International Congress of African Culture
Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, 1-12 August I962
African studies have hitherto been largely deficient in the attention given to that central element of culture which we Europeans call 'art' or 'the arts', but which traditional Africa did not compartmentalise either in name or in fact. Since the great changes through which Africa is passing are almost all in the direction of materialism and international conformity, it is not surprising, but none the less regrettable, that even anthropologists have usually accorded to African art a peripheral, though not always unhonoured, status. This has now been boldly remedied by the inauguration in Southern Rhodesia of what it is hoped will be a regular series of international congresses of African culture.
This was probably the first major international meeting - certainly the first to be held in Africa- at which African culture has been displayed and debated on a broad canvas, with the arts firmly at the centre; many of the participants would doubtless agree that from this richly varied fortnight emerged a clearer and more satisfying picture of the real nature of Africa and Africans than they have obtained from many another more earnestly scientific conference on Africa emergent. This is not to say that the Congress was primarily backward-looking. On the contrary, it was concerned with the past largely in order to estimate the 'African' content in the present, and to attempt some prognosis of the future.
The Congress was conceived some years ago, and brilliantly brought into being, by Mr Frank McEwen, Director of the perhaps rather curiously named Rhodes National Gallery, an advanced modern building which would be a worthy centre of the arts for any capital city in the world. In this gallery the Congress was held in association with a Festival of African and Neo-African Arts and Music, which continued throughout August and September i962.
The most striking feature of the Festival was a great tripartite exhibition of the visual arts. The first and largest part was one of the finest exhibitions ever held anywhere of the traditional sculpture of Africa, drawn from many museums and private collections in Africa, Europe, and America, and giving a far more comprehensive picture of African art than had ever before been seen in one place in Africa. The second was a remarkable display, largely in photographic form, of the effects on western artists of the 'discovery' of African sculpture early in this century. Lastly, a rich collection of African contemporary art from many parts of the continent demonstrated once again that if Africa chooses to become a province of experimentalist international art, it will do it well, but that in that case it will have failed to preserve for the world the dynamic and imaginative vigour of its own artistic heritage.
A catalogue of the exhibition, lavishly illustrated with unpublished works of African art, is obtainable from the Rhodes National Gallery, price 10 £. Music and the dance played a large and perhaps more popular part in the Festival, especially in the form of the famous xylophone orchestra and dancers from the Chopi tribe of Mozambique. Local dance groups, a theatre group from the Ivory Coast, Makishi dancers and drummers in the excellent craft village maintained by the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum at Livingstone, the Timi of Ede and his Yoruba drummers from Nigeria, and a steel band from Trinidad were among other contributors.
Against the background of this artistic wealth, the deliberations of the members of the Congress, anthropologists, musicologists, art historians, artists, and philosophers of Africa, Europe, and America, were bound to be fruitful, even if the broadening of their knowledge and understanding is not readily calculable. A secondary purpose of the Congress and Festival was to demonstrate the worth and reality of African culture to the people of Rhodesia, and in this-in spite of some surprisingly determined opposition- real progress was also made, perhaps in the nick of time.
There was a general feeling among the participants that the Congress should, if possible, be repeated at two-yearly intervals, in other African countries; its non-political and non-governmental character was considered of crucial importance.
William B. Fagg
Department of Ethnography, British Museum, London
Abdias (MUCHANGA, ABDIAS JULIO), THE EMIGRANTS. OIL. COLL. OF D. AND A.D'ALPOIM GUEDES.
(index - not published)
PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF AFRICAN CULTURE
1-11 August 1962
Held at The National Gallery, Salisbury, Rhodesia
Foreword 1959, Frank McEwen, p. 7
Opening Ceremony, 1 August, p. 11 McEwen, S.O. Biobaku (Ife, Nigeria) Tristan Tzara, Vincent Kofi, William Fagg, Roland Penrose, Alfred Barr, Amâncio d’Alpoim [Pancho] Guedes , Hugh Tracey, Chief Zandamela (Lourenço Marques, Moçambique)
August 2
Lecture 1 - Janheinz Jahn, African thinking as a background to African Art, p. 18
(comments by Barr, Guedes, McEwen)
2. Jean Laude, Aesthetics and Ethnology, p. 21
3. A.M. Dauer (Frankfurt) , The influence of African Music on Western Culture, old and new, p. 26
4. S. Okeke (Lagos), The Artist in an Ibo Community, 31
August 3
1. B. E. Reynolds (Northern Rhodesia), The African Craft Village, Livingstone, p. 37
2. Pierre Guerre (Marseille), African Aesthetics and Western Aesthetics, p. 41
3. Hugh Tracey, Problems facing African Music and Musicians in the Immediate Future, p. 45
(comments Mrs. Guedes)
4. James A. Porter (Washington), The influence of African art and Culture in the New World, p. 51
5 . William Bascon (Berkeley), Creativity and Style in African Art, p. 62
(comments Fagg, Porter, Guedes)
August 6
1. Percy Borde (dancer, Caribbe), African influence in the Caribbean, p. 76
2. Helmut Gunther (Stuttgart), The influence of Africa on Modern European and American Dancing, p. 79
3. [Pancho Guedes] / Amâncio D'Alpoim Guedes (Lourenço Marques, Moçambique), "Things are not what they seem to be - the auto-biofarsical hour", p. 84 (intro Tristan Tzara)
August 7
1. H. Christoffels (Fribourg), African Art and African Spiritualy, p. 95
William Fagg (London), African Art and Life Force, p. 98
2. B. Holas (Abidjan), Untitled (about Ethnology and Aesthetics), p. 99
3. Willard Rhodes (Nee York), African survivals in American Negro Music, p. 104
4. Selby Mvusi (artist, Ghana), Towards a Contemporary Art in Africa, p. 108.
5. Roland Penrose (London), African influences on Picasso and Contemporary Art, p. 113 (intro McEwen)
6. Udo Kultermann (Leverkussen), Traditional African Architecture and Modern Architecture, p. 120
August 9
1. Roger Summers (Bulaweyo, South Rhodesia), Architecture and Other Art at
Zimbabwe (110-1820), p. 128
2. Pearl Primus (dancer, USA), The inner being of African Dance, p. 132
3. Pierre Roumeguere & Jacqueline Roumeguere-Eberhardt (Bouar, Central African
Republic), Human Clay Figurines and Fertility Dolls, p. 135
4. J. Newton Hill (Lagos), Towards an Aesthetic in African Sculpture, p. 143
5. Vincent Kofi (artist, Ghana) - intro by Alfred Barr, p. 148
6. Robert A. Kauffman (Southern Rhodesia), Continuitity and Change in the
African Music of Southern Rhodesia, p. 148
August 11
1 - Frank McEwen, Art in Contemporay Africa, p. 152
F. McEwen, Influence of Africa, p. 158-9
Summing Up, Introdutory Remarks, p. 160-63
Non-National aspects of the Congress
Aspects of African Culture covered by Congress
Problem of adversing Congress
Difficulty of communicating with general public
Problem of Language
Proceedings of Congress
Indepence of Congress from Government Status
Second ICAC Congress
Subject of next Congress
not-paged
«Bill» Fagg, Four Yoruba Masters..., (Lecture 5, August 2)
William Fagg, The ancient history of Art in Nigeria
Andrew Tracey, Music of Southern Rhodesia
Frank McEwen, Foreword to the Congress Exibitions
List of Delegates’ Adresses
Sheet musics and photos
