African Art - An Overview
Art refers to concrete evidence of Human action. This evidence could be architectural, drama, dance and music and even tribal marks, which are all cultural. Aspects of material culture recovered as artifacts like masks, carvings (e.g the golden Ashanti stool),sculptures, textile art and even mode of dressing are all forms of art.
Over the years, African Art has been taken to mean only Art of Sub Saharan Africa by scholars. This conclusion is due to lack of knowledge about Africa. They were of the opinion that cultures of countries located at the horns of Africa (North) have been so influenced by the West that there is no evidence of Indigenous culture or Art in those nations. For instance, Mauritania was regarded as Roman in origin and its Art was not categorized among the other "African Arts". The Art of countries like Egypt and other Islamic countries are also not counted as African Arts due to the prominent role religion has played in the culture of these respective countries. Other examples are the art of Ethiopia which has a long Christian tradition that dominated traditional African religion in that country.
An unbroken contact started with Africa in the 16th century AD which changed the perceptions of a lot of people about what is regarded as African Art. During this period, lots of African Art began to go into the European world, either by commission or forceful acquisition. An example of the latter is the sack of Benin in which most of the Bronze figures were carted of by the European overlords. The situation is so dire that Benin, the original producer of these works is currently the third in possession of its own Bronze Art in the world. The country with the most possession of Benin Bronze Art is Great Britain, followed by Germany and then Benin itself as the third.
The Unique quality of African is so exquisite that in 1910, Leo Frobenius who came to Nigeria was astounded that we were capable of such marvelous feats. Refusing to accept that we were the originators of these beautiful peices of Art, he claimed that Ile Ife in Osun was a "lost Greek colony".
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Hello @awolesigideon, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!