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We know, however, that music, dance and poetry flourished and continue to flourish in East Africa, and the diversity of the so-called applied arts cannot be overlooked: pottery, weaving, wood carving, blacksmithing and beadwork also offer aesthetically remarkable, often richly ornamented products, and the traditions of body adornment are also ...
Mask from Gabon Two Chiwara c. late 19th early 20th centuries, Art Institute of Chicago.Female (left) and male, vertical styles. Most African sculpture from regions south of the Sahara was historically made of wood and other organic materials that have not survived from earlier than a few centuries ago, while older pottery figures are found from a number of areas.
Makonde art is an integration of dated practices of woodwork met with a demand of woodcarving of the modernized world. After the introduction of road systems in the plateaus between Tanzania and Mozambique by Portuguese troops during World War I, the traditional sense of the practice began to shift to meet new social and economical demands. [3]
Masks carved of wood represent bush spirits, or spirits that take animal forms. These animal forms may be more naturalistic among the Nunuma and Nuna or more stylized among the Léla and Winiama. The animals that occur most frequently are the antelope, buffalo, bush pig, hornbill, hyena, and the serpent.
The carvings are believed to have been done between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago, during the African humid period, when the region was less arid, and the Sahara was a vast savannah. There are also remains of petrified wood found in the area. [3]
Initially these sculptures reflected the agricultural environment of their makers as they depicted wild animals such as birds, snakes or crocodiles or household objects such as spoons, bowls or masks. These sculptures were made from the wood of the Trichilia emetica, a tree of the Mahogany family found in Southern Africa.