Deconstructing African Tribal Art and Society Demystifying Its Domination and Disentanglement with European Art

Abstract

The European interest in Africa had a significant impact on Africa’s art and culture, including contemporary African art music and dance, description, materials, subjects, and purpose, all of which was influenced by the European presence in Africa and have an impact on what is now African tribal art. This has opened up numerous new options for contemporary African tribal art by demonstrating to the rest of the world that creativity associated with the past has resurfaced in modernday Africa. African tribal art provides information into their current society. In those days, the Europeans saw Africa as the real deal, full with potential, which they believed was only found in Africa. Because of its differences from European values on art, African culture and art has been branded as ‘tribal,’ ‘primitive,’ or ‘inferior,’ and it continues to remain so. Today, the term ‘tribal’ conjures up images of ‘old fashioned, primitive, and ignorance.’ Westerners have used and continue to use the term ‘primitive’ to characterize African art, although African art continues to play an essential part in the world today, which critics accept. Our goal here is to speculate on how colonization influenced African civilization and, in turn, influenced African tribal art.