African Art and Architecture

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Palaces

Palaces to house the king and his court were often built out of the same materials and in the same basic forms as ordinary houses, although palaces had thicker walls, more elaborate designs, and larger spaces. Some palaces were so large they resembled towns inside of towns. In what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the palaces of Kuba kings were mazelike in their complexity. They were typically situated on a mound in the center of town so that the king could see the entire town from the palace. A palace had two main sections: one for the king and one for his wives and children. Mats woven with beautiful designs formed the palace walls. Because of their fragility and impermanence, these mats required constant maintenance. Architects kept plans and records of palace and town layouts so that public buildings, streets, plazas, private compounds, and the palace itself could be re-created if the capital had to move.

In Nigeria, the Yoruba built more permanent palaces of sun-dried mud bricks. These palaces consisted of a series of courtyards, with each courtyard flanked by four rectangular units. Mud bricks formed the outer walls of each unit, and an overhanging roof shaded a veranda on the courtyard side. At the entrance to every Yoruba palace was a set of double wooden doors, intricately carved with abstract designs and images of human and animal figures. The Olowo Palace in Owo, southeastern Nigeria, had as many as 100 courtyards. Each courtyard had a specific function and was dedicated to a particular deity. The largest, said to have been twice the size of an American football field, was used for public assemblies and festivals. Some courtyards were paved with quartz pebbles or broken pottery. Pillars supporting the veranda roofs were carved with statues of the king mounted on a horse or shown with his senior wife.

In 17th-century Ghana, art and architectural traditions of the Ashanti Kingdom proclaimed the godlike powers of the king. For example, much of the art associated with the king was made of gold, a symbol of endurance, the soul, and the giving and safeguarding of life. The king represented the soul and vitality of the nation, and gold reinforced this image of him. The Ashanti king’s palace had several oblong courtyards surrounded by rectangular buildings. The walls of the palace compound and the shrines included inside were decorated with curving, abstract designs modeled out of mud and painted. Although the Ashanti never converted to Islam, Muslims living nearby probably influenced these decorations. Indeed, the patterns recall those of Hausa houses in northern Nigeria, where Islam is strong.

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Great Zimbabwe

Ancestors of the Shona in Zimbabwe, the Karanga, built the ancient city-state of Great Zimbabwe. Great Zimbabwe flourished from the 12th to the 15th century, most likely as a center of trade. Some of this trade was with Arabs and Asians who arrived on the nearby east African coast by ship. The surviving ruins of numerous large stone structures testify to Great Zimbabwe’s wealth and power. A massive wall known as the Great Enclosure rings the largest complex of buildings, which probably served as the palace. The Great Enclosure was skillfully crafted from locally quarried stones, without the use of mortar or cement, and rises as high as 10 m (32 ft), with walls up to 5 m (17 ft) thick. At the top, two rows of cut stones are arranged in a double chevron (V-shaped) pattern. Most of the buildings inside the wall were built of interwoven reeds and branches, known as wattlework, and were reinforced with mud bricks and sheltered by a thatched roof. (The use of wattlework as a building technique continues today.) Remains of enclosures for livestock, along with pottery figurines of cattle, show that the inhabitants were probably animal herders at one time, and continued to raise livestock after they became traders.

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One of the most distinctive structures in the Great Enclosure is the Conical Tower, which is 9 m (30 ft) tall and built of stone. It may have provided a symbolic representation of the king’s power. At a short distance from the Great Enclosure, another set of structures called the Hill Complex may have been used for defense or for religious purposes.

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Regional Differences

Africa is the second largest continent (after Asia) and comprises more than 50 independent countries. The continent is home to more than 1,000 ethnic groups with as many different languages (see African Languages). Differences in geography, politics, religion, and economics have shaped its numerous artistic traditions.

Western and central Africa seem to have had stronger artistic traditions than the rest of the continent to the east and south. Good conditions for cultivating crops, a settled rather than nomadic population, and the existence of large kingdoms and city-states may have strengthened the impetus to create in this region. However, African societies that were not primarily agricultural also produced rich artistic and architectural traditions.

Ways of life change, and scholars can sometimes trace changes in a society through its works of art. For example, the Chokwe people of Angola, in central Africa, created very dignified wooden statues of Chibinda Ilunga, a legendary hero who introduced a new hunting technique to them in the 1600s. The Chokwe are now farmers, but the honor accorded this figure in their art indicates that hunting must once have been central to their survival.

Vigorous artistic traditions developed in many towns and city-states of western Africa, where trade was the driving economic force. Yet the presence of trade in parts of eastern and southern Africa did not produce artistic traditions of comparable importance.

Religion also differs from region to region and influences the kind of art produced. In western Africa, trade and flourishing agricultural communities produced city-states in which kings were associated with divinities and with bountiful harvests and the fertility of the land. In eastern Africa, grasslands lent themselves to cattle herding and rural settlements, where people tended to worship sky divinities associated with ancestor spirits.

Community associations guide religious practices in many areas of Africa and take responsibility for education, rituals of initiation into adulthood, and the well-being of the community. Such associations have helped shape many artistic traditions. In western Africa, for example, the Poro men’s association has helped develop a strong tradition of ritual masks. The Poro association is active among the Mende, Gola, and Vai peoples of Liberia and Sierra Leone; the Senufo of Côte d’Ivoire; and other groups.

Religions from outside sub-Saharan Africa, such as Islam and Christianity, have also influenced artistic traditions, especially in the north. But African artists have always transformed symbols or forms borrowed from foreign sources, either by using local materials, altering shapes or designs to conform to local traditions, or attaching their own uses or meanings to them. Mosques, for example, are a borrowed building type, but each African region that builds mosques has developed its own standards of mosque design. In the region along the southwestern edge of the Sahara the inhabitants have developed an elaborate design of buttresses and minarets, while Moslems in eastern Africa tend to build simpler, flat-roofed structures.

Christianity has influenced church architecture in 20th-century Africa, but in some places Christian symbols have taken on new meaning. The Kongo people of central Africa began to make small brass crosses after European missionaries introduced this symbol of Christianity. To the Kongo the cross served as a sign of authority, an object for healing, an oracle, and a hunting talisman.

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Western Africa

Western Africa is the home of many of the sculptural traditions for which African art has become internationally known. Wood carving is especially prominent among the Baule and Senufo of Côte d’Ivoire, the Mende of Sierra Leone, the Dogon and Bamana of Mali, the Fon of Benin, and the Yoruba and Igbo of Nigeria. Western Africa also claims an extensive range of other art forms, including clay sculpture, bronze casting, jewelry, and weaving. Some of these traditions are driven by religious practices in agricultural societies, others by the patronage of kings.

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Variety of Art Forms

Along the southwestern edge of the Sahara, many groups have long traditions of carving masks and other objects for use in rituals related to agriculture. For example, the Senufo people of Côte d’Ivoire hold a hoeing competition as one of several rituals that initiate men into adulthood. The winner of this competition is awarded a wooden cultivator’s staff. A seated female figure is carved at the top of the staff; it symbolizes both the power of humans to reproduce (a power that the initiate, as a new adult, has just gained) and the fertility of the soil.

The Akan of Ghana and neighboring countries are noted for their Kente cloth, carved wooden stools, gold jewelry, and gold-plated wood carvings. The privilege of wearing gold once belonged to the king and his court alone and was a sign of the prosperity and well-being of his kingdom. Akan rulers wore so much gold that they inspired the proverb, “Great men move slowly.”

Among the Hausa of northern Nigeria, members of the male aristocracy wear a riga, which is a beautifully embroidered robe of honor. Rigas are decorated with stylized Arabic writing that refers to Dhu l’Fakar, an Islamic prophet. Hausa men wear the riga to indicate their piety as Muslims, their wealth, and their high social status.