Art_and_Religion_in_Traditional_African_Society

Art and Religion in Traditional African Society Throughout the world, changes in people’s lives are marked by important events, ceremonies and celebrations. Whether they are called confirmation, communion, graduation, birthdays, initiations or funerals, certain amount of rituals that characterized there activities and make them special are integrated. In Africa, these special activities or rituals constitute an important aspect of a rich socio-cultural and religious life of the people, and are expressed through various artistic means. Every stage of their lives, traditional Africans adhere to certain values, attitudes and thoughts which are products of their past experiences in relation to the environment and forces within and without, with a strong believe that the universe is given life by spirits that inhibit the fields they farm, the cloud that brings rainfall, the rivers from which they gather fishes and the wilderness where they hunt wild animals and build settlements. Given the existence of these spirituals, ways are sought to contact, to communicate and control their powers, thus, they engage in constant and faithful rituals, sacrifices and worship. In most cases, art, whether through performances or tangible objects, becomes the medium and point of contact. Notable among these manifestations of invisible spirits in tangible forms such as carved wood or stones (sculpture), is the power figure called ‘Nkisi”, from kongo. It embodies a spiritual force that is to be placed in a container and placed on the abdomen to wade away evil. To the Yoruba of Nigeria, the ‘Gelede’ mask, gives identity and personality to the otherwise abstract and intangible spirits of their ancestors. The Ife people of Nigeria made ceremonial busts of their rulers, who were called Oni, to commemorate the reign of their leaders. The Isangui people from Gabon, produced wooden masks used also in ceremonies for a particular village meant to represent the spirits of all the deceased female ancestors of the village. These representations in mysterious and uncanny forms by the African artist, offers a means through which the emerging forces nature and the power of magic are expressed, thereby evoking an effective source for the spiritual embodiment and stability which provides religion with purpose and meaning, helping people to understand and cope with circumstances and occasionally explains the misfortune and other unexpected events of life. Granted, the traditional belief system that form the basis on which art in Africa is produced, expresses a respect for a universal life force which cannot be contacted directly, except through mediums that serves as intermediaries, these mediums are carved, built or arranged by a special and sacred few. Whether they are the ‘Chirara’ mask of Bambara meant to appease the spirits of agriculture or the ‘Bundu” mask of the Mende society, meant for initiation rites, the symbols, masks and figures of traditional Africa are imbued with power to mediate fertility, wealth, health, and divination. Where these traditional customs flourished, a continuity of the sacred order is sustained through initiations, sacrifices and worship, as seen in the ‘Poro’ society of sierra-Leone and the ‘Ifa’ worship of Oshogbo, Nigeria. The mystical characters encountered in these societies provides only but a surface penetration into their meanings and values. Although the bulk of traditional African art is centered on religions inspiration, yet, there are those whose excellent forms hold no religions significance whatever, such as the Ashanti gold weights, Dahomean brass and appliqué’ cloths, Yoruba house-post and the Cameroon pipe bowls. However, African religions vary in their emphasis, but all include some worship of nature-duties, the recognition of the power of the ancestors, the belief in an ability to foretell the future, and in the efficacy of magic. In the eastern part of the continent, family cults seem to have primacy, while in the western potion; gods who represent the forces of nature are most prominent. Yet both beliefs are found everywhere in Africa, even in the simple cultures of the extreme south. The custodians of these deities, divinations and ancestral figures are specialist whose techniques, shrines and methods very widely. Oracles that are consulted to reward good and punish evil, magic that creates confidence and hope or dispels fear is ubiquitous and finds its expression in the charm, which is wrongly and ignorantly seen us evil because of its ‘fetish’ connotation – a term derived from Portuguese ‘feitico’, meaning, ‘things made’, and from this again the misnomer for the religion of certain parts of Africa, “fetichism”. Furthermore, the esthetic drive and religions expressions of art in Africa is not only rendered or restricted to two and three-dimensional forms of expressions, but are also found in music, dance and storytelling. Everywhere, song and dance contributes immensely to worship. Singing takes the fundamental form of antiphony between leader and chorus, while the drum is sometimes the sole and always the principal instrument played to accompany song. The dance beat known in its ritual forms, is based on great ingenuity in execution of complicated steps and bodily movement, depicting spirituality, victory or quest as in the case of the ‘Chiwara’ dance, Bambara, Mali. Dancing is the supreme expression of worship in every traditional African religion. African folklore includes myth, tale, proverbs and riddle which are closely integrated into the life of the people, and which are striking in their unity over the continent. Then myths explain the nature of the world and the forces that rule it, thus, sanctioning social structures and the ancestral cults by the account they provide of group origins and early clan adventure. By reference to sacred tales, priest derived authority, ritual force and magical power. The myth of ‘Fa’ - a being with sixteen eyes as told in the Dahomean folklore, is of important reference on this point. The general belief that African art is a result of inspiration cannot be overemphasized following the treads and development of the African civilizations. Religion is an important part of the cultures that make up the vast African communities, and is interrelated with other facets of life far more intimately than among humans. Thus, the supernatural world is part o the workaday round, to be met without fear and with full knowledge that for every ill there is a remedy, for every problem a specialist who can help with a solution and for every awe, a call for reverence. As such, religion becomes immediate to life, not removed from it; a fully functioning part of universe that encompasses both the living and the dead with a system of that is strong and sure because, for the traditional African, each day of his life is a fulfillment of the pragmatic test to which he continuously experience. REFERENCES - M. Hershovits “The Background of African Art” (University Microfilms international, London 1978) - The language of African Art: A Bicentennial Exhibition From Museum of African art 1976 – 1978 (Davis) - Vogel, Susan M. “Anesthetics of African Art” (The Centre for African art, New York: 1986) - Berman, Esme (1993), Berman’s Art and Artists of Africa, in Charda Jacqueline, 2006, African Art and Architecture, Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005. - Christopher Roy (1999), Art and Life in Africa. www.uiowa.edu/africat. - Willet, Frank (2003), African Art: An introduction. 3rd Ed. Thames and Hudson.