From the Preface When I first went to Africa in the 1960s, I was
bowled over by African art. What really got under my skin were the
bangles, principally the bronze bangles from West and Central
Africa. They were tactile, weighty and full of design and form.
Later, when I lived in Ghana and Togo, I built up my own collection
of bangles. In recent years this collection was seen by past and
present curators of the British Museum and I was encouraged to work
up the expertise to comment on and possibly help classify the
Museum's collection of African bangles. They recognised that they
have thousands of these bangles lying mostly untouched and unloved
because they could not be given a story, a context, a meaning. They
were so enthusiastic and helpful that I secured introductions to
many major museums around the world, to study their substantial and
interesting collections. Museums in Europe and on the East and West
Coasts of the United States gave me access to the rich material
they had accumulated. I had the rare privilege of spending days in
their storerooms in the course of which I could see and compare
many thousands of bangles. The curators who accompanied me in the
inspection of their bangles were aware that these beautiful
artefacts had lain undisturbed because they could not be explained
or set in a wider context. The bangles were attractive but seldom
came with a meaningful provenance. To their great credit, these
highly-qualified specialists would listen enthusiastically as my
wife and I noted bangles which we had encountered elsewhere. Seeing
all these bangles and thus, over time, gradually building up a
picture of their types, uses and probable areas of origin, I began
to realise that I was looking at a decorative culture which was
self-generated, wholly unlike the decorative cultures of the rest
of the world. It was unique. Astonishingly, it was to be found in
almost every inhabited part of the vast semi-continental area of
sub-Saharan Africa. Gold and silver were of little consequence.
Copper was their "precious metal". The style - instantly
recognisable - was chunky, solid, weighty. Rarity was not a
concern; the Eurasians' "precious stones" were unknown. Rings had
no great meaning. It was bangles that were the standard means of
conveying status, attraction and readiness for marriage. Most
importantly, as I read the stories of explorers and the later
accounts of African life in the 19th and 20th centuries while I
worked through the museums' storerooms, it became clear to me, that
for centuries, the bangle had been the one and only defining
material culture shared by all Africans south of the Sahara. At
last, an overall picture was emerging and there was now a chance of
describing it before it was too late. The bangle culture that had
unified Africans, through which and in which they had lived much of
their lives, was fading fast. In their heartland of West and
Central Africa the tactile bronze bangles that everyone wore in the
19th century - and which I saw occasionally in northern Ghana in
the 1980s - were now encountered more in museums than on the bodies
of inhabitants of those regions. This book will follow the
art-historical practice of using "bronze" to describe all forms of
copper alloys, including brass, when the composition is not
directly relevant and retain "copper" for occasions when the pure
metal is being discussed. "Bangle" will be used as the generic term
for all forms of jewellery applied to the human body. This bangle
culture is still an unselfconscious part of daily life in a few
isolated African tribes and used quite naturally to send messages.
But, in a few decades, this bangle culture will survive only in
less traditional forms and only in limited areas in East and
Southern Africa. At its height, it was an admirable system of great
importance to social intercourse, replete with significance, great
beauty and craftsmanship. It deserves to be recorded and I will try
to do this in this book. I will set out why this bangle culture was
so different from anything else in the world; the skill with which
the bangles were made; and how the bangle culture spread throughout
all Africa south of the Sahara; I will have to admit that the
industrial world and its products have led to the Eurasian
hierarchy of gold and silver overtaking bronze in Africa and,
indeed, eliminating it as a "precious metal". But I will end on a
note of hope, that there are indications that the sense of solidity
of form and the respect for copper that was evident in classical
African bangles may still live on among African Americans.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
