The Art of Central Africa [antikvár]

In The Art of Western Africa we surveyed briefly, from west to east, some of the principal art styles of the great West African area which stretches from Senegal to the Grasslands of Cameroon, stopping short of the Sanaga River. The Sanaga, flowing into the Gulf of Guinea near Duala, provides a convenient boundary between the two great halves of the sculpture-producing area of Africa associated respectively with the Niger and Congo river systems. And in terms of art, the division is a real and not merely an arbitrary one, since the Sanaga Valley forms a " no man's land " from which (except near its mouth) little or no art has been reported. We can now proceed to examine some of the Congo styles. The small Duala tribe, living in and around the town of that name, are perhaps in an ambiguous position between the Niger and Congo spheres of art, as their carvings do not present an obvious relationship to the nearest neighbouring styles on either side. But their traditional origins suggest that they may be conveniently allotted to the Congo group. Duala art takes two main forms. Their finest works, very few in number, are certain beautifully elaborated canoe-prow ornaments—for the Duala are great boatmen and their regattas are famous. They were made in the nineteenth century in a remarkably fluent openwork style which reminds one of art nouveau, of old Maori openwork carving and of the art of the Bush Negroes of Surinam (which may indeed owe more to the Duala than to any of the other West African tribes which contributed to that hybrid population). In our century, this excellence of