Through the readings a consistency rose in the Mediterranean tracks. African people were part of everyday life and they were not a new thing of interest. However, the art of the African changes dramatically. In Kaplan’s article we are exposed to early images of Africans in turbans trumpeting the arrival of a monarch. This image, we are told, is later borrowed by another King looking to unify the Italian Kingdom[1]. Also it is generally known how the North Africans controlled the whole of Spain and had great impact on styles of architecture and art of that Area. However the picture given in the readings is slavery or absence. Our authors all seem to agree that Spain came into existence following the “liberation” or “conquest” of Ferdinand, what picture existed in Moorish Spain.
I mention this since the picture alters so drastically for this area. In Italy artists are given Black faces places on equal standing and placing appropriate facial hair, fashion, and facial structure to Africans[2]. Further, I realize our course of study must set some parameters for study, yet in this first section of time the readings no viewpoints came from the south looking up into Europe. All the authors had as their area of focus Europe down into Africa. Understanding, we are mostly from a European background but is there not scholarship and sources offering the view of the Moors as they lost power in Spain. With respect to the Portuguese, we read about their exploits on the western coast of Africa, however Elbl only mentions how the Portuguese benefited for their trading with Western Coast Kingdoms[3]. In Elbl’s research and writing where is the mention of how the kingdoms of Africa benefitted from their cooperation with these new traders. Did the kings gain military advantage by trading with the Europeans, did the traders add to the cultures they encountered? As the trading evolves to include slaves, the picture of the African changes to more closely follow this new perception. Prior art had Africans as warriors and thinkers equal with Europe only culturally different. Following the growth of the slave population the art began to reflect the African in this new contemporary light. The picture offered by Fracchia, shows a servant girl, head down and passive. The dark clothing and separation from the other people in the work add isolation to her existence[4].
For this period, again it is generally known how sugar and the demand for it formed the political boundaries of the new world. The fortunes of the major powers rotated around their colonies production. And this is the history we know so well as studying from the Europe side of the story. The picture as seen through the eyes of the Northern Europeans, is more stagnant but gives us even less of the relationship between the two continents. Our authors, Guasco and Vaughan, focusing mainly on England and include evidence from other countries, painting the picture of Africans as servants and slaves. In many families they were marks of wealth and status among the nobility[5]. The picture provided is of subservient captives content to exist and survive within the new society that they find themselves. Some even succeed enough to excel and join the propertied class. Though this is coldly accurate what depth do we understand of these arrangements? Our authors mention manumission in the course of their writing. Manumission is the freeing of a slave under certain terms or conditions. As this freedom is manmade it can be given and removed. The certainty of the lowest standing in society is the place of the African in northern Europe. Gone is the tribal hunter and gone is the plains warrior and gone is the spiritual being; identity is replaced with service as a footman or cook or maid. The old stories of tribal life are used as entertainment for the master’s children[6].
In our readings, I feel compelled to reiterate that I was unable to see where the scholarship recorded the African view of all these new interactions with the Portuguese, Spanish and English. We are exposed to the European view of the African and how their views change; we see the standing of the African in European culture and their place in many different states. We gain a wide view of the European attitude; however, we are left void when we turn our eyes to the actual Africans. I believe that the scholarship exists; I do not believe we have ignored Africa, yet I feel that the slavery issue has become so all-consuming for historians that as a profession we are becoming apologists and not analysts. We do not objectively seek this topic, we glorify the slave narrative, diminish the individual master and demonize the society that employed the slavery system. Yet can we see that in Africa some Kingdoms and tribes grew in power and wealth through this system as well as the Europeans. Can we see this as objective observers trying to see the good people living inside oppression? Or is that not possible in an environment so quick to racism in simple discourse and disagreement?
[1] Kaplan, Paul H D. “Black Africans in Hohenstaufen Iconography.” Gesta. 26, no.1 (1987): 29-36
[2] Ibid
[3] Elbl, Ivana. “Cross Cultural Trade and Diplomacy: Potruguese Relations with West Africa, 1441-1521.” Journal of World History. 3, no.2 (1992): 165-204
[4] Fracchia, Carmen. “(Lack of) Visual Representation of Black Slaves in Spanish Golden Age Painting.” Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies. 10, no.1 (2004):23-34
[5] Vaughan, Alden T and Virginia Mason. “Before Othello: Elizabethan Representations of Sub-Saharan Africans.” The William and Mary Quarterly. 3rd Series, 54, no.1 (1997):19-44
[6] Fracchia, Carmen. “(Lack of) Visual Representation of Black Slaves in Spanish Golden Age Painting.” Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies. 10, no.1 (2004):23-34
I really like the idea of reversing the viewpoint so that it is seen from an African point of view. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to do this. With the exception of Ethiopia, the cultures of sub-saharan Africa that the Europeans encountered did not possess written language to any great extent (obviously, the introduction of Islam altered this in some socieites). Writing is a powerful technology, and without this technology, when a people group is extinguished or assimilated, there is little record of their culture. Additionally, there is the problem of objectivity. We cannot assume that the African view of the European would have been any more insightful and accurate than the European view of the African. You seem to have a solid understanding of artistic representations and their social value. Studying African artistic depictions of Europeans during this period would be a very interesting way to construct a plausible African view of the European during the Age of Exploration.That would be a thirty page essay that I would definitely read.
ReplyDelete