African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 954
History of Tourist Art in Africa
Although most African tourist art emerged after World War II, in response to greater
numbers of foreigners working and traveling on the continent, examples of commercial
production go back to the earliest encounters between Europeans and Africans. Among
these are the so-called Afro-Portuguese ivories, dating to the late fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries. Mainly ivory horns and saltcellars, these works were commissioned
by Portuguese sailors to bring home as tribute to their royal sponsors in Europe. Since the
first monograph on the subject (Fagg 1959), these ivories have been treated as early
hybrid commercial art forms; yet because of their age, rarity, and stunning technical
virtuosity, they have not generally been grouped into the broader category of tourist art.
Until recently, art historians and collectors alike have often assumed that any art
object acquired in Africa prior to the twentieth century must be “authentic.” This term is
understood in the literature to mean something “produced by a traditional artist for a
traditional purpose and conforming to traditional forms” (Cornet 1975, 55). There is,
however, a growing body of evidence to suggest that art objects have been manufactured
commercially for sale to outsiders prior to the twentieth century. In the late nineteenth
century, for example, the ethnographic museum in Rome acquired a collection of masks
and statues assembled in 1887 along the mouth of the Congo River by explorer Giuseppe
Corona. Given their early date, it was assumed that these objects were intended for
indigenous use. Yet they were in fact made for sale to outsiders, and they cater to
European stereotypes of Africans, especially the two unclothed male figures with
exaggerated sexual organs. In a 1979 article ironically entitled “Nineteenth-Century
Airport Art,” Ezio Bassani concludes that “this unknown artisan must have worked on
order, creating sculptures for sale to foreign sailors and travelers who wished to bring
back from Africa curios and ‘typical’ objects” (1979, 35).
As the production of tourist art grew in scale and quantity as a result of increased
foreign demand following World War II, different categories and styles of tourist art
slowly began to emerge across the continent. Today, tourist arts might usefully be
divided into two broad categories: (1) those derived largely from traditional object types
(mainly copies of canonical styles of masks and sculptures from West and Central
Africa), and (2) those developed purely for external trade due to newly formed
associations with European and American buyers (the most notable examples of these
developed first in East and Southern Africa).
West and Central Africa
Most commercial production in West and Central Africa consists of reproducing
“classic” examples of traditional art forms, mainly wooden masks and statues, but also
elaborately carved wooden spoons, game boards, stools, door locks, and headrests, terracotta
vessels and figurines, as well as cast bronze figures, goldweights and other forms.
Since the early decades of this century, artists have produced increasing quantities of
objects for sale to outsiders. Much of this production has been spurred by the need for
cash income, as the spread of colonial taxation rapidly disrupted the internal structure of
subsistence economies. Although many artists produce for both local and foreign