A fine Eastern Pende Panya-Gombe African mask. Coll.: David Norden
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A fine Eastern Pende Panya-Gombe African mask. Coll.: David Norden |
African tribes in African art.
In contrast to the more representational style of terra cotta sculptures created by their neighbors, Bura heads terra cottas are distinguished by a preference for abstraction and simplification.
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Bronzes from Ife and Benin Exhibition from February 3 to April 14, 2007
IgboOn both sides of the Niger, but mainly to the east, live the Igbo. Traditionally, they have lived in small and often isolated settlements scattered through the forest. Only on the northern and western edges of the area, under influence from Igala and Benin, are hereditary rulers found. In Igbo society there is strong social pressure toward individual distinction, and men can move upward through successive grades by demonstrating their achievements and their generosity. One of the traditional representations of this was the ikenga, that part of oneself enabling personal achievement, with cult figures representing the attributes of distinction. The lack of overall centralization among the Igbo-speaking peoples has been conducive to the development of a great variety of art styles and cultural practices. The earliest sculpture known from Igboland is from the village of Igbo-Ukwu, where the grave of a man of distinction and a ritual store, dating from the 9th century AD, contained both chased copper objects and elaborate castings of leaded bronze. The earliest artistic castings from black Africa, these pieces consist of ritual vessels and other ceremonial objects with intricate surface decoration, often small animals and insects represented in the round. A very great variety of masks is found among the Igbo. The masks, of wood or fabric, are employed in a variety of dramas: social satires, sacred rituals (for ancestors and invocation of the gods), initiation, second burials, and public festivals, which now include Christmas and Independence Day. Some masks appear at only one festival, but the majority appear at many or all. Best known are those of the Northern Igbo Mmo society, which represents the spirits of deceased maidens and their mothers with masks symbolizing beauty. Among the Southern Igbo, the Ekpe society, introduced from the Cross River area, uses contrasting masks to represent the maiden spirit and the elephant spirit, the latter representing ugliness and aggression and the former representing beauty and peacefulness. A similar contrast is found in their Okorosia masks, which correspond to the Mmo of the Northern Igbo. The Eastern Igbo are best known for masquerades associated with the Iko okochi harvest festival, in which the forms of the masks are determined by tradition, though the content of the play varies from year to year. Stock characters include Mbeke, the European; Mkpi, the he-goat; and Mba, which appear in pairs, one representing a boy dressed as a girl mimicking the behaviour of a girl, the other representing the girl being satirized. Most impressive are the ijele masks of the Northern Igbo, which are 12 feet (366 centimetres) high. Consisting of platforms six feet in diameter, supporting tiers of figures made of coloured cloth and representing everyday scenes, they honour the dead to ensure the continuity and well-being of the community. Wooden figures are carved for ancestors of both sexes, varying from less than one to more than five feet in height. Those representing founders of the village are kept in a central shrine and sometimes become patrons of the market. A great many other decorative wooden objects are made, including musical instruments, doors, stools, mirror frames, trays for offering kola nuts to guests, dolls, and a variety of small figures used in divination. Shrines called mbari, which contain elaborate tableaux of painted, unfired earth, are made in honour of the earth spirit in villages near Owerri in southern Nigeria; and in Igbo communities to the west of the Niger, elaborate pottery groups representing a man and his family are made for the yam cult. There seems to be no tradition of pottery sculpture in other Igbo groups. Ibibio
Among the oldest sculptures of tropical Africa are several hundred ancestor figures, called ekpu, of the Ibibio coastal
trade centre of Oron, some of which are thought to date from the late 18th
century. They are bearded figures, three to four feet high, and are so
individual as to suggest portraiture, despite their schematic style. Oron is one
group of Ibibio-speaking villages. As with the Igbo, Ibibio is not a single
group but several networks of independent communities, with local unity
represented by secret associations and their masquerades. The Ekpo society uses
black masks, often of naturalistic appearance and with movable jaws, to maintain
social order and propitiate the ancestors; some of these masks represent disease
and deformity.
Ekoi 
The Ekoi-speaking peoples (Anyang, Boki, Ejagham,
Keaka, and Yako) are best known for their large, skin-covered masks, which have
two or even three faces, and for their smaller headpieces, which represent a
head or an entire figure. The headpieces and masks have metal teeth, inlaid
eyes, and frequently pegs to represent hair, which, alternatively, may be carved
in elaborate coils. They are used by several masking associations. In the
northern Ekoi area, around Ikom, are found circles of large stones, akwanshi,
from one to six feet high, carved in low relief to represent human figures. They
are thought to be no earlier than the 16th century.
FulaniThe Fulani are in origin nomadic pastoralists who range from Senegal to the Cameroon grasslands. They are particularly known for their body decoration and for their engraved milk gourds. In addition, in Mali they have settled groups of artists such as goldsmiths, leatherworkers, blacksmiths, weavers, and potters. HausaNorthern Nigeria has long been dominated by the Muslim Hausa who, since the 19th century, have been ruled by Fulani amirs (emirs). For centuries their buildings have been decorated inside with molded and painted low-relief decorations, which have more recently been applied to the exteriors. Both decorative and of a high technical standard are their crafts: leatherwork for saddles, bags, hilts, and sheaths; gold and silver jewelry; ironwork; pottery; weaving and embroidery. NupeThe Nupe have been Muslim for some centuries and are best known for their weaving, embroidery, beadmaking, wood carving, and sheet metalwork. They have produced many doors carved in low relief in a blend of decorative designs. Carved and painted masks are made for the elo, a purely secular performance intended only to entertain (nowadays on the Prophet's birthday). The elo mask has a human face with a motif (sometimes a human figure) rising above it, flanked with stylized horns. The gugu masquerader wears a cloth mask decorated with cowrie shells, but sometimes Yoruba masks are used. The ndako gboya appears to be indigenous; a spirit that affords protection from witches, it is controlled by a small secret society that cleanses communities by invitation. The mask consists of a tall tube of white cotton supported inside on a bamboo pole about 12 feet long. That Nupe art should have been influenced by the Yoruba is not surprising. Yoruba live among the Nupe, and there are bronzes in the Nupe villages of Tada and Jebba--one of them apparently an Ife work, and another in a more recent Yoruba style. Others of this group, which include the largest castings ever made in black Africa, share features with Benin sculpture and have other elements that are widely distributed in time and space on the Lower Niger. Nupe tradition says these sculptures were taken from Idah, the Igala capital, in the early 16th century. Many were probably already ancient, but nothing is known of ancient Igala bronze casting. Other groups in northern NigeriaThere is a great diversity of sculptural tradition among peoples inhabiting the Niger and Benue valleys, the mountainous regions around the Jos Plateau in the centre of the area, and Adamawa to the east. This is altogether an area of astonishing diversity little understood beyond a confusing list of "tribal" names. Some of the better known traditions include the Igala, Idoma, Afo, Tiv, and Jukun, all of the Benue Valley
This tribe page was made with the help from Britannica (not free anymore), and with the book from J-P Bacquart , some maps are from the Guggenheim, and some explanations from http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people.html , People from Central Africa with objects from the Tervueren Museum in Brussels . Ritual Messengers: African Treasures from the Tervuren Museum, Belgium Features remarkable pieces -- masks, ancestral statues, ritual figurines and many others -- from the world's richest collections of Central African art and culture.
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