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.

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      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
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• African Beads by Afrotribes TV
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The Bushmen

       Early in the morning the Bushman camp is astir. The women get up first and start the fire and prepare breakfast, usually leftovers from the night before. After breakfast everyone leaves for work. In the old days in the Kalahari Desert game was more plentiful than it is today, and the men furnished most of the food by hunting. Today game is scarce, and many of the larger animals have been killed. There is too little water for farming, and the wild plants and vegetables that the women gather are the main food of the Bushmen. Often they must go hungry.
       In the morning the men leave first for the hunt, and the women soon set off in another direction to gather wild vegetables. The little children follow their mothers in single file. As soon as they can, the women tum homeward, but sometimes they must go long distances in the search for food; so it may be late afternoon before they get back to camp. Quickly on the way back the women gather firewood to cook the evening meal. The children help so that the food will be ready when the men come home.
       Each family eats by itself in its hut, but after dinner is the time they enjoy when everyone goes visiting. The women go to one hut and the men gather in another to talk. Perhaps they will speak of the day’s hunt, and one man may tell how he tracked an antelope for many miles after he had hit it with a poisoned arrow. The force of the arrow could not kill it, but the poison took slow effect while the hunter followed until at last the animal dropped.
       In the meantime, the women chat and the children play. No one sends them to bed; they go when they are tired. But bedtime is usually early for everyone. Sometimes, if it is an especially fine moonlight night and there has been enough to eat for dinner, the girls will begin to clap their hands in rhythm. This is a signal for a dance, and soon everyone is dancing except a few old grandfathers. The boys tie dried cocoons to their legs to make a rattling noise, and then they may do a dance to imitate the wild animals they hunt. They may dance almost all night.
       The Bushman's home in the dry season is only a windscreen made perhaps by sticking bunches of grass onto a bush. But in the rainy season the hut is a semicircle with the open side away from the wind and rain and shifted according to the direction of the storm. Inside the hut the dirt floor has been scooped out a little and filled with grasses to make a cozy nest. The family curls up, each one wrapped in an animal-skin blanket, which is a cape to be worn in the daytime.
       Water is the great problem in this dry country, and the water supply determines the number of people who can live in any area. Animals as well as men must move in search of water, for they depend upon the grasses that grow beside the water-holes. It is the duty of the older children to go to the water-hole each day to get the supply of water. Instead of pails, they carry ostrich-egg shells that they fill with water. Then they fit in a grass plug, so that none of the precious water can spill. Putting the shells in net bags, they sling them over their shoulders and go back to camp. Their duty is very important.
       We have no history of the Bushmen because they cannot read or write, but we know something of how they lived long ago. Their ancestors painted and carved pictures on the rocks showing the animals they hunted and the wars they fought. Their traditions tell that they once lived in a more favorable country, but they were pushed back into the dry Kalahari Desert where life is difficult, and only their hard work and knowledge of the country make it possible for them to survive. Edith Fleming

Bushman - "Once we were Hunters" by Chis Oberholster

The People of The Fog

        The Ovimbundu, who live high on the plateau of central Angola in West Africa, are called the 14 People of the Fog” because of the fog that covers their hills early in the morning. The men are great travelers. In the old days they journeyed on foot in caravans sometimes 4000 miles, carrying with them to other tribes wax, cotton cloth, tobacco, and brass wire for jewelry and returning home with cattle, oxen, and heifers. Even today they take many short trading trips and often talk of far places.
       In trading they measure very carefully everything they sell, but their measurements are not like ours. They stretch cotton cloth to the width of a man’s arms from one hand to the other and then cut it with a knife. Palm oil they measure in a gourd. They take along rations for their trips, and each man’s food is measured in a basket with a line woven into it to show just how much he is allowed. Sometimes on long journeys the leader keeps account of the days by cutting a notch in a stick each day.
       The Ovimbundu, like good travelers, make things as easy for themselves as possible on their journeys. Each man carries a burden of sixty pounds on his head. The load is tied to a long, forked stick so that, when he stops to rest, he can put the stick upright in the ground. After a rest the leader calls, “Up with your loads and give us a song,” and, without bending, the carriers lift their forked sticks and swing into line. One of them starts a chant, “Red ant that creeps along, you who are in the way, get out!” and they all take up the song. As he walks each man limps, not because he is lame or tired but because in this way he can rest his leg muscles with every step he takes.
       On the return journey they are very proud if they can drive home many cows, for cattle are their measure of importance and wealth. They do not eat them, except at a funeral or a great feast, and they seldom use milk and never eat butter or cheese. Yet they have a saying, “Without cattle a man is a nobody.” Naturally their greatest ambition is to own large herds of cattle.
       There are professional hunters who procure most of the meat for the village. These men must have training from an older professional hunter before they are qualified. They use bows and arrows, but sometimes a hunter may own an old-fashioned muzzle-loading gun. Though the Ovimbundu eat meat when they can get it, vegetables are their chief food. The men clear the land and the women raise the crops of maize, oats, barley, beans, and sweet potatoes.
       The women pound the corn into flour on a pounding rock that has been in use in the village for years. They get up at five o’clock in the morning to pound the corn, and all day long until the sun sets the pounding rock is in use. It is back-breaking work, but the women laugh and sing and chatter together at the pounding rock. It is a cheerful meeting place. Though grit from the rock gets into the flour, no one seems to mind.
       The women prepare two meals a day. The first one, between five and six in the morning, is corn-meal mush eaten with sweet potatoes. For dinner at night there is a mush of beans, about three pounds for each person. The men do not eat with the family, but their wives take their food to the men’s house. Then the women go back home and eat alone or with their young children.
       These people have professions. There are blacksmiths, hunters, and leaders of caravans. Life is changing for the People of the Fog as foreign influences come in, but they cling as much as possible to the old beliefs and customs. Edith Fleming.

• Learn about Angola today. Made in Angola by New Atlantis Full Documentaries.

The Bakongo

        There is a special sound early in the morning in the villages along the lower Congo. It is the rattle of ankle rings as the women stream from their homes to work on their farms on the outskirts of the village. Many women carry hoes and empty calabashes in the baskets balanced on their heads. Young women have their babies tied to their backs with a piece of old cloth or they lead a little one by the hand. It is too early in the morning and too cold for much talking. Only the rattle of the jewelry is heard; but as the sun grows warmer and the women get on with their work, they laugh and gossip and scold. The mothers keep their babies tied to their backs as they work, for snakes and wild animals may lurk near by and it would not be safe to leave babies in the shade of the trees.
       Many of the crops of the lower Congo came originally from the New World: manioc from the tropical forests of South America and maize, peanuts, and sweet potatoes from the Americas. All farm work is done by hand, and the women work hard in the fields until late afternoon. When they at last turn homeward, they carry the baskets full of food on their heads, a calabash of water slung over their backs. The mothers of babies put the calabash in the basket and balance all this on their heads so that the babies can still ride on their backs. Everyone is full of jokes, and when they reach the village, the old, the little ones, and the sick come out of the shade to greet them.
       The men and boys, who have been working in the forest, have been to market, or have gone hunting, come to meet them too. Everyone looks with hungry eyes at the baskets and a buzz of talk fills the air.
       The evening meal is the only real meal of the day. The women furnish the vegetables, and it is the duty of the men to add meat and fish to the diet. The bitter manioc root is poisonous and must be soaked in a hole of water, which makes the water-pit take on an evil smell. But this does not bother the people of the Congo, who eat manioc cooked as bread or pudding. A piece of pudding is broken off, rolled between the fingers, and dipped in gravy. Then it is popped into the mouth and swallowed whole, for if it were chewed it would stick to the teeth like caramels.
       Girls are trained by their mothers to fetch water, sweep the house and yard, and cook. They must be able to do all these things if they hope to make a good marriage. Fathers train their sons to hunt and trade in the market. The men are born traders and take local products to market, sometimes walking miles with little to eat by the way. When they get home, they eat heavily to make up for the poor and meager food on the journey. Fathers also teach the boys to sew, for it is the custom with these people for the men to do the sewing.
       The large villages are laid out in streets, and each man expects the women of his household to sweep inside his yard and the lane around his house even though the grass in the backyard is as tall as the roof. The women do this every morning before they go to the fields. Neighbors jeer at a man whose yard is untidy.
       Long ago, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, these people were united in the Kingdom of the Kongo. Today the kingdom has shrunk in size, but there is still a king to rule over them. In spite of the heat and humidity along the lower Congo, the Bakongo are an industrious people, their villages are well laid out, neat, and clean, and the king enforces law and order in his kingdom. Edith Fleming

• A History of The Bakongo People by HomeTeamHistory.

The Masai

The Masai throws a spear.

       South of the Sahara lies the high northern plateau, the home of the cattle-herding peoples of East Africa. From north to south the plateau is torn by deep rifts, grassy valleys where the Masai build their kraals and herd their cattle during the wet season. Although this is almost on the equator, the altitude is so high that the climate is cooler than in the tropical forests of the Congo, for in the grasslands the days are warm and sunny and the nights are cool. In the dry season many of the Masai move up onto the plateau where the grass grows three to four feet high with here and there a towering flat-topped acacia tree to break the monotony. The grass turns brown during the dry season, but it is still good for grazing.

       Each elderly father of the Masai owns a kraal or encampment for his family and cattle. He chooses the site carefully, near a salt lick and in the shelter of trees. The huts are built around a fenced-in space where the cattle are kept at night, and a thick thorn-hedge surrounds the whole camp to protect it against enemies and wild animals. Each wife builds her own hut of grass plastered with mud and cow dung, which makes a hard shell. But in the rainy season the women place skins over their houses to keep the walls from being washed away. There are no windows in the huts; they are dark. But this does not matter because they are used only at night and in bad weather.

       The Masai have a saying, “A cow is as good as a man,” and it is true that cattle are very important to them, being a measure of a man's wealth and position. They treat their humpbacked, great-horned cattle well. Each animal has its own name, and the master has his favorites among the herd. The Masai never kill a cow for food, but they do eat meat from other domestic animals. Milk is one of their chief foods, and they churn butter by patiently shaking a gourd for long hours until the butter comes.

       Each boy of the Masai tends his father’s herds; but when he reaches the age of sixteen, a great and exciting change comes into his life. Now he is a warrior. He leaves home with the other young men of his age and lives in a kraal that their mothers have built for them. The Masai are very warlike and lord it over their neighbors. Naturally the young warriors rank high in the tribe because their special duty is to raid their neighbors for cattle and to protect their own camp from return raids.

       Lion hunting is a favorite sport and proves a young man's courage. He uses no gun, but a spear, fighting the lion at close range. The successful hunter proudly flaunts the lion's mane as his headdress.

       The young man leads a warrior's life until he is about thirty. Then he and the other men of his age become elders, giving up the glories of war to the younger men who have grown up to take their places. As an elder a man marries and sets up a kraal of his own. With the other elders he plans raids, but he cannot force the warriors to carry them out because he has no real authority. So, you see, each man as he grows up goes through three stages—first the boy, then the warrior, and finally the elder. But to the Masai, the life of the warrior is the most glorious. These tall, handsome people admire courage and daring and hold these qualities as ideals for their young men.

       The Masai need pasturage for their cattle; so they live in widely scattered settlements. This, with their love of war and raids, may be why they have never founded a great political state like the large agricultural kingdoms in the tropical forest region of the west coast of Africa. 

• The Maasai Tribe: Origin and Culture by The African Script.

The People Of The Veil

Photo of a Tuareg woman by Alain Elorza.
Tuareg Libya by Sasi Harib.

        Shame enters the family that tills the soil” is a proverb of the Tuaregs of the Sahara. These people look down on all labor except tending and raising camels, for they are caravan people. When they go to the oases or the villages in the mountains of Air, their manners show their scorn of the farming people, though actually the villagers and the nomads could not manage without each other. The villagers furnish food and markets for the nomads, and in turn the desert folk protect the village people and keep them in touch with the country beyond their oasis.

       The name Tuareg is an Arabian word meaning “people of the veil,” for the Tuareg men go veiled with only their eyes and foreheads showing. Strangely enough, the women wear no veils although these people are Mohammedans who usually veil their women and keep them in seclusion.

       The Tuareg camps are widely scattered, a few huts in one place and farther away a few more. These camel men live where there is grazing for their animals and not far from the water supply. But they never camp next to the well for fear of enemies. In the desert everyone goes to the water, and if an enemy does come in the night his footprints in the sand will give warning of his presence. The wells are never poisoned and no enemy is ever denied water, but strangers are always suspected. In the minds of the nomads there is always fear of a raid, and men around the campfires or on caravan journeys mutter together of the danger. They are ever on the alert.

       The Tuaregs hide their camps as much as possible, always remembering to provide a way of escape in case of attack. They may choose a spot near rocky hills or in a dry river-gully. Their huts are small and dome-shaped, like molehills, so that they blend into the landscape. They are simply made of poles tied together, with grass matting or skins thrown over them. Inside is a couch, about a foot high, that almost Tills the hut, and here the whole family sits or lies crowded together. These nomads have few possessions, and those they have are easily moved. If there is a raid, they have little to lose.

       Once a year a great caravan crosses the desert to obtain salt, an important article of trade in Africa. Most of the Sahara is too dry for men to live, and the route of this caravan goes through the most arid region. There are few wells. Food for men and camels must be carried, and fodder for the return journey is left at certain spots. All the men of the desert are eager to go on this trip. There may be 7000 camels, four or more abreast, stretching in a great caravan seven miles across the desert.

       The departure is as exciting as Christmas day with us. These people have no calendar; the date is decided by the new moon, and all the men and camels gather well in advance of the day. They camp on the side of a river-bed-animals, men, bales of fodder, skins of water everywhere. Only the pick of the animals can go, but, even so, many die by the way, for the hardships are very great. On the trail men rise at three or four in the morning before the sun is up and plod steadily on in cruel sun and heat, two and a

half miles an hour, forty miles a day, never stopping until two hours after sundown.

       Camels are always noisy when they are being unloaded, but when they are tired, as they are after the long march, they complain loudly. The roaring of the camels fills the camp, and the noise keeps up far into the night as the end of the long caravan drags slowly into camp. You may wonder why the Tuaregs are willing to undergo such an ordeal. Perhaps it is because everyone knows that only the strong can take the journey.

       The Tuaregs are a warlike people, proud and aloof. They dominate the desert, and it is they who have given a romantic glamour to our thoughts of the life of the nomad. Edith Fleming

 

• The Distinct Tribe of Sahara - Tuared by Geobrother.