Immediately, lively colors, masterful compositions and spirited expressions of culture and creativity greet us. We catch our first glimpses of the beauty of Africa, translated onto the textiles, architecture, and artifacts.
Last autumn, a small team from California traveled to East Africa to meet with organizations and ministries one of our designers helps through her non-profit organization. Immersing ourselves for four weeks, we traveled through the countries of Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda, enhancing our perception of cultures and pattern design. There, we found many aspects of life integrated into many forms of artistic expression. In Africa, people celebrate life, loved ones, beliefs, and community, especially in textile expressions.
Deep historical and spiritual meaning emerge, as the pattern designs exhibit many bold colors, geometric shapes, and meaningful motifs.
Browsing through the splendid arrangements of shape, color, rhythm, form, line, style, and repetition, we notice the variety of styles. In Africa, bold uniqueness blossoms.
Origins
Where do African patterns come from? Everywhere. Africans derive their designs from the beauty around and within themselves. They capture it from nature, architecture, people, and antiquity.
While individualism is celebrated in Africa, it takes a backseat to community. Decision making happens in communal settings. For the good of the tribe, village, organization, business, family, and person, groups decide.
Africans apply patterns in many places, especially in clothing. Individual expressions in functional and decorative art contain communal undertones chosen by the individual for wearing and decorating.
Common designs originate from specific tribes but also carry unified meaning with other groups. Here are three examples of such designs:
1. Spirituality and Ceremonies
African masks trace back to Paleolithic times, where striking artifacts often portray spiritual beliefs. African masks & sculptures used in ritual and religious gatherings, served as vessels of communication with dead ancestors.
Traditional African spirituality and cosmology include the significant role of deceased ancestors. The deceased become deities that play active roles in the lives of the descendants.
Masks found their place in ceremonies such as initiations, battle preparation, honoring leaders, rites of passage, funerals, weddings, and crop harvesting. Created from a variety of materials including wood, leather, metal, and fabric, their shapes emerged in the forms of persons or animals. Associated with the culture, the masks adorned the face, head, belly, and even the entire body.
2. Political & Social Statements
African art often embodies ideological and political weights. Historically, art expressed ways of living and diaries of the events experienced by a people and their ancestors. The origination of a piece or pattern usually commemorates a political or social occurrence.
An object carefully crafted, contains detailed embellishments pertaining to a principle viewpoint. For example, the relief plaque of a warrior known as Benin Bronzes, still inhabit modern-day Nigerian culture. The Benin Bronzes, African objects once displayed throughout the royal palace in Benin, originated in the location of what is now Nigeria. The objects include sculptures of Benin rulers, figurines, tusks, and masks. Made of bronze, ivory, metal, and other materials, these objects depict the relevance of rulers, royal life, animals, and social events.
Sadly, British troops looted the Benin Bronzes in 1897, and subsequently distributed them throughout Europe in various museums. Nigerians continue to pursue the return of this culturally historic collection.
3. Utilitarian Art
Pottery and metalwork, two forms of ancient, functional African art, exist mainly in jugs, pots, and weapons. An example of elements of culture in art lives on in Mangbetu culture. Here, they fashion wine vessels, depicting the female member of their culture and her importance.
Symbolism
African patterns embody symbols that serve to distinguish tribes.
Notice the array of colors, motifs, shapes, symbols, and rhythm.
While there is a wide variety of symbolism, here are some guidelines:
1. Color
Embedded into African fabric, colors project meaning.
Green - health and prosperity
Blue - water and sky, peace and love
Gold – fertility and wealth
Red – blood and spiritual/political turmoil
White – purity
2. Characters
Objects of nature exemplify symbols of African culture. While there are many drawings and characters of significance, here are some examples:
Kola nuts – life & abundance
Crocodile – adaptability
War horn – vigilance
Linked hearts – agreement
Leg of a hen – parental nurturing
River plant – faith in God
Lion – strength
Ram’s horn – humility & strength
Chief symbol – greatness & leadership
Fence – safety
Seed of Wawa tree – resilience
Fern - persistence
Types of Cloth
Four primary types of African cloth include:
1. Kente
From the Akan tribe of Ghana, Kente cloth finds its home on silks and cottons. Strips of both fabrics interweave in a basket-like pattern. Authentic Kente pattern symbolizes wealth, status, and luxurious living. It represents the story and values of the original people.
2. Bogolanfini
Also known as mud cloth, Bogolanfini comes from the Bamana People of West Africa. Cotton strands made from narrowly woven strips contain dyes preferred by the culture. Extracts of local plants, especially yellows, form the dyes.
After being washed, artists dye the fabric a second time and apply it to the fabric with mud. This makes the yellow dye look as if it has been painted onto the fabric. Artists then paint a fabric solution on the yellow and set it in the sun for a week or so, until the designs whiten. Zig zag motifs accompany these color applications.
3. Adinkra
The Ashanti People in Ghana create Adinkra, a cotton fabric. They weave the cotton in narrow strips on a loom and whip stitch it together. Printed with stamps and plant-based dye, Adinkra symbolizes kingly authority.
4. Ankara
Although it has Indonesian roots, Ankara West Africans love this fabric. This cotton heralds vibrancy and colorful bold motifs. Fun and versatility mark this Indonesian wax-resistant dyeing process called Batik.
Tribal Art
Tribal Art, also known as Ethnographic Art, remains in use today as the most important aspects of African art and design. This traditional art of indigenous peoples contains a collage of specific skill, religion, ceremony, life, death, ancestry, emotion, history, spirituality, and expression.
Natural materials used include wood, metal, stone, wool, ivory, and other natural resources. In Africa, these tribal materials make visual and functional art. Examples include masks, sculptures, carvings, pottery, baskets, jewelry, textiles, instruments, weapons, architectural detail, and decorations. Tribal Art, displayed today in museums, is bought and sold with high regard because it preserves historical and cultural worth.
Asante
As they say in Swahili, "Asante" (thank you)! Thank you for following along with us on this journey. African art definitely impacts the whole of pattern design. It impacts us as designers, both in person and as artists. For a deeply enriching encounter with design, we recommend studying and engaging with African culture.
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