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Female fetish figure:
Songye, Zaire
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The
term "African" when applied to traditional art refers particularly to
areas south of the Sahara. In the Sainsbury Collection, examples come
from most of the people renowned for the wealth of their artistic
creation, particularly from West and Central Africa.
Traditional African sculpture includes figures (which may be human,
animal, or combinations of both), masks, domestic items and various
forms of regalia, paraphernalia and jewellery. Much of it, particularly
the figurative sculpture and the masks has spiritual or ritual
attributes. When viewed in the Sainsbury Collection, or for that matter
in any art gallery, it is displayed particularly for its aesthetic
appeal, and thus far removed from its original context.
African sculpture is designed, for the most part, to speak through
its form; to be meaningful and effective rather than beautiful in a
western sense. Only rarely is it 'art for art's sake', this however does
not deny the existence among some peoples of a defined aesthetic sense
and standards of good and bad.
In many cases the sculpture may have a role in communicating with or
placating spiritual agencies, especially ancestral spirits. Offerings
and sacrifices may form part of this process; the pouring of libation
over the object may lead it to being encrusted with a patina which in
some museum pieces has been lost. Prayers may be offered for fertility, a
good harvest, to protect against evil or to bring punishment on those
who offend tribal custom.
There are several examples in the Sainsbury Collection of figures
which, in their traditional usage, are imbued with spiritual power. The
power may be made more forceful by being "fed" with magic substances to
provide protection against hostile agencies or to act as aggressive
agents against the enemy. The medicine is usually placed into the
figure; into a container on the head, into a cavity in the stomach or
even sometimes into the anus. Such figures were at one time commonly
referred to as "fetishes", a term which in modern anthropological
practice is avoided as potentially misleading.
Portraiture, in the western sense of the term, is rare in traditional
African sculpture. The terracotta and bronze heads from Ife and Benin
in Nigeria, dating from around the 12th century and later, are
masterpieces of naturalism and may have been derived from living models.
In the cases of the bronzes, most appear not to have been made until
after death and must to some degree have been idealisations. The 16th
century Benin bronze head in the Collection is a case in point. The same
would be true of the remarkable series of effigies of the Kuba kings in
Zaire. It is known that some carvers in wood did make use of models for
both masks and figures, but they were seldom intended to be used as
specific representations. Interesting exceptions to this rule have been
found amongst the Dan people of Liberia.
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| Head of an Oba |
Masks
are worn or displayed at festivals, connected with events in the annual
cycle. Traditionally they were often used in association with rituals
to honour the dead and to enlist the support of ancestral spirits. The
mask in combination with the wearer's dance gestures might sometimes
convey an aggressive purpose towards an enemy, or sometimes a protective
function against the powers of evil. In some cases, for instance, bells
were attached to the mask, the concept being that no evil power could
stop a bell from ringing. Masks were frequently used at initiation
proceedings, in which case they may have been displayed rather than
worn. The proceedings included periods of instruction given, usually to
boys only, on rules of behaviour, on the regulation of society and on
tribal history and tradition. Sometimes initiation procedures included
circumcision and puberty rites for both boys and girls.
Careful inspection of a mask may provide evidence of how it was used,
whether to cover the face, to be worn above the head or not to be worn
at all. It would generally form part of a complete costume in
association with raffia or cloth or other paraphernalia. Generally only
certain men (very rarely women) had the right to wear a mask which, in
the context of the dance, would enable them to assume another identity
in order to communicate with or become possessed by a spirit associated
with the ritual.
Masks and sometimes figures too, used to play a big part in the rites
of 'secret societies'. These societies governed social behaviour and
exercised civil authority; they laid down the rules and could exact
punishment. Masks could provide elders of the society with authority and
transformation of identity. The power and importance of secret
societies tended, and sometimes still tends, to be greatest when there
was no well established or acknowledged chieftainly authority or where
there was a demand for a common social regulation beyond political
boundaries. Entry to secret societies was by initiation, and status
within the societies was graded. Such societies are usually restricted
to men. Some have more secretive and some more of a recreational nature,
and some a socio-political function which is dissipating with time.
Masked ceremonies continue, but in some cases more for entertainment,
recreation and tourist attractions than as ritual.
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Zande wooden standing figure.:
an example of an object
used by a 'secret society' |
Ornamentation,
delicately carved and with great attention to detail, is often a
feature of African sculpture. Such ornamentation was esteemed for the
prestige it conferred and occurs particularly on some domestic items and
on regalia connected with the court or aristocracy. Examples include
drinking cups, pipes and musical instruments, pendants, combs,
jewellery, sceptres and flywhisks, staffs and weaponry. Many of these
objects, and others such as trinkets and cosmetic boxes, dolls and
amulets, could be made in less elaborate form for everyday use by less
affluent people.
The peoples whose sculpture is represented be the Sainsbury
Collection cover diverse geographical and ecological circumstances and
varied cultural traditions. Though there may be features of form and
functions which commonly occur, there are bound to be variations from
people to people.
The notes in Cultural Groups by Country aim to describe as concisely
as possible the physical and cultural influences reflected in the art of
the various peoples concerned, and the range of art forms produced.
