Africa and Europe John and Serenity

Portugal Portugal’s expansion into Africa beginning in the 15th century provided the impetus for enormous changes on both continents (Africa and Europe).

Goals 1. Expand Christianity 2. Make contact with and eventually control markets and resources in Africa. GOLD------ Sahara Desert

Henry the Navigator & Cape Bojador The Portuguese prince, Henry the Navigator, was an ardent supporter of new explorations. The INITIAL challenge for the Portuguese sailors was to locate a route that would take them past Cape Bojador, which had proven nearly impossible to pass.

Cape Bojador cont. In 1434, Portuguese ships began to explore south of Cape Bojador. Earliest explorers arriving at the Gulf of Guinea in 1455- 56. By the mid-fifteenth century, Europeans began to develop a passion for goods in Africa, especially ivory and bronzes.

Europe and the Origins of Slave Trade In the early 1440’s, the Portuguese led the first slave- raiding expedition in the present-day Mauritania (slave coast). Escalated in the 17th century when the rise of large- scale sugar production in the Caribbean and Brazil led to drastically increased labor demands. Also grew in North America

Slave TRADE Africans also got dough from the slave trade. Asanti, Benin, and Kongo kingdoms supplied European countries with slaves, and in exchange received luxury goods. (silk, porcelain, beads, bronze, and firearms)

Ending the Slave Trade Many people believed that slavery dehumanized people by the brutal, systematic oppression, and they believed all humans deserved to be treated with dignity. Strong pressure to end the slave trade came from Great Britain, and while the 1807 British Slave Trade Act did abolish the trading of slaves, it did not end slavery itself. Slavery was abolished ONLY throughout the British Empire.

Impact The slave trade had a long lasting impact on West Africa. Population of young men decreased Product output decreased Demand for imported good increased Also increased tension between ethnic groups (Rwanda)

Selected Work: Plaque Background The Portuguese found highly skilled artists organized in workshops in the Benin Kingdom, along the western coast of Africa to the south of Sierra Leone.

Benin The Benin Kingdom (identified themselves and language as Edo) had risen as a flourishing political state by the late 13th or early fourteenth century. By the 15th century, Benin had expanded greatly by conquering neighboring groups. The Benin Kingdom had an early power in their region, and they traded with the Portuguese.

Benin The Benin Kingdom was quite large and continued to grow through warfare. Members of neighboring cultural groups were viewed as foreigners and subject to capture.

Oba The Europeans were particularly impressed with the Oba’s palace compound, which grew tremendously in the late 15th century during the reign of Oba Ewuare. Compound covered acres of land. It contained impressive buildings for the Oba, the Queen Mother, and various other political leaders, as well as workshops.

Artwork The most prized artwork in the Benin Kingdom were made of cast metals, ivory, and coral. The artists of the Benin Kingdom were quite capable of casting high-quality works in metal, including relief sculpture and three dimensional figurative representations of leaders and members of the court. Many used in rituals and on altars.

TENSION The power of the Benin Kingdom reached its height in the 16th century and then fell into a period of decline. Regain it’s former status due to the Oba’s control of trade in palm oil. In 1897, the British attacked Benin City (Benin Punitive Expedition) Dispute over control of the palm oil trade in the region and over the sovereignty of the Benin Kingdom, which the British sought to control.

Cont. The British looted the Oba’s palace and set fire to residences within the palace walls, destroying much of the city. Countless ivories and metal sculptures were sold to museums, with the larger collections now held by the British Museum in London and the Ethnological Museum in Berlin.

Bronze Plaque The plaque contains multiple figured that project in varying degrees from the flat surface. The Primary figure, dominates the composition as a result of his large scale, central position, and the detail with which his clothing is depicted, is in high relief.

Cont. Other figures are presented in low relief, especially the half figures in the upper right and left corners. Project only slightly from the background. The three other figures that flank the primary character are also in high relief, but they do not project out as much as the central figure does.

Cont. The artist also uses a hierarchy of scale to indicate relative importance. (sizes of figures). Regalia is depicted in great detail to indicate the status of each figure.

Subject Matter This artwork depicts royalty in warriors; in addition, the depiction of Portuguese men on these plaques is not uncommon. Trade with Portuguese merchants was very important to the Benin Kingdom during this period. The Portuguese were also associated with life and death-- - they came form across the ocean= the deity Olokun, god of the waters.

How it was made The National Museum of African Art describes the material used in this plague as “copper alloy.” Primary materials= bronze and brass Lost-wax casting technique This technique required the artist to make a full scale model of the final work from a hard pliable wax material. The was model was then used to make a mold that allowed the artists to cast the work in copper alloy. Valued imports from the Portuguese

Cont. Original function unknown. Intended to represent specific historical or ceremonial events Paula Ben-Amos (professor of anthropology and African studies) has noted that “very few of them now appear to us to convey narratives.” European accounts indicate that they (the plaques) were in storage and not actively used.

The Yoruba People The Yoruba people believe that the world was created at a place called Ile-Ife (Nigeria). There is evidence that this site was populated as early as 350 B.C.E., and Ile-Ife has been a thriving city-state since the eleventh century. Some of the most remarkable Yoruba art works, highly naturalistic and detailed heads in terracotta and cast metal, date from about the 12th through 15th centuries.

Yoruba Following the growth of Ile-life as a metropolitan center, a number of other city-states emerged that claimed their origins of Ile-life. The Yoruba have historically been ruled by kings who are believed to have special connections to the world of deities. Most of the art was created for royalty and serves to reinforce connections between political leadership and ritual power.

Beads Beads were among the most highly sought after luxury items acquired by the Yoruba through European trade. Beads (originating in Bohemia and Venice) were traded for slaves and were incorporated into royal regalia.

With reign comes triumph The Yoruba Kingdom experienced a period of decline in the eighteenth century as a result of wars with neighboring groups and the destructive power of the transatlantic slave trade. Political power, and with it the production of art, began to flourish again in the 19th century after the abolition of the trade in human cargo.

Adire Adire is a kind of tie-dyed cloth that was traditionally produced by Yoruba women.

Cont. The central medallion contains an image of Queen Mary and King George V of England. The figures are depicted frontally, in stiff poses that are in keeping with traditional Yoruba figurative representation. Places an emphasis on the regalia the royal figures wear.

Cont. To the other side of the medallion we see repeated scenes filled with elaborate motifs, some of which were inspired by Islam. Winged horse of Mohammed and an Islamic mosque. The text below includes the Yoruba phrase “Ise kosechin oluwa,” meaning “Everything is known to God.”

Cont. The scenes depicted on this adire cloth are highly figurative. This may indicate that this cloth was very special and meant for display rather than for use as a wrapper.

Adire Adire is made of cotton and dyed using a resist technique. One method of created a resist-dyed adire is to use raffia, a greasy fiber, by stitching the fibers onto the base cloth in patterned compositions. In the artwork, stencils were used to create the commemorative cloth seen.

Why is this important?? In the early 20th century, when adire was at the height of its popularity, women tended to use imported cotton material from Europeans their base material . More plentiful and less expensive than locally woven cotton. Adire marks the relationship between Africans and Europeans. BASICALLY Europe has something to do with EVERYTHING

El Anatsui He was born in Anyako, a town located in Ghana’s Volta Region. Came of age during a time of great change in West Africa; in the year Anatsui was born, his country was a British colony knows as the Gold Coast; in 1957, when the artist was a teenager, Ghana became first political state in Africa to gain independence from European power.

Education Anatsui received a formal art education at the College of Art of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. The British educational system imposed on its colonies a worldview that focused almost exclusively on European history and traditions, and this emphasis persisted even in the post-independence era. Art curriculum focused heavily on European Art.

Fading Cloth An enormous sculptural wall hanging. The dimensions of Fading Cloth are monumental- over ten feet high and twenty-one feet wide. The piece consists of countless bottle tops that are flattened into rectangular shapes and fastened together using wire. Various shades of gold dominate the color scheme, complemented by reds, blues, and silvers.

Cont. The name Fading Cloth refers to its formal qualities: the more intense colors near the top fade into the lighter colors in the center. A clear formal reference in Anatsui’s work is to kente cloth, a woven textile associated with the Asante and Ewe cultural groups in Ghana. Kente cloth is a prestigious cloth that was formally used almost exclusively by royalty. Highly exclusive and expensive

Cont. The reference to Kente cloth is to connect his work to traditional art forms in order to address the interwoven histories of Europe and West Africa.