6.1 Cultural Contexts of African Art

Africa has hundreds of cultures, so there is no single "African style." Its art has a very long history: rock paintings and engravings in the Sahara and southern Africa show animals, herding, fighting and dancing, and the Sahara itself was once grassland where early farming and herding developed. Africa also had many kinds of cities and centers of power, such as Meroë, Timbuktu, Great Zimbabwe, Igbo-Ukwu and Kilwa Kisiwani.

Three ideas help with every work in this unit. First, art is often an event as much as an object: a mask is meant to be danced with music and costume, not hung on a wall. Second, trained specialists usually made art for knowledgeable patrons. Third, many works show ideas rather than appearances. A royal figure shows the ideal of kingship, not a snapshot of one man.

European collectors long called African art "primitive" and treated it as unchanging and authorless. Both ideas are false. African states traded with Europe, the Islamic world and Asia for centuries, and their artists kept inventing. African beliefs and art also traveled with the diaspora, shaping Santería and the Harlem Renaissance.

Wall plaque, from Oba's palace (Edo peoples, Kingdom of Benin, Nigeria; 16th century CE; cast brass). A royal guild of brass casters made hundreds of these plaques for the Oba (king) using lost-wax casting, and they were nailed to the wooden pillars of his palace. The central figure, a high-ranking leader, is the largest, shown frontally and flanked by smaller warriors and attendants. This is hierarchical scale: size shows rank. Brass was a royal material, much of it gained by trade with the Portuguese, who appear on some plaques. British troops looted the palace in 1897, which is why the plaques are now in museums around the world. Some looted Benin works have since been returned to Nigeria.

Sika dwa kofi (Golden Stool) (Ashanti peoples, south central Ghana; c. 1700 CE; gold over wood and cast-gold attachments). The CED spells it Ashanti; you'll also see Asante. Tradition says a priest, Okomfo Anokye, called the stool down from the sky onto the lap of Osei Tutu, the first Asantehene (king), uniting the Asante. It is believed to hold the soul of the whole nation, so no one sits on it, and it never touches the ground: it rests on its side on its own stool. Bells and gold figures of defeated enemies hang from it. In 1900, a British governor demanded to sit on it, and the Asante, led by Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa, went to war; the stool was hidden and never captured.

Ndop (portrait figure) of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul (Kuba peoples, Democratic Republic of the Congo; c. 1760–1780 CE; wood). The king sits cross-legged and calm, with a large head, royal belts and headdress. All ndop look much alike, because they show the ideal king, not a real face. You identify the king by his ibol, a personal emblem carved on the base; for this king it is a drum.

Veranda post of enthroned king and senior wife (Opo Ogoga) (Olowe of Ise, Yoruba peoples; c. 1910–1914 CE; wood and pigment). Olowe, a Yoruba carver famous in his own time, made posts like this for the palace of the Ogoga (king) of Ikere. The king sits wearing a tall crown topped with a bird, while his senior wife stands behind him, towering over the king. Her size shows the power of royal women, who help install and support a king. Olowe carved so deeply that the long, graceful figures stand almost free of the post.

Great Mosque of Djenné (Mali; founded c. 1200 CE, rebuilt 1906–1907 CE; adobe). Islam reached West Africa along trans-Saharan trade routes. The mosque is built of sun-dried mud bricks and mud plaster, which rain wears away. Wooden palm beams called toron stick out of the walls and serve as permanent scaffolding: each year the whole town joins a festival to replaster it. Three tall towers line the qibla wall facing the market, and a raised platform lifts the building above floods. The town's guild of masons rebuilt it in 1906–1907, under French colonial rule.

Power figure (Nkisi n'kondi) (Kongo peoples, Democratic Republic of the Congo; c. late 19th century CE; wood and metal). An nkisi is a container for spiritual force. A ritual specialist called an nganga added medicines, often in a cavity in the belly sealed with a mirror or resin. Clients then had the nganga drive in a nail or blade to seal an oath, settle a dispute, or ask the spirit to heal or to punish a wrongdoer. Each nail records one request. N'kondi means "hunter": the spirit hunts down evildoers.

Ikenga (shrine figure) (Igbo peoples, Nigeria; c. 19th to 20th century CE; wood). An ikenga honors a man's right hand, the hand of action, and his drive to succeed. Ram's horns stand for determination, and many ikenga hold a knife and a trophy. The owner makes offerings to it before big undertakings. Traditionally, when he dies, it is split in two: one half is buried with him and the other thrown away.

Female (Pwo) mask (Chokwe peoples, Democratic Republic of the Congo; late 19th to early 20th century CE; wood, fiber, pigment and metal). The pwo mask honors an idealized female ancestor and women's role in continuing the family line. It shows a calm young woman with narrow eyes, scarification marks and a fiber hairstyle. A man wears it with a costume and dances with the graceful movements expected of a respected woman.

Aka elephant mask (Bamileke, Cameroon, western grassfields region; c. 19th to 20th century CE; wood, woven raffia, cloth and beads). Members of Kuosi, an elite men's society, wore these beaded cloth masks, with huge round ears and a long trunk-like panel, at funerals and royal festivals. The elephant stands for the king's power. Imported glass beads were costly, so the beadwork itself shows the wearer's wealth and status.