African Artists

African musician playing the drum.

       Almost every village of Africa has its artists. There are wood carvers, smiths, house builders, and workers in ivory and leather.
      Although in Africa people often sit on the ground around the fire, the wood carvers make stools to use in the homes. In the old days these stools were carved out of one solid piece of wood, but today they have a seat with four legs fitted on much like our chairs and stools. In one part of Africa even beds are made out of one piece of wood beautifully carved with heads of men and elephants. The wood carver's work is always in demand, for all over Africa are markets that attract people from neighboring villages and a brisk trade is carried on.

• The Story of an African Wood Carver
• African leather artist Khali Keyi
• Handmade in Africa: Leather Tannary in Tamale

      Africans, as we all know, are fine musicians with an excellent sense of rhythm. The most important instrument is the drum, and the wood carver must know the kind of trees that make the best drums. For the great drums, sometimes four feet high, that stand on either side of the chief's house he searches in the forest for a huge tree, for the drum must be made of one solid piece. Around it he carves human figures in intricate design. Some drums have leather tops, so that the leather worker and the carver must cooperate in making them. The most interesting drum is the signal or “talking drum" made of wood with painted decorations. The drummer has to be specially trained to send a kind of telegraph message to the next village. In the old days it was often a warning against intended attack, but now it may be an invitation to the people for miles around to come together for a dance. Dancing, too, is an art in Africa, and young and old delight in it.

• Five traditional African Dances by 2nacheki  
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• Jerusalema Master KG Best Dance Challenge By Galaxy African Kids 2020
• Jalikunda African Drums take the Montserrat African Music Festival by storm!
• 10 Traditional Dance Moves from Nigeria by ohAFRO

      Besides the wood carvers there are ivory carvers who do beautiful work with the tusks of the elephant. Some of the most successful elephant hunters are the tiny Pygmies of the Ituri forest, who steal up behind an elephant, cut its leg tendons so it cannot escape, and spear it. The Pygmies trade the tusks to their neighbors.

      Long ago, indigenous kings in West Africa had many workers in ivory in their city of Benin who carved the great elephant tusks. Besides carving, the artists learned to smelt copper and tin to make bronze. They cast the boiling metal into molds to make statues and heads. Bronze work requires great skill, and the art of the people of Benin amazed the Portuguese explorers when they found the city in the tropical forest about 450 years ago.

• Characteristics of Ancient African Art
• Africa's Best known art work
• The Tribal Eye: Behind The Mask about the Dogan artists in Mali

      Only strong boys can learn to be smiths. A boy must go through careful training for several years, but when he has learned the trade, his teacher makes him a set of tools and he can set up his own forge. The smiths make the hoes to be used in the fields and jewelry for the women as well as arrow heads and spear points for the men. A boy who can set up his own forge is proud and happy. He is his own employer and is respected for his work.

• Selections from Dokwaza: Last of the African Iron Masters 
• Forging: The Blacksmith's Tools
• Black Hephaistos: African iron working

      There are potters in Africa, bead workers, and weavers, all skilled in their arts. There are families of weavers, forming guilds: the fathers pass on their art to their sons. Among the Ashanti, a large native kingdom of the West Coast, new designs in weaving used to be shown to the king. The ones he chose became royal designs that could not be copied by anyone else. Each design had a name by which it was called, and customers ordered the design by name. Many of the vigorous and unusual designs of African artists have affected our modern styles in textiles and interior decoration. All over the world, artists have studied and admired the best work of the artists of Africa and have received inspiration from their original approach. Edith Fleming

• Garbe Mohammed - The bead man of Ghana
• Dressing Zulu by VMFA
• African Beads by Afrotribes TV
• Top 10 Most Influential African Painters In Contemporary African Society