Role Of Art In Commemorating Death In Africa

Visual, performing, and literary arts of sub-Saharan Africa. What gives art in Africa its special character is the generally small scale of most of its traditional societies, in which one finds a bewildering variety of styles. The earliest evidence of visual art is provided by figures scratched and painted on rocks c. 3000 BC. Pastoral cultures in the east emphasize personal adornment; sculpture predominates in the agricultural societies in the west and south. Clay figurines found in Nigeria date to 500 BC. Metalworking was practiced from the 9th century AD. Sculptures in stone, ivory, and wood date from the 16th - 17th centuries; some of the finest wood sculptures date from the 20th century. Architecture dominates the arts of the north and of the eastern coast, where Islam and Christianity exerted their influence; important work includes magnificent mosques built of mud and rock-hewn churches. Perhaps the most distinctive features of African music are the complexity of rhythmic patterning achieved by a great variety of drums and the relationship between melodic form and language tone structure. Without this the text of a song is rendered meaningless; but, even in purely instrumental music, melodic pattern is likely to follow speech tone. Dances are realized in radically different styles throughout Africa. Movement patterns often depend upon the way in which environmental, historical, and social circumstances have been articulated in working, social, and recreational movements. Often there is no distinction between ritual celebration and social recreation. The masquerade is a complex art form employing many media; masquerades may entertain, be used to fight disease, be consulted as oracles, initiate boys to manhood, impersonate ancestors, judge disputes, or execute criminals.

The predominant art forms are masks and figures, which were generally used in religious ceremonies. The decorative arts, especially in textiles and in the ornamentation of everyday tools, were a vital art in nearly all African cultures. The lack of archaeological excavations restricts knowledge of the antiquity of African art. As the value of these works was inseparable from their ritual use, no effort was made to preserve them as aesthetic accomplishments. Wood was one of the most frequently used materials-often embellished by clay, shells, beads, ivory, metal, feathers, and shredded raffia. The discussion in this article is limited to the works of the peoples of W and central Africa-the regions richest (because of the people's sedentary lifestyles) in indigenous art.

In this region the style of woodcarving is abstract. Distortion is often used to emphasize features of spiritual significance. The figures of the Dogon tribe of central Mali stress the cylindrical shape of the torso. Some wooden carvings were made by an earlier people, the Tellem. Sculptures such as masks carved of soft wood are homes for the spirits and are discarded once they have been used in rituals. The Dogon have three distinctive styles of sculpture: masks incorporating recessed rectangles, ancestor sculptures carved in abstract geometric style used as architectural supports, and freestanding figures made in a cylindrical ...