Art Preservation

Colonial rule and "White" civilization has had a devastating effect on African art as a whole -- including Malian art. Islam and Christianity are on the point of supplanting traditional beliefs and imported goods are flooding the market gradually ousting the time-consuming native handicrafts. Where formerly it was the secret societies, priests and kings who ensured the artist's existence, today the customers are the tourists and art collectors. If tourists want masks and sculptures, they shall have them, but what is produced lacks any cultural roots or artistic content. For one cannot separate the ritual from the object -- without the music, dance and costume the piece has no meaning (Leuzinger 1960, p. 209). Fortunately, independence has in many nations replace the attitudes of the colonialist and missionaries with a sense of the importance of traditional values, of the heritage of the past (Sieber & Walker 1987, p.12). As John Mbiti (1969), Kenyan philosopher, has stated:

Everyone is aware that rapid changes are taking place in Africa, so that traditional ideas are being abandoned, modified or coloured by the changing situation. At the same time it would be wrong to imagine that everything traditional has been forgotten…. Beliefs connected with magic, witchcraft, the spirits and the living-dead (the ancestors) are areas of traditional religions which are in no danger of immediate abandonment. (Sieber & Walker 1987, p. 12)

The fusion of so-called distinct art forms is seen in the impact of tourism on popular art and the incorporation of non-African items or icons into African art, a practice dating back to the fifteenth century. It is increasingly difficult to separate popular art from traditional art. Much of what we view as traditional art -- that which is worthy of display in our Western museums--was at its creation, popular art. The manufacture of fakes and forgeries has become a thriving industry because of the economic returns it offers. Popular art--mass produced and inexpensive--serves the needs of those who cannot afford the more expensive cerebral intellectual art done by elite artists (Martin & O'Meara 1995, pp289-290).

Problems facing those wishing preserve the traditions of African cultures are many. Common is a general lack of attention to how ancient work were removed from archaeological sites or to what knowledge about their meanings was lost when they were collected -- often illegally and , as a result, unscientifically. Without contextual data or archaeological data, works associated with civilizations south of Sahara are given fictive labels full of primal myths, ancestor worship, and generic ceremonies. Often accounts were over-exaggerated based on long-standing views that all African art was sacred. Current exhibit curators are now working to correct the problems, by replacing labels with more accurate information-- allowing some room for the mystery and secrecy that the pieces project. Ritual is presented as form (Gopnik 1993, pp. 97-99). As mentioned, many exhibits of African art put meanings to pieces that just were not there, based on fabricated stories by early colonialists with their own "Western" baggage of interpretations and ideas and their lack of understanding of the language and culture. The majority of these art historians and fine art curators now specializing in African art are now American as a result of a 1935 exhibit of the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition of African--which made it known as "art" to a broader spectrum of people. In the last sixty years, American art historians have begun to outnumber anthropologists examining the material (Blier in Africa 1996, p 31).

Another problem is the lack of permanence in the objects made by the people of Sub-Saharan Africa, including Mali. They are often made of very soft wood and it is not considered a great loss if they are eventually eaten by termites or rot away.

In some cultures, as evident in the chi wara headdresses of Mali, the carvings may be painted with the residue form the bottom of dye pits and oiled to preserve them. They are then wrapped in leaves and hung in the smoke from afire. In this way they will last for about fifty years (actual examples; Duerden 1968, p. 9). Historical relics are merely survivals from people in the remote past; the carvings used today are an active means of bringing one’s immediate ancestors into one’s life. The immediate forefathers are believed to be present all the time, but those who lived two or three hundred years earlier are felt strange and remote. The oral history of the village is constantly revised to fit the present situation. History is record to the agreements which closely unite the people -- a means of keeping peace with the people. Anything that would revive old quarrels is discarded (ibid.).

The Africans do not have the obsession with old things -- that is a Western invention. Hundreds of objects in African museums--many undocumented-- are disappearing either by rotting away, eaten by termites, or by theft (Decker 1990, pp. 109-112). For all the unappreciated wealth of objects in the African museums, there are countless others still in the countryside, there value best understood by traders who sell them. Museums do not have the funds to purchase items, nor the funds to protect them properly (Decker 1990, p. 114). The strongest market for African works is in Europe and America.

While the National Museum in Bamako, Mali is considered the best in West Africa, it is still plagued with the same problems as other museums. Mali is a young country with very little money. Europeans took most of the better pieces during the colonial days of Mali. While African politicians complain about the loss of their heritage, the government officials do little to prevent it (Decker 1990, p. 117). As Ahmadou Landoure of the Mali Ministry of Sports, Art, and Culture has said the authorities "hadn't understood the significance of the objects. If it's old, it's not usable. And if it has no function, it's not important."(Decker 1990, p. 117).

Museums in Africa were established by Europeans and have always been regarded by Africans as alien institutions. They were collection grounds set up to stock the European Museums with artwork from Africa. What remained after West African colonies were granted their independence between 1955 and 1960 were institutions that had no context in African culture. The colonial legacy included thousands of objects that were uncatalogued-- many had only the year they entered the museum collection. There were few trained Africans as noted by Claude Ardouin of the West African Museums Project:

"Ethnology and anthropology have been accused, rightly, of being used by the colonial powers as a tool to help exploit the people living here,…Most of the time, the museums here were thought of as…a showcase of African society, not for the Africans themselves but for educated people." (ibid. p. 118)

As the countries modernize and move away from traditional cultures and religions, it will be increasingly difficult to save or replace the magnificent artifacts of their cultural past. Nearly every West African politician wants to build a new museum. One is planned for Mali. The National Museum in Bamako is small, with only two galleries, once which houses temporary exhibits of the art and artifacts of Mali along with photographs of how they are used in daily life. Current efforts are underway to videotape rituals and ceremonies and develop a photo archive of its collections (ibid. p. 119). The museums of the future may combine sound, music and film along with the mask -- to recreate the life of the mask (ibid.).

In conclusion, the society of Black Africa--and that of Africans in Mali -- is under constant change. New ideas are being merged with old. Western ideas are replacing traditional values. Imported goods are outnumbering handmade local crafts. But, for those who believe, there are the arts -- the songs, music, costumes, dances, and the sculptures -- which intensify and bring to life the rituals that, celebrate the times of transitions. These thresholds are the focal points of the cycle of life among the Malian people. From the primordial ancestors to each new birth, there is a flow and continuity -- a pattern in the span of a lifetime, from day to day, from year to year. The sculptures and arts of the Malian people lend substance and authority to these patterns and must be continued and nurtured. Every effort must be supported to maintain the indigenous traditions of Mali.

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