Overview

The art of southern and eastern Africa, unlike the better-known traditions of central and western Africa, is often overlooked. The complex history of the region, marked by migrations rather than settled kingdoms, and the very nature of the objects produced, seen as craft artefacts by western eyes, are the main reasons for this relative obscurity. The objects illustrated and catalogued in the book include rare figural sculptures, jewellery, regalia, prestige staffs carved with ornamental heads and decorations, walking/fighting sticks, headrests, snuff containers and the occasional ornamental but useful adornments which double as combs and snuff spoons. The source of distinctiveness for the artefacts of the southern African region lies in the pastoral and specifically nomadic nature of the cattle culture shared by the majority of the peoples in the region. The functional beauty of the objects and their small size are linked to the necessary ease to take them along as the need to move arose.

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Karel Nel is Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. His particular interest in sacred art has led him to look closely at the value systems encoded in African, Oceanic and Eastern art. Southern African material is his area of expertise, and he acts as an advisor to a number of national and international museums on their collections of African art. Karel Nel is a practising artist who exhibits regularly and is represented in many museums. He is well known for large public commissions at home and abroad. Sandra Klopper is Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. She has published extensively on the nineteenth and twentieth century arts of southern African communities, the politics of traditionalism in contemporary South Africa, and various aspects of rural and urban youth.

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