Les arts de l'Afrique noire (African Art)

256 Pages·2012·50.31 MB·French

by  Maurice Delafosse

AAffrriiccaann AArrtt
Maurice Delafosse
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Author:
Maurice Delafosse
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ISBN: 978-1-78042-883-3
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Maurice Delafosse
African Art
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Contents
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
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Preface
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.
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Origins and Prehistory
AAiimm aanndd OObbjjeecctt ooff TThhiiss BBooookk
The aim of this book is to furnish a general view of the history, the permit us, as yet, to answer this question in a definitive or even
civilisations, and the material, intellectual, and social character of a satisfactory manner.
the Negro race which inhabits the African continent.
Undoubtedly, one would not have even asked the question if
There will be no question, therefore, of the peoples of the white Africa were the only part of the world to possess Negroes. But
race who, either in antiquity or since, have played such an such is not the case and without speaking, of course, of the
important role in the development of North Africa, and whom we countries where the advent of the Negro race has taken place only
find today, more or less mixed and transformed, scattered from the at a recent epoch, as the result of migrations which were generally
Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and from the shores of the involuntary and whose genesis and circumstances are known, as
Mediterranean to the southern limits of the Sahara: ancient and in America, we know that the reputed autochthonous inhabitants
modern Egyptians, Phoenician, and Punic peoples, Libyans or of lands far removed from Africa and separated from it by the
Berbers, Arabs, and Moors. More precisely, no mention will be entire width of the Indian Ocean are considered as belonging to
made of them except in the measure of their influence on the the Negro race for the same reasons as are the Negroes of
progress of Negro societies, an influence which has often been Mozambique and of Guinea.
considerable and which could not be too emphasised.
For the same reason, there will be no study, except incidentally, HHyyppootthheettiiccaall LLeemmuurriiaa
of the peoples who, however dark their pigmentation has
become as the result of secular and repeated crossing with the If the natives of Australia, of Papua, and of the Melanesian
Negroes, are nevertheless considered as belonging either to the islands are to be ranked in the same human category as the
Semitic branch of the white race, for example, the principal African Negroes, it may be reasonably asked whether the first
portion of the Abyssinians, or to an Indonesian branch of the came from Africa and the second from Oceania, or indeed, if
yellow race, such as many of the Malagasy tribes. Moreover, the one and the other had not in the first ages of the world, a
island of Madagascar is outside the geographical limits which I common habitat on some hypothetical continent, now dis-
have assigned to myself. appeared, situated between Africa and the Oceanian archipel-
agoes but having formerly constituted a connection and a
On the other hand, there are African populations which can claim, passage between them. This continent, the supposed cradle of
in part at least, non-Negro ancestry but who are in some way the Negro race, has its partisans, like that other one which
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.
Statue (Kaka).
OOrriiggiinn ooff tthhee NNeeggrroo PPeeoopplleess ooff AAffrriiccaa
Wood, height: 100 cm.
The object of the present work being thus defined, we must now
begin by seeking to find out whence came the African 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
Negroes. But is it possible to commit oneself as to their first
people who created it.
origin? It seems that the actual state of our knowledge does not
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Edjostatue (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 Edjonatural spirits or
Eshefounding 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.
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