Arts of Western Africa

by

Mary Jo Arnoldi

• LAST REVIEWED: 06 May 2016
• LAST MODIFIED: 29 October 2013
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0018

Special Topics in West African Art

In the study of West African art, a number of special topics, including leadership arts, transnational and global exchanges, gender, and aesthetics, have produced important and growing bodies of scholarship. These focused topics have inspired museum exhibitions and a range of publications, including books and exhibition catalogues, edited volumes, and articles in journals.

West African Archaeology

Publications on archaeology in West Africa can be divided into two broad categories, those focused on site reports of scientific excavations and those that feature specific bodies of artworks recovered from various sites within a specific geographic zone.

Focus on Regional Arts

Regional studies of West African arts have been organized geographically, by genre, or using a combination of these approaches. Gebauer 1979 and Cole and Ross 1977, for example, use the postcolonial nation-state to circumscribe their studies of Cameroon and Ghanaian arts. Bravmann 1973 (cited under Transnational and Global Exchanges), however, follows particular art forms, styles, and technologies across ethnic groups in northeastern Ivory Coast and northern Ghana. The author’s attention to the mobility of art within circumscribed areas influenced a generation of researchers. Studies that were influenced by Bravmann’s approach include Frank 1998 on Mande potters and leatherworkers who are dispersed across several nation states in West Africa (cited under Pottery and Containers) and McNaughton 1991 on the historical distribution of horizontal masks across a large area of West Africa. A number of studies, such as Roy 1987 and Visonà 2010, examine the art history of various genres across neighboring ethnic groups within subregions of a single nation state. Berns, et al. 2011 follows this modified geographical model, and the authors’ in-depth study of art forms in Central Nigeria examines the dynamic history of exchanges among different groups living in this zone. Anderson and Peek 2002 uses the geographical model with the addition of the environmental niche of the Niger Delta to organize the study of the arts among the many ethnic groups living in the area.

• Anderson, Martha, and Philip Peek, eds. Ways of the Rivers: Arts and Environment of the Niger Delta. Exhibition held 19 May –17 November 2002 at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 2002.

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  Exhibit catalogue with informative essays highlighting the diversity and variety of arts of the many ethnic groups living within the Niger Delta. Color and black-and-white photographs. Excellent bibliography.

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• Berns, Marla C., Richard Fardon, and Sidney Littlefield Kasfir, eds. Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley. Accompanies an exhibition that opened at the Fowler Museum in February 2011. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum at UCLA, 2011.

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  Comprehensive regional survey of the art of twenty-five groups living along the course of the Benue River in central Nigeria. Emphasis on sculptural forms in wood, ceramic, and metal. Scholarly essays explore the histories of exchange and interactions among these groups and the ways that the arts bear witness to this dynamic history. Lavishly illustrated with color and black-and-white photographs.

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• Cole, Herbert M., and Doran H. Ross. The Arts of Ghana. Exhibition held at Frederick S. Wight Gallery, University of California, 11 October–11 December 1977; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 11 February–26 March 1978; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, 3 May–2 July 1978. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, 1977.

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  Scholarly exhibit catalogue that surveys the arts of Ghana throughout the country, including sculpture, textiles, metal arts, furniture and utilitarian arts, architecture, personal adornment, and regalia. Illustrated with many color and black-and-white photographs.

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• Gebauer, Paul. Art of Cameroon: With a Catalog of the Gebauer Collection of Cameroon Art at the Portland Art Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Portland, Oregon: Portland Art Museum in Association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, 1979.

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  Survey of Cameroon arts with an illustrated catalogue of the Gebauer collection (in the Portland Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Includes discussions of architecture, figurative sculpture, masks, textiles, basketry, pottery, and body arts from the Cameroon Grasslands and the Forest zones and chapters on individual artists and on changes in artistic practices.

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• McNaughton, Patrick R. “Is There History in Horizontal Masks? A Preliminary Response to the Dilemma of Form.” African Arts 24.2 (1991): 40–53, 88–90.

  DOI: 10.2307/3336852Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Examines the distribution of horizontal helmet masks among multiple ethnic groups across a large geographic area of West Africa from Guinea to Cameroon. Argues for the mobility of African art forms and practices in West Africa. Available online for purchase or by subscription. Should be read together with McNaughton’s “From Mande Komo to Jukun Akuma: Approaching the Difficult Question of History,” African Arts 25.2 (1992): 76–85, 99–100.

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• Roy, Christopher. Art of the Upper Volta Rivers. Meudon, France: Alain et François Chaffin, 1987.

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  A survey of Mossi and Gurunsi arts and their relationships to Bobo, Bwa, and Tusyâ arts in Burkina Faso. Brings together information widely dispersed in the scholarly literature on the individual groups. Well illustrated with 325 object and context photographs, mostly black-and-white.

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• Visonà, Monica Blackmun. Constructing Art Histories for the Lagoons of Côte d’Ivoire. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010.

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  Study of the different carving styles in the region, as well as the identification of individual artists’ works and the role of carvings in religious practices, leadership and prestige arts, and masked performances. The final chapter places Lagoon art and artists in a global context. Includes forty-one black-and-white illustrations and an extensive bibliography.

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Focus on the Arts of Individual Ethnic Groups

Many studies of West African arts focus on the art of individual ethnic groups. They include general surveys like Heathcote 1976 on Hausa arts. Seligman and Loughran 2006, Colleyn 2001, Ezra 1988, and Homberger 2008 (cited under Leadership Arts) all examine a wide range of art forms created and used within a single ethnic group with discussions of form, style, artistic practice, and aesthetics, as well as social contexts. While written to accompany museum exhibitions, the collective essays in these scholarly catalogues are important contributions to the field. Cole and Aniakor 1984 organizes its discussion of Igbo arts around social contexts; Fischer and Himmelheber 1984 focuses on the Dan, with overviews of the forms, production, and ritual and utilitarian contexts for the carved wooden and metal arts. Lamp 1996 and Vogel 1997 are focused around a critical theme: Lamp documents the late-twentieth-century cultural reinvention and revival of the arts among the Baga against the foil of its art history, and Vogel organizes the analysis of Baule art into two different but interrelated fields of inquiry: the Baules’ own classifications and the history of European and American reception of Baule arts.

• Colleyn, Jean-Paul, ed. Bamana: The Art of Existence in Mali. Published in conjunction with a traveling exhibition held at the Museum for African Art, New York; the Museum Reitberg, Zurich, Switzerland; and several other venues between September 2001 and December 2003. New York: Museum for African Art, 2001.

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  A catalogue of an exhibition with scholarly essays examining the fluid nature of Bamana identity and how cultural institutions and the arts have responded to and been shaped by the area’s long history of migrations, borrowings, and adaptations. Lavishly illustrated with 250 color plates and fifty-three black-and-white photographs.

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• Ezra, Kate, ed. Special Issue: Dogon Art. African Arts 21.4 (1988).

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  Good introduction for students with good color and black-and-white illustrations. Includes an overview of the history of Dogon art studies followed by eight articles on archaeological objects, the role and meaning of figurative sculpture and ritual objects, Dogon notions of modernity as expressed in their arts, and the impact of tourism on masquerades. Articles available online for purchase or by subscription.

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• Cole, Herbert M., and Chike C. Aniakor. Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, 1984.

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  Catalogue of an exhibition organized around the presentation of objects related to the individual, the family, and the community, with the final two essays focused on masquerades and Igbo aesthetics.

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• Fischer, Eberhard, and Hans Himmelheber. The Arts of the Dan in West Africa. Translated by Anna Buddle. Zurich, Switzerland: Museum Rietberg, 1984.

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  Originally published in German as Die Kunst der Dan (Museum Rietberg, 1976). Informative essays on masks, figurative sculptures, and other art forms and on Dan artists. Well illustrated with black-and-white photographs.

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• Heathcote, David. The Arts of the Hausa: A Commonwealth Institute Exhibition. Exhibition held at the Commonwealth Institute, London, April–June 1976. London: World of Islam Festival Publishing, 1976.

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  Survey of Hausa arts from northern Nigeria organized by media, including textiles, calligraphy and drawing, wall decorations, basketry and calabash decoration, leather and metal work, pottery and woodcarving, horse trappings, and musical instruments. Glossary of Hausa terms.

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• Lamp, Frederick. Art of the Baga: A Drama of Cultural Reinvention. New York: Museum for African Art, 1996.

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  A groundbreaking study of cultural reinvention and artistic revival among the Baga of Guinea. Documents the forces leading to the demise of artistic practices in the postcolonial period and its revivals in the 1990s; includes 250 color and black-and-white photographs, glossary, and extensive bibliography.

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• Seligman, Thomas, and Kristyne Loughran, eds. Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World. Exhibition organized by the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University and the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 2006.

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  The exhibit catalogue includes ten scholarly essays on Tuareg beliefs and values; social organization; and artisans and art forms, including poetry, music, the tent and its furnishings, clothing, jewelry, and personal adornment. Illustrated with many color and black-and-white photographs.

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• Vogel, Susan. Baule: African Art Western Eyes. Exhibition organized by the Yale University Art Gallery in cooperation with the Museum for African Art. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.

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  Catalogue of an exhibition. Lavishly illustrated. Includes a chapter on Western reception of Baule arts and one on the Baules’ perceptions of similar objects. Raises important questions about how objects come into public view (or not) and how this shapes Baule perceptions of their arts. (See Plankensteiner 2007 on Benin art, cited under Archaeology and Art Works, which is organized around a similar insider/outsider perspective.)

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Artists and Artistic Practices

An interest in studying artists and their artistic training and practices has been an important research thread woven through the history of the study of West African art since the early twentieth century; an example is d’Azevedo 1973, on the traditional artist. Since its publication, several themes have emerged around the topics raised in it. Symposia have resulted in several edited volumes on the artist. Essays in Roy 1987 look at artistic training in line with the case studies of artists in the d’Azevedo volume. Abiodun, et al. 1994 interrogates artistic practice within Yoruba and diaspora cultures across a variety of visual and verbal media. Kasfir and Förster 2013 examines the diversity of workshop training, including case studies of older models and new models that are oriented more toward anonymous clients and new tourist and world markets. Marchand 2009 is a fine-grained study of masons in Mali, paying attention to their training, personal and social histories, material technologies, and ritual practices. Aherne 1992 (cited under Weaving and Textiles), Johnson 1986, and Walker 1998 are artistic biographies of individual named artists.

• Abiodun, Rowland, Henry John Drewal, and John Pemberton III. The Yoruba Artist. New Theoretical Perspectives on African Arts. Based on a 1992 symposium held at the Museum Rietberg Zürich. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.

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  Papers from a 1992 interdisciplinary symposium on the Yoruba artist that address artistic practice across visual and verbal media and the interplay of the arts in Yoruba culture, both in Nigeria and in the Yoruba diaspora in the Americas.

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• d’Azevedo, Warren L., ed. The Traditional Artist in African Societies. Proceedings of the 1965 SSRC-ACLS Lake Tahoe Conference. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973.

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  Ten informative essays on visual and verbal artists (seven on West African artists), originally papers given at a symposium in 1965. Topics include artists’ biographies and discussions of artistic production, aesthetics, and the social and ritual significance of the artist in society. Reprinted in 1989.

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• Johnson, Barbara. Four Dan Sculptors: Continuity and Change. Exhibition held at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, 20 September 1986–1 February 1987. San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco., 1986.

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  Catalogue of an exhibit featuring forty-five objects by three Dan carvers and one brass caster in the Ivory Coast. Biographical essays on each artist bring together information from a variety of published sources supplemented by new field research (see also Fischer and Himmelheber 1984 in the section on Focus on the Arts of Individual Ethnic Groups). High-quality black-and-white photographs.

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• Kasfir, Sydney Littlefield, and Till Förster, eds. African Art and Agency in the Workshop. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013.

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  Case studies, five from West Africa, examine the role of the workshop in the creation of art. Includes a variety of workshop settings, from those based on historical local patronage to those that are oriented to new markets.

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• Marchand, Trevor H. J. The Masons of Djenné. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009.

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  Written in a clear and accessible prose, this study provides a rich portrait of the masons, their specialized knowledge, their social relationships, their building processes, and changes in practice and technologies with their opportunities and challenges. Well illustrated with black-and-white photos and drawings. Glossary, index, and bibliography.

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• Roy, Christopher D., ed. The Artist and the Workshop in Traditional Africa: Third Symposium on African Art, May 10–11, 1985. Iowa Studies in African Art 2. Iowa City: University of Iowa, 1987.

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  Informative essays on West African artists. Includes discussions of local ideas about artists in their societies, the nature of apprenticeship and training, the development of artistic styles, and the relationships between artist and patron.

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• Walker, Rosyln. Ọlọ́wẹ̀ of Isẹ̀: A Yoruba Sculptor to Kings. Exhibition organized by the National Museum of African Art, 15 March–7 September 1998. Washington, DC: National Museum of African Art, 1998.

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  An artistic biography and catalogue raisonné of the sculpture of the Yoruba carver Olowe of Ise (c. 1875–c. 1938). Beautifully illustrated with seventy-six color illustrations and thirty-five black-and-white images. Produced to accompany an exhibition of the artist’s work.

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West African Architecture

Built forms in West Africa are highly diverse and reflect different technologies, different adaptations to environments, different patterns of social organization, and different histories of appropriations and adaptations. Studies of West African architecture and the built environment have attracted the attention of art historians, anthropologists, and architects. Denyer 1982, a broad survey of African vernacular architecture, is a good introduction to the diversity of built forms in Africa. The modest volume Prussin 1969, authored by an architect and art historian, suggests important avenues for research on the built environment and on impact of migrations over time. Two books on Senegal and Burkina Faso, Bourdier and Minh-Ha 1985 and Bourdier and Minh-Ha 1996, as well as Dmochowski 1990 on Nigeria, take up some of these themes. All are rich in detail and are significant contributions to the architectural history of West Africa. Blier 1987 and Cole 1982 are fine-grained analyses of the cultural symbolism and meanings associated with built forms and spaces. Nelson 2007 examines the insertion of monumental architectural forms into global networks during the colonial and postcolonial eras.

• Blier, Suzanne Preston. The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

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  This study of Tamberma and Somba architecture in Togo and Benin analyzes the rich and complex cultural and social meanings of the built forms and lived spaces.

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• Bourdier, Jean-Paul, and Trinh T. Minh-Ha. African Spaces: Designs for Living in Upper Volta. New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1985.

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  A study of the architecture of eight ethnic groups in Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta). Illustrated with photographs and drawings that include spatial mappings of kin groups, detailed plans of housing, and explanatory diagrams. Extensive bibliography.

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• Bourdier, Jean-Paul, and Trinh T. Minh-Ha. Drawn From African Dwellings. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.

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  A study of vernacular architecture among eight ethnic groups living in Senegal and Gambia. Richly illustrated with black-and-white photographs and drawings of village plans, dwellings, and interiors. Identifies the historical influences on local forms, including those from the ancient Mande empires of Mali, the Islamic north, and more recent colonial constructions.

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• Cole, Herbert M. Mbari, Art and Life among the Owerri Igbo. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982.

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  In-depth study of Mbari shrines dedicated to the earth goddess filled with painted clay sculptures and wall paintings. Includes a history of the shrines, a formal analysis of the built form, sculpture and paintings, and an analysis of the rituals involved in the making of these shrines.

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• Denyer, Susan. African Traditional Architecture: An Historical and Geographical Perspective. London: Heinemann, 1982.

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  A general introduction to vernacular architecture in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on the diversity of forms and decorations, building materials and techniques, and spatial organization on the continent. West African examples are well represented among the 205 groups surveyed. Originally published 1978 (New York: Africana).

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• Dmochowski, Z. R. An Introduction to Nigerian Traditional Architecture. 3 vols. Lagos, Nigeria: National Commission for Museums and Monuments, 1990.

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  Excellent survey that includes detailed information on the history of built forms, building materials, and technologies. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs and detailed architectural drawings. Volume 1 features Northern Nigeria, Volume 2 South-West and Central Nigeria, and Volume 3 South-Eastern Nigeria (the Igbo-speaking areas).

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• Nelson, Steven. From Cameroon to Paris: Mousgoum Architecture In and Out of Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

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  Study of Mousgoum vernacular domed houses in Cameroon and their appropriation in France and elsewhere in colonial and world fairs. Traces the changing significance and meaning of the forms of these structures within and outside Cameroon over the last century.

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• Prussin, Labelle. Architecture in Northern Ghana: A Study of Forms and Functions. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.

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  A study of built forms and settlement patterns in six communities in northern Ghana. Posits that the diversity of forms and settlement patterns is attributable to a long and dynamic history of migrations, cultural borrowings, and adaptations that were still ongoing when the study was undertaken.

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Figurative Sculpture in Wood, Metal, and Stone

West African figurative art has received extensive attention in the literature. Monographs such as Boston 1977, Brain and Pollock 1971, and Horton 1965 are solid studies of figurative sculpture that address formal styles and discuss the ritual and social contexts. Barley 1988 documents the historical contexts that gave rise to the objects and the changes in their forms and use patterns over time. Like Barley, Blier 1995 brings a variety of types of evidence to bear in the reconstruction of the history and meaning of Dahomean figures. Stephens 1978 analyzes the secondary use of a large group of Esie stone figures in contemporary shrine contexts, while Ravenhill 1994 explores local notions of personhood and aesthetics in the interpretations of Baule carved figures.

• Barley, Nigel. Foreheads of the Dead: An Anthropological View of Kalabari Ancestral Screens. Exhibition organized by the National Museum of African Art, 11 November 1988–29 January 1989. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African Art, 1988.

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  Written to accompany an exhibition of Ijo ancestral screens. Includes the history of Kalabari trading houses, local ideas about creativity and innovation, the iconography of the screens, and changes over time. The final section of the book is a detailed discussion of the thirteen late-nineteenth-century screens in British museum collections.

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• Blier, Suzanne Preston. African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

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  A detailed study of carved figures, called bocio, used by the Fon in Vodun shrines in coastal communities in Togo and the Republic of Benin. Brings together insights from art history, history, linguistics, psychology, and anthropology.

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• Boston, John. Ikenga Figures among the North-West Igbo and the Igala. London: Ethnographica, 1977.

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  A comparative study of the form, iconography, and meanings of ikenga, carved wooden horned images kept as personal shrines by Igbo and Igala men in southeastern Nigeria.

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• Brain, Robert, and Adam Pollock. Bangwa Funerary Sculpture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971.

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  A study of the carved wooden sculpture and masks owned by men’s secret societies in the Bangwa kingdoms in the Cameroon Grassfields and used in elaborate funerary ceremonies for members and chiefs. Black-and-white photographs and drawings.

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• Horton, Robin. Kalabari Sculpture. Lagos: Department of Antiquities, Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1965.

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  A solid study of Kalabari sculpture, with a focus on the carver’s role in society, local artistic criticism, the uses of sculpture, and the iconography and meaning of various art forms. Appendices include materials and tools, a comparison of Kalabari style with neighboring Ijo styles, and a section on change. Over seventy black-and-white photographs.

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• Ravenhill, Philip L. The Self and the Other: Personhood and Images among the Baule, Côte d’Ivoire. Fowler Museum of Cultural History Monograph Series 28. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1994.

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  A focused study of Baule ideas of the person and their relationship to a category of carved wooden figures that represent either intermediaries to the spirit world or the mate of the opposite sex that each person has in the spirit world.

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• Stephens, Phillips, Jr. The Stone Images of Esiẹ, Nigeria. Ibadan, Nigeria: Ibadan University Press, 1978.

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  A study of a group of 1,000 stone figures representing men, women, and children in a sacred grove outside the village. The origins of the stones are unknown, but they have occupied a central place in the cosmology of the current residents, who arrived in the area in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Black-and-white photographs.

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Masks and Masquerades

Masks and masquerades are widespread in West Africa, and there is a large and growing literature in this area. Zahan 1980 and Thompson 1974 demonstrate two different orientations to the study of masks and masquerades. Zahan’s work, which is highly influenced by Griaule’s (1963), focuses on both the formal and symbolic analysis of the chiwara mask and on its meaning in ritual performances. Thompson’s focuses on the performance and its constituent expressive forms as the primary unit of analysis. Falling in between these two approaches is Ottenberg 1975, which combines an interest in formal analysis with studies of performance. Arnoldi 1995, McNaughton 2008, and Nunley 1987 take performance-oriented approaches. Mark 1992 is a more art-historical treatment of the reconstruction of the men’s initiation masquerades, while de Jong 2007 analyzes recent changes in masquerade practices in response to urban migrations and postcolonial political circumstances.

• Arnoldi, Mary Jo. Playing With Time: Art and Performance in Central Mali. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.

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  A performance-oriented study of a youth association masquerade in four ethnic groups in the Segou region in Mali. Presents the masquerade from multiple perspectives as a dynamic arena for artistic action and a site for the production of cultural knowledge. Over ninety black-and-white and twelve color photographs.

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• de Jong, Ferdinand. Masquerades of Modernity: Power and Secrecy in Casamance, Senegal. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.

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  An insightful study of men’s initiation masquerades among the Jola and Mandinko in Senegal and how they have been transformed by urban migrations and current regional politics.

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• Mark, Peter. The Wild Bull and the Sacred Forest: Form, Meaning and Change in Senegambian Initiation Masks. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

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  An impressive in-depth study with a regional focus that captures the dynamic history of stylistic and cultural interactions among various ethnic groups over generations. Brings oral traditions, historical accounts, photographs, museum object collections, and data from the author’s field research to the analysis.

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• McNaughton, Patrick R. A Bird Dance near Saturday City: Sidi Ballo and the Art of West African Masquerade. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.

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  A compelling study of a Bamana (Bambara) artist in Mali whose tour de force performances reveal the full power of masquerade. Combines an exploration of personal artistry with an analysis of the ways in which the audience actively makes meaning through engagement with this art form.

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• Nunley, John W. Moving with the Face of the Devil: Art and Politics in Urban West Africa. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

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  Vibrant study of the Ode-lay societies (interethnic urban youth gangs) and their masquerade performances in the late 1970s in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Seventy-five black-and-white and eight color photographs.

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• Ottenberg, Simon. Masked Rituals of Afikpo: The Context of an African Art. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975.

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  An excellent study of masks and masking among the Afikpo Igbo of southeastern Nigeria. Analyzes the masks’ forms, designs, and variations; the role of carvers; and the masquerade performances.

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• Thompson, Robert Farris. African Art in Motion: Icon and Act in the Collection of Katharine Coryton White. Exhibition held at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, and the Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974.

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  Highly accessible and groundbreaking catalogue examining the critical relationships between sculpture, dance, and music in Africa. Influenced a generation of scholars.

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• Zahan, Dominique. Antilopes du soleil: Arts et rites agraires d’Afrique noire. Vienna: A. Schendl, 1980.

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  A study of the chiwara masking society among the Bamana (Bambara) of Mali. Includes a detailed stylistic analysis of the antelope headdresses. Profusely illustrated.

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Pottery and Containers

Ceramics are some of the oldest objects produced in West Africa, and their study has provided insights into the early history of the region (see Devisse 1993 and McIntosh 1994, cited under Archaeological Excavations). More recent ceramic vessels have also been featured in surveys of museum collections in Barley 1994 and Leith-Ross 1971. Sieber 1980, which is a survey of household and utilitarian goods from museum and private collections, does include examples of ceramics and containers in a variety of materials from throughout Africa, including West Africa. More focused field studies of subregional ceramics traditions include the essays in Roy 2000, Frank 1998, and Gallay, et al. 1996. Berns and Hudson 1986 and Chappel 1977 describe the rich tradition of decorated gourd containers that are created by diverse groups in northeastern Nigeria.

• Barley, Nigel. Smashing Pots: Works of Clay from Africa. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.

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  Survey of African pottery at the Museum of Mankind (the Ethnography Department of the British Museum). Examines not only typology and production technologies, but the social meanings of pottery. West African ceramics are well represented. Seventy-five color and fifty black-and-white images.

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• Berns, Marla, and Barbara Rubin Hudson. The Essential Gourd: Art and History in Northeastern Nigeria. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, Museum of Cultural History, 1986.

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  In-depth study of decorated gourds made by women of several ethnic groups in Northeastern Nigeria. Identifies the different techniques, motifs, and iconography preferred by the different groups and discusses how gourds are used in domestic, ritual, and sacred contexts. Thirty-eight color and 250 black-and-white photographs.

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• Chappel, T. J. H. Decorated Gourds in North-Eastern Nigeria. London: Ethnographica, 1977.

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  Survey of decorated gourds among Fulani, Bata, and Yungur groups in northeastern Nigeria. Presents important information on techniques, style, motifs, use and significance, and patronage. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs.

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• Frank, Barbara. Mande Potters and Leatherworkers: Art and Heritage in West Africa. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.

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  Alternating chapters on two specialist artisan groups in Mali: potters (female) and leatherworkers (male). Documents the history of the two groups, their technologies, and the range of objects they produce. Illustrated with nearly 200 black-and-white and color photographs.

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• Gallay, Alain, Eric Huysecom, Anne Mayor, and Grégoirede Ceuninck. Hier et aujourd’hui: Des poteries et des femmes: Céramiques traditionelles du Mali. Geneva, Switzerland: Département d’anthropologie et d’ecologie, Université de Genève, 1996.

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  Excellent survey of utilitarian pottery from the Inland Niger Delta with a focus on women potters from several ethnic groups, their production and firing technologies, and the different pottery types and decorations. Color and black-and-white illustrations.

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• Leith-Ross, Sylvia. Nigerian Pottery: A Catalogue Compiled by Sylvia Leith-Ross. Ibadan, Nigeria: Ibadan University Press, 1971.

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  Important visual resource on Nigerian pottery, including a portion of the pottery collections of the Jos Museum. Essays on various production and firing technologies. Includes ceramics from throughout Nigeria organized into ten subgroups, with 340 black-and-white photographs as well as line drawings.

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• Roy, Christopher, ed. Clay and Fire: Pottery in Africa. Iowa Studies in African Art 4. Proceedings of a Conference on African Pottery held at the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History on April 8–9, 1994. Iowa City: University of Iowa School of Art and Art History, 2000.

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  This edited volume contains seven excellent essays on West African pottery traditions, including those of the Bamana and Malinke, Dogon, Igbo, Moba, Baule, Senufo, Yoruba, and various groups from northeastern Nigeria.

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• Sieber, Roy. African Furniture and Household Objects. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980.

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  Continent-wide survey of the utilitarian arts with informative texts based on early travelers’ accounts, museum accession records, and field studies. Includes furniture, cooking and farming implements, containers, and toys and games. West African examples well represented. Excellent bibliography. Color and black-and-white illustrations.

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Weaving and Textiles

Textiles and weaving have a long history in West Africa from Senegal through Cameroon, and they have been the subject of increasing numbers of studies since the 1960s. West African men and women—weavers, dyers, embroiderers, tailors, and, increasingly, high-fashion designers—have created some of the most distinctive and extraordinary textiles and garments on the continent. Picton 1995 introduces a diversity of West African textiles, both hand-woven and industrially produced. Sieber 1972 focuses on textiles and jewelry and on other adornments, with many West African examples. The study of weaving technology in West Africa is the focus of Boser-Sarivaxévanis 1972. Eicher 1976, Lamb and Lamb 1981, Lamb and Lamb 1984, and Gardi 2009 are studies of specific weaving traditions organized by country or ethnic group, in cotton, silk, and wool. Aherne 1992 is a tightly focused study of the work of a single textile artist in Mali.

• Aherne, Tavy D. Nakunte Diarra: Bògòlanfini Artist of the Beledougou. Bloomington: Indiana University Art Museum, 1992.

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  Artistic biography of a woman textile artist in Mali, Nakunte Diarra, who creates bògòlanfini, a hand-painted mud-dyed cloth, an art form she learned from her mother and which she is actively passing down to the next generation. Documents different types of mud cloth and their use locally. Discusses materials and dyes and the technology of production. Identifies designs and recent innovations

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• Boser-Sarivaxévanis, Renée. Les tissus de l’Afrique Occidentale: Méthode de classification et catalogue raisonné des étoffes tisséees de l’Afrique de l’Ouest établis à partir de données techniques et historiques. Vol. 1, Sénégal, Gambie, Mali, Haute-Volta, Niger, Guinée portugaise, Sierra Leone, Libéria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana. Basler Beiträge sur Ethnologie 13. Basel: Pharos, 1972.

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  This study of West African hand weaving remains a standard reference for textiles from Senegal through Ghana. Excellent information on loom technology and textile structure and discussion of the weavers in each area. Includes six maps, twenty-three tables, and 274 black-and-white photographs and drawings.

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• Eicher, Joanne Bubolz. Nigerian Handcrafted Textiles. Ile-Ife, Nigeria: University of Ife Press, 1976.

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  Well-organized description of weaving, dyeing, embroidery, and appliqué. Clearly written. Illustrated with color and black-and-white photographs. Detailed bibliography.

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• Gardi, Bernhard, ed. Woven Beauty: The Art of West African Textiles. Exhibition held at the Museum der Kulturen Basel, 28 August 2009–6 May 2010. Basel, Switzerland: Christoph Merian Verlag, 2009.

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  Catalogue of an exhibit includes scholarly essays on major weaving traditions in Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria based on extensive museum and field research. Color and black-and-white images. Excellent bibliography.

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• Lamb, Venice. West African Weaving. London: Duckworth, 1975.

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  Survey of narrow-strip hand weaving from Senegal through Nigeria, with the largest section devoted to Ghana. Includes discussions of fibers and loom technologies. Four hundred black-and-white and eighty-six color photographs, maps, index, and bibliography.

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• Lamb, Venice, and Alastair Lamb. Au Cameroun: Weaving—Tissage. Hertingfordbury, UK: Roxford Books, 1981.

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  First survey of Cameroon weaving, with detailed descriptions of looms as well as dyeing, embroidering, and other decorative techniques. English and French text. Includes maps and over 300 black-and-white and color photographs.

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• Lamb, Venice, and Alastair Lamb. Sierra Leone Weaving. Hertingfordbury, UK: Roxford Books, 1984.

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  Survey of hand-woven cloths, with descriptions of loom technology; a discussion of fibers, including cotton and raffia; and a section on various garments produced for ritual and ceremonial use. Includes photographs of nineteenth-century textiles in the collections of various British museums. Illustrated with many black-and-white and color photographs.

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• Picton, John, ed. The Art of African Textiles: Technology, Tradition and Lurex. Exhibition held at the Barbican Art Gallery, 21 September–10 December 1995. London: Barbican Art Gallery, 1995.

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  This exhibit catalogue is a good introduction for general audience and undergraduates to the variety of African textiles in use in the late twentieth century. Its focus is specifically on change and creative adaptation of textiles and fashion. West African examples are well represented in the short essays on specific textiles. Beautifully illustrated with 132 color photos; includes a glossary and bibliography.

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• Sieber, Roy. African Textiles and Decorative Arts. Exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 11 October 1972–31 January 1973; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 20 March –31 May 1973; the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 2 July–31 August 1973; and the Cleveland Museum of Art, 3 October–2 December 1973. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1972.

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  West Africa is well represented in this survey of textiles and jewelry published to accompany a groundbreaking exhibition at MOMA. Essays include historical information as well as the social context of these arts. Extensive bibliography. Beautifully illustrated with color photos. Good resource for students.

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Dress and Fashion

Dress and fashion have been an important field of study in African art, as the encyclopedia of African dress Eicher and Ross 2010 makes abundantly clear (see under Reference Works). Gardi 2002 is an excellent early history of West African embroidered men’s garments. Studies of cloth and clothing in Nigeria such as Kriger 2006, Perani and Wolff 1999, and Madison and Hansen 2013 reveal the complex history of production and consumption of garments since the late nineteenth century. Gott and Loughran 2010 and the special edition of Revue Noire Pivin and Fall 1997 focus on the important cultural and symbolic roles that dress and fashion play in West African societies today, and they feature the work of a number of West African haute couture fashion designers. Ross 1998 and Rovine 2001 follow the complex and fascinating historical trajectories of two distinctive West African textiles, kente and bogolan, from locally made and consumed textiles to their adoption as national and international symbols of identity.

• Gardi, Bernhard. Le Boubou c’est chic: Les boubous du Mali et d’autres pays de L’Afrique de l’Ouest. 2d ed. Exhibition held from 9 October 2002 to 6 January 2003 at National Museum of Africa and Oceania. Basel, Switzerland: Editions Christoph Merian, 2002.

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  Survey of historic hand-woven and hand-embroidered men’s boubous (long, flowing garments worn in West Africa from Senegal to Chad) dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Includes illustrated catalogue of forty Malian boubous from museum collections in Europe and the United States and a bibliography.

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• Gott, Suzanne, and Kristyne Loughran, eds. Contemporary African Fashion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.

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  Accessible to undergraduates, this collection of essays (over half featuring West Africa) explores the sociocultural significance of specific dress traditions in Africa and its diaspora, as well as different modes of production, from local tailors and their clients to high-fashion designers. Seventy-one color illustrations and suggested readings.

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• Kriger, Colleen E. Cloth in West African History. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2006.

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  Using three emblematic items of Nigerian clothing, one for each of the substantive chapters, the study documents hand-weaving technologies, analyzes patronage, explores symbolic aspects of dress and adornment, examines transnational influences on Nigerian cloth, and evaluates the impact of British colonial policies on local textile production. Black-and-white photographs, glossary, index, and bibliography.

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• Madison, D. Soyini, and Karen Tranberg Hansen, eds. African Dress: Fashion, Agency, Performance. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.

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  Fourteen case studies on West African dress and fashion, whether on the continent or in a transcultural arena. The dressed body is analyzed as the site for performance, focusing on issues of power and legitimacy, personal and cultural identities, and materiality and display in the colonial and postcolonial eras.

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• Perani, Judith, and Norma H. Wolff. Cloth, Dress and Art Patronage in Africa. New York: Berg, 1999.

  DOI: 10.2752/9781847888662Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Excellent study of the dynamic history of relationships between patrons and artists in three Nigerian communities—Hausa, Nupe, and Yoruba—in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Focuses on how these relationships not only affected the production and consumption of cloth and dress but shaped the cultural meanings ascribed to them. Black-and-white photographs, glossary, and bibliography.

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• Pivin, Jean Loup, and N’Goné Fall, eds. Special Edition: Mode Africaine. Revue Noire 27 (1997).

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  This special edition of the journal features the work of haute couture fashion and accessory designers from throughout West Africa, including Chris Seydou from Mali, Oumou Sy from Senegal, and Alphadi from Niger, among many others. Excellent color stills of fashions and of runway shows.

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• Ross, Doran H. Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1998.

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  Kente textiles take center stage in this well-researched and informative exhibit catalogue. Thirteen essays discuss the history and production of hand-woven kente, its named patterns, its social significance within Ghana, its contemporary reproduction in a variety of factory-made forms, and its adoption as a symbol of African identity in African American communities. Lavishly illustrated with over 700 color photographs.

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• Rovine, Victoria. Bogolan: Shaping Culture through Cloth in Contemporary Mali. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001.

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  Follows bogolan, a mud-dyed textile, from rural villages to fashion runways in Paris, Dakar, and Bamako and from its use as clothing to its transformation into fine art objects. It explores its ritual uses, its adoption as a Malian national cultural symbol, and its use as a pan-African symbol in the diaspora.

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Body Art and Adornment

Body arts and adornment, including hairstyles and jewelry, are important areas for investigation that speak to the broader issues of aesthetics, gender, and ethnic and group identity. While Sieber and Herreman 2000 and Arnoldi and Kreamer 1995 survey the entire continent and the African diaspora in the Americas, they both include discussions of historical and contemporary practices relating to coiffure, hats, and headwear in a number of West African societies. Adams 1993, Quarcoopome 1991, Rubin 1988, and Willis 1989 discuss the role of body painting and scarification as aesthetic and ritual practices and as important markers of identity. Nevadomsky and Aisien 1995 provides an interesting example of the Binis’ current use of traditional scarification patterns on textiles. Loughran 2003 examines change in Tuareg jewelry styles in urban Niger.

• Adams, Monni. “Women’s Art as Gender Strategy among the Wè of Canton Boo.” African Arts 26.4 (1993): 32–43; 84–85.

  DOI: 10.2307/3337074Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  An analysis of women’s body painting, house painting, and ceramics as expressions of women’s power within ritual and domestic spheres. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

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• Arnoldi, Mary Jo, and Christine Mullen Kreamer. Crowning Achievments: African Arts of Dressing the Head. Exhibition held at the Fowler Museum, 5 February–16 July 1995. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, 1995.

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  A survey of headwear and hairstyles for everyday, ceremonial, and ritual use in Africa. West African examples are well represented. Individual essays feature the Hausa and Tuareg in Mali, Niger, and Nigeria and Yoruba women’s head-ties in Nigeria. An interleaf photographic essay features painted Ghanaian barbershop signs advertising popular hairstyles for men and women. Illustrated with color and black-and-white photographs.

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• Loughran, Kristyne. “Jewelry, Fashion, and Identity: The Tuareg Example.” African Arts 36.1 (2003): 52–65+93.

  DOI: 10.1162/afar.2003.36.1.52Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Examines the styles and types of classical jewelry, including rings, amulets, bracelets, head ornaments, and veil weights among the Tuareg of Niger, and discusses how the convergence of local and international Tuareg jewelry styles shape new urban Tuareg identities and give new dimension to the authenticity and modernity of Tuareg jewelry. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

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• Nevadomsky, Joseph, and Ekhaguosa Aisien. “The Clothing of Political Identity: Costume and Scarification in the Benin Kingdom.” African Arts 28.1 (1995): 62–73+100.

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  Exploration of the history and meaning of scarification among the Bini in Nigeria and the use today of embroidered and appliquéd scarification patterns as markers of Bini identity on royal court costumes. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

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• Quarcoopome, E. Nii. “Self-Decoration and Religious Power in Dangme Culture.” African Arts 24.3 (1991): 56–65+96.

  DOI: 10.2307/3336924Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The religious art of the Dangme people of eastern Ghana consists of body arts, including elaborate body painting, beadwork, coiffure, and costume, that are a fundamental part of the annual community festival to honor the deities. Worn during these religious festivals, older dress forms also convey a sense of ethnic pride. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

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• Rubin, Arnold, ed. Marks of Civilization: Artistic Transformations of the Human Body. Based on a symposium entitled “Art of the Body,” held at UCLA between 28 and 30 January 1983. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, 1988.

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  Based on a symposium on body art held at UCLA in 1983, this scholarly volume takes a global approach (including European and American practices) and limits the essays to irreversible body modifications. The four contributions on West African practices discuss body modification in terms of aesthetics, systems of belief, social commitment, gender, and group identity. Over 250 illustrations in black-and-white, with some color.

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• Sieber, Roy, and Frank Herreman, eds. Hair in African Art and Culture. Exhibition organized and presented by the Museum for African Art, New York, 9 February–28 May 2000. New York: Museum for African Art, 2000.

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  Exhibition catalogue with individual essays that cover both hairdressing in West Africa and representations of coiffures on West African sculptures and masks. Includes numerous black-and-white and color illustrations.

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• Willis, Liz. “‘Uli’ Painting and the Igbo World View.” African Arts 23.1 (1989): 62–67, 104.

  DOI: 10.2307/3336801Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Uli painting on women’s bodies for rituals and on shrine walls and houses during important ritual events is an important women’s art form among the Igbo of southeastern Nigeria. Expressing the Igbo worldview, uli painting refers to the physical, spiritual, and abstract realms of existence. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

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Modernist Works in the 20th and 21st Centuries

A number of articles, catalogues, and books have been published about art and artists working within a modernist paradigm. The journal Revue Noire (cited under Journals) featured many modernist artists, often with a focus on specific West African countries. One of the earliest surveys of modernist artists in Nigeria was Beier 1968. Kennedy 1992, which included West Africa, is based on its author’s long study of modernist artists in Africa, beginning in the 1960s. Offoedu-Okeke 2012 greatly extends Beier and Kennedy’s surveys. Harney 2004 on contemporary Senegalese art is an excellent scholarly study, as are the essays included in Ottenberg 2002 on the Nsukka school in Nigeria. Glassie 2010, Ogbechie 2008, and Vogel 2012 are examples of a growing number of monographs that are focused on individual West African artists working in the modernist vein (see Stanley’s Modern Africa Art: A Basic Reading List in the Bibliographies section).

• Beier, Ulli. Contemporary Art in Africa. New York: Frederick Praeger, 1968.

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  A survey of modernist artists in Nigeria, with a focus on the Oshogbo school.

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• Glassie, Henry. Prince Twins Seven-Seven: His Art, His Life in Nigeria and His Exile in America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.

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  Based on many hours of interviews, this biography of Prince Twins Seven-Seven is a compelling story of the career and life of one of Nigeria’s best-known contemporary artists.

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• Harney, Elizabeth. In Senghor’s Shadow: Art, Politics and the Avant-garde in Senegal, 1960–1995. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004.

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  A scholarly history of postcolonial modernist art in Senegal featuring various modernist movements or schools, including the Ecole de Dakar and the Villages des Artists. Harney also includes a discussion of popular reserve glass painting and of the Set Setal, recycling arts.

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• Kennedy, Jean. New Currents, Ancient Rivers: Contemporary African Artists in a Generation of Change. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.

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  A survey of modernist artists working in Africa. More a celebration than a critical study, the book includes a selection of artists from West African artists primarily from Nigeria and Senegal.

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• Offoedu-Okeke, Onyema. Artists of Nigeria. Edited by Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie. Milan: 5 Continents, 2012.

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  A compilation that profiles over 100 artists from Nigeria with short essays on the history of twentieth-century Nigerian art.

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• Ogbechie, Sylvester Okwunodu. Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2008.

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  An artistic biography that focuses on Ben Enwonwu’s intellectual engagement with the discourse of modernism throughout his career and his adaptation of Igbo knowledge systems and imagery in the creation of his work.

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• Vogel, Susan Mullin. El Anatsui: Art and Life. Munich: Prestel, 2012.

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  An artistic biography of El Anatsui and his work in Ghana and later in Nigeria. Includes several chapters on his art practice as well as his exhibition history and a bibliography of catalogues, articles, and reviews of his work.

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• Ottenberg, Simon, ed. The Nsukka Artists and Nigerian Contemporary Art. The collected papers and commentary from the symposium, “The Nsukka Group and the State of Nigerian Contemporary Art,” sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art which was held the 19 and 20 October 1997. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002.

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  Proceedings of a symposium on Igbo contemporary arts that discusses the history of the Nsukka movement, the works of the individual artists who are members of that group, and the sources and inspirations for their imagery that are drawn from traditional art forms.

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Urban Popular Arts

Interest in the urban popular arts, from reverse glass paintings to popular commercial barbershop signs, has grown over the past twenty-five years, and these works are increasingly presented in exhibitions, in textbooks on African art (see Visonà, et al. 2008 cited under Textbooks), and as objects of scholarly study in their own right. Lerat 1992 and Secretan 1995 are popular surveys of urban art forms. Ross, a study of Fante Asafo flags in Ghana, and more recent works, Bouttiaux-N’Diaye 1994, Roberts and Nooter Roberts 2003, Gilbert 2000, and Tschumi 2008, represent the growing number of scholarly publications on urban popular arts.

• Bouttiaux-Ndiaye, Anne-Marie. Senegal Behind Glass: Images of Religious and Daily Life. Travelling exhibition first held at the Hamburgisches Museum Völkerkunde, Hamburg, 30 June–18 September 1994. Munich and New York: Prestel, 1994.

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  This survey of Senegalese reverse glass painting discusses the history and development of this popular art form from the late nineteenth century through the present day. First limited to Islamic themes, artists later began to paint portraits, landscapes, and genre scenes. The book includes biographies of the leading artists, techniques, styles, and composition and a brief discussion of the market for the paintings. There are 150 color plates, with extended commentary on the individual paintings.

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• Gilbert, Michelle. Hollywood Icons, Local Demons: Ghanaian Popular Paintings by Mark Anthony. Exhibition held 31 January–11 March, 2000 at Widener Gallery, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, and 8 September–27 October, 2000 at the Gallery of Art, University of Missouri–Kansas City. Hartford, CT: Trinity College, 2000.

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  The book was produced to accompany an exhibition of paintings by Mark Anthony. Gilbert organizes the book into five chapters that discuss the Concert Party art form, Mark Anthony’s paintings, the sources for his images, the themes of the paintings, and the role of the Concert Party in Akan society.

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• Lerat, Jean-Marie. Ici bon coiffeur: Les ensignes de coiffeurs en Afrique. Text by Jean Seisser. Paris: Syros-Alternatives, 1992.

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  Introductory essay on the history of the commercial art form and its styles and techniques. Eight chapters, with extended photo-essays on the artists (seven from West Africa and one from Gabon). See also the fourteen-page color illustrations of barbershop signs from Ghana and Ivory Coast in Arnoldi and Kreamer 1995 (cited under Body Art and Adornment), pp. 68–81.

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• Roberts, Allen F., and Mary Nooter Roberts. A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal. Exhibition held at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, 27 February 2003–27 July 2003. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California at Los Angeles, 2003.

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  Catalogue of an exhibit featuring an extensive variety of urban popular art forms, including paintings under glass, textiles, and wall murals relating to Sufi Islamic imagery in Senegal. Essays address the profound connections between visual arts, piety, and the religious practices of adherents’ everyday lives; includes 274 color illustrations, maps, glossary, notes, bibliography, and index.

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• Ross, Doran H. Fighting with Art: Appliquéd Flags of the Fante Asafo. Exhibited at the UCLA Museum of Cultural History, Spring 1979. Los Angeles: UCLA Museum of Cultural History, 1979.

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  The catalogue of an exhibition on Asafo appliquéd flags that discusses the history of this popular art form and its symbolism.

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• Secretan, Thierry. Going into Darkness: Fantastic Coffins from Africa. London: Thames and Hudson, 1995.

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  Study of a popular funerary art form among the Ga peoples living in and around Accra. Focuses on the workshops of artists, and documents six funerals between 1987 and 1991. Includes a pictorial catalogue of coffins made between 1980 and 1993. The book was originally published in French as Il fait sombre, va-t’en: Cercueils au Ghana (Paris: Hazan, 1994).

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• Tschumi, Regula. The Buried Treasures of the Ga: Coffin Art in Ghana. Bern, Switzerland: Benteli, 2008.

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  Study of fantasy coffins in Ga communities in southern Ghana that focuses on the artists and their workshops, the iconography of the coffins, and the funeral context. Illustrated with color photographs.

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Tourist Arts

Tourist arts have been the subject of a number of scholarly articles over the past decades. The two books cited here represent two particular orientations to the study. Richter 1980 focuses on artists who are engaged in the production of mass market objects, and Steiner 1994 is an analysis of the economic aspects of the trade in African objects, including tourist arts.

• Richter, Dolores. Art, Economics, and Change: The Kulebele of Northern Ivory Coast. La Jolla, CA: Psych/Graphic Publishers, 1980.

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  A focused study of the Senufo Kulebele, professional woodcarvers in Korhogo in northern Ivory Coast, and their economic success doing full-time stock work creating pieces in a variety of ethnic styles for the tourist art market (see Steiner 1994 in this section for a study of tourist art from the perspective of market networks).

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• Steiner, Christopher. African Art in Transit. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

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  Important study of the economic aspects of trade in art objects in Ivory Coast with a focus on the market organization and division of labor and the classification of goods and outlets for art commodities. Includes an analysis of the role of the dealers as knowledge mediators and the ways that cultural information circulates within the market networks (see Richter 1980 in this section for a case study of the artist/producers).

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Photography

Studies of both the history of photography in West Africa and of contemporary photographers are also a growing field in contemporary African art. The catalogues of the Bamako Biennales are important resources on the work of these photographers. The journal Revue Noire (cited under Journals) regularly carried their work, and in African Arts articles and exhibition reviews appear on a regular basis. Haney 2010 provides an excellent introduction and scholarly overview of the history of photography in Africa. African photographers have also been the focus of a growing number of major exhibitions, portfolios, and books (Bell 1996, Etoundi Essamba 1995, and Keïta 1997). Exhibition catalogues often include substantial essays on the history of photography and the biographies of photographers featured in the exhibit (Bell 1996 and Lamunière 2001). More and more, African photographers are becoming the focus of in-depth scholarly books (Nimis 2005).

• Bell, Clare. In/sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present. Exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 24 May –29 September 1996. New York: Solomon Guggenheim Museum, 1996.

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  Catalogue of a major US exhibition of African photographers. West African photographers of several generations are represented. Includes critical essays by Okwui Enwezor and Olu Oguibe, biographies and statements by the artists, and a list of their works in the exhibit.

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• Etoundi Essamba, Angèle. Contrasts. South Africa: AGFA, 1995.

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  Portfolio of Cameroon-born photographer showcases fifty-two black-and-white photographs on the theme of contrasts. Etoundi Essamba was born in Cameroon but has lived in Europe since she was ten years old. This portfolio was published on the occasion of the first Johannesburg Biennale in 1995.

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• Haney, Erin. Photography in Africa. London: Reaktion Books, 2010.

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  Focused study of photography in Africa that addresses key moments and trajectories from colonial photography to African studio photography, activities, documentary traditions, and use of photography in the popular arts. West African photographers’ works are well represented. Excellent resource for students and specialist scholars.

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• Keïta, Seydou. Seydou Keïta. Edited by André Magnin; texts by André Magnin and Youssouf Tata Cissé. Zurich, Switzerland, and New York: Scalo, 1997.

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  Presentation of 270 black-and-white portraits by Seydou Keita, a Malian photographer who had a successful photography studio in Bamako from 1948 to 1962. Interview with the photographer and a short history of Bamako contextualize the photos.

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• Lamunière, Michelle. You Look Beautiful Like That: The Portrait Photographs of Seydou Keita and Malick Sidibé. Cambridge: Harvard University Art Museums, 2001.

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  An exhibit catalogue featuring the work of Malian photographs Keita and Sidibe, who documented urban life in Mali in the decades before and after independence in 1960. Includes interviews with the photographers and an essay on the history of portrait photography in West Africa from 1840s to the present.

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• Nimis, Erika. Photographes d’Afrique de l’Ouest: L’expérience Yoruba. Paris: Karthala, 2005.

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  In-depth study of the history of Yoruba photography, primarily focused on Ibadan, Nigeria. Includes biographies and career histories of many of the photographers and discusses the import of the digital revolution on photography in Africa. Thirty color photographs.

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Cinema

African cinema has been the subject of an increasing number of histories and critical studies in which West African filmmakers are featured prominently. Standard texts for the history of African feature films include Diawara 1992 and Ukadike 1994. Armes 2006 and Pfaff 1988 also engage the history of art films from different perspectives, while Saul and Austen 2010 brings together a collection of essays that address the categories of art films and the popular Nollywood productions. Important reference works and bibliographies include publications by Armes and Schmidt.

• Armes, Roy. African Filmmaking: North and South of the Sahara. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.

  DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748621231.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A study of African filmmaking that links the production of film in the Maghreb (Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco) to former Francophone sub-Saharan African filmmakers (mostly West African). Focuses on three postcolonial periods: the pioneer African filmmakers from the Independence era (1960s to 1980s), the New Millennium group (in the 1990s), and new emergent filmmakers.

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• Diawara, Manthia. African Cinema: Politics and Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.

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  A solid history of African cinema from the colonial period through the early 1990s, with critical discussions of film production and distribution in anglophone, francophone, and lusophone regions as well as film aesthetics. Includes a chapter on the FESPACO film festival.

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• Pfaff, Françoise. Twenty-five Black African Filmmakers: A Critical Study, With Filmography and Bio-bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.

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  This compilation includes a biography, filmography, and thematic analyses of individual films for each filmmaker and varying critical viewpoints.

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• Saul, Mahir, and Ralph Austen, eds. Viewing African Cinema in the 21st Century: Art Films and the Nollywood Video Revolution. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2010.

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  First volume to bring together a set of essays that include both African art films centered in French-speaking West Africa and the new Nollywood commercial videos from Nigeria and Ghana.

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• Ukadike, Nwachukwu Frank. Black African Cinema. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

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  Broad overview of the history and development of cinema in sub-Saharan Africa. Argues for the connections between Africa’s oral traditions and black African cinematic practices.

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West African Museums

Museums in West Africa begin in the early twentieth century. Geary 1983 reconstructs the history of collection in one of the earliest museums, the Bamun Palace Museum founded by King Njoya. Since independence in 1960, many West African nations have begun the process of transforming colonial era museum into national museums intended to reclaim and highlight the traditional arts and cultures of these new nations. As part of this process, catalogues of these collections began to be published, such as Siegmann and Schmidt 1977 for Liberia, N’Diaye 1994 for Senegal, and, more recently, Sidibé 2006 for Mali. As part of this effort to reclaim these museums, the West African Museum Programme, which was established in 1982 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, has been active for the past four decades in organizing museum training workshops and professional conferences focused on topics of relevance to its members. Edited volumes of papers from four of these symposia, Ardouin 1997, Ardouin and Arinze 1995, Ardouin and Arinze 2000, and Adande and Arinze 2002, are useful and important discussions of critical issues facing West African museums in the twenty-first century.

• Ardouin, Claude Daniel. Museums and Archaeology in West Africa. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997.

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  Essays in this volume examine the issues around management of archaeological materials and ways that museums can move from their original role as archival repositories for objects of prehistory to refashioning these objects as part of more contemporary narratives about national identities.

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• Ardouin, Claude Daniel, and Emmanuel Arinze. Museums and the Community in West Africa. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995.

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  This collection of essays addresses the issue of local museums, the relationships between the national and local museums, and strategies for engaging local communities.

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• Ardouin, Claude Daniel, and Emmanuel Arinze. Museums and History in West Africa. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.

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  A series of twenty-four short essays that address the role of history in museums and the policies and aspirations of the individual museums, with the West African Museum Programme urging a move away from antiquarian approaches toward more imaginative and community-based programs.

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• Adande, Alexis B. A., and Emmanuel Arinze. Museums and Urban Culture in West Africa. Oxford: James Currey, 2002.

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  The short essays in this volume explore the origins of urbanism in West Africa and recent efforts by the various museums to document, collect, and display urban arts and material culture.

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• Geary, Christraud. Things of the Palace: A Catalogue of the Bamum Palace Museum in Foumban (Cameroon). Studien zur Kulturkunde 60. Wiesbaden, West Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1983.

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  A scholarly catalogue of the collection (467 objects) of the Bamum Palace Museum in Foumbam, Cameroon. A major contribution to the art history of Bamum art. The collection is representative of objects in use from the early nineteenth century through the mid-1930s. Includes 159 black-and-white plates and 153 drawings and an extensive bibliography.

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• N’Diaye, Francine. Le Musée de Dakar: Arts et traditions artisanales en Afrique de l’Ouest. Saint-Maur, France: Sépia. 1994.

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  Includes an essay on the history of the museum (founded in 1938) and an illustrated catalogue of 215 objects from West Africa, including carved wooden figures and masks, ceramics, jewelry, household furnishings, textiles, and leatherwork in the permanent collection.

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• Sidibé, Samuel, ed. Le Musée national du Mali: Catalogue de l’exposition permanente. Ghent, Belgium: Éditions Snoeck, 2006.

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  Illustrated catalogue of the permanent collection divided into sections on archaeological objects, ethnographic objects, and textiles.

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• Siegmann, William C., and Cynthia E. Schmidt. Rock of the Ancestors = namôa koni: Liberian Art and Material Culture from the Collections of the Africana Museum. Suakoko, Liberia: Cuttington University College, 1977.

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  An illustrated catalogue of the collections, with extended catalogue entries on individual objects housed in the university museum.

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