By Sofía Alvis Valderrama
(8th semester FIGRI student, Democracy, Citizenship and Education elective)
Someone once said “art is a reflection of a society because it shows the soul of the artist”. Now, imagine that this soul is taken from people's bodies for the purpose of demonstrating power over them. That is the history of art in Africa.
Africa is the cradle of the world: according to recent studies, the origin of humanity can be traced to southern Africa, around modern-day Botswana 200,000 years ago (Garvan Institute for Medical Research of Sydney in National Geographic, 2019). Since that date, and due to different migratory waves, human beings have migrated to different parts of the world, leaving aside that origin. However, Africa today preserves that essence, since it is a continent full of cultural wealth, natural resources and people who remind us of the humanity that we have lost generation by generation. But, sadly, that wealth has made many want to take advantage. This is known as the curse of resources or the paradox of plenty.
Between 1884 and 1885 the Berlin Conference was held, convened by the then Chancellor of Germany, Otto von Bismark, and this had the sole purpose of dividing Africa into portions that were convenient for the colonizers: United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, and Germany, among others. From that moment the history of Africa changed forever, because although this colonization was not so long in terms of time, it left scars that even today cannot be erased. This is because in this "cutting up of the cake" it was not considered that people lived there, that there were ethnic groups, conflict, cultures and legacy. I think for this reason, this colonization process was so violent, because the colonizers never considered that they were dealing with a populated continent.
African societies, despite their diversity, agree on the importance of belonging, the importance of being part of a group. In fact, from there the reason for slavery is explained. I think we have all wondered how a race could be subjected to slavery and never oppose it, but experts say that that this is because for Africans their community comes first. It even comes above the idea of oneself, which indicates that it does not matter if a person loses their life , as long as their community transcends and keeps its legacy.
But what to do if that legacy is taken from one moment to the next? As several African artists affirm, a people whose legacy is taken away is a people whose strength and soul are taken away. It then becomes a people who are easy to subdue. And it seems that this was the logic of European colonizers, who after colonizing and massacring the local people (as can be seen in the image), took their pieces of art to Europe as trophies. This is the case, for example, with the Tangue of Cameroon.
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Representation of the conquest of Cameroon by Germans. Resource taken from DW.
To begin to contextualize this beautiful piece of art, it should be noted that the conception of art in Africa is different. African art has a spiritual connotation, in fact, it has become known as ritual art. As indicated by an African writer, observing art is a European cultural aspect. Now, the Tangué comes from a tradition in which the elite families of Douala, Cameroon, carry out canoe races. The importance of the Tank here is that the day before the race, a ritual is done in which the Tangué is added to the canoe and this gives the winner good luck.
During the colonization of Cameroon by Germany in 1884, the colonizers massacred the people and as a way to show their power they stole all their art, among these and to represent power even over the elite, they took the Tangue of Lock Priso, the head of the royal Bele Bele family and gave it to the Munich Museum. This piece of art is still there, despite the fact that the Bele Bele family has tried in many ways to get their art back. Many consider art to be embodied in these ethnological museums, when they should be reminding current and future generations of their cultural heritage.
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| Tangué from Lock Priso. Resource taken from DW. |
Regrettably, this is not an isolated situation. It is estimated that 95% of African art is found outside of Africa, in Europe and North America, in ethnographic museums, in which only 5% of their entire collection has been exhibited. Among this and other reasons, Africans demand that museums must return art that was stolen from them during colonization.
The response of the museums to these demands is that more than a decision by themselves, the restitution of art is a political decision and therefore the only way that they could be returned to their continent of origin is through being loaned back. But isn't this illogical? To steal something from someone and then lend it back to them so they can see it again?
On the other hand, many African artists argue that while Africans today need to know their culture, Africa is not ready for this restitution of art.
First, they argue that Africa currently has more pressing problems, such as poverty, famine and preserving life. This argument is very valid, but as its opponents state, the colonial inferiority complex that this period has left will not end until the wounds in society's soul begin to heal.
The second point is that Africa does not have the space to house the art that is to be restored. However, as many indicate, African art is not something to just be seen, it is to be held and felt. Therefore, it must travel the world, to travel its own continent. It is interesting to think that many artists consider that the fact that the art was stolen gave African art the opportunity to travel and show the world that they are not monkeys who live in the trees, but people with a cultural background worthy of being known.
A third argument is that African societies are not ready to receive art and therefore would tend to sell it to interested Europeans and Americans, since art is not a priority for Africans. The counter argument to this is that it is false: Africa breathes culture. Its 56 countries are forged around culture, but they cannot continue to understand their ancestral culture because they do not even know what their art looks like, and so they are deprived of the legacy of their ancestors.
Finally, and as a reflection, I consider that the restitution of this stolen art, more than a political act, is an act of respect for the other, of understanding that there is an entire continent that is being denied the possibility of connecting with their ancestors, and to feel through these works of art a sense of belonging to this world. The fact that European countries want to continue to tie Africa to a dependence through art, seems to me the cruelest form of neocolonialism. This also makes me think about the impact of the colonial past in Latin America. Latin America does not only have a colonial past, it has a colonial legacy, a legacy that has been absorbed in our culture, to the point that we do not feel we are Western and that we see the indigenous people, our natives, as different to us. And in terms of art it is much worse, because we do not feel an identification with our indigenous peoples, nor with our colonial legacy, which leads me to think: Where do we belong? Where is our legacy? Where does the soul of our society rest?
Resources
DW (2020). Colonial art: The case of a piece stolen from Cameroon. DW. https://www.dw.com/en/colonial-art-the-case-of-a-piece-stolen-from-cameroon/a-54783942
National Geographic (2019). El origen de la humanidad. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com.es/ciencia/origen-humanidad-se-traslada-sur-africa-hace-200000-anos_14873
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