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Mary Lee Brady, Ph. D.
| African Art and Architecture, in general, those works created by historical or contemporary African artists living south of the Sahara Desert and the adjacent African Savannah that gave rise to great kingdoms like Ghana. But, always remember that human civilization began in the Great Rift Valley and moved up and across the great waterways of life like the Nile River to populate ancient lands like modern day Egypt where men had broad noses and facial characteristics of those throughout Africa of today; and, women braided their hair and lineage was identified by the mother's line like the rest of Africans, ... not the father as existed among all the invading cultures. And, like anywhere else, geographic conquest is achieved by young men who will have their way with young women who will give birth to offspring with the characteristics of both its mother and father. Look at America or even Ethiopia to understand the DNA and color matters of human conquests and dispersions since the first Black woman gave birth to the first homo-sapiens baby on earth. It took many millenniums of likely inter-species breeding with remnants of the Neanderthals that inhabited Europe to generate what came to be known as Semite and Asian peoples; .... all retaining the DNA link to an African mother in the Great Rift Valley.
We make this point because Euro Centric and Semite Centric scholars seek to ignore this most important fact about the origins of so-called Egyptians. It is important to understand the people and geography of Africa's north, central, east, south and west regions changed drastically as a result of external generated forces during and after the rise and fall of various invading tribes, kingdoms and empires: 1. Semite tribes beginning with Abram from area of modern Syria-Iraq 2. Semite tribes known as Hyskos that invaded and ruled for 400 years 3. Semite Kingdom of Assyria that invaded and ruled for a generation 4. Semite Kingdom of Babylon that invaded and ruled for generations. 5. Persian Empire that invaded and ruled for generations 6. Greek Hellenism Empire that invaded and ruled for generations 7. Roman Latin Empire that invaded and ruled for generations 8. Semite Moslem kingdoms that invaded and ruled for generations 9. European Christian kingdoms that invaded and ruled for generations
The artists belong to a wide variety of African cultures, each of which is characterized by its own language, traditions, and artistic forms. But, keep in mind that each invading culture sought out and claimed Africa's wealth and artistic achievements as its own, especially that of gold and bronze accumulated in what the Greeks would refer to as Egypt "the land of Burnt Skins." The transformation of Queen Nefertiti from a woman of color and African features to that of a White woman with Semite and European features was achieved by centuries of artistic conquests and reproductions as shown below. Although the immense Sahara serves as a natural barrier within the continent, evidence has shown a considerable dissemination of influences through trade routes that traversed the continent from early times. Keep in mind the Sahara Desert of the past several decades and centuries was mostly Savannah grasslands during era through which Romans regularly captured tens of thousands of wild animals for slaughter in their daily entertainments. Ancient travelers regularly traversed what is now mostly desert, which is how and why Semites and Romans were able to invade, conquer and exploit so much of it long before others of the modern slave era. Today, for example, many Islamic art and architectural forms of North African inspiration appear among cultures south of the Sahara. In addition, research has pointed to concurrent influences of sub-Saharan African arts and cultures on northern African areas closer to the Mediterranean. Egypt, one of the most resplendent of African civilizations, can also be seen as having important ancient artistic and cultural parallels with sub-Saharan African civilizations (see Egyptian Art and Architecture).
The arts of Africa illuminate the rich histories, philosophies, religions, and societies of the inhabitants of this vast continent. African artworks, in addition to their inherent significance to the peoples who produced them, ........ also have inspired some of the most important artistic traditions emerging in Europe and America in the modern era (see Modern Art). Western artists of this century have admired both the African artists' emphasis on abstraction and their freedom from naturalism.
The history of art in Africa covers many centuries. Among the most ancient of these arts are the rock paintings and engravings from Tassili and Ennedi in the Sahara (6000 BC-1st century AD). Other examples of early arts include the terra-cotta sculptures modeled by Nok artists in central Nigeria between ....... 500BC and AD200, the decorative bronze works of Igbo Ukwu (9th-10th century AD), and the extraordinary bronze and terra-cotta sculptures from Ife (12th-15th cent. AD). The technical expertise and naturalistic qualities of these latter arts led early viewers to assume erroneously that they must have been of classical Greek inspiration. Today rich African traditions continue, with artists working both within the traditional modes of expression and in nontraditional genres. Just keep in mind that with very few exceptions, any art work found by invaders to be made of gold, bronze, copper or any other precious materials like diamonds were pirated away to enrich themselves.
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Copyright © 2010 Brady Enterprise Association, Inc. Last modified: 05/12/10 |
