Abstract
Rendered in Africa by curiosity, researchers have issued divergent opinions about the cultivation of different peoples. Some have been taken aback by the wealth of artistic production, while others believed that Africa did lack history. Father Engelbert Mveng reacted to these aberrations by arguing that the history of Africa is written in art and that we are so often uneducated before this writing. The Reverend Father wanted to represent the fundamental structure of works of art in Sub-Saharan Africa. The work of art in African artistic design does not simply reproduce nature as it is done in Western realism. It is more of a form of expression, a language, or a narrative being told. The two aspects gathered, namely the signifier and the signified, real and unreal, soul and body, are, in a sense, the different binomials that characterize traditional African art and give it existence. In other words, the existence of an artwork in Africa improves the moment these two elements are present. In Asia, there are two philosophical thoughts that, far from being completely contradictory, share a common foundation. It is in Taoism and Confucianism, that the concept of Yin and Yang is associated. These doctrines allow us to translate more concretely the concept of duality in African arts, which will be illustrated in this study by the art of the Bamileke people. Taoism is oriented towards eternal and supernatural values while Confucianism is cored and geared to human morals and ethics. Taoism here refers to the spirit of the work, on its unreal side while Confucianism referred to the body of the work, on its real side. The argument consists of two parts: first a comparative study between Chinese aesthetics and the aesthetics of the Bamileke people, then the convergence of thought that exists between the two cultures. Thus, Taoism and Confucianism are with Buddhism the foundation of the Chinese culture, making it a civilization that is needed under all heaven. As a result, the question is why African culture, despite having the same assets as its Asian counterpart, is still learning how to assert itself on the global art scene, despite its natural and human potential.
Highlights
Following the colonial era of the 1960s, Africans began to open up to the rest of the world
What common thread can we establish between the Taoist, Confucian, and African conception of art? How do yin and yang correspond to notions of object and subject in African art [4]? The answer to this problem requires that we first focus on Taoism, yin and yang, Confucianism and their influence on Asian aesthetics in general and Chinese in particular
This study aims to show that the concept of yin and yang found in Taoism and Confucianism integrates both the symbolic aspect and the reality aspect, objectivity and subjectivity, the unreal and the real, the form and the idea in the African work of art
Summary
Following the colonial era of the 1960s, Africans began to open up to the rest of the world. African Art, in general, is the representation of Arabic Language, Literature & Culture 2021; 6(2): 43-52 reality; it is more the expression of thought, of an idea [2]. A close study of this art from the Far East reveals that it is an art that Taoist and Confucian currents have greatly influenced for over fifteen centuries The goal of these philosophies is to lead the human being to achieve the ideal that he would gain by seeking his personal development to obey the laws he received from heaven following the philosophy of yin and yang. The answer to this problem requires that we first focus on Taoism, yin and yang, Confucianism and their influence on Asian aesthetics in general and Chinese in particular. What are the African aesthetic landmarks in general and those of Bamileke art in particular? What future for African art?
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