Overview

From the Preface When I first went to Africa in the 1960s, I was bowled over by African art. What really got under my skin were the bangles, principally the bronze bangles from West and Central Africa. They were tactile, weighty and full of design and form. Later, when I lived in Ghana and Togo, I built up my own collection of bangles. In recent years this collection was seen by past and present curators of the British Museum and I was encouraged to work up the expertise to comment on and possibly help classify the Museum's collection of African bangles. They recognised that they have thousands of these bangles lying mostly untouched and unloved because they could not be given a story, a context, a meaning. They were so enthusiastic and helpful that I secured introductions to many major museums around the world, to study their substantial and interesting collections. Museums in Europe and on the East and West Coasts of the United States gave me access to the rich material they had accumulated. I had the rare privilege of spending days in their storerooms in the course of which I could see and compare many thousands of bangles. The curators who accompanied me in the inspection of their bangles were aware that these beautiful artefacts had lain undisturbed because they could not be explained or set in a wider context. The bangles were attractive but seldom came with a meaningful provenance. To their great credit, these highly-qualified specialists would listen enthusiastically as my wife and I noted bangles which we had encountered elsewhere. Seeing all these bangles and thus, over time, gradually building up a picture of their types, uses and probable areas of origin, I began to realise that I was looking at a decorative culture which was self-generated, wholly unlike the decorative cultures of the rest of the world. It was unique. Astonishingly, it was to be found in almost every inhabited part of the vast semi-continental area of sub-Saharan Africa. Gold and silver were of little consequence. Copper was their ""precious metal"". The style - instantly recognisable - was chunky, solid, weighty. Rarity was not a concern; the Eurasians' ""precious stones"" were unknown. Rings had no great meaning. It was bangles that were the standard means of conveying status, attraction and readiness for marriage. Most importantly, as I read the stories of explorers and the later accounts of African life in the 19th and 20th centuries while I worked through the museums' storerooms, it became clear to me, that for centuries, the bangle had been the one and only defining material culture shared by all Africans south of the Sahara. At last, an overall picture was emerging and there was now a chance of describing it before it was too late. The bangle culture that had unified Africans, through which and in which they had lived much of their lives, was fading fast. In their heartland of West and Central Africa the tactile bronze bangles that everyone wore in the 19th century - and which I saw occasionally in northern Ghana in the 1980s - were now encountered more in museums than on the bodies of inhabitants of those regions. This book will follow the art-historical practice of using ""bronze"" to describe all forms of copper alloys, including brass, when the composition is not directly relevant and retain ""copper"" for occasions when the pure metal is being discussed. ""Bangle"" will be used as the generic term for all forms of jewellery applied to the human body. This bangle culture is still an unselfconscious part of daily life in a few isolated African tribes and used quite naturally to send messages. But, in a few decades, this bangle culture will survive only in less traditional forms and only in limited areas in East and Southern Africa. At its height, it was an admirable system of great importance to social intercourse, replete with significance, great beauty and craftsmanship. It deserves to be recorded and I will try to do this in this book. I will set out why this bangle culture was so different from anything else in the world; the skill with which the bangles were made; and how the bangle culture spread throughout all Africa south of the Sahara; I will have to admit that the industrial world and its products have led to the Eurasian hierarchy of gold and silver overtaking bronze in Africa and, indeed, eliminating it as a ""precious metal"". But I will end on a note of hope, that there are indications that the sense of solidity of form and the respect for copper that was evident in classical African bangles may still live on among African Americans.

Full Product Details

9780993047855

Table of Contents

Reviews

The author explores a hugely important but overlooked aspect of the traditional cultures of Africa and throws fascinating new light on its richness Malcolm McLeod CBE, formerly Keeper of Ethnography, British Museum; If you have roots in Africa read this - and be proud. Schelley Kiah, Film and Television Art Dept. Coordinator, Hollywood.

Does the bangle culture survive among African Americans? Books, films, et cetera Bibliography Index Photographs Present-day states of sub-Saharan Africa"

Author Information

Sir James Mellon, known as Jimmy, a former diplomat whose roles included British Ambassador to Denmark, Director General for Trade and Investment, Consul General, New York and High Commissioner to Ghana and Ambassador to Togo. When he first went to Africa in the 1960’s, he was discovered African art. He lived in Dakar, Senegal, at the time of the Festival of Negro Arts which brought together bronzes from Ife and Benin in Nigeria, wooden statues from the Congo, masks from Sierra Leone and Angola. What really got under my skin were the bangles, principally the bronze bangles from West and Central Africa. They were tactile, weighty and full of design and form. Later, when he lived in Ghana and Togo he built up his own collection of bangles and in recent years began to study the collections in major museums in Europe and in the United States. Curators encouraged and helped him build up a picture of the different types of bangles, what they were used for and where they might have come from originally.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available