AAffrriiccaann AArrtt Maurice Delafosse TS_Art of Africa_FRE_P-OK(P-6)_07.10.11.qxp 10/11/2011 1:29 PM Page 2 Author: Maurice Delafosse Layout: Baseline Co. Ltd 61A-63A Vo Van Tan Street 4th Floor District 3, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam © Confidential Concepts, worldwide, USA © Parkstone Press International, New York, USA IImmaaggee--BBaarr www.image-bar.com Acknowledgements to our photographers, particularly Klaus Henning Carl All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or adapted without the permission of the copyright holder, throughout the world. Unless otherwise specified, copyright on the works reproduced lies with the respective photographers, artists, heirs or estates. Despite intensive research, it has not always been possible to establish copyright ownership. Where this is the case, we would appreciate notification. ISBN: 978-1-78042-883-3 TS_Art of Africa_FRE_P-OK(P-6)_07.10.11.qxp 10/11/2011 1:29 PM Page 3 Maurice Delafosse African Art TS_Art of Africa_FRE_P-OK(P-6)_07.10.11.qxp 10/11/2011 1:29 PM Page 4 TS_Art of Africa_FRE_P-OK(P-6)_07.10.11.qxp 10/11/2011 1:29 PM Page 5 Contents Preface 7 Origins and Prehistory 9 Development of Negro Civilisations in Antiquity 37 Negro Africa in the Middle Ages 55 West Africa from the 15th Century to Today 87 The Negroes of Central and Eastern Sudan 125 South Africa 147 Material Civilisations 161 Social Customs 179 Religious Beliefs and Practices 197 Artistic and Intellectual Expression 211 Appendix 246 Selective Bibliography 250 Notes 252 Index by Ethnicity 253 5 TS_Art of Africa_FRE_P-OK(P-6)_07.10.11.qxp 10/11/2011 1:29 PM Page 6 TS_Art of Africa_FRE_P-OK(P-6)_07.10.11.qxp 10/11/2011 1:29 PM Page 7 Preface Well-known and appreciated by Africanists, Maurice Delafosse (1870-1926) knew how to exceed the requirements of his environment and of his time for the benefit of an authentic Africa. Colonialist administrator from 1894 to 1918, his degrees in naturalism and orientalism allowed him to lead historic, linguistic, and ethnographical research in the field and to restore the cultural values of the black world, just as Léopold Senghor did. A major writer of négritude, Delafosse exhibited a particular interest for these papers on which he established his first essays. We chose to publish a selection of the research about the African civilisations which he explains in Les Noirs de l’Afrique(1922) and Les Nègres (1927). The writing style is authentic, the analysis from the time, and the vocabulary very frank and true to the time period in which it was written. Nevertheless, let there be no ambiguity: Maurice Delafosse, unquestionably, harboured a deep passion for the African continent and her cultures. 7 TS_Art of Africa_FRE_P-OK(P-6)_07.10.11.qxp 10/11/2011 1:29 PM Page 8 8 TS_Art of Africa_FRE_P-OK(P-6)_07.10.11.qxp 10/11/2011 1:29 PM Page 9 Origins and Prehistory AAiimm aanndd OObbjjeecctt ooff TThhiiss BBooookk The aim of this book is to furnish a general view of the history, the permit us, as yet, to answer this question in a definitive or even civilisations, and the material, intellectual, and social character of a satisfactory manner. the Negro race which inhabits the African continent. Undoubtedly, one would not have even asked the question if There will be no question, therefore, of the peoples of the white Africa were the only part of the world to possess Negroes. But race who, either in antiquity or since, have played such an such is not the case and without speaking, of course, of the important role in the development of North Africa, and whom we countries where the advent of the Negro race has taken place only find today, more or less mixed and transformed, scattered from the at a recent epoch, as the result of migrations which were generally Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and from the shores of the involuntary and whose genesis and circumstances are known, as Mediterranean to the southern limits of the Sahara: ancient and in America, we know that the reputed autochthonous inhabitants modern Egyptians, Phoenician, and Punic peoples, Libyans or of lands far removed from Africa and separated from it by the Berbers, Arabs, and Moors. More precisely, no mention will be entire width of the Indian Ocean are considered as belonging to made of them except in the measure of their influence on the the Negro race for the same reasons as are the Negroes of progress of Negro societies, an influence which has often been Mozambique and of Guinea. considerable and which could not be too emphasised. For the same reason, there will be no study, except incidentally, HHyyppootthheettiiccaall LLeemmuurriiaa of the peoples who, however dark their pigmentation has become as the result of secular and repeated crossing with the If the natives of Australia, of Papua, and of the Melanesian Negroes, are nevertheless considered as belonging either to the islands are to be ranked in the same human category as the Semitic branch of the white race, for example, the principal African Negroes, it may be reasonably asked whether the first portion of the Abyssinians, or to an Indonesian branch of the came from Africa and the second from Oceania, or indeed, if yellow race, such as many of the Malagasy tribes. Moreover, the one and the other had not in the first ages of the world, a island of Madagascar is outside the geographical limits which I common habitat on some hypothetical continent, now dis- have assigned to myself. appeared, situated between Africa and the Oceanian archipel- agoes but having formerly constituted a connection and a On the other hand, there are African populations which can claim, passage between them. This continent, the supposed cradle of in part at least, non-Negro ancestry but who are in some way the Negro race, has its partisans, like that other one which incorporated into the Negro race and into Negro society: such peoples will find a place in this study. I will be content for the moment with citing from among them the Fulani of Sudan, the Hottentots of southern Africa and a certain number of more or less hybrid tribes of East Africa which are commonly called, without much reason, Hamitic or Chamitic. Statue (Kaka). OOrriiggiinn ooff tthhee NNeeggrroo PPeeoopplleess ooff AAffrriiccaa Wood, height: 100 cm. The object of the present work being thus defined, we must now begin by seeking to find out whence came the African In African art, paternal statues are quite rare. The agressive expression displayed on this statue indicates its purpose to protect the child as well as the African Negroes. But is it possible to commit oneself as to their first people who created it. origin? It seems that the actual state of our knowledge does not 9 TS_Art of Africa_FRE_P-OK(P-6)_07.10.11.qxp 10/11/2011 1:29 PM Page 10 Edjostatue (Urhobo). Nigeria. Wood, pigment, height: 212 cm. Each Urhobo community has its own protective Edjo statue, which embodies natural spirits or those of the Eshe founding ancestors. The tall Urhobo statues embody Edjonatural spirits or Eshefounding ancestors, who were offered annual celebrations and sacrifices in sanctuaries. Each community has its own protective Edjo, who lives in the wild and can also be materialised by pieces of wood, metal, or clay. These statues carry medecines on their belts and have military attributes. 10