Culture of Africa - the culture of the peoples of Africa .
Content
Kitchen
see Cuisine (traditions)
- African cuisine
Clothing
see Clothing , Fashion
The Art of Africa
It should be borne in mind that the "African art" includes the works of many different cultures, often genetically or diffusely unrelated to each other, however, according to some researchers, most products of the "African culture" share common features.
Music
The term "African music" can often mean the music of peoples south of the Sahara desert. Music has a complex rhythmic structure and originality of musical modes in each ethnic group. An important role in traditional music is played by various percussion instruments ( drums , sansa, xylophone ) and wind instruments (various flute variants, horns ). Of the stringed instruments , a , harp , bark , Mbet, guru’s stringed wind instrument and others are used. Many African languages are tonal , which played a role in the corresponding speech ups and downs in musical compositions.
Professional music of Africa began to take shape in the ancient period, this process was activated during the period of medieval states (Ghana, Mali, Songai, Kanem-Bornu , Congo , Buganda , Monomotapa and others). [1] . The rhythms of "black Africa" through African American culture played a significant role in the emergence of such musical styles of the 20th century as jazz , blues and rock and roll .
Literature
The concept of African literature by Africans themselves includes both written and oral literature. In the minds of Africans, form and content are inseparable. The beauty of presentation is used not only for its own sake, but rather to build a more effective dialogue with the listener, and beauty is determined by the degree of truthfulness of the above.
The oral literature of Africa exists both in poetic form and in the form of prose. Poetry, often in song form, includes poems, epics , ritual, laudatory songs, love songs, etc. Prose - most often tales of the past, myths and legends, often with a trickster as a central character. The epos of Keith Sundiath , the founder of the ancient state of Mali, is an important example of oral literature of the pre-colonial period [2] [3] [4] .
The first written literature of North Africa was recorded in Egyptian papyri, it was also written in Greek , Latin and Phoenician languages (there are very few sources in Phoenician). Apulius [5] [6] and St. Augustine [7] [8] [9] wrote in Latin. The style of Ibn Khaldun , a philosopher [10] from Tunisia , stands out among the Arabic literature of that period.
In the colonial period, African literature mainly dealt with the problems of slavery. The first English-language work is considered to be the novel of Joseph Efrahim Casey-Hayford, "Free Ethiopia: Essays on Racial Emancipation," published in 1911. Although the novel balanced between fiction and political propaganda, it received positive feedback from Western publications.
The theme of freedom and independence was increasingly raised before the end of the colonial period. After most countries gained independence, African literature made a giant leap. Many writers appeared whose works were widely recognized. The works were written both in European languages (mainly French , English and Portuguese ), and in the autochthonous languages of Africa. The main themes of the post-colonial work were conflicts: conflicts between past and present, tradition and modernity, socialism and capitalism , individuals and society, indigenous peoples and aliens. Social issues such as corruption , the economic difficulties of countries with newfound independence, rights and the role of women in the new society were also widely covered. Women writers are now much more widely represented than in the colonial period.
The first African writer of the post-colonial period to receive the Nobel Prize in literature was Wole Shoinka (1986). Prior to this, only Albert Camus , born in Algeria, was awarded this prize in 1957 [11] .
Since 1980, the Nom Award has been presented for outstanding literary works.
Cinema
In general, African cinema is poorly developed, with the exception of the film school in North Africa, where many films have been shot since the 1920s (cinema of Algeria and Egypt ).
So Black Africa did not have a movie for a long time, and served only as a decoration for films made by Americans and Europeans. For example, in French colonies, the indigenous people were forbidden to make films, and only in 1955 did the Senegalese director Polen Sumanou Vieira make the first francophone film L'Afrique sur Seine ("Africa on the Seine"), and not in his homeland, but in Paris . A number of films with an anti-colonial mood were also shot, which were banned until decolonization. Only in recent years, after independence, national schools began to develop in these countries; First of all, it is South Africa , Burkina Faso and Nigeria (where the school of commercial cinema, called " Nollywood " [12] [13], has already been formed. The first film to receive international acclaim was the Senegalese director Usman Sembene's film Black Girl about the difficult life of a black maid in France .
Since 1969 (secured the support of the state in 1972), the continent’s largest African cinema festival, FESPACO , has been held every two years in Burkina Faso . The North African alternative to this festival is the Tunisian Carthage .
To a large extent, films made by African directors are aimed at breaking stereotypes about Africa and its people. Many ethnographic films of the colonial period were disapproved by Africans as distorting African realities. The desire to correct the world image of Black Africa is also characteristic of literature .
Also included in the concept of “African cinema” are films made by the diaspora outside their homeland.
Science
see Science
Sports
- African Basketball Championship
- African Volleyball Championship
- African Handball Championship
Football : some teams of the continent at times quite successfully participated in the World Championships : Tunisia ( 1978 ), Algeria ( 1982 ), Cameroon ( 1990 ), Nigeria ( 1994 , 1998 , 2014 ), Senegal ( 2002 ), Ghana ( 2006 , 2010 ), and The 2010 World Cup was held in South Africa. Many African football players have become stars in the famous European clubs.
- African Football Championship
Links
Notes
- ↑ L.O. Golden. African music. Musical Encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, Soviet composer. Ed. Yu. V. Keldysh. 1973-1982.
- ↑ Conrad, David C., Sunjata: a West African epic of the Mande peoples , (editors: David C. Conrad, Djanka Tassey Condé, translated by David C. Conrad), pp ix, x, xxvi, Hackett Publishing, 2004 , ISBN 0-87220-697-1
- ↑ Delafosse, Maurice, Traditions historiques et légendaires du Soudan occidental , Traduites d'un manscrit arabe inédit par Maurice Delafosse, (in Gallica).
- ↑ Conrad, David C., Empires of Medieval West Africa, p 12, Infobase Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-4381-0319-0
- ↑ Apulia. Apology. Metamorphoses. Florida / Resp. ed. M.E. Grabar-Passek . - M .: USSR Academy of Sciences, 1960.
- ↑ Polyakova S. V. "Metamorphoses" or "Golden Donkey" of Apuleius. - M .: The main edition of the eastern literature of the publishing house "Science", 1988.
- ↑ Collected works of A. Augustine (Latin)
- ↑ Latin texts of major works
- ↑ S. Aurelii Augustini opera omnia: Patrologiae Latinae elenchus
- ↑ Sorokin P.A. Man. Civilization. Society / Society Ed., comp. and foreword A. Yu. Sogomonov: Trans. from English - M.Politizdat, 1992.S. 176
- ↑ The Albert Camus Biography (inaccessible link) . The Albert Camus Society. Date of treatment October 27, 2013. Archived October 29, 2013.
- ↑ The Best of African Film in 2004 , CNN (December 18, 2004).
- ↑ Freeman, Colin . In Nollywood, 'lights, camera, action' is best case scenario , London: Daily Telegraph (May 7, 2007).