Encyclopedia: Art of Africa Volume 1

About the Author

Avner Shakarov was born in the former Soviet Union and studied mechanical engineering in Moscow, Russia. He studied African art in West and Central Africa as an independent scholar in the 1960s and 1990 in Ivory Coast. During student vacations, he traveled in Africa and lived and learned on the premises where the art was born. He has been a collector of African art since 1962. In the early 1970s, he left the Soviet Union to settle in Western Europe. Later, he moved to the U.S. and since then has been living there. He and his wife, Lyubov, have shared an interest in African art. Since retiring from engineering, he has devoted his time, together with his wife, to writing in this field; they are the authors of numerous books on the world art of Africa.

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Avner Shakarov and Lyubov Senatorova (2019)

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Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Shakarov, Avner and Senatorova, Lyubov

Encyclopedia: Art of Africa Volume 1

ISBN 9781641823869 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781641823876 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781645369615 (E-Book)

The main category of the book — History / Africa / General

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published (2019)

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

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Acknowledgment

We would like to express our gratitude to all the people who made this book possible through their help and encouragement. A great many people also participated in the technical aspects of this publication. This publication owes much to the skills and talent of my wife, Lyubov Senatorova, for the layout images in the book. She was extremely helpful in smoothing out difficulties during the various phases of this work; without her great patience and support, the work of writing this book would not have been possible. We are especially grateful to, at present deceased, Russian artists M.A. Borodkin and P.M. Korolkova, who gave so willingly, some while ago, their most valuable time for drawing parts of the images of the works and also for drawing the map of African tribes and the zones of African rock art on this map. We also thank Austin Macauley Publishers for their insightful reading of the manuscript and making necessary corrections to meet our expectations.

In the end, our appreciation must go to the unknown artists of Africa who, by their creations shown here, have revealed to us a full measure of their incomparable world.

Purpose of This Book

The purpose of this book is to provide principles of ethnology in order to offer the reader a potentially greater depth of feeling for the beauty, power, and delicacy of certain aspects of African art. This publication is designed to bring the benefits of knowledge to students who are engaged in studying the mechanisms of African arts, with the aim of making them useful and respectable members of society. Most books on African art derive their images from the private collections and museums around the world. They are educational and beautiful. Today, it is important for any student of African art to view all objects of material culture that comprise what we call African art. It is the social context of an object that provides the framework necessary for understanding its meaning and function.

The majority of books and articles written on the art of Black Africa have been concerned with the traditional tribal arts of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The importance and quality of traditional African art belongs to the pre-colonial or the colonial periods. This publication of this book gives continuity of the study of the traditional and the colonial arts and will serve as a reference handbook for students, artists, collectors, dealers, museums of African art, and to all African art lovers. Students and artists will find this book very interesting for study as well for the history of religion and African art and culture.

While it is hoped that this book will help increase the knowledge other books focus more completely on, the context of the African art and museum exhibits are also excellent ways to deepen the understanding of the sculptures’ function. Our purpose also is to try what is at least a new way of looking at African art, which we hope may be helpful to the wide public, with the idea of presenting a handbook that would have both popular and reference value to whom the book is addressed.

We have chosen, from among the pieces readily available to us, those which seemed most relevant to our purpose: the identification of different types of sculptural forms in African art. At the same time, we have tried to confine our choice so far as possible to pieces which are artistically pleasing. And any reader is welcome to use our book as a museum without walls, in which the works have been hung in what we intend to be artistic sympathy with each other. in the first place, traditional sculpture and we are not concerned here with contemporary African art, which for all its merits is an extension of European art by a kind of voluntary cultural colonialism and is almost confined to the great basins of the Niger and Congo rivers—which is to say, to an area bounded on the north and south by the Sahara and Kalahari deserts and on the east and west by the African Great Lakes and the Atlantic ocean.

Introducing Africa

Africa is one of the second largest continents, one-fifth the world’s total land area, and may be divided into three major regions: the northern plateau, the central and southern plateau, and the Eastern Highlands. The central and southern plateau include West, Central, and South Africa. They contain several major landmarks, notably the Congo Basin and the Kalahari Desert. The Eastern Highlands lie near the east coast, extending from Red Sea in the south to the Zambezi.

Africa is very rich in mineral resources, possessing most of the known minerals of the world; many of which are found in significant quantities. Africa has some of the world’s largest reserves of gold, diamonds, platinum, copper, and iron.

The Sahara is a vast barrier between the people of North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. In the northern portion of the continent, including the Sahara, Caucasoid peoples, mainly Berbers and Arabs, predominate. South of the Sahara, Negroid peoples, constituting some two-thirds of Africa’s population, predominate. Pockets of Khoisan peoples, the San Bushmen, and Khoekhoe (Hottentots) are located in South Africa. The Bushmen are the oldest inhabitants of southern Africa, where they have lived for at least 20,000 years. Their home is in the vast expanse of the Kalahari Desert. The Pygmies are concentrated in the Congo Basin and in Tanzania, scattered through Africa, but primarily concentrated in South Africa. There are many different Pygmy people, for example, the Bambini, the Batwa, the Bayaka, and the Bagyeli (Ba means man, who live scattered over a huge area in central and western Africa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Congo Brazzaville, Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda).

There are many different people, groups, and tribes across the continent of Africa, with their cultures varying from tribe to tribe. Tribes and ethnic groups in Africa range from stone-age cultures to modern 21st century people, all living next to each other in this continent with over 3,000 tribes.

African culture is as old as the beginning of human evolution on earth. Africa’s cultural history is enriched with unique tribal life and customs, early Neolithic rock carvings, petroglyphs, group hunting, metal work, and many great wonders of ancient Egypt. Religion in Africa has been a major influence on art, culture, and philosophy. The continent’s various populations and individuals are mostly adherents of Christianity, Islam, and to a lesser extent, traditional African religion.

Christian religion in Africa is the most widespread religion there and was introduced into North Africa in the 1stcentury and spread to the Sudan and Ethiopian regions in the 4th century. Christianity survived in Ethiopia and in other areas. The second most widespread religion in African is Islam. It was introduced throughout North Africa in the 7th century and spread through the East African coast and the grasslands of West Africa in the 20th century. Islam has penetrated into the remaining portions of the continent. About 10–15 percent of African people practice local religions.

African cultural activity centers on the family and the ethnic group. Art, music, and oral literature serve to reinforce existing religious and social patterns. Music and dance is a part of African community life, with its primordial form of music being popular all over the world. North African music and dance has Arab influence, while South African music has gained some interesting trends, owing to the influence of colonization. The musical instruments include the drums, lute, flute, and trumpet. Slow rhythmic group dances are also very popular. Dancers are known to paint their bodies and also wear masks during a dance performance.

In Africa, nearly all of which was colonized before 1960, independence has extended to even the most intransigent of nations. The European colonial power was weakened following World War Two and the balance of international power shifted to the United States and former Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.), both of which professed anti-colonial nations in North Africa. French rule was opposed from 1947. The Algerian revolution began in 1954 and continued until independence in 1962. Morocco and Tunisia had received independence in French Sub-Saharan Africa in 1968.

Ethiopia is the only African country that was not colonized. Its population has several main groups, including Oromo, Amhara, Tigre, Shakella, Somali, Afar, and Gurage. Most people practice Muslim religion, other majorities—Ethiopian orthodox Christians and some animists—follow other faiths, including one of the oldest branches of Judaism. The Afar people live primarily in Ethiopia and the areas of Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia in the north of Africa. The Amhara are the politically and culturally dominant ethnic group of Ethiopia. They are located primarily in the central highland plateau of Ethiopia and comprise the major population element in the provinces of Begemder, Gojjam, and in parts of Shoa and Wallo. Oromo tribe is made up of people who inhabit the southern part of Ethiopia, northern Kenya, and some parts of Somalia; it’s considered the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia.

Ivory Coast won its independence from France in 1970. Their populations are the Baule, Bete, Senufo, Malinke, and Anyi. Most people practice African religion, while others are Muslim and some follow Christian religion. The Senufo are a group of people living in northern Ivory Coast and Mali. They are known as excellent farmers and are made up of a number of different groups who moved south to Mali and Ivory Coast in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and the French, built ties with the area, culminating in French West Africa. In 1959, Senegal and French Sudan were combined to form the federation of Mali. In 1960, the two were embroiled in a conflict, which led to its separation. Senegalese population includes the Fulani, Seret, Wolof, Toucouleur, and Diola people. The Mandinka are an ethnic group that lives in West Africa, primarily Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau; but some also live in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Ivory Coast. Majority of the population practices Islam.

Following a brief merger with Senegal in 1959 to form the federation of Mali, Mali gained total independence in 1960, becoming the Republic of Mali. The majority of the people are Bamana, Senufo, Dogon, Songhai, and Fulani. Most people practice Islam and some Christian. The Dogon are a cliff dwelling people who live in southeastern Mali and Burkina Faso. Among the people groups in Africa they are unique, in that they have kept and continued to develop their own culture even in the midst of Islamic invasions, which have conquered and adapted many of the current people groups. Bamana are a large Mande racial group located mostly in the country of Mali. They are most dominant group in that country. The Bamana are among the largest and most influential groups in Mali, they live in more than 30,000 small villages mostly in the southern portion of the country. In each village there are as many as 60 or more people. Bamana homes are characteristically bigger than the homes of most other West African groups. The Fulani people of West Africa are the largest nomadic group in the world, primarily nomadic herders and traders. Through their nomadic lifestyle, they established numerous trade routers in West Africa.

Following 63 years of colonialism, Burkina Faso became independent from France in 1960. The majority peoples are the Mossi, Gurunsi, Senufo, Lobi, Bobo, and Fulani. Majority of the populations is Muslim and many others practice African religions and some are Christian. The Bobo people have lived in western Burkina Faso and Mali for centuries, they are known for their masks, which are worn with elaborate outfits for celebrations.

In 1892, the king of Dahomey was defeated and the French came to power; the colonization of Benin lasted until 1960. Benin has a population with strong representation from the Fon, Ajar, Yoruba, and Barbie peoples. Majority of the people practice African religions and some others are Muslim and Christian. Before 1975, the republic of Benin was known as Dahomey, its French colonial name, and Abomey was formerly the capital of the ancient kingdom of Dahomey.

Nigeria is the home of four major tribal groups: Yoruba, Igbo, the Hausa, and the Fulfulde. They have a strong Muslim and Christian tradition. Nigerian history, the Nok culture, dates back to more than 2000 years ago and produced iron work and wonderful terracotta. British colonization ended in 1960. The terracotta heads and figures that have been found in Nigeria are among the oldest known examples of traditional art. They have been attributed to the Nok culture. A terracotta head was excavated from nearly 30 feet deep in a tin mine near the village of Nok, after which this widespread culture is named. The few surviving examples are known in materials such as bronze, stone, and terracotta and show a high degree of technical excellence that could only have been achieved after considerable development and experience, which would indicate that art had at least been a part of the continent for several thousand years.

Yoruba people live in southwest Nigeria and Benin. They have developed a variety of different artistic forms, including pottery, weaving, beadwork, metalwork, and mask making. The Yoruba are the largest nation in Africa with an art-producing tradition. Most of them live in Southwest Nigeria, with considerable communities further west in the republic of Benin and in Togo, where they have developed a variety of different artistic forms. The Yoruba have been city dwellers since early times and founded centers of great importance and power as far back as 1,000 years ago. Yoruba’s myth of creation made Ife, the heart of Yoruba kingship, of the Oni, who was the religious head of all Yoruba people. The grittiest artistic manifestations of the Yoruba and Sub-Saharan western Africa are the bronzes and terracotta of Ife. The art, discovered in and around the city, has been dated from the 12th to the 16th century. The most exciting discovery was made in 1960, when the German Africanist and Ethnographer Leo Frobenius discovered a number of pottery sculptures and one nearly life-size bronze head in a naturalistic style typical of West African art. The Hausa, one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa and the largest in West Africa, ethnic group as well encircling the people in the Sudanian and Sahelian areas of south eastern

Photo 1. Local colonial soldiers that served French during colonization. Fang,

Cameroon or Gabon. Photo courtesy Avner Shakarov

Niger and northern Nigeria with a significant number living in Chad, Togo, Ivory Coast, Sudan, and Ghana. The Ibos from Nigeria live in villages that have anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand people and comprise numerous extended families.

The major tribal people of Cameroon include the Kirdi, Fulani, Wando, Duala, Bamileke, Bassa, Bête, Fang, Gbaya, Ban So, and Tikar. Over half of the people practice African religions, others are Christian and Muslim. Bantu-speaking people moved into the region from the north during the 17th to 19th centuries. Colonization took place in the late 19th century, with Cameroon being divided between France, England, and Germany. When France and England invaded the German colony and seized control in 1919, France and England divided the nation amongst themselves. In 1960, French Cameroon received its independence.

The Gabon, one of the central African nations, is home to the Fang, Eshira, Teke, and Bopounou. The French colonized Gabon in the late 19th century, making it a part of French Equatorial Africa in 1910. The nation received its independence in 1960. The Fang are especially known for their guardian figures, which they attach to wooden boxes containing bones of their ancestors. The bones, by traditions, are said to contain the power of the dead person.

Congo refers to two countries, both of which call their citizens Congolese. The smaller of the two has people principally of the Kongo, Sanga, M’bochi, and the Teke. Population is mostly of Christian and African religion and some practice Muslim religion. Independence came from the French in 1960. The larger country was denoted as Congo (Zaire) in 1997 and changed its name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They are majority Christians and others practice African religion and some are Muslim. The people residing in Congo (Zaire) are principally Azande, Chokwe, Sango, Kongo, Kuba, Lunda, and Bembe. Independence from Belgium came in 1960. Kongo people (aka the Kongo) dwell along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire, Congo Brazzaville, to Luanda, Angola. The Bembe are located in the northeastern part of Zambia and are the largest ethnic group in the Northern Province of Zambia.

Angola’s independence ended a Portuguese involvement in 1975; the religious distribution is that most follow African religions, others are Catholic and some Protestant.

Niger is an ancient land with evidence of human habitation dating nearly 500,000 years old. Contact with the west began in the 1800s, and in 1922, Niger became a French colony. Niger became an autonomous French state in 1958 and was fully independent in 1960. The majority of its people are Hausa, Djerrma, Fulani, Tuareg, Beri, and Gourrnance. Most of the populations are Muslim and some others practice African religions and Christianity.

Tanzania was formerly known as Tanganyika. Its independence came from the British in 1961. Tanganyika achieved independence, and in 1964, combined with Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanzania. Religiously, they are divided almost evenly between African religions, Islam, and Christianity. Chaga tribes from Tanzania traditionally inhabit the eastern slopes of Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro and are mainly concentrated around Tanzania; they are regarded as the first tribe to embrace Christianity during the colonial times.

Mozambique is the southern neighbor of Tanzania. Mozambique gained its independence from Portugal in 1975. Majority of the people there practice African religions, while others are Christians and some are Muslim.

Zimbabwe has archeological evidence of human habitation dating back many centuries. Stone ruins there date from the 9th century to the 13th. The country was relatively free of European contact until the 1800s. The British took control in the 1890s, renaming the territory Rhodesia. Independence came only through many struggles, and following international pressure, independence was finally achieved in 1980. The majority people of Zimbabwe include Shona Zulu, N’debete, and Xhosa. Its majority people are Christian and others practice African religion and Islam; in 1980, Rhodesia changed to Zimbabwe.

Xhosa, across the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, has a number of sub tribes that consist of Mpondo, Xesibe, Mpondomise, Thembu, Bhaca, and Mfergu, with Mpondo being the most popular among them. The sculptors of Shona received international recognition for their works in stone.

The Zulu are the largest ethnic group in South Africa; they are well known for their beautiful, brightly-colored beads and baskets, as well as other small carvings. The Chewa, also known as the Cewa or Chichewa, is an African culture that has existed since the beginning of the 1st millennium, AD. They are primarily located in Zambia and Zimbabwe, with the bulk of the population in Malawi. By the middle of 1978, almost all of Africa was independent.

As a result of the great changes that took place in African countries who embarked on the path of independent development, the process of disintegration of the tribal organization ended almost everywhere. With the disappearance of the ancestor-tribal system, centuries-old traditions, associated with local religious beliefs, lost their value, and together with them the ancient art lost its social ground—the spiritual foundation to which the art owed its appearance. A massive handcraft industry that exists now in many African countries, specializing in the manufacture of small plastic objects and aimed primarily at satisfying the demand from foreign tourists, of course, cannot be considered as one of the steps in the overall artistic evolution of African art. No matter how beautiful these brightly-colored figurines are, depicting musicians, dancers, hunters, etc.; no matter how valuable the pieces of ivory and red and black wood, from which smoothly-polished busts of exotic beauties were cut, are, their artistic value is very relative.

In order to appreciate the achievements of the young handcrafting industry, developing now in many African countries, do not try to place its products at the same rank as the works of the old traditional or contemporary professional art.

Political Map of Africa

Meaning and Function of African Art

In the context of tribal art, an authentic object is made by people for spiritual, ceremonial, social, or utilitarian use. Within their living culture, authenticity is established through assessment of an object’s patina, signs of use, with an understanding of its cultural context, function, and usage. African artworks in their aesthetic context mostly stood on shrines and altars.

An altar is meant to facilitate access to the other world and is conceived of as a kind of power that concentrates the energies of the various objects and substances placed on it. They are like gates to other worlds through which supernatural beings and forces can see into the world of the living. The purpose of shrines is to attract supernatural powers and they are tended with care. Community criticism was an essential part of artistic traditions in many African cultures. Studies of the aesthetic cannons, followed by artists and critics in Africa, indicate a deliberate concern for abstraction in the design process. Among the Yoruba of Nigeria, the criteria for sculptural beauty consists of a number of sculpturally non-representational elements.

Creators and artworks is the idea that traditional African artists represent their community and use their skills in the service of communal cultural traditions, for which reason their works should be understood as creations of the artist’s communities. Traditional art describes the most popular and studied forms of African art, which are typically found in museum collections.

Tribal art is often ceremonial and religious in nature, typically originating in rural areas. Tribal art refers to the subject and craftsmanship of artifacts from tribal cultures in museum collections. Also known as ethnographic or primitive art, tribal art historically was collected by western anthropologists, private collections, and museums. Tribal art is characterized by different tribal styles and is based on a conception of African art according to which each tribe is thought of as having created its own artistic universe, so that each African tribe has only one single style. This popular one-tribe-one-style model would mean that the artists within one ethnic group were restricted by very narrow stylistic limits. Works from Africa are in museums, exhibitions, and publications as works by nameless beings. The descriptions usually give only the country of origin or the tribe to which the work is thought to owe its existence.

For many African people, the initiation is only the beginning of a series of different initiation ceremonies which take place throughout the life of an adult man or woman. There are numerous secret societies, each one fulfilling a particular function in the community and requiring certain necessary skills for membership. The type of ceremony also determines the mask, which will be discussed in the Tribal Ritual Masks. There are also animal masks, connected with agriculture and hunting. For initiation, many other things besides masks appear at the ceremonies. The attributes of the dance—rattles, drums, trumpets, and other objects—are directly connected with the mythological drama. Dance rattles serve not only the rhythm of the dance, but also have a symbolic meaning as well.

The cultures of Africa display fundamental differences, which are of fundamental importance to the African communities, and are the outcomes of the highly-developed system of Kingship.

Several different branches of a central family form a clan. Several clans form a tribe, and tribes may be extended to peoples. Member of a clan trace their ancestry to a common clan ancestor, a mythological ancestor figure who may be male or female, human or animal.

One of the most important functions of African art is distinctly social. In fulfilling this role, African art frequently depicts women as mothers, usually nursing or cradling their young child. Political control is another major concern displayed through art in Africa. Among the Dan (Liberia), Kota (Gabon), Pende, and others, special masks are worn by persons acting as community judges and policeman. A different type of social control is achieved by certain African figures and architectural motifs. The Dogon of Mali and the Senufo of the Ivory Coast carve elaborate doors that ritually protect the community food supplies and sacred objects in the same way.

‘Primitive African art’ is in art terms from