By Raul Martinez. African Culture Africa was a place where great civilizations ruled, including...

By Raul Martinez

African CultureAfrica was a place where great civilizations

ruled, including Egypt.As grassland dried, the population migrated

in search of pasture and arable land.This may be the reason why there are so

many cultures in Africa in present day.

The Spirit WorldIn traditional African societies, the answer to

whether there is rain one year and not the next, or simply why one dies but the other doesn’t, lies in the work of the spirits.

They believed that Spirits roamed the world everywhere they went; in the fields that produce crops, the river that provides fish, etc.

A family incudes spirits from its ancestors and the children unborn, in the blessing or curse of this spirits lies the difference between success in life and failure.

To communicate with this spirits African societies relied on a specialist in rituals- the person known elsewhere in the world as a priest, minister, rabbi, pastor, imam, or shaman. the book refers to them as “diviners”

He/her serves as an essential link between the supernatural and the human worlds, using techniques as prayer, sacrifice, offerings, magic, and divination.

Art plays a big role in dealing with spirits for it gives identity and personality to what’s abstract and intangible, it also makes what’s invisible visible.

Divination • Divination is the

practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means.

• Here you see a diviner who is trying to foretell the future by seeing the movements in the fresh water trying to take out images and patterns.

The Lobi To the Lobi people of Burkina Faso, the spirits

are believed to control there everyday life.Lobi houses scatter over miles of dry West

African Savanna, but they are considered a community when they acknowledge the same thil and agree to regulate their society by its rules, called Zoser.

Thila are reserved spirits associated with the land, and the people of the Lobi must live under the rules of Zoser, for it’s the only system they know.

Boteba• A Thila is a spirit that is

normally believed to be invisible. The Lobi then consult a diviner which may establish a carving of a wooden figure called a boteba.

• It gives the thil a physical form, its said to be a living thing that sees, moves, and communicates with another boteba and with its owner(this way the owner can ask it for protection or aid).

give us plate number and all information

Boteba FunctionA Boteba is used to give a thil personality and

skill.For example, if a Boteba is carved with an

angry face, it means that its meant to scare and frighten off evil forces.

A Shrine may hold dozens of boteba figures, each one with a unique skill to help out a family or community.

tell us about the partiuclar boteba you showed us the picture of

NkisiA nkisi is a spirit that is considered the most

potent images of power in Africa, made by the Kongo and Songye people of Congo.

An nkisi nkonde starts its life as a simple wooden figure that is purchased at a market or commisioned by a diviner why does the person buy it?

The diviner then prescribes magical ingredients, called bilongo, these ingredients are specific to the clients problem.

Then they are added to the nkisi by either mixing it with white clay and then plastering it into the body or suspended in a packet from the neck to the waist.

Powered Figure• When first Carved

it was neutral, then magical ingredients where applied making it look like a powerful being.

• It transforms a wooden carving into a living structure.


formal and contextual analysisof this particular one

BilongoThe Bilingo transforms the nkonde into a living

being with frightful powers to attack the forces of evil.

This Bilongo ingredients come from nature, such ingredients include: plants, animals, and minerals, some may include human hair, nail clippings.

Some have baaku, whice is a boad blade that cuts into palm trees releasing sap which is then mixed with wine. The word baaku derives from both “extract” and “destroy,” thus having replicas of a baaku in a nkonde is believed to destroy those who use evil power.

No matter the ingredient, each one has a special role in the nkonde.

To activate the powers, the client drive a pointed object or a nail to get the nkondes attention.

A nkisi nkonde can serve for many purposes, usuall used for partnership and peace.

For example, if 2 villages promise to have peace with each other they will drive 2 small nails together in the nkonde . If a mother wants to heal her children of sickness she might ask the nkonde to heal her children by driving in a small nail into it.

what does “nkonde” mean?

The real world and the Spiritual world

Some African people think that in the spirit world, the spirits form families, lived in villages, and had personalities with faults and virtues.

Some villagesthe Baule people in Cote d’Ivoire believed that each of us lived in the spirit world before we were born.

While thee, we had a spirit spouse, whom we left behind when we entered this life.

A man or women who has not achieved his expectations in life might dream of his or her spirit spouse. For such a person a diviner may prescribe a carving of an image of a spirit spouse.The hope is that by caring for and pleasing the sprit spouse a abalance may be retored that will free theiru human life to undold smoothly

Spirit Spouse

• A male has a female figure (blolo bla) carved, a female has a male figure (blolo bian) carved.

• The figures display the most admired and marks of beauty so that the spirit spouses may be encouraged to enter the nkonde.

• This figures are very detailed in hairstyle, jewelry, and scarification patterns.

• They might be carved in a quite, dignified pose or seated on a traditional throne.

• The owner then keeps the figure in his or her room, dressing it in beautiful textiles and jewelry.


you skipped the orisha and eshu and Stokstad plate 25-11

LeadershipIn Africa, art is used to identify those who

hold power, to validate their right of authority in the community, and to communicate the rules for moral behavior that must be obeyed by all members of the society.

The Ashanti use gold not only for objects but as jewelry. Gold was a major source of power; they traded it first through the Sahara to the Mediterranean world, then later directly to Europeans on the West African coast.

KenteThe Ashanti are also renowned for the beauty

of their woven textiles , called kente.It was introduced first by Sudan, the weavers

were mostly men. Ashanti weavers work on small, light, horizontal looms that produce long, narrow strips of cloth.

Kente Cloth

• They begin by laying out the long warp threads in a brightly colored patterns.

• They were mainly silk, which were produced by unraveling Chinese cloth obtained through European trade.

• Weft threads are woven through the warp to produce complex patterns.

• The long strips produced by the loom are then cut to size and sewn together to form large rectangles of finished kente cloth.

give us plate number and all informationcontextual analysis

of this particular one

The Kuba people of the Democratic Republic had made some elaborate political art since the last seventeenth century.

The kings were memorialized with portrait sculptures called ndop.

After the king dies it is believed that his spirit is kept inside the ndop, so far there has been only 22 known ndop that tell about 400 years of Kuba History.

Ndop of Shyaam• Shyaam a-Mbul was

the seventeenth-century king of the Kuba Kingdom.

• On top of his for head is a board game called mancala, which he introduced to the Kuba.


formal and contextual analysisof this particular one

The Kings of the Yoruba people manifested there power in there palaces with beautiful sculptures of modern time as well as decorative doors.

The principal rooms opened to the courtyard which usually contained a beautiful garden.

Door from royal palace in Ikere, Nigeria• It contains scenes and

celebrations that honor the divination god, Ifa, or Orunmila.

Olowe of Ise.Door from royal palace in kere,Nigeria.Yoruba Culture,

c.1925.wood,pigmentjust need to add plate number

• It contains scenes and celebrations that honor the divination god, Ifa, or Orunmila.

• At the left-hand panel, the future is fort old by reading oracles.

• At the top is a man who will sacrifice an animal.




• Below him, a priest sits with an oracle board and the ceremonial cup for the palm nuts.




• Below him, a priest sits with an oracle board and the ceremonial cup for the palm nuts.

• And lower still messengers and assistants.

• The right hand panel, the 2

rows introduce the court.

• The king is sitting down between his guard and his 2 royal wives.

• The right hand panel, the 2 rows introduce the court.


• His chief wife has wears a European top hat, a symbol of power.




• Above the royals, musicians perform, while below wives dance.




• Above the royals, musicians perform, while below wives dance.

• The bottom 2 registers show the life of farm workers and a pair of wrestlers.

Not all Africa peoples centralized power in a single ruler.

In southeastern Nigeria, people depended on a council of male elder’s to provide order in the life of the community.

Some people like the Anang Ibibio from Nigeria, expressed part of it power through art.

Ekpo Mask• The Anang Ibibio

people of Nigeria were ruled by a men’s society called Ekpo.

• This is a mask that would be worn by younger members of the society when they were sent out to punish transgressors.

• The identity of the executioner would be concealed by the mask and all that they would remember is seeing this frighten mask.


Death And AncestorsIn the traditional African view, death is the

beginning of a new life.In order to start a new life you must separate

yourself from the community, in this case the living.

The spirit may then take a journey into the spirit world, which is then reintegrated into his ancestral past.

A ceremony called dama, meaning “forbidden” or “dangerous” is performed during a funeral with masks and dances.

Among the Dogon poeple of Mali the dama is held every 12-13 years as a collective funeral right

Kanaga Mask• The mask is

performed to a sound of gunfire to drive the soul of the death relative to the spirit world.

• In this picture, the mask depicts a women, bird, or lizard with splayed legs.


DamaThe Dama may last about six-days and can

include hundreds of masks.This Dama’s are not only made for one

individual but for several male and females.

The Fang PeopleThe Fang people follow an ancestral religion

in which long bones and skulls of ancestors are collected and together form a cylindrical bark container called nsekh o byeri.

A family who would migrate would usually take this container with them.

On top of the container the Fang place a wooden figure called nlo byeri, which represents the ancestors and it will guard their relics from evil spirit forces.

Reliquary GuardianThis Nlo byeri is

carved with arranged hairstyle, fully rounded torsos, and heavily muscled legs and arms.

talk about the stron g symmetry of the Fang


Ancestral Screen(duen fobora)• This is one of the most

complex funerary art known in Africa.

• This is an Anceestral screen made during the ninieteenth century by the Ijo people of southeast Nigeria.

• The Ijo people lived in the Atlantic coast, and they lived in houses called canoe houses.

• When the head of a canoe house dies, a screen will be made in memory.

• They also called it the duen fobora meaning “foreheads of the dead.” (The forehead was believed to be the seat of power and the source of success.)


• The central figure wears a hat that distinguishes him as a member of an important men’s society called Peri.

• All 3 figures originally had weapons or other symbols of aggressiveness.

• Memorial screens were placed in the ancestral altars of the canoe house,wherr the spirit is believed to keep roaming the house after his death, ensuring its success in trade and war.

Contemporary ArtMany traditional communities continue their art

in contemporary Africa.As the new world gives this communities a new

life style, they re-create the forms of the past as though nothing changed.

One of the most common change in this communities is the adaptation of modern materials to traditional forms.

Some continue to make masks, dances, some keep photographs of the celebratins.

\What about Stokstad plate 25-19?

European InfluenceThroughout the colonial period and around

World War 2, Europeans established schools in Africa so that talented artists could learn the mediums and techniques of European Art.

Some would go study in Europe or in the U.S, and would be known internationally through exhibits and museums.

Ouattara. Nok Culture

• A very nice well known artist is Ouattara.

• He had both formal French schooling and traditional African spiritual schooling.

• At age 19, he left to Paris to study modern art of Europe.

• He is one of the greatest examples of synthesizing both Western and African influences. give us plate number and

all information

• In this painting, Ouattara used colors like white, brown and black which are traditional African colors used in art.

• The horns at the top evoke the ancestral shrines which are common in rural communities.

• A motif of concentric circles at the center looks like a traditional bull-roarer that makes sounds to summon spirits.

• On the board there is Arabic writing, graphic patterns from African initiation rituals, Christian symbols, ancient Egyptian, and mystical Hebrew traditions.

Ceramics• Another art that has brought contemporary

African artists to pay attention to is ceramics. • Most pottery’s where made by women.• Women now can attain a good enough

economic independence when there involved in this type of business.

• The women would keep the money for themselves to buy food for themselves or for there children but wouldn't share with the head male of the family.

Magdalene Odundo

• This is a traditional Kenyan pottery, this particular pottery was made by Magdalene who used the same technique as her Kenyan ancestors.

• She used both African and non-African art.

• She begins with images of Kenyan potters and pottery, then changes into Middle East, China and Japan, and ancient North and South America.


NuMumusow And West African Ceramics In most Western African

cultures, ceramics are made exclusively women.

They hold a high importance in society and among the Mende people, they are called Numumusow, which are female members of numu lineages.

Numumusow make a variety of vessels, including huge store jars.

The shapes of these pots reflect there use depending whether its used for cooking or to store water.


The Numumuscow from the soft and sticky clay by coiling and modeling with their fingers.

Decorating it by burnishing, by engraving, by adding pellets or coils of caly, or by coloring with slip(a wash of colored clay).

Then are fired at low temperratures in a shallow pit or in the open,producing a ware that can be used to cook over an open fire without breaking.

This jars keep water cool and clean in areas where refrigeration in expensive.

In the past this jars are kept in the entrance of a home where a guest would be offered a drink of cool water as an essential part of hospitality.

Some ancestral jars might have images that may represent myths or a god.

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