“When iron is heated in a charcoal fire to white-hot temperatures, skilled African blacksmiths move the metal like clay. Using hammers as an extension of their hands, they can model any shape they desire upon their anvils. With astonishing technical prowess these artists have, for over 2,500 years, created the essential and the conceptual, the …
Artistry
The visual culture of West Africa, from sculpture, ceramics, textiles, metalwork and architecture to the dynamic performance arts (dance, music) that bring traditional mask art to life.
“When an Agama lizard sees you coming, it jumps onto a wall. It doesn’t fall because it has ‘special’ powers. Those powers are the same that we masons use. Those are secret.” ― Master Mason Konbaba Tennepo The Master Mason The master mason makes his way through the maze of twisting alleyways, staircases, …
The West African puppeteer lurches, leans and sways, giving himself over to the demands of his carved creation. He is at once ajogi, a Yoruba dancer of the wooden image, and nyamakala, a Malinke force-handler, as he pulls on the ropes and rods of some of the oldest and richest of Africa’s surviving puppetry traditions. …
“Bogolan cloth is literally made of the earth, forests, rivers and sun of Mali.” ― Kandiora Coulibaly, Groupe Bogolan Kasobane And it was through the harnessing of natural materials ― the iron-rich mud of river-beds, the extracts of leaves, bark, and roots, and the energy of the intense West African sunlight ― that the Bambara …
Somewhere in the Futa Tooro region of Senegal, a Tukolor weaver, or mabube, reenacts an ancient ritual. He gathers his loom parts — pulley, wheel, shuttle, beater that have been carved for him and him alone — bringing them back, each and every day, to a framework that does not uniquely belong to him. Although he …