to touch the ground; it is placed on a stool of its own.
  • According to Ashanti tradition, it was brought down from heaven by a priest and fell into the lap of the Ashanti king, Osei Tutu.
  • It became the repository of the spirit of the nation; it is the symbol of the mystical bond among all Ashanti.

• Context

  • A new king is raised over the stool.
  • The stool is carried to the king on a pillow; he alone is allowed to touch it.
  • Taken out on special occasions.
  • War of the Golden Stool: March–September 1900:
  • Conflict over British sovereignty in Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast).
  • A British representative who tried to sit on the stool caused an uproar and a subsequent rebellion.
  • The war ended with British annexation and Ashanti de facto independence.

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➼  Ndop (portrait figure) of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul

• Details

  • Kuba peoples, ­Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • 1760–1780
  • Wood
  • Found in Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York

• Form

  • Characteristics of a ndop:
  • Cross-legged pose.
  • Sits on a base.
  • Epicene body.
  • Face seems uninvolved, above mortal affairs.
  • A peace knife in his left hand.
  • Royal regalia: bracelets, arm bands, belts, headdress.

• Function

  • Ndop sculptures are commemorative portraits of Kuba rulers, presented in an ideal state.
  • Not an actual representation of a deceased king but of his spirit.
  • Made after the death of the king.

• Context

  • Each king is commemorated by symbols on the base of the figure; this king has a sword in his left hand in a nonaggressive pose, handle facing out.
  • One of the earliest existing African wood sculptures; oldest ndop in existence.
  • Rubbed with oil to protect it from insects.
  • Acted as a surrogate for the king in his absence.
  • Kept in the king’s shrine with other works called a set of “royal charms.”

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➼  Power Figure (Nkisi n’kondi)

• Details

  • Kongo peoples, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • c. late 19th century
  • wood and metal
  • Found in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

• Form

  • Alert pose.
  • Rigid frontality.
  • Arms akimbo, in an aggressive stance.
  • Wears a headdress worn by chiefs or priests.
  • Nails are pounded into the figure.

• Function and Context

  • Spirits are embedded in the images.
  • Spirits can be called upon to bless or harm others, cause death or give life.
  • In order to prod the image into action, nails and blades are often inserted into the work or removed from it.
  • Medical properties are inserted into the body cavity, thought to be a person’s life or soul.
  • The figure has a role as a witness and enforcer of community affairs.
  • The figure also cautions people on the consequences of actions contrary to community norms.

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➼  Portrait Mask (Mblo) of Moya Yanso

• Details

  • Baule peoples (Côte d’Ivoire)
  • early 20th century
  • wood and pigment

• Form

  • Broad forehead, pronounced downcast eye sockets, column-shaped nose: features associated with intellect and respect.
  • Quiet faces; introspective look; peaceful face; meditative; eyebrows in an arch.

• Function

  • Presented at Mblo performances in which an individual is honored with ritual dances; tributes are performed in his or her honor.
  • The dancer who wears the mask and wears the clothes of the person for the performance is accompanied by the actual person in the performance.
  • The honoree receives a mask—an artistic double of the person—as a gift.

• Context

  • The masks are commissioned by a group of admirers, not by an individual; this one was made by the artist Owie Kimou.
  • The masks are an idealized representation of a real person.
  • This is the idealized representation of Moya Yanso.
  • From the Ivory Coast.

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➼  Female (Pwo) Mask

• Details

  • Chokwe peoples, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • late 19th to early 20th century
  • wood, fiber, pigment, and metal
  • Found in National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C.

• Form

  • Characteristics:
  • Enlarged eye sockets.
  • Pushed-in chin.
  • Slender nose.
  • High forehead.
  • Balanced features.
  • Almost-closed eyes.

• Content

  • Marks around the eyes may suggest tears; scarification marks including cosmogram on forehead.
  • White powder around the eyes connects the figure to a spiritual realm.

• Function

  • These are female masks used by men in ritual dances.
  • Male dancers are covered with their identities masked; they are dressed as women with braided hair.
  • During the ritual, men move like women.
  • Depicts female ancestors.

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➼  Mende Bundu Mask

• Details

  • Sande society, Mende peoples (West African forests of Sierra Leone and Liberia)
  • 19th to early 20th century
  • wood, cloth, and fiber
  • A private collection

• Form

  • Idealized female beauty, both physically and morally:
  • Elaborate hairstyle symbolizes wealth; worn by women of status.
  • High forehead indicates wisdom.
  • Small eyes in the shape of slits: she should be demure.
  • Tight-lipped mouth, symbolizing secrets not revealed.
  • Small ears: avoids gossip.
  • Rings around the neck symbolize concentric waves from which the water spirit, Sowei, breaks through the surface; also symbolizes the fat associated with a pregnant body.
  • Small horizontal features.

• Function

  • Used for initiation rites to adulthood.
  • Used by the elder women of the Sande society, a group of women who prepare girls for adulthood and their role in society.
  • Mask rests on woman’s head; head is not placed inside the mask.
  • Mask is coated with palm oil for a lustrous effect; it has a shiny black surface.
  • Black color symbolizes water, coolness, and humanity.

• Context

  • Only African wooden masks that are worn by women.
  • Costumed women wear a black gown made of raffia that hides the body.
  • Costumed as a Sowei, the female water spirit.
  • Female ancestor spirits.
  • Symbolic of the chrysalis of a butterfly; young woman entering puberty.
  • Individuality of each mask is stressed.

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➼  Ikenga (Shrine Figure)

• Details

  • Igbo peoples (Nigeria)
  • c. 19th to 20th century
  • Wood
  • Found in Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York

• Function and Content

  • Ikenga means “strong right arm” and thus physical prowess.
  • It honors the right hand, which holds tools or weapons, makes sacrifices, conducts rituals, and alerts to speak at public forums.
  • Ikenga embraces traditional masculine associations of strength and potency.
  • Often a mix of human, animal, and abstract forms.
  • Carved from hardwoods, considered masculine.
  • It tells of the owner’s morality, prosperity, achievements, genealogy, and social rank.

• Context

  • Enormous horns symbolize power.
  • Requires blessings before use; consecrated with offerings before kinsmen.
  • As the man achieves more success, he might commission a more elaborate version.
  • It is maintained in the man’s home and is destroyed when the owner dies; another can reuse it if not destroyed.

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➼  Lukasa (Memory Board)

• Details

  • Mbudye Society, Luba peoples, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • c. 19th to 20th century
  • wood, beads, and metal
  • Found in Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York

• Form

  • Carved from wood in an hourglass shape and adorned with beads, shells, or metal.
  • Back, expressed by Luba people as the “outside,” resembles the shell of a turtle.

• Function

  • Court historian who serves as reader of the memory board holds the lukasa in his left hand and gently touches the beads that he will discuss with his right index finger.
  • Ability to read the board is limited to a few people.
  • Memory board helps the user remember key elements in a story; for example:
  • Court ceremonies.
  • Migrations.
  • Heroes.
  • Kinship.
  • Genealogy.
  • Lists of kings.

• Context

  • Each board’s design is unique and represents the divine revelations of a spirit medium expressed in sculptural form.
  • Memory boards are controlled by the Mbudye, a council of men and women who interpret the political and historical aspects of Luba society.
  • Zoomorphic elements represented by the turtle, an animal that lives on both land and water; the dual nature of the turtle is a metaphor for the Luba people’s political organization as founded by two distinctly opposed embodiments of power: Kongolo Mwamba, avatar of all excess and tyranny, and Mbidi Kiluwe, sophisticated cultural hero who introduced royal culture to the Luba people.
  • Reading example:
  • One colored bead can stand for an individual.
  • Large beads surrounded by smaller beads can signify a ruler and his court.
  • Lines of beads are journeys or paths, migrations or genealogies.

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➼  Aka Elephant Mask

• Details

  • Cameroon (western grasslands region)
  • c. 19th to 20th century
  • wood, woven raffia, cloth, and beads
  • Found in Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York

• Form

  • The mask has the features of an elephant: long trunk, large ears (symbolizing strength and power).
  • The mask fits over the head and two folds hang down in front (symbolizing the trunk) and behind the body.
  • Human face.

• Materials

  • Beadwork on a fabric backing; beadwork is a symbol of power.
  • Lavish use of colored beads and cowrie shells displays the wealth of the members of the men’s Kuosi society; the colors and patterns express the society’s cosmic and political functions.

• Function

  • Elite Kuosi masking society owns and wears the masks; worn on important ceremonial occasions.
  • Only important people in society can own and wear an elephant mask.

• Context

  • Performance art: maskers dance barefoot to a drum and gong; they wave spears and horsetails.

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➼  Reliquary Figure (byeri)

• Details

  • Fang peoples (southern Cameroon)
  • c. 19th to 20th century
  • Wood
  • Found in Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York

• Form

  • Feet dangling over the rim, a gesture of protecting the contents.
  • Prominent belly button and genitals emphasize life; the prayerful gesture and somber look emphasize death.
  • Emphasis on the head and the tubular nature of the body.

• Function

  • Such figures were placed on top of cylinder-like containers made of bark that held skulls and other bones of important clan leaders.
  • The reliquary figure guards the head box against the gaze of women or young boys.

• Context

  • The surfaces were ritually rubbed with oils to add luster and protect against insects.
  • Byeri figures are composed of characteristics the Fang people place a high value on: tranquility, introspection, and vitality.
  • The Fang people were nomadic; these figures were made to be portable.
  • The abstraction of the human body is an attraction for the early-twentieth-century artists.

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➼  Veranda Post of Enthroned King and Senior Wife (Opo Ogoga)

• Details

  • Olowe of Ise (Yoruba peoples)
  • 1910–1914
  • wood and pigment
  • Found in Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

• Form

  • Wooden sculpture with tall vertical emphasis.
  • Complicated and elaborate use of negative space.
  • Negative space creates an openness in the composition.
  • Most veranda posts were painted; this work has traces of paint remaining.

• Function

  • Olowe of Ise carved veranda posts for the rulers of the Ekiti-Yoruba kingdom in Nigeria.
  • One of four carved for the palace at Ikere, Nigeria.

• Context

  • The king is the focal point between himself and others represented on the post.
  • Behind the king, his large-scale senior wife supports the throne.
  • She crowns the king during the coronation; protects him during his reign.
  • The smaller figures include his junior wife; his flute player, Eshu, the trickster god; and a figure of a fan bearer now missing.

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Chapter 28: Pacific Art