The Function of African Sculpture

Female fetish figure:
Songye, Zaire

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.

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.

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.