V.

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.

A.

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.

A.1.

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.

A.2.

Nok Sculptures

Among the oldest surviving art objects of western Africa are fragments of Nok terracotta (baked clay) sculptures found in central Nigeria; these works date from 500 bc to ad 200. The fragments are primarily from human and animal figures, some of which were probably attached to large pots. The human figures range in size from about 10 cm (4 in) to more than 120 cm (47 in). Patterns in the clay represent elaborate hairstyles, jewelry, and clothing.

A.3.

Kingdom of Benin

The ancient Kingdom of Benin, centered in Benin City in what is now southern Nigeria, produced impressive cast bronze sculpture, ivory carvings, and other art. When Europeans first reached the area in the late 15th century, they found a complex and expanding kingdom with which they established trade and diplomatic links. Although British soldiers looted and burned the old Benin City when they annexed it to British Nigeria in 1897, descriptions of the city’s splendor, as well as many artifacts, survive.

The king of Benin, known as the oba, had an especially impressive palace. At one time its walls were covered with beautiful cast bronze plaques that were said to shimmer like gold. The plaques depicted aspects of warfare, court and ritual customs, and merchants and soldiers from Portugal. The three main buildings at the palace were each topped by immense turrets supporting giant bronze birds and pythons. On the royal palace altars, bronze memorial heads and sculptures were displayed for private and state festivities.

The bronze casters who provided the palace with these objects belonged to a hereditary guild, as did the royal ivory carvers, who carved tusks to be displayed on ancestral altars as well as ivory regalia for the king. A pair of ivory leopards inset with copper spots stood on either side of the king on state occasions. Leopards were a symbol of royal power.

Although it is now subject to the Nigerian government, the Benin court still exists at Benin City. Groups of artists continue to supply the palace with regalia for annual festivals held to assure the prosperity of the people.

B.

Central Africa

Central Africa stretches from Cameroon, Chad, and the Central African Republic southward to Angola and Zambia; it also encompasses Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Burundi, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A number of ethnic groups have made notable contributions to artistic traditions in this region; they include the Fang, Kota, Kuba, Luba, Mangbetu, Kongo, Lunda, and Chokwe. Like western Africa, central Africa has been dominated by kingdoms and other forms of strong central government. Much of central African art is designed to reinforce the authority of a leader or to fulfill roles in ritual or religion.

B.1.

Fang and Kota

Ancestor cults have been especially important in the traditional culture of the Fang and Kota peoples of Gabon and of many neighboring peoples. Among the Fang, cylindrical bark boxes traditionally held the skulls and other relics of ancestors. On top of the boxes, seated male or female figures, or in some cases just heads, protected the relics from outsiders and communicated complaints and appeals to the ancestors. Fang reliquary figures sometimes played a role in ceremonies that initiated young men into adulthood—performers held the figures above bark screens and manipulated them like puppets.

Kota reliquary figures served a similar function to those of the Fang but took the distinctive form of large concave oval heads over tiny bodies, the whole sheathed in copper or brass.

B.2.

Kuba

Kuba peoples in the DRC developed an elaborate culture of court ceremonials and art that focused on the king. This royal art reached its height in a series of seated wooden figures that represent each of the Kuba kings. When the king was absent from his capital, his wives would invoke the necessary presence of royalty in the palace by rubbing his statue with oil. Scholars believe that most of the surviving king figures date from the mid- to late 18th century.

Much of Kuba art features geometric patterns, which are used in a variety of ways. They may be embroidered on raffia cloth, painted on women’s bodies, carved on wooden cups and boxes, or woven into mats for the walls of houses and palaces.

B.3.

Luba

Art of the Luba kingdom, in the southeastern part of the DRC, also emphasized the power of the king. Symbols of royal authority included carved three-pronged stands to hold bows used in hunting. The bow stands were considered too sacred for public display and were kept in carefully guarded rooms within the palace. They were decorated with a seated female figure, hands placed on her breasts. Her gesture symbolized women’s power to reproduce and was in turn a symbol of political power. Luba artists also created carved wooden stools supported by similar female figures, as well as headrests and bowls decorated with figures.

B.4.

Mangbetu

Royal patronage was also the driving force behind artistic traditions of the Mangbetu kingdom, in the northern DRC. Among the objects produced for the rulers were decorative clay cups in the shape of women’s heads, with elongated foreheads and fanlike hairstyles. The cups’ shapes made them awkward for drinking, so they doubtless had another function. Some scholars have described them as portraits of ancestors or as memorials for dead rulers, but recent research has revealed that they were made for display and tourism. Mangbetu rulers, especially Chief Okondo, who ruled the Mangbetu until 1915, gave the cups as gifts to visiting African and European dignitaries. Among the other art forms of the Mangbetu were freestanding figures, pots, mural painting, decorated bark cloth, and metalwork.

B.5.

Kongo

The Kongo people live along the lower Congo River in the western DRC and in neighboring countries. In addition to the brass crosses discussed earlier, the Kongo are noted for several distinctive types of sculpture. Wooden figures known as nkisi nkondi, or power sculptures, embody spiritual potency. They are used to harness spiritual forces to heal illness, seal agreements, protect against thieves or mishaps, or weaken an enemy. The body of the figure is simplified, while the face, hands, and feet are more elaborate. A person activates the figure’s powers by driving nails and iron blades into it, or in some cases putting items in a medicine bag attached to the figure .

Among Kongo women, dress and body decoration, including elaborate scarification patterns, were important markers of status and beauty. Although scarification is rarely practiced today, many of the patterns are recorded on small, finely carved images of nursing women, known as phemba. Other Kongo sculpture includes carved soapstone figures that marked the graves of wealthy Kongo traders from the late 19^th century to about 1920.

B.6.

Mukanda Masks

The Chokwe, Lunda, and other groups in northern Zambia, northern Angola, and southern DRC create a series of masks for use during and after mukanda rites, which initiate boys into manhood. Performances with these masks serve to educate the boys about their social responsibilities as adult males. In contrast to other African masks, which are typically made of wood, most mukanda masks are made out of bark stretched over a framework of sticks and painted with resin. One such mask, the chikunza, is tall, cone-shaped, and painted with patterns in red, white, and black. The wearer acts as the father of the boys and teaches them a special initiation dance. Only one type of mask in this tradition is carved out of wood: the mwana pwo. It represents a beautiful young girl, and a man wears it in a performance at the boys’ coming of age ceremonies.

C.

Eastern Africa

Eastern Africa stretches from Sudan in the north to Mozambique in the south, taking in Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and the island nation of Madagascar. This vast region encompasses a diverse range of peoples, environments, and historical experiences. They include seminomadic herders, ancient kingdoms, coastal trading ports, and even a few isolated communities of hunter-gatherers. An extremely wide range of art and architecture in the region reflects this diversity. Trade with Arabs and other groups along Africa’s east coast also introduced a strong foreign influence.

C.1.

Influence of Religion

Much of the art and architecture of eastern Africa is religious in nature. Islam is the main religion in the northern part of the region, and mosques to house worshipers are a major architectural form there. Mosques in eastern Africa tend to be simpler in design than those in western Africa. Instead of minarets, eastern African mosques feature an open flight of stairs that leads to a flat roof from which the call to prayer is issued. Inside the mosque, columns in one, two, or three rows divide the space into rectangular chambers.

Ethiopia adopted Christianity as a state religion as early as the 4th century. In the 12th century, the king had 11 churches carved out of solid rock in the ancient capital city of Lalibela. Some of these red volcanic rock structures were carved below ground level and encircled by deep trenches, while others were attached to surrounding rock outcroppings. A network of tunnels and narrow passageways connected them. Wall paintings decorate the interior of the rock-cut Church of St. George at Lalibela; some depict the life of St. George, who is said to have supervised the church’s construction. According to legend, his horse left a hoof print that is still visible in the courtyard of the church.

Indigenous African religions have had a greater influence on art objects than they have had on architecture, since most of these religions do not require buildings for prayer. Instead, they require statues, masks, or other objects for use in rituals of initiation, marriage, and death. The Chewa of Malawi, for example, developed a large repertoire of masks, many associated with male initiation. In many towns and villages, governing associations or councils were responsible for maintaining social order and a good relationship with ancestor spirits; they used art to help achieve these goals.

The Mijikenda of Kenya carved wooden posts called vigangu in honor of the dead. The posts were erected to keep important men of the past in continual contact with current male elders. Groups in Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Madagascar created similar post-shaped funerary sculpture in a variety of styles. In some cases these sculptures were erected on the graves of important people; in others they served as memorials, standing in groups away from the graveyard itself.

Madagascar’s rich and varied culture bears traces of the Indonesian ancestry of the Malagasy people, some of the island’s earliest inhabitants. These influences appear most notably in the Malagasy’s rectangular wooden huts thatched with palm leaves. These huts resemble Indonesian buildings rather than the round huts native to most of eastern Africa.

C.2.

Nomadic Herders

A large number of peoples in eastern Africa have a seminomadic way of life, dependent on herding but with some reliance on settled farming villages. Among them are the Somali of Somalia, the Turkana of Tanzania, and the Masai of Kenya and Tanzania. Poetry is often said to be the primary art form of the northern Somali nomads, but the visual arts are represented by a number of items that can be easily transported, including finely carved wooden headrests, baskets, and a variety of decorated wooden vessels. The Turkana are noted for their headrests, wooden drinking vessels, and beadwork.

Beads play a major role in elaborate systems of body art among the Turkana, Masai, and other nomadic groups. Specific beadwork patterns combine with aspects of dress, hairstyle, jewelry, and in some cases body paints to distinguish ethnic groups from one another. More significantly, these adornments mark differences in gender, age, and status within each group. Male dress and hairstyles may mark progress from uninitiated youth to warrior to elder; they also indicate specific successes in war or hunting. Women’s styles may indicate stages of initiation, marriage, number and status of children, or widowhood.

D.

Southern Africa

Southern Africa encompasses Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, and South Africa. The region is home to some of the oldest art in Africa, although it largely lacks the strong artistic traditions found elsewhere in Africa. In Namibia, a few images of animals painted on rock slabs were found within caves and have been reliably dated to 25,500 bc. These are by far the oldest surviving record of artistic activity on the African continent. Another important southern site is Great Zimbabwe, a city-state that flourished from the 12th to 15th centuries. Among its remarkable artifacts are large soapstone bird sculptures that most likely date from the early 15th century. Seven terracotta heads, known as the Lydenburg heads, date from much earlier—about 520.

D.1.

Lydenburg Heads

The Lydenburg heads were uncovered from the site of an early mixed farming village in the Lydenburg valley of the eastern Transvaal region. Pits at the site also contained animal bones, broken pottery, beads, and metal ornaments. No similar heads have been found elsewhere, but large numbers of smaller modeled figures from other sites in the region indicate a tradition of pottery sculpture. The heads, which once were painted, are hollow and have modeled facial features and bands of incised decoration around wide necks. Archaeologists at present can only speculate on the purpose of these small heads. However, initiation rites in southern Africa commonly make use of small pottery figurines. Only two of the heads are large enough to have served as helmet-masks; the others have small holes on either side of the neck that may have served to attach the heads to some structure. Small animal figures appear on the crown of the two large heads.

D.2.

Beadwork

Beadwork created by Shona, Zulu, Xhosa, and Ndebele women ranks as the strongest of more recent artistic traditions in southern Africa. Beads are used to make necklaces, headbands, bracelets, and leg ornaments, and to decorate aprons, loin covers, belts, and blankets. Beadwork patterns serve not only as decoration, but also as a means of communication, signaling the wearer’s rank, wealth, stage in life, or profession. Among the Thembu, a subgroup of the Xhosa, a girl who likes a boy will give him a headband. If he accepts, a relationship is established and other beaded gifts follow.

In earlier times, these groups made beads from materials found in nature, ranging from ordinary clay to more coveted shells of ostrich eggs. Arab slave traders brought the first glass beads to southern Africa. Portuguese traders in the 16th century brought beads from skilled artisans in Venice, Italy. Glass beads became more freely available after English colonists settled in Capetown in the 1780s.

D.3.

Other Traditions

Rich traditions of woodcarving among the Zulu, Shona, Sotho, and others have produced small figures as well as headrests, staffs, pipes, doors, and ceremonial vessels. Women made finely decorated pots, particularly pots for storing beer.

Among several groups in Botswana and South Africa, women in the 20th century have used mural painting to express ideas about control over domestic space. Mural painting developed among the Ndebele in the 1930s and 1940s. It became a way of expressing ethnic identity on the isolated farmsteads where they lived after European colonists drove them out of their native homes.