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Religion and ethnicity in the arts of a Limba Chiefdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Simon Ottenberg
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Extract

This article examines the major visual and performing arts of one society and explores what changes have occurred to them over roughly one hundred years as a consequence of external religious and ethnic forces. This is a holistic, processual view of a people's arts in a particular region, providing a model to balance the excellently detailed studies of specific art forms which now exist for Africa. Using a holistic view we will raise certain issues concerning changes in African art. One of the most significant is the interrelationship of ethnicity and religion. Scholars (Bravmann, 1974, 1983; Prussin, 1986) have written extensively on the influence of Islam on African art, but have not seriously raised the question of the ethnic factor associated with Islam, which is equally important. In the case of Islam and its carriers there is a delicate intermixing of religion and ethnicity which is at issue and needs exploration. Further, the holistic approach employed here brings to the fore the reasons behind the wide range of responses to change of the various art forms of a people. Why do some syncretise, some disappear and others remain unchanged? Again, the holistic view allows us to ask to what extent the arts of a people merely reflect forces of change, or do they play roles in leading and directing it? The approach requires considerable background history, which is presented below.

Résumé

Religion et ethnicité dans les arts d'une souverainete Limba

Les changements dans les principales formes des arts visuels et performants de la souveraineté Limba de Wara Wara Bafodea dans le nord de la Sierra Léone au cours des cent dernières années sont examinés afin d'évaluer l'influence des facteurs religieux et ethniques ainsi que les caractéristiques urbaines. On a trouvé que certaines formes d'art visuel qui ont pénétré de l'extérieure ont réussi à se syncrétiser avec les formes Limba mais des types musicaux d'origine extérieure existent parallèlement avec les types Limba sans syncrétisme proche. La souveraineté est considérée être influencée à la fois par les forces culturelles de la Guinée au nord et par le sud Limba, Temne et les facteurs urbains de la Sierra Léone en provenance du sud. Malgré l'isolation apparente de la souveraineté, elle a été soumise à de nombreuses influences externes dans les arts, qui sont en grande partie dans une situation peu consolidée, avec de nombreux courants artistiques distincts, représentant diverses forces culturelles et religieuses qui reflètent la complexité de la situation religieuse et ethnique dans la souveraineté d'aujourd'hui. L'importance de distinguer les facteurs ethniques des facteurs religieux dans les changements artistiques est soulignée alors que cela a été parfois négligé par les érudits.

Type
Men at ease
Information
Africa , Volume 58 , Issue 4 , October 1988 , pp. 437 - 465
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1988

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