Leo Frobenius on Africa

Ethnologist and archaeologist Leo Frobenius was born in Berlin on the 29th of June 1873. His first

expedition to Africa was to the Congo in 1904. In 1918, he began his expedition to North, West and

Central Africa. Back in Germany, he founded the Institute for Cultural Morphology in Munich in

1920. He was appointed a honorary professor at the University of Frankfurt in 1932. In 1925, the

city of Frankfurt acquired his over 4,700 historical African stone paintings and even more

sculptures of African art currently in the Frobenius Institute in Frankfurt. He died in Italy in 1938,

aged 65. He corresponded and collaborated with the great sociologist, historian and author, the

African (American born and African-American descent) W.E.B Du Bois.

Darkness enshrouded the deeps which had swallowed humanity's lovely ideal. The children of

the Gods had gone under, because they failed to remember the law their awe-

worthy ancestry had bequeathed them. All that splendour of art, which had erstwhile

glorified the island, slid into Ocean's bed.

And, in common with those who yearn for the light which knowledge brings, I have spent many an

hour in gloom there. But I failed to find it governed by the " insensible fetish." I failed to find power

expressed in degenerate bestiality alone. In spite of the exalted light of the Church, I discovered the

souls of these peoples, and found that they were more than humanity's burnt-up husks.

Yet, neither was I slow to observe that they no longer obeyed the laws handed down to the sons of

the Gods, their sires of bygone days. They remember them still. They still make part of their

dreams. These people have only fallen away from the height of human achievement. A glorious

ideal of mankind had been thrust into the depths. The darkness had engulfed it. Fiat

Lux ! Let there be light ! And there was light!

……………LEARNING TO SEE is, indeed, the most difficult of things in the laborious study of

African mystery. (But if only we open our eyes, we shall see such exquisite beauty as to delight all

our senses and take our breaths away. Enough to revive a hopeless race)

But—these (so called) cannibal Bassonge were, according to the types we met with, one of those

rare nations of the African interior which can be classed with the most aesthetic and skilled, most

discreet and intelligent of all those generally known to us as the so-called natural races.

Before the Arabic and European invasion they did not dwell in “hamlets," but in towns with twenty

or thirty thousand inhabitants, in towns whose highways were shaded by avenues of splendid palms

planted at regular intervals and laid out with the symmetry of colonnades. Their pottery would be

fertile in suggestion to every art-craftsman in Europe. Their weapons of iron were so perfectly

fashioned that no industrial art from abroad could improve upon their workmanship. The iron

blades were cunningly ornamented with damascened copper, and the hilts artistically inlaid with

the same metal. Moreover, they were most industrious and capable husbandmen, whose careful

tillage of the suburbs made them able competitors of any gardener in Europe. Their sexual and

parental relations evidenced an amount of tact and delicacy of feeling unsurpassed among

ourselves, either in the simplicity of the country or the refinements of the town. Originally, their

political and municipal system was organized on the lines of a representative republic. True, it is on

record that these well-governed towns often waged an internecine warfare ; but, in spite of this, it

had been their invariable custom from time immemorial, even in times of strife, to keep the trade

routes open and to allow their own and foreign merchants to go their ways unharmed. And the

commerce of these nations ebbed and flowed along a road of unknown age, running from Itimbiri

to Batubenge, about six hundred miles in length. This highway was only destroyed by the "

missionaries of civilization " ……. towards the close of the eighteenth century. But, even in my own

time, there were still smiths who knew the names of places along that wonderful trade-route driven

through the heart of the " impenetrable forests of the Congo." For every scrap of imported iron was

carried over it.

What are the assertions of an author in the 'sixties of the nineteenth century worth in the face of

such facts as these? ………………..And is it not equally obvious that such skill in the arts, such great

commercial expansion, such town-planning and such municipal construction, must be the product

of prolonged historical civilization ? Are not the facts, taken as a whole, here gift altogether against

the narrow-minded view which is inclined to. If you reject the value of the whole and of everything

connected with it upon the evidence of unessential, quaint excrescences, such as the civilization of

every nation must of necessity disclose?

Under the pressure of an irresistible public opinion these dark- skinned Africans well know how to

keep their own secrets with a stubborn taciturnity which we Europeans, whose development is

individual and whose training is in personality, are quite unable to understand. Not one of us at

home can imagine the crushing weight brought to bear by the whole mass of society on a single

member.

But, incidentally, I gave an account of some material on which history could be based, and which

would form a far mightier link between the Present and the Past than pyramids and bronzes and

sculptures and manuscripts ; I mean, the memory of human beings, who have not yet learned to

write, or who have not had the treasury of remembrance ruined by the excessive use of the written

word !

The memory of these things had been kept have in rustic brains for nigh two thousand years. The

storms of war and times of trouble had swept across it ; in long periods of gentle peace the harrows

had been drawn along its furrows year in year out,……Generation upon generation had trodden over

it ;

……..Such is the godlike strength of memory in those who live before the advent of the written word.

Every archaeologist can quote examples from the nations of the North. But who would imagine that

the negro race of Africa possessed an equally retentive mind for its store of ancient monuments?

For well-nigh ten centuries no brick-built pyramid was lifted skywards, yet gaffers still recall the

song which was sung when hundreds upon hundreds of toilers wrought, when layer was spread

upon layer, when the clay was beaten with batlets and baked in the heat of a fire.

I am thinking, e.g., of the vanished glory of San Salvador, the capital of the Congo Empire.

Discovered as a genuine African city towards the end of the fifteenth, it had in the sixteenth century

become the centre of a Christian realm under the influence of Portugal and the Church, whose

pomp was proverbial in Europe for a time, and yet its dignitaries were only native negroes. Black

bishops, robed in costly vestments, preached their sermons in a mighty cathedral. Dukes, princes

and noblemen, habited in the fashion of that day, the short Spanish mantle on their shoulders and

the sword upon their thigh, followed in the Emperor's train. Negroes, every man of them! It was as

though a pageant of the world of Europe had been called into existence out of “brutal paganism” at

a wizard's word—so the old chronicles tell us.

And then, when a century has run its course ! The mighty Emperor of the Congo buffeted by a

priest ! A second century goes by: nought but miserable ruins—wretched negro huts—and tattered

Bushmen! So swiftly vanished all the splendour of the velvets and the satins! And why?

The negro, naturally gifted with a delicate sense of tact, is always shy of saying and discussing

things his interlocutor neither likes to hear nor see.

……..Although all the wealthy princes of the Interior had come down in the world during the most

recent disturbances and had seen a host of shrewd folk from the Coast quickly piling up riches, and

although great portions of the city had been in part destroyed,

…….I did, indeed, mark down a fine lot of ceremonial furniture in the temples, but not a soul had

any idea of selling. Nor, bearing in mind that Ibadan is by no means an impoverished negro city, is

it (not) very difficult to understand this. The inhabitants of Ibadan can hardly be described

otherwise than as being fairly well-to-do. The resources of Yoruba-land, so enormously wealthy in

oil-yielding palms, produce a revenue so substantial that families of repute are able to make a

good income with little effort,

………And thus the comfortable Ibadanese paterfamilias, reclining at ease on his mat beneath the

broad veranda of his bungalow inside his fertile compound, makes sacrifices to his household-gods,

sleeps, eats, and drinks gin,

……..Why should a man, whose money comes so easily, barter his sacred paternal inheritance for

nothing, and yet again nothing, to an eccentric pale-face ? So there was nothing to be got in

exchange for the legendary bread and butter, empty bottles, trouser-buttons, or frayed epaulettes.

It would, however, be a great mistake to suppose that these people expressed any great joy in

feeling a few shillings in their palms. Not a single one of them thought of rushing greedily at our

filthy lucre. We often haggled over some one article or other for days together, and I often missed a

really fine piece because the wretched starvelings suddenly raised money elsewhere for their

immediate needs. I observed something new to me in Africa in these early days which gave me food

for thought. Whenever one of these poor fellows had arranged to part with a good antique at a price

and his well-to-do relatives came to know of it, the richer ones among them, who, as a rule, were

quite indifferent to the fate of their poor relation, now offered him substantial sums in order to

retain the family possessions.

Generous hospitality and spacious circumstance are met with everywhere and always. The entire

household has an air of largeness and breathes that atmosphere of elbow-room necessary in the

pursuit of husbandry.

Every morning the sturdy sire takes up his tools and sets a good example to his children and

dependents instead of lounging idly round about. Even the aged find some use for their failing

powers until they breathe their last. When, every now and again, I had been told Yorubans were a

lazy lot, the term was true enough about the nawabs of the city, but to see them go about their

business in farmstead or small country town was to give the lie direct to such a general statement.

…….The lad and another man took a side-path of their own while we went along the main road to

the Ebolokun Grove with the " Ancient," at a pace suited to his great age. On arrival under the palm-

trees, we found that the young fellow had made a short cut. He was carrying a fairly heavy sack

slung across his shoulders. It contained the effigy of the God. After Martius had been summoned

from the scene of his labours close by, we waited intently for the sack to be opened. The grey-head

placed two stones one above the other and he and his son bared the upper parts of their bodies—the

invariable custom at all religious ceremonial—dragged something out of the bag, placed it on the

stones, and then—well, then—I did two things : I rubbed my eyes and pinched my leg to make sure I

was not dreaming and to avert attention from my exceeding joy.

Before us stood a head of marvellous beauty, wonderfully cast in antique bronze, true to the life,

incrusted with a patina of glorious dark green. This was, in very deed, the Olokun, Atlantic Africa's

Poseidon !

Profoundly stirred, I stood for many minutes before this remnant of the erstwhile Lord and Ruler

of the Empire of Atlantis.

' My companions were no less astounded. As though we had agreed to do so, we held our peace.

The black population of Southern Nigeria does not to-day pay the proper amount of respect due to

the white authorities, and the resulting corruption of morality is all the more serious because,

owing to European domination, the native holders of power (the Alafins, the Bales, the priests, etc.)

have lost a great deal of influence and no substitute is at hand for the former permanent imposition

of the strong hand.

……..How closely forged are the links of their philosophy and the greatness of this nation, not alone

in its practical existence, but in the intellectual quality permeating their religious thoughts.

The Bale, in part, and the people, in part, elect these officers. The populace itself has the privilege of

choosing the Djagun ; the Bale determines the sequence in rank of the Balogun. The juristic experts

seem to be selected according to knowledge and experience of the law. These were certainly men of

importance ; they squatted either in rotation or all together around the person of the President and

informed him of the " procedure " in the cases before him, and so not only furnished him with

desired " similar " cases, but came to his assistance with historical " precedents."

……But the salutations are another pair of shoes. Their many variations would seem a striking

oddity in Europe. Some of the other Yoruban tribes may be taken as patterns of politeness in their

greeting, which may, as we think, be considered overdone. The Ilifians have created such an

exquisite gradation, such a sublimely subtle light and shade in ceremonial manner, as would make

the heart of an expert, whether ducal teacher of deportment or royal conductor of the ballet, dance

with joy. I am, to my regret, extremely badly versed in this department and can only talk of its

effect, but not of its more delicate refinements. When Ilifian men or women salute each other, be it

with a plain and easy curtsey (which is here the simplest form adopted), or kneeling down, or

throwing oneself upon the ground, or kissing the dust with one's forehead, no matter which, there is

yet a deliberateness, a majesty, a dignity, a devoted earnestness in the manner of its doing, which

brings to light with every gesture, with every fold of clothing, the deep significance and essential

import of every single action.

……..These people show such an astounding propriety in their manner of managing a dress, a shawl

and a coat, such an art in the display of their movements, that the spectator rightly draws the

conclusion that time is but of little account in their eyes. And once so convinced, the natural

question arises, what does the life look like which goes on behind this beautiful and unanimous

masquerading? This is mostly a difficult question, but in this case it is easily answered. I have

previously mentioned the high degree of those qualities of intellect and its uses which bear witness

to the ancient civilization once possessed by Yorubans. The Ifians are altogether Yoruban……

Leo Frobenius, Voice of Africa

I AM AN AFRICAN

and rejoice exceedingly in any attendant success upon the production of evidence that my own

“tedious” Continent has one thing to offer, namely, real puzzles whose eventual solution is merely

deferred and a question of time.

"When they [the first European navigators of the end of the Middle Ages] arrived in the Gulf of

Guinea and landed at Vaida, the captains were astonished to find the streets well cared for,

bordered for several leagues in length by two rows of trees; for many days they passed through a

country of magnificent fields, a country inhabited by men clad in brilliant costumes, the stuff of

which they had woven themselves! More to the South in the Kingdom of Congo, a swarming crowd

dressed in silk and velvet; great states well ordered, and even to the smallest details, powerful

sovereigns, rich industries, -- civilized to the marrow of their bones. And the condition of the

countries on the eastern coasts -- Mozambique, for example -- was quite the same.

"What was revealed by the navigators of the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries furnishes an

absolute proof that Negro Africa, which extended south of the desert zone of the Sahara, was in full

efflorescence which the European conquistadors annihilated as far as they progressed. For the new

country of America needed slaves, and Africa had them to offer, hundreds, thousands, whole

cargoes of slaves. However, the slave trade was never an affair which meant a perfectly easy

conscience, and it exacted a justification; hence one made of the Negro a half-animal, an article of

merchandise. And in the same way the notion of fetish (Portuguese feticeiro) was invented as a

symbol of African religion. As for me, I have seen in no part of Africa the Negroes worshipping a

fetish. The idea of the 'barbarous Negro' is a European invention which has consequently prevailed

in Europe until the beginning of this century.

What these old captains recounted, these chiefs of expeditions -- Delbes, Marchais, Pigafetta, and

all the others, what they recounted is true. It can be verified. In the old Royal Kunstkammer of

Dresden, in the Weydemann collection of Ulm, in many another 'cabinet of curiosities' of Europe,

we still find West African collections dating from this epoch. Marvellous plush velvets of an extreme

softness, made of the tenderest leaves of a certain kind of banana plant; stuffs soft and supple,

brilliant and delicate, like silks, woven with the fibre of a raffia, well prepared; powerful javelins

with points encrusted with copper in the most elegant fashion; bows so graceful in form and so

beautifully ornamented that they would do honour to any museum of arms whatsoever; calabashes

decorated with the greatest taste; sculpture in ivory and wood of which the work shows a very great

deal of application and style.

"And all that came from countries of the African periphery, delivered over after that to slave

merchants, . .

"But when the pioneers of the last century pierced this zone of European civilization and the wall of

protection which had, for the time being raised behind it -- the wall of protection of the Negro still

intact --they found everywhere the same marvels which the captains had found on the coast.

"In 1906 when I penetrated into the territory of Kassai-Sankuru, I found still, villages of which the

principal streets were bordered on each side, for leagues, with rows of palm trees, and of which the

houses, decorated each one in charming fashion, were works of art as well.

"No man who did not carry sumptuous arms of iron or copper, with inlaid blades and handles

covered with serpent skin. Everywhere velvets and silken stuffs. Each cup, each pipe, each spoon

was an object of art perfectly worthy to be compared to the creations of the Roman European style.

But all this was only the particularly tender and iridescent bloom which adorns a ripe and

marvellous fruit; the gestures, the manners, the moral code of the entire people, from the little child

to the old man, although they remained within absolutely natural limits, were imprinted with

dignity and grace, in the families of the princes and the rich as in the vassals and slaves. . I know of

no northern people who can be compared with these primitives for unity of civilization. And the

peaceful beauty was carried away by the floods.

But many men had this experience: the explorers who left the savage and warrior plateau of the

East and South and the North to descend into the plains of the Congo, of Lake Victoria, of the

Ubangi: men such as Speke and Grant, Livingstone, Cameron, Stanley, Schweinfurt, Junker, de

Brazza-- all of them -- made the same statements: they came from countries dominated by the rigid

laws of the African Ares, and from then on they penetrated into the countries where peace reigned,

and joy in adornment and in beauty; countries of old civilizations, of ancient styles, of harmonious

styles.

"The revelations of fifteenth and seventeenth century navigators furnish us with certain proof that

Negro Africa, which extended south of the Sahara desert zone, was still in full bloom, in the full

brilliance of harmonious and well-formed civilizations. In the last century the superstition ruled

that all high culture of Africa came from Islam. Since then we have learned much, and we know

today that the beautiful turbans and clothes of the Sudanese folk were already used in Africa before

Muhammad was even born or before Ethiopian culture reached inner Africa. Since then we have

learned that the peculiar organization of the Sudanese states existed long before Islam and that all

of the art of building and education, of city organization and handwork in Negro Africa, were

thousands of years older than those of Middle Europe.

Thus in the Sudan old real African warm-blooded culture existed and could be found in Equatorial

Africa, where neither Ethiopian thought, Hamitic blood, or European civilization had drawn the

pattern. Everywhere when we examine this ancient culture it bears the same impression. In the

great museums -- Trocadero, British Museum, in Belgium, Italy, Holland, and Germany --

everywhere we see the same spirit, the same character, the same nature. All of these separate pieces

unite themselves to the same expression and build a picture equally impressive as that of a

collection of the art of Asia. The striking beauty of the cloth, the fantastic beauty of the drawing and

the sculpture, the glory of the ivory weapons, the collection of fairy tales equal to the Thousand and

One nights, the Chinese novels, and the Indian philosophy.

"In comparison with such spiritual accomplishments the impression of the African spirit is easily

seen. It is stronger in its folds, simpler in its richness. Every weapon is simple and practical, not

only in form but fantasy. Every line of carving is simple and strong. There is nothing that makes a

clearer impression of strength and all that streams out of the fire and the hut, the sweat and the

grease- treated hides and the animal dung. Everything is practical, strong, workmanly. This is the

character of the African style. When one approaches it with full understanding, one immediately

realizes that this impression rules all Africa. It expresses itself in the activity of all Negro people

even in their sculpture. It speaks out of their dances and their masks; out of the understanding of

their religious life, just as out of the reality of their living, their state building, and their conception

of fate. It lives in their fables, their fairy stories, their wise sayings and their myths.

And once we are forced to this conclusion, then the Egyptian comes into the comparison. For this

discovered culture form of Negro Africa has the same peculiarity

Leo Frobenius

Histoire de la Civilisation Africaine translated by Back and Ermoat Paris: Gallimard, 1936 6th

edition page 56 in

W. E. Burghardt Du Bois The World and Africa: An inquiry into the part which Africa has played

in world history New York: Viking Press, 1946 pp. 79, 156