Chapter 15 - The African Grammar of Communication Design

CHAPTER 15

The African Grammar of

Communication Design

Rock art, sculpture, masks and manuscripts as systems of visual language

Introduction: Art as a Philosophy of the Universe

The motives which guide the hands of the sculptors and architects of Black Africa, the strait jacket of ritual and symbolism in which the work of art is confined, the looser framework of institutions which surrounds it, the connection between some works themselves inside a society or from one people to another — all these factors should be as much subjects of study as the actual works themselves. For the arts of the Blacks, just like their ritual, their symbolism, and their social and political organization, are a means of exhibiting a general conception of the universe, its origins, workings, goal and meaning. — Marcel Griaule

Marcel Griaule’s observation sets the terms for this chapter. African visual art is not decoration added to life; it is one of the ways in which a society thinks, remembers, teaches and governs. Seen through the eyes of a designer, it isalso something more specific: a mature, internally coherent system of visual communication, with its own grammar of balance, rhythm, repetition and economy of form. This chapter surveys that system cross more than seventy thousand years, from the earliest engraved stones to the bronzes of Ife and Benin, and from the painted shelters of the Sahara to the masks of the Guinea Coast and the Congo basin.

Table of Contents

The oldest images in the world

Africa is the home of the oldest known images made by human hands. Excavations at Blombos Cave on the southern coast of South Africa, begun in the early 1990s, produced pieces of ochre engraved with deliberate geometric patterns, dated to roughly seventy-five thousand years ago. Small blocks of this iron-rich stone were first scraped and ground to create flat faces, and then incised with a complex array of crosshatched and parallel lines. The same levels yielded ground and polished bone tools, dated to around eighty thousand years ago, among the oldest in Africa and evidence of a technologically and symbolically sophisticated culture.

Figure 1. Blombos Cave, early geometric design, about seventy-five thousand years ago. Excavating the cave near the southernmost tip of South Africa on the Indian Ocean coast, east of Cape Town, American and South African researchers recovered two pieces of ochre bearing a remarkably complex design. These are the oldest known graphic designs. Note how the M-shaped and W-shaped lines are balanced against one another inside a bounded band, with a central line suggesting equilibrium. The lighter marks appear to have been deliberately erased, which suggests that the stone was reused.

Even at this earliest moment the principles that will recur throughout the chapter are already visible: framing, mirrored forms, a central axis, and a deliberate rhythm of line.

Art with a purpose

African artifacts are created first and foremost to serve particular socio-cultural functions rooted in an African philosophical worldview. They can therefore be understood only in relation to their original context, whether political or spiritual and ritual. Their motifs are often based on symbolic or cultural ideas rather than on natural forms, and their meanings are not necessarily open to every member of a society: knowledge is graded, earned and released slowly, through initiation. A mask, a figure or a painted wall is thus best read the way a designer reads a system of signs: as a message addressed to a specific audience, in a specific setting, for a specific purpose.

Against the myth of an unwritten Africa

Western academia long held a Hegelian misconception that African culture was exclusively oral, and therefore outside history and philosophy. Hegel considered North Africa “to be attached to Europe,” while “Africa proper,” in his words, remained shut up from the rest of the world: “the Gold-land compressed within itself — the land of childhood, which lying beyond the day of history, is enveloped in the dark mantle of Night.” He attributed this isolation not only to the tropical climate but “essentially” to geography. The judgment has been repeated, in various forms, for two centuries, and it is the reason Africa is still so often treated as absent from the history of philosophy and of the written word.

The evidence says otherwise. Timbuktu, which began in the eleventh century as a Tuareg camp on the Niger at the southern edge of the Sahara in present-day Mali, rapidly became a trading hub for caravans travelling north and south. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century it was a center of philosophical and scholarly life in which books and libraries became symbols of blessing and learning. Thousands of West African manuscripts survive, in Arabic and in Ajami (African languages written in Arabic script), and the tradition reaches back to the eleventh century. They treat history, astronomy and astrology, arithmetic and mathematics, numerology and amulets, politics, health, medicine and religion.

Figure 2. A Timbuktu manuscript on astronomy. The author explains how to use the movements of the stars to calculate the beginning of the seasons and to cast horoscopes. The diagram shows the rotation of the heavens. Nasir al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Hajj al-Amin al-Tawathi al-Ghalawi, Kashf al-Ghummah fi Nafa al-Ummah (The Important Stars Among the Multitude of the Heavens).

Figure 3. Timbuktu manuscript page with an astronomical diagram. Second image of this title in the source.

Alongside the Arabic and Ajami manuscripts there are texts in indigenous scripts: the Vai script of Liberia; Tifinagh, the traditional writing of the Amazigh (Berber) peoples; and N’Ko, invented in Guinea for the Mande languages. These are fewer and less widespread, but they form an important part of West Africa’s written heritage. They also show that African societies invented writing systems to suit their own languages, which is itself a significant act of design.

Figure 4. A West African copy of the Qur’an, an example of the region’s calligraphic tradition.

Figure 5. Page from an illuminated Qur’an in a style typical of southern Niger, northern Nigeria and Chad, late eighteenth or early nineteenth century (British Library, Or. 16,751).

Figure 6. A stunning West African page layout and calligraphy.

The calligraphic page deserves attention in a book about communication design. Its margins, interlace borders, color fields and text blocks reveal a sophisticated understanding of hierarchy and layout, and set a visual standard against which the oral-culture stereotype looks ever less plausible. Many of the region’s irreplaceable manuscripts and artifacts were removed during the colonial period, a theme to which this chapter returns in its closing section. Today African scholars, particularly in West Africa, are reclaiming and reviving this philosophical heritage.

I. Painted and Engraved Stone: Southern Africa and the Sahara

Rock art is the oldest continuous visual tradition on the continent. Paintings, drawings and engravings show animals and human figures, often in narrative scenes, and the tradition begins tens of thousands of years ago. Southern Africa is sometimes described as one of the richest depositories of prehistoric mural art in the world; the Sahara carries the tradition forward from about the fourth millennium B.C.

The San rock art of Southern Africa

More than 15,000 San (Bushmen) rock-art sites have been recorded in South Africa alone, with many more in Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia, and many still undiscovered. When Europeans first encountered this art in the mid-seventeenth century they dismissed it as crude, the work of “primitive” hunters recording a savage life of hunting and endless quarrels. We now understand it very differently. These paintings are expressions of a spiritual life and of a view of the universe; they often present the enigma of surrounding nature through abstract interpretations of animals, plants and natural forms. Their powerful aesthetics, balanced compositions and harmonious, elegant color schemes are widely admired, and so is the evident effort of their makers to communicate with those who would come after them.

The Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg Park holds the largest and most concentrated group of paintings in Africa, made by the San over some four thousand years. It contains about six hundred sites with more than 35,000 individual images, and its rock art is better preserved than that of any other region south of the Sahara. The oldest painting on a shelter wall in the park is about 2,400 years old. The overall minimalism of the compositions, the masterly use of silhouette and the striking color schemes are the marks of a vigorous and confident artistic mind.

Figure 7. The White Lady, a famous prehistoric rock painting, with the entire panel spaning across a rock overhang and depicting a detailed gathering, featuring several human figures alongside various species of African wildlife, including antelopes, oryx, and cattle located in Maack's Shelter within Brandberg Mountain in the Damaraland region of Namibia. Despite its historical name, modern archaeological consensus indicates that the central white figure (visible with white body paint or leggings, holding a bow and arrow) is actually a male hunter or a shaman involved in a ritual dance. The artwork was painted by the indigenous San (Bushmen) people. It dates back at least 2,000 years.

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Figure 8. “White Lady,” rock painting, Brandberg Mountain, Namibia. Considered a San painting, it dates to at least the first millennium B.C. The artist painted some of the figures in white and red body paint, superimposed on older and simpler monochrome San-style human figures. The Brandberg massif is a large granite elevation in the northwest of the Namib Desert and holds more than a thousand paintings in rock shelters and caves.

Figure 9. Rock engravings at Twyfelfontein, Namibia. Created during the first millennium B.C., the site holds more than two thousand engravings on some two hundred sandstone slabs, dating to the Late Stone Age hunter-gatherer culture. The subjects are mainly animals (elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe, antelope, lion, ostrich) and a few humans. Technique varies with the taste and skill of the artist: some engraved only the outline, others the entire surface. Note the harmonious composition created from the curvature of the animal bodies; the horns of the four cows in the foreground form an elliptical arrangement, and the repeated half-circles between the legs create a dynamic, rhythmical motif.

Figure 10. Painted stone from Coldstream, near the Lottering River, Tsitsikamma Coastal National Park, Western Cape. Three white-faced figures with elongated bodies appear in a ritual dance. The stone was found near the shoulders of a skeleton in 1911 and is the only known polychrome painted stone from archaeological deposits in South Africa, preserved in unusually fine condition. The artist achieves a remarkable proportional balance of space through the varied movements of arms and legs.

Figure 11. This example of San (Bushman) rock art located in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park in [South Africa], is highly recognized for its distinct, "elongated vertical style". The human figures are drawn with exceptionally long, stylized bodies and legs. It depicts three towering human figures (often interpreted as hunters, ritual dancers, or shamans) standing over several animals, including an eland antelope and smaller game. In San belief systems, the eland possesses a powerful mystical force. Shamans or medicine men would paint these scenes to draw upon this spiritual energy, helping them enter a trance state to heal the sick, make rain, or ensure successful hunts. Many paintings within these caves date back anywhere from 500 to over 2,000 years. They were created using natural earth pigments mixed with binders like animal fat, blood, or plant sap.

The Sahara: Tassili n’Ajjer and the Libyan Desert

The Sahara was not always desert. Tassili n’Ajjer in southeastern Algeria holds one of the most important groupings of prehistoric cave art in the world: more than 15,000 drawings and engravings that record climatic change, animal migrations and the evolution of human life at the edge of the Sahara. The region dried up about four thousand years ago. The cultures of the Nile valley and of West Africa were both influenced by Saharan culture, and the use of masks is believed to be one evidence of that influence.

Figure 12. Hunter with Negroid features, Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria, sixth millennium B.C. The hunter holds an arrow in his right hand and a heavy bow in his left.

To the east, the rock art of the Libyan Desert came to wider attention through the expeditions of Almásy and Clayton, which began in 1932 and entered the hidden valleys of Wadi Hamra, Wadi Abd el Melik and Wadi Talh. Almásy also reached Regenfeld, and a magnificent series of paintings was found at Ain Doua on Uweinat, in caves formed by gigantic granite boulders resting upon one another. In the western Gilf Kebir he discovered painted shelters at the foot of the cliff at Wadi Sora, the “Valley of Pictures,” which contain the now-famous figures of the “swimmers.” The most spectacular discoveries were made by a Belgian expedition in 1968. Far from the main concentration of sites, the team came unexpectedly upon a very large shelter, some thirty meters long, covered by superb paintings of the late Bovidian phase, thought to have begun about six thousand years ago. Some show humans in the characteristic Karnasahi style.

Figure 13. Rock painting from the large shelter discovered by the Belgian expedition of 1968, Libyan Desert. The artist exhibits an astonishing sense of perspective and composition.

II. The Nile and the Highlands: Nubia and Ethiopia

Nubia, the land of Kush

Nubia is a loosely defined region of southern Egypt and northern Sudan. It once stretched roughly 800 kilometers along the Nile from Aswan to the Fourth Cataract; today the name is applied from south of Luxor to Khartoum. In Pharaonic times it was the kingdom of Kush. From the Middle Kingdom onward the Egyptians obtained gold from Nubia, and the Egyptian word for gold, nub, may be the source of the name. Ebony, ivory, leopard skins and incense also came from Nubia, or at least passed through it from sub-Saharan Africa.

Since the early twentieth century archaeologists have pieced together the history of these ancient people of Sudan. The Egyptian record of about the second millennium B.C. shows that they were a powerful nation, and Kush remained so until about the fourth century A.D., when it was overcome by the rising kingdom of Aksum. The evidence of its sophisticated culture appears in the archaeological record, among it the thirty-three tombs of the Kingdom of Qustul, the oldest known in Nubia, which predate the dynastic period. The art of Nubia is marked by a variety of stylistic tendencies, but there is a general preference for abstract form. The Meroitic kingdom ruled in Nubia from about 300 B.C. to about 300 A.D., and its art is especially idiosyncratic. Emily Teeter of the Oriental Institute has called it “spontaneous” and “full of free-flowing improvisation.”

Figure 14. A Nubian princess in her ox-chariot, from the Egyptian tomb of Huy, 1320 B.C.

Figure 15. Meroitic jar, about the first century A.D. The artist uses the wave-like motion of cobras to create a flowing, dynamic design that complements the cylindrical shape of the jar. The austere palette is used with graceful effect.

Figure 16. Meroitic-period pot (250 B.C. – A.D. 350). The shape is distinctively Nubian: a large round body, no base and a short narrow neck. Such pots are typically a burnished orange, the result of firing and then polishing. Lively images of animals, including snakes, frogs and rabbits, symbolize aspects of life such as fertility, health and immortality.

Figure 17. Nubian vessel, 3800–3100 B.C., Nubia Museum, Aswan, Egypt. The minimalist design is aesthetically powerful and elegant: a rowing boat with multiple oars, ostriches and undulating lines that symbolize water.

Figure 18. Eggshell-thin, handmade, polished ware of Nubian design. The artist uses the simplest geometric basket pattern, painted in red, to create a pleasing impact.

Figure 19. A Meroitic pottery, specifically a handled jug with painted decoration originating from ancient Nubia (modern-day Sudan). It dates back to the Meroitic Period, approximately between 30 B.C. and A.D. 364. The shoulder of the terracotta vessel features a row of painted ankh-and-crescent motifs separated by double bands. The ankh represents life, while the crescent is associated with divine and lunar symbolism. Meroitic ceramics are highly celebrated for blending indigenous African design sensibilities with Hellenistic and Roman artistic influences from neighboring Mediterranean cultures.

Figure 20. Amulet of the god Amun, silver overlain with gold. It depicts the deity Amun, "the king of the gods," who was deeply revered by both ancient Egyptians and Nubians. His cult center at the sacred mountain of Gebel Barkal in Nubia (modern Sudan) was second in size only to Karnak. Crafted from gilded silver. In ancient Egyptian and Nubian belief, silver represented the indestructible bones of the gods, while gold signified their flesh. The god wears a crown surmounted by two tall ostrich plumes. Unlike traditional Egyptian depictions where the left leg steps forward, this piece uniquely shows the proper right leg advanced. His low-slung kilt and wider hips are hallmark traits of ancient Kushite/Nubian .

Ethiopia: the art of the illuminated page

Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in sub-Saharan Africa, and it never fully submitted to colonial rule. Tradition places the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon around 1000 B.C. The first recorded kingdom grew around Aksum between the first and third centuries B.C. An offshoot of the Semitic Sabaean kingdoms of southern Arabia, Aksum became the greatest ivory market of the northeast. Christianity was introduced by Frumentius, a Syrian who had grown up in Aksum, converted King Ezana, and was consecrated its first bishop about A.D. 330. Ezana declared Aksum a Christian state, one of the earliest in the world, and began actively converting the population.

Aksum conquered parts of Yemen and southern Arabia and remained a great power until the expansion of Islam in the seventh century severed Ethiopia from its Mediterranean trading partners and allies; Muslims replaced the Egyptians in the Red Sea ports. Ethiopians were nonetheless allowed to consecrate their bishops in Cairo and to travel as pilgrims to Jerusalem. From this long Christian tradition came a distinctive art of illuminated manuscripts and church murals.

Its visual language is communicative in the fullest sense. Faces are defined by a stylized, instantly recognizable system, color is flat and bright, and line is clear and confident. Compositions are fluid and symmetrical, using conventions that suggest the intended image to the viewer without disturbing the unity of the theme.

Figure 21. Madonna and Child, an Ethiopian masterpiece from an illuminated Amharic manuscript. The compositional balance and the stylistic definition of the faces are expressive and elegant. The design contains elements of fluidity and symmetry, conventional representations suggestive enough to convey the intended images to the mind without destroying the unity of the theme.

Figure 22. Abraham and Isaac, illuminated Amharic manuscript.

Figure 23. Detail of an Ethiopian painting, end of the seventeenth century, from the northern wall of the Church of Abba Antonios, Gondar. Its line drawing and color scheme anticipate many techniques of the modern poster. The painting is now in the Musée du quai Branly, Paris.

Figure 24. Illuminated Ethiopian Christian manuscript on display at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, Oregon.

Figure 25. Archangel Raphael, Ethiopian, twentieth century, tempera on parchment. Collection of Father David Janes, Yamhill, Oregon. Photo: Frank Miller. Featured in the exhibition Glory of Kings: Ethiopian Christian Art from Oregon Collections.

III. Sculpture: Dogon, Yombe, Terracotta, Ife and Benin

The Dogon of Mali

Dogon art is among the most compelling of African tribal art. The Dogon live on and beneath the cliffs of Bandiagara in Mali, a remote region high in the hills. According to tradition they fled the Mossi kingdom and settled the cliffs in the fourteenth century. Their relative isolation, in villages built on steep rock faces, protected and preserved their culture to the present. Like many African peoples, Dogon artists favor three-dimensional work. It is a mystical, spiritual and emotive art that can evoke joy, fear, exuberance or startling enigma; it is complex, spiritually illuminating and, in its defining features, beautiful beyond measure.

Villages and architecture

Endé (also written Enndé) lies at the southeast edge of the cliffs, in front of the Bandiagara escarpment and close to many ancient Tellem villages. It is known as an artisanal village and is one of the most beautiful in Dogon country; bogolan (mud-dyed) cloth hangs on many of its walls, and it has a very beautiful mud mosque. Dogon architecture integrates sculpture and design everywhere: in carved doors and house posts, in the toguna, or men’s meeting house, and in wall paintings.

Figure 26. Endé, an artisanal Dogon village.

Figure 27. An adobe mud mosque built in the iconic Sudano-Sahelian architectural style, located in the Dogon Country along the Bandiagara Escarpment in Mali. The building is constructed entirely from sun-dried mud bricks (adobe) and smoothed over with a thick protective mud plaster layer. The wooden rods protruding from the towers are called torons. These palm-wood spikes serve as built-in, permanent scaffolding. They allow local community members to safely climb the exterior walls each year to replaster and maintain the mosque before the arrival of the seasonal heavy rains. The pinnacles of the towers are traditionally crowned with metal ornaments or ceramic shapes, often resembling ostrich eggs, which symbolize fertility, purity, and protection in Sahelian architecture.

The visual aesthetics of the Nando Mosque (and similar regional Dogon structures) rely on a powerful interplay of organic minimalism, striking vertical rhythm, and vernacular engineering. Its design language can be analyzed through several core visual elements: Rather than having sharp, hard edges, the structure features soft, rounded corners and hand-molded silhouettes. The mud plaster creates a plastic, continuous "skin" over the building, making it feel less like an assembly of individual blocks and more like a singular sculpture rising directly out of the Earth. The hand-applied banco (mud and straw mixture) provides a raw, matte texture. This heavily textured surface catches sunlight and casts soft shadows, dynamically changing the color tone of the mosque from pale ochre to deep amber throughout the day. The facade is defined by three stepped, pyramidal minarets that taper dramatically as they ascend. This tapering is both structurally sound (keeping the heaviest weight at the base) and visually imposing, drawing the eye upward. The deep vertical columns running up the sides of the towers act as heavy load-bearing buttresses. Visually, these create an alternating pattern of deep light and shadow, injecting a rigid rhythmic geometry onto an otherwise soft, organic shape. The rows of dark, wooden toron spikes pierce the facade at regular intervals. Aesthetically, they function like cross-hatching in a drawing, introducing a sharp, contrasting texture and a secondary layer of horizontal patterning that offsets the overwhelming verticality of the columns. The pinnacle of each minaret acts as a visual punctuation mark. The sharp spires—capped with stylized metal and clay ornaments—provide crisp geometric points that contrast elegantly against the open, blue Sahelian sky. The mosque shares the exact material composition, mineral content, and coloration as the sand below it and the massive Bandiagara Escarpment behind it. This creates a perfect architectural camouflage, grounding the structure as an Extension of the natural landscape rather than an intrusion upon it.

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Figure 28. A toguna, or meeting house, of the Dogon.

Figure 29. A wall painting in Endé.

Figure 30. A carved Dogon wooden door .These doors are much more than utilitarian barrier pieces; they serve as protective amulets and sacred physical narratives, preserving the spiritual cosmology and lineage history of the household. Its visual design and aesthetics are characterized by several defining features: The imagery is sculpted in bas-relief (low relief), meaning the figures push forward slightly out of a flat backdrop. The background itself is carved with geometric, cross-hatched, and linear chisel patterns that give the wood a rich texture and break up light reflections. The panel layout functions almost like an open ledger or comic strip. It is segmented into rectangular sections, allowing individual dynamic vignettes—each containing its own mythological or everyday symbol—to co-exist on a single structural canvas. The abstract human forms represents the Nommo, the ancestral primordial spirits in Dogon cosmology who are revered as the bringers of life, water, farming, and craftsmanship. On the right panel, a large abstract ancestral form dominates the space, featuring prominently sculpted breasts in relief—a classic African design trope symbolizing fertility, life force, and spiritual nourishment for the grains secured behind the door. The panels are crowded with highly stylized animal motifs that function as specific cultural metaphors: Depicted These doors are much more than utilitarian barrier pieces; they serve as protective amulets and sacred physical narratives, preserving the spiritual cosmology and lineage history of the household.

Figure 31. A Togu Na (also spelled Toguna), an essential public structure built by the Dogon people of Mali, West Africa. Known literally as the "great shelter" or "house of words," it serves as the central gathering place where village elders meet to discuss community laws, resolve disputes, and make important decisions. The most distinctive engineering feature of a Togu Na is its intentionally low ceiling, which typically stands only about 3 to 4 feet high. It is constructed with a massive, heavy roof made of stacked layers of millet stalks and brush. This low clearance is built for a profound social purpose: it prevents physical violence. If a community dispute becomes heated or a meeting grows angry, the low roof forces the men to remain seated or crouched. It is physically impossible to stand up quickly or raise an arm to strike someone, which naturally diffuses tension and forces everyone to resolve their problems through peaceful dialogue. The structure is supported by hand-carved wooden pillars (Togu Na posts). As seen in this image, these posts are sculpted from dense tree forks and are intricately carved with symbolic figures: Many pillars display stylized male and female primordial ancestor spirits (Nommo) featuring elongated torsos and geometric features. Figures with prominent breasts symbolize fertility, continuous life, and the protection of the community's lineage.

Figure 32. A Dogon mosque in Kani Kombolé.

The sacred wall at Songo

Dogon boys begin to learn a system of sacred signs during initiation at the Songo rock shelter. Their layers of meaning are revealed slowly, and at least to some men, over the course of a lifetime. Some symbols are simple and others exceedingly complex, and they illustrate one of the wonders of African visual art: the economy of form found in simple geometries often allows unlimited interpretation. The Songo shelter is a lieu de mémoire, a “place of memory,” where boys learn the science and lore of their ancestors, reinterpreted in each narration to meet the intellectual needs of the moment. The same signs recur in secular and sacred life, painted on vessels or walls to remind people of the cohesive principles of Dogon thought.

Initiation, besides dramatizing the epic struggles of cultural heroes, educates boys about the precepts of social life within the greater universe of nature. Dogon boys of the Songo region pass through phases of initiation in a rock shelter high in a steeply rising butte, which the Dogon hold to be the place where human life began. The wall is painted with ideograms that generations of boys have learned to read, and circumcision is performed at the foot of the wall, dramatizing the loftiness of the place and the information it imparts. The ideograms refer to “the life of the world”: astronomy, masks and sacred paraphernalia, spirit figures, totemic prohibitions, and ritual specialists and cycles. In the words of one study, they are “mnemonic devices recalling local legends and histories” that “teach adult behavior and responsibility” (Hoffman 1993: 231). The site is a classroom full of practical knowledge, a visual narrative of what has been called the “social organization of truth.”

Figure 33. Dogon paintings on the sacred wall, Songo rock shelter, Mali.

Wooden figures and the cult of ancestors

The Dogon artists study their human subjects in all aspects of daily life and in a variety of poses. Some works are highly descriptive; others are abstract geometric forms stripped of all but the barest reference to human anatomy. The visual language is highly symbolic and rests on the notion of Nommo, the ancestral spirits.

Figure 34. Seated figure, Dogon, Mali, nineteenth–twentieth century, wood. Private collection.

Most Dogon wooden figures are dedicated to real or mythical ancestors. Every house keeps an altar (vageu) with figurative sculpture representing its ancestors, who are imagined as an animating force governing both the land of the living and the realm of the spirits, and so as the guarantors of harmony in community affairs. The African style, in this sense, is neither explicative nor emulous: a statue does not describe an ancestor but suggests an idealized effigy that honors the power of its élan vital. Disproportionate representation of head, trunk and sexual organs symbolizes that vital force and fecundity. The rigid but elastic poses, with emphasis on the angular treatment of elbows and knees, suggest an impending awakening. The figures usually keep a distance and show no particular expression, which can be read as equanimity and composure.

Figure 35. Dogon wooden figures, Dege, depicting a man and woman on an altar.

According to Dogon legend, when the first man died a wooden sculpture was carved and placed on his roof together with a ceramic bowl. The figure was to shelter his soul and his nyama, the vital force released at death, and the bowl was for libations. The custom was then established for all humankind. Not every deceased relative is commemorated on the family altar. The souls of women who die pregnant or in childbirth are regarded as ominous, since the dark forces behind such deaths are exceptionally hazardous. Called “white women” (yaupilu), their souls are buried in a repository cave outside the village, supervised by a shaman who mediates between the natural and supernatural worlds and heals illness through spiritual techniques.

I have felt my strongest artistic emotions when suddenly confronted with the sublime beauty of sculptures executed by the anonymous artists of Africa… These works of a religious, passionate and rigorously logical art are the most powerful and most beautiful things the human imagination has ever produced. — Pablo Picasso

Figure 36. Dogon ladders (or granary ladders) originate from the Dogon people of the central plateau region in Mali, West Africa. The Dogon historically built their adobe homes and flat-roofed granaries into the steep sandstone faces of the Bandiagara Cliffs. These ladders are carved from a single piece of dense hardwood tree trunk—traditionally forking at the top to securely rest against building walls. Deep V-shaped notches or horizontal wedges are carved directly into the trunk to serve as foot steps. While a basic functional Dogon ladder features simple, non-figurative steps, these ornate examples double as architectural masterworks. They feature highly expressive ancestral spirit figures (Nommo) and protective geometric reliefs carved along the main columns.

Figure 37. Long carved mask. Uncaptioned in the source, shown beside the Picasso quotation on African sculpture.

The Yombe of the Lower Congo: the figure of motherhood

The forested region of the Lower Congo (Zaire) River is important in the artistic history of Black Africa because it has the greatest concentration of maternity figures and stone statuary. The vast Yombe area is the focal point, where varied artistic styles flourish. Motherhood is a distinct motif in the majority of African cultures. The artist celebrates the fecundity of women and honors the mythical mother who gave life to humankind. Mother figures are generally composed seated or kneeling, with a child on the lap, at the breast or on the back, and they depict motherhood in an idealized state, abstracted to emphasize the life-giving and life-sustaining qualities of the subject.

Figure 38. Yombe maternity figure, Kongo.

Figure 39. Carved mother and twins, Anyi, 1940. The Anyi are part of the Akan peoples of the southern Ivory Coast. Twins have always been prized in West Africa. A mother seated on a stool holds twins on her knees, each at a breast. The piece has some encrustation and white pigment on the rings of the neck. It is most likely a symbol of fertility.

Terracotta traditions

West Africa, and in particular present-day Nigeria, preserves the longest unbroken tradition of African terracotta sculpture. The Nok culture occupied the Jos and Bauchi plateau region of central Nigeria from about 1000 B.C. to about A.D. 500. The Nok were innovative iron smelters, but are known today above all for their terracotta figures and those of the related Katsina and Sokoto traditions, which portray animals and humans in varied postures. The human figures often have elaborate hair and modeled jewelry, and sometimes depict physical ailments. Because the vast majority of Nok terracottas have been looted from their archaeological contexts, their function in Nok society is largely unknown. They combine strong formal elements with a complete disregard for precise anatomy, and their expressive quality places them at the start of the African sculptural tradition. By about the first century figures of striking severity were being modeled in the Sokoto region of northwest Nigeria.

Figure 40. This image shows a famous Nok terracotta sculpture, which is an extraordinary example of ancient African art originating from northern Nigeria. Often referred to as "The Thinker", this specific piece dates back roughly between the 5th century BCE and the 5th century CE. The sculpture showcases signature stylistic elements of Nok art, including pierced, triangular or semi-circular eyes, highly detailed and elaborate braided hairstyles, and heavy, ornamental necklaces and bracelets. The Pose: The figure is depicted in a thoughtful, squatting posture with its chin resting on its knee, a recurring theme in ancient West African figurative art representing reflection, dignity, or high social status. - The Nok civilization thrived in West Africa from around 1500 BCE to 500 CE. They are highly regarded as one of the earliest sub-Saharan producers of large-scale terracotta sculptures and pioneers of iron-working technology in the region.. Louvre Museum

Figure 41. This image shows a profile view of an ancient Djenné terracotta sculpture, an exceptional example of pre-colonial West African art from the Inland Niger Delta region of Mali. Produced by the Djenné-Djenno civilization, these artifacts generally date between the 11th and 16th centuries CE. The sculpture showcases the classic features of Djenné art: an elongated head tilted slightly upward, bulging or heavily hooded "coffee-bean" eyes, pronounced lips, and decorative parallel striations or bands carved across the shoulders and back.

The so-called Djenné statuary emerged about A.D. 700 and flourished until about 1750. These terracottas were made by groups living in the Inland Niger Delta of present-day Mali, around the ancient urban center of Djenné-Jeno, and they express a remarkable range of physical conditions and human emotions, forming the largest corpus of ancient sacred gestures of any civilization in sub-Saharan Africa. Terracotta heads and figures have also been found at Ife in Nigeria, dating from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, the same period as the first cast-metal sculptures of that region.

Figure 42. This image shows the famous Seated Figure, a 13th-century terracotta sculpture created by a Middle Niger artist from the Inland Niger Delta region of present-day Mali. The figure is hand-modeled in a tightly hunched position, with one knee pulled up to the chest and the head tilted sideways against the knee. The posture vividly conveys an immediate sense of intense human emotion—frequently interpreted by art historians as a manifestation of profound grief, deep anxiety, or the quiet absorption of prayer.

Figure 43. This image shows a kneeling female figure, another remarkable terracotta sculpture created by a Middle Niger artist from the Inland Niger Delta region of Mali. Dating to approximately the 12th to 15th century CE, this work belongs to the same ancient Djenné-jeno artistic tradition as the previously discussed hunched figure. The figure is depicted in a formal kneeling position with legs tucked directly beneath the body. Her arms are tightly crossed over her chest in a gesture that scholars often interpret as an attitude of submission, deep reverence, or ritualistic supplication. The sculpture exemplifies classical Djenné-jeno stylistic conventions. These include an elongated, backward-tilted head, heavily protruding eyes with deeply incised details, a prominent jawline, and thick bands or wristlets modeled directly onto the forearms..

Figure 44. This image shows an exceptionally intricate terracotta kneeling figure with snakes, dating to the 12th to 15th century CE from the Djenné-jeno (Middle Niger) civilization of present-day Mali. Unlike the prior two sculptures, this figure is dominated by snakes (serpents) slithering across the body. A large snake can be seen descending from the head, wrapping around the shoulder, and draping over the torso. In the myths of the Inland Niger Delta, serpents hold complex meanings, often acting as protective symbols linked to village foundations, spiritual warriors, or water deities controlling the seasonal Niger floods.

One remarkable group of terracottas comes from Southern Africa, where it is the earliest known sculpture. The Lydenburg heads, found in the late 1950s, date between A.D. 500 and 800. There are seven hollow terracotta heads, six human and one apparently animal, named after the site of their discovery. Replicas of the heads, found in the valley of the Sterkspruit and dated to the fifth century, are displayed at the local museum. They are thought to have served as ceremonial objects in initiation rituals. Powerful terracotta figures in traditional style continued to be made in Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, alongside the superb carved wooden figures that survive from those centuries.

Figure 45. This image shows an exceptional pair of terracotta heads from the Bura culture, an ancient civilization that developed along the lower Niger River Valley in modern-day Niger and Burkina Faso. Excavated at the famous [Bura-Asinda-Sikka archaeological site], these figures typically date between the 3rd and 11th centuries CE. Discovered relatively recently in 1975, the Bura-Asinda-Sikka culture represents a major Iron Age civilization in West Africa. Very little was known about them until systematic excavations in the 1980s revealed massive burial grounds filled with unique terracotta works. These heads were originally modeled as the tops of tubular terracotta funerary urns or jars. The large vessels were buried vertically in the earth, completely filled with personal belongings or matching the skeletal remains underneath, with the distinctive sculptural heads projecting upward to mark the graves.

Figure 46. Terracotta head surmounted by an animal figure. Uncaptioned in the source.

Figure 47. Igbo male figure. Bold graphic design, with broad and vibrant color, reinforces the strength of the carving. Among the Igbo such figures are sculpted by men and painted by women. This male figure probably represented a community’s founding ancestor or a warrior and was one of many monumental figures kept in the men’s meetinghouse to guard its private areas from intrusion. It likely belonged to a group that included the founder’s wife and other members of the village, such as warriors and hunters. It is one of only two published terracotta Oshugbo figures; the others are copper alloy. (National Museum of African Art)

Ife: the bronze of the divine king

Ile-Ife, in southwestern Nigeria, was a splendid walled city covering a considerable area, with the royal palace at its heart. It had a network of sacred shrines, planned complexes of buildings, streets, courtyards, and roads paved with patterned potsherds and stone. In Yoruba mythology it is “the navel of the world,” where creation took place and the tradition of kingship began. There the gods Oduduwa and Obatala descended from heaven to create the earth and its inhabitants, and Oduduwa himself became the first oni, or ruler, of Ife. To this day Yoruba kings trace their ancestry to him. Of all the centers of African art none is so remarkable for accomplishments in so many fields as Ife, the ritual center of the great Yoruba people of western Nigeria.

The art of Ife flourished from about A.D. 800 to 1600 and shows great technical excellence and refinement. Between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries its artists developed a highly naturalistic sculptural tradition in terracotta, later translated into castings of bronze and brass, which were alloys of copper and zinc. Portrait heads and figures commemorated deceased kings and chiefs. The strong realism of these works contrasts sharply with the abstraction usual in African art. The oldest African artifact that is definitely a mask is also from Ife: the highly realistic copper mask of the oni Obalufon (twelfth to fifteenth century). The eye holes, and the holes for strings of beads or raffia attachments, show that it was worn in ceremony.

Figure 48. This is the celebrated Bronze Head from Ife, a masterwork of West African art created by Medieval Yoruba artisans in the kingdom of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ (located in modern-day southwestern Nigeria). Dating to the 14th or early 15th century CE, this breathtaking casting is a testament to the highly advanced metallurgy and profound naturalism achieved by the Yoruba long before European contact. The original artifact is currently housed in the [British Museum] in London. The figure wears an elaborate, tiered crown adorned with rows of intricate beadwork, a prominent woven headband, and a striking vertical plume (or crest) rising directly from the forehead. Traces of red and dark pigments remain on the original sculpture, signaling its ceremonial splendor.

Figure 49. This image shows the famous Seated Figure, a 13th-century terracotta sculpture created by a Middle Niger artist from the Inland Niger Delta region of present-day Mali. Associated with the ancient urban civilization of Jenne-jeno, this iconic masterpiece is housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The figure is hand-modeled in a tightly hunched position, with one knee pulled up to the chest and the head tilted sideways against the knee. The posture vividly conveys an immediate sense of intense human emotion—frequently interpreted by art historians as a manifestation of profound grief, deep anxiety, or the quiet absorption of prayer. The back of the figure features three parallel vertical columns of raised bumps interspersed with rows of circles pressed directly into the clay. a

Figure 50. This image shows another masterfully cast Bronze Head from Ife, produced by Medieval Yoruba artisans in the sacred city-kingdom of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ (present-day Nigeria) between the 12th and 15th centuries CE. Like the prior sculptures, this artifact was uncovered during the monumental 1938 Wunmonije Compound excavation. It belongs to Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments and has toured globally in exhibitions such as Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria. This head features a slightly distinct style of crown from the above ones, It is composed of dense, meticulously molded rows of royal beads that stack high towards the back of the skull, accented by a prominent, textured conical rosette crest resting over the crown of the head. The face is fully covered with the signature parallel incised lines characteristic of Ife court portraiture. These signify elite lineage identity (ori) or reflect the specialized veiling worn to contain the spiritual power of the Ooni (divine king). The soft, naturalistic modeling of the full lips, almond-shaped eyes, and subtle cheek contours highlights the supreme aesthetic standard of the Yoruba court, where inner composure and physical symmetry directly mirrored a ruler's moral and spiritual standing.

Figure 51. Ife wooden divination tray, Areogun of Osi-Ilorin, Nigeria, Yoruba, about 1880–1956. A fine example of African graphic design. The tray depicts the principal fortunes at the heart of Yoruba philosophy: a long healthy life, wealth, love, children, wisdom and security. Eshu, the god who mediates between the spirit world and the human, symbolizes a long and healthy life and is carved at the top. At the bottom a kneeling woman with a child on her back, offering a calabash, represents children and fertility. At left a soldier with a crossbow stands for security or victory over enemies; at right a priest of Osanyin, god of healing and wisdom, represents health and wisdom. At lower left a couple making love represents love, and at lower right a seated figure, probably a second Eshu, closes the circle of life. A band of cowry shells, formerly used as money in West Africa, runs around the center to represent wealth. The diviner sits with the tray before him, placed so that Eshu is opposite and facing him.

The tray is worth reading as a piece of information design. Six abstract values are given six concrete figures; a single border of cowries unifies them; and a circular arrangement with a fixed point of entry (Eshu at the top, facing the diviner) tells the viewer how to read the whole.

Benin: bronze and the power of the oba

The Kingdom of Benin was a thriving empire in what is now Nigeria. It grew wealthy through commerce with countries north of the Sahara and rose in the sixteenth century to become the dominant military and imperial power on the West African coast. At its political and religious center was a fortified city surrounded by a wall almost ten feet high. The oba, or king, was both political and religious leader, and was believed to be divine. To exalt the oba and his lineage, artists created a vast variety of cast-metal objects using the technically demanding lost-wax (cire perdue) technique. The kingdom was founded in the early fourteenth century; the art of lost-wax casting was introduced about 1280 and reached its peak in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Fabulous castings from this period and later have been in the museums of Europe since the late nineteenth century.

Legend links the two great bronze traditions of the region. When the first oba of Benin died, his head was sent to Ife for burial, and Ife returned a bronze replica of it to be placed on the ancestral altar. Fascinated, the royal house of Benin asked the king of Ife to send an artist to teach its artisans to cast in bronze. The king obliged, sending the renowned master Iguegha (given in some sources as Ighea), who taught them the cire perdue technique.

Figure 52. This is a commemorative brass head of an Oba (king), a masterpiece of historical African art created by the Edo peoples of the Kingdom of Benin (located in modern-day southern Nigeria). Collectively known as the Benin Bronzes, these sculptures were meticulously produced using the advanced lost-wax casting technique. These idealized portraits—referred to as Ùhúnmwèlaò or Uhunmwu-Elao—were commissioned by an incoming Oba to honor his deceased predecessor. They were placed on royal ancestral altars within the palace. The high, dense collar represents numerous rows of precious coral beads. Coral was a highly restricted luxury item in Edo society, signifying supreme wealth, status, and the sacred authority of the king. : The elaborate beaded crown features distinctive wing-like projections along the sides, which are characteristic of the highly stylized artistic traditions of the later Benin royal court periods (typically dating around the 18th to 19th centuries)..

Figure 53. This is an early-period commemorative brass head of an Oba (king) from the Kingdom of Benin. It dates from the late 15th to early 16th century. Unlike the later-period royal heads (which feature heavily built-up coral collars and winged projections), this earlier style is characterized by its naturalistic modeling, thinner brass casting, and closely fitted beaded cap. The king wears a tightly cropped cap composed of rows of fine coral beads, ending cleanly across the forehead and sides. The vertical opening between the eyes originally held an iron strip or inlay. This structural detail spiritually reinforced the ruler's strength, intellect, and connection to the divine. The neck collar sits low against the throat rather than rising to cover the chin, indicating an earlier stylistic era before royal regalia became progressively heavier in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Figure 54. This masterpiece stands as one of the most significant achievements in world art history. It shows the iconic Bronze Head from Ife (also known as the Ife Head), a masterpiece of medieval West African art created by the [Yoruba people] of Ile-Ife (in modern-day southwestern Nigeria). Dated to the 14th or early 15th century CE, it represents an Ooni (a sacred king or ruler). • The sculpture is renowned for its astonishing lifelike realism and serene expression. When it was first unearthed and revealed to the Western world, its sophistication completely upended racist colonial assumptions about African art. Early European visitors erroneously claimed it must have been made by ancient Greeks or a lost civilization like Atlantis because they refused to believe indigenous Africans possessed such advanced skills. It was cast using the highly complex hollow lost-wax method. Though widely referred to as a "bronze," chemical analysis reveals it is made of a heavily leaded zinc-brass copper alloy.

The Cameroon grasslands

The Bamileke are the largest of the ethnic groups inhabiting the grasslands of Cameroon. The ancient kingdoms of the Cameroon Grasslands are famous for thrones ornamented with precious beads, wooden figures sculpted by unknown masters, enormous drums, finely carved ivory and brass jewelry and fabulous masks. The unusual headdresses of bronze, leather and raffia were probably used in rituals of planting and harvest.

Figure 55. These distinctive ceremonial carvings are highly celebrated for their dramatic, sculptural approach to realism and texture. They shows two ritual skin-covered wooden crest masks (or headcrests) traditionally created by the Ejagham (Ekoi) and neighboring peoples of the Cross River region, which straddles southeastern Nigeria and western Cameroon. This unique tradition involves carving the core head structure from a single block of wood. While the wood is still fresh, animal hide (traditionally antelope, deer, or goat skin) is soaked in water until pliable, stretched tightly over the carved features, and secured with pegs until it dries, stiffens, and shrinks to tightly fit the contours. This gives the sculpture a strikingly lifelike, flesh-like skin texture. The long, neck-like shafts are mounted onto a woven basketry or raffia base. This allows the performance artist to tie the crest securely to the top of their head, rather than wearing it directly over the face. The dancer's body would typically be completely concealed beneath a heavy raffia or cloth costume.

IV. The Mask: Face, Spirit and Performance

The masks weren’t like other kinds of sculpture. Not at all. They were magical things… The Negroes’ sculptures were intercessors… Against everything, against the unknown, threatening spirits… They were weapons. To help people stop being dominated by spirits, to become independent. Tools. If we give form to the spirits, we become independent of them. The spirits, the unconscious, emotion, it’s the same thing. I understood why I was a painter… Les Demoiselles d’Avignon must have come to me that day — not at all because of the forms, but because it was my first canvas of exorcism. — Picasso, as quoted by André Malraux, *La Tête obsidienne* (Paris: Gallimard, 1974), pp. 17–19

Meaning and context

African face masks are, for the most part, characterful and vibrant. They are usually made of wood and worn over the face or head, and many are decorated with rhythmic geometric patterns. They express a wide range of feelings, from the brutish or belligerent to the jubilant or amusing, and at times an air of wisdom and solemnity. Some belong to the traditional costume of festivals and were created for a specific purpose; some are made to dispel demonic spirits, others to attract the favor of benevolent forces.

The sage Ogotemmeli, among the first to explain African culture to an outside audience, said of them:

The society of masked men is the whole world. And when it moves in the public square, it mimes the movement of the world, it mimes the system of the world. — Ogotemmeli

To grasp the intricacy of their meaning, Marcel Griaule argued, masks must be studied in the context of their rituals, where “the whole corps de ballet sheds light on the order of the world. The rhythms of the drums are the actual rhythms of creation ‘danced’ by the demiurge.”

Figure 56. African face mask. Uncaptioned in the source, shown with the introduction to masks.

Origins and uses

African rock paintings suggest that masks have been in use for at least four thousand years, and masks of animal heads may have been used by Paleolithic people as long as 35,000 years ago. Masked performers, often dancing on stilts, wear sacred masks at festivals to enact rituals of creation myth, hero worship, fertility, agriculture, funerals and burials, ancestor cults and initiations. A mask is often kept in a sacred hut by a high priest, and, as a spirit of the wilderness, may serve many functions: as an agent who mediates between the village and the forest initiation camp, as protector against bush fires in the dry season, and in rituals of war and festivals of peace-making.

In their spiritual journey toward the unknown, African artists create exquisitely stylized designs with a stunning sense of balanced composition. Each is usually unique, combining curved surfaces, an elongated linear nose and a protruding, sometimes geometric mouth, often under a richly colored patina. Dancers, sometimes wearing masks taller than themselves, perform with complete conviction, and raffia attachments add to the elegance of the effect.

Materials and making

Most masks are of wood, and their use is clearly tied to regions where wood is available; the choice of tree can itself carry symbolic reference. The carving is done mostly with a large, long-handled adze, an instrument with which the carver achieves remarkable accuracy. Although he also has double-edged knives and chisels for fine detail, most of the work is done with the adze: better technology is, to some degree, unwelcome for an object with ritual purpose. Cultures specialize in different materials: basketwork in the Congo, bronze among the Senufo, metal surfacing among the Marka. Carvers are also resourceful in what they add to a mask: sheet metal, fur, animal teeth, cock’s feathers, human hair, textile, glass, cowrie shells and beads. Masks are usually tied to the face with bands or held in place by a scarf or a raffia wig; some have a horizontal peg inside for the dancer to hold between the teeth. Costumes are made of palm leaves, local fabrics or leather. Bark cloth is also used, though not to the degree it is in Oceanic masks.

Figure 57. A gallery of African masks (92 images, in the order of the source).

The Yaka of the Kongo region

The Yaka live in the Kwango River area of the southwest Democratic Republic of the Congo. They carve numerous masks and headgear for initiation ceremonies (n-khanda) and for traditional leaders. Oral history holds that the Yaka, with the Suku, were part of an invasion of the Kongo Kingdom from the Lunda Plateau in the sixteenth century. Men contribute to the local economy largely by hunting, individually or in groups, most often with bow and arrow or old rifles. The Yaka follow matrilineal descent, overlaid with patrilineal inheritance of name and land. In their belief the sky-dwelling creator (Ndzambya Phuungu) is responsible for life, death and all metaphysical questions, but no specific practice honors this god. Religious celebration instead honors elders and ancestors (bambuta): the death of an elder is a public ceremony performed by other elders, and the bambuta are honored by keeping the traditional ways and by offerings and gifts.

An initiation is organized whenever there are enough eligible youths, between ten and fifteen years of age. A special hut is built in the forest to shelter the initiates during their retreat, and the event ends with circumcision, an occasion for great masked festivities with dance and song. The main quality of these masks is their remarkable individual character. The mask illustrated is of the popular kholuka form, featuring globular or tubular eyes, a turned-up nose and an open mouth showing teeth.

Figure 58. Yaka (Bayaka) face mask, 1930.

Côte d’Ivoire

More than sixty ethnic groups live in Côte d’Ivoire. The main ones are the Baoulé in the center, the Agni in the east, the Senufo in the north, the Dioula in the northwest and west, the Bété in the center-west and the Dan-Yacouba in the west. Each has its own art, and it is said that no people produces a wider variety of masks. They represent the souls of the dead, lesser deities, and even caricatures of animals. Ownership of masks is restricted to powerful individuals or families.

The Baoulé mask shown here belongs to the “portrait masks” of men and women (Kpan Pre, Kpan Kpan), which usually depict a distinguished elder of the village celebrated during the ceremonial dance known as Mblo. Mblo is an artistic performance in which guests wear exquisitely carved masks and colorful costumes in a ritual dance that celebrates feminine virtue, graceful movement and elegant steps.

The country’s festival calendar is full of masquerade. The Fêtes des Masques (Festival of Masks) takes place in the region of Man in November, when small villages hold contests to find the best dancers and honor the forest spirits embodied in elaborate masks. Other important events are the week-long carnival in Bouaké each March and the Fête du Dipri in Gomon, near Abidjan, in April. The Dipri begins around midnight, when women and children steal out of their huts and, naked, perform nocturnal rites to exorcise the village of evil spells. Before sunrise the chief appears, drums pound and villagers fall into trances; the frenzy continues until late afternoon of the next day.

Only designated and specially trained individuals may wear the masks. It is considered dangerous for others to do so, because each mask has a soul, or life force, and when a person’s face touches the inside of the mask the wearer is transformed into the entity it represents.

Figure 59. Baoulé mask, Côte d’Ivoire, nineteenth century.

The Igbo of Nigeria

The Igbo are known for masquerades associated with the Iko Okochi harvest festival, whose forms are determined by tradition and whose theme changes each year. They use thousands of masks, made of wood and fabric, which embody unspecified spirits or the dead and so form a vast community of souls. Their most remarkable characteristic is that they are painted chalk white, the color of the spirit. Masked dancers wear extremely elaborate costumes, sometimes ornamented with mirrors, and often their hands and feet are covered. Through the masks, the Igbo set beauty against bestiality, the feminine against the masculine, black against white. They appear in a variety of dramas: social satires, sacred rituals for ancestors or the invocation of gods, initiation and public festivals.

The white maiden masks, danced by men, carry several layers of meaning, encompassing spirit characters of different ages. The masks of the eldest daughter and her younger sisters are distinguished by elaborate crested hairstyles. All have small, pointed breasts and wear bright polychrome appliqué “body suits” whose patterning loosely resembles the monochrome designs painted on young women in the area. Other characters in the drama include a mother, a father, sometimes an irresponsible son, and a suitor dressed as a titled elder, whose amorous and often bawdy advances to one or more of the “girls” are invariably rebuffed.

Figure 60. Maiden-spirit mask, eastern Igbo (Ibo), Nigeria.

Figure 57. Masquerade crowd of masks and costumes. Uncaptioned in the source.

Among the Igbo it is believed that once a person has died, communication with the spirit world is possible through funerary masks worn by members of a secret society at the funeral. These individuals are responsible for ensuring that the spirit of the deceased finds its way to the spirit world and does not remain in the village to cause trouble. Bright-colored masks suggest the south, while in the north masks are typically painted white. Each year at the peak of the rainy season the Igbo village groups of the southwest stop ordinary activity for a full month, dedicated to Owu, when water spirits descend from their homes in the clouds to dwell and cavort among human beings. They materialize in the villages as masqueraders. Two opposing groups of dramatic spirit characters dance, strut and flog people throughout the month, hence the cessation of ordinary life.

The Tsogo of Gabon

The Tsogo live in the Ogowe River region of Gabon. The mask illustrated dates from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. A striking aspect of its graphic design, one that has fascinated many Western researchers, is the disconnect between the divisions of the painted surface and the underlying carved form: the color does not follow the volume. When the mask was first exhibited in France in the 1950s it was wrongly attributed to another part of Africa; later research showed it to be Tsogo. It represents a wider regional tradition of facial surfaces divided into fields of color. An American writer who visited a Tsogo village in the 1860s was most impressed by the decorative designs on the doors of many houses and remarked on the red, white and black patterns of their complicated graphic designs.

Figure 61. Tsogo mask, Ogowe River region, Gabon, late nineteenth or early twentieth century. (National Museum of African Art)

V. Women’s Craft: Kabyle Pottery

In North Africa, pottery has a long and distinctive history, much of it the work of women. The handbuilt pottery of the Kabyle, an older and probably indigenous tradition, goes back some two thousand years before the birth of Christ, and the vessel pictured descends from earlier prototypes. To this day Kabyle women coil and decorate pottery with painted geometric designs, for their own households and for sale. They make vessels of many sizes and shapes: for holding water, milk and oil; for cooking and eating; and oil lamps. Wheel-thrown pottery, made by men, appears on the Algerian coast from the seventh century B.C., when the Phoenicians introduced the potter’s wheel.

The inhabitants of Kabylia, the mountainous region of northeastern Algeria along the Mediterranean, were superb artists, noted for jewelry, textiles, mats, basketry, pottery and the mural decoration of houses. Their painted geometry, rendered in bold, repeated motifs, is a direct cousin of the abstract patterns found in the rock art of the Sahara and in Nubian ceramics.

Figure 62. Kabyle handbuilt pottery with painted geometric decoration, Algeria.

VI. Looted Heritage and the Question of Return

Any account of African art must reckon with the circumstances in which so much of it left the continent. In 2018 a report commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron, written by the art historian Bénédicte Savoy and the Senegalese writer and economist Felwine Sarr, recommended that art taken from sub-Saharan Africa in the colonial era be returned through permanent restitution. The report states that the colonial powers acquired these materials through “theft, looting, despoilment, trickery and forced consent.”

The Benin expedition of 1897 was a punitive attack on the ancient kingdom of Benin, famous not only for its great city and ramparts but also for its extraordinary cast bronze and brass plaques and statues. The city was burned and the plunder, more than two thousand works, was sold to help pay for the expedition. A large share went to the British Museum, but none of the works remained in Africa; they are now scattered through museums and private collections around the world.

The British expedition of 1867–68 to Abyssinia, a kingdom that never fully submitted to colonial control, was mounted ostensibly to free missionaries and government agents detained by the emperor Tewodros II. It culminated in the Battle of Magdala and the looting of priceless manuscripts, paintings and artifacts from the Ethiopian church, a haul that reputedly needed fifteen elephants and two hundred mules to carry away. Most of it ended up in the British Library, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, where it remains.

Great Zimbabwe suffered the same fate. Its ruins were dug repeatedly by associates of Cecil Rhodes, who set up Rhodesia Ancient Ruins Ltd in 1895 to strip more than forty sites of their gold, and much of the archaeology of the site was destroyed. The iconic soapstone birds were returned to Zimbabwe from South Africa in 1981, but many objects remain in Western museums. The Musée du quai Branly in Paris, a great treasure house of world ethnography, holds more than 70,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa, and Berlin’s Ethnological Museum, in the Humboldt Forum, has one of the largest collections of Benin bronzes. Together with a network of European museums, Berlin agreed through the Benin Dialogue Group to loan a selection of its roughly five hundred Benin objects to a museum in Benin City; since then, German authorities have also moved to transfer ownership of many of the objects to Nigeria. The debate over return continues, and readers are advised to consult current reporting for the present state of individual cases.

Figure 63. Objects on display at the Musée du quai Branly, Paris, which holds some 70,000 pieces from sub-Saharan Africa.

Conclusion: Principles of an African Visual Grammar

The works surveyed in this chapter differ enormously in medium, date and purpose, yet several principles recur from the Blombos ochres to the Benin bronzes. They amount to a grammar of communication design.

• Economy of form. Simple geometry carries layered meaning. The signs of the Dogon sacred wall, the cobras of a Meroitic jar and the lines of the Blombos plaque all show how a restrained vocabulary can sustain unlimited interpretation.

• Rhythm and repetition. The repeated half-circles of Twyfelfontein, the patterned bands of Nubian ware and the beaded borders of a manuscript page create movement and unity through the repetition of a simple unit.

• Balance and controlled asymmetry. From the mirrored M and W of Blombos to the symmetrical Ethiopian icon and the circular layout of the Yoruba tray, composition is built on equilibrium, often enlivened by a deliberate departure from it.

• Symbolic color. White for the spirit, red, white and black for the Tsogo, polychrome for the Igbo maiden: color is a meaning, not an ornament.

• Form that serves function. Masks, figures and painted walls are instruments of initiation, memory, justice and worship. Their design cannot be separated from the occasion for which they are made.

• Image and writing together. Illuminated manuscripts, indigenous scripts and ideographic walls show that visual and verbal communication were integrated, and that Africa has long been a literate and philosophical continent.

As Picasso understood, these objects were never simply forms. They were tools for giving shape to the unknown, and in doing so they created some of the most powerful visual communication in human history. In short, Africa means graphic design.

Africa means graphic design: a closing gallery

Figure 64. Closing gallery of textiles, dress and pattern in African life (21 images, in the order of the source). Uncaptioned in the source.

Figure 61. Closing gallery of textiles, dress and pattern in African life (21 images, in the order of the source). Uncaptioned in the source.

Next: Chapter 16 — Minimalism

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