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Appendix 1: A Brief History of Research into African Aesthetics
Wilfried van Damme
Description: The Language of Beauty in African Art
The Language of Beauty in African Art
The scholarly quest for understanding the aesthetic in sub-Saharan cultures can be traced back some ninety years...
Author
Wilfried van Damme
PublisherArt Institute of Chicago
Copyright© 2022 by The Art Institute of Chicago
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22991
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Appendix 1: A Brief History of Research into African Aesthetics
Wilfried van Damme
The scholarly quest for understanding the aesthetic in sub-Saharan cultures can be traced back some ninety years. Its first peak occurred during the last four decades of the twentieth century, and its future may be brighter now that more African scholars are engaging in humanistic pursuits. What follows is a concise historical overview of the research into visual aesthetic preferences, practices, and thought in Africa to date.
Pioneers
Investigations of aesthetic conceptions in sub-Saharan Africa began in the 1930s, with the pioneering work of two European scholars. German anthropologist Hans Himmelheber set out in the early 1930s to research visual preferences and favored modes of representation among the Baule and the Guro, as part of a larger study of these peoples’ visual arts and artists. Himmelheber asked pertinent questions, but due to the brevity of his stay in local communities and a necessary reliance on interpreters, his efforts in the realm of the aesthetic produced somewhat limited results.1Himmelheber 1935. At the end of the 1930s, Belgian art historian Pieter Jan Vandenhoute was more successful when studying masks and sculptors among the Dan. In addition to reporting on aesthetic preferences in masks, he made significant observations on the religious function of beauty in this culture.2Vandehoute 1945.
African Scholarship
African scholars have been publishing on the aesthetic in sub-Saharan cultures since the 1950s and 1960s, starting with the exploratory and programmatic essays of humanistic scholar Léopold Sédar Senghor and philosophy-minded sociologist Harris Memel-Fotê. Both recommended approaching the subject as integrated into sub-Saharan worldviews; they also suggested that language—conceptual analysis—may serve as a fruitful starting point for examination of the subject.3Senghor 1956; and Memel-Fotê 1967. In the wake of these trailblazing efforts, in the 1970s and 1980s scholars such as Fidelis Odun Balogun, Stanley Macebuh, Engelbert Mveng, Alassane Ndaw, and Théophile Obenga wrote generalizingly about the aesthetic and its investigation in Africa, intending to stimulate future studies as well.4Balogun 1981; Macebuh 1974; Mveng 1975; Ndaw 1975; and Obenga 1985, 249ff.
The most substantial contributions by African scholars to date are those of art historians discussing the aesthetic views prevalent in their cultures of origin. Notable and influential examples include Chike C. Aniakor, studying aesthetics in Igbo culture, and Rowland O. Abiodun and Babatunde Lawal, focusing on Yòrùbá traditions.5For example, Aniakor 1974; Aniakor 1982; Abiodun 2014; and Lawal 1974. See also Lawal’s contribution to this volume. Yòrùbá aesthetic views have also been discussed by, among others, the Yòrùbá art historians Cornelius O. Adepegba (see Adepegba and Boláji Campbell (see Campbell 2008) as well as the Yòrùbá cultural historian Titi Euba (see Euba 1986). The work of Abiodun and Lawal, especially, serves as the foundation of elaborations by Yòrùbá art historians Olusegun Ajiboye, Stephen Folaranmi, and Nanashaitu Umoro-Oke (see Ajiboye, Folaranmi, and Umoro-Oke 2018). Imo Nse Imeh, an American art historian of Ibibio descent, published a monograph on notions of female beauty in Ibibio culture and art (Imeh 2012). The work of all three scholars stands out for its insightful discussions of aesthetic concepts and the way they feature in such verbal expressions as proverbs and poetry.
Other African humanistic scholars have also foregrounded the analysis of aesthetic vocabularies. Those efforts include essays by Atiboroko S. A. Uyovbukerhi, highlighting a variety of aesthetic terms in the Urhobo language; by Bwenge Kule Mate, discussing words and proverbs related to beauty in Nande; and by Makungu ma Ngozi Isaya, basing his analysis of Lega aesthetics largely on sayings and on observations occurring in epic tales. J. Kweku Andrews (working together with anthropologist Dennis M. Warren, from the United States) has demonstrated the extent and nuances of the Akan aesthetic lexicon, discussing dozens of terms and expressions.6Uyovbukerhi 1986; Mate 1987; Isaya 1991; and Warren and Andrews 1977. See also, for example, Ginindza 1971; Matekere and Mapara 2009; and Orchardson-Mazrui 1998. At least two essays on aesthetics by African scholars were not available for consultation: Konan 1983; and Biruru Rucinagiza 2002.
African philosophers, too, have been concerned with the aesthetic in sub-Saharan cultures, albeit not usually from an empirical point of view—although some do discuss African aesthetic vocabularies.7Roger Somé, for example, discusses aesthetic terms in Dagara culture (Burkina Faso); see Somé 1992. They proceed reflectively, and often in dialogue with the Western tradition of philosophical aesthetics.8Philosophical deliberations include, among many more examples, Kouam 2003; and, more recently, Ibanga 2017. For a theology-based discussion, see also Bongmba 2009. The contributions of African social scientists to the study of African aesthetics have been relatively limited, but interest appears to be mounting.9See, among others, Bony 1967; Wondji 1979; and, more recently, Sy 2017. Today, African social scientists play central roles in studies on female corporeal aesthetics in both rural and especially urban sub-Saharan Africa (where beauty pageants have become popular). For an introduction to this field, see Mougoué 2019.
Western Scholarship after World War II
In the 1950s and 1960s, US-based anthropologists predominated among the Western scholars who set out to examine aesthetic conceptions in Niger-Congo-speaking Africa. Especially active in this line of resarch were students of Melville J. Herskovits, founder of Africanist studies in the US and himself a student of the anthropologist Franz Boas (who, like Herskovits, was interested in anthropological investigations of the aesthetic). These scholars usually considered the subject alongside a more central interest in visual art or such topics as religion and economics.
Justine M. Cordwell, having previously trained as a visual artist, was the first of Herskovits’s students to pursue work in this vein, examining the aesthetic in Yòrùbá and Bini traditions.10Cordwell 1952. She was followed, in the 1950s and early 1960s, by a number of scholars supervised by Herskovits who worked in various parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Basing their conclusions on long-term local research, these anthropologists (introduced below) reported especially on people’s evaluations of anthropomorphic sculpture and on concepts central to such appraisals. Some also provided more broadly conceived sociocultural analyses of the aesthetic.
A linguistic interest is clear in Harold K. Schneider’s study of aesthetic views among the Nilotic-speaking Pökoot (which he spelled “Pakot”), and especially in his essay on Turu aesthetics, which is wholly based on an analysis of verbal aesthetic qualifiers.11Schneider 1956; and Schneider 1966. John C. Messenger and James W. Fernandez provided some of the first extended case studies of topics central to the aesthetic in African cultures. Messenger contextually discussed the relationship between aesthetics and ethics in Annang society, and Fernandez scrutinized the concept of balance in the worldview and artistic expressions of the Fang.12Messenger 1973; and Fernandez 1966. Their fellow students Daniel J. Crowley, Warren L. d’Azevedo, and Simon Ottenberg, in addition to addressing aesthetic views in a given sub-Saharan culture (Chokwe, Gola, and Afikpo, respectively) also published more theoretical essays on the anthropological study of the aesthetic.13Crowley 1966; Crowley 1973; D’Azevedo 1973; and Ottenberg 1975. Theoretical essays: Crowley 1958; D’Azevedo 1958; and Ottenberg 1971.
Together, these students of Herskovits contributed notably to the development of Africanist aesthetics, both by providing primary empirical and contextual data and by reflecting on assumptions and approaches.
Anthropologists from other backgrounds who have addressed the aesthetic in Africa usually align rather closely with scholars from the Boas/Herskovits school. Correspondences include the humanistic questions they pose (the aesthetic is typically addressed as part of a larger interest in value and meaning); the social science methods they apply (privileging data voiced by, ideally, a cross-section of the population); and the particularistic paradigm they operate within (recorded preferences and views are routinely conceived and analyzed as culture-bound). These anthropologists include Daniel P. Biebuyck (studying the Lega)—Biebuyck, like Vandenhoute before him, was a student of Frans M. Olbrechts, another Boas disciple—Kris L. Hardin (Kono), Philip L. Ravenhill (Baule), Loretta R. Reinhardt (Mende), and most extensively, Harry L. Silver (Asante). Outside the realm of Niger-Congo speakers, Jeremy Coote worked on Nilotic cultures and also published a theoretical essay on the anthropology of aesthetics.14See, for example, Biebuyck 1973; Hardin 1993; Ravenhill 1980; Reinhardt 1975; and Silver 1979, among various other publications on Asante aesthetics (e.g., Silver 1983b); Coote 1989; and Coote 1992. See also, for instance, the work of anthropologists Robin Horton (Horton 1963; and Horton 1965), Dorothy K. Washburn (Washburn 1990), and Samuel M. Anderson (S. Anderson 2018).
From the 1960s onwards, Africanist anthropologists interested in visual art and aesthetics were joined by mostly US-based art historians doing research in sub-Saharan contexts. Some of these scholars even appear to have centered their work on the aesthetic in an African culture. Robert Farris Thompson’s detailed study of Yòrùbá sculptural aesthetics, based on opinions expressed by dozens of Yòrùbá individuals and heavily featuring local aesthetic terminology, has become a classic that has also been read outside sub-Saharan studies.15R. F. Thompson 1973b. See also R. F. Thompson 1968; and R. F. Thompson 1971, chap. 3 (1–6). Thompson also engaged in pioneering comparative analyses of African aesthetics early in the field’s development; see Appendix 2, n5. It inspired the work of several other Africanist art historians, including Susan Mullin Vogel, who would add a robust sociocultural dimension to her documentation and analysis of the aesthetic in Baule culture; Jean M. Borgatti, who extensively investigated the aesthetic preferences and views of some four hundred individuals representing various segments of the Okpella communities she was involved with; and Thompson’s student Sylvia Ardyn Boone, who published one of the very few book-length studies on the aesthetic in Africa, her widely read Radiance from the Waters: Ideals of Feminine Beauty in Mende Art.16Vogel 1980; Borgatti 1982; Borgatti 2019; and Boone 1986.
The publications of these art historians rank among the most substantial studies of the aesthetic in sub-Saharan cultures to date. The scholars named here share with their anthropology colleagues an emphasis on empirical investigation (frequently outdoing them in terms of systematicity and comprehensiveness); a sociocultural contextual orientation (exemplifying cultural relativist stances); and an interest in examining cultures’ aesthetic lexicons (which may be studied as integrated within larger systems of thought).
Other art historians who have provided valuable information on the aesthetic in African cultures, working along much the same lines, include Suzanne Preston Blier (Batammaliba), Herbert M. Cole (Owerri Igbo), Henry J. Drewal (Yòrùbá), Anita J. Glaze (Senufo), Constantine Petridis (Luluwa), Ruth B. Phillips (Mende), Mary Nooter Roberts (Luba), and Thompson’s students David T. Doris (Yòrùbá), Patrick R. McNaughton (Bamana), and Z. S. Strother (Central Pende).17See, for example, Blier 1989; Cole 1982; Drewal 1980; Glaze 1978; McNaughton 1988; Petridis 2001; Phillips 1978; Roberts 2005; Roberts and Roberts 1996; and Strother 1998. As for Bamana aesthetics, scholarship owes its knowledge also to the input of various art historians besides McNaughton, including Mary Jo Arnoldi (see Arnoldi 1995); Sarah C. Brett-Smith (see Brett-Smith 2001); and Kate Ezra (see Ezra 1986); as well as to anthropologists Youssouf T. Cissé (see Cissé 1973) and James T. Brink (see Brink 2001); and to physician–art ethnographer Pascal J. Imperato (see Imperato 1994). Around the turn of the century a new generation of art historians as well as humanistic scholars from other backgrounds also started investigating aesthetic issues in contemporary African urban contexts and in the African diaspora.18See, for example, Arturo 1996; Nuttal 2006; Fumanti 2013; K. Thompson 2015; and Fenton 2018.
Western philosophers dealing with aesthetics in Africa are rare. A notable exception is the American philosopher Barry Hallen, who published on aesthetic views in Yòrùbá culture, having worked and taught in Nigeria for many years. He also wrote entries on African aesthetics (broadly conceived, and with an emphasis on Yòrùbá views) for two major encyclopedias of philosophy.19Hallen 1998a; Hallen 1998b; and Hallen 2000. Hallen also published on methodological issues in studying the aesthetic in sub-Saharan Africa; see Appendix 2, n3.
 
1     Himmelheber 1935. »
2     Vandehoute 1945. »
3     Senghor 1956; and Memel-Fotê 1967. »
4     Balogun 1981; Macebuh 1974; Mveng 1975; Ndaw 1975; and Obenga 1985, 249ff. »
5     For example, Aniakor 1974; Aniakor 1982; Abiodun 2014; and Lawal 1974. See also Lawal’s contribution to this volume. Yòrùbá aesthetic views have also been discussed by, among others, the Yòrùbá art historians Cornelius O. Adepegba (see Adepegba and Boláji Campbell (see Campbell 2008) as well as the Yòrùbá cultural historian Titi Euba (see Euba 1986). The work of Abiodun and Lawal, especially, serves as the foundation of elaborations by Yòrùbá art historians Olusegun Ajiboye, Stephen Folaranmi, and Nanashaitu Umoro-Oke (see Ajiboye, Folaranmi, and Umoro-Oke 2018). Imo Nse Imeh, an American art historian of Ibibio descent, published a monograph on notions of female beauty in Ibibio culture and art (Imeh 2012). »
6     Uyovbukerhi 1986; Mate 1987; Isaya 1991; and Warren and Andrews 1977. See also, for example, Ginindza 1971; Matekere and Mapara 2009; and Orchardson-Mazrui 1998. At least two essays on aesthetics by African scholars were not available for consultation: Konan 1983; and Biruru Rucinagiza 2002. »
7     Roger Somé, for example, discusses aesthetic terms in Dagara culture (Burkina Faso); see Somé 1992. »
8     Philosophical deliberations include, among many more examples, Kouam 2003; and, more recently, Ibanga 2017. For a theology-based discussion, see also Bongmba 2009. »
9     See, among others, Bony 1967; Wondji 1979; and, more recently, Sy 2017. Today, African social scientists play central roles in studies on female corporeal aesthetics in both rural and especially urban sub-Saharan Africa (where beauty pageants have become popular). For an introduction to this field, see Mougoué 2019. »
10     Cordwell 1952. »
11     Schneider 1956; and Schneider 1966. »
12     Messenger 1973; and Fernandez 1966. »
13     Crowley 1966; Crowley 1973; D’Azevedo 1973; and Ottenberg 1975. Theoretical essays: Crowley 1958; D’Azevedo 1958; and Ottenberg 1971. »
14     See, for example, Biebuyck 1973; Hardin 1993; Ravenhill 1980; Reinhardt 1975; and Silver 1979, among various other publications on Asante aesthetics (e.g., Silver 1983b); Coote 1989; and Coote 1992. See also, for instance, the work of anthropologists Robin Horton (Horton 1963; and Horton 1965), Dorothy K. Washburn (Washburn 1990), and Samuel M. Anderson (S. Anderson 2018). »
15     R. F. Thompson 1973b. See also R. F. Thompson 1968; and R. F. Thompson 1971, chap. 3 (1–6). Thompson also engaged in pioneering comparative analyses of African aesthetics early in the field’s development; see Appendix 2, n5. »
16     Vogel 1980; Borgatti 1982; Borgatti 2019; and Boone 1986. »
17     See, for example, Blier 1989; Cole 1982; Drewal 1980; Glaze 1978; McNaughton 1988; Petridis 2001; Phillips 1978; Roberts 2005; Roberts and Roberts 1996; and Strother 1998. As for Bamana aesthetics, scholarship owes its knowledge also to the input of various art historians besides McNaughton, including Mary Jo Arnoldi (see Arnoldi 1995); Sarah C. Brett-Smith (see Brett-Smith 2001); and Kate Ezra (see Ezra 1986); as well as to anthropologists Youssouf T. Cissé (see Cissé 1973) and James T. Brink (see Brink 2001); and to physician–art ethnographer Pascal J. Imperato (see Imperato 1994). »
18     See, for example, Arturo 1996; Nuttal 2006; Fumanti 2013; K. Thompson 2015; and Fenton 2018. »
19     Hallen 1998a; Hallen 1998b; and Hallen 2000. Hallen also published on methodological issues in studying the aesthetic in sub-Saharan Africa; see Appendix 2, n3. »
Appendix 1: A Brief History of Research into African Aesthetics
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