Benin art - what can it tell us about cross-cultural encounters?

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

Part 1 – Option B

In no more than 500 words, after reading the following text, how can it tell us about cross-cultural encounters?

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This piece of text can offer a great deal of information on cross-cultural encounters between the Western world and the Benin people. It is an entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica from the entry on ‘Negro’, published in 1910-1911. The author was T.A. Joyce, an Assistant in the Department of Ethnography at the British Museum, at the time of publication. It was written aimed for educated people.

Upon reading the text, we can clearly see it was written by someone using racial stereotypes. Joyce refers to the natives as ‘impressionable’, ‘vain’, with ‘servant dog-like fidelity’ and performing acts of ‘singular atrocity’ (Brown, Cultural Encounters, p81). The picture that he paints is of a primitive, backwards and savage people, who need the guidance of a more ‘civilized’ race. This was the view of quite a significant amount of people during the time this text was written, and it has only been in more recent times that this picture is changing.

However, he does sate that the natives surpassed the Europeans in their sense of hearing, sight, hearing and topography and that with training, they could become skilful craftsmen. He refers to the bronze castings and ivory cups and horns that were created ‘after their intercourse with the Portuguese of the 16th century’. This states that the natives could only produce skilful works with European encouragement. Joyce uses the evidence of the decline in bronze-work after the 16th century as argument for this statement.

Joyce also states that ‘... when that intercourse was interrupted, shows that the native craftsman was raised for a moment above his normal level by direct inspiration’. From this, we can understand that Joyce claims that the natives were inferior to European craftsman by stating that their skills improved above their normal abilities due to the European inspiration. The line ‘... unable to sustain the high quality of his work’ suggesting that once the European inspiration had gone, the natives were unable to produce these sophisticated artworks and resorted in savagery. This was confirmation of their incapability to progress without assistance. These lines in the text are important in cross-cultural encounters as it clearly tells the reader about the early 20th century British attitude about Africa.

We need to be aware of who this text was written for and by whom. The Encyclopaedia Britannica was written by educated professionals aimed for the more educated reader. Joyce makes no attempt to state the different series of theories about the Benin people and provides no verification to back up his statement. It appears to be written in a manner that would not allow equality between the British and the African races either.

On face value, we can see the typical Victorian racial stereotyping in the text. However, once you read past this, and put the text into ...

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On face value, we can see the typical Victorian racial stereotyping in the text. However, once you read past this, and put the text into context, it does provide some valuable insight to the African people and the cross-cultural encounters between Britain and Africa at the time it was written.

Bibliography

Loftus, Donna and Wood, Paul (2008) AA100 The Arts Past and Present – Cultural Encounters, The Open University, Milton Keynes.

AA100 Assignment Booklet, pp. 26-27.

Word Count: 491.

Part 2

In no more than 1000 words, identify some key changes in European attitudes to Benin art since 1897.

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Since 1897, when the Kingdom of Benin was conquered, and the art of Benin was brought back to Britain, there have been significant changes in the attitudes of the Europeans in regards of African art and their way of life. This includes their importance in their cultural value, the significance of how and when they were created and their meaning in an ethnographical sense.

The art of Benin, when first seen in Britain, was a matter of some debate. The natives were seen as savage, primitive and uncivilized, yet the bronzes and ivory carvings they brought back were of immense craftsmanship. One extract from The Times, after an exhibition of 300 bronze plaques at the British Museum in 1897, states ‘... the technical perfection of the work, are surprising evidences of the skill of the Benin native’ (Loftus & Wood, Cultural Encounters, p.79). From this, we can see that evidence of skilled craftsmanship was the opposite of what the British perceived of the native, admitting the surprise of the skilfulness. They could not believe the technological sophistication and exquisite beauty and quality of these objects. What they saw was a contradiction to what many late 19th and early 20th century westerners assumed or thought about Africa and native African people.

African art had a deep impact on modern art and we can see this through the works of such avant-garde artists such as Matisse and Picasso. Picasso underwent an ‘African Period’, when the artist was influenced by African art. In his painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) (Illustration Booklet, p.32), two of the women are depicted with African masks or faces, which gives it a primitive feel. It was at this time that people started to look at the origins of humanity, and the term ‘primitivism’ was coined to describe the opinion that life was better among simpler or primitive people or during the early stages of civilization. Since art was an aspect of civilization, it was only after the emergence of the avant-garde that the African culture was re-examined. It was also this time that the term ‘primitive’ was seen in a more positive light rather than in the negative context from before, as the definition of art changed from an extension of imperialism and ‘primitive art’ to ‘world culture’.

Benin art has also had an impact on the attitudes towards anthropology and ethnography. Anthropology is the study of humans and humanity in total, whereas ethnography is a branch of anthropology that provides scientific description of individual human societies. When the British Museum acquired the Benin Bronzes, there were debates about the origins of their manufacture and the roles in which their creators fitted into humanity’s evolutionary progress. In more modern times, there has been some debate whether Benin art should be treated as an ethnographic artefact or as a work of art. For example, in the Paris Exhibition, a collection of Benin bronze plaques are not only a ‘form of sculpture’, but are also objects that ‘contain anthropological information’ (DVD). Also, in the British Museum today, African artefacts are not only displayed in an anthropological way, but also in an aesthetic approach.

The display of Benin bronzes (Illustrations Booklet, 3.2.24, p.55) is an example of this. It seems to invite the viewer to appreciate its artistic value rather than its anthropological value, with the usage of spotlights behind, giving it a very ‘contemporary’ feel. However, the way in which they are presented could be intentional so that they may be shown in a manner similar to that when they were displayed on the pillars of the Oba’s palace. In the Paris Exhibition, individual pieces are displayed in a well-lit and modern cabinet in order for the viewer to appreciate the object independently in its own right, not unlike that of a piece of art.

This change is significant from the way that Benin artwork was displayed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One photograph of the African collection in the Pitt Rivers Museum (Illustrations Booklet, Plate 3.2.22, p.53) shows a collection of artefacts clustered according to their uses and functions. This would invite the viewer to think about the types of functions they were used for and not encourage their individual beauty.

The issue of ownership has also changed in British attitudes since the arrival of the Benin arts. There is a strong movement that the Benin artworks should be returned to their native homeland (modern day Nigeria), and a strong sense that they should stay where they are in order to educate all people about the Benin people and their civilization. Kevin Dalton-Johnson, of the Black Arts Alliance, states that they should be returned as their meaning ‘cannot take place whilst in the confines of a gallery in a glass box’ (CD-ROM). Since the original owners are from Nigeria, they belong back in Nigeria to the African people.

Chris Spring from the British Museum makes a different argument. He states that he is aware of the strong support for the Benin pieces to be returned to Nigeria and says that a degree of this was in the forcible way in which the pieces were removed initially in 1897. He claims that in regards to ownership, they are ‘in a sense belonging to humankind’ (CD-ROM), not just to the African people. He maintains that it is important for the pieces to be displayed here in order to educate people about African culture as well as how they contribute to the world cultural heritage belonging to all people, when they walk into the British Museum. It is also a way of helping to re-educate the racist stereotyping of primitive, savage Africa that people, even today, still believe.

In conclusion, these examples can help us see the way in which African art, history and culture has changed since the arrival of the Benin artworks in 1897. We can also expect them to continually change and re-shape the way in which people perceives African history and culture in the future.

Bibliography

Loftus, Donna & Wood, Paul (2008) AA100 The Arts Past and Present – Cultural Encounters – Chapter 2, The Art of Benin: Changing Relations Between Europe and Africa II, The Open University, Milton Keynes.

AA100 Assignment Booklet, pp.26-27.

AA100 The Arts Past and Present – Illustration Booklet (2008), The Open University, Milton Keynes.

CD-ROM.

Word Count: 1000.