Religion and Art in Africa

Abstract

The separation of art and religion in modern Western civilization makes it almost impossible for us to conceive of their full integration in Africa. So inevitable is it for us to isolate these elements that we have difficulty in describing cultures where art and religion permeate the entire society as well as each other. Western religious and aesthetic categories simply do not afford access to the phenomena; consequently I propose three rather inelegant neologisms art-ing, goding,and self-ing as avenues for exploring spiritual manifestations at the intersection of art and religion in traditional African cultures.