Durmam Daxxel - PUBLICATIONS BY Garba Diallo
AFRICAN ART IS NOT ART
By Garba Diallo
June 1996
African Art is not luxury goods to be enjoyed only by the dominant
class in society. It is a matter of life and death and beyond. African
artists deal with the struggle of the community for survival and continued
vigour. It is a survival kit that insures peace on earth, fertility
and good harvest for the community. African art is multidimensional
and double edged craft with a holistic approach to life. Like a double
edged knife, African art can be used for either good magic or bad magic.
In the African culture, the most important art objects are masks and
sculptures. Masks are used especially for initiations while sculptures
are created to symbolise power and keep the images of the dead ancestors
vivid within the community realm. Africans believe that everything is
animated, so the art objects not only represent images of ancestors
but also they embody life and vital power of their own.
THE NATURE OF AFRICAN ART
Traditionally, African art is not art in the European sense of the word
art for art's sake. It remains closer to the original Latin meaning
of art as a skill. Thus African artists are more of skilled craftsmen
than 'pure' artists. Even though their creation is highly artistic,
its value lies in their practical use and application in the daily life
of the people. Art here is an essential part of the daily activities
of the community in all its facets. Pregnant women use art objects like
amulets to ensure the safety of the life they carry. Female kids are
given dolls both as protection means and role model symbols. Boys carry
amulets to ensure their potency. As a persons grows up, he moves up
the from using dolls to masks and sculptures. In this way, art is more
of a cultural life style of a given community than an aesthetic creation.
As a way of life African art is a popular art to which all the members
of the community have access. There is no single class, caste or age
set that has the monopoly better access to finer art than the rest of
the community. There are no special houses or museums where collections
of art objects are reserved for the top layers of society. African art
is found everywhere in tools, in the way people talk, walk, dance, produce
and reproduce life. Art is closely linked to the extended family, clan
and tribe system of beliefs.
The African traditional artist does not even need to indicate the dates
when his work was done because African art deals with universal, timeless
socio-survival issues. Here time is life, not money. Life moves in circle
around which eternal survival on earth rotates through birth, initiation
into adulthood, marriage, death and reproduction. The opposite of death
is not life, but birth. When a person dies she is not flying anywhere
to join her lord, ends up in heaven or hell. The spirit will continue
to perform all the duties toward the society. An African individual
cannot be free from the society. Even after death you have to continue
to serve the society. This especially true for the artist craftsmen
whose importance is so vital to the whole society.
The reason why African art in ancient Egypt seems very aristocratic
is because the smaller, less durable art objects were either destroyed
or looted by the invading hordes that succeeded each other in occupying
Egypt. For example when the Arab Muslims captured Egypt in 642 AD, they
tried to destroy every art edifice. Such art is sinful because it resembles
God's creation. The European destroyed as much because of arrogance
and took as much back home. Napoleon shot the Great Sphinx in the nose.
Louvre museum in Paris is a living displays of the biggest loot in history.
What remains in Egypt are the immovable Pyramids and other things that
were discovered later.
AIMS OF AFRICAN ART
In African society, the collective whole is more important than the
individual members that constitute it. Therefore, African art's primary
aim is to serve community needs, whether they are spiritual, economic
or social. As the Nigerian writer and film maker, Ola Balogun says 'While
European artists aim to please, African artists aim to frighten, to
make you doubt the evidence of your senses, to make you believe that
what you are seeing has other dimensions, meanings and languages beyond
you'. It warns people not to be arrogant. That they should remember
and honour their ancestors. In this way it facilitates eternal communication
and dialogue between different segments of the living members of the
community and between them and the living dead and with the invisible
spirits.
Seldom does the artist set out to create a piece of art in response
to a personal urge to release his emotions. He is not driven or guided
by his own ego needs. The local community and its socio-physical environment
are the driving force that moves him to create. As a creator, he is
highly valued not only because of the beauty of his art, but because
of its practical use. His creation is necessary for the continued existence
and prosperity of society. Here the artist has a special responsibility
toward his own society. He has a vast knowledge of his field and also
his society and their environment, history and social relations.
Because his art work is sacred, any negligence or lack of concentration
when creating on his part may spell disaster not to just to him and
his immediate family but also to the whole community. Thus the artist
is a semi-god who completes the incomplete creation of the creator.
As the late Malian philosopher, Amadou Hampate Ba put It ' every artisanal
function was linked with an esoteric knowledge transmitted from generation
to generation and taking its origin in an initial revelation. The craftsman's
activity in operation was supposed to repeat the mystery of creation'.
THE ART DOES NOT BELONG TO THE ARTIST
As an individual member of a community where the interests and needs
of the community come before those of the individual members, both the
artist and his artistic creation belong first of all to the collective
rather than to himself. As such the traditional artist does not sign
under his art or even mention the date when the art work was created.
Therefore after a generation or so, no one can tell who has create which
art. This does not mean that the neighbouring communities do not always
know which art belong to which community. As each piece of art carries
the identification marks of the community for which it was created,
there is no problem identifying art objects. A number of African clans
and nations have tattoos, scarification and hair styles as identity
marks which they often carry for life. These practices meet the aesthetic
criteria of beauty and internal harmony as seen by the individual people.
Due to its realist and functional nature, African art is not chauvinist
or racist. It does not play or trade with women's bodies for sexual
satisfaction or commercial purposes. When female breasts and hips are
emphasised it is to induce fertility. African art aims to present the
most important parts of the things which the community believes to be
vital. As the most important sources of life, sex organs and symbols
of fertility are presented in their natural form. There is no shame,
guilt or sin associated with the human body, be it male or female. As
the most important member of the family, African art portraits the woman
as the Mother, Sister or Queen, never as a sex object. She embodies
the ultimate good and generousness of St. Claus (Jule mand) not a witch.
African art is so occupied with the internal life of the local community
that it has hardly anything to do with other cultures. Traditional African
society is basically polytheistic that makes people take the plurality
of religions and ideas for granted. As such, there no thing call missionary
zeal to convert others into one's religion. There are no imperialist
ideological motives in African art to justify using time and energy
to depict some false stereotypes about other cultural groups.
TYPES AND FORMS OF AFRICAN ART
African art takes all kinds of forms because it deals with every aspects
of community life. The oldest forms are rock paintings in caves in the
dry Sahara zones. Plastic art such as sculptures and masks are concentrated
in West and Central Africa while poetry and ornaments are the dominance
of East and southern Africa. West and Central African societies are
more settled with abundant raw materials for making the art objects
compared to those of the basically nomadic East and southern Africa
societies.
Otherwise. African is so pervasive that people use everything including
their own bodies as raw materials for creating art objects. The tattooing
and scarification are social practices which require the knowledge and
skills of master artist. Art is found even in the coffins for the Egyptian
mummies. When it comes to architecture, Ancient Egyptian, Zimbabwe and
the Sahelian styles are the best examples of indigenous African architecture.
The fit architecture here is well adapted to the local climate and the
extended family system. Like in the plastic art, the decorative motives
and patterns have functional meanings known to the local society.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICAN ART
African Art has been developed and perfected by the long experience
and continued settlement of humanity on the continent. That Africa is
the cradle of mankind makes accumulation of artistic experience possible.
Most African communities are settled, very territorial and tightly attached
to their local environment. Even after death, people are not leaving
the earth up to join their lord in heaven or end up hell. They continue
to have interest in the well being of the community. Before becoming
an artist or skilled craftsman, one has to go through a long and hard
process of apprenticeship at the workshop of a master artist. Patience,
obedience, respect and observance are necessary qualities for the student
to become a recognised artist.
Being on the cross roads between Europe, Asia and America plus the
fact that African societies are open to receive other cultural inputs
make it possible for cultural exchange. Furthermore, the history of
colonialism opened up for cultural borrowing. Now modern African artist
have the privilege to combine their local beliefs and experiences with
the borrowed inputs from abroad. These new breed of artists are in an
exciting transition period. Like African musicians, the plastic and
decorative artists have a lot to teach the world. As the identity crises
in post modern society become more acute, humanity is realising that
segmented and mono-cultural approach to life is not the only answer.
Life is so complex that we need the knowledge and experiences of all
humanity in its diversity. According to the African indigenous world
view, people live with nature, not off nature. As a creator, the artist
can educate us not to see life just from one angle.
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Last updated on April 9, 2003
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