Authentic African Art

Authentic African Art

The problem of "authenticity" of traditional African carvings, objects, rituals and / or social values or even to use objects of material culture is long standing and mystified: the contemporary cultural context, scholars have debated until the 60s ( Henri Kamer, Frank Willet and among others).

Many scholars and enthusiasts are convinced that today is no longer possible to find objects in Africa original material and aesthetic value, because the collection (in some cases it is an actual sack) has already taken place in more distant times for some ethnic groups (the first decades of the twentieth century for objects from Gabon and the Congo ‘this for many objects’ and Central Africa) in the early years after and in World War II (most of Dogon statuary and many items of West Africa) up to years for recent (the objects in Nigeria after the War in Biafra in the seventies) or recent (statuary Lamba / Loss northern Togo, the object of research and an exhibition in Paris last year alone).
I, personally, are of the opinion - based on the testimony of many of my correspondents who regularly and periodically visit the (few) African regions free of war - if it is true that many of the ethnic groups considered more important to be very, very difficult, but not impossible, to find a few really authentic and valuable object on the ground for other people can still find some beautiful specimen, particularly in cases where there is obviously still alive and quite a cultural tradition or ceremonial occasions Ritual / social structure when these objects "serve" again. And now, for example, those certain populations of Southern-Central Africa (eg the Himba or the rarely found San culture,) continued unabated to produce objects for their traditional uses and, therefore, these items are deemed „authentic "even though they were carved recently.
Let’s not delude ourselves; African art is a concept that goes back only a few decades ago.
Certainly we do not have (nor could we expect to) for African sculpture the exact dates to which we are accustomed in studies on Western art, i.e. dates supported by precise documentary evidence as well as the approximate and unreliable laboratory tests. Authenticity refers to the truthfulness of origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity, devotion, and intentions and so with we strongly support and believe that there is still such art in Africa. Although, if we take a start from the fifties, the African continent will go through very strong changes such as:

1. Globalisation
2. Transformations in the political and economical power structures
3. Urbanisation
4. Progressive abandonment of traditional religions
5. Decolonisation
6. People’s reappropriation of their African identity