African Photo Magazine Issue #6

Historians estimate that between 10
and 18 million Africans were enslaved
by Arab slave traders and taken
across the Red Sea, Indian Ocean,
and Sahara desert between 650 A.D
and 1900 A.D, long before the Atlantic
Slave trade. At the height of the Indian
Ocean slave trade, it was estimated
that 80,000 Africans died each
year before ever reaching the slave
markets of Zanzibar. Zanzibar was
once East Africa’s main slave-trading
port, and under Omani Arabs in the
19th century as many as 50,000
slaves were passing through the city
each year.
The earliest findings of cast bronze
artefacts were excavated in Igbo-Ukwu,
Nigeria (9 A.D). The tradition of bronze
casting in West Africa reached its
peak during the great kingdoms of
the 14th-19th century. The demanding
cire perdue technique was used for
the production of different objects by
bronze casters who, in West Africa,
formed special guilds and occupied
an important position in society due to
the ambivalent nature of their work –
working with metal. Only the king had
the authority to order the production
of objects in bronze, control their
distribution as well as the use of metal.
Nkisi or Nkishi are spirits, or an
object that a spirit inhabits. It is
frequently applied to a variety of
objects used throughout the Congo
Basin in Central Africa that are
believed to contain spiritual powers
or spirits. Close communication with
ancestors and belief in the efficacy of
their powers are closely associated in
Kongo tradition. Among the peoples
of the Congo Basin, especially the
Bakongo and the Songye people of
Kasai, exceptional human powers
are frequently believed to result
from some sort of communication
with the dead. People known as
banganga work as healers, diviners,
and mediators who defend the living
against witchcraft and provide them
with remedies against diseases
resulting either from witchcraft or the
demands of bakisi (spirits), emissaries
from the land of the dead.
The Senufo of northern Côte d’Ivoire
produce a rich variety of sculptures,
mainly associated with Poro, a society
guided by a female ancestral spirit
known as “the Ancient Mother.” Several
types of mask are used in conjunction
with Poro. Kponyugu masks exhibit
many variations in name, style, animal
references, and symbolism. Their
iconography—a composite of a wide
range of animals—refers to the origin
of the world, to important legends,
and to the roles of certain animals in
carrying out obligations to ancestors
and nature spirits. The kpelie masks,
small human faces with delicate
features, represent female spirits and
encode aspects of Poro knowledge.
The masks are involved with initiation
and also perform at funerals, where
they help encourage the soul of the
deceased to move on to the ancestral
realm.
Makonde sculpture, old and
modern, represents an artistic
tradition which evolved in response
to the historical and economic forces
affecting the Makonde, of southern
Tanzania, throughout the twentieth
century, especially after the 1930s.
The carvings are both traditional and
contemporary, reflecting a tribal past
as well as modern response to urban
life. The most common is the “Tree
of Life” which depicts the members
of an extended family, including
past and present generations, gently
supporting each other, generation
after generation, around the family
ancestor
10 africanphotomagazine ISSUE 6 JUNE 2017 11