African Tribal Art

There seems to be a lot of revival interests on African tribal art. From body tattoos, home decors, apparels and jewelries, to paintings, ceramics, music and dances, you name it. The list goes on for the modern 20th and 21st century artifacts with influences directly and indirectly rooted on African ethnic art. And one need only to see how successful Disney’s Lion King is and the music behind it to get a feel of this revivalist movement taking shape. The influence on modern films, the performing arts of dance and song, theater and in the traditional arts is quite unmistakable.

African tribal lifestyle is relatively crude and simple. Its cultural diversity has spawned artistic expressions that are just as multi-faceted and intricately elaborate as any on earth. Their percussion instruments are often festooned with fascinating paintworks on their bodies. African masks and costumes of ritualistic and religious significance exhibit ornate creativities uniquely indigenous and unmistakable to the continent. And African music and dance art forms have not only stood the test of time, but have planted clear roots in modern music and dance.

There are about 50 countries in the African continent and each one is a cultural Mecca of its own. And with centuries of ethnicity and recent colonial histories mixed in, the cross influences in the arts and culture can be quite palpable. But despite such influences, the tribal ethnicity shines through and remains unsullied to this day.

This intrinsic ethnicity can best be understood in the context of Africa’s rich history and traditions. As the cradle of civilization, Africa is home to one of the oldest cultural heritage that ranks with those of India and China. Some of the major artistic contributions of African tribal art can be described as follows:’

Rock Paintings and Engravings

Breakthroughs in many archeological digs have revealed the rich artistic finds behind past sub-Saharan empires of the Igbo, Benin, Nok, Akan Zimbabwe and Mapungube of South Africa at a time when most of Europe was in their loincloths. Excavations of rock paintings in Namibia and the San tribes of South Africa have placed their civilizations at around 25000 BC. It is interesting to note that African arts found its way to influence Pablo Picasso’s latter cubist works. And it has been accepted among pundits that European art owed some of its revival in the 19th and 20th century on the discoveries about African art just emerging to the western world at that time.

Masks, the Center of African art

The various tribes that make up the African continent have produced interesting masks that betray much of the culture heritage behind such masks. The masks are considered as among the best works of arts. African masks have assumed sculptural values as authentic artifacts of African culture. They now form part of any modern museum or private collection. These tribal and ceremonial masks are not only works of art, but reveal their social and religious significance in African ethnic lifestyles.

There are headdresses from the Ekhoi tribes of Nigeria made of antelope skin that are considered among the most elaborate. The weird face masks of the Chokwe tribe were meant to frighten away evil spirits, it predates most of our Halloween masks. Other masks more commonly referred to as helmet masks from the Sande tribes of Liberia and the Mende tribes of Siera Leone are carved out from solid wood with openings for the eyes, nose and mouth that must be the precursors of modern face masks. In South Africa, the colonial tragedy that spawned slavery and apartheid has brought the Coon mask that shows a smiling face to disguise the horrors of slavery and mock their colonial masters. Such masks assume political dimensions when seen in this light.

It is said that the African mask and the rhythmic dances go together in any ritual or religious ceremony. With the African dance and music considered indigenous art forms in themselves, the synergistic wholeness of the entire ritual often imparts historic, political and social relevance to the mask as a cultural artifact of note.

Authentic African masks made by the tribes themselves are now a rarity, often reserved as archeological finds destined for museums. But replicas are being made elsewhere with near-authentic detailing for the avid collector.

Music and Dance

The performing arts of the 21st century are seeing the revival of African tribal music and dance in their unsullied original states. Of course we see much of their influence in modern music and dance. There’s Afro-Latin, Afro-Asian, Afro-Caribbean and just about any region or country can have the “afro” attached to it to indicate the world-wide reach of the African influences on the performing arts. But it can be refreshing to see them as they were in native Africa.

African tribal art permeates the music and the dance that one finds in many part of the continent. There is a religious and social predication behind the rituals that have music and dance as integral to them. Whether performing to drive evil spirits and cure illnesses, signify an act of war or calamity, supplicating with the gods, or just a ritualistic exercise for passages to manhood or weddings and funerals, the artistic expressions manifested in these dances and music is unmistakable.

So in all the artistic forms mentioned, the revival of ethnic African tribal art on modern artistic expression has attained a worthwhile effort to preserve one of the finest landmark heritage of human cultural history and a celebration of the ethnic diversity that humanity is part of. Let’s all enjoy and bask in the wonders that African tribal art has to offer.