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Ancestor Figure. Dogon Culture, Mali. Wood.

gives traditional African culture its humanistic emphasis.

In the Western world, religion and art have been separated.8 In Africa, art is created to adhere to the expectations and strictures of a particular group. Works created for secret societies such as the Ogboni of Nigeria and the Poro of the Ivory Coast, and women's societies such as the Bandu, also of the Ivory Coast, cannot be radically changed because they must immediately function as mediators between mankind, the ancestors, spirits or Deity.9

While there are differences in the religious practices in Africa, John S. Mbiti and Cheikh Anta Diop have in their respective ways emphasized the cultural unity of Africa. It is Mbiti's position that religion has the greatest influence shaping the thinking and behavior of Africans.

Works and statuary often do not represent deities, but the ancestors who mediate between mankind and the supernatural realm.  Such images embody the collective values and wisdom of the group,11 which results in an engaged art - creative expressions that are not separated from life.

The art of the people of Africa, as it is produced in the various cultural regions of West and Central Africa, is intrinsically linked to survival, the quality of life of the group and the individual, in general to the "cycle of life."12

Every society places restraints upon its creative artists, and serves as "a gyroscope to hold the course despite the random private forces of deflection."13 However, this does not mean that the artist has no room to express his genius, but that the range of change and invention is not as extensive as it is in the western world. Yoruba artists of Nigeria, the Dogon artists in the Western Sudan, Kuba artists of Zaire, endow their respective culturally sanctioned forms with their own interpretations and visions.

Paradigmatic Realism

In African Art human images predominate. This is true of all categories of art -- masks, statuary, appliques, paintings and some engravings. Hence, we can say that the theme of African art is human, even when abstract or animanoid 

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