An Exceptional Suite Of African Arts And Crafts Article

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An Exceptional Suite Of African Arts And Crafts

African arts and crafts are often found in the form of statues, figures and figurines, as well as decorative cloths, and musical instruments, particularly drums.

Author: Herman Wheeler

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African arts and crafts are often found in the form of statues, figures and figurines, as well as decorative cloths, and musical instruments, particularly drums. Most African art is sculpture, with statues in human form as the most popular, as these statues serve to give praise or tribute to a great leader, or an honorable man or woman. Since Africans don't typically find it proper to show affection towards each other, a figure in someone's likeness is an important gesture.

The statues of animals in African art are included with human figures, to further give praise to the person being honored. For example, a horse is considered a very noble animal, and including one in a sculpture of a man or woman means that person is being held in very high regard. Most contemporary statues are made of either stone or carved of wood.

There are many evidences which show that African arts could be found as early as 500BC. In some places of Sahara and Nigeria there are sculptures carved on rocks and woods. Metals like Bronze were also used by the people to make statues out of it. They even used terracotta and ivory to make their art work more rich, which was usually reserved for royalties. These kind of unique art pieces were the decorative items for many houses in those days. People use to wear fabrics made with art work, which resembles the wearer as a part of an art piece. They even made wall paintings which were made out of wood and they used it as decorative items.

A large part of African arts and crafts is traditional arts, which were deeply woven into the daily life and culture of the different African peoples, and now found on display in most museums. An example of these is the African mask. Africans use masks in ceremonial and ritual practices, usually in celebration, but also to prepare for war, to initiate a young warrior, and before a harvest.

The styles and designs of African masks differ according to each country and each tribe . For example, the Dan people of the Ivory Coast and Liberia have wooden masks carved with African features, such as wide foreheads, flat noses, wide and full lips, accented by attached strands of rope to look like hair. The Punu people of Congo, Cameroon and Gabon have wooden masks with wooden hair, usually piled high as they represent wealthy women, and decorated with long strands of raffia along the jaw line. The whitened faces of these masks serve to scare off witches and evil spirits.

African baskets are another art which was made in old African tradition. There are some particular places in Africa where baskets are famous, like Esths and Gumare tribes. In those day's the basketry were usually carried over the head, as the culture grew, two ropes were tied on each side of basket and they were carried in hands and named as handbags. As a result many unique and rich varieties of hand bags were made with some appealing arts on it. They even used materials such as mud cloth and suede to make bags. Even today African arts and crafts are in a great demand among people as they are very magnificent.

About Author

Herman Wheeler had focused mostly on psychology and spirituality, but he had been a long time collector of African Art and Crafts. So he started the website http://www.theafricanartwheel.com to share his passion on African arts with other people.

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