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Mary Lee Brady, Ph. D.
| The multiple roles that art plays in African communities are as diverse as their forms of patronage. These include social, political, economic, historical, and therapeutic functions. [ Social Role] One of the most important functions of African art is distinctly social. In fulfilling this role, African art frequently depicts women as mothers, usually nursing or cradling their young. Men, on the other hand, are often presented both as elders-the traditional community leaders and as successful warriors-appearing on horseback or with armaments. Social themes are prevalent in many African masquerade performances as well. In these masquerades, animal and human characters, in appropriate masks and garb, assume a variety of roles in demonstrating proper and improper forms of societal behavior. In performances of the Ijo and southern Ibo of Nigeria are found such diverse antisocial characters as the miser, the greedy person, the prostitute, the incompetent physician, and the unscrupulous lawyer. In the Egungun performances of the nearby Yoruba, the gossip, the glutton, and the strange-mannered foreigner have key parts as negative social models. [ Political Role]
Political control ..... is another major concern displayed through art in Africa. Among the Dan (Liberia), .......... Kota (Gabon), Pende (DRC),and others, special masks are worn by persons acting as community judges and policemen. The Kwele Gon maskers of Gabon are a particularly good example of this type of masked community official. Because of their anonymity and special powers, these Gon masked figures are able to break normal societal codes and proscriptions as a means of redistributing scarce food and animals at times of great community need. A different type of social control is achieved by certain African figures and architectural motifs. The reliquary figures of the Kota, Sogo, and Fang of Gabon, for example, are used as guardian images to protect the sacred ancestral relics of the community from theft or harm. The Dogon of Mali and the Senufo of the Côte d'Ivoire carve elaborate doors that ritually protect the community food supplies and sacred objects in the same way. [ Economic Role]
The dance of the Chi Wara maskers on the agricultural fields (Chi Wara's grave) serves both to honor this great being and to remind the young Bambara farmers of the arduous sacrifice that they in turn must make each year. Among the Senufo of Côte d'Ivoire, delicately carved figures are used in a similar way to encourage farmers in their difficult work. Here daleu staffs, with bird or female imagery, are secured in the ground at the end of cultivation rows. These staffs serve as goals, markers, and trophies for the field-planting competitions. [ Historical Role] An important historical role is also fulfilled in African art through its memorialization of important persons and events of the past. With this in mind, the Dogon of Mali have carved numerous images of their legendary ancestors, the Nommo, who descended from the sky at the beginning of time. Such Nommo figures (some of which have upraised hands pointing to the sky and their village of origin) find important places on granary doors, cave paintings, and sacred architectural supports. In the powerful kingdom of Benin in Nigeria, elaborate relief plaques cast (lost-wax process) in bronze similarly carried images of important persons and events of the past, including the meetings of foreign dignitaries, battle scenes, court pageants, nobles in state dress, religious ceremonies, and musicians. [Therapeutic Role] Traditional African therapies have also required special forms of art. Divination, the means by which problems and their potential resolutions could be determined, was particularly important in the production of artworks. Yoruba (Nigeria) Ifa diviners, for example, used elaborately sculpted divination boards, bowls, and tappers as an essential part of their ritual equipment. Similarly, the Baule of Côte d'Ivoire used elaborately sculptured divination vessels for oracular purposes. Among the Kongo of the DRC, powerful wooden fetish figures (stuck through with iron nails) were employed therapeutically as a means of repelling personal danger and trauma. "African Art and Architecture," Microsoft® Encarta® |
Copyright © 2010 Brady Enterprise Association, Inc. Last modified: 05/12/10 |
Art in Africa also fulfills an important economic role. The elegant wooden Chi Wara antelope headdresses of the Bambara of Mali are worn in planting and harvest ceremonies. Chi Wara, the mythical Bambara inventor of agriculture, is said to have buried himself in the earth as an act of self-sacrifice.