New Publication 
 About Sacred and Religious Art in Africa

An Ethnographic Study on a Private Collection

Alexis Bekyane Tengan

Size: 6.89"x 8.39” (17.5 x 21.3 cm), 206 pages (including 35 colour pages), 151 Illus., Biblio.

ISBN: 978-9988-9202-1-0, Hb (Case Bound), Woeli Publishing Service, Accra, September 2022


 REVIEWS

"Tengan provides an unassuming but bitter reminder that traditional African culture will continue dying slowly and could vanish altogether if not conscientiously and properly preserved. (…). This intensive investigation into the meaning and use of sacred objects and religious art urges the proper collection, preservation, curation, and promotion of these artefacts within the present African cultural system." (Utafiti: Journal of African Perspectives)

DESCRIPTION

Of what significance are sacred art objects in Africa? In this book, About Sacred and Religious Art in Africa, the author launches an investigation into the grammar of sacred and religious art objects and presents them as encoded language, thus providing insights into divinity, which coheres in all African systems of thought. The book is unique for presenting a perspective that African cultic institutions should be seen as the syntax of some special and exclusive language for appreciating African art objects.

Alexis B. Tengan is an independent anthropologist resident in Belgium and a former teacher of Religious Sciences. He has taught for many years, both in Ghana and in Belgium. He has carried out research on farming systems throughout Northern Ghana, including investigation into the relationship between art, medicine, and religion, especially dwelling on the Dagara Bagr secret society and myths. His other publications include Mythical Narratives in Ritual: Dagara Black Bagr (2006) and Of Life and Health: The Language of Art and Religion in an African Medical System (2018). He has established studios in Belgium and Ghana and is now curating a private museum of sacred art objects in these two places.

Subject: Anthropology, Religion, Art, African Studies

Content: Introduction: The Cosmographic Field of the Religious and the Sacred; 1. On Houses, Shrines and Cults; 2. Art and Initiation: Masking Through Body Painting; 3. The Object of the Mask; 4. About Nature and the Cult of the Nature Spirit-Being (Kɔntɔn); 5. Art and Religion Around the Ancestral Cult Installation; 6. The Healing Cult and Shrine Installation; 7. Death and Life Aesthetics; 8. Sacralization and Dedication of Foreign Art and Religious Objects; 9. Conclusion

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