Sara Mangrum Global Gateway Essay In sub-Saharan Africa, thousands of languages, cultures, and geographical regions helped influence our African society. The ways in which we produce our artwork, spiritual ideals, and ritual performances are organic and raw. From the tropical regions of Congo and Ghana, to the arid regions of Mali; I pass through the global gateway into a domain where the Western world lost its roots and artistic imagination and grandeur. Africa appeals most to me for its ability to create a realm where the living, dead, and artistic ideals come into a single unit of tranquil philosophy. A common aspect of African culture is our mediating of deities, ancestors, and spirits, by performing rituals and contacting ancestors or historical ideals. This spiritual combination creates a non-Western idea of movement in art. I enjoy this part of our culture, where we create a less static environment. We become other beings, through our usage of art, dance, and costume with mask and headwear. Our artistic creators are forgotten. Our original artwork are eventually forgotten. The work goes back to the Earth, for the only true matter is how the spirits are manifested in the objects at the current time; eventually even this wears out. At the time of the spiritual manifestation in the objects, they are some of the most powerful aspects in our society. For example, the Chi Wara is a ceremonial object. The Chi Wara is from the Bamana people, who used the visuals of dance as well in their art. The Chi Wara is a mystical, zoomorphic, animal headpiece that encompasses an antelope, anteater, and human. It is said to bring favors of fertility, agri... ... middle of paper ... ...al. Our culture believes in ancestral spirits as well as deities, and it is something I am appreciative about. Outsiders find this strange and “Voodoo” like, but the nkisi nkondi is an important religious item to us Kongo people. There is no art, music, and literature like here in sub-Saharan Africa. What is important to Westerners, such as the artist, label, and static-like wall hanging, means nothing to us. African art is living, spiritual, and meant to go back to the Earth once the soul of the item has run out. As the Bamana of Mali say, the art are “things that can be looked at without limit”. Our artwork has changed, emerged, and survived eras of turmoil and inversely, hope. I have found passing through the global gateway into Africa has made me appreciate this culture more, and appealed to me on a level that made me choose being a part of it.
Scientists have recently discovered links to the Kiowa and Aztec religions. For example both tribes worshiped a stone image, Taimay, and both tribes followed a pictographic calendar. The language that the Kiowa spoke can be traced back to the Uto-Aztecan language like Latin and English. The Kiowa languages also have connections to the Bannocks, Comanche’s, Paragons, Paiutes, Pima, Shoshones, and Utes. The Kiowa and Aztec preformed many dances of praise including the Sun Dance. However, the Kiowa also had many unique dances including the Scalp, Corning, Feather, and Ghost praising nature and life. Each dance was preformed to celebrate different achievements. For example, the scalp dance was preformed when men returned ...
The Hopi have a highly developed belief system which contains many gods and spirits. Ceremonies, rituals, dances, songs, and prayers are celebrated in year-round. The Hopi believed they were led to the arid southwestern region of America by their creator, because he knew they had the power to evoke rain with power and prayer. Consequently, the Hopi are connected to their land, its agricultural cycles and the constant quest for rainfall, in a religious way. The religious center of the community is the kiva, which is an underground room with a ladder protruding above the roof. The kiva is very important for several reasons. From the kiva, a connection is made with the center of the earth. Also, the kiva is symbolic for the emergence to this world. The room would represent the underworld and the ladder would represent the way to the upper world. In fact, a room is kept in the house to store ceremonial objects. A sacred ear of corn protects the room and symbolizes the ancestry of the family members. Kachinas are also a focal point of the religion. For a Hopi, they signify spirits of ancestors, dieties of the natural world, or intermediaries between man and gods. The Hopi believe that they are the earth's caretakers, and with the successful performance of their ceremonial cycle, the world will remain in balance, the gods will be happy and rain will come. Because they think of their crops as gifts, the Hopi Indians live in harmony with the environment.
Western attitudes to African people and culture have always affected how their art was appreciated and this has also coloured the response to the art from Benin.
In Jamilla Okubo’s, African-American Gothic, African culture is woven into an interpretation of Grant Wood’s famous painting, American Gothic (http://www.americangothichouse.net/about/the-painting/). Through this painting, I believe that African American artists today do identify with their ancestral past in Africa. Okubo is a Kenyan-American artist who works primarily with textiles (Afful). In this painting, one can see that Okubo has added her own cultural spin to American Gothic. She portrays the farmer couple from the original with African skin tones. Also, she has added kente and kanga fabric scraps, fabric native to African countries such as Ghana (“The History of Kanga”, “Kente Cloth Origins”), to give the couple traditional African
Art is a very realistic aspect among the Native Americans. In fact, what we call primitive art is actually symbolic objects from the process of a sacred ceremony. This concept is one not easily understood. Furthermore, this concept by Sam Gill is explained in Native American Religions. Sam Gill shows that Native American Art is different in meaning because of its contents then what modern societies consider art. Nonliterate people produce objects of beauty through ceremonial performances and rituals that keeps the cosmos in order, while modern societies over look these factors.
For this essay, we had to visit the Harn Museum and examine some of the pieces in the Africa Collection. Of the options we were given, we then had to take a picture and write an essay on the meaning of the piece and our reaction towards the artwork.
Their Sundance ceremony surrounds the story of the tai-me, “The Kiowas were hungry and there was no food. There was a man who heard his children cry from hunger, and he went out to look for food. He walked four days and became weak. On the fourth day he came to a great canyon. Suddenly there was thunder and lightning. A voice spoke to him and said, ‘Why are you following me? What do you want?’ The man was afraid. The thing standing before him had the feet of a deer, and its body was covered in feathers. The man answered that the Kiowas were hungry. ‘Take me with you,’ the voice said, ‘and I will give you whatever you want.’ From that day Tai-me has belonged to the Kiowas”(36). This story is used to tell how the tai-me came to be a part of the Kiowa tribe and why they worship it as a part of the sun dance ceremony. Momaday describes that the “great central figure of the kado, or sun dance, ceremony is the taime”(37). It was a small image representation of the tai-me on a dark-green stone. As a symbolic part of this ceremony, it is kept preserved in a rawhide box of which it is never exposed to be viewed other than during this
This allows for a wide variety of subjects and imagination. Because of all the unique aspects of African Art, more and more people are now becoming fascinated with Africa and its history. Soon it will be seen in the homes of many individuals for decoration, and its brilliance will continue to grow. Africa is a mysterious place and the art of this country is one that will survive the test of time, and the beauty of its art will be seen for years to come.
The Dreamcatcher is a very important part of the Indigenous culture as a whole, as it is a symbol of unity between all tribes. The legend of this cultural piece dates back to stories of a supernatural “Spider Woman” who aided the Ojibwa people, and was a motherly figure to all the children. Eventually, this mysterious woman could no longer take care of the nomadic tribe due to their constant relocation, and therefore created the very first dreamcatcher for them. The origin story is not nearly as popular as the item, which has been constantly appropriated since. It is no question that the Indigenous culture as a whole is often appropriated and mistreated, with others offensively believing they can incorporate the object into their own lives. Dreamcatchers today are constantly used as only a decorative item or a beautiful tattoo by those who do not know the cultural significance and are a part of other ethnic groups. Learning about the significance of this item should be emphasized, as it will prevent others from trying to carelessly adapt it as their
Moreover, the influences of African art are not entirely limited to paintings. Expressionist Architecture draws a great deal from African art, especially in the visual sense. Expressionists discovered in Africa a new repertoire of proto-symbols. With this discovery the space is now composed by single forms that refer to human proportions and its
In our Western culture, we have always been entertained and pleased by the sound of music. Whether listening to the radio or going to a live concert, the music itself is usually considered a form of art or past time for the listener and the performer. While some can connect, relate to, or even "feel" the power of the music, not many westerners can comprehend "living" the music. In African tribal culture, the people have done just that since ancient times. They have spent each day using the music along with their work, daily routines, ceremonies, rituals, and gatherings. To them, the sound that is produced from their instruments and voice is more than a product of creativity of a group of musicians, it is a gift from the Gods which has high symbolic meaning and serves a purpose. In our modern, hi-tech, wireless society, the significance of music is something we have long forgotten, or may have never understood at all, and is certainly something that is taken for granted. As this essay will show you, the connection with and use of music by the African tribal people, in comparison to its purpose in Western culture, has much more valuable spiritual significance.
The reading Agent Provocateur? The African Origin and American Life of a statue From Cote d’Ivoire by Monica Blackmun Visona focuses on the ever-changing narrative of an object as it moves through different cultures, times and spaces, as well as how these different environments can change an object's meaning or influence. Furthermore, this article discusses how a singular object can transform the relationships between different arts versus different cultures.
...’s depictions of both traditional and modern beliefs in varying degrees illustrate the importance of both in contemporary Nigerian culture, as well as the greater Africa as a whole, and how both are intertwined and cannot exist without the other. In effect, she skillfully subverts stereotypes or single perceptions of Africa as backward and traditional, proving instead, the multifaceted culture of Africa. She further illustrates that neither traditional African nor western culture is necessarily detrimental. It is the stark contrast of the fundamental cultures that inevitably leads to clashes and disagreements. In the end, what holds African countries such as Nigeria together is their shared pride. Modern, western influences can bring positive changes to society, but new cultures cannot completely eradicate the foundational cultures to which a society is founded on.
Despite all this deliberations, the consultation undertaken has not generated any agreement. In the contrary they have emphasized the continental perceived notion of the superiority of the creative writing only exploring the African so called metaphysical landscape in one way or the other focusing on an African realization. The Africa-metaphysical-landscape conditi...
Kaduna: Baraka Press, 2004. Magesa, Laurenti. A. African Religion: The Moral Tradition of Abundant Life. Nairobi: Pauline Pub., Africa, 1998. Mbiti, John S. Introduction to African Religion.