Our world is shrinking. The Internet has caused a revolution in the way people think about the world. It is a common thing in this day and age to chat away with someone on the other side of the world that you may never have the chance to meet face to face but soon you become online friends. On a chat site we all look and sound alike and personal prejudices seem to disappear.

When Ethnicity Matters & When it Doesn’t

Ethnicity is not a big thing online; one email address or web address looks much like any other and it is often difficult to tell the country of origin of many online pages and features. But, sadly our world has not shrunk to the point we are all of one mind when it comes to thinking of ourselves as simply, people. Most of us identify ourselves as being of a certain ethnicity; some of us are proud and some ashamed of our ethnicity. Ethnic art is but one way to display feelings about being a member of an ethnic group or to show feelings about another ethnic group.

A Revival of Ethnic Arts

America’s first African American president has recently been elected. The night of the election the US was in a grip of ethnic pride unparalleled our lifetimes.

"African woman with peonies"

White people were proud to have been a part of history and proud to have finally showed the world that we, as a nation had progressed beyond the slaving days. Black people were euphoric to have finally been vindicated by a country that had been so brutally unjust to their ancestors.

A surge of ethnic art was the fall out of the Obama election; African American pride is obvious in the recent works celebrating current life. Conversely, the African American art of the past was often a representation of the anger and pain of the enslaved black population. After emancipation, pain and anger continued in ethnic African American art through segregation, desegregation and civil rights movements that has somewhat continued to this day.

(They definitely didn’t like me lifting the image of the work on our Right. But it’s absolutely beautiful, and you know how it is, I just had to. I’m SURE some of you’ll buy it, won’t you? Nudge nudge, wink wink…)

Understanding Cultures Through Ethnic Art

Exploring cultural traditions through art...

For those of us who have not traveled abroad, the concept of people inhabiting other countries is what the media offers or what is found online. This is often a skewed version of what a culture or ethnic group is actually like, what it believes in or what it reveres. To delve deep into the feelings, beliefs and dreams of an ethnic group, you need to look at its art.

Ethnic art is a source of bitterness in some instances. Ethnic art that is sacred to one culture is often displayed in museums in another. This is a great source of contention between cultures. For instance, repatriation of some relics smuggled out of Egypt has come to fruition as part of agreements reached with countries such as Germany for expedient political purposes. In the US, Native American Indians have successfully sued to regain ethnic religious treasures from museums and private collectors worldwide.

Ethnic art is one way we can learn about one another’s culture. Ethnic art celebrates and/or decries our heritage. Ethnic art is increasing in popularity as people reach out and try to understand each other through something all people can relate to: art.

Share this with your friends!

Related posts:

1. African Ethnic Furniture

(This is me getting up on my soap box…)

If you live in the US, the UK or Europe you might be thinking, “well duh, of course it is.” That’s not necessarily true for those of us who grew up in Africa. In fact, most of us think / thought about it as junk that gets thrown at tourists – it never occurred to us that it’s precious to people, and that it was real art.

(It’s the same with a lot of Canadians and their First Nations’ art.)

I’ve had something of an awakening since I’ve lived overseas, and my mind has been vastly opened.

• I’ve realised that art does not equal classical paintings
• I’ve realised that Greek / Roman sculptures aren’t important because they’re old, but because they’re a window into another culture (just like African Sculpture is)
• I’ve realised that a different artistic style doesn’t mean a better style or a worse one, only another take on life
• I’ve realised that we all judge from our positions of strength, and from our positions of familiarity. Novelty / challenge makes something beautiful or appealing or exciting – that’s why the minute your remove a piece from its natural environment it suddenly becomes more valuable by far

Now I’m not going to ramble on about how excited I am about Africa (I’m very positive in general actually) or on why African masks are important (check back in a couple of days…). But, I know that this thing is important – we need to value our cultures and our heritages and help protect them.

This blog is just one of the ways I want to help cherish that legacy and bring to light some of its more complex facets, and have a bit of fun and learn on the way. Join me on my journey.

Please do be back, (in fact sign up via RSS! I’d love that!).

Have a great day.

Share this with your friends!

No related posts.