What Was the Purpose Behins the Creating of Arts for the African Culture

African Fine art and the Spirit World

Beliefs about the spirit world are securely embedded in traditional African culture, merely were heavily influenced by Christianity and Islam.

Learning Objectives

Discuss the role of African masks, statues, and sculptures in relation to the spirit world

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Near traditional African cultures include beliefs about the spirit world, which is widely represented through both traditional and modern art such as masks, statues, and sculptures.
• Wooden masks are oftentimes used to depict deities or ancestors; in many traditions, they are believed to channel spirits when worn past ceremonial dancers.
• Statues and sculptures are as well used to correspond, connect to, or communicate with spiritual forces.
• Today, Africans profess a wide diversity of religious beliefs, the most common of which are Christianity and Islam; perhaps less than 15% still follow traditional African religions.
• Despite the drastic decrease in native African religions, some modern fine art in Africa has worked to reincorporate traditional spiritual beliefs, such as in modern Makonde Art depicting spirits.

Central Terms

• receptacle: A container.
• sanctuaries: Consecrated (or sacred) areas of a church or temple.

Background

Like all homo cultures, African folklore and religion is various and varied. Culture and spirituality share space and are securely intertwined in most African cultures, which have been heavily influenced by the introduction of Christianity and Islam during the era of European colonization. Well-nigh traditional African cultures include beliefs almost the spirit world, which is widely represented through both traditional and modern fine art such as masks, statues, and sculptures. In some societies, artistic talents were themselves seen as ways to delight higher spirits.

Traditional Influences on Contemporary Religious Art

Masks and Rituals

Wooden masks, which oft have the class of animals, humans, or mythical creatures, are one of the most normally found forms of traditional art in western Africa. These masks are often used to describe deities or represent the souls of the departed. They may be worn past a dancer in ceremonies for celebrations, deaths, initiations, or crop harvesting. In many traditional mask ceremonies, the dancer goes into deep trance, and during this state of heed he or she is believed to communicate with ancestors in the spirit globe. The masks themselves often stand for an ancestral spirit, which is believed to possess the wearer of the mask. Most African masks are made with woods and can besides be busy with ivory, animal hair, establish fibers, pigments, stones, and semi-precious gems.

Mask from Gabon: A traditional mask from Gabon.

Statues and sculptures are besides used to represent or connect to spiritual forces. For case, Bambara statuettes, such as the Chiwara, are used as spiritually charged objects during ritual. During the annual ceremonies of the Guan social club, a grouping of up to vii figures, some dating back to the 14th century, are removed from their sanctuaries by the elderberry members of the society. The wooden sculptures, which stand for a highly stylized fauna or human figure, are washed, re-oiled and offered sacrifices. The Kono and Komo societies use similar statues to serve as receptacles for spiritual forces. The Igbo would traditionally make clay altars and shrines of their deities, usually featuring various figures. In the Kingdom of Kongo, nkisi were objects believed to exist inhabited by spirits. Oftentimes carved in the shape of animals or humans, these "power objects" were believed to aid assistance in the communication with the spirit world.

Modern Religion

Today, the countries of Africa contain a wide multifariousness of religious beliefs, and statistics on religious affiliation are hard to come past. Christianity and Islam make up the largest religions in contemporary Africa, and some sources say that less than 15% still follow traditional African religions. Despite the desperate subtract in native African religions, some mod fine art in Africa has worked to reincorporate traditional spiritual behavior. For example, modernistic Makonde Fine art has turned to abstract figures in which spirits, or Shetani, play an important function.

Mod Makonde carving in ebony: Modern Makonde sculptures oftentimes depict spirits, or Shetani.

Masks in the Kalabari Kingdom

Culture and artistic festivities of the Kalabari Kingdom involve the wearing of elaborate outfits and carved masks to gloat the spirits.

Learning Objectives

Discuss the role of the spiritual in the masks of the Kalabari Kingdom

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• The Kalabari Kingdom was an contained trading state of the Kalabari people, an Ijaw indigenous group, in the Niger River Delta. Today information technology is recognized as a traditional land in what is now Rivers Country, Nigeria.
• Although the Ijaw are now primarily Christians, they as well maintain elaborate traditional religious practices.
• Veneration of ancestors plays a key office in Ijaw traditional religion, while h2o spirits figure prominently in the Ijaw pantheon. In addition, the Ijaw exercise a form of divination in which recently deceased individuals are interrogated on the causes of their decease.
• The office of prayer in the traditional Ijaw system of belief is to maintain the living in the good graces of the h2o spirits among whom they dwelt before being born into this world.
• Each year, the Ijaw hold celebrations involving masquerades that terminal for several days in honor of the spirits.
• Ijaw men wearing elaborate outfits and carved masks trip the light fantastic toe to the shell of drums and manifest the influence of the water spirits through the quality and intensity of their dancing.

Key Terms

• enculturation: The procedure by which an individual adopts the behavior patterns of the culture in which he or she is immersed.
• kin: Race; family; breed; kind.

Introduction: The Kalabari

The Kalabari Kingdom, also called Elem Kalabari (New Shipping Port), or New Calabar past the Europeans, was an independent trading state of the Kalabari people, an Ijaw ethnic group, in the Niger River Delta. Today it is recognized every bit a traditional state in what is now Rivers State, Nigeria. As well as participating in trade, the Ijaw have traditionally been a fishing and farming culture.

Civilisation and Art

Although the Ijaw are now primarily Christians (95% profess to be), with Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism existence the varieties of Christianity most prevalent among them, they too maintain elaborate traditional religious practices. Veneration of ancestors plays a central role in Ijaw traditional faith, while h2o spirits, known every bit Owuamapu, figure prominently in the Ijaw pantheon. In addition, the Ijaw practise a form of divination chosen Igbadai, in which recently deceased individuals are interrogated on the causes of their decease. The Ijaw are also known to do ritual acculturation, whereby an individual from a dissimilar and unrelated group undergoes rites to go Ijaw.

The Part of Ijaw Masks

Ijaw religious beliefs hold that water spirits are similar humans, having personal strengths and shortcomings, and that humans dwell among the water spirits before being born. Each year, the Ijaw hold celebrations lasting for several days in honor of the spirits. Central to the festivities is the part of masquerades, in which men wearing elaborate outfits and carved masks dance to the beat of drums and manifest the influence of the h2o spirits through the quality and intensity of their dancing. Specially spectacular masqueraders are believed to be possessed by the particular spirits on whose behalf they are dancing.

ljaw mask: Mask, Kalabari Ijo peoples, Nigeria, early 20th century, wood, pigment (National Museum of African Art).

Dogon Sculpture

Dogon sculpture primarily revolves around the themes of religious values, ideals, and freedoms.

Learning Objectives

Depict the characteristics of Dogon fine art, sculpture, and rituals, too as the background and location of the Dogon civilization

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• The Dogon are an ethnic group living in the central plateau region of the country of Mali, in the West of the African continent, and are well known for their unique sculptures. Dogon sculptures are not made to exist seen publicly and are unremarkably subconscious from the public middle within the houses of families, sanctuaries, or the hogon (spiritual leader).
• Dogon sculptures are typically characterized by an elongation of form and a mix of geometric and figurative images.
• The Dogon way has evolved into a kind of cubism: ovoid head, squared shoulders, tapered extremities, pointed breasts, forearms and thighs on a parallel airplane, and hair stylized past three or four incised lines.

Key Terms

• vessel: A general term for all kinds of arts and crafts designed for transportation on water, such every bit ships or boats.
• Tellem: The people who inhabited the Bandiagara Escarpment in Mali from the 11th through 16th centuries CE.

Introduction: The Dogon People

The Dogon are an ethnic grouping living in the central plateau region of the state of Mali, in the West of the African continent. They migrated to the region around the 14th century CE. They are all-time known for their religious traditions, wooden sculpture, architecture, and funeral masquerades. The past century has seen meaning changes in the social organization, material civilization, and beliefs of the Dogon, partly because Dogon land is one of Mali's major tourist attractions.

Dogon Sculpture

Dogon fine art is primarily sculptural and revolves around religious values, ethics, and freedoms. Dogon sculptures are not made to exist seen publicly and are commonly hidden from the public heart inside the houses of families, sanctuaries, or the hogon (a spiritual leader of the Dogon people). The importance of secrecy is due to the symbolic meaning backside the pieces and the process past which they are made. Dogon sculptures are typically characterized by an elongation of form and a mix of geometric and figurative images.

Dogon Sculpture: Dogon sculptures are typically characterized past an elongation of course and a combination of geometric and figurative images.

Themes

Themes found throughout Dogon sculpture consist of figures with raised arms, superimposed bearded figures, horsemen, stools with caryatids, women with children, figures covering their faces, women grinding pearl millet, women begetting vessels on their heads, donkeys bearing cups, musicians, dogs, quadruped-shaped troughs or benches, figures angle from the waist, mirror-images, apron-wearing figures, and continuing figures. Signs of other contacts and origins are evident in Dogon art; the Dogon people were not the first inhabitants of the area, and influence from the Tellem, or the people who inhabited the region in Mali between the 11th and 16th centuries CE, is evident in the apply of rectilinear designs.

Dogon fine art is extremely versatile, although common stylistic characteristics—such as a tendency towards stylization—are apparent on the statues. Their art deals with Dogon myths, whose complex ensembles regulate the life of the private. The sculptures are preserved in innumerable sites of worship and personal or family altars, and often return the human being body in a simplified way, reducing information technology to its essentials. Many sculptures recreate the silhouettes of the Tellem culture, featuring raised arms and a thick patina, or surface layer, made of blood and millet beer. The Dogon way has evolved into a kind of cubism: ovoid caput, squared shoulders, tapered extremities, pointed breasts, forearms and thighs on a parallel plane, and hair stylized by three or four incised lines.

Uses

Dogon sculptures serve as a physical medium in initiations and equally an explanation of the globe. They serve to transmit an understanding to the initiated, who volition decipher the statue co-ordinate to the level of their noesis. Carved brute figures, such every bit dogs and ostriches, are placed on village foundation altars to commemorate sacrificed animals, while granary doors, stools, and firm posts are also adorned with figures and symbols. Kneeling statues of protective spirits are placed at the head of the dead to blot their spiritual strength and to exist their intermediaries with the earth of the dead, into which they back-trail the deceased earlier over again being placed on the shrines of the ancestors.

Mendé Masks

Mendé masks are commonly used in initiation ceremonies into hush-hush Poro and Sande societies.

Learning Objectives

Discuss how Mendé masks are created and used by the Mendé people

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• The Mendé people are one of the ii largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone; they belong to a larger group of Mandé peoples who live throughout West Africa.
• The masks associated with the secret societies of the Mendé are probably the best known and nigh finely crafted in the region.
• Masks represent the collective listen of Mendé community; viewed equally one body, they are seen as the Spirit of the Mendé people.
• The most important masks personify and embody the powerful spirits belonging to the medicine societies: the goboi and gbini of the Poro lodge (the secret society for men) and the sowei of the Sande society (the secret club for women).The features of a Sowei mask convey Mendé ideals of female morality and concrete dazzler; they are somewhat unusual because women wear the masks.

Key Terms

• unhurt: Secret societies of the Mendé people.

Background and Art of the Mendé People

The Mendé people are ane of the two largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, having roughly the same population every bit their neighbours the Temne people. Together, the Mendé and Temne both account for slightly more than 30% of the country'due south total population. The Mendé belong to a larger group of Mande peoples who alive throughout West Africa. Mostly farmers and hunters, the Mendé are divided into two groups: the halemo (or members of the hale or secret societies) and the kpowa (people who have never been initiated into the hale). The Mendé believe that all humanistic and scientific ability is passed downwards through the secret societies.

Mendé art is primarily establish in the class of jewelry and carvings. The masks associated with the hush-hush societies of the Mendé are probably the best known and are finely crafted in the region. The Mendé likewise produce beautifully woven fabrics, which are popular throughout western Africa, and aureate and silver necklaces, bracelets, armlets, and earrings. The bells on the necklaces are of the blazon believed capable of existence heard by spirits, ringing in both worlds, that of the ancestors and the living.

Mendé Masks

Masks represent the collective mind of the Mendé community; viewed as i body, they are seen every bit the Spirit of the Mendé people. The Mendé masked figures are a reminder that human beings have a dual existence; they live in the physical world of mankind and textile things as well as in the spirit earth of dreams, faith, aspirations, and imagination.

The standard ready of Mendé maskers includes near a dozen personalities embodying spirits of varying degrees of ability and importance. The most important of these personify and embody the powerful spirits belonging to the medicine societies: the goboi and gbini of the Poro social club (the secret lodge for men), the sowei of the Sande society (the secret society for women), and the njaye and humoi maskers belonging to the eponymous medicine societies. The maskers of the Sande and Poro societies are responsible for enforcing laws and are of import symbolic presences in the rituals of initiation and in public ceremonies that mark the coronations and funerals of chiefs and guild officials.

Sowei Masks

The features of a Sowei mask convey Mendé ethics of female person morality and physical dazzler. They are somewhat unusual in that women traditionally wearable the masks. The bird on top of the head represents a woman's intuition that lets her see and know things that others tin can't. The high or wide forehead represents expert luck or the sharp, contemplative heed of the ideal Mendé adult female. Downcast eyes symbolize a spiritual nature, and information technology is through these small slits that a woman wearing the mask would look out of. The small mouth signifies the platonic woman'due south quiet and humble character. The markings on the cheeks are representative of the decorative scars girls receive as they step into womanhood. The neck rolls are an indication of the wellness of ideal women; they accept also been called symbols of the pattern of concentric, circular ripples the Mendé spirit makes when emerging from the h2o. The intricate hairstyles reveal the close ties within a community of women. The holes at the base of the mask are where the rest of the costume is attached; a woman who wears these masks must non expose whatever part of her torso, or information technology is believed a vengeful spirit may accept possession of her.

When a daughter becomes initiated into the Sande society (the Mendé secret society for women), the hamlet's main woodcarver creates a special mask merely for her. Helmet masks are made from a section of tree trunk, often of the kpole (cotton) tree, and then carved and hollowed to fit over the wearer'south head and face. The woodcarver must wait until he has a dream that guides him to make the mask a certain way for the recipient. A mask must exist kept hidden in a clandestine place when no 1 is wearing it. These masks appear not only in initiation rituals just also at of import events such as funerals, arbitrations, and the installation of chiefs.

Helmet Mendé Mask: Helmet masks of the Mendé, Vai, Gola, Bassa and other peoples of the sub-region are the best documented instance of women's masking in Africa. These masks are used past the Sande association, a powerful organization with social, political and religious significance. Although worn only by women, these masks, equally is the case elsewhere in Africa, are carved by men.

Gbini Masks

Gbini is considered to be the near powerful of all Mendé maskers; it appears both at the final ceremony of the Poro initiation process for a son of the paramount chief and also at the coronation of funeral of a paramount master. Considering of its power, women are made to stand far back from gbini and if a woman accidentally touches it, she must be anointed with medicine immediately.

The Gbini wears a big leopard skin, which indicates its association with the paramount principal. The flat, round headpiece resembles the chief'south crown. The headpiece is constructed of animal hide stretched over a bamboo framework, and the hide is decorated with cowrie shells and black, white, and red strips of cloth that are worked into a geometric pattern. At the middle is a round mirror. Several flaps that are similarly decorated hang down from the base of the headpiece and overlap the greatcoat, which covers much of the wearer'south torso.

Gbini mask: Gbini mask, Mendé (woods, leopard skin, sheepskin, antelope pare, raffia fiber, cotton cloth, cotton string, cowry shells), from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/religious-art-in-africa/

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