The Contemporary African CraftsmanContempory African Arts and Crafts by Thelma NewmanReview by: Mary-Claire ShepherdAfrica Today, Vol. 23, No. 3, Southern Africa and U.S. Foreign Policy (Jul. - Sep., 1976), p. 93Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4185630 .

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The Contemporary African Craftsman

Mary-Claire Shepherd

Thelma Newman, CONTEMPORY AFRICAN ARTS AND CRAFTS (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1974) 106 pp., cloth $9.95, paper $5.95.

Thelma Newman's book provides an interesting overview of a number of contemporary African crafts and a valuable summary of the various processes and materials involved in the production of these crafts. The reader whose eye is easily offended by what he considers to be a degenerate/commercialized form of a traditional piece may well be disappointed by a few of the illustrations used in the text. The title itself should serve as ample warning. Ms. Newman is discussing the art of the contemporary craftsman. In some cases his products are aimed at a commercial market. Pieces created for the commercial market tend to be quite inferior in quality of workmanship and blatant in their disregard for traditional modes of representation. These few inferior examples should not overshadow the many truly outstanding products of contemporary workmanship in Contemporary African Arts and Crafts.

Ms. Newman makes several important points in her text. Particularly significant is the fact that in the African context "art" and "craft" are not and should not be separated. She notes that too much emphasis has been placed on sculptural forms in the study of African material culture, loosely applying the term art to these forms. One simply cannot draw a hard and fast line between African articles created with a purely functional purpose (i.e., crafts) and those sculptural forms that have a clearly ritual and/or aesthetic significance. Anyone even remotely familiar with African art knows that a mask or a stool, for example, obviously sculptural forms, are also functional at a certain level. On the other hand, a woven cloth or a terracotta pot may have crucial ritual and/or aesthetic significance.

In Contemporary African Arts and Crafts, the photographs communicate the dignity of the African craftsman and the significance of his product in a way that, at times, far outweighs the limited scope of the text. Ms. Newman and her sons have put together a group of photographs which are both instructional and sensitive to the peoples and their relationships to the objects they create.

The book should not be mistaken for a step-by-step instructional manual for the western craftsman interested in becoming an instant expert in the process of stamping adinkra cloth or weaving baskets identical to those found in the Korhogo market. These are, after all, skills that have taken many years of apprenticeship or training with a local master to perfect.

The reader can expect to gain, however, a general understanding of the processes involved in the production of African crafts, with the advantage of photographic illustrations of the various steps, including a list of materials. The reader will also benefit from an outstanding visual record of the craftsman at work.

Mary-Claire Shepherd is a graduate student in African art at the University of Washington, Seattle.

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