Isaac Samuel
@rhaplord.bsky.social
Finance | History | Trance Patreon http://patreon.com/isaacsamuel64 Substack https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/
One reason why even a relatively small region like "West-Central Africa" cannot be considered a single Culture Area or Cultural Sphere is the sheer size of Africa Imagine a study of "Western culture" that includes everything from Portugal to Belarus to Turkey Yet that's just two African states
'This multi-disciplinary project... traced over 5,000 years of history of the African comb from the Predynastic period of Egypt to the twentieth century in the UK and US...' fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/research/pro...
African Combs
A description of the Fitzwilliam Museum's research on African Combs and the exhibition it produced.
fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk
the swastika has actually an important religious icon from the east for groups who knew nor cared anything abt white supremacy... this is for millenia. 12y of a genocidal austrian isnt going to supercede or change that.
and a less famous one Karanog, Lower Nubia, late Meroitic period
El Cabbage@alcabbage045.bsky.social · yesterdayThere’s another pretty famous African symbol that resembles a cross that’s been around for some time before the advent of Christianity…
A cross isn't a very complex or original symbol Its existence in pre-Christian African art doesn't need an external origin
Isaac Samuel@rhaplord.bsky.social · 3d agoCrosses in Central and West Africa predate Portuguese contact Early Portuguese accounts mention the symbol in the kingdoms of Benin and Kongo but not in other polities like Jolof (Senegal) or the Gold Coast It's also attested in pre-15th century art www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-white-...
I do like the idea of calling Europeans whalers, or sailers.
Isaac Samuel@rhaplord.bsky.social · 2d agoPre-colonial African terms for "whites"/Europeans were never about the colour white Western scholars can be confused by this because most European terms for Africans mean "black" Be skeptical of interpretations of African traditions or artwork that equate "white" with Europeans.
With as much alt as poss (bc this is important)
Isaac Samuel@rhaplord.bsky.social · 2d agoPre-colonial African terms for "whites"/Europeans were never about the colour white Western scholars can be confused by this because most European terms for Africans mean "black" Be skeptical of interpretations of African traditions or artwork that equate "white" with Europeans.
Utility or indented utility is so important and also has resonance in Euro-American design principles ‘form follows function.’
Yet I cannot help my first reaction to the below mask being 'dang that's beautiful'
We can't escape the fact that all art is judged by Western standards (eg, placing too much emphasis on naturalism) These masks do prove that African carvers were very skilled. But, to the carvers, aesthetics mattered less than their use as costumes (they were discarded after short use)
Isaac Samuel@rhaplord.bsky.social · 3d agoChokwe mask, D.R.Congo. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium. www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-white-...
Interesting
Isaac Samuel@rhaplord.bsky.social · 3d agoEthnographers often assume that in Africa the colour white was interchangeable with the Western racial concept of “whiteness” But such inferences are based on an uncritical interpretation of historical data and project modern racial concepts into the past www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-white-...
In Kusaal, in N Ghana, "European" is "Nasaara", ultimately from the Arabic pl "Christians." That's common around those parts. Also popular thereabouts are terms which originally meant "Fulani." Twi "obroni" "European" seems to be etymologically "Bush person."
In Kusaal, "red", of people, means what Europeans call "brown", like southern Ghanaians, and the possibly-historical "Red Hunter", progenitor of the Mossi-Dagomba ruling clan, who is traditionally held to have come from east of Lake Chad.
These masks are meant to represent dead people ⤵️ The fact that many people reflexively think of East Asians when seeing them shows how disconnected we are from the era they were made. It also proves that modern racial thinking distorts our perception of history
Isaac Samuel@rhaplord.bsky.social · 3d agoWhite mask. Gabon, 1896 www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-white-...
in the Cameroon Grassfields, the word for "white/foreigner" often involves the term "red", for example wul ɨ baŋnɨ "red person" in Kom. "red" encompasses any reddish or light colors that are *not* white and there is a separate word for "white", but one would not use that word for people
Also in Southern African languages: isiZulu umlungu 'white person' vs. -mhlophe 'white' Setswana lekgoa 'white person' vs. -sweu 'white' Ju|'hoan ǀ’hún 'white person' vs. !à'ú 'white'
Pre-colonial African terms for "whites"/Europeans were never about the colour white Western scholars can be confused by this because most European terms for Africans mean "black" Be skeptical of interpretations of African traditions or artwork that equate "white" with Europeans.
Isaac Samuel@rhaplord.bsky.social · 3d agoEthnographers often assume that in Africa the colour white was interchangeable with the Western racial concept of “whiteness” But such inferences are based on an uncritical interpretation of historical data and project modern racial concepts into the past www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-white-...
Masks & other “pagan” artworks were seized from the villages, burned, or thrown into the rivers. Their interpretations are therefore constrained by the near-complete erasure of the cultural traditions in which they were produced www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-white-...
The White Masks of Gabon: “Foreign” symbolism in Traditional African sculpture.
Among the most refined works of African art are the distinctive white masks of southern Gabon in Central Africa.
africanhistoryextra.com
Masks in the reserves of the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-white-...
By 1934, Gabon’s iconic sculptural art was gone. Christian missionaries collected and burned “pagan” artworks such as masks and ancestor statues, and the rest were thrown into the rivers. www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-white-...
The White Masks of Gabon: “Foreign” symbolism in Traditional African sculpture.
Among the most refined works of African art are the distinctive white masks of southern Gabon in Central Africa.
africanhistoryextra.com
"Historical evidence for crosses in the African Atlantic, however, appears to predate Portuguese contact ... 'At the time of the advent of Christianity, and independent from any European influence, the cross was already a predominant motif of Central African art.'"
Isaac Samuel@rhaplord.bsky.social · 3d agoEthnographers often assume that in Africa the colour white was interchangeable with the Western racial concept of “whiteness” But such inferences are based on an uncritical interpretation of historical data and project modern racial concepts into the past www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-white-...
