excerpts from For Spirits and Kings, African Art, Susan Vogel, ed. (New York, 1981): African art is not primitive in any sense, particularly not in the sense of being crude. It does not represent an early and feeble attempt to make realistic art. Nor is it an older or ancestral version of Western art, lagging behind on the evolutionary scale. On the contrary, African art is highly developed and sophisticated. It is clear that African artists had complete mastery over their materials and techniques and that they created works that look exactly as they intended....
In societies without writing, art objects can acquire extraodinary importance as visual records. On a simple level, the possession of a particular object --a crown, for example-- can prove the legitimacy of succession. The right to sacrifice to a particular ancestor can carry with it the inherited right to farm certain land. On a deeper level, works of art are endowed with complex meaning and serve as respositories of traditional knowledge. They are dense concentrations of ancestral wisdom that must be preserved and transmitted to succeeding generations. Thus art often plays an important role in rites of initiation. Sculptures are used to teach moral principles to initiates. Multiple layers of meaning embodied in sculpture are progressively revealed to initiates so that only the oldest and most advanced members fully understand their significance....
Because most African art is made of wood and other perishable materials, and because there has so far been little archaeological research, most of the art we know dates from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The earlier stages of African art's long evolution remain unknown to us. The study of African art is thus not a chronological study of a sequence of styles in time, but a geographical study of styles spread over space.
Most African art was made not for the mere admiration of people but in the service of spirits and kings. It is functional, not decorative. It was, and still is, made to express and support fundamental spiritual values that are essential to the survival of the community. For this reason, African sculpture is seldom concerned with movement, gesture, or anecdote, but rather seeks to portray a timeless essence.
Works of art play a central part in rituals that insure the continuity of the group: the birth of new members, the inculcation of proper values in the young, the transfer of power from one generation to another, and finally, the peaceful departure of the souls of the dead. Many African sculptures are also functional in the sense that they are meant to be worn as masks, held as staffs, or used as pipes, vessels, and stools. Often the work of art as we see it was only part of a whole complex whose effect came from the clustering of many objects, such as offerings and sculptures grouped together on an altar, or from the combining of costume, music, and dance with masks. The ensemble, as well as each of the parts, is charged with its own meanings and function.
Ancestors are of great importance to the well-being of their descendants and especially to the continuation of the line. They are honored almost everywhere, though not always with art.
Sculpture is made for many kinds of local spirits and deities. Other sculptures serve private, personal spirits with whom an individual and his or her immediate family maintain a relationship. Such spirits provide protection and prosperity in return for the establishment of a shrine and regular offerings. Sculpture is also created to personify abstract concepts such as family unity....
Early students of African art reported that most figures were 'ancestor figures' or 'fertility figures.' While we now know that very few were actually made for ancestors, we have come to realize that African sculptures of all sorts are concerned with increase or fertilty in a general sense, Some are quite specifically intended to help women bear many healthy children, others are meant to promote increase not only of the human group, but of crops, game, and domestic animals.
Other African art is political in function. It was made for kings or other legitimate holders of power, and its sustained their rule....In traditional African kingdoms...power was not held exclusively by the king. Most states had a governing body of elders or nobles who counterbalanced the king's authority. In many places the 'queen mother' (sometimes the king's sister or another relative) held enormous power, including influence in the choice of the king's successor. Works of art were also made for displays of fealty or rejoicing in the presence of kings.
Village and family heads used art in much the same way as kings. Stools were emblems of power and legitimacy for rulers who were sometimes priests as well as chiefs. Scepters were carried by elders and dignitaries for ritual occasions and for judging disputes.
Many societies were governed by democratic associations or 'men's societies' in which initiated men collectively ruled the village. Initiation usually occurred in stages included circumcision and education a broad array of adult skills..... Most initiations began with the separation of a group of boys (or girls --but never a mixed group) from their parents and their retreat to an initiation camp in the wilderness. It ended with their return, from a few weeks to several years later, as initiated adults....
Most African artists were --and are-- professionals who underwent rigorous training and who learned to create works in the traditional style of their area; styles correspond roughly to ethnic divisions. The form their works takes is never arbitrary, but conforms to conventions laid down through the ages....
In the Western Sudan, artists often belong to hereditary castes and marry within their own groups. Among the Bamana of Mali, for example, male blacksmiths and woodcarvers constitute a professional caste. They are commissioned by political and initiation associations to create ritual objects.