Cherishing African heritage: preservers and scholars discuss the historic cultural values and contemporary significance.

For decades, many people have visited museums and galleries the world over and have been enthralled by the African art collections. It may seem like an undemanding question, but admiring such exquisite works, reading the tags for insight and meaning, one might ask, "Who's keeping the culture?" Herman Bigham, of Herman Bigham and Associates, African Arts Presenters and Preservers in Philadelphia, assembled a group of scholars to share their expertise on African sculptures as visual representations of our cultural values for Black Issues Book Review.

Investing in African Art

Dr. Calvin Holder teaches African American Studies and history at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York.

A cursory examination of African art catalogues of Sotheby's, the prestigious auction house, shows that collectors are paying premium prices for African art. In November 2004, for example, one collector paid almost a million dollars for a Bangwa statue.

Investing in African art can be financially rewarding, sometimes earning up to five times the initial outlay. Before one invests, however, one should read as much literature on the subject as possible and purchase art from reputable American dealers or their African counterparts with whom one has established a personal relationship.

Most of the African art in the Western world has been brought by Africans called "runners." In actuality, these are art dealers who possess an encyclopedic knowledge of African art and have made possible many of the great collections in museums and private holdings in Europe and the United States. Sadly, their essential role is seldom acknowledged in books and journals.

In the Western world, the study, sale and collecting of African art is dominated by non-blacks, mainly Europeans and Euro-Americans. In New York City, the premier market for African art in the United States, there are only four black dealers with major galleries: the Michael Rhodes Gallery, the Oumar Keinde Antiquarie, the Merton Simpson Gallery and the Eric Robertson Gallery.

Authentic African art embodies the spirit, social values, sweat and tears of African peoples. Thus, when it is in our possession we must appreciate, honor and respect its power, beauty and unique qualities. As it is an integral part of the patrimony of Africans in the homeland and the Diaspora, Africans and their descendants have a responsibility to secure and protect that art.

The Phenomenon of Fear

Dr. Rosalind Jeffries, African scholar, author and a past curator with the Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Center for African Arts in New York City.

In response to the use of African sculptures as decorative pieces, I have heard many exclaim in fear or shock, "I don't know what God or function this object represents."

If Africa is indeed the source, and it is, then why are so many blacks in Africa and the Diaspora today afraid of African art?

The problem, simply put, is that African sculptures presented as museum treasures are enshrouded with contradictory signals--idolatry, conjuring, and witchcraft--things synonymous with black arts. Anything black is part of the vestiges of a forbidden past, and the word black itself is a loaded term often pejorative or misinterpreted. Indeed, some blacks are alienated from themselves, full of fear, denial and doubt.

African artworks were often created for extreme purposes, such as protection from evil. Congolese sculptures called Nkisi, Nkondi were created to represent fierce powers acting for righteousness and against the atrocities of colonial rape. Missionaries destroyed such sculptures, thereby overturning indigenous law and order and bringing in terror.

For Africans to regain the appreciation of African art lost through the pillaging of our culture and minds, we must become educated on African art's relationship with nature, mind, body and spirit. Otherwise, the viewer will revert to the historically programmed sculptures, thereby overturning indigenous law and order and bringing in terror.

For Africans to regain the appreciation of African art lost through the pillaging of our culture and minds, we must become educated on African art's relation ship with nature, mind, body and spirit. Otherwise, the viewer will revert to the historically programmed sense of fear for this sacred art.

Scholars, Anthropology and Books

Haneef Shabbaz, a cultural icon in Wilmington, Delaware who has an extensive collection and wealth of knowledge of African art.

You would expect to find a wealth of written materials from African scholars about African art, but sadly this is not so. Why have persons of African descent not contributed significantly to this field of artistic and intellectual inquiry? The answer to that is quite simple.

First, Africans never looked at objects used within their life cycle as art. These objects, in their view, were functional and expressed concepts integral to their lives, which gave guidance for the individual and/or the group. Thus, Africans have not been inclined to study and write about these objects using Western artistic criteria.

Second, art history and anthropology are Western disciplines that have informed the study of African art yet were conceived as a means of studying native cultures to undermine their stability and to promote European supremacy. African centered scholarship intimidates conventional European scholarship. Noted scholars such as Cheikh Anta Diop, Dr. Yosef ben-lochannan and Ivan Van Sertima have suffered significant reprisals for producing African-centered texts.

Africans and their descendants must enter into this field of study, to unleash the meanings locked in our DNA, to interpret the cultural material that has been inaccessible to our community.

A Scholar's Inspiration

Dan Parker, Professor Emeritus in the African American Studies Department at Olive-Harvey College in Chicago.

As people of African descent, we must claim and reclaim that of which the ancestors were the originators. This is the message pronounced in the Akan mythology of Ghana where the Sankofa bird speaks to us "To return and recover it. To go back and retrieve it." Somehow this profound message entered my cerebrum, and I was compelled to collect.

Inspired by the belief that our art constitutes a significant identity reference, and through a sense of cultural imperative, I wrote my book African Art: The Diaspora and Beyond (The Daniel Texidor Parker Collection, 2004), which represents the culmination of more than three decades of reclaiming the legacy of our art and culture. It must be understood that these creations are passed down through a patriarchal lineage where the father teaches the sacred skills of creation to the son. Africans come from a cultural construct, which intellectually dictates that each work evolve within a critical aesthetic system, requiring a creative and intellectual process.

Comments on my writing about this presumed "exclusive subject for white writers" ranged from welcomed relief to suspicion. There were those who said that finally someone of African descent has not just written an Introduction to a book on African art, but he has documented his own collection. Others have asked how could one who is not an African (ignorant of the fact that I am an African living in America) or has not "lived" in Africa be capable of documenting African art? But the book is here, and here I am!

The Importance of Research

Emeka Anonyuo, Ph.D. is professor of African Art, and African American Art, Savannah College of Art & Design.

The major problem with the study and interpretation of African art, especially the authentic traditional works, is the dearth of honest research undertaken principally to unearth complex Theo-centric African practices.

To discover Africa, and the African, we must think like him, feel like him and interpret the physical and spiritual universes as he does from his natural and cultural environment. We cannot afford to superimpose our cultural values, over the African's. Anyone interested in African research must eschew bigotry and master the language of those that they are studying.

Interpreting African art objects must emphasize understanding of signs, symbols and motifs. The most reliable sources are oral traditions such as folktales, idioms, proverbs and ethno-graphic literature.

Recommended Books on African Art

Africa: Mother of Western Civilization by Dr. Yosef A.A. ben-Jochannan Black Classics Press, August 1988 $34.95, ISBN 0-933-12125-3

African Art: The Diaspora and Beyond by Daniel Parker, The Daniel Texidor Parker Collection, 2004, $70, ISBN 0-974-93670-7

African Art in the Cycle of Life (National Museum of African Art) by Roy Sieber and Roslyn Adele Walker, Smithsonian Books September 1987, $34.95, ISBN 0-874-74821-6

The African Origins of Civilization: Myth or Reality by Cheikh Anta Diop, Lawrence Hill Books, March 1974 $16.95, ISBN 1-556-52072-7

African Presence in Early Europe (Journal of African Civilization series) by Ivan Van Sertima Transaction Publishers, December 1985 $24.95, ISBN 0-887-38664-4; and Egypt Revisited (Journal of African Civilization series) by Ivan Van Sertima Transaction Publishers, September 1989 $24.95, ISBN 0-887-38799-3

The Arts of Black Africa by Jean Laude University of California Press, April 1971 $21.95, ISBN 0-520-01797-8

Free Within Ourselves: African American Artists in the Collection of The National Museum of American Art by Regenia Perry, with Introduction by Kinshasha Holman Conwill Pomegranate, October 1992 $26, ISBN 1-566-40073-2

Yoruba Beadwork: Art of Nigeria by William Buller Fagg Rizzoli, 1980 $29.95, ISBN 0-847-80347-3