Feminine Nok La head civilization Nok developed in Nigeria between 500 avenue. J.-C. and 300 apr. J.-C. and was characterized by the production of figures in terra-cotta which count among the first found in the South of Sahara. The percement of nostrils and the pupils and the representation of jewels are characteristic lines(features) of this production. Werner Forman Archive
Although the immense area of Sahara establishes(constitutes) a natural barrier between North Africa and rest of the continent, commercial roads, established since the arrival of the Arabs to the Maghreb (VII-th century), favored exchanges and influences: for example, numerous Islamic artistic and architectural forms of North African inspiration exist among the cultures of the South of Sahara. Besides, arts and sub-Saharan cultures influenced North Africa. The art of Egypt, in particular those of first dynasties (the time of pyramids), give evidence of a close identity of African traditions and of a cultural continuance with the first civilizations of neolithic Africa. Today, African art undergoes a fundamental alteration(transfer) which makes that the sculptor of masks up to here anonymous (within the companies(societies) the sculpture of masks of which established(constituted) a real tradition) is today a known artist as such in New York and Parisian galleries or in reviews specialized as Tribal Arts.
Art has social, political, economic, historic and therapeutic functions(offices).
African art reflects the wealth of the history, the philosophy, the religion and the companies(societies) of this vast continent. It(he) inspired some of the most important currents of the modern art of the Occidental world during the discovery of the art Negro by the painters Cubists of the beginning of XX-th century. They were the first to recognize through an aestheticism diverting(confusing) the humanist values of the populations of the South of Sahara, to admire the power of abstraction of this art, and found there a stimulation better to exceed approach naturalist.
The history of African art goes back up(raises) to the neolithic times, with paintings and rupestral carvings which, of Maurinania in Fezzan and from Tassili to Ennedi, are present in almost all the Saharan massifs (6000 avenue. J.-C.-Ier century apr. J.-C.). More in the South, the sculptures of terra-cotta modelled by the artists of the civilization Nok in the centre of Nigeria (500 avenue. J.-C.-200 apr. J.-C.), and which(who), according to the education pulled(fired) by searches(excavations) recently begun, are associated to working vestiges of the iron; these sculptures prefigure, in the same country, Igbo Ukwu's ornamental bronzes (IXe-Xe century apr. J.-C.), the extraordinary sculptures of bronze and Ife's terra-cotta (XIIe-XVe century apr. J.-C.) and those of Benin (XIIe-XIXe century). They show such a technical mastery and are returned with as much nature as one at first saw there, wrongly, a classic inspiration.
ARTISTIC INHERITANCE
This artistic tradition concerns the sculpture (statues and masks), the architecture (houses, attics), the furniture, the pottery, the weaving mill and the jewels. The physical finery, sign of distinction and protection against bad influences (physical paintings, headgears and hairstyles, scarifications and tattoos), decorations polychromes on houses and attics, as well as weaving mills also form an important part of the symbolism and the inheritance artistic.
.1 Materials
The most common(current) materials are the wood, the fiber, the animal skin, the metal (iron, bronze now), the ivory, the clay, the earth(ground) and the stone. Forms represented in every building material vary of a naturalism concerning a totally abstracted art, styles conforming to the aesthetic tradition of every cultural zone (desert, savanna or forest). African art, reflection of the vision of the visible and especially invisible world, is a religious art which pays a scrupulous attention in the conservation of traditional forms.
The masks which we see in museums do not much have to see any more with representations full of life of ancestors or geniuses swirling in the middle of a crowd in a noise of drum and of sonnailles. There is nothing less "authentic" that a mask behind a shop window. Representing generally the ancestor founder of the community or the good or bad genius of the world of the wilderness which represents nature in front of the civilization of the village, the mask is the essence of the life which animates(stimulates) him(it), and movement the reason of the intervention to the alive. That is why it(he) is carried(worn) by a dancer of whom nobody is supposed to know identity, the body being hidden by a sort of garment of vegetable fibers undulations of which stress the impression(printing) of life.
.2 The artists
The artists were artisans loaded(charged) by the community or the company(society) of the masks to pass on forms inherited from the ancestors; their forming(training) made in the contact of the older sculptors. Forming(training) as religious as artistic, because to represent the symbolic and symbolic image of the ancestor founder of the community or the genius defender of the village liked so much a good knowledge of the invisible world as a good transmission of forms through a specific initiation on the meaning of forms and the respect for rites suited during the choice of the wood or the tools to be used outside the glance of the laymen. In realms centralized by former(ancient) Ghana, by Ife and by Benin, in Nigeria as in Congo (to Kuba), the smiths lived inside the royal palace and systems of guilds controlled their learning. Profession was mostly hereditary, knowledge being passed on of generation in generation, because to represent the image of the king or the mythical creature could make only with the agreement of the ancestors or the divinities which had granted(tuned) the gift(donation) of it to a chalk-lining. To Dogon and Bambara of Mali, sculptors belonged to the caste of the smiths. They knew ceramics and got married only within their caste, their being women themselves potters. Although eccentrics, they were been afraid and respected for their knowledge of the metal industry which assured(insured) them a quite particular place in the company(society) (the smiths practised also circumcisions). The workroom and the used(employed) materials had their importance and were often the object of a particular implying prescription forbidden food(dietary) or sexual. Masks were made in the sacred wood or in the cave, symbol of the maternal womb where they must be kept(guarded) before their next exit on the occasion of a ceremony, secret or public.
.3 Aesthetics
Sat(based) leader: statuette yoruba Rules yoruba (Nigeria). Museum of the Arts of Africa and Oceania, Paris. Musee Arts of Africa and Oceanie Oceanie/Giraudon/Bridgeman Giraudon Art Library, London / New York
The study of the aesthetic artillery reveals an interest deliberated for the abstraction. So, to Yoruba of Nigeria and Tchokwe of Congo-Kinshasa and Angola, criteria of beauty of a sculpture rest(base) on a certain number of not representational elements. They are visibility, even though she(it) requires a distortion of proportions; the balance, which translates youth and good health; a symmetry, which excludes poses(installations) or more natural postures and reflects world balance of power protected by the ancestors; the youth of lines(features), the persons to be represented in their premium idealized beauty; a smooth surface which suggests, she(it) also, youth and health, without physical imperfections; and the accentuation of the general resemblance rather than an exact representation.
In certain African cultures, the antisocial persons are deliberately deformed. Ibo and Ibibio of the South of Nigeria, for example, sculpture masks in sick, horrible, monstrous or asymmetric lines(features) to represent individuals or undisciplined, bad or dangerous geniuses. In these rites, masks are often set against the others, against the more beautiful lines(features) and against the more pleasant aesthetics, which are carried(worn) to represent peaceful, good persons and dispensers of benefactions.
.4 Royal protection
Eshu, god of the Consideration This wooden statuette resulting from Africa of the West, represents Eshu, the god of the Consideration. She is considered as an intermediary between the divine world and that of the people and makes the object of particular cults. This divinity intervenes in numerous rites of the people yoruba or the other tribes of Africa of the West. Seattle Art Museum/Corbis
Protection plays an important role in the African artistic creation. The kings and their yard consider in this respect a completely significant place because of their artistic requirements as the glorification of the realm, the execution of the religious ceremonies (of whom(which) they are often the great masters as bearers of the legitimacy) and the preparation of prestigious individual fineries. In architecture, the royal palaces of Nigeria (Yoruba, Benin), current Ghana ( Akan), Cameroon (Bamileke, Bamum) and the current democratic Republic of Congo (Kuba, Mangbetu) appear among buildings the most elaborated and the most richly decorated with Africa. The precious materials which had these sovereigns (ivory, bronze, now, semiprecious stones, velvet of bit of fluff of raffia in Kasaï) were widely used in the arts of yard. Among the remarkable objects of art which benefited royal commands(orders) represent the sticks of command, the thrones, the swords of splendor, the sculptures of the royal monuments, the crockery. The image of the king, sculptured in his lifetime under the shape of statuettes (Kuba of Congo-Kinshasa) or of bronze heads at the top of which is done(thrown) a defence of elephant sculptured in the symbols of the sovereign (Benin), had to serve for assuring(insuring) the legitimacy of his(her) successor, which walked her(it) in city during its inauguration well to show the continuance of the link connecting him(it) with the ancestors. From the establishment of the first European counters on the coasts of the bay of Guinea (XVI-th century), commands(orders) of sophisticated objects (olifants and boxes of ivory sculptured) intended for an European clientele were sent to local artists (Sierra Leone, Nigeria) to be offered in Portugal, on the occasion of a marriage for example.
The male and feminine associations loaded(charged) to steer social, political and religious business(cases) always referred to an ancestor or to a genius represented with a mask known for only members of the secret society and made by them only. The male associations of Poro, still active to Dan and their neighbours Mende, in Liberia and in Côte d'Ivoire, are in this respect completely characteristic. The masks of initiation, which were reserved for the interested only ones, must not be shown in public. They were intended, through their forms and their characteristics, to teach initiated rules and obligations ensuing from their entry in a new level of knowledge and in new responsibilities in the secret society or the wider community of the village.
The associations which regrouped the members of a community by age groups and by activities also favored artistic expression, for example to Bambara and Sénoufo ( Mali) and to Ibo and Ejagham ( Nigeria). Often, every age group or every corporation possessed its own distinguishing features or its own masks. To Ejagham, animal forms characterized the masks of the hunters, connoisseurs of the wild world previous to the introduction of the agriculture. Deformed human faces were often associated to the masks of the warriors; feminine representations decorated the hairstyles of the women.
The traditional religious organizations appealed also to sculptured supports. Central elements of a big number of traditional sanctuaries and chapels, the objects of art that are the ritual objects played an important role in different religious demonstrations. To Yoruba of Benin, cults bound(connected) to main divinities - Shango ( the Thunder), Obatala (Creativity), Oshun ( the Water), Ifa (Knowledge), Yemoja (Witchcraft), Eshu (Consideration) and Odudua ( the Earth) - were associated to a any variety of objects, of which statuettes, masks, potteries, tissues and jewels. Here as somewhere else in Africa, objects of art bound(connected) to a particular cult were often recognizable by their iconography, their materials, their style and their techniques of manufacture.
THE ROLE OF THE ART IN THE TRADITIONAL AFRICAN COMPANIES(SOCIETIES)
Art has social, political, economic, historic and therapeutic functions(offices). It(he) covers fields as varied as the institutions which appeal to him to pass on messages intended to be understood(included) by public private individuals.
.1 Social role
Mask mende Masks mende wooden polite (Sierra Leone) carried(worn)
during initiatory rites. Sassonnian / art Resource, NY
To enlarge
Mask of antelope tyiwara agrarian Mask of inspiration mende of style
naturalist (horns and ears of buffalo; face of antelope) used by the
populations of the South of Mali in the agrarian ceremonies or during
initiations. Sassonnian / art Resource, NY
To enlarge
One of the most important functions(offices) of the art is indubitably social. For example, it(he) describes the women as mothers looking or rocking their child. The people, in particular the traditional leaders, are often represented as ancestors, warriors on horseback or equipped for the war. Social subjects are also very wide-spread in the ceremonies where intervene masks. In these meetings, persons, embodied by a dancer carrying(wearing) a mask and a suited plant suit, play any sorts of roles by miming social behavior. Masks representing the typical persons of the company(society) (the corrupted civil servant, the spinster, the trader), and who complete the popular theater or of marionettes, are presented with their appropriate(clean) characteristics (a pineapple or a sewing machine at the top of a mask of the company(society) gelede to Yoruba; A mask darkened in the snub nose carried(worn) by a dancer dressed in rags to represent the ugly spinster in the mask agibeza (which means something as " old hoarse gourd " to Hangs them of Congo-Kinshasa.) In the ceremonies of Ijaw and Ibo of Nigeria and Tchokwe of Congo, one recognizes different persons antisocial as the miser, the gourmand, the prostitute, the incapable doctor or the unreliable jurist. In ceremonies Egungun, to Yoruba, the chatterbox, the glutton and the foreigner in bizarre manners are antisocial models.
.2 Political role
Art also plays a major role in political power. To Dan (Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire), Kota ( Gabun), and the others else, judges or policemen of the community carry(wear) special masks; it's the same people loaded(charged) to maintain order and to frighten the young people in the camps of initiation. The masked people Kwele Gon of the Gabun is a significant example of this type of VIPs. Because of their anonymity and of their powers, these masked persons can break social codes and forbidden, for example by redistributing of the food for the periods of big scarcity. Statuettes and architectural motives participate also in the control of the company(society). Faces enigmatic and abstracted from the reliquaries of Kota, Sogo and from Fang of the Gabun, for example, are intended to protect some flight(theft) and some bad lot(fate) the relics of the ancestors. Dogon of Mali and Sénoufo of Côte d'Ivoire sculpture doors of compartments and attics very decorated, putting under the protection of the ancestors and the beneficial geniuses provisions and sacred objects.
.3 Economic role
Door of attic Dogon The wooden doors of attics in pisé keeping(preserving) the thousand cultivated with Dogon are completely covered with decorative reliefs. Motives symbolizing the figures of the guardian ancestors are supposed to protect the harvests. Arranged in regular rows, they frame(supervise) a lock provided with a bolt and provided with an ornamental relief consisted of two silhouettes of birds facing itself. Giraudon / Bridgeman Art Library, London / New York
Art also holds an important place in the economy. The elegant crests of wooden antelope Tyi Wara of bambara of Mali go on the head during the ceremonies of sowing and harvests. Tyi Wara, the mythical inventor of the agriculture for bambara, would have buried himself in a sacrificial act. The dance of masks Tyi Wara on cultivated fields (the grave of the good genius Tyi Wara) dresses(takes on) two meanings: it honors the hero and calls back(reminds) the young farmers bambara the hard sacrifice which they have to to their tour(tower) carry out every year. To Sénoufo of Côte d'Ivoire, the delicately sculptured statuettes serve in the same way for encouraging the farmers. They plant in the ground, at the end of the rows(ranks) of cultivated plantations, sticks daleu decorated with a bird or with a woman(wife). These sticks serve of purposes, marks(brands) or trophies in the competitions of plantation.
.4 Historic role
Mosque in Mali The mosque Djinguereber, to Tombouctou ( Mali), was set up in the XIV-th century, in the highlight of the malian empire. Betty Press Camp and Associates, Inc.
African art can be a reminder of the past events; so Dogon of Mali sculptured numerous representations of their legendary ancestors, Nommos, lowered(gone down) from the sky at the beginning of times. These Nommos's representations (of whom(which) some raise arms towards the sky, their village of origin) occupy an important place on the doors of attics and as decorations of pillars in the sacred architecture.
In rich town - state of Benin, in Nigeria, in bronze patches, obtained by the process of the lost wax, represent they also important persons and past events: meetings of dignitaries and foreign soldiers (arquebusiers Portuguese), scenes of battles, royal, noble holidays in dress(holding) of splendor, religious ceremonies and musicians. It's the same in Abomey's realm (current republic of Benin) the royal palace of which was surrounded with bottom - reliefs of this kind(genre), stone or in stucco. Hangings in embroidery polychromes carrying, as a blazon, symbol or currency(slogan) of every king, legitimized the sovereign of moment.
.5 Therapeutic role
Statuettes kongo The African statuettes are often worshipped for the magic powers which are attributed(awarded) to them. Nails(boils,pawnshops) and blades pushed in the wood seal an oath or the appeal of a vengeance. These wooden statuettes of kongo's realm (current Republic of Congo, democratic Republic of Congo and Angola), dated the xixe or xxe century, belong to Anspach Collection of New York. Werner Forman/Art Resource, NY
Traditional therapies required particular artistic forms. Divination, means to determine the nature of problems and their potential solutions, played a very important role in the production of objects of art. The soothsayers ifa, to Yoruba ( Nigeria) or Fon of the Dahomey, used trays of wooden divination of circular shape and cups(cuttings), essential elements of their ritual equipment. In the same way, Baoulé of Côte d'Ivoire used sculptured vases(muds) of divination containing objects to return their oracles. To Kongo of Congo, the idols of wood pierced with iron nails(boils,pawnshops) had the power to take away danger and wounds and to send back(dismiss) bad lots(fates).
REGIONAL DISTINCTIONS
Although very different, the civilizations of sub-Saharan Africa can be regrouped with geographic regions according to the climate, to the topography and to the social organization. Some of these cultures disappeared; the others survive, and their artistic tradition continues. So, the masks of the savanna become identified with the space and are high, fine and hurt. They of the forest are rather of weak dimension, less naturalists and attempt more to show a human face and the disturbing depth of the forest. However, it is not necessary to forget that companies(societies) making masks are minority within the African population, and that in the same region, certain peoples make masks, other steps, in particular the nomads and the Islamized or Christianized populations.
.1 The arts of the savanna of Occidental Africa
Sculpture dogon (Mali) The " original couple " is a subject very frequently illustrated in the sculpture dogon. These figures of mythical ancestors, support of initiation and explanation of the world, remain hidden in a sanctuary or in a place of residence of the religious leader, a hogon. Every year, a ceremony is dedicated to them to guarantee the health of the members of the group, the fertility of the women and the wealth of the harvests. Style dogon evolved towards a schematized and geometrical representation of forms: stiff attitude, perpendicular lines or stictement parallel, egg-shaped heads, sharp bosoms, disentangled members. Werner Forman Collection, New York/Continuum Productions Corporation/Werner Forman Collection, New York
This region of the world offers an exceptional panorama in traditional art with the works of Dogon, Bambara, Mossi, Bobo and Tamberma, which live in the grassy savannas of Mali, Burkina and the North - Togo. The arts of Dogon, a people living in steep cliffs of Mali where the people took refuge, avoiding(fleeing) invasions, made the object of very pushed studies. The wealth of their philosophy expresses itself through a strong suggestive power. The plan of the village Dogon, for example, is considered as a human shape, representing Nommos, first people created with the Sun and creative god. The important sectors of the village are the head (the compartment of the people and the forge), the breast (the compartments of the leaders of the chalk-lining), hands (the compartments of the women), genitals (a mortar and an altar) and feet (graves). Masks Dogon, sculptured for the ceremonies of the male association, Awa, represent the image that Dogon makes of the world, with animals and people who populate him(it). The antelope, the bird, the hare, the women peul and the people samana, among the other persons, seem in ceremonies funeral. The other masks taken out during these occasions embody more abstract philosophic concepts. One of them, a long mask snake of 9 m, calls back(reminds) the origin of the death. The other one, the mask Kanaga, recreates the previous history of the world according to figures executed by the one that carries(wears) him(it).
The masks of Bambara and Marka of the nearby populations, get closer to it and, as them, are used in the ceremonies of harvests, the burial or the initiations. They reflect the mutual influence of some and the others.
In the southeast, to tamberma of the North - Togo, the architecture of compartments reached(affected) a summit of beauty and symbolic complexity. Their "castles" of earth(ground) in two floors are not simple houses, but fortresses and diagrams cosmologiques. The name which themselves they give, Batammariba or " populate architect ", translates the importance which the architecture dresses(takes on) for them. Quite as the village dogon, every house tamberma is considered as a human being. That is why the external facades carry(wear) scarifications, drawn on the same model as those of the women. The house carries(wears) also the names of parts of the body, as the door "mouth", the window "eyes", the grindstone "teeth", etc.
.2 The Occidental forests of Africa
Boss of all the kings yoruba, or Olokun, the god of the Sea crowns with pearls yoruba Crown of pearls yoruba representing Oduduwa's faces. In the summit, the royal bird Okin. Bridgeman Art Library, London / New York
The big forested zone which lines the bay of Guinea is remarkable by the variety of his(its,her) cultures and its arts, in Guinea, in Sierra Leone, in Liberia, in Côte d'Ivoire, in Ghana, in Togo, in Benin and in Nigeria. On the rib(coast), the sculpture expresses itself through the masks of male and feminine associations as Sandé and Poro. To Mende of Sierra Leone, Sandé, a feminine association, appeals to synonymic hard wooden masks of wealth and beauty; they are carried(worn) by the responsibles for the feminine association during the ceremonies of initiation of the girls. The most beautiful of these masks reproduce what Mende admires most in their own lines(features): a high and smooth forehead, an elaborated and symbolic hairstyle, a powerful and elegant neck.
The mask is also omnipresent in the ceremonies of Poro, the male association which one finds at Dan, Krahn and Guere of Liberia and of nearby Côte d'Ivoire. These masks represent eminent members of the company(society): among others, the judge, the singer and the runner. They quite particularly emphasize the elegance of forms, the polite of faces and the skilfully elaborated and braided hairstyles. When they are not carried(worn), masks, which must not be seen with non-initiated, are arranged in security in a compartment being the object of a speechless.
It is in Ghana, in Togo, in Benin and in Nigeria, in the coastal regions, that one finds some of the most remarkable arts of yard of Africa. The realm the most known for the Occidentals is that of Benin, in Nigeria. The royal town of Benin (of whom(which) it is not necessary to confuse(merge) the name with that of the nearby country, recently renamed Benin) knew his highlight in XVII-th and XVIII-th centuries, when he contacted the Europeans. The palace of the king, the oba, was impressive. The walls were covered with magnificent bronze patches molded in the lost wax, whom, as we were said, glittered as the gold. The three main buildings(ships) of the palace were surmounted with turrets carrying(wearing) birds and bronze pythons. On the altars of the royal palace, heads and commemorative bronze sculptures were presented, surmounted by an enormous sculptured ivory defence.
.3 Central Africa, Africa of the East and South Africa
Objects of finery in pearls Objects of finery in pearls made by the Zulus. Bridgeman Art Library, London / New York
In the equatorial forests which extend of the Gabun in the democratic Republic of Congo and in different country of the East and the South, the other artistic forms deserve to be mentioned. In cultures matrilinéaires of the Southern part of the democratic Republic of Congo, the feminine statuettes dress(take on) a big importance as to Luba, famous for the sculptured stools and the statues of the kind(genre) " mother to the child ". To Hang them, for example, the compartment of the leader is often surmounted by a representation of life-size woman(wife). She(it) holds sometimes a child (symbol of the lineage and the future heirs) and an axe (symbol of Power and the Thunder).
Farther, to Gato, Bongo and Konso of Sudan and Ethiopia, of the commemorative sculptured wooden posts were installed(settled) in the main places of the village to protect his(its,her) entrance(entry) and the graves of the ancestors. In most of the other cultures of East Africa, the monumental sculpture is rare. On the other hand, at the pastoral peoples, the physical finery holds a big place. massaï of Kenya and Zulu of South Africa is known for their jewels of pearls (it is generally about tiny colored pearls obtained with the business swahéli). The circular forms which one notices in jewels massaï meet themselves in the plans of villages bantous of the same region. Near Strong Victoria ( current Zimbabwe), the big stony circles and the building(ship) of elliptic stone of the ancient(former) civilization of Zimbabwe (v. 1200) Which(who) preceded the realm of Monomotapa known for Europeans, are a part of this tradition of the circular architecture.
In southern Africa, region which knew big turnovers with the arrival of the ministers bantous of the North and white farmers ( Boers) of the South, statues and masks are not present and migrations for three centuries did not a lot of take into account geniuses or ancestors founders. Here, art is noticeable especially in the wall decorations polychromes and geometrical. Bochiman, first inhabitants of the region and authors of numerous rupestral paintings, was repulsed(repressed) in the desert of Kalahari in the arrival of the Whites and bantous.
CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART
Many African arts called traditional are commanded(ordered), sculptured and used even nowadays as formerly. As for any artistic period coexist innovations and conservative currents. The evolution of transport and communications, the cinema, the museums, the exhibitions and the elaboration of a lawful African history, not on the ethnography and the texts foreign as the time of the colonization, but on the archaeology and the techniques of search(excavation) and conservation, favored the broadcasting(distribution) of artistic forms. Drift from the land, melting pot that establish(constitute) cities as well as temporary or definitive immigration towards the other countries or the other developing countries played the same role. Today, for example, masks of Nigerian style are used in regions of Ghana and on the oriental rib(coast) of the bay of Guinea.
African art also underwent outside influences. Examples of architecture and Islamic motives meet themselves in numerous regions of the North of Black Africa, notably in Nigeria, in Mali, in Burkina and in Niger. The big recent mosques of Moroccan, Libyan or Saudi style built in the countries of Sahel are not without influencing the local artists, it would be only through the popular prints of grass skirts and decorations of durable articles. So as we are found Indonesian motives for impressions(printings) on the grass skirts of the bay of Guinea (wax). Christian subjects were adopted by certain artists for the decorations of panels, doors and baptismal fonts of churches and cathedrals of Christian Africa (the palaces of the kings of Gondar in Ethiopia were built in the XVII-th century by Indian architects while Portuguese influence was still important). Nowadays, works were realized by means of banks, commercial establishments, administrations, with Unesco and due to the participation of the former(ancient) colonizers. Tourism contributes to maintain demand in traditional objects of art, but these lost their religious function(office). The smiths, artisans and artists, formerly responsible in front of their community of the respect for the forms which had to accommodate an ancestor or a genius, lost the notion of the sacred which became attached to their work.
The first world festival of Arts Negros of Dakar, in 1966 , showed to the world, and to Very Africa, that African art does not limit itself to any masks considered of "primitive", but that it reflects the outcome of an evolution of forms begun since six millenniums with decorations of potteries and rupestral paintings. The creation of schools of art and architecture in the cities of sub-Saharan Africa (just like the first-rate school from Poto-Poto to Brazzaville) encourages the artists to work new materials as the cement, the oil paintings, the ink, the stone, the aluminium. Their images and their drawings tempt often surprising syntheses between the traditions of Africa and those of the contemporary world, renewing, in a just return of things, the boldnesses of the admirers of the art Negro. Artists as Ousman Sow and Assane N' Noye of Senegal, Paul Ahyi of Togo, Twins Seven Seven and Ashira Olatunde of Nigeria and Nicholas Mukomberanwa of Zimbabwe are among the most remarkable in these new forms of creation.
In democratic Republic of Congo and around bay of Guinea, a painting called "artless" starts again, as masks in villages, persons of a contemporary urban company(society) in crisis: the civil servant, the policeman, the prostitute, the changeable woman(wife), the serviceman, the drinker. They paint, in coffees(cafes) either on walls, scenes of funeral, session of pose(installation) at the photographer or evening in the dance hall. Some do not hesitate to paint historic scenes denouncing(cancelling) the abuses of colonial time: the construction of the railway by hard labour, the arrival of the explorer. The democratic Republic of Congo welcomes so some of the most popular artists of Africa, as Darling Samba, the whooping cough of Kinshasa, or Tsibumba; Frédéric Bruly-Bouabre is, as for him, the most famous painter of Côte d'Ivoire. The democratization which favored a weekly press of opinion gave a support to the political caricature directly stemming from this popular prints.
The city, where streams all that West pours under the shape of packagings or mechanics fallen out of order due to the lack of spare parts, supplies the possible materials for a flourish of the artistic expression, this time on the initiative of the only creator who becomes an artist in the full sense(direction) and neither an artisan, it was genius, forces to obey unchanging aesthetic artillery. The tin of cans has multiple manners and the wire of recovery, from Dakar to Brazzaville by way of Lomé and Bamako, becomes, between children's hands which have not the other toys, the lorries, motorcycles, bicycles, formula 1, plane or spatial bun.