Richard Aina, Dennis Sharp, 2021 by AA School

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Richard Adetokunbo Aina

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

A personally enlightening academic study, that has been developed towards a design proposal - which I dream to tanglibly contribute towards existence in this world. Perhaps within reason, to a greater or lesser degree; as I continually learn with time things inevitably change.

19/04/21

CONTENTS

Introduction

The West African Object, its Premise. The Lobi, an Ethnic Group Lobi Cosmology & the Crafted Bateba: Architectural Context Bateba: Figures (& Time Navigation)

The West African Object, a Historical Tug of War. Gell & the Original Lobi ‘Art Nexus’ First Contact The Beginnings of Ethnography A French Perspective Primitive Art of Ethnography & Cubism A Metropolitan Fetish Perpetual Anonymity & Endless Authenticity Wars Tourist Art in Modern Times Finances & Acclaim

The West African Object, Ownership through Action. Trade as an Instrument of Diplomacy Creative (Industrial) Clusters The Development of Extant Infrastructure The New Art Nexus Conclusion Bibliography

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figures 1-4: Lobi Objects documented by Henri Labouret during his tavels to Lobi country in the early 20th century. Labouret, Henri. (1931) Les Tribus du Rameau Lobi. Institut d'ethnologie.

Introduction.

This thesis aims to progress towards a novel offering regarding a subject matter that has grown to become deceptively familiar. One can recognise antiques as marginal objects, anomalous amongst the conventional in how they forgo contemporary functional tropes. Even though such objects of antiquity serve no pertinent present purpose, beyond worldly superficialities, they are symbolic – embodying a mythological character. They have the capacity to evoke bygone times, imbuing atmospheres of seemingly fading practices of the past that existed in the antithesis of conventional contemporary notions. Operating as a surviving remnant, nostalgically referring to notions of craftsmanship and quality that are representative of particular historical periods in time.1 “The material world confronts us only to serve as a mirror for social relations”2 - Bruno Latour Nonetheless, in addition, it is the notion of exoticism that has long pervaded the European lens that is cast on Africa.3 Thus by default, from such a perspective, any objects that are held in association with the continent supersede almost all other items of antiquity in the curiosity that they have attracted historically. This phenomenon can begin to allow one to comprehend the wider dynamics of Western and African interaction through these objects. On a typical bank holiday afternoon, one may find themselves on a trip to the nearest Museum - with an extensive area designated for African art. An attempt to encapsulate the culture of a whole continent within given square footage in a plan. Whilst the customary text for each item on display is somewhat informative, this exercise demands further in-depth interrogation. We must explore how and why particular objects of African craft are initially created within a specific context and the various infrastructures that have existed and persist allowing them to find themselves dissociated from their (often cosmological and socioreligious) premise. The inherent vastness and diversity of the African continent make it particularly difficult and somewhat short-sighted to even use West Africa as a more specific region for academic study, coming after only Asia in terms of landmass and population.4 Rather, focus on a particular ethnic group in association with their made objects would allow such a detailed ethnography to begin to propagate the larger intended conversation. Thus, the Lobi peoples - an ethnic group were identified as the ideal sample size, whose culture is embodied by their cosmological belief system. This is manifested through their inherent aptitude for craft and artistry, such a trait is keenly recognised overseas – with hundreds of thousands of objects having found themselves scattered, in various museums and galleries particularly in England, France, Germany and North America.5 Through a more detailed understanding of these parameters surrounding African objects (or antiques or even artefacts). This will proliferate a more nuanced and objective understanding of the matter within a contemporary context. From which one can begin to explore potential avenues towards reconciliation and initiatives that attempt to address such a controversial matter coherently. With hopes of detaching oneself from repeated arguments and conventional modes of discourse, investigating original and thought-provoking propositions to by Flam as “us and them”.6

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified. Pre-colonial (past-1850)

Colonial (1850- 1960)

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Volta River basin International boundary

1930

Nassian• migrations before 1900 Sandégué• 1900 - 1960 Kouassi-•

• BONDOUKOU Ashanti (Britsh 1896)

Datékro

Lake Volta

Côte D’Ivôire (French)

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Gold Coast (Britsh 1874)

•Grand Bassam

Côte D’Ivôire

periods of Lobi migration

•

migrations 1960 - 1970 1970 - 1984 1984 ... migration for s. Côte D’Ivôire

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trading port

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Togoland (French 1956)

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Bla ck Vo lta

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•Doropo •Kalamon 1910 Bouna•

•

periods of Lobi migration

1680

LOBI

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Koulango 1690

BOUNA•

LOBI

Birifor Daro Gon Dyan Dagaba Wile

BATIÉ s.•

Northern Territories (Britsh 1902)

Kampti province 1860 - 1870 d’Iridiaka province 1880 - 1890 Téhini 1880 - 1890

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WA•

Birifor

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LOBI 1770 /

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GAWA•

•LAWRA

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BATIÉ n.•

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Dyan 1770 / Dogoba 1820 Doro Gan 1750

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Bougouribo

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Pwa 1760 Wile 1790

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Bougouribo

Soudan (French)

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Isola 1690 Pwa

Bwo 1715

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Volta River basin International boundary

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Volta River basin Voltaian sedimetary basin

Post-colonial (1960-pre

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French (& European ) ship passage along the West Coast

Atlantic Ocean

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The Lobi migrated across the Mouhoun River as a result of the Dagomba Wars in the 1770s.

‘15 2º0º0º

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Many Lobi peoples migrated into southern Burkina Faso and later into Côte d'Ivoire over the next 100 years.

Bakary Ouattara, brother of the founder of the Guiriko empire led an offensive against the Lobi in 1815, and despite setting fire to several villages he was eventually killed by a poisoned arrow.

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Vo lta

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Lake Volta

periods of Lobi migration

• KOUN-FAO

migrations 1960 - 1970 1970 - 1984 1984 ... migration for s. Côte D’Ivôire

Ghana

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trading port

Côte D’Ivôire

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•Grand Bassam

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Gold Coast (Britsh 1874)

•

BONDOUKOU 1980

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lac

Lake Volta

Togoland (French 1956)

Côte D’Ivôire (French)

•

BOUNA 1930

Togo

Ashanti (Britsh 1896)

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• BONDOUKOU

Datékro

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1930

Nassian• migrations before 1900 Sandégué• 1900 - 1960 Kouassi-•

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•Doropo •Kalamon 1910 Bouna•

LOBI

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olt kV

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Téhini 1880 - 1890

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Northern Territories (Britsh 1902)

Kampti province 1860 - 1870 d’Iridiaka province 1880 - 1890

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Bougouribo

periods of Lobi migration

Burkina Faso

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Bla

Soudan (French)

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The Lobi amongst Volta River basin other groups International boundary migrated Northwards up the Black Volta.

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‘80

Atlantic Ocean 5º0º0º

migrated Northwards up the Black Volta.

Mouhoun River as a result of the Dagomba Wars in the 1770s.

southern Burkina Faso and later into Côte d'Ivoire over the next 100 years.

an offensive against the Lobi in 1815, and despite setting fire to several villages he was eventually killed by a poisoned arrow.

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2º0º0º

1º0º0º

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Drawing: Historical timeline & map showing Lobi migration during its pre colonial, colonial and post ‘80 ‘70 ‘15 colonial eras. Many Lobi Bakary Ouattara, The Lobi The Lobi peoples brother of the founder of amongst migrated Aina, R (2020). migrated into the Guiriko empire led other groups across the

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‘50

He was succeeded by Karakara who continued with the raids leading up to the devastating attack in 1850 where they suffered heavily and lost a great deal but were never completely defeated.

Concerted French exploration of West Africa began in the mid-19th century.

‘95

French West Africa was a federation of eight French colonial territories in Africa. The federation existed from 1895.

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Atlantic Ocean

French (& European ) ship passage along the West Coast

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00 Post-colonial (1960-present)

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The earliest Volta was recorded initially River basin European Volta inahibited by boundary voyage to International small farmer West Africa groups, that was made by were in the Portuguese contanst in 1482. Which battle. spawned future European exploration.

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Colonial (1850- 1960)

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Ghana independence.

‘57 ‘58 ‘60

French Côte D’Ivôire & West Burkina Faso Africa independence. federatio n ended in 1958.

‘50

He was succeeded by Karakara who continued with the raids leading up to the devastating attack in 1850 where they suffered heavily and lost a great deal but were never completely defeated.

Concerted French exploration of West Africa began in the mid-19th century.

‘95

Frenc Africa feder eight colon territo Africa feder existe 1895

THE WEST AFRICAN OBJECT, ITS PREMISE. The Lobi, an Ethnic Group

Several ethnic groups belong to the blanket term Lobi, it widely refers to a strata of ethnic groups that are closely related.7 Linked by their common artistic tradition, linguistic dialect and social organisation – these peoples are divided into three contemporary nation-states. Situated at the intersection of southwest Burkina Faso, northwest Ghana and northeast Côte d’Ivoire, Lobi country centred around the small town of Gaoua.8 9 Concentrated within an area of 30-35,000 km2, these groups are represented by approximately 450-600,000 people.10 Among them, there are various similarities and differences defined in terms of funeral ceremonies, marriage customs, language, social norms and the art objects divided between men and women. They are farmers, hunters, and herders but above all, they are a people of warriors.11 Victims of historical tumult from both local and alien forces, they are amongst the fiercest and proudest inhabitants of Burkina Faso. During the 1600s, the Wala lived in Mamprusi and established control over both the Dagardi and Lobi peoples.12 Now a leading market town, Techiman (or Takyiman), Ghana is said to be the ancient home of the Lobi, believed to be the legendary birthplace of the Akan peoples. During the mid-16th century, the Akan were involved with English sea merchants, the trade routes ran along the West Bank of the Black Volta River. Forming the premise of the presently recognised Voltaic peoples of today. Towards the end of the 18th century, the Lobi moved north-west and east because of population pressure and incursions from larger groups in the area namely the Dagomba wars of the 1770s. This coincided precisely with the first wave of eastern and north-western migrations by the Lobi from Ghana across the Mouhoun River into a new land - their present-day location. A route connected to the west of the Mouhoun points to a deep history of trade with Hausa merchants.13 They were welcomed by the kingdom of Bouna, mixing with the present occupants.14 Within such history, the Lobi are located directly amid a network of local, international economic and political exchange (and conflict) that long precedes the grave encounter with French colonialists.15

7. 8.

Lentz, C., & Kuba, R. (2001). The Dagara and their Neighbors (Burkina Faso and Ghana). University of Frankfurt Am Main, 7, 64. Goody, J. (2020). Lobi-Dagarti Peoples. Encyclopedia.Com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ lobi-dagarti-peoples 9. Keith Gundlach, C. (2012). The river and the shrine: Lobi art and sense of place in Southwest Burkina Faso. University of Iowa. 10. Keller, T. (2011). Lobi Statuary. Keller Tribal Art. http://www.statuary-in-context.ch/assets/files/lobi-statuary.pdf 11. Manson, K., & Knight, J. (2006). Burkina Faso: The Bradt travel guide. Bradt ; Globe Pequot Press. 12. Project, J. (2020). Northern Toussian in Burkina Faso. Joshua Project. https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/15573/UV 13. Keith Gundlach, C. (2012). The river and the shrine: Lobi art and sense of place in Southwest Burkina Faso. University of Iowa 14. Project, J. (2020). Northern Toussian in Burkina Faso. Joshua Project. https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/15573/UV 15. Keith Gundlach, C. (2012). The river and the shrine: Lobi art and sense of place in Southwest Burkina Faso. University of Iowa.

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the sentinel

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A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

stage

l thi da

ancest

Drawing: Lobi cosmology system highlighting a relationship centred through the the built domestic and crafted bateba. Aina, R (2020).

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The West African Object, its Premise. Lobi Cosmology & the Crafted.

It was acknowledged through a significant proportion of West African ethnic groups that colonials encountered were organised through hierarchical king and ruler-based systems. Thus, in usurping a leader of such peoples, colonial administrators would be able to propagate their control of a larger group solely through the formerly ruling individual.16 After the Franco-British treaty in 1898, establishing the then Black Volta River as the border between the colonial possessions of the British and French, they set about managing a region that had never before been conquered.17 When the French encountered the Lobi people during the late nineteenth century, administrators struggled to enforce their rule over them within a “sphere of influence” that formed the colonial landscape.18 This can be explained by their unique system of community orientation, rather than the animate, the thil within their complex animist belief system are embodied through the Bateba, enigmatically crafted figures that are recognised as the head of each village community.19 The Lobi collectively believe in a somewhat familiar nascent Garden of Eden premise where God (Thangba Yu) the creator of all things was initially content, wanting for nothing of his children. Although as people began to multiply, they began to fight amongst themselves, men would clash with one another over women. For this reason, God decided to turn his back on them, curtailing a once direct contact with him. Although in his benevolence, not wanting his progeny to be completely lost, he sent forth Thila that would serve as metaphysical intermediary entities to look over the people below them.20 This centralised belief system is manifested through their crafted Bateba figures, cared for by a single village diviner (thildaar) whothrough his meticulous process of divination would contact the thila conveying their messages, demands and prohibitions to the people. In a sense, it is the thildaar who indirectly controls a community, whom may act as a dithildaar (village priest) ordained to selflessly serve his respective community. Often residing in the thilduu (domestic shrine room) at the rear of the dwelling operating as a spiritual vessel.21 It is through the dwelling that provides a privileged field for reading the structural complexities of a given community. As in any society, territorial organisation is one of the most fundamental cultural acts. Thus building his own house, making the founding gesture, its shape, orientation with the surrounding landscape, the dwelling represents a portal within the universe.22 The dithil is often represented by a pile of stone arranged at the foot of a grand tree, beneath which one buries all the evils (disease, drought …) within which the territory must be protected and maintained. It is a point that defines a whole area, as a Lobi would declare to belong to a dithil within their vicinity, in this territory one would build their house, cultivate their fields and root their family altars. Thus, within this protected area, the earth, maison sukala (house) and tombs, water sources conflate a multiplicity of signs but also manifest a multifaceted and interspersed historicity of a group.23 Upon approach to a typical house-come-fortress, it is protected by a field of metaphysical sacred stitches woven by family altars. An iron stick placed on the roof sits like a vulture, a sentinel alert system intercepts alarm signals and instantly transmits them to the material supports of the ancestors (thil thud) housed in the domestic sanctuary. All thanks to a trip of cotton that acts like a telegraph, while the ancestors alert the exterior alters in equal measure. With thanks to the earth alter, this whole system of forces is projected that operates as the supreme guarantor of the community.24

16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

Hobsbawm, E. J., & Ranger, T. O. (Eds.). (2012). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge University Press. Dr Viviane Baeke. (2007). Whispering Woods: The Great Lobi Statuary from the François & Marie Christiaens Collection. Eeckman Art & Insurance. Keith Gundlach, C. (2012). The river and the shrine: Lobi art and sense of place in Southwest Burkina Faso. University of Iowa. The Lobi Tribe. (n.d.). Yorks’s Shona Gallery: One of a Kind African Art. Retrieved 10 December 2020, from https://yo The Lobi Tribe. (n.d.). Yorks’sShona Gallery: One of a Kind African Art. Retrieved 10 December 2020, from https://yorksshonagallery.com/pages/the-lobi-triberksshonagallery. com/pages/the-lobi-tribe The Lobi Tribe. (n.d.). Yorks’s Shona Gallery: One of a Kind African Art. Retrieved 10 December 2020, from https://yo The Lobi Tribe. (n.d.). Yorks’s Shona Gallery: One of a Kind African Art. Retrieved 10 December 2020, from https://yorksshonagallery.com/pages/the-lobi-triberksshonagallery.com/ pages/the-lobi-tribe Manson, K., & Knight, J. (2006). Burkina Faso: The Bradt travel guide. Bradt ; Globe Pequot Press. Fiéloux, M., Lombard, J., & Kambou-Ferrand, J.-M. (Eds.). (1993). Images d’Afrique et sciences sociales: Les pays lobi, birifor et dagara (Burkina Faso, Côte-d’Ivoire et Ghana): actes du colloque de Ouagadougou, 10-15 décembre 1990. Editions Karthala : Editions l’ORSTOM. Fiéloux, M., Lombard, J., & Kambou-Ferrand, J.-M. (Eds.). (1993). Images d’Afrique et sciences sociales: Les pays lobi, birifor et dagara (Burkina Faso, Côte-d’Ivoire et Ghana): actes du colloque de Ouagadougou, 10-15 décembre 1990. Editions Karthala : Editions l’ORSTOM. Fiéloux, M., Lombard, J., & Kambou-Ferrand, J.-M. (Eds.). (1993). Images d’Afrique et sciences sociales: Les pays lobi, birifor et dagara (Burkina Faso,

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Collage: The Lobi Thilduu shown with the Thildaar & Bateba, combined with a sample of plans highlighting its general domestic location. Aina, R (2020).

The West African Object, its Premise. Bateba: Architectural Context.

The kinship or alliance relationships result from the opposing force of ritual detection (material or metaphysical), help the Lobi to decide the choice of land. Before embarking on the construction phase the entrusted “plotter” has the duty of drawing on the ground with a hoe after scoring with a pebble the location of the door, which is then buried in the location of the domestic sanctuary (thilduu) to be built. Consequent construction becomes a collective activity, involving parents and neighbours.25 The man in charge directing is rewarded with 2000 cowries for the entrance door, interior passages for 40 cowries and 60 cowries for access to the sanctuary. The interior floor level is lower than the ground level as the clay within the perimeter becomes the building material, clay is kneaded with water and straw and placed on stakes in layers to support each consequent one making up to five to six layers of superimposed earth. The women tamp the roof terrace which is supported by wooden pillars that are laid by men. The supporting structure is independent of the walls which simplify the repair of parts damaged by rains. The architecture is malleable and flexible, allowing for the addition of new passages and rooms as the family increases. Folded baobab bark funnelled from the roof allows water to be drained through the wall. Once constructed symbolism through hiergamy of the “plotter” has expressed itself in the male phallic form, anchored by the chiefs representative vestibule storage area, the testes on either side, are stores for fermenting millet beer and hen egg hatching. Whilst the complementary rooms of the wives and children flank and surround the male vestibule that fills this void.26 Two holes allow the domestic sanctuary direct communication with the outside for the domestic sanctuary (thilduu). With the iron sentinel staff aforementioned, the other hole in the wall that opens facing eastwards – often blocked by tufts of hair is removed to voice dead-wanderer spirits during rituals.27 It is from within the domestic sanctuary (thilduu) from which Lobi life is centred and continually extrapolates. It is through an intricate and complex culture of craft and production from which religious power is derived that is tied to sacred laws which vary according to the owner, shrine and village.28 Oscillating in perfect harmony, it is the built form and crafted Bateba that allows them to comprehend the past, whilst maintaining the present and anticipating future consequences.

25. 26. 27. 28.

Fiéloux, M., Lombard, J., & Kambou-Ferrand, J.-M. (Eds.). (1993). Images d’Afrique et sciences sociales: Les pays lobi, birifor et dagara (Burkina Faso, Côte-d’Ivoire et Ghana): actes du colloque de Ouagadougou, 10-15 décembre 1990. Editions Karthala : Editions l’ORSTOM. Fiéloux, M., Lombard, J., & Kambou-Ferrand, J.-M. (Eds.). (1993). Images d’Afrique et sciences sociales: Les pays lobi, birifor et dagara (Burkina Faso, Côte-d’Ivoire et Ghana): actes du colloque de Ouagadougou, 10-15 décembre 1990. Editions Karthala : Editions l’ORSTOM. Fiéloux, M., Lombard, J., & Kambou-Ferrand, J.-M. (Eds.). (1993). Images d’Afrique et sciences sociales: Les pays lobi, birifor et dagara (Burkina Faso, Côte-d’Ivoire et Ghana): actes du colloque de Ouagadougou, 10-15 décembre 1990. Editions Karthala : Editions l’ORSTOM. Keith Gundlach, C. (2012). The river and the shrine: Lobi art and sense of place in Southwest Burkina Faso. University of Iowa. Côte-d’Ivoire et Ghana): actes du colloque de Ouagadougou, 10-15 décembre 1990. Editions Karthala : Editions l’ORSTOM.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

DÌTHÍL // village village territory territory Pεle/ territories / territoriesofofneighbouring neighbouringvillages DÌTHÍL Pεle villages phεr / residential area phεr / residential area cona cona coliε coliε nabaran nabaran Liε / agricultural area Liε / agricultural hw�nliε area hwónliε g�g�liε baan / portions per each farmer gŌgŌliε p�liέ / exploited for the culture baan / portions per each farmer pÒliέ / exploited for the culture hw�n / the bush (grazing area, hunting, gathering ...) hwón /[polysemous: the bush (grazing area, hunting, gathering ...)]

HILDUU

OMESTIC SHRINE ROOM

LONG SECTION

HILDUU

OMESTIC SHRINE ROOM

PLAN

THE PRESENT THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE ROOM

THE FUTURE

THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE ROOM

LONG SECTION

THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE ROOM

PLAN

the historical present

the great ancestors

MAISON SOUKALA ENTRANCE

SHORT SECTION

the common ancestors

THE GREAT ELDER

THE PAST

T /D DÌTHÍL // village village territory territory Pεle/ territories / territoriesofofneighbouring neighbouring DÌTHÍL Pεle villages villages phεr / residential area phεr / residential area cona cona coliε coliε nabaran nabaran T /D Liε / agricultural area THE SACRED ANIMALS THE GUARDIAN SPIRITS Liε / agricultural hw�nliε area hwónliε g�g�liε baan / portions per each farmer gŌgŌliε p�liέ / exploited for the culture baan / portions per each farmer pÒliέ / exploited for the culture hw�n / the bush (grazing area, hunting, gathering ...) hwón /[polysemous: the bush (grazing area, hunting, gathering ...)] FAMILY ALTAR

LONG SECTION

CALLIGRAPHIC SYMBOLS & PATTERNS OF DIVINATION

MANUFACTURING & INSTALLATION OF LOAM FIGURE WITH COWRIE SHELLS

THÍL BIÚ / SMALL STATUETTES

LES AMULETTES TAARI THULAN / TAARI CHAMEOLON AMULETTES

THÍLBAR / DIVINER

THE SACRED ANIMALS

THE GUARDIAN SPIRITS

BAA'THIL / THIL HEAD BATEBAYADAWORA / SAD BATEBA

THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE ROOM LONG SECTION

BATEBA TI PUO / DANGEROUS BATEBA

THIL DOKRA / JANUS FIGURE

THE PAST THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE ROOM

the historical present

SHORT SECTION

the common ancestors

LONG SECTION

THE GREAT ELDER

MAISON SOUKALA ENTRANCE

the great ancestors

FAMILY ALTAR

MATERNITY FIGURES

THILL / THE EXTRAORDINARY POWERS BETISE / MATING COUPLE OR

BATEBA PHUWE / NORMAL OR ORDINARY BATEBA

THÍL BIÚ / SMALL STATUETTES

OR EXTRAORDINARY BATEBA

COWRIE SHELLS

PARALYSED BATEBA

THIL THUD / REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DOUBLE (MEDIUM)

on occasion, through the death of the owner

BATEBA TI-BALA / UNUSUAL

KÚTHILA / THE GREAT ANCESTORS (LARGE)

MASSIVE

BATEBA BAMBAR /

HIPPOPOTAMUS / TURTLE / LION ...

LONG SECTION

THILDUU / DO

LONG SECTION

THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE ROOM

THILDUU / DO

PLAN

CALLIGRAPHIC SYMBOLS & PATTERNS OF DIVINATION

MANUFACTURING & INSTALLATION OF LOAM FIGURE WITH COWRIE SHELLS

THÍLBAR / DIVINER

HIPPOPOTAMUS / TURTLE / LION ...

MASSIVE

KÚTHILA / THE GREAT ANCESTORS (LARGE)

THIL THUD / REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DOUBLE (MEDIUM)

on occasion, through the death of the owner

BATEBA PHUWE / NORMAL OR ORDINARY BATEBA

Drawing: The Lobi dwelling, territory & cosomology system oscillating through time. Aina, R(2020).

BATEBAYADAWOR

The West African Object, its Premise. Bateba: Figures (& Time Navigation)

Lou (forest) and (bi) children are Lobiri words for the name Lobi, meaning “children of the forest”.29 The Past – Refers to the specific messages of the ancestral culture that are transmitted in the present. This includes representations of the great ancestors and the corresponding prohibitions. The Great Ancestors (kuthila) – The founder of the patriclan recognised as “the great elder”, whose memory is transmitted. Handcrafted of loam they are found in sanctuary houses; they operate from a “quiet or resting” vantage point. As their knowledge is transmitted through examination of situations, from which they confer their wisdom they cannot be moved they are “planted in place”. They will consequently decay with the surrounding built environment when left unattended to. The Animals – In addition to the aforementioned prohibitions conveyed to community members. Sacred animals, guardian spirits are those legendry figures that occupy a significant folklorist presence within a group. Working in tandem with the great ancestors, they offer protection for the community. Represented in different family altars where their presence summons the prohibitions arising from a pact agreed upon aeons ago. Made of smaller representations, in wood or earth, they appear as copies of major elaborate tales born from an alliance established with a mythical ancestor. The Historical Present – Exists as a means of maintaining the family integrity further orienting the individual within the context of their kin. These also include the figures of the common ancestors and the particular powers of the diviner. Common Ancestors – Those who inhabit different stages of the ancestral manifestation process (being the interrogation of the deceased, the secondary herald of the dead etc..) who would become recognized ancestors in the “land of the dead”. Placed in the domestic shrine (thilduu), they are of medium size, often fashioned with ornaments characterized by the role that the individual wore to distinguish their position within the community. To convey a sense of realism, the village craftsman has to retain essential anatomic elements and particular traits of their ethnic style that would often include styles of other craftsmen and neighbouring groups. The small statuettes (thil biu) – Channel acquired power through which the diviner can practice his process of divination. A position that is not learned, but an individual is “summoned” to act as a conduit for the community to the celestial realm, never earning for their lifelong service.30 A family member in need of guidance would consult their diviner, during the intricate often forty-five-minute divination process involving an intense back and forth of up to 1000 interrogations to the spiritual realm.31 The statuettes are bound within drawn chalk circles. Complemented by white cowry shells, goats’ cheese and other complementary instruments held within a sacred sachet that accentuate the process. Rhythmic circular signs and constellations from coerced hand movements are inscribed on sheets of paper that will later be interpreted to convey the scared message to further orient the individual within the community context. It must be acknowledged that divination whilst widespread in Lobi country, exsits in a multitude of intricately diverse forms throughout West Africa. Lobi themselves habitually comprehend. Such individual and ethnic idiosyncrasies

29. 30. 31.

Manson, K., & Knight, J. (2006). Burkina Faso: The Bradt travel guide. Bradt ; Globe Pequot Press. Fiéloux, M., Lombard, J., & Kambou-Ferrand, J.-M. (Eds.). (1993). Images d’Afrique et sciences sociales: Les pays lobi, birifor et dagara (Burkina Faso, Côte-d’Ivoire et Ghana): actes du colloque de Ouagadougou, 10-15 décembre 1990. Editions Karthala : Editions l’ORSTOM. Divination Techniques—Art & Life in Africa—The University of Iowa Museum of Art. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 December 2020, from https://africa.uima. uiowa.edu/chapters/divination/divination-techniques/

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

THE PAST

THE PRESENT THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE ROOM

the historical present

THE GUARDIAN SPIRITS

LONG SECTION

the common ancestors

THE SACRED ANIMALS

THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE ROOM

THE GREAT ELDER

MAISON SOUKALA ENTRANCE SHORT SECTION

the great ancestors

FAMILY ALTAR LONG SECTION

LONG SECTION

THE FUTURE

THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE ROOM

LONG SECTION

THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE ROOM

PLAN

CALLIGRAPHIC SYMBOLS & PATTERNS OF DIVINATION

MANUFACTURING & INSTALLATION OF LOAM FIGURE WITH COWRIE SHELLS

THÍL BIÚ / SMALL STATUETTES

LES AMULETTES TAARI THULAN / TAARI CHAMEOLON AMULETTES

THÍLBAR / DIVINER

THE PAST

BAA'THIL / THIL HEAD BATEBAYADAWORA / SAD BATEBA

THE PRESENT

THE FUTURE

THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE ROOM

LONG SECTION

THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE ROOM

PLAN

the historical present

the common ancestors

THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE ROOM LONG SECTION

BATEBA TI PUO / DANGEROUS BATEBA

THIL DOKRA / JANUS FIGURE

BATEBA BAMBAR /

BATEBA PHUWE / NORMAL OR ORDINARY BATEBA

MATERNITY FIGURES

THILL / THE EXTRAORDINARY POWERS BETISE / MATING COUPLE OR

THÍL BIÚ / SMALL STATUETTES

COWRIE SHELLS

OR EXTRAORDINARY BATEBA

THIL THUD / REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DOUBLE (MEDIUM)

on occasion, through the death of the owner

PARALYSED BATEBA

KÚTHILA / THE GREAT ANCESTORS (LARGE)

MASSIVE

BATEBA TI-BALA / UNUSUAL

HIPPOPOTAMUS / TURTLE / LION ...

CALLIGRAPHIC SYMBOLS & PATTERNS OF DIVINATION

THÍL BIÚ / SMALL STATUETTES

LES AMULETTES TAARI THULAN / TAARI CHAMEOLON AMULETTES

THÍLBAR / DIVINER

BAA'THIL / THIL HEAD BATEBAYADAWORA / SAD BATEBA

Drawing: The Lobi dwelling, territory & cosomology system oscillating through time. Aina, R (2020).

BATEBA TI PUO / DANGEROUS BATEBA

THIL DOKRA / JANUS FIGURE

MATERNITY FIGURES

BETISE / MATING COUPLE OR

THILL / THE EXTRAORDINARY POWERS OR EXTRAORDINARY BATEBA

BATEBA PHUWE / NORMAL OR ORDINARY BATEBA

THÍL BIÚ / SMALL STATUETTES

BATEBA TI-BALA / UNUSUAL

COWRIE SHELLS

PARALYSED BATEBA

THIL THUD / REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DOUBLE (MEDIUM)

on occasion, through the death of the owner

BATEBA BAMBAR /

KÚTHILA / THE GREAT ANCESTORS (LARGE)

The West African Object, its Premise. Bateba: Figures (& Time Navigation)

The Present – Pertains to private and public behaviour of the individual within the community, through which crafted objects allow each individual to observe laws of a socio-religious context. Which in this animist belief system operates through a particular kind of Bateba (double Thil and scared ritual objects) that play their role as mediators. The double thil (thil thud) – Existing as complementary male and female pairs, these anthropomorphic representations are used to provide answers for problems and issues families encounter. The village craftsman is approached to produce Bateba for a particular purpose. Through which prohibitions are divinely conveyed to socially cement one within the community conscious and unconscious realm to address worldly issues encountered. In the death of the figure’s owner, one of them may represent them in their roles as an ancestor.32 Bateba Phuwe – Known as normal or ordinary Bateba, with a solemn expression looking straight ahead with both arms down. Would pertain to a variety of more rudimentary specific day-to-day functions.33 The sacred ritual objects (thil thie) – These are complementary actions that harmonise supernatural forces within the context of communal ritual events, such as funerals, initiation ceremonies, bravery rituals and weddings. Often made of different materials are worn as amulets, necklaces, headcovers et al. They are controlled and handed down the patrilineal and matrilineal line within the kin group, helping to convey one’s position and maintain traditional lineage.

32. 33.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

STYALISTIC: GLASSES:

FUNCTION: BATEBA TI BALA (ANATOMICALLY ANOMALOUS)

BATEBA DUNTUNDARA

(WITCHCRAFT PROTECTION)

BATEBA PHUWE (ORDINARY): USED TO PROVIDE THE OWNER WITH GENERAL

PROTECTION FROM WITCHCRAFT.

• IMAGES WITH NO DEFINING POSTURE OR EXPRESSION

• FACE SEEN AS GRIM • WIDE BULGING EYES • CHEST PROMINENTLY CARVED OUT • BULGING ABDOMEN • USUALLY FEATURES A PROTRUDING NAVAL • FIGURES STAND UPRIGHT WITH ARMS AGAINST THEIR SIDES (SOMETIMES CARVED FREE FROM BODY) • lONG ARMS • sLIGHTLY BENT KNEES

BATEBA BAMBAR / THILBOU GBAMGBAR (PARALYSED): USED TO PROTECT THE HOUSEHOLD FROM WITCHCRAFT AND ILLNESS (I.E. PARALYSIS).

THIL DOKRA / THILBOU YOU YENYO (JANUS HEAD): BELIEVED TO POSSESS SPECIAL

POWERS AND ABILITIES (SUCH AS SIGHT IN ALL DIRECTIONS) DUE TO THEIR

UNUSUAL EXTERNAL APPEARANCE.

USED TO PROTECT AGAINST SORCERY.

BATEBA TI PUO (DANGEROUS) THILBOU NYELLA / THILBOU BANYO: USED TO BLOCK THE ENTRANCE OF

NOSTRILS:

HARMFUL FORCES FROM THE VILLAGE AND HOUSEHOLD.

ABDOMEN (ARMS & HANDS):

B-86

B-72B

C-55A

LEGS & FEET: 42A

(THE MUNDANE)

BATEBA BETISE (COUPLE):

BATEBA YADAWURA / YADAWORA / YADAWARA (SAD / MOURNING): USED TO MOURN FOR THEIR OWNERS. THEY HELP EASE THE LOAD OF THE OWNER’S

ARE PRESCRIBED FOR SINGLE MEN SO THAT THEY FIND A WIFE OR TO WOMEN TO AVOID STERILITY OR WISHED TO HAVE A CHILD.

SADNESS BY TAKING ON SOME OF THE

SIZE: HEIGHT > 60 CM THILBOU KOTINA

MOURNING AND SADNESS.

THILBOU YO / BAATHIL (HEAD STAKE): USED BY THE THILDAR DURING DIVINATION.

THILBOU KHE MAMBI / THILBOU KHE MOUNKHA (MATERNITY): USED FOR FERTILITY PURPOSES.

Drawing: bateba categorization. Aina, R (2020).

THILBOU FI HIN (HEAD TURNED): USED TO PROTECT AGAINST ENEMIES.

C-42C

B-62A

The West African Object, its Premise. Bateba: Figures (& Time Navigation)

The Future – Is concerning personal knowledge, developing in the present for the future within the context of social dynamics. Thus, through the diviner, knowing the secret and extreme power of these objects can differentiate, develop and increase knowledge, but also maintain their power over clients and the wider community. The Extraordinary Powers - Are supernatural objects and entities that can assist the individual and powerfully influence the future through present intervention.34 Bateba Ti Bala (unusual or extraordinary Bateba) Thil Dorka (Janus figures) - Extremely powerful, having the ability to move in several directions. Betise (Mating couple) - With the man positioned behind the woman, to aid single men find a wife and for a woman to bear a child. Bateba Yadawora (sad Bateba) – Crafted with a hand touching the face, evoking a sad expression allowing their owners to mourn for lost family members. Bateba Ti Puo (dangerous Bateba) – Considered extremely dangerous as they block wandering harmful forces, with both hands held up also curtail disease and witchcraft. Bateba Bambar (paralysed Bateba) – Seated with both legs stretched out ahead, protect both the young and old from paralysis.35 Whilst merely touching the surface, it is clear that Lobi craft and production is exceedingly complex. What we recognise is sacred objects that sustain tradition and maintain cultural identity, with each object often outliving its owner – continually handed down to each successive generation. This culture of craft is always tied to the objects’ form, materiality (wood type etc) and nature of the spirit that has been manifested. Oscillating within numerous strata and sub-strata of classification that the Lobi themselves habitually comprehend. Such individual and ethnic idiosyncrasies are commonplace within West African socio-religious ideology and cultural exchange. With complementary objects that are carefully crafted, they are by no means flawless, with overlapping areas of contradiction that within perpetual paradox allude to and yet obscure an absolute truth. Such objects ahead the majority of other West African objects have historically received exceeding attention from Western collectors and institutions alike. Continuing today in Lobi country, you would contrastingly find these wooden Bateba piled in large quantities for sale.36

34. 35. 36.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 5: Alfred Gell's diagram explaining the movement of objects between different contexts. Aina, Richard (2020). Gell, A. (1998). Art and agency: An anthropological theory. Clarendon Press.

The West African Object, its Premise. Gell & the Original Lobi ‘Art Nexus’

Gell’s seminal ‘Art and Agency’ work established the sentiments for the approach embarked on within this Thesis in describing and truly understanding Bateba. From this perspective, ‘the nature of the art object is a function of the social-relational matrix in which it is embedded’. Yet, artefacts like these that are found in Museums and auction houses are displayed inherently for their aesthetic beauty - instead should be more concerned with what they can cause to occur. Thus, the object can be seen acting within its capacity as a ‘social agent’, instigating causal sequences through a person or a thing as a consequence of an act of the mind, will or intention. Interestingly, his definition of agency applies in equal measure to persons and things. It is as if art objects can be defined by their status as social agents, then anything can conceivably be an art object – living and inanimate.37 ‘The art nexus’ serves as an analytical framework that operates within the ideas of ‘agency, intention, causation, result, and transformation’ to help understand artworks that move from one context to the next. Within this, four key elements are introduced and explained – the most important being ‘index’ – typically a made artefact being an art object, which allows its observer or ‘recipient’ to make a causal inference regarding the talents or intentions of its creator being the ‘artist’. Such interpretations made easier when the ‘agency’ is inspired by a ‘prototypical’ archetype. Although agency is mediated by indexes, they can stand in a variety of relations with their prototypes, artists and recipients.38 One could formulate, at its premise a concept for the Bateba as an extension of Lobi personal and community identity, as follows: [[[Recipient1 A] → Artist A] → Index A] → Recipient2 P] The primary recipient, being an individual member who was traditionally part of the familial community-dwelling, (acting as a patron) approaches the local carver to produce a Bateba figure that fits within their respective index of proportion and aesthetics. Of which the manifested characteristics have a certain socio-religious impact on that same individual after the process of divination through the village diviner (Thilbar) in the domestic shrine room – further orientating that initial recipient within the threshold of their traditionally enclosed community. Consequently, that same crafted Bateba, will also be used by a secondary community member, or the members, presumably a kind of abduction of the agency of the initial patron.39 Appaduri describes such insular dynamics as “enclaved commodities” which have very limited circulations and are habitually considered sacred, unable to be commodified.40 The detailed study in previous chapters about the crafted Bateba of the Lobi peoples, served as an allegory – alluding to the diverse culture that pervades a West African aptitude for craft and production amongst hundreds of historical ethnic groups. Each object is crafted for a specific purpose within a socio-religious context to further perpetuate individual and collective identity. Framed by traditional dwellings which embody a society’s collective perception of the role men and women play in the universe and the relationship they maintain with their physical, sociological and spiritual surroundings.41 Such objects are in theory infinite, accompanying its owner until their death, often inherited by the next in line they are eternally sacred. Within the traditional nucleus, they are/were devoid from Western notions of worth and value, they are invaluable - namely priceless. For starters, at their very premise, they certainly were not inherently curios pieces of “art”. Concerning the Lobi, as earlier mentioned it was not until when an exterior force being the French colonials, began to distort a self-contained system of communitybased socio-religious production. Discussion of such a matter is futile without the mention of the supremely gifted Sikire Kambire. The famous and certainly most talented sculptors of the Lobi people.

37. 38. 39. 40. 41.

Chua, L., & Elliott, M. (Eds.). (2013). Distributed objects: Meaning and Mattering after Alfred Gell. Berghahn. Chua, L., & Elliott, M. (Eds.). (2013). Distributed objects: Meaning and Mattering after Alfred Gell. Berghahn. Chua, L., & Elliott, M. (Eds.). (2013). Distributed objects: Meaning and Mattering after Alfred Gell. Berghahn. Kasfir, S. L. (1996). African Art in a Suitcase: How Value Travels. Indiana University Press, 69, 146–158. Bourdier, J.-P., & Trinh, T. M.-H. (2011). Vernacular Architecture of West Africa: A World in Dwelling. Routledge.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 6: French military infantory training in lobiland. Fiéloux, M., Lombard, J., & Kambou-Ferrand, J.-M. (Eds.). (1993).

The West African Object, its Premise. First Contact

French colonials had long struggled to gain dominion over the determined Lobi during the late 20th century, the 1890s were bellied with perpetual tumult. Described as “a very turbulent people” by Lieutenant G. A E. Poole in 1905, soon after there was a brief period of calm through an increase of French dominium.42 This (at last) allowed for far less fatal interactions between both opposing sides. Sikire, like many before him, plied his craft learning from his father - a lineage of carvers that precede him. He initially worked as a traditional sculptor in his village of birth Gongombili (19km south of Gaoua) for ritual practices when he was roughly 16 years old. Shortly after, enthralled by his innate skill, from roughly 1912 he gradually evolved into a modern artist in the Western sense, he was soon selling his work to colonial officials and later dealers. Even to this day, after he death in 1963, his legacy lives on, realised through the worlds and those of his disciples. Lunkena Pale and Dihunthe Palenfo, not forgetting other contemporaries directly and indirectly influenced by Sikire.43 Traditions that were invented in Europe in the late nineteenth century were consequently erratically transported into Africa. It was a time of great flowering of ecclesiastical, educational, military, republican, monarchical constructs within Europe. However, these new traditions took on a peculiar character, greatly distinguishing them from both their European and Asian Imperial forms. Centred around the concept of Empire, it served as a device to define themselves as natural and undisputed masters of vast numbers of Africans within fabricated models of subservience into which it was at times possible to draw from the peoples. These invented traditions offered Africans a series of clearly defined points of entry into the colonial world.44 Under a subordinate role part of a man/master relationship, it is clear that Sikire was eased into such a role centred around his remarkable aptitude for craft. Not only would he begin to increasingly produce (non-religious) figures to sell, he operated as an intermediary between village inhabitants and the colonial government.45 Similar sentiments are shared by Basel missionaries, within their constructed labour hierarchies in the Cape Colony they viewed Africans as ‘a mission from the village to the village’.46 From around 1900, technical reproduction had attained a standard that not only allowed it to reproduce all transmitted works of art. This instigated a most profound change in their impact amongst the public, particularly cementing a place of its own within the artistic processes.47 The imposition of a formerly feudalist - turned capitalist hegemony irreversibly distorted the very fabric of West African civilisations towards incompatible conflations that had continued up until contact to exist in a feudal vein.48 Stoller argues that these distortions were the precursor to “the economic and social forces of globalization”.49

“Man-made artifacts could always be imitated by men. Replicas were made by pupils in practice of their craft, by masters for diffusing their works, and, finally, by third parties in the pursuit of gain. Mechanical reproduction of a work of art, however, represents something new.” 50 - Walter Benjamin.

42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50.

Goody, J. (1998). Establishing Control: Violence along the Black Volta at the Beginning of Colonial Rule (L'établissement du pouvoir: La violence dans la vallée de la Volta noire au début de la colonisation). Cahiers D'Études Africaines, 38(150/152), 227-244. Keller, T., & Katsouros, F. (2015). Lobi statuary: Sikire Kambire. Hobsbawm, E. J., & Ranger, T. O. (Eds.). (2012). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge University Press. Keller, T., & Katsouros, F. (2015). Lobi statuary: Sikire Kambire. Hobsbawm, E. J., & Ranger, T. O. (Eds.). (2012). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge University Press. Benjamin, W. (2008). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (J. A. Underwood, Trans.). Penguin. Blaut, J. M. (1989). Colonialism and the Rise of Capitalism. Guilford Press, 53(3), 260–296. Stoller, P. (2003). Circuits of African Art / Paths of Wood: Exploring an Anthropological Trail. The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research, 76(2), 207–234. Benjamin, W. (2008). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (J. A. Underwood, Trans.). Penguin.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 7: Lobi warrior about to shoot his arrow. Ethnographic Arms & Armour—African bows and archery. (2013). Viking Sword. http://www.vikingsword. com/vb/showthread.php?t=16932&page=2&pp=30

The West African Object, its Premise. First Contact

Henri Labouret, from 1914-1920 and 1921-1924 colonial commander of the Gaoua region, like a number of his contemporaries at the time was fascinated by notions of exoticism that pervaded these figures. Particularly by witnessing the various ceremonial rituals and Thilbar divinations (within their original nexus), figures and masks of ritual were preferred and commissioned, such as the Baule Mask. Labouret referred to it as an “export” model that would be produced in large numbers. As Benjamin explains “The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the conception of authenticity” embedded within the fabric of tradition. This warping towards mechanical production emancipates the work of art from its symbiotic dependence on ritual. Whilst Lobi tradition was thoroughly alive and somewhat malleable, this in addition to additional irreconcilable impositions (to be later detailed) severed it from the very fabric of its tradition.51 Within the framework for Labouret’s copy-making experiment of the sculptors’ original style – with lip plugs and new hairstyles, these masks exhibited entirely new elements embodying an entirely new hybrid style.52 It was from this instance when the spirit-imbued Bateba and their crafted Lobi counterparts were beginning to be commodified.53

51. 52. 53.

Benjamin, W. (2008). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (J. A. Underwood, Trans.). Penguin. Keller, T., & Katsouros, F. (2015). Lobi statuary: Sikire Kambire. Kasfir, S. L. (1996). African Art in a Suitcase: How Value Travels. Indiana University Press, 69, 146–158.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 8: Installation view of ivory and bronzes of royal Benin, Musée d’ethnographie du Trocadéro . RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY. (1932)

The West African Object, its Premise. The Beginnings of Ethnography

The ethos of transcendentalism (a reaction to rationalism) has continually shaped the realm of (African) art.54 Published in 1790, Immanuel Kant’s ‘Critique of Judgement’ initially defined the field of rarefied aesthetics by establishing a universal criterion of taste in art. His great efforts laid the foundation for an objective homogenized gaze that would elevate so-called high art to an almost sacrosanct plain.55 G. W. F. Hegel’s Aesthetics greatly exemplified this pseudo-religious tone, rarefied and objectively classified, art became a manifestation of the process of human development, the output of the human spirit. Hegel understood the modern world as the nationstate founded on transcendental Christian values.56 In essence, the story of art is (supposedly) a central theme in the evolutionary trajectory of progress that separated the West from its subordinates, namely the “others”. The conception of otherness that frames this lens of perceiving objects was a European and American invention. Crystallised during the latter half of the nineteenth century working alongside the naissance of the academic practice of anthropology. It was a discipline that sought to develop an encyclopaedic science of man, covering prehistory, physiology, evolution, social organisation, customs and belief systems. Anthropologists were increasingly concerned with the later three strata from the 1870s, redefined as “culture” with interest in particular cultures that they deemed to be “primitive”. As Stoller aptly puts “Primitive cultures were allegedly collective rather than individualistic, religious rather than secular, timeless rather than historically dynamic, and characterized by intuitive rather than rational thought processes”.57 In denoting such traits, early anthropologists convinced themselves that such peoples were likely in-keeping with the primordial ancestors of humanity and were thus deemed primitive. A forgone and distant past located far beyond the hubs of European learning, existing in antithesis to Western civilities and pleasantries. During the early years of the discipline, practitioners of anthropology turned to the primary compilers of ethnographic data. Those of whom were colonial administrators (like Labouret et al) or missionaries, their observations served as a theoretical precursor for anthropologists of academia particularly concerning West Africa. During the early twentieth century, these increasingly established traditions of sociocultural anthropology developed as anthropologists soon began to traverse to collect the fieldwork for themselves.58 One of the various European inventions that at the time were earlier referred to through Hobsbawm & Ranger in ‘The Invention of Tradition’.59 Ethnographic museums became crucial to the dissemination and categorization of this new discipline during the turn of the century. By this time Britain, Germany and the United States boasted institutions that were richly funded to display collected objects made by “primitive” peoples. Serving as empirical evidence funding anthropologists, introducing the wider public to their theories of human difference and conjuring(s) of “progress”.60 With North Africa recognized as regions characterized as ancient formerly powerful civilizations with undeniable masses of ruins, the African region imagined as the area below was arbitrarily named sub-Saharan Africa.61

54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61.

Stoller, P. (2003). Circuits of African Art / Paths of Wood: Exploring an Anthropological Trail. The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research, 76(2), 207–234. Kant, I. (2005). Critique of Judgement. Dover Publications. Hegel, G. W. F. (2010). Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art. Clarendon Press. Stoller, P. (2003). Circuits of African Art / Paths of Wood: Exploring an Anthropological Trail. The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research, 76(2), 207–234. Clifford, J. (1988). The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Harvard University Press. Hobsbawm, E. J., & Ranger, T. O. (Eds.). (2012). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge University Press. Coombes, A. E. (1994). Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture, and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England. Yale University Press. Monroe, J. W. (2019). Metropolitan Fetish: African Sculpture and the Imperial French Invention of Primitive Art. Cornell University Press.

1-7

1. Rem Koolhaas, Lagos, 2001 2. Friedrich Nietzsche, Genoa, 1881 3. Michel Leiris, Dakar-Djibouti, 1931-33 4. Le Corbusier, M’Zab, 1933 5. Albert Camus, Tipasa, 1936 6. Herman Haan & Aldo van Eyck, Dogon, 1964 7. Rem Koolhaas, Lagos, 2001

Excursus: Los Angeles (Banham, 1971) – Deserta (Banham, 1979) – Las Vegas (Venturi & Scott Brown, 1973)

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

In the the Ci Brown that th of ma books he ar partic not ab prede openi medit the e the ki his ow his sh on L omnip genea intent was im essay were new w than t it’s pa

(2001 a diffe essay of jou in Afr they l towar estab city th legacy what t metho taking acade enteri the lo city.

Figure 9: Ethnographic excursions from europe to africa. Velasco Perez, A. (2019)

Excursus

of arc Focus thems

Alvaro V PhD by Associa Architec previou in Histo

The West African Object, its Premise. A French Perspective

The French reception of African Art in the first four decades of the twentieth century will serve as a broader signifier of the development of primitive art as a Western aesthetic category. A continued study of the impact of the historical context will allow us to comprehend the way of seeing in which we now associate with primitive art initially took shape. It will allow us to discern the complex devices that French political capital was also the capital of modern art inviting young artists to make their reputations, to Paris the cultural and imperial hub. By 1900, the French-controlled the world’s second-largest empire, although they were late to the social-scientific endeavour. Yet they still amassed substantial possessions from Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, Oceania, South America and Africa. The Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro was founded in 1878, although by the 1890s it was greatly underfunded, its collections were neglected and its acquisitions budget was non-existent.62 The French notions of the empire didn’t align with that of the British and Germans, with their schools of anthropology often trying to usurp one another colonials instead embarked on missions of “civilizing” the Africans they encountered.63 It was not until the 1930s where a swathe of European architects and French ethnographers who would later travel in assembled cohorts to and throughout sub-Saharan Africa in a pseudo-ethnographic vein. Captivated by alien peoples and their objects, there are intricate impressions generated through their technologies of vision, their means of recording, their writings en route, and their relationship with the “other”. One can refer to the journeys of Le Corbusier in the M’Zab during 1933, Michael Lieris’ passage across the continent from Dakar to Djibouti from 1931-33, and Albert Camus in Tipasa 1936. While originally, these journeys were intended as a critique towards their contemporary urban forms in Europe, their sojourns get entangled in additional notions of exoticism and the definition of the other.64 Thousands of objects were extracted at the time reinterpreted as artefacts, finding themselves within the confines of museums throughout Europe. The now-demolished Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro was founded in 1878, at one time holding 75,000 items it was the first anthropological museum in Paris under the supervision of French Ethnographic Museum of Scientific Expeditions.65 66

62. 63. 64. 65. 66.

Monroe, J. W. (2019). Metropolitan Fetish: African Sculpture and the Imperial French Invention of Primitive Art. Cornell University Press. Hobsbawm, E. J., & Ranger, T. O. (Eds.). (2012). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge University Press. Velasco Perez, A. (2019). L’Afrique Intime: A Genealogy of Books on Cities that Imply a Manifesto Internalisation [10]. Architectural Association. Trocadero. (n.d.). [Travel Guide]. Insecula. Retrieved 18 November 2020, from http://www.insecula.com/musee/M0055.html Hand, S. (2002). Michel Leiris: Writing the self. Cambridge University Press.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 10: Pablo Picasso in Montmartre studio with his African sculpture collection. Burgess Franck, G. (1908)

The West African Object, its Premise. Primitive Art of Ethnography & Cubism

There are several reasons for this noticeable change in French attitude, by around 1905 Parisian avant-garde painters and sculptors had their attention drawn to certain objects from Africa through new lenses. Although this was within a vacuum, the general public viewed the “primitive” with an air of mystery and obscurity – dissimilar from. Flogged in ramshackle glass display cases and flea markets, they didn’t benefit from the embellishment of ethnographic museums or explanations through social science academia. Frances brutal “pacification” of its colonies had culminated with an unprecedented hoard of African objects, through the trafficked interaction between businessmen, administrators, soldiers and merchant seamen. Amongst the swathe of objects procured from also Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, Oceania and South America. The distinctive and formal characteristics of African sculpture, along with its geometric stylization and bold deployment of volume in space strongly resonated with the dominant school of the periods avant-garde and fauvism.67 Matisse recounts introducing Picasso to negro statuettes in the shop window of Pere Sauvage. “The next morning when I came to his studio his studio, the floor was strewn with sheets of drawing paper. Each sheet had virtually the same drawing on it, a big woman’s face with a single eye, a nose too long that merged into the mouth, a lock of hair on the shoulder. Cubism was born. This was 1906 in Paris”68 - Henri Matisse. In all Fang Art, rather within all of the primitive art, Ngil masks are easily the rarest and most coveted objects. Embodying a kind of mythical status with a form approaches a universal presence. Like the Lobi, the Fang people would establish (or join) villages whose people cultivated the surrounding land until the soil was exhausted. From this instance, they would move to new locations. With a son leaving his fathers home building his lineage structures, with each member of the family making space for themselves. As a consequence of intense bloody clashes with the French from the mid-nineteenth century into the early twentieth century, artistic spoils of war were procured from both the Lobi & Fang peoples.69 This was mirrored by flamboyant recounts of them, with Fernandez oxymoronic claim that the Fang were “noble cannibals” although “despite their cannibalism” the traveller Du Chaillu held them “in higher esteem than the other races of Gabon.” Recounting the “hysterical” practitioners of their “satanic religion” in witnessed ritual.70 71 The receptive French public opinion of these collected objects remained equally confused and were largely unassuming of obscure items of these reportedly obscure peoples. An eclectic, Picasso amassed his own extensive collection, later confessing to Michel Lieris that “the virus of Africa had never left me” as seen in his works produced for the remainder of his career. He and a number of his artistic peers within his vicinity (such as Matisse, Gauguin, Braque, Derain, [Adolphe] Feder, Vlaminck Frank Burty [Haviland] and [Ladislas] Medgyes greatly incorporated the African aesthetic into their works – blended with derivations from the post-Impressionist works of Edouard Manet, Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. 72 73

67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73.

Monroe, J. W. (2019). Metropolitan Fetish: African Sculpture and the Imperial French Invention of Primitive Art. Cornell University Press. Godwin, J., Nwoko, D., & Hopwood, G. (2007). The Architecture of Demas Nwoko. Monroe, J. W. (2019). Metropolitan Fetish: African Sculpture and the Imperial French Invention of Primitive Art. Cornell University Press. Fernandez, J. W. (1982). Bwiti: An Ethnography of the Religious Imagination in Africa. Princeton University Press. Monroe, J. W. (2019). Metropolitan Fetish: African Sculpture and the Imperial French Invention of Primitive Art. Cornell University Press. Laurenci Dow. (2016, October 6). African Art a Modern Dialogue with Laurenci Dow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyUQLRTA1AY&t=10s&ab_ channel=LaurenciDow Pablo Picasso’s African-influenced Period. (n.d.). Retrieved 28 November 2020, from https://www.pablopicasso.org/africanperiod.jsp

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 11: Pablo Picasso in his peculiarly stated short african period. Picasso, P. (1908)

The West African Object, its Premise. Primitive Art of Ethnography & Cubism

Despite such divine inspiration, in public discourse, Picasso denied his knowledge of African masterworks “Je ne connais pas” (I don’t know anything about it).74 Bemusing perhaps, although how could such a “genie” (genius) be publicly affiliated with the “art” of such “primitive” peoples. Nonetheless, the travelling missionary Trilles (an inspiration for the avant-garde) conceded that in spite of their anti-Christian ways, their “primitive state” gave them a connection to an intense psychic realm that was rendered inaccessible to the “civilised” Europeans. The second decade of the nineteenth century saw public opinions alter, dealers such as Paul Guillaume inspired by Trilles’s text acknowledged the avant-garde attentions. Drawing on these revaluations and drew on them greatly on his influential efforts to market selected objects from Africa as modern “high art”. Often recognised at this time as “art nègre” a glamorous crowd was assembled for the 1919 “Fête nègre” – a ballet he organized to promote a major exhibition of sculpture from Africa. Unlike Trille, who used lurid accounts of Fang religion to provoke French horror, Guillaume used such language to promote intrigue and as a source of aesthetic fascination. Actively working against expositions, the like at Alfred Steigliz’s gallery of African Art in 1914 called ‘Statuary in Wood by African Savages’.75 These newly coveted objects moved from artists’ studios, curiosity shops, and flea markets to the comforts of wealthy collectors’ homes and the galleries of the world’s major museums. Whilst connoisseurs of the 1920s rejected the art of the Cross River region and Cameroon as they deemed it too naturalistic, contrasting the “modern” Fang forms. Steadily widening their array of worthy art, connoisseurs embraced them for their uncanny use of leather to mimic skin – a dramatic expression of aesthetic surrealism. Full of contradictions yet steeped in expertise and academia, narratives continuously changed with these objects of desire bolstered with a constructed value within the Western vocabulary of aesthetic modernism. With Fang sculpture representing the earliest and most influential encounters between young Parisian painters and African art.76

74. 75. 76.

The Met. (2013, June 28). How, When, and Why African Art Came to New York: A Conversation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXPM6SqD_ Mo&t=1352s&ab_channel=TheMet The Met. (2013, June 28). How, When, and Why African Art Came to New York: A Conversation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXPM6SqD_ Mo&t=1352s&ab_channel=TheMet Monroe, J. W. (2019). Metropolitan Fetish: African Sculpture and the Imperial French Invention of Primitive Art. Cornell University Press.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 12: Albert Guillaume (left) Caricature postcard - Baule figure (“La maladie noire”) at the center. Goumy-Arcouet, R. (1923)

The West African Object, its Premise. A Metropolitan Fetish

By the 1920s, Guillaume the former king – his connections to the artistic vanguard had diminished considerably. A new player on the scene, dealer Charles Ratton’s simultaneous effort to organize the three landmark 1931 auctions led to a sudden influx of 1,500 pieces. These pieces flooded the market, driving down the prices that Guillaume had spent his career diligently working so hard to acquire. The Great Depression had curtailed the potential of sales within the art market.77 Rattons bold move to work alongside collector Eluard showcasing “a tour of the world in a single day” at the ‘Exposition colonial Internationale’ (et al) paid off demonstrably. Acquired from their place of origin for a pittance or lotted for free, exchanging various hands and auctioned to a bourgeoise for thousands of francs. As Patrick Geary remarked in ‘The Social Life of Things, saintly relics when stolen (or brought for a “steal”) only increased their value as commodities.78 In the following decades during the 1920s and 1930s, these recently “art validated” objects took a gradually more sharply recognised place within the larger cultural and market structure.79 The increased repute, curiosity and demand for no longer exceedingly “savage” African art paved the way for the French ethnographers earlier mentioned. The Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro was gradually filled containing over 75,000 objects, from a minor dealer to a leader in his field Ratton would even curate an exhibition for them.80 He embarked on a dizzying array of ventures promoting African sculpture, promoting his name as a dealer but also establishing influential market practices which continue to define how we see primitive art today. African sculpture took on a remarkably “ambivalent symbolic potency as a signifier of colonial power” as proof of the encompassing reach of French taste and classical antique. Taking on a constellation of meanings, that Ratton opportunistically manipulated them towards aligning the artworks with various movements. Being initially involved with art négre, the antiracist demonstration of African creative achievement and even aligning works with the black American “Art of the ancestors” recognition. The complementary establishment of the support system of private galleries, engaged collectors, journalistic critics, academics and museum curators began to take shape from the second half of the 19th century. These determined workings were crucial to the gradual development of aesthetic modernism, cementing its place in “the art world” within the contemporary international framework.81

77. 78. 79. 80. 81.

Monroe, J. W. (2019). Metropolitan Fetish: African Sculpture and the Imperial French Invention of Primitive Art. Cornell University Press. Kasfir, S. L. (1996). African Art in a Suitcase: How Value Travels. Indiana University Press, 69, 146–158. Hodeir, C., & Pierre, M. (1991). L’exposition Coloniale: 1931. Editions Complexe. Trocadero. (n.d.). [Travel Guide]. Insecula. Retrieved 18 November 2020, from http://www.insecula.com/musee/M0055.html Monroe, J. W. (2019). Metropolitan Fetish: African Sculpture and the Imperial French Invention of Primitive Art. Cornell University Press.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 13: Young students plying their trade at the Mushenge Art School, Congo. Guides of anitiquity drawn in the background. Elisofon, E. (1972)

The West African Object, its Premise.

Perpetual Anonymity & Endless Authenticity Wars

Western art historians today typically lean from the aforementioned fields where documentation of individual authorship of objects has seldom survived. It is a trend that has determinedly persisted from first contact until this day. Most African and Oceanic material traded at the upper stratum of the high end of the art market is made of wood, and that was created between about 1850 and 1950. As a consequence, dating by laboratory analysis usually does not yield translatable results.82 Additionally, the majority of these works were taken from their societies of origin without any information about their historical context. Generally speaking, within West Africa no European administrator, missionary, or businessman had even considered noting the name of the village craftsman, or ask him what he exactly sought to accomplish by making the object(s)in the first place. Consequently, exchanged through numerous hands, and shuttled to repeated expositions they were continually repackaged and rebranded, initially to represent blackness as a “primitive” or “savage” monolith. The most specification offered for these objects was through being blindly displayed as a historical representation as a particular tribal ethnic group. Obliviously ignoring the potential of interaction between various groups, migration and creative innovation to name a few. For these reasons, it is also particularly difficult to establish any kind of chronology purely based on of style alone.83 Sikire’s rise to prominence was an anomalous event in the grand scheme of things, however, the continued increase in commodification of these sacred items was not. As earlier mentioned, connoisseurs in the Parisian art world looked to what was already a rather antiquated ethnographic conception of the “primitive” when they arbitrarily drew these boundaries. The criteria of artistic historical authenticity they leaned on, therefore, perpetuated a significant nineteenth-century Western decision to imagine these objects - part of overall collective, anonymous creations of distinct “tribes,” purely produced for spiritual or social rather than commercial reasons.84 To establish and maintain new types of governance, as a part of French colonies under the control of the federation of French Equatorial Africa (Afrique Équatoriale française, AEF). France’s brutal efforts to take control of the region shook its inhabitants irreparably, creating a sense of profound social, religious, and political dislocation. Acknowledging the economic potential of their socio-religious objects, village locals and craftsmen adjusted - producing “replica” versions for travelling collectors. Which Hobsbawm and Ranger would perhaps argue as a hybrid newly invented tradition, embedded in the Neo-traditions of governance acting as black mirrors of French influence operating through clearly defined points of entry into the colonial world.85 Yet, catching on to this phenomenon, “pious” collectors opined that contact with Europeans had rendered it impossible for present-day Africans to produce “authentic” art at all, and therefore authenticity was an additional characteristic to be assessed through the European material analysis of objects alone. In their minds, historically “authentic” objects were those that struck European gazes as both stylistically “pure” and “ancient”—which meant that they could be imagined as having come from a precolonial forgone world untainted by the demands of global commerce and capitalism.86 This projection of a former fictive world shrouded from market interference, and cast as a radical “otherness” that ultimately denied any inkling of awareness and autonomy to the producers and original sellers of these universally beautiful objects. This stereotypical and limited portrayal completely removes Africans from the future being cast as passive sources.87 Operating much like the aforementioned reaction, consequent innovation and development has been contrived and constrained through arbitrarily imposed notions European of creative hegemony. The anthropologist Henri Victor Vallois, in reviewing the 1931 Colonial Exposition after its closing, thought the following:

82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87.

Monroe, J. W. (2019). Metropolitan Fetish: African Sculpture and the Imperial French Invention of Primitive Art. Cornell University Press. Monroe, J. W. (2019). Metropolitan Fetish: African Sculpture and the Imperial French Invention of Primitive Art. Cornell University Press. Errington, S. (1998). The Death of Authentic Primitive Art and other Tales of Progress. University of California Press. Hobsbawm, E. J., & Ranger, T. O. (Eds.). (2012). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge University Press. Monroe, J. W. (2019). Metropolitan Fetish: African Sculpture and the Imperial French Invention of Primitive Art. Cornell University Press. Steiner, C. B., & Forni, S. (Eds.). (2015). Africa in the Market: Twentieth-Century Art from the Amrad African Art Collection. Royal Ontario Museum.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 14: Tourists inspect art, Bamburi Beach, Kenya B. Stainer, C. (1996)

The West African Object, its Premise.

Perpetual Anonymity & Endless Authenticity Wars

“It is a pity,” he wrote, “that those buyers we saw crowding around the little shops where Blacks sculpted and hammered out figures that took a few hours to make and sold for high prices, did not first take some time to ponder [Stéphen- Chauvet’s] vitrine. The number of their purchases would have been smaller, but the value of their ethnographic collections would certainly not have suffered as a result.”88 Vallois in his dismay felt that the objects on offer were far more aligned to the African knickknacks already being “mass-produced for export” than it was to what he opined as being “authentic native art.” Gleaning from the cultural understanding, in contrast, authenticity was chiefly a characteristic of people, and an exotic object of authenticity was one produced by a craftsman (or “artist”) of the appropriate ethnic origin, on the condition that producer was suitably informed by the relevant socio-religious traditions. These two conflicting ideas regarding authenticity, somewhat related but inherently incompatible, attracted the exposition’s organizers. On the one hand for the prestige that might be gleaned from some association with the cultivated public’s interest in African sculpture reimagined as high art, and the other for its scope to boost sales of artisan-produced crafts in the surrounding shops on site.89 Yet in this historicizing perspective where “objects“ were artificially groups and redefined as “art” purely for their aesthetic character. The fundamentally commercial and economic potential of this framing has often been removed from the epistemological definition of African art and most significantly estranged from the context of production. Paradoxically, those who could benefit from the recognition of the artistic value and the aesthetic potential of the arts from the African continent were, and to a great degree remain Western collectors and connoisseurs. Well-known dealers and collectors, such as Guillaume, Breton and Ratton, are certainly important contributors to the creation of the price and value of an object. Those who supposedly “discovered” and introduced these initially obscure artworks into the art-culture framework of the West. Even to this day unlike their European counterparts, African dealers and collectors are sparsely recognised for their role in moulding and influencing institutional holdings and trends in the field.90

88. 89. 90.

Vallois, H. (1932). L’Exposition coloniale de Paris et les congrès. Revue d’Anthropologie, 42, 55–70. Monroe, J. W. (2019). Metropolitan Fetish: African Sculpture and the Imperial French Invention of Primitive Art. Cornell University Press. Steiner, C. B., & Forni, S. (Eds.). (2015). Africa in the Market: Twentieth-Century Art from the Amrad African Art Collection. Royal Ontario Museum.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 15: Hausa trader with his haul of art, in the region of Man, Côte d'Ivoire. Steiner, C. (1988)

The West African Object, its Premise.

Tourist Art in Modern Times

There was an extended cessation of commerce during the late 1930s into the 1940s as a consequence of the tumult of the Second World War. African men from various countries participated in the wartime effort, which was well-received overseas. In response to the growth of expatriate communities and mass tourism to West Africa from those in Europe, large-scale production in West Africa for export began in earnest during the 1950s and 1960s.91 By this time developed distinct systems through a conflation of colonial and pre-colonial practices that has perpetuated a framework of trade in West African Art. Since the inception of the colonial art trade during the first two decades of the twentieth century the two main points of international trade (in francophone West Africa) has been the cities of Dakar and Abidjan. The French formed a type of transnational socio-political hierarchies allowing particular ethnic groups more leniency to their “loyal” subjects, migrating Wolof Senegalese merchants had freedom and protection to increasingly control much of the market in its formative period.92 By the 1950s African art traders would journey to France to sell objects to European-based dealers. From this period, the works were distributed by an additional two major ethnic groups, being the Hausa of Niger and Nigeria and the Mande of Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire. All of which have historic links to the spread of mercantile capitalism in West African and have been responsible for the alignment of specialised cross-cultural trading diasporas throughout the region. With classic genres of African art diminishing, the category of the trader’s “art” inventory increased including household items such as furniture and textiles. Which met the decades of the 1960s and 70s when the market had reached its peak, with an additional American demand. Whilst sales made a comeback during the economic upturn during the 1980s, the art market has since failed to reach former heights. Engrossed in contemporary authenticity wars (to be addressed shortly), economic return for African traders has continually decreased.93 Involving a circulation of art objects through local, national and transnational economies these traders are the middle-men caught up in the supply, distribution and exchange of these art items.94 To understand the frameworks within which Art is produced and sold in Africa and internationally in a contemporary context, focus will be narrowed towards particular marketplaces, to serve as an allegory for a wider narrative. Scattered among various neighbourhoods of Abidjan, the largest city and principal port of trade in Côte d’Ivoire. Treichville, Cocody and Plateau are three marketplaces in which art is displayed for sale. The government, concerned by the (French engendered) Wolof trade monopoly of the art market decided in the 1970s to divide the Plateau marketplace representing a coalition of six francophone nations. Within this vibrant and expansive concrete, the canopied and wooden framed melting pot of commerce would be a wide spectrum of traders. From the petty street-vendor in possession of no objects of their own to large-scale stallholders who handle thousands of stocked objects. In effect, the varied status of these traders is in direct response to their status of clientele, from vacationing tourists acquiring luggagefriendly souvenirs to wholesale purchasers who ship sea-freight containers to Europe and America.95

91. 92. 93. 94. 95.

Steiner, C. B., & Forni, S. (Eds.). (2015). Africa in the Market: Twentieth-Century Art from the Amrad African Art Collection. Royal Ontario Museum. Steiner, C. (n.d.). The Trade in West African Art. UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center. Steiner, C. B. (n.d.). Introduction: The anthropology of African art in a transnational Market. In African Art in Transit (pp. 1–10). Cambridge University Press. Steiner, C. B., & Forni, S. (Eds.). (2015). Africa in the Market: Twentieth-Century Art from the Amrad African Art Collection. Royal Ontario Museum. Steiner, C. (n.d.). The Trade in West African Art. UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 16: Artisanal workshop. Port de Carena, Abidjan Steiner, C. (1988)

The West African Object, its Premise.

Tourist Art in Modern Times

The sense of collective cohesion of distinct trading groups within West Africa is defined by familial lineage entrenched within the strata ethnic ad religious identity. Within a section of a residential neighbourhood in Abidjan, the Treichville quarter is controlled by Muslim Hausa traders tied to several extended families. In this alternative mechanism of the art trade, the families operate in small shops, often partitioned rooms of domestic compounds that act as warehouses from which experienced Western dealers/collectors would directly purchase. Families would own stalls in more than one marketplace, with a small army of young men selling art doorto-door to European and American expatriates within their vicinity in Abidjan.96 The age, gender and generational hierarchy is sacrosanct within these trading groups, as seen with the Muslim Kooroko of Southern Mali. The head of the household a distinguished trader (jula-ba), supplies those in his household with the necessary supplies. Whilst also managing the long-distance network from the comforts of his compound, he is kept up to speed on market trends by kinspeople and contacts within his network. In times aplenty, the great trader would send his trader child (jula-ben) (or children’s sisters) and younger brothers to trade in markets on his behalf, residing under the protection of neighbouring families (often through blood marriage ties to the great trader) if need be. Where the proceeds will be repaid to their entirety when the “children” return home to report to their “father”. After several successful missions, the trader children will ask their great father for a loan to procure their inventory to trade. From which increasingly fewer profits are repaid under the condition of continued success.97 The Hausa traders in Abidjan classify their items through a Westernised taxonomy of African Art, with what they sell being either a replica (copy) and authentic (ancient). The former is produced in contemporary workshops carved for export, often consisting of twenty carvers in regions throughout Côte d’Ivoire. The workshop sculptors would be directly commissioned by the trader or purchased from the artist in bulk from the marketplace.98 The latter are purchased or even stolen from villages where they have been made and used by its rural inhabitants (such as a Lobi Bateba). Often rather than removed from such conceptions of value, villagers who have little idea of the true economic value of their objects may receive a substitute replica for the original. It is a given that traders would sell what they feel they can profit from, at times selling to more professional traders, the buyer and seller acutely aware of their rules in a performative bargaining interplay until the value is determined.99 Battling over Western perceptions of authenticity, traders in their dark arts often commission crafters to artificially age newly crafted items using potassium permanganate creating the look of patina. Such treatments of artificial and mechanical aging, sanding off the illustrious paint colours are carried out to create the illusion of antiquity. Traders skillfully exist centres as middlemen, “culture brokers” instructing craftsmen towards satisfying the shifting demands of for the exotic that still remains with Western clientele.100 While objects altered to suit canonical archetypical forms most of which are in museums, such authenticity is precluded by the very process of its manufacture and falsification. In this constructed paradox, traders exist as “black mirrors” invent meanings to things to satisfy Western buyers’ expectations of African art oscillating back and forth between the global and local economy. Within this dynamic, the potential for new forms of expression, often the same ethnic groups that created the lauded items of antiquity, are curtailed in achieving a new creative potential.

96. 97.

Steiner, C. (n.d.). The Trade in West African Art. UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center. Stoller, P. (2003). Circuits of African Art / Paths of Wood: Exploring an Anthropological Trail. The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research, 76(2), 207–234. 98. Steiner, C. (n.d.). The Trade in West African Art. UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center. 99. Zilberg, J. (1995). The International Journal of African Historical Studies. Boston University African Studies Center, 28(2), 464–466. 100. Steiner, C. (n.d.). The Trade in West African Art. UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

external demands

[[[Prototype A] --> Artist A] --> Index A] --> Recipient P]

[[[Recipient1 A] --> Artist A] --> Index A] --> Recipient2 P]

CRAFTSMAN

The landscape surrounding the maison soukala as a workspace.

THILDUU / DOMESTIC SHRINE

DOMESTIC FAMILY MEMBER

THE DOMESTIC FAMILY UNIT.

consequent adjustments

THILDAR/ the mediator

CRAFTSMAN

ONE OR TWO ITEMS

PETTY STREET VENDOR

Family members return to the Thilduu to seek giudance.

HUNDREDS OF ITEMS

THOUSANDS

ONE OR

HUNDREDS

THOUSANDS

OF OBJECTS

TWO ITEMS

OF ITEMS

OF OBJECTS

TOURISTS

LARGE-SCALE STALLHOLDERS

FAMILY TRADERS

LOCAL BUYERS

WESTERN COLLECTORS & DEALERS

WHOLES PURCHAS

PERSONAL / CARRY ON FRAGILE LUGGAGE

SEA-FRE CONTAI SHIPPI

TRADER TRAVELS TO

VILLAGE / CRAFTSMAN

BATEBA Fa

& HAGGLING ENSUES.

The crafted Bateba is placed in the Thilduu. mb

con

s ult

s th

e cra

COMISSION

ITEM TO MARKET

ITINERANT STREET-HAWKERS, MARKETPLACE TRADERS, WHOLESALE & INTERNATIONAL MIDDLEMEN. GALLERY EMPLOYEES & OWNERS, & GOVERNMENT BEAUROCRATS.

AGENTS

WORKSHOP VILLAGER TAKES

ft s m a

HAGGLE

TRADERS

DÌTHÍL / village territory 3İOH / territories of neighbouring villages

STOREHOUSES / WAREHOUSES

SKİU / residential area cona FROLİ nabaran

CRAFTSMAN TAKES

/Lİ / agricultural area KZyQOLİ gǀgǀOLİ EDDQ / portions per each farmer pයOLȑ / exploited for the culture

ITEM TO MARKET

EXTRACTION

hwón / the bush (grazing area, hunting, gathering ...)

STORES / SHOPS

MARKETPLACES & STALLS

HYBRID STYLE WEST AFRICA / LOBI COUNTRY

INTERIOR SUPPLY

“THE WEST”

EXTERNAL DEMAND

PART OF A PERSONAL SMALL / WIDER COLLECTION

DECORATIVE ITEM

ONLINE SALES / AUCTION HOUSES

GALLERIES / EXHIBITIONS / MUSEUMS

artificial aging

SOCIO-RELIGIOUS

ITEMS WITH PAINT ARE SANDED DOWN AND RESTAINED WITH

OLD

NEW

POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE.

“COLONIAL STYLE”

“AFRICAN ART” COMMONDITIZATION

“AUTHENTIC”

PRODUC

“REPLICA”

mechanical patination

LONIAL

COLONIAL

external demands

POST-COLONIAL

PRES

[[[Prototype A] --> Artist A] --> Index A] --> Recipient P]

cipient2 P]

cultural broker

C”

TRADERS

Used to disseminate prohibitions to the whole village.

SYMBOLIC / CIO-RELIGIOUS

The crafted Bateba is laced in the Thilduu.

cultural broker

VILLAGE CRAFTSMAN

ETHNIC / REGIONAL STYLE --> CRAFTSMAN AESTHETIC

DOMESTIC FAMILY MEMBER

THE DOMESTIC FAMILY UNIT.

consequent adjustments

THILDAR/ the mediator

CRAFTSMAN

TRADERS

Used to disseminate prohibitions to the whole village.

ONE OR

HUNDREDS

THOUSANDS

ONE OR

HUNDREDS

THOUSANDS

TWO ITEMS

OF ITEMS

OF OBJECTS

TWO ITEMS

OF ITEMS

OF OBJECTS

PETTY STREET VENDOR

Family members return to the Thilduu to seek giudance.

TOURISTS

LARGE-SCALE STALLHOLDERS

FAMILY TRADERS

LOCAL BUYERS

WESTERN COLLECTORS & DEALERS

WHOLESA PURCHASE

PERSONAL / CARRY ON FRAGILE LUGGAGE

SEA-FREIG CONTAINE SHIPPING

TRADER TRAVELS TO

VILLAGE / CRAFTSMAN

& HAGGLING ENSUES.

ITINERANT STREET-HAWKERS, MARKETPLACE TRADERS, WHOLESALE & INTERNATIONAL MIDDLEMEN. GALLERY EMPLOYEES & OWNERS, & GOVERNMENT BEAUROCRATS.

AGENTS

WORKSHOP VILLAGER TAKES

COMISSION

ITEM TO MARKET

HAGGLE

TRADERS

HAGGLE

STOREHOUSES / WAREHOUSES

CRAFTSMAN TAKES ITEM TO MARKET

EXTRACTION

MARKETPLACES & STALLS

STORES / SHOPS

HYBRID STYLE

INTERIOR SUPPLY

WEST AFRICA / LOBI COUNTRY

“THE WEST”

EXTERNAL DEMAND

DECORATIVE ITEM

PART OF A PERSONAL SMALL / WIDER COLLECTION

ONLINE SALES / AUCTION HOUSES

GALLERIES / EXHIBITIONS / MUSEUMS

artificial aging

ITEMS WITH PAINT ARE SANDED DOWN AND RESTAINED WITH

OLD

NEW

POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE.

“COLONIAL STYLE”

Drawing: African art network of production and exchange. Aina, R. (1988)

“AFRICAN ART” COMMONDITIZATION

PRODUCT

“REPLICA”

mechanical patination

COLONIAL

POST-COLONIAL

PRESE

The West African Object, its Premise.

Tourist Art in Modern Times

The economic principles of Islam reinforce familial togetherness generated through the kinship ties of these trading families. From its inception, there has been a symbiotic link shared between Islam and merchant capital. Much of these West African ethnic groups have historically traded goods, which has helped both expand the political scope of young African states and Islam ideology. In Prophet Muhammad’s new society, his wife Fatima was a prosperous merchant and, in his mind, would facilitate the growth of the Ummah. As trade will foster and proliferate good social relations, but above all - also in the Koran and Sunnah passages it must be done in a forthright and honest manner. These patterns of operation persist and extrapolate in New York City amongst West African street vendors in Harlem and West African art traders at The Warehouse (a Manhattan block stocked with African art); modes of operation have been refined to work with contemporary economic circumstances. The loading bays are located on the north and south sides, through which shipments from their extended families in West Africa are received and placed in storage filling every nook and of space. Further commodified, their target is to move as much (artistic) product colloquially called “wood” and “mud” (items crafted of wood and earth) as possible. Some of which is displayed on the first-floor showroom bordered by stalls where individual dealers display their “wood” (statues or masks) and “mud” (terra cotta figures) to potential buyers. There is a continuous buzz of activity in between periodic prayer. Objects brought in from Africa has increased exponentially - an echo chamber of relayed Western taste, adjusting practices to changing patterns of American consumption, on the upper floors familial groups store their crammed haul of goods.101 Operating as an expansion of the networks of West African art traders, the principal trader would similarly reside in the warehouse. With more established dealers paying short occasioned visits to New York towards their high-end object being purchased by local clients and gallery owners. Whilst lesser inventory, mass-produced copies for mass markets are collected from the upper warehouse storerooms and is hauled into vans by family members lower in the hierarchy (the children). These mobile merchants zigzag across America often mass-produced items could end up as measly discount stores such as Marshalls and TJ Maxx. Or recirculated in street sales as part of various Third World Festivals. Following well-trod circuits, the chauffeurs are received by North American “hosts” or kinspeople who are scattered throughout various states. Where they can be connected to new clients and restore their items to fetch a higher profit, for curators, connoisseurs and high-end gallery owners. All possible outlets for their goods approached until their haul is exhausted, the chauffeurs will consequently return to the familial Warehouse base. Much of the profits are recirculated to cover shared expenses, with some being sent back to West Africa for extended family members. The remainder of the profits are reinvested into the procurement for more goods to be recirculated, a perpetual process.102

101. Stoller, P. (2003). Circuits of African Art / Paths of Wood: Exploring an Anthropological Trail. The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research, 76(2), 207–234. 102. Stoller, P. (2003). Circuits of African Art / Paths of Wood: Exploring an Anthropological Trail. The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research, 76(2), 207–234.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 17: African art network of production and exchange. 1st Dibs. (2021)

The West African Object, its Premise.

Finances & Acclaim

The top collectors in New York generally disdained the itinerant African dealers deceptively taking advantage of parameters they set, Frank McEwen coined the term “airport art” in a dealer’s suitcase travelling straight from the airport meeting perhaps in a hotel room. Even using similar collection catalogues published to validate their art to other potential customers and to commission the latest status-quo. Nonetheless, many of these collectors have greatly profited from the few good pieces they deemed “worthy” that were to be found.104 Whilst initially purchased for tens of dollars from their place of origin, through an exchange or hands and ownership could generally at best be purchased for up to $4,000 (a typical Lobi Bateba sold online on 1stDibs). On occasion, there’d be entire actions for a single object like the one Tajan held at Hôtel Drouot with a Guro Mask held for auction that was estimated to sell between €100,000 and €150,000, but sold for €1,375,000 in 2014.105 Much like in Sotheby’s and Christie’s, who have historically auctioned for exorbitant prices since the 20th century. The major auction of African and Oceanic sculptures in 2006 garnered $44 million in the last three sessions alone. Whilst a village craftsman may have handed over one of those items for a pittance, as standard practice their identity is unknown.106 Much like the African dealers who import the art into the west, for Western consumption. It is rare to see a catalogue, museum exhibition or a private collection, that acknowledges partnership with African dealers or attributes any agency to African counterparts in relation to collecting frameworks. Whilst that European last hands in the process (Like Ratton and Guillaume before them) are lauded for their expertise in such impressive discovery, if the dealers are African, if at all rarely mentioned they would be relegated as anonymous “middlemen” and “runners”.107 As extensively divulged, it is difficult to judge the trade of West African art without such critique, particularly when historical context is applied towards acquiring a better and more nuanced understanding of the evolution of frameworks at hand. The negative impact of satisfying touristic demands has certainly affected the artistic traditions of Africa, particularly to those who consider it vital to the survival of traditional styles and the creative spirit.108 Staunch critics of commercialism express that such touristic leaning inevitably accelerates the cultural demise of true artistic genius. Encouraging shoddy workmanship through low expectations and imposed limitations perpetually stagnating the development of created craft. “Admirers and defenders of African tourist art, on the other hand, value commercial developments for at least four reasons. First, they argue that the rise of a tourist art trade often leads to the continuation or even revival of earlier art forms that might otherwise have vanished – repressed often recognised as opposing religious practices by missionaries. Second, they suggest that commercial production for export encourages young artists to develop their skills and aptitude as workshop apprentices and “line” carvers. Such abilities may then be transferred back into more traditional artistic practices for indigenous consumption. Third, from an economic perspective, tourist arts are championed as a financial survival strategy in areas where other forms of income may be hard to come by. Tourist art networks employ not only artists but also a vast array of related personnel” "Finally, some argue that African tourist art should not be viewed as a degraded or inferior version of “traditional” art, but rather analysed as a category of artistic production with its own aesthetic sensibilities, merits and values.” 109 - Christopher Steiner 103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. 109.

Steiner, C. B., & Forni, S. (Eds.). (2015). Africa in the Market: Twentieth-Century Art from the Amrad African Art Collection. Royal Ontario Museum. Kasfir, S. L. (1996). African Art in a Suitcase: How Value Travels. Indiana University Press, 69, 146–158. Steiner, C. B., & Forni, S. (Eds.). (2015). Africa in the Market: Twentieth-Century Art from the Amrad African Art Collection. Royal Ontario Museum. Monroe, J. W. (2019). Metropolitan Fetish: African Sculpture and the Imperial French Invention of Primitive Art. Cornell University Press. Steiner, C. B., & Forni, S. (Eds.). (2015). Africa in the Market: Twentieth-Century Art from the Amrad African Art Collection. Royal Ontario Museum. Steiner, C. B., & Forni, S. (Eds.). (2015). Africa in the Market: Twentieth-Century Art from the Amrad African Art Collection. Royal Ontario Museum. Steiner, C. B., & Forni, S. (Eds.). (2015). Africa in the Market: Twentieth-Century Art from the Amrad African Art Collection. Royal Ontario Museum.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 18: Shipping yard UNECA (2021)

The West African Object, its Premise.

Trade as an Instrument of Diplomacy

There is clearly an innate metaphysical power of African Art, without always acutely knowing what an item was, who crafted it or for which reason, it is somehow is intuitively conveyed and understood. The creative genius of often anonymous African artists has produced works that can transcend their origins and universally speak to us in our common humanity. Being able to convey much more than even an artist, disseminating the archetype.110 This has greatly manifested itself through the vast capital that has been exchanged as these art pieces cross-cultural borders. Yet the originators of such pieces being the craftsmen, in the village or in workshops will rarely reap equitable rewards, as a piece’s value exponentially increases the further away it is from its point of origin. As earlier presented, various foreign individuals and groups have gone to such effort towards establishing and maintaining physical and creative hegemony over African art from which they have greatly benefited. This has led to a reciprocal loss of autonomy and decay of the traditional culture of the same Africans who created such art in the first place. It beggars the question as to what would be the consequences of ownership and autonomy of art and its production being reestablished within each respective West African culture. Considering the untapped financial capacity of African Art, it presents itself as a viable means that can operate as a potential instrument of diplomacy. In economic terms, African Art has historically existed as an internationally traded export, from which logically the exporting nation should financially benefit from. Particularly about generational debates as to how African countries can successfully employ methods for development. Just like how China’s rise to prominence since the twentieth century was forged through aunique path, African Art through creative and pragmatic strategies for effectively executing achievable development-driven protection trade policies should be explored.111 Cameroon has a broad, geographical, cultural and linguistic diversity, within are the Grassfields a distinctive region belied with a colonial past, it crossed over numerous local political and linguistic divides. It exists as an elusive entity, through the intersection of various sacred assembled kingdoms within their interspersed areas of idiosyncratic governance. High-quality art production under exclusive hierarchical control was dismantled by French colonial imposition in the 1920s. This enabled a large number of enterprising Muslim Bamum dealers to use their proximity and “commodity knowledge” of the local ats and their awareness of foreign aesthetic tastes and trends. Having been progressively emptied of all their Grassfield treasures, palaces, compounds, shrines and houses have lost thousands of objects and architectural elements, exported and sold abroad. Much to the great loss of local communities, admittedly there have been protective laws in place during the 1960s, along with endorsement of the UNESCO 1972 World Heritage Convention. Cameroon has done little to seriously address the illegal export of artwork and ethnographic curiosities. With legislation for the protection of cultural heritage only being approved in 2013. This broad and comprehensive detailed inventory of national heritage has not been achieved so far, despite recieving international funding support from funding agencies.112 What can be observed is representative of a trend of reactionary actions further weakened by a lack of governmental conviction and organisation. An unfortunate stasis that has belied West Arica from independence to the present, Obuah, Ndubuisi and Dappa argue that “there should be an urgent drive to inculcate the spirit of patriotism and nationalism by entrenching the rule of law, protection of basic freedom and rights, equitable distribution of national resources”.113 The present climate is truly complex and multifaceted existing as a conflation of a deep past and more rupturing one, Akyeampong maintains that “Thinking outside the box in economic transitions can unleash great potential for growth”.114

110. 111. 112. 113. 114.

Ravenhill, P. L. (1995). OAN Oceanie Afrique Noire. UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center, 28(2), 16-17+90. Obuah, E. E., Ndubuisi, J. O., & Dappa, G. T. (2017). Trade as an Instrument of Diplomacy. Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd, 4(1/2), 5–22. Steiner, C. B., & Forni, S. (Eds.). (2015). Africa in the Market: Twentieth-Century Art from the Amrad African Art Collection. Royal Ontario Museum. Obuah, E. E., Ndubuisi, J. O., & Dappa, G. T. (2017). Trade as an Instrument of Diplomacy. Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd, 4(1/2), 5–22. Akyeampong, E. (2015). China in West Africa’s Regional Development and Security Plans. CODESRIA, 40(4), 1–19.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 19: Collaboration with local south african craftsmen. Hanne, C. (2015)

The West African Object, its Premise.

Creative (Industrial) Clusters

In defining creative (industrial) clusters, the World Bank detailed that firms tend to concentrate in clusters and cities, they often drawn by the firms they serve, the products they produce and equally the services that they produce, not forgetting the skills required.115 Such a clear comparison has been made with the detailed exploration into the intricate workings of the Hausa traders in Abidjan. Within Côte d’Ivoire cities, markets of Treichville, Cocody and Plateau quarters become the clusters. Within which the firms being the various Hausa trading families who own a section of nearby neighbourhoods operating in warehoused partitioned to also operate as homes reside. Thus, through the service of offering products in their possession, a “small army of young men” would sell art door-to-door. Alternatively commissioning the services of local workshop craftsmen to produce products that satisfy touristic and foreign taste.116 Such proximity ensures timely delivery and lower inventory costs, which improves their profits.117 Within such a vast scattering of thriving craft-based clusters, must then the sacred continually be commodified? Frank McEwen the first director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, coined the term “airport art” in 1960 describing it as one of “the saddest forms of art prostitution that ignorant tourists support”. 118 With such a sentiment, we can observe alternatives of unified production that point towards craft-based initiatives that flourish without the financial obligation of culture commodification. Since around the turn of the millennium, furniture manufacturing firms in Arusha, Tanzania have been growing rapidly. The industry operates through 234 firms that serve mainly local demand from residential housing and the hotel and construction trades. Being located close to the heavy traffic along the Nairobi-Moshi international road draws a swathe of potential customers into the area. Within this cluster, there are small furniture workshops, specialist woodcutters, planers and forming firms that are contracted to the furniture makers. This seamless division of production between the various workshops and specialist subcontractors is a consequence of working within limitations. As a consequence of the risk associated with production under variable electrical power indivisible investments were made to mitigate this.119 Additionally, operating in antithesis to the replica producing, Hausa commissioned, patina smearing workshop crafters.120 The carpenters are trained for the industry in the area, thus providing a more specialised labour market in which the workers have more relevant and financially rewardable skills. Customarily, the two vocational and technical institutions, Arusha Technical College (ATC) and the Vocational Training and Service Centre (VTSC) are both located in the Arusha area.121 Such an efficiently streamlined system presents itself as to how the art trade within its particular pockets could evolve to operate. Stoller recounts how often Muslim traders would reinvest the majority of their earnings directly into their familial venture, purchasing new “wood” and “mud”.122 If they are presented with the prospect of altering (or widening) their market towards new items for sale, working alongside local craftsmen commissioning workshops to produce simply vernacular furniture, to begin with. It is very likely that the same creative cultures that manifested the coveted “primate art” would prove to be just as lucrative on a global scale. Something that would most likely prove to be worthy of insular reinvestment, something that traders would feel encouraged to develop as an export. Nonetheless, given the fact that total furniture imports into Africa amounted to US$3.6 billion in the year 2013. It is clear that there is a high demand within the market, the ten main countries of import each spent over US$100 million worth are located in West, North and East Africa.123 The prospect of intraAfrican trade through manufactured furniture is realistic, through initiatives carried to work alongside traders using their extensive family-owned networks of supply and distribution.

115. 116. 117. 118. 119. 120. 121. 122.

The World Bank. (2009). Reshaping Economic Geography. World Bank. Steiner, C. (n.d.). The Trade in West African Art. UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center. Carol Newman, John Page, John Rand, Abebe Shimeles, Måns Söderbom, & Finn Tarp. (n.d.). Made in Africa. Brookings Institution Press. Jonathan Zilberg. (1955). Shona Sculpture’s Struggle for Authenticity and Value. American Anthropological Association, 19(1), 2–24. Carol Newman, John Page, John Rand, Abebe Shimeles, Måns Söderbom, & Finn Tarp. (n.d.). Made in Africa. Brookings Institution Press. Steiner, C. (n.d.). The Trade in West African Art. UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center. Carol Newman, John Page, John Rand, Abebe Shimeles, Måns Söderbom, & Finn Tarp. (n.d.). Made in Africa. Brookings Institution Press. Stoller, P. (2003). Circuits of African Art / Paths of Wood: Exploring an Anthropological Trail. The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research, 76(2), 207–234. 123. Correspondent, T. O. A. (2017, May 10). Furniture: A Growth Oriented Industry. The Times of Africa. https://thetimesofafrica.com/furniture-growthoriented-industry/

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 20: Kambe men carving masks for tourist trade. Near Mombassa, Kenya. Elisofon, E. (1966)

The West African Object, its Premise.

Creative (Industrial) Clusters

Whilst such networks vary in means and modes of transport, it is certain that infrastructure as a whole is a pertinent issue that has yet to be resolutely addressed – improved and focused investments are essential. Lagging behind other developing countries in almost every measure, Africa’s greatest discrepancies involve paved roads, telephone main lines and power generation. These offer themselves as a great barrier to any form of competitiveness, such as unreliable electrical power these deficits contribute to a loss of 2% GDP growth. it is strongly suggested in ‘Made in Africa’ that “priority should be given to trade-related infrastructure”, focused infrastructure investment in a limited geographical area is what can only be implemented through government intervention.124 Steiner explains how “a large number of objects are collected by professional traders who wander on foot or bicycle from village to village”.125 Focused government identification and consequent development of such transport routes is a prospect that is practical and certainly manageable. Through the alliance with existing traders’ various routes within and across counties and ports for international export could be strategically upgraded. Besides, encouraging the development of clusters of craft removed from the urban sprawl within the vicinity of rural localities could prove to be hugely beneficial. Rather than extracting the ritualistic object of value from peoples like the Lobi in a precarious contemporary existence. Burgeoning and thriving decentralised hubs of production could be established that would allow rural peoples to practice their customs. Whilst being financially rewarded for the output of craft-based production, making bespoke vernacular furniture that would certainly appeal to a handsomely paying overseas palette. If the rate of growth continues, more than 500 million Africans will move to cities by 2030, adequate thought must be put towards developing projects that would utilize the skills of those further afield embracing their culture and tradition through a juxtaposed economic lens. They can be reimagined to work in a hybrid symbiotic relationship, taking light inspiration from a more feudal past that pervaded the global landscape before capitalism subsumed economic ideals.126

124. Carol Newman, John Page, John Rand, Abebe Shimeles, Måns Söderbom, & Finn Tarp. (n.d.). Made in Africa. Brookings Institution Press. 125. Steiner, C. (n.d.). The Trade in West African Art. UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center. 126. Amin, S. (1990). Colonialism and the Rise of Capitalism: A Comment. Science & Society, 54(1), 67-72.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 21: A typical old railroad enveloped by informal settlements. Jedwab, R. Kerby, E & Moradi, A. (2015)

The West African Object, its Premise.

The Development of Extant Infrastructure

Whilst there is no denying that such endeavours would be somewhat costly, as it has been presented – the Muslim traders have greatly benefitted from such financially with each passing generation. Consistently reinvesting what is earned within their familial operation scaling the business. Alongside funding their trading endeavours governments would accrue profits if such is considered a long-term investment. In limited geographical areas, they often attract export-oriented investors in an effective way.127 China’s growing presence in Africa over the past decade reflects China’s growing stature in the global economy. In 2009 they became Africa’s top lender surpassing World Bank becoming its leading trading partner. With six of the world’s largest growing economies being in Africa (Angola, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Chad, Mozambique and Rwanda) in eight of the past ten years.128 Consolidated and unified efforts of African governments in the craft industries will attract such investment if prior efforts have proved to be financially successful. Whilst various infractions such as the debacle in Ghana over illegal mining incidents, and the acquisition of firearms by Chinese miners in civil war plagued Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire. These unfortunate and avoidable implications for the otherwise mutually beneficial bilateral relations would greatly propel the scope of development and potential industrialisation through trade. Colonial investments were aimed at making the colony more productive, with the economy revolving around commerce, mining and agriculture. Such infrastructures weren’t intended to integrate colonial economies or provide a foundation for economic growth based on interior idiosyncrasies.129 BBC’s ‘The Story of Africa’ explains that in the early 1920’s the completed railway lines were effective for military and political colony control, and to transport mines to ports. Nonetheless, at present much of the inherited railway systems are fragmented and disjointed. A study by World Bank found that West Africa has some of the lowest statistics of route kilometre railways operated.130 Is this the kind of infrastructure that could be forecasted as a long term intra-African project towards trade amongst nations. With the projection of 500 million Africans to move in cities by 2030, there will be a profound need for real estate, residential accommodation, office space, hotels and schools throughout Africa. At present office buildings, hospitals, schools, luxury hotels, high-end guest houses, apartments and societies, shopping malls and theatres are being constructed throughout various cities.131 Incentivised and supported regional and rural clusters of industry could thus help develop new vernacular typologies in healthier and competitive environments. Additionally, furniture for these new spaces will certainly be required. For those moving into new homes and establishing new businesses, desks and chairs for new schools will be needed, bespoke beds for new hotels, stylish wardrobes and additional fixtures and fittings. Whilst Times of Africa argues that “Several African countries have good potential for developing their furniture industry, both for internal consumption and for exports. The more promising prospects are in South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria, but also Namibia, Tunisia, Kenya, Zimbabwe are possible candidates for a relevant expansion of their furniture production”.132 Greater understanding of extant scattered yet interconnected and related clusters suggest that there is far more untapped potential.

127. Carol Newman, John Page, John Rand, Abebe Shimeles, Måns Söderbom, & Finn Tarp. (n.d.). Made in Africa. Brookings Institution Press. 128. Akyeampong, E. (2015). China in West Africa’s Regional Development and Security Plans. CODESRIA, 40(4), 1–19. 129. Akyeampong, E. (2015). China in West Africa’s Regional Development and Security Plans. CODESRIA, 40(4), 1–19. BBC. (n.d.). BBC World Service— The Story of Africa—Episode guide. BBC. Retrieved 9 December 2020, from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03njn4f/episodes/guide 130. Akyeampong, E. (2015). China in West Africa’s Regional Development and Security Plans. CODESRIA, 40(4), 1–19. 131. Correspondent, T. O. A. (2017, May 10). Furniture: A Growth Oriented Industry. The Times of Africa. https://thetimesofafrica.com/furniture-growthoriented-industry/ 132. Correspondent, T. O. A. (2017, May 10). Furniture: A Growth Oriented Industry. The Times of Africa. https://thetimesofafrica.com/furniture-growthoriented-industry/

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Figure 22: Alfred Gell's diagram explaining the movement of objects between different contexts. Aina, Richard (2020). Gell, A. (1998). Art and agency: An anthropological theory.

The West African Object, its Premise.

The new Art Nexus

A Proposal for West African “Art” within a New Nexus At present, the context within which crafted objects exist amongst other homogenised West African artefacts can be described by the formula.

[[[Prototype A] → Artist A] → Index A] → Recipient P]

The physical traits of the objects canonical archetypical appearance naturally constrain the local artist in creating an index, for socio-religious purposes, as a commission of sorts – Kambire-esque. An Alternative Formula – A New Framework

[[[Prototype A] → Index A] → Artist A] → Recipient B]

Rather, whilst acknowledging the confines of prototypical forms that exist within a western index for specific purposes. The intriguing proposition involves entrusting West African creatives like the Lobi carvers with a framework that allows them to ingeniously reimagine new forms for an intercontinental and wider international audience, that would embrace creative development and not constraint cultural creative output.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

Drawing: Community based production to supply a regional wide export. Aina, R. (2021)

The West African Object, its Premise.

Conclusion

Several key elements that currently exist within the West African landscape that is at this moment disparate, inefficient and in some instances illegal pertaining to the aforementioned topic. The potential for craft-based trade to be reimagined on a global scale as an instrument for diplomacy has the scope to highly encourage sustainable development, whilst reinvigorating and reimagining existing systems that currently have unrealised potential. The trappings of globalism force conformity and homogeneity as we have witnessed within Europe and increasingly so in Asia, by default, extant tribes within (West) Africa like the Lobi are increasingly faced with a decay of their traditions and culture. With an increase of peoples from nomadic and rural tribes being drawn into the urban regions. Subscribing to the world economic system and post-colonial remnants there has been a disintegration of their craftbased religious output towards becoming manufactured products for barter to merely survive for Western purchase. Which are ironically resold at exceedingly greater margins – defined structures of physical and artistic ownership are key. China travailed a unique and unchartered path towards rapid industrialization and economic growth establishing itself as a recognised world power. West African governments must not lean on the proverbial rule book and should rather forge their unique paths towards gaining a greater share at the global table. The unique potential within the craft, as a professional trade, must not be overlooked. Extant cultural and ethnic diversity must not be dissolved in pursuit of prior trodden paths for purely monetary gain. They must be protected and cherished whilst approaches within the economic trade market beyond the continent must also be protectionist rather than liberal. Although, unlike the West and China, Africa has long been bloated by a plethora of raw materials that still continue to be nonsensically exported for cheap and imported at a higher expense. Intra-African trade must be employed through a liberal approach, with wood/timber being the raw material for a craft-based output alongside strategic afforestation initiatives. On a state level, concurrent top-down and bottomup initiatives must be employed, controlling the influence of traders, establishing a stronger dialogue between rural communities and local governors. Embarking on a series of pilot production clusters, utilising cheap labour costs to comprehend an ever-increasing population. Such initiatives require unified and focused reform within existing infrastructures throughout West African governments. To even improve existing infrastructure such as roads, data capacity, electricity supply and shipping capabilities to name a few – to improve the operating potential of such an industry. Patience and persistence must be employed over decades with continued and consistent efforts to be employed with each successive party that holds power. Something that has yet to be seen not just in West Africa but throughout the continent. This increasingly will attract overseas investment that certainly has a role to play, but should not be a deciding factor. With numerous ongoing examples largely employed by China. Being such an exceedingly unique region, West Africa must forge its own exceedingly unique path towards selfactualisation.

A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectified.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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