AKU: AN AFRICAN JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH

ISSN: 26814-0761 (Print) 2814-0753 (e). Vol. 4 No. 4. 2023

A Publication of the Association for the Promotion of African Studies

ATRADITIONAL ART, MODERN AFRICAN ART AND

AFRICAN MASKS:
AN EXPRESSION OF GLOBAL SEARCH FOR THE ABSOLUTE

ONAH, Aloysius Uchechukwu

Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Major Seminary,
Makurdi, Benue State.
onah4u2000@yahoo.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4606-5080

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.22485.19681

Abstract
There is an apparent difference in the objective of creating artistic work.
Artistic works, in general, are admired for their aesthetic values and their
capacity to make human beings think. Gradually, people began to appreciate
them because of the historical and lived experiences of people which they
communicate. However, the African art called mask is unique in its capacity to
elicit in human beings the desire for the Supreme Being. It expresses the
spiritual consciousness, tradition and faith of a cultural group. The apparent
difference in both forms of art is not only in the objective of producing them but
particularly in the process of artistic creation and the lived experiences
expressed through art. It is for this reason that I have chosen to examine
Traditional art, modern art and African mask: An expression of the Global
Search for the Absolute. My effort will consist in analyzing the meaning of the
various forms of art mentioned and how they are connected to the spiritual
experiences of the human person. I shall examine the impact of the
displacement of African masks from their natural environment on the religious
life of Africans.
Keywords: African art, African mask, African museum, Modern art,
Traditional art

Introduction
Art, understood as all the artistic works of a country or an era, is
essentially symbolic, that is, representative. It constitutes, in a particular
way, mediation between the visible and the invisible. On the one hand,
in Europe, art covers the so-called “fine arts” such as sculpture,
architecture, graphic arts, music, dance, poetry and literature. We can
add moving images (cinema, television), digital art, and live
performance (theatre, mime).

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An Expression Of Global Search For The Absolute

On the other hand, in Africa, the mask is a typical object that best
symbolizes African art. The African mask or traditional mask is an
artistic creation based on a carved wooden object. Given its symbolism,
we propose to talk about the African mask based on the thinking of
Theodore Mudiji Malamba Gilombe. He particularly highlights the link
between the mask and religion. Mudiji shows how certain African
masks are associated with initiation ceremonies, birth and death rites. It
is in this precise context that African masks reveal themselves as a
medium through which man advances towards the divine.

Moreover, while “the modern African’s view of the traditional mask is

gradually fading away” (Mudiji, 1983, 25), Mudiji revalues it as a path
leading to the Absolute. Through this article, I want to bring out his
perception of the vocation of every work of art. My contribution is
centred on the capacity of African masks to open the human person to
the Absolute. This is a process that engages artists (creators of the
masks) and readers (admirers of the masks). Mudiji’s works and
religious vocation testify to his mission to open people to God. Do
African masks have the capacity to elicit religious experience?

I think that African art and African masks provoke some religious
feelings when there is contact with a subject. It is a feeling that develops
as an attachment to God, returning to the source of life. The first part of
this presentation will be devoted to a review of traditional and modern
art through the thought of Mudiji. The second part will consist of an
elucidation of African masks. The importance of the environment
concerning African masks will be indicated. The third part will finally
take into account the production of African masks. The meaning of
rituals in the production of African masks will be explored.

Review of Traditional and modern art in T. Mudiji

Traditional African art
Traditional African art is often referred to as primitive art during the
19th and 20th centuries. During this period, the word “primitive”
projected a pejorative idea like being underdeveloped and poor, non-
Western and pre-historic (Myers, 2005, 268). Contrary to the negative
connotation of this term, I propose the true sense of the Latin primitivus
(Senghor, 1967, 7). That is to say, being the first, the oldest, and it is
connected to nature. Traditional African art is also the favoured place
where emotion and religious feelings are poured out, the desire to be
with the gods or God. Sometimes it is called negro art, “exotic”,
“magical”, and “ethnological” (Bonte, 1991, 81), in the sense that it is

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created by black people without aesthetic concerns. Traditional art is

also called tribal art because almost every social group has its art.
Contrary to this way of perceiving traditional art, I believe that the
beauty of Negro art should be sought in the experience and faith of
black people.

Traditional art is sacred in that it is meant to support religious beliefs

and practices (Mudiji, 2002, 55). There are different types of traditional
African art and different creators of traditional art with one motive: to
draw the human spirit step by step to the contemplation of God. Often,
African traditional art is a visible response to the search for an eternal
Being with power over man. It is the visible presence of divinity among
men and testifies to a heightened sense of man’s transcendence towards
God. The religious process that accompanies the making of traditional
art makes it sacred; the creator is often an artist-magician, and its use in
worship gives it its sacred character. Traditional art could also be
accepted as a visible symbol of fertility, protection, progress and success.
This conviction is based on the fact that Traditional African Religions
are strongly linked to African art.

It is important to note that while those who are not initiated perceive
traditional arts are mere objects, those who possess obscure knowledge
related to the objects of art are conscious of the fact that they are not
ordinary objects without meaning. Traditional art has the merit of being
neither plaything nor purely aesthetic: but of the signifier (Senghor,
1967, 8). In other words, traditional African art reveals that statues are
signs of Ancestors and genius. Certain sculpted figures indicate fertility,
invisible forces, divinity and life. Although the statuettes are material
objects, it “consists here in positioning the spiritual quest in inverse
relation to the material monumentality” (Mudiji, 2004, 131). The
observer of a work of art must look beyond the materiality; he must
investigate beyond the form that appears to grasp the meaning and
value represented. Traditional African art opens man to consider
carefully realities not signified by a work of art. This application of the
spirit exerts a force on man, plunging him into a supernatural world
while remaining motionless.

Spiritual Setbacks and their causes

Traditional African art and masks have experienced historical crises.
That is to say, attacks and events that have mainly affected the faith of
black people and the meaning and significance of religious practice.
One such interruption concerns the labelling of African worship as
idolatry. While this way of thinking has led to the destruction of certain

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objects of art in traditional shrines (Odokuma and Aganbi, 2013, 58), I

believe that the demolition of those shrines constitutes a spiritual break
with the ancestors and the deity.

On the one hand, Odokuma and Aganbi (2013, 58) argue that art objects
are displaced from their natural environment through trafficking. The
forceful removal of the African traditional arts from their home turns
them to be mere objects to be admired, mostly in European museums
where they are to be watched without touching or personal
religious/historical connection to them. On the other hand, Ukim (2020,
55) holds that some African masks were plundered by the colonialists
because of their value as rare objects or souvenirs. Irrespective of the
means through which they were taken away from their original owners,
I think that the act of dislodging certain works of art and masks from
the milieu and those who are connected to them would have caused a
vacuum in the spiritual life of Africans who related to the divine
through masks.

As soon as the African mask is removed from its environment, it loses

its spiritual value and falls into the category of plastic art and becomes a
selected object reduced to a face for decoration hanging on the wall,
placed in a display case or simply on the shelves of museums. Due to
the lack of aesthetics in comparison to the modern mask, African masks
can lose their value. This constitutes an uprooting that deprives them of
the true meaning and significance of existence. This suggests why
Mudiji (1983, 36) proposed that a complete reconstruction of their form,
style, morphology and typology of parts and whole would be necessary
for the mask to authentically manifest intelligibility and constitute a
symbolic field of indigenous and human existence.

Contrary to Ukim’s (2020, 55) point of view, namely that the Christian
missionaries burnt African masks because they considered them a fetish,
I would like to point out that it is the difference in the spiritual outlook
of the objects between traditional Africans and the missionaries that
destroyed African masks.

These and many other historical events have influenced the transition to
an idea of modern art and aesthetic art. This shift gradually resulted in
the fading away of the importance placed on the mystical and religious
experiences associated with art. What do we mean by modern art? To
what extent has it helped man to have a taste for the transcendental?

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Modern African art

Modern arts are usually defined by their formal perfection and
sophistication, their beauty and aesthetics and the fact that they involve
the application of modern technique by an artist (Stefanescu, 2019, 260).
This description of modern art is directly connected with the West, and
it would seem that modern African art does not exist. However,
modern and contemporary African art exists; it is very young and very
little known (Gaudibert, 1992, 43). It has been inspired by several
African traditions and by current events. But the difficulty of defining
contemporary African art is due to “the tension between, on the one
hand, the temptation of an indigenist reading carried by a paternalism
of bad temper, and, on the other hand, the radically anti-colonial
attitude tending to refuse on principle everything that could echo the
dominant discourses during the colonial period” (Le Lay, 2016, 100). In
other words, what we call modern African art developed after the
colonial period. The artworks will try to project the faith, tradition,
experience and hope of Africans through paintings that have certain
European characteristics. The artists of this period are known
individually and analyzed with a critical and rational mindset.

What defines modern African art precisely is the influence on Negro art.
The creators of modern African art have integrated the specific ideas
and values of traditional art to show the openness of the human spirit to
other realities. This has led to reflections that bring about important
changes in the way artistic objects are perceived. Modern African art
describes the historical antecedents, current socio-political experiences
and the future of the African people. Modern African art has been
inspired by traditional religious experiences in connection with the
creation of traditional art to penetrate the hidden truth.

In the same perspective, African traditional art has influenced modern

European art. The latter is created no longer as a mere aesthetic object
but with “full spiritual meaning” “of this dialogue between the dead
and the living” (Mudiji, 1983, 30). This means that in addition to the
aesthetic aspects, modern European artists integrate the historical side
and the human experience. Pablo Picasso was inspired by African
masks in the construction of his artistic imagination. By drawing his
inspiration from ancient myths, this artist realized that the mask was
the mental, artistic process for representing the world around him
(Hourde, 2017, 5). From then on, Picasso leads the spectators of his
works to an ambition to speculate on the relationship between the real
and the Ultimate Being. The viewers are led to understand that Being
exists in itself, independently of us, through imaginary invention.

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Reflection on a work of art suggests the existence of a perfect subject,

which is higher in the scale of values.

It is necessary to note that modern art develops in the context of writing

and is centred on an author. However, this gives rise to a possibility of
documentary investigation on two levels: The first concerns the artist
and the second concerns the work of art. With regards to the artist, this
will focus on: the author, the influences received, the salient moments in
his or her development, the school, the cultural concerns and those of
the time. And concerning the work he created, information will be
sought at two points: the first will be the formal description, such as the
subject, the technique and the material used, the dimensions, and the
year of creation. We will look for the elements used to express the
meaning, the significance and the feelings. The second is the
interpretation or hermeneutics of the work concerning the existential
situation and functionality Mudiji, 2004, 134). What is Mudiji’s
understanding of African masks?

The notion of the African mask in Mudiji

The African mask is a wooden art object of different sizes, colours, etc.
However, other elements such as metal, clothes and colour can be
added to its creation. The objects used in making the African mask vary
from one culture to another. While the Ibibio “employed nondurable
materials for their art” (Ime Ukim, 2020, 55), the Benin and Igbo people
of Nigeria employ more durable materials like Bronze.

Considering the materials used in making masks in Africa, Mudiji

describes it as a work of art that serves to open man up to the Absolute.
According to him, the African mask is “a transitional operator that
allows us to mediate at any moment the irreducible worlds of
appearance and to travel without hindrance from one world to another”
(Mudiji, 2002, 66). On this matter, Rood’s opinion differs from that of
Mudiji. He does not consider the work of art as a “transitional operator”.
Using the mask of the Bété people in Côte d’Ivoire as an example, he
thinks that the mask is a repository of all the spiritual forces of the
village (Rood, 1969, 39). In order words, each mask is imbued with a
particular spiritual force and plays a particular function in the life of the
villagers. A mask, which is rarely used, could play a protective role of
all kinds. Through its different functions, it is possible to explain that
the African mask is sacred.

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The consideration of the African mask as sacred is a sign of the search

for God. The search for God guides the traditional African man in the
use of the mask to represent his creator. This is evident in the various
works by Botembe (2001). The Africans find in the mask a device to
reach their creator. They are convinced that the mask is a material work
of art that inspires them to think about their divine origin, their
ancestors, their religious life, worship and prayer. According to
Luitfruid Marfurt, “African masks, on the whole, have a clear
inclination towards the sacred: they want to connect with the invisible
and sacred world beyond” (1968, 56). It is how people connect to a
‘world in depth’, a world where personal and collective divinity dwells.
This is why black Africans have a great deal of reverence for masks,
regardless of their origin.

Conversely, religions which favour “transcendental meditation” would

not consider the mask as the medium of ascension to the Absolute. They
would rather promote visualization, concentration, mystical
contemplation, meditation and ascetic practices as a means of
establishing a connection to the divine (Ezekwugo, 1992, 62-63).

The mask is an object of shore-up divinity. Lema Gwete relates the case
of two in the Teke culture of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ntswo
is defined as the spirit of an ancestor whose abode is a statuette and a
wooden box (1995, 68). This means that the mask as an object is the
domicile of the divine and its means of manifestation to human beings.
It must be emphasized that the wood only becomes a dwelling place of
the godly through a ritual, prayer, invocation/incantation of the spirits
that are added before, during and after it is carved into a mask. The
African mask is a receptacle for the deities. It is a chosen, preferred and
consecrated place to summon living beings to a special encounter with
God. It is an encounter that renews human life, and the fruit is
manifested in the spirituality and pious acts of man. The religious
character of African masks arouses in man the desire to get closer to
God and to possess certain traits of him. The sacredness of the African
mask animates man to holiness.

From the above, the African mask has a material and an immaterial part.
The first part is physical, and the second is spiritual (the notion of
sacredness). This makes it possible to speak of two worlds of the
African mask, namely: a surface world and a world in depth (Mudiji,
1983, 28). These two worlds explain our way of understanding realities.
There is the form and the life it embodies. The form is the surface world,
and life is the-deep-world. One is visible, and the other is hidden. The

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surface world shows an identifiable art object in terms of its quality,

size, weight, length, colour, place or culture of origin. The deep world is
about the meaning, significance, value and importance of a work of art.
On the one hand, the surface world attracts man by its form and on the
other hand, man strives to penetrate its interior. Together, the two
worlds allow the African man to access a spiritual reality, to pass from a
physical level to an inner one, opening to the supernatural.

The strong representation of divinity through masks gives rise to the

statement: “The mask is connatural to being” (Mudiji, 1983, 26). It is a
Being that inspires man and draws him into the spiritual-extra-
terrestrial life. Hegel explains how this process takes place. According
to Hegel, the first manifestations of the Absolute are the phenomena of
nature, which man presents as natural objects. Man reproduces himself
in a mask at the moment when he begins to conceive an Absolute in the
form of exteriority in himself and to realise by himself. There are two
moments in which this reproduction takes place. The first is when man
assumes the same characteristic as nature. He becomes an object of
nature which has the quality of admiration. The second begins when a
man breaks with nature, “removes himself from the purely practical
desires that kept him in touch with it, overcomes nature and his
particular existence, to seek only in things their universal, permanent
side, their in-itself” (Hegel, 1979, 24).

The foregoing allows us to talk about the environment of conservation

and the use of African masks. On this subject, Mudiji explains that the
African mask can be understood in the African museum (1983, 31). The
latter is an ideal space or environment in which the African mask is
found. It is in its natural space, in the place of conception or
configuration and in the specific but complex location that the explicit
or tacit meaning is determined. The African mask is preserved in a
traditional rural environment that allows the participation of everyone
in a common history and gives the right to communicate with the mask
that bears the lived experience and beliefs of everyone. As for its use,
the natural condition facilitates an ascendance to the beyond. In this
sphere, we can establish the important link between the mask, the
people and their faith.

Moreover, Mudiji (2004, 135) thinks that there are two ways of looking
at artistic activity today. Some artists opt for pure modernity, and
others opt for creativity that enhances the traditional experience by
enriching it with modern contributions. The proponents of pure

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modernity art focus on aesthetics and its impact on the mind, emotion
and feeling. While the proponents of creativity that value a traditional
experience focus on the deep experience of a group, a community, or a
clan. It is more collective than individual. The understanding of a work
of art depends on the method of reading applied.

The reading of art

A work of art is comparable to a printed text through which an author
conveys a truth, knowledge, meaning and significance of reality. Thus,
reading a work of art consists in understanding clearly what the artist
has printed on an object: painting, sculpture, drawing, etc. It is also an
exercise that allows man to enter deeply into what the artist wants to
state, its content or meaning.

The effort to understand a work of art (traditional or modern) depends

on several factors. The most important for us is the subject’s contact
with the object and the subject’s initiation. Firstly, the relationship of a
subject with an object is important. It requires special observation of the
subject on the object and communication between the two. Once the
relationship is established, the subject and object become the speaker
and interlocutor, respectively. The exchange is not verbal but rather
non-verbal. The latter forces the subject to decode the message sent by
the interlocutor without using speech. The sending of messages (coded)
requires decoding before the information (response)is understood.
Everything happens at the metaphysical level. That is, thought, spirit or
beyond nature. The man rises to read and apprehend the true meaning
of the thing.

Secondly, the initiation of the subject is necessary to decipher an object

of art. This implies a reception of the hidden knowledge. The initiated
manage to read the message transmitted by a work of art. The
uninitiated, on the other hand, have to rely on others for the meaning of
things. Apart from the uninitiated, Mudiji mentions a certain category
of people who are deprived of the cultural right to read, understand
and appropriate messages conveyed through artistic work. They are
denied the spiritual fulfilment of cultural and artistic goods. They are
illiterate people cut off from the source of light and initiated persons
who have an interest in updating their knowledge (Mudiji, 2004, 130-
131). This rupture is because their heritage has been uprooted,
displaced and transferred to the West; this prevents any tendency of
man to cling to the divine.

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The reading of art requires its methods to open man to the values
hidden and transmitted by a work. The reading is done according to
whether it is a work of traditional or modern art, and the reader is
called upon to take this parameter into account. In this sense, Mudiji
presents two types of reading of works of art: one will have before his
works of art from the traditional framework where a) functionality and
orality are very important, and the other will have before he works
governed by the modern context where the b) written word and the
search for beauty for its own sake constitute an indispensable reference
(Mudiji, 2004, 131). Each reader adopts an attitude and a method to
penetrate an unknown or lesser-known world; he or she obtains an
insight into something unclear. In addition to this, reading a work of art
leads to the development of feelings that often result in acts of a pious
character. Our preoccupation is this: what materials are used to create
the African mask? What are the rituals that accompany African mask
making and the meaning of production?

Future Development: Mask production and the trend towards the

absolute
The creation of African masks corresponds to a deeper need for man to
go beyond the limits that nature imposes on him and offers him the
possibility of becoming a god (Marfurt, 1968, 54-55). Perhaps Marfurt is
exaggerating when he states the possibility of becoming a god, but I
believe that imaginations or thoughts of the intentions of the world
accompany the production of African masks. By doing so, man intends
to open himself to the Absolute, elaborate his spiritual life, and
participate in the life of the supernatural. This is why the choice of the
place of production, the elements of make-up, and the artist-magicians
are important moments in the creation of African masks.

The first consideration in the artistic creation of African masks is that

the process takes place in sacred places (isolated huts, forges outside the
village, hidden altars) and has a mysterious character. The place is
important so that the mask that comes from it would draw people
together to God. I think that human beings manage to grasp the sacred
through a symbolic or mediated way of an object coming from a place
dedicated to God. The idea that the mask is produced in a holy place
modifies the behaviour of human beings by bowing the bust and
bending the knees. The contrast would be the studio, workshop or any
room where artworks are produced. The environment neither elicits nor
provokes the idea of the existence of a Supreme Being. Both artists and

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lectors should consider this perspective in the production and reading

of works of art.

The second interest in the production of African masks concerns the

ritual and the artist. Sometimes the artist has to make ritual sacrifices
before, during and after. It is a question of presenting a gift to a deity by
the immolation of a victim. It is an activity performed to infuse the
mask with mysteriousness and strength (Sylla, 1989, 142). Thus, there
are sessions of prayers, songs and incantations of ancestral spirits. The
artist of the African mask is gifted with the magical-spiritual power to
infuse the mask with supernatural power. The experience of the sacred
is always through the perception of such a specially-made mask.
Whereas modern artists are only interested in inserting elements to
engage the human person in mental reflection on history, events or
even aesthetic values of the object of art. The artist realizes his goal
through the use of computers, software and modern technology.

The third point worthy of consideration is the make-up of African

masks. This relates to the outfit or the basting of the body, the various
coverings made of more or less elaborate materials (Mudiji, 1983, 26).
The make-up brings out the set of spiritual power, the image of the
sacred and connects the people to their ancestors (Carlson, 2019, 47).
The make-up is symbolic and requires the search for mystical meaning.
What the artist uses to dress the African mask addresses the spectators
in a way that the mask “speaks through silence and says the ineffable, it
communicates what words cannot or dare not pronounce: it shows and
makes manifest by means of covering” (Mudiji, 1983, 26). The artist
enters the culture to bring out the meanings of the materials to be used,
such as the choice of colour but also the vertical, horizontal, leaning,
and curved position of the masks, which reveals the existential situation
of the man.

The fourth thing that should not be overlooked in the production of

African masks is the existential situation of the people. In a world
where it seems that the material and the secular are taking over and the
spirit, ethical and spiritual values are disappearing, the creators of
masks bring mysterious elements into their production. Indeed, this
leads the human being to “participate in an elaborate mythical vision
mediated by the morphological and stylistic elements of the masks”
(Mudiji, 1983, 30). It is in this way that human beings can transcend
from the “surface world” to the “deep world”, from the physical world
to the spiritual world, from the world of things to the world of the
Absolute.

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An Expression Of Global Search For The Absolute

The processes that accompany the creation of African masks can be

summarized as ‘ritual sculpture’. In other words, ritual is part of the
production of African masks. This gives the masks a religious character
and the power to take human beings to God. The Osaka World
Exhibition in 1970 testifies to the fact that the production of African
masks has a strong tendency to lead people to the Absolute. The site of
the presentation of African masks and sacred effigies was named
“Forest of Gods”.

Conclusion
Art is an intermediary between man and God. The mask is a typical
object that best symbolizes African art. Traditional art is sacred and is a
visible response to the search for an eternal Being. Mudiji perceives all
works of art as having the capacity to open up to the Absolute, but this
is based on epistemological principles. Modern art developed in the
context of writing and centred on an author is intended to create the
same effect of opening the human mind to contemplate realities beyond
the physical world.

The historical crises experienced by traditional African art have inspired

both African modern art and European modern art to orient their
artistic work towards deep lived experiences, sometimes intrinsically
religious. On the one hand, modern African art integrates the specific
ideas and values of traditional art to show the openness of the human
spirit to other realities. On the other hand, it has influenced modern
European art. The latter is no longer created as a mere aesthetic object
but according to the “full spiritual meaning”.

Reading a work of art is an activity that consists in understanding what

the artist has imprinted on an object, or an exercise that allows man to
enter deeply into the spiritual world, values and meaning conveyed by
the artist. This presupposes contact with the object of art or initiation of
the subject. The reader is transformed within his being. This
circumstance claims to lead the human person to a state of being more
human.

On the whole, African masks have a clear inclination towards the sacred.
The African mask can be understood in the natural space or an ideal
environment where it is conceived or configured. The creation of
African masks corresponds to a deeper need for man to go beyond the
limits that nature imposes on him and offers him the possibility of

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opening up to the Absolute, elaborating his spiritual life, and

participating in the life of the beyond. The production of the mask
reveals the important link between the people and their faith.

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