The traditional art of Africa consists principally of masks and figures of magico-religious significance, decorative objects used for personal adornment, and implements and insignia of rank or prestige. Most of these objects are in some way allied to ceremonial and other structured activities (such as singing, dancing, drumming, and storytelling), without which the visual arts could not function in traditional African society. The forms and functions of traditional African art are strikingly diverse. Certain patterns of form and meaning can be discerned, however, by both a regional and a more general scrutiny. Sculpture is generally considered Africa's greatest achievement in the visual arts, but, although sculpture is found in many parts of Africa, this medium of expression occurs with the greatest frequency in western and central Africa. The majority of sculptures are of wood, but objects are also made in metal, stone, terra-cotta, mud, beadwork, ivory, and other materials. In southern and eastern Africa are found ancient rock paintings attributed to the \TSan\t (Bushman) people. The only other major rock art tradition in Africa is that of Algeria, Libya, and Chad, the work of the prehistoric inhabitants of the Sahara (see \Tprehistoric art\t). Islamic influence is seen throughout the west African savanna and the east African coast; populations of both areas have been involved with Islamic culture for at least a thousand years. Some groups like the \TYoruba\t of Nigeria carve a great variety of objects; others like the nomadic Pakot of Kenya rejoice in writing poetry about their cattle. Thus, one cannot generalize about African societies and their art forms merely because the people live on the same continent. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS At least three basic themes occur again and again in traditional African art: (1) the distinction between bush and village, (2) the problematic relationships between the sexes, and (3) the struggle to control various forces, natural as well as supernatural, to achieve desired ends. The dualism of bush and village is pervasive in Africa, although the forms by which it is expressed vary from place to place. The underlying notion is that the world consists of two complementary spheres: one a wild, chaotic, uncontrolled, exuberant region (or nature); the other an ordered, controlled, measured, predictable domain (or culture), the human world of the village. The \TIbo\t of Nigeria express this dualism by means of masks and headdresses: the male symbolizes the elephant, most powerful of all bush creatures; the female symbolizes culture and is delicately coiffed to express refinement and civilization. Among the Yaka and other Congolese groups, masks that police the initiation rites are made of rough bush materials and have relatively abstract features; those worn at the conclusion of the rites--when the boys have been symbolically brought from nature into culture--are made of wood, are more naturalistic, and are used to make fun of human foibles. For the \TDogon\t of Mali, the distinction is embodied in the contrast between spirals (nature) and rectangular forms (culture). To deal with problems and issues surrounding the relations between the sexes, various African societies employ art as a therapeutic device. The Baule of Ivory Coast, for example, carve images supposed to represent one's spirit lover because it is believed that these beings, if jealous, can cause the living unending problems with their spouses. Africans are by no means passive in the face of powerful natural or supernatural forces. Indeed, the principal function of art in traditional African society has been to help manipulate the forces that affect people's lives. These forces are not seen as preternaturally good or evil as they are in Western society; rather, natural and supernatural powers are perceived as malleable and subject to influence and manipulation, provided the proper techniques are used. Thus, the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria perform elaborate masked ceremonies known as Gelede to please and honor witches; behind this lies an anthropomorphizing outlook which assumes that if flattery works on ordinary people it will on witches too. Deliberately hideous masks intended to expel witches, such as the \TSenufo\t "firespitter" of Ivory Coast and many related savanna forms, constitute a violent counterattack on witchcraft that literally fights fire with fire. The same is true of \Lfetish\les--magically constructed and empowered objects found throughout Africa. These assemblages are specific prescriptions aimed at bringing about a desired end, whether the breaking of a bad habit, the improvement of one's love life, the destruction of a human enemy, or the warding off of a supernatural threat. In short, traditional African art is essentially functional and optimistic. Its aims are primarily positive and are intended, through elaboration and vigorous expression, to enhance the human condition. REGIONAL STYLES Western Sudanic Region This area includes Burkina Faso, western Mali, and northern Ivory Coast. Among its most famous art-producing peoples are the Dogon, Bambara, Bwa, and Senufo. The fertility of crops is of basic importance in this dry area, as is the placation of the ancestors and the indoctrination of the young in the ancient traditions of each society. To these ends, masks and figures representing legendary ancestors dance or receive sacrifices. Forms in the western Sudan tend to be relatively stylized, austere, and angular. Central Sudanic Region Centered in northern Nigeria, the central Sudan is dominated by the Muslim \THausa\t and \TFulani\t peoples, who have developed numerous city-states. Central Sudanic art is mostly nonrepresentational and includes mud architecture, sometimes with molded, low-relief decoration; embroidered textiles; elaborate coiffure; metal and beadwork jewelry; and leatherwork decorated with geometric applique. In addition, terra-cotta sculptures dating from about 500 BC to AD 200, associated with the so-called Nok culture, have been unearthed over a 480-km (300-mi) stretch of uplands in the southern part of the region. The Nok tradition represents the earliest known sculpture yet found in sub-Saharan Africa and seems to have paved the way for the tradition of superb portrait terra cottas and bronzes that later developed at the holy city of \TIfe\t in western Nigeria. Some modern peoples in the central Sudanic region such as the \TTiv\t, Goemai, Montol, Mama, Waja, Jukun, Mumuye, Chamba, and Afo carve masks or figures; these objects show a striking similarity to the art of the western Sudanic peoples. This suggests ancient linkages across the savanna belt that have been disrupted only within approximately the past 1,000 years by the Islamic incursions. West Guinea Coast Region This region consists of Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the densely forested coastal portion of Guinea and southwestern Ivory Coast. Characteristic masks and figures from the area are made by such peoples as the \TMende\t, Baga, Gola, and Dan. Forms in the west Guinea Coast are generally softer, shinier, and more rounded than in the neighboring western Sudanic region. Carved wood masks are the dominant art form in the region, where they perform a great variety of functions. Masks are used to police ceremonies, punish wrongdoers, settle land disputes, and start and end wars. An apt expression for the traditional west Guinea Coast way of life is "government by mask." Central Guinea Coast Region The Central Guinea Coast extends from southeastern Ivory Coast, southern Ghana, Togo, Benin, and southern Nigeria to the lower Niger River with an offshoot in the Cameroons grasslands. Central Guinea Coast art is the richest and the most complex of any area in Africa. Such well-known societies as the \TAkan\t (\TAshanti\t), \TFon\t, \TYoruba\t, and Benin inhabit this region. Traditionally, these groups were courtly in character with divine kingship and other centralizing institutions; their art employs aristocratic materials including gold, silver, bronze, brass, beadwork, silk, and ivory. Specialized guilds of artists attached to the courts produced intricately crafted art forms mainly for the benefit of the leaders. Guinea Coast art forms include stools, drums, elaborately decorated cloth, pottery, terra-cotta figurines, ornamental swords, miniature masks, combs, mirrors, staffs, pipes, containers, and carved musical instruments. The affluence and accompanying artistic wealth of this region was in part the result of the lucrative trade with European ships that began to visit the west African coast beginning in the late 15th century. East Guinea Coast Region The lower Niger marks the approximate boundary between the aristocratic centralized societies of the central Guinea Coast and the more loosely organized peoples of southwestern Nigeria. Here, in the absence of kings and paramount chiefs, one finds elaborately developed masquerades and plays, sometimes staged by \Tsecret societies\t, sometimes by graded title societies. These performances serve to maintain law and order in groups that vest leadership in their elders. Characteristic of the east Guinea Coast area is a dazzling array of masks, puppets, headdresses, and other theatrical devices. Prominent groups in the area include the \TIbo\t, \TIbibio\t, Idoma, Ijo, Ejagham (Ekoi), and Ogoni. Equatorial Forest Region Among the best-known peoples of the equatorial forest, which extends across Gabon and northern Zaire, are the \TFang\t, Kota, Kwele, Ngbaka, Mbole, and Lega. This region, which is covered with dense rain forest except where trees have been cleared for agriculture, still includes Pygmies, the original inhabitants, who are hunters and gatherers. The art-producing agricultural peoples began moving into this region from southern Nigeria some 2,000 years ago, in what is frequently called the Bantu Expansion. Their art forms include numerous masks, figures, beautifully designed weapons, divination objects and carved fetishes, wall paintings, musical instruments, and practical implements. One widespread visual motif is the so-called heart-shaped face, a method of rendering the face as a concavity from the eye sockets to the vicinity of the mouth. This motif may well have been brought by Bantu migrants from Nigeria, where it is also used. Lower Congo Region The styles that developed in the general vicinity of the mouth of the Congo River were influenced about 1500 by the Portuguese, who converted the king (the Mani-kongo) and many of his courtiers to Christianity. During the next three centuries, Portuguese influence introduced a number of Christian themes. Following the Portuguese withdrawal, many of these borrowed symbols acquired pagan meanings; crucifixes, for example, became symbols of chiefly power. Christian origins have also been suggested for other Lower Congo art forms, including stone mortuary statues, mother-and-child figures, and fetishes with nails driven into them. Southern Savanna Region In the broad upland belt of central Africa are numerous Bantu peoples such as the \TChokwe\t, \TLuba\t, Songye, Yaka, Pende, and Kuba and related groups such as the \TMbundu\t and Makonde. Perhaps the prime generators of art in these groups are the initiation rites that mark the passage of boys from adolescence to manhood. Masks, figures, costumes, and spectacular theatrical effects are part of these initiations, functioning often as didactic devices to instruct the boys in their culture and in proper manly behavior. The Kuba of central Zaire, in addition to complex initiation rites, have elaborate courtly art forms, including royal portrait statues, elegant cups, drums, containers, dolls, and numerous regalia for persons of high rank. Eastern Sudanic Region The artistic production of most of the peoples in this area is restricted to decorative art, but a few groups in the southern Republic of the Sudan and southwest Ethiopia, including the Bongo, Konso, and Borana, carve wood figures to commemorate ancestors. This tradition probably relates more to the ancient pagan art still discernible in a broad arc across southern Asia than to the majority of African styles. Similarly distinct is Ethiopian art, which shows strong links with Egyptian \TCoptic art\t and \TByzantine art\t. East and Southern African Region and Madagascar Apart from Bushman paintings and engravings, eastern and southern Africa have only a limited number of distinctive figural styles. The predominant arts in this region are architecture and architectural decorations, including the boldly patterned wall paintings of the \TNdebele\t in the Transvaal, and personal ornaments, especially beadwork. Madagascar, the only large island lying off Africa's coast, was first settled not from Africa but from Indonesia, perhaps early in the Christian Era. Conspicuous here is the commemorative ancestor figure notable also in the eastern Sudanic region and typical of Indonesia. Certain raffia textiles made by the ikat process find their closest parallels in Indonesia. Influence in the West From the 16th century, European travelers acquired objects of African art, particularly bronzes and ivories from the Benin court. Collections of African art were being formed in Europe by the 19th century. Early in the 20th century, African sculpture had an impact on the work of such modern artists as Georges \TBraque\t, Henri \TMatisse\t, Amedeo \TModigliani\t, and Pablo \TPicasso\t, who were attracted by the aesthetic values they perceived in African art forms. \TDouglas\t \TFraser\t Bibliography: Baldwin, James, et al., Perspectives: Angles on African Art (1987); Bascom, William, African Art in Cultural Perspective: An Introduction (1972); Delange, Jacqueline, The Art and Peoples of Black Africa, trans. by Carol F. Jopling (1974); Duerden, Dennis A., A Concise Handbook of African Art (1988); Fagg, William, African Tribal Images (1968); Fraser, Douglas, and Cole, Herbert M., eds., African Art and Leadership (1972); Gillon, Werner, A Short History of African Art (1987); Laude, Jean, The Arts of Black Africa (1971); Leiris, Michel, and Delange, Jacqueline, African Art (1968); Leuzinger, Elsy, Africa: The Art of the Negro Peoples, 2d ed. (1967) and The Art of Black Africa (1972); Rubin, William, Primitivism in 20th Century Art, Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern, 2 vols. (1984); Sieber, Roy, and Walker, R. A., African Art in the Cycle of Life (1987); Vogel, C., African Aesthetics (1987); Wassing, Rene S., African Art: Its Background and Traditions (1968); Willett, Frank, African Art (1985). See also: \TAfrican music\t.