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An Aesthetic of the Cool: West Africa An Aesthetic of the Cool Author(s): Robert Farris Thompson Source: African Arts, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Autumn, 1973), pp. 40-43+64-67+89-91 Published by: UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3334749 . Accessed: 19/10/2014 02:46 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center and Regents of the University of California are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to African Arts. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 02:46:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions An Aesthetic of the Cool ROBERTFARRIS THOMPSON T he aim of this study is to deepen the understandingof a of elements serious and pleasurable, of responsibility and of basic West African/Afro-American metaphor of moral play. aesthetic accomplishment, the concept cool. The primary Manifest within this philosophy of the cool is the belief metaphorical extension of this term in most of these cultures that the purer, the cooler a person becomes, the more ances- seems to be control,having the value of composurein the indi- tral he becomes. In other words, mastery of self enables a vidual context, social stability in the context of the group.! person to transcend time and elude preoccupation. He can These concepts are often linked to the sacred usage of water concentrate or she can concentrate upon truly important and chalk (and other substancesdrenched with associationsof matters of social balance and aesthetic substance, creative coolness and cleanliness) as powers which purify men and matters, full of motion and brilliance. Quite logically, such women by return to freshness, to immaculate concentration gifted men and women are, in some West and Central African of mind, to the artistic shaping of matter and societal happen- cultures, compared in their coolness to the strong, moving, ing. Coolness in these senses is therefore the purifying means pure waters of the river.4 A number of languages in West and by which worlds are taken out of contingency and raised to Central Africa provide a further basis for these remarks(see the level of aspiration. Table, pg. 90). Put another way, coolness has to do with transcendental According to these sources, coolness is achieved where one balance, as in Manding divination, where good outcomes are person restores another to serenity ("cools his heart"), where signaled by one kola half up, one down, and this is called group calms group, or where an entire nation has been set in "cool." But, before we move to the consideration of detailed order ("this land is cool"). The phrase, "this country is cool" instances of the concept in social context, let us review what (di konde koto)5 is used with the same valence and the same is known about the linguistic and historical backgroundof the suggestiveness by the descendants of runaway African slaves notion. on the Piki Lio in the interior of Surinam,in northern South America. The Lexicon of the Cool Idioms of cool heart and cool territorydo not, to my knowl- Language in Europe and in tropical Africa equally reveals, edge, communicate in Western languages the same sorts of in the term, cool, a basic reference to moderation in coldness meanings of composure and social stability unless the phras- extended metaphorically to include composure under fire. ing is used by or has been influenced by the presence of black Thus, in English:2 people of African heritage. I think that the African definition "Cool,composed, collected, unruffled,nonchalant, imperturb- of metaphorical or mystical coolness is more complicated, able, detached [are] adjectives [which] apply to persons to in- more variously expressedthan Western notions of sang-froid, dicate calmness, especially in time of stress. Cool has the cooling off, or even icy determination. It is a special kind of widest application. Usually it implies merely a high degree of cool. Perhaps the most convenient way of suggesting its spe- self-control, though it may also indicate aloofness." cialness and complexity is to allude immediately to further nuances within African in addition to valences dis- Now a West African from the Gola of usages just compare definition, cussed of and social Liberia:3 composure, self-control, equilibrium. of the term "cool" in a of to be nonchalant at the to reveal Comparison variety West, Central, "Ability right moment.., and even East African reveals further nuances of no emotion in situationswhere excitement and languages sentimentality discretion rebirth newness or are other to act as one's mind (1) (2) healing (3) (4) purity. acceptable-in words, though Yoruba nuances with were in another world. It is admirable to do diffi- Compare (raw, green, wet, silent)6 particularly from Rhodesia Wetness is cult tasks with an air of ease and silent disdain. Women are Kaonde, (raw, green, wet, silent)? an inevitable extension of coolness. But silence is not. "Cool admired for a surly detached expression, and somnambulistic mouth" (enun tutu, in Yoruba)or "cool tongue" (kanua ka- movement and attitude during the dance or other perform- in Kikuyu)reflect the intelligent withholding of speech ance is considered very attractive." horo,8 for the purposes of higher deliberation in the metaphor of the The telling point is that the "mask"of coolness is worn not cool. This is not the stony silence of anger. This is the mask of only in time of stress but also of pleasure, in fields of expres- mind itself. sive performance and the dance. Control, stability, and com- Remarkable pursed-lipped forms of African figural sculp- posure under the African rubric of the cool seem to constitute ture are sometimes formed in this mirrorof discretion. Where elements of an all-embracing aesthetic attitude. Struck by the teeth are bared, the instance is exceptional and can take the re-occurrence of this vital notion elsewhere in tropical the form of a leader or a spirit or a leader-spirit who shows Africa and in the Black Americas, I have come to term the special power in order to confront negative powers of witch- attitude "an aesthetic of the cool" in the sense of a deeply craft and war? The idea of freshness in the cool intersects and complexly motivated, consciously artistic, interweaving with visual art, too, in the sense that traditional artists some- (OPPOSITE) 1. TERRACOTTAHEAD KNOWNAS LAJUWA. 121/2"HIGH. IFE MUSEUM. 41 This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 02:46:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions . .-... .... .WIT.I...S? ... ....,.:... • • .. .I T..•.. .qw,.. - ., •• RR -pm!i• • •.., m ? " -IN- .. This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Sun, 19 Oct 2014 02:46:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions times (not always) impart a luminous quality of vital firm flesh static unions of sensuous pleasure and moral responsibility. to the representation of the elders and the ancient gods. Such We are in a sense describing ordinary lives raised to the level images thus become ideally strong within their poise, sugges- of idealized chieftaincy. The harmony of the marriage or the ting, within depth of dignity and insight, commanding pow- lineage ideally reflects the expected firstmagnitude harmony ers of mind and body. imparted by the properly functioning ruler to the province or The blending of muscular force and respectability leads to nation at large. Men and women have the responsibility to the appreciation of the fit human body in the cool, a right meet the special challenge of their lives with the reserve and earned, however, by demonstrationof character and right liv- beauty of mind characteristic of the finest chiefs or kings. ing. I once complimented the elders of Tinto-Mbu in the More than the benefit of the doubt is extended to mankind Banyang portion of the United Republic of Cameroon on the in his natural state by this philosophy. Man starts not from a fine appearance of their chief. Whereupon they immediately premise of original sin but from the divine spark of equi- corrected me:'0 "We say people are not judged by physical librium in the soul which enters the flesh at birth from the beauty but by the quality of their heart and soul; the survival world of the gods. To act in foolish anger or petty selfishnessis of our chief is a matter of his character, not his looks." How- to depart from this original gift of interiorized nobility and ever, no matter how ordinary his face, it is important for the conscience. This means a person has quite literally lost his chief to dress as beautifully as possible in order to attest his soul. He has "departed from himself"" and is in serious dan- fineness of position in appropriate visual impact. He must ger. The Gd of southern Ghana even say that a person out of consequently prove that he knows and controls the forces of harmony with his ideal self can only win back his soul by beauty as much as the forces of polity and social pressure. means of extraordinary aesthetic persuasion: wearing Beauty, the full embodiment of manly power, or the power of brilliant cloth, eating cool, sumptuous food, keeping impor- women, in feminine contexts, is mandatory where it is neces- tant company.12 sary to clarify social relations.
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