Words to Study
concerned, concentrate, mainly, puberty, spiritual, enlivens, sculpture, popping, convictions, clicking, carved, dramatize, underlie
African artists are concerned mainly with the spiritual content of their work. In sculpture, music, songs, dancing, and in telling stories, they try to express and celebrate the moral and religious convictions that underlie their daily life. Most of the art of Africa has had this consciously religious function.
For Africans, the most important art is dancing. Dance concentrates the two most important concerns of African life: religion and community relationships. Their dance is sometimes ceremonial, marking the start of a hunt or the end of a harvest, sometimes ritual in observance of a birth and death, puberty and marriage. Sometimes the dance is festive, honoring the special days of the gods and spirits who guard the village. Dancing generally involves the whole village—men, women, and even little children.
The source of the rhythm is almost invariably drums, for drumming is the music of Africa. The drums of Africa have many different sounds and are played in many different combinations. A good African drummer can literally make his drums speak. It has been written that African people can send messages from one village to another at a distance of over 100 miles in less than two hours.
African people also enjoy story telling. The story teller, usually the oldest person in the village, enlivens his tale with all sorts of sound effects. He changes the pitch and pace of his voice to suit the characters and the action, and adds all sorts of popping, clicking, and clapping noises to dramatize what is happening. The members of the audience respond in kind rather like a chorus.
Africans especially enjoy folk tales about animals and insects. Because they did not have written languages, these stories would tell people about their traditional history and would teach morality and social customs.
