Image and Imagination in African Art

AFRICA IMAGE AND IMAGINATION IN AFRICAN ART Africa is an enormous continent with diverse climates and geography, encompassing tropical rain forests, savannas, and deserts. Environmental factors have affected the many, varied cultures that call the continent home. Most of the works in the Museum's African collection are from tropical West Africa, an area rich in sculptural traditions. African art cannot be fully comprehended using traditional art historical methods alone. The loss of much of the organic material from which objects are made, due to such factors as climate and insect activity, has hindered attempts at complete and accurate chronologies. In addition, few artists' biographies have been recorded. A more useful way to study African art is to examine common, recurring themes that are encountered such as fertility, the spirit world, successful farming, social well-being, rites of passage, and commerce. Most African objects are not made for mere decoration or as "works of art". Instead objects are interwoven into people's daily lives or used in special ceremonies. Masks are carved and worn for a variety of ceremonies and many relate to ancestral, agricultural, funerary, or initiation activities. When a mask is viewed in isolation, much of the contextual experience is lost––the rest of the body-concealing costume, the motion of the wearer, and the sound of the music which usually accompanies the dance. Figures are often carved in human or animal likenesses and, similarly, they frequently have roles in specialized activities, serving as intermediaries between people and the supernatural world. Much African sculpture is carved with contrasting shapes and forms. Organic forms can be mixed with geometric ones, and three-dimensional forms might contrast with flat areas. Surfaces might be left smooth and plain or be covered with textured, relief-carved ornamentation. Most figures have static, frontal poses but geometric patterns, as well as the rhythmic repetition of body parts, serve to move the viewer's eye over the piece. Even the casual viewer is touched by the beauty and power of African art. It is evocative, vigorous, mysterious and exciting. It reveals some of the richness and imagination of a multi-cultured continent and its people. MAA 11/2004 AFRICA Broad Themes in African Art – Jeff Wilcox, Registrar A number of broad themes run through much of African Art: There are six themes, but there is a fair bit of cross-over between them. 1. Continuation of Life Concerned with fertility of crops and humans Birth and motherhood One generation giving rise to the next 2. Transitions Rites of passage / coming of age ceremonies / initiations Transition from childhood to adulthood and the passing on of knowledge Transition from life to death 3. Bringing order and security to one’s world Ensuring the food supply (rain) Preventing disease Keeping spirits placated in order to help or at least not interrupt human undertakings Divination and the making of shrines are important tools 4. Issues of authority and control in society 5. Displays of status, wealth and power 6. Death Transition to the spiritual world of ancestors MAA 11/2004 AFRICA Fertility Figure (akua'ba) Ghana, Asante people Wood and glass beads (69.1058) Gift of James V. Mosely Akua’ba figures are the best-known sculptures from Ghana. The name akua’ba comes from the legend of a woman named Akua who was distraught at being barren. She took her problem to a diviner who told her to commission a small wooden child from a carver, and to then care for it as for a living child. She did this, but was ridiculed by her fellow villagers for her foolishness. The figure became known as Akua’ba, which means “Akua’s child.” Eventually Akua conceived and gave birth to a beautiful daughter. In the end, Akua’s detractors came around to adopting these same measures to cure barrenness. The practice is still current today. Women usually wear akua’bas for specified periods of time, tucked into their waistcloths. After effecting pregnancy, akua’bas are often placed in shrine as offering to the gods who empowered them in the first place. Some become family heirlooms. There are reports that akua’bas may be passed on to children to use as playthings, i.e. dolls, but others say this is never allowed. Evidently there is variation in this practice from community to community. Akua’ba figures are always female. The reasons for this are: 1) Akua’s first child was a girl. 2) Akan society (Asante is part of the larger Akan group of people) is matrilineal and therefore female children are especially desired in order to perpetuate the family line. 3) Women prefer girls to boys because the females will automatically be available to assist in the household chores, including the care of smaller children. Akua’bas are meant to be beautiful images. In being so, it is hoped they will impart beauty to the newborn child. The akua’ba form––with its the flat disc-shaped head––is a strongly exaggerated convention of the Akan ideal of beauty––that is, a high oval forehead, slightly flattened in actual practice by gentle modeling of an infant’s soft skull. Most akua’bas have abstracted horizontal arms, cylindrical torsos with breasts, and a lower columnar body without legs that ends in a round base. (Full-bodied akua’ba figures are a late phenomenon.) The ringed necks are a standard convention for rolls of fat, and hence a sign of beauty and prosperity. Mouths are small and set low on the face. Marks on the cheeks are indicative of those made on persons’ faces to ward off certain illnesses. However, it is questionable if the marks should be interpreted as scarifications since the Asante do not practice scarification––at least they don’t do it on humans today, if they ever did. Some akua’bas may be dressed, but most are now seen unclothed. The related Fante people typically make their akua’ba figures with an MAA 11/2004 AFRICA elongated rectangular-shaped head. On the shape of the heads of akua’ba, one theory–– not generally accepted any longer––is that round-heads indicate a mother’s preference for a girl, and a rectangular-headed figure was used when a male baby was desired. MAA 11/2004 AFRICA Assemblage In Honor Of The God Eshu, The Trickster Nigeria, Yoruba people Wood, leather, cowrie shells (71.142) Gift of Edward Merrin Among the Yoruba people, the gods are known as “orisha.” The Yoruba believe there were two primordial orisha, Orunmila and Eshu. These two gods may be seen as embodiments of the principles of certainty and uncertainty. The Yoruba believe each person chooses his or her own destiny in the presence of the Creator god prior to birth. Orunmila, the orisha of destiny, embodies certainty, fate, equilibrium, and order. It is believed that Orunmila can be petitioned in order to help people gain knowledge of their pre-chosen destinies. Through him, they can learn which forces control their future, and how to manipulate these forces in their favor. The orisha, Eshu, on the other hand, is defined by uncertainty, chance, violence, mischief, trouble and disorder. He is the messenger of the gods, serving as a go- between with humans. To gain the attention of Orunmila, a person must first approach the trickster, Eshu. He is also considered the god of the marketplace and the crossroads. He is involved with male sexuality and romantic entanglements, and he may be depicted as male or female. In some ways, he may be said to teach people my means of negative example. The Museum’s object is an assemblage of images, not representations of Eshu himself, but rather figures that are made to honor him. The assemblage would have been displayed at a shrine or altar, or carried in a ceremony. The object has two male/female couples––the males can be distinguished by their beards. Each figure kneels on a tall round pedestal, and they hold gourds and staffs. They are bound about their necks and at the bases by leather strips. Long strips of leather, strung with cowrie shells, fall from around their necks. Cowrie shells were once used as money by the Yoruba and are a reference to wealth––wealth that can come from successful dealings in the marketplace– –the domain of Eshu. The contrast of the white cowries and the dark wood of the figures is a reference to the contrasting personality of Eshu. MAA 11/2004 AFRICA Weights For Measuring Gold Ghana, Asante people Brass (65.108 and 68.448.1, .3, .4, .6) Gift of J. Lionberger Davis and Dr. and Mrs. Samuel Eilenberg Small weights, called mrammuo, were traditionally used for the commercial measuring of gold dust or small nuggets of gold––the currency of the Asante people. Gold was weighed on simple balance scales using counterweights of precise known values. Some sixty weight values are known, though only half that many were in common use. It was formerly thought that specific shapes or geometric motifs were used to indicate specific weight values, however current scholarship has proved that there is no such relationship. The majority of such weights were made of cast brass by the "lost wax" technique where an object, shaped in wax, was encased in a mold; then the mold and wax were heated until the latter melted out. The resulting cavity was filled with molten brass to reproduce the original item. However, direct casts were sometimes made from items found in nature, such as dead insects, crab claws, peanuts, etc. After casting, the weights were adjusted by clipping or filing, if too heavy; or by the addition of twists of wire or by pouring small amounts of molten lead into crevices, if too light.

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