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Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara
A comprehensive exploration, spanning 1,300 years, of the art and culture of the Sahel region of Africa
This groundbreaking volume examines the extraordinary artistic and cultural traditions of the African region known as the Sahel (“shore” in Arabic), a vast area on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert that includes present-day Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad. This is the first book to present a comprehensive overview of the diverse cultural achievements and traditions of the region, spanning more than 1,300 years from the pre-Islamic period through the 19th century. It features some of the earliest extant art from Africa as well as such iconic works as sculptures by the Dogon and Bamana peoples of Mali. Essays by leading international scholars discuss the art, architecture, archaeology, literature, philosophy, religion, and history of the Sahel, exploring the unique cultural landscape in which these ancient communities flourished. Richly illustrated and brilliantly argued, Sahel brings to life the enduring creativity of the different peoples who lived, traded, and traveled through this crossroads of the world.
Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press
Exhibition The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(January 29–May 10, 2020)
This groundbreaking volume examines the extraordinary artistic and cultural traditions of the African region known as the Sahel (“shore” in Arabic), a vast area on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert that includes present-day Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad. This is the first book to present a comprehensive overview of the diverse cultural achievements and traditions of the region, spanning more than 1,300 years from the pre-Islamic period through the 19th century. It features some of the earliest extant art from Africa as well as such iconic works as sculptures by the Dogon and Bamana peoples of Mali. Essays by leading international scholars discuss the art, architecture, archaeology, literature, philosophy, religion, and history of the Sahel, exploring the unique cultural landscape in which these ancient communities flourished. Richly illustrated and brilliantly argued, Sahel brings to life the enduring creativity of the different peoples who lived, traded, and traveled through this crossroads of the world.
Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press
Exhibition The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(January 29–May 10, 2020)
304 pages, Hardcover
Published January 28, 2020
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October 25, 2020
This book accompanied an exhibit of the same name at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which opened at the end of January 2020. The timing was terrible: you either saw the exhibit in the first few weeks or you were content to read this book. The good news is that the book contains beautiful, often full-page reproductions of the art on display. The chapters are by scholars from various institutions, and together they thoroughly cover the topic.
The word Sahel means “shore” and points not to a true ocean shore, but to the more metaphoric idea that the vast expanse of the Sahara functions like an ocean, and the transitional zone to its south can be conceptualized as a shoreline. Within that sub-Saharan zone of West Africa a succession of empires and smaller states rose and fell. The cartographers for this book valiantly illustrate these successive states (Gao, Mali, Songhay, etc.) with colored lines that nest one on top of another. It seems clear that this region should be imagined as something like a civilization. The art has a level of thematic coherence across eras and the oral epic of the Sunjata has built a common sense of shared history through the region.
The word “civilization” is a complex word (one that the authors of these chapters avoid). Yet if we think of the Sahel as a civilization, then some elements seem to be lacking: where are the large monuments and capital cities we see in other expansive and long-lasting social configurations? The co-authors of a chapter on archaeology argue that the region should be understood as an “alternative polity.” That is, it functioned as a region “held together by means other than top-down decision-making mechanisms.” As a result the Sahel was lively and diverse, yet not tightly organized into a structure that concentrated resources into a capital city and structures built to last for the ages.
What are the most recognizable structures of this civilization? It would have to be the adobe mosques best known from examples in Timbuktu and Jenne in what is today Mali. These mosques are shifting structures that demand regular maintenance, and it’s difficult to pin down their original appearance. The author of the concluding chapter beautifully interprets these adobe mosques as representative of the philosophy that characterizes the Sahel: “...the work it creates does not pretend to be eternal; it is an expression not of monumentality and permanence but of transience, which is life. Far from attempting to defy and evade time, it belongs to it, is housed in it, lives in it.” This to me is always the gold-standard of cultural interpretation—when the buildings, art, and shared concepts come together and speak with what seems like a single voice.
One of the issues that arise in studying the Sahel is its complex, historic relationship to Islam. There is a temptation, felt since the visits of medieval Arab travelers and continuing into colonial era analyses, to interpret the Sahel as holding to an impure version of the Islam. And while there were leaders who took up more jihadist or purifying versions of the faith (Umar Tal in the 19th century) the authors argue that Islam became here “one of the religions of Black Africa.”
The word Sahel means “shore” and points not to a true ocean shore, but to the more metaphoric idea that the vast expanse of the Sahara functions like an ocean, and the transitional zone to its south can be conceptualized as a shoreline. Within that sub-Saharan zone of West Africa a succession of empires and smaller states rose and fell. The cartographers for this book valiantly illustrate these successive states (Gao, Mali, Songhay, etc.) with colored lines that nest one on top of another. It seems clear that this region should be imagined as something like a civilization. The art has a level of thematic coherence across eras and the oral epic of the Sunjata has built a common sense of shared history through the region.
The word “civilization” is a complex word (one that the authors of these chapters avoid). Yet if we think of the Sahel as a civilization, then some elements seem to be lacking: where are the large monuments and capital cities we see in other expansive and long-lasting social configurations? The co-authors of a chapter on archaeology argue that the region should be understood as an “alternative polity.” That is, it functioned as a region “held together by means other than top-down decision-making mechanisms.” As a result the Sahel was lively and diverse, yet not tightly organized into a structure that concentrated resources into a capital city and structures built to last for the ages.
What are the most recognizable structures of this civilization? It would have to be the adobe mosques best known from examples in Timbuktu and Jenne in what is today Mali. These mosques are shifting structures that demand regular maintenance, and it’s difficult to pin down their original appearance. The author of the concluding chapter beautifully interprets these adobe mosques as representative of the philosophy that characterizes the Sahel: “...the work it creates does not pretend to be eternal; it is an expression not of monumentality and permanence but of transience, which is life. Far from attempting to defy and evade time, it belongs to it, is housed in it, lives in it.” This to me is always the gold-standard of cultural interpretation—when the buildings, art, and shared concepts come together and speak with what seems like a single voice.
One of the issues that arise in studying the Sahel is its complex, historic relationship to Islam. There is a temptation, felt since the visits of medieval Arab travelers and continuing into colonial era analyses, to interpret the Sahel as holding to an impure version of the Islam. And while there were leaders who took up more jihadist or purifying versions of the faith (Umar Tal in the 19th century) the authors argue that Islam became here “one of the religions of Black Africa.”
November 29, 2020
Meant as an accompaniment to a Met exhibition - this is a great overview of the richness of culture in Sahel Africa which most of the time gets ignored and overlooked. Deeply informative and impressive.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews