African Art

256 Pages·2021·50.24 MB·English

Maurice Delafosse

African Art
African Art

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Author:
Maurice Delafosse

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© Parkstone Press International, New York, USA
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Acknowledgements to our photographers, particularly Klaus Henning Carl

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or adapted without the

permission of the copyright holder, throughout the world. Unless otherwise

specified, copyright on the works reproduced lies with the respective

photographers, artists, heirs or estates. Despite intensive research, it has

not always been possible to establish copyright ownership. Where this is

the case, we would appreciate notification.

ISBN: 978-1-78042-883-3

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African Art

Maurice Delafosse

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Preface
7

Origins and Prehistory
9

Development of Negro Civilisations in Antiquity
37

Negro Africa in the Middle Ages
55

West Africa from the 15th Century to Today
87

The Negroes of Central and Eastern Sudan
125

South Africa
147

Material Civilisations
161

Social Customs
179

Religious Beliefs and Practices
197

Artistic and Intellectual Expression
211

Appendix
246

Selective Bibliography
250

Notes
252

Index by Ethnicity
253

Contents

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Well-known and appreciated by Africanists, Maurice Delafosse (1870-1926) knew how to exceed the
requirements of his environment and of his time for the benefit of an authentic Africa.

Colonialist administrator from 1894 to 1918, his degrees in naturalism and orientalism allowed him to
lead historic, linguistic, and ethnographical research in the field and to restore the cultural values of the
black world, just as Léopold Senghor did. A major writer of négritude, Delafosse exhibited a particular
interest for these papers on which he established his first essays.

We chose to publish a selection of the research about the African civilisations which he explains in
Les Noirs de l’Afrique (1922) and Les Nègres (1927). The writing style is authentic, the analysis from
the time, and the vocabulary very frank and true to the time period in which it was written.
Nevertheless, let there be no ambiguity: Maurice Delafosse, unquestionably, harboured a deep
passion for the African continent and her cultures.

Preface

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Aim and Object of This Book

The aim of this book is to furnish a general view of the history, the
civilisations, and the material, intellectual, and social character of
the Negro race which inhabits the African continent.

There will be no question, therefore, of the peoples of the white
race who, either in antiquity or since, have played such an
important role in the development of North Africa, and whom we
find today, more or less mixed and transformed, scattered from the
Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and from the shores of the
Mediterranean to the southern limits of the Sahara: ancient and
modern Egyptians, Phoenician, and Punic peoples, Libyans or
Berbers, Arabs, and Moors. More precisely, no mention will be
made of them except in the measure of their influence on the
progress of Negro societies, an influence which has often been
considerable and which could not be too emphasised.

For the same reason, there will be no study, except incidentally,
of the peoples who, however dark their pigmentation has
become as the result of secular and repeated crossing with the
Negroes, are nevertheless considered as belonging either to the
Semitic branch of the white race, for example, the principal
portion of the Abyssinians, or to an Indonesian branch of the
yellow race, such as many of the Malagasy tribes. Moreover, the
island of Madagascar is outside the geographical limits which I
have assigned to myself.

On the other hand, there are African populations which can claim,
in part at least, non-Negro ancestry but who are in some way
incorporated into the Negro race and into Negro society: such
peoples will find a place in this study. I will be content for the
moment with citing from among them the Fulani of Sudan, the
Hottentots of southern Africa and a certain number of more or less
hybrid tribes of East Africa which are commonly called, without
much reason, Hamitic or Chamitic.

Origin of the Negro Peoples of Africa

The object of the present work being thus defined, we must now
begin by seeking to find out whence came the African
Negroes. But is it possible to commit oneself as to their first
origin? It seems that the actual state of our knowledge does not

permit us, as yet, to answer this question in a definitive or even
a satisfactory manner.

Undoubtedly, one would not have even asked the question if
Africa were the only part of the world to possess Negroes. But
such is not the case and without speaking, of course, of the
countries where the advent of the Negro race has taken place only
at a recent epoch, as the result of migrations which were generally
involuntary and whose genesis and circumstances are known, as
in America, we know that the reputed autochthonous inhabitants
of lands far removed from Africa and separated from it by the
entire width of the Indian Ocean are considered as belonging to
the Negro race for the same reasons as are the Negroes of
Mozambique and of Guinea.

Hypothetical Lemuria

If the natives of Australia, of Papua, and of the Melanesian
islands are to be ranked in the same human category as the
African Negroes, it may be reasonably asked whether the first
came from Africa and the second from Oceania, or indeed, if
one and the other had not in the first ages of the world, a
common habitat on some hypothetical continent, now dis-
appeared, situated between Africa and the Oceanian archipel-
agoes but having formerly constituted a connection and a
passage between them. This continent, the supposed cradle of
the Negro race, has its partisans, like that other one which

Statue (Kaka).
Wood, height: 100 cm.

In African art, paternal statues are quite rare. The agressive expression displayed
on this statue indicates its purpose to protect the child as well as the African
people who created it.

Origins and Prehistory

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Edjo statue (Urhobo).
Nigeria.
Wood, pigment, height: 212 cm.

Each Urhobo community has its own protective Edjo statue,
which embodies natural spirits or those of the Eshe founding
ancestors. The tall Urhobo statues embody Edjo natural spirits or
Eshe founding ancestors, who were offered annual celebrations
and sacrifices in sanctuaries. Each community has its own
protective Edjo, who lives in the wild and can also be
materialised by pieces of wood, metal, or clay. These statues
carry medecines on their belts and have military attributes.