Initiates. Congo Basin.
Dapper Museum| N° d'inventaire | 22065 |
| Format | 22.5 x 29.5 |
| Détails | 272 p., hardcover. |
| Publication | Paris, 2013 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782915258363 |
In sub-Saharan Africa, being initiated means first of all that one has followed, over a long period and in trying conditions, a specific teaching reserved for a category of individuals. Then, certain rules of behavior specific to the group from which one comes are shared with other people, most often of the same age and sex. This work, which brings together texts by art historians, ethnologists and anthropologists, reveals how and why many ritual practices of the Congo Basin are linked to a great diversity of objects: masks, statuettes, insignia, ornaments, musical instruments ... The works reproduced here come mainly from the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren as well as from the Dapper Museum, from public collections (Museum aan de Stroom in Antwerp, Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam) and private collections. The rites studied in this book fall into the two most common types of initiation. The first is the apprenticeship that prepares adolescents to become adults; for boys it is frequently accompanied by circumcision and for girls sometimes by excision. The second, generally less often mentioned, is the training received within secret societies or brotherhoods by diviners, therapists and other cult specialists, but also sovereigns and chiefs. The knowledge allowing one to exercise power, to act on others is sometimes acquired over a lifetime. Today, initiation rites, when they have not disappeared, see their meaning and content evolve according to the modern world. The approach of the Beninese artist Romuald Hazoumè is marked by his experience as an initiate. His works, made mainly from gasoline cans, play on provocation and derision. They constitute the tools of a sharp criticism of the West and question the future of societies on the African continent.
In sub-Saharan Africa, being initiated means first of all that one has followed, over a long period and in trying conditions, a specific teaching reserved for a category of individuals. Then, certain rules of behavior specific to the group from which one comes are shared with other people, most often of the same age and sex. This work, which brings together texts by art historians, ethnologists and anthropologists, reveals how and why many ritual practices of the Congo Basin are linked to a great diversity of objects: masks, statuettes, insignia, ornaments, musical instruments ... The works reproduced here come mainly from the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren as well as from the Dapper Museum, from public collections (Museum aan de Stroom in Antwerp, Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam) and private collections. The rites studied in this book fall into the two most common types of initiation. The first is the apprenticeship that prepares adolescents to become adults; for boys it is frequently accompanied by circumcision and for girls sometimes by excision. The second, generally less often mentioned, is the training received within secret societies or brotherhoods by diviners, therapists and other cult specialists, but also sovereigns and chiefs. The knowledge allowing one to exercise power, to act on others is sometimes acquired over a lifetime. Today, initiation rites, when they have not disappeared, see their meaning and content evolve according to the modern world. The approach of the Beninese artist Romuald Hazoumè is marked by his experience as an initiate. His works, made mainly from gasoline cans, play on provocation and derision. They constitute the tools of a sharp criticism of the West and question the future of societies on the African continent.