African Wildlife Art
African wildlife art dates back to billions of years, when men used to draw sketches on the stones and the cave walls. This art form is more of an appreciation of the relationship that human beings shared with Nature. African Wildlife art, in addition, has enough to say about the place and their pattern of living.
Glancing Back at the History of Wildlife Art of Africa
African rock art preserves 6000 year old carvings. Down the ages, the cultural arts of the Western tribes, ancient Egyptians artifacts and the indigenous southern crafts comprised a main part of the African art. Like people elsewhere, ancient African people lived and shared a nice relationship with Nature as well as with the animals. No wonder ancient art always depicted the abundance of the surrounding Nature and was the abstract interpretation of the flora and the fauna and that of natural processes.
The Wildlife Art is a Part of the African Culture
The most common form of African wildlife art is that of a male with weapon or an animal. This, in fact, is a way to show respect to the ancestors. Animal sketches play a significant role in the African wildlife art and this is precisely because ownership of animals signifies power, control and honor.
The African population is divided into a great number of tribes and each tribe has its own deep-rooted faith in different animals. For instance, horse is considered as the symbol of power and wealth and, therefore, you will get to see that many of the tribes use horses in their wildlife art. Hence, it can be said that the different cultures have their unique way of interpreting the wildlife culture.
Wooden masks are the common form of African wildlife art. Sometimes, wooden blocks are cut out into animal figures used as the ceremonial masks, which are used for initiations, preparation, celebration and crop harvesting. Africa boasts of its vast collection of ancient African art and each of the art represents the positive and negative aspects of the human behavior.
Hence, it will not be an exaggeration if we make a claim of sorts that African wildlife art is the celebration of African cultural diversity.
