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Rhythms: L.S.Senghor's Negritude as a Philosophyof African artSouleymane Bachir Diagnea

a Northwestern UniversityPublished online: 10 Jan 2014.

To cite this article: Souleymane Bachir Diagne (2007) Rhythms: L.S.Senghor's Negritude as a Philosophyof African art, Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture, 1:1, 51-68, DOI:10.1080/19301944.2007.10781317

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19301944.2007.10781317

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51Rhythms: L.s.senghoR’s negRitude as a PhiLosoPhy of afRican aRt

Rhythms: L.s.senghoR’s negRitude as a PhiLosoPhy of afRican aRtsouleymane Bachir diagnenorthwestern university

Summary: ThisessayisareadingofSenghor’sphilosophyas,primarily,ananswertothehermeneuticalquestion:WhatdoAfricanartobjectssay?Whatdotheymean?Inotherwords,whatdoesitmeantosculptthewaytheAfricanartistdid?ThisisthequestionPicassoposedatthebeginningofthetwentiethcenturywhenhevisitedtheethnographicalMuséedel’Homme,inParis,toseetheso-called African “fetishes.” Senghor’s answer to that question is that the “significant forms” (Clive Bell)thuscreatedbyAfricanartistsofthepastaretobereadassignsthatmanifestametaphysics.The essay shows in particular how, for Senghor, African art is the expression of an ontology ofrhythms.

Dansaientlesforcesquerythmait,quirythmaientlaForce

Desforces:laJusticeaccordée,quiestBeautéBonté. (L.S.Senghor)

At the end of 1906, at the time of Léopold Sédar Senghor’s birth, Pablo Picasso is twenty-five years old. He is already famous and numerous are those who admire his paintings, drawings andsculptures.Hejustcameoutofhis1901to1904“blue”periodfollowedbythe“pink”one,thatofharlequinsandacrobats.Hisfriend,thepoetandartcriticMaxJacobknowsthedepthofhisgenius.Anotherofhisfriends,GuillaumeApollinaire,dedicatedhimin1905Picasso: peintre et dessinateurwhichcelebrateshispresentandfutureglory.Itevenseemsthathislifeofbohemiaandpovertyiscomingtoanendwhenconnoisseurs,whonotonlyarerich,butarenowpayingthehigh price that deserves his unsurpassable greatness. Upon visiting his studio, the Americans Leo andGertrudeSteingive800francsinexchangeforsomepaintingswhichtheytake,andthatyear,1906,theartdealerAmbroiseVollardpays,atonce,twothousandgoldfrancsfortheacquisitionof several paintings. The American will see her portrait, begun in 1905, finished the next year. Gertrude Stein’s Portrait says something grave. But what? Picasso, who was constantly dissatisfied withtheface,hadeventuallyerasedittoputinitsplaceaheadforeternity:theforeheadissmoothandwide,whilethefeaturesare“impersonal,schematicandregular;”ratherthanahead,itisamaskwhichlookstowardsitsownfathomlessmystery.The self-portraitofPicasso,againinthesamewonderfulyear1906,portraysasamaskhead.Thefeaturesareharsh,andtheshapepure,evoking a sculpture. “Picasso painted his own face as if it were a mask” write Marie-Laure Bernadac and Paule du Bouchet, who add: “almost as if it belonged to someone other than himself. Theintensity,thealmostsavagearchaismofthisself-portraitshowstheprogressionPicassohadmadeover thecourseof severalyears,evenover theprevious fewmonths.”2Butprogression towardswhat? Faces that metamorphose into masks? Picasso does happen to have a rich collection ofmasks and statuettes. We know, for example, that among the objects of “primitive” art that hepossesses, there is a magnificent wooden and vegetable fiber Grebo mask, all in geometrical lines: twocylindricalprotuberancesfortheeyes,anoblongforthemouth,atriangleforthenose.Itwouldindeedbemostsurprising ifsomethingof these“fetishes,”surreptitiously,didnotpass intohis

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art.Butsothathereallylooksattheseobjects,andsothattheir“magic”couldwork,theyhavetoacquireanewandstrongevidence,andsomethingwillhavetoreallydrawhisattentiontowardsthem.ItwillbesomethingcloselyrelatedtothevisithemakestotheMusée de l’Homme,placeduTrocadéro,inParis,duringJulyof1907. Ethnographicmuseumsareanegationofartbecausetheypreventtheobjectsondisplayfromlookingbackatus.Becauseethnographywasconstitutedatitscolonialoriginasthescienceofradicalotherness,itisinitsnaturetofabricatestrangeness,otherness,andseparateness.Theobjectinanethnographicmuseumiskeptatadistance,preventedfromtouchingusbecauseitispetrified: it cannot make the movement of what André Malraux has called its “metamorphosis,” thatis,tobecomeaworkofartseparatedfromitsmainlyreligiousfunction.Inotherwords,theeffectofthe“metamorphosis”isthatarthasnootherendthanitself.Theethnographicmuseumclaimstomaintainthedimensionofthereligiousfunction,butitisjustaclaimbecausetheobjectisirreparablycutandthegodshavewithdrawnfromit.Preventedwithregardtoitsartisticfacefrombecomingsheerworkofart,whatwascreatedtomakepresentthedivinehasalsolostitsotherface,thatwhichlookedatthegod.Hereitisexposedasaspoilanddoublydeserted. “Reforming the museum of Trocadéro has become imperative,” the poet GuillaumeApollinairewrote,regrettingseeingbeautyburiedinaplaceabandonedtothe“ethniccuriosity”ofafewratherthanofferedtothe“aestheticsentiment”ofthepublic.Heexplainedthatit“wouldbenecessarytoseparatefromethnographytheobjectswhosenatureismainlyartisticandwhichshould be on display in another museum.” In fact, for him, it is within Le Louvre that certainexoticmasterpiecesshouldbeexhibited“whoseaspectisnotlessmovingthanthatofthebeautifulspecimens of the western statuary.” Because Picasso, like his friend Apollinaire, had the poeticability to see beyond the ethnographical fence, he understood during his visit to the Musée de l’Hommehowtoputontheobjectstheglancethatreturnslifetothingsandunchainstheforceofthespell.HesharedwhattookplacewithMalraux,whoreportshiswordsinLa tête d’obsidienneandalsointheforewordwhichhewroteinAugust1974forthealbumMasterpieces of Primitive Art.HereisPicasso’shumorousaccount,datingtoaconversationatthetimewhentheartistwasfinishing Guernica (1937), of his first visit to the Trocadéro museum:

The influence of Negroes on me is often evoked. How can I help it? We all like fetishes. Van Gogh has said: Japanese art, we all share in it. But for us, it is Negroes. Their forms did not have more influence on me than on Matisse. Or, on Derain. But for them, masks were sculptures like others. When Matisse showed me hisfirst Negro head, he spoke to me about Egyptian art. When I went to Trocadéro, I found it disgusting. The thrift market. The smell. I was alone. I wanted to goaway.Ididnotleave.Istayed.Istayed.Iunderstoodthatitwasveryimportant:was not something happening to me? The masks, they were not sculptures likeothers. Not at all. They were magical. And why not the Egyptians, the Chaldeans? Wehadnot takenanynotice.Primitive,butnotmagical.TheBlacks, theywereintercessors, Iknowtheword inFrenchsince then.Againsteverything;againstunknown, threatening spirits...I too think that anything is unknown, is enemy.Anything! Not just details: women, children, animals, tobacco, game…but the whole!Iunderstoodwhattheirsculpturewasfor,theBlacks,Imean.Whysculptlikethat,andnototherwise.Theycouldnotpossiblybecubist,couldthey!BecauseCubism, well, did not exist. Certainly, some people had invented the models, and

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somepeoplehadimitatedthem:tradition,right?Butallthesefetishes,theyhadthesamepurpose.Theywereweapons.Toenablepeoplenottobethesubjectsofthespiritsanymore,tobecomeindependent.Tools.Ifwegiveaformtothespirits,we become independent. The spirits, the unconscious (we did not talk about it alotatthattime),theemotion,theyareall thesamething.IunderstoodwhyIwasapainter...TheDemoiselles d’Avignonhad toarrive thatday,butnotatallbecause of the forms: rather because it was my first canvas of exorcism, yes! It is forthatreasonthatlaterIalsodidpaintingsasbefore,Olga’s Portrait,portraits!Wecannotkeepbeingsorcerersalldaylong!Howcouldweeverlive?

“Why?”Picassothusasks.Forsuchaquestion,thereisanansweratoncelazy,“Eurocentric,”andpaternalisticthatisentirelycontainedintheexpression“primitiveart.”BecauseAfricanartisoneofthemanifestationsofprimitiveart,inotherwordstheprimestateofart,itisonlynaturalthat we find its paintings or its sculptures to be “like that,” the way humanity in its childhood is only abletopaintortosculpt.Thisartisthereforepremierinthatsense.ThereisanotheranswerwithnothingchildishinitandthatbeginsbypayingattentiontothefactthatPicassoaskedwhysculptlike thatandnot otherwise:thathetriestounderstandhowitisthattosculptlike thatgivesformtothespirits,makestheunconsciousspeak,orprovokesastrangeemotion.Andwecannotethat“emotion”isalsothewordusedbyApollinairewhenhewrites,incommentingonthepredictionmadebyBaudelaireofthenextirruptionof“theaestheticsoftheSavages,”thattheresultproducedby this art is “a powerful reality.” It is in fact the enigma of this reinforced reality, which theartistunderstandstobeimpossibletodomesticatebysimplylabelingitacuriosity,thatisaimedat inPicasso’squestion.At theendofhis foreword toChefs d’oeuvre de l’art primitif,Malrauxspeaksaboutthesavageartists’“willtocreate”whichwerefertoas“magic”onlybylazinessandwhichinsures“theirsculpturesoftheenigmaticunitywhichcementsthework,evenattheedgeof chance.”5 And he concludes, while welcoming the entrance of the savage sculptures into themuseumwherefromtheyhadbeenkeptaway,that“thismajoragelessart,sostrangelyakintoours,is thatofournextsearch: thenocturnal faceofman.”6Apollinaire,Picasso,Malraux,andsomeothersagreethatbehindtheAfricanmasksandsculptures that takepart in theconversationofart gathered inside “the immense range of the invented forms,” as Malraux defines the “Imaginary Museum,” isoutlined theenigmaofawayof seeing, thinkingand feelingofwhich theseobjets d’art are the expression. Senghor’s Negritude will claim to be the deciphering of this, and to carry as its most natural content an answer to the questions raised by African art. A major aspect ofSenghor’sprojectwillbetoshowthat“theAfricanartisticforms,consideredasaesthetic...canalsobeinterpretedasphilosophicobservationsaboutthenatureoftheworld.”7

Indeed, far from coming down to the expression of an existential attitude without realcontent,thisprojectis,inSenghor’smind,theexpressionofAfricanphilosophyitself.Thatistosayitisawayofseeing,thinkingandfeelingthatintegrateastheirraison d’êtreandasthekeytotheir knowledge, fields of human activity as different as medicine, law, religion, logic or wisdom. Among these fields the artistic activity comes first, even before religion, because where orality reigns,artconstitutesthewritingthroughwhichthemetaphysicsthatittranscribescanberead.8

ArtistheproofofAfricanphilosophyand,conversely,wereachthefullintelligenceofAfricanartsonlythroughtheunderstandingofthemetaphysicsfromwhichtheyproceed.Thismetaphysics,topresentitinoneword,isthatofrhythm,whichaccordingtoSenghorisattheheartoftheAfricanthoughtandexperience.

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As early as 1939, in Ce que l’homme noir apporteSenghorspeaksaboutarhythmicattitude.Heunderlinesthewordandasks“thatwekeepitinmind.”9Intextaftertext,hewillkeeponreferringtoit.Whenhewritesthissentencewhich,undervariousforms,willbealeitmotivofhisthought:“the ordering force which constitutes Negro style is rhythm,”heindicatesinafootnotethatthisassertion is also central in Primitive Negro Sculpture, a book by Paul Guillaume and ThomasMunropublishedinFrenchsometenyearsearlier.10Whilehementionsthisbookonlyinpassing,wehaveheremorethanamerereference.WhenwelookatitcloselywediscovertheextenttowhichSenghorhasreaditwithgreatattention,andthepointtowhichhisownphilosophyofAfricanartwill never cease to be, following this reading, a continued reflection on this book. That is why its presentationisinorderhere. Primitive Negro Sculpture isdividedintothreeparts.12 In the first the authors raise the questionof“relationswithAfricanlife.”Inthesecondtheyconductapreciseanalysisof“itsartisticqualities.” Finally, the third part is a presentation of photographic images of forty-three Negro sculptures.Arethesesculpturesandtheworksoftheblackcontinentingeneral,astheywerewhendiscoveredbytheethnologistsandtheEuropeanartists,theexpressionofAfricanlife?GuillaumeandMunro’sanswer iswithoutappeal:no.TheAfricanitynowknown inAfricaandAmerica isquite different from the one reflected in the works of art which testify, in their enigmatic way, to what itonceused tobe.Whenconsidering theAfricancontinent,GuillaumeandMunroargue,itisnecessarytostartwiththecolonialsituation,andforAmerica,tostartwiththepost-slaverysituation.BothcreateddifferentAfricans“intheprocessofcivilization,”accordingtotheauthors,who insist that it is useless to try to find in these “evolved” people, as they also said, the state of mindoftheartistswhocreatedtheolderworksthatwecanadmiretoday.ItisamistaketobelievethatthetransformationoftheAfricanworldcanbeseenasthesimpleadditionofnewtraitsfromoutside to a substratum that could be exhumed and considered in its pristine state. To pursuefurther thequestionof therelationbetweenAfricanartand identity is likequestioningadumbmirror. To say it in modern and maybe post-modern terms, there is no essence towards whichmasksandsculptureswouldpoint,noAfricanity tobe readbehind itsavatarson thecontinentand in the Diaspora. The consequence of this observation is also straightforwardly asserted byGuillaumeandMunro:bydestroying thegodsofancientAfrica, “civilization”hasdestroyedartitselfandhenceforththeAfricans“havelosttheirgeniusfortheplasticform.”13 Theartist,theonewhoinventedtheseforms,disappearedwiththesecretofwhatitthenmeanttosculptlike that,andto try at all costs to establish a continuity with today is for Munro (and for the collector of African art, Guillaume) to open the way to the counterfeiters and to the poor imitations of “occasionaluninspiredcraftsmen,dully imitatingtheartof [their]ancestors,chippingwoodor ivory intoastiff,characterlessimagefortheforeigntrade.”14Thatisagoodcharacterizationofwhatwewouldcalltodaytheartofairports,producedbythosewhoinventnothinganymoreandaredoomedtoindefinite imitation of their own tradition which has become opaque and silent.15

Soifwecannotaskanymorewhatwas meant,weremainfreetoaskwhatitmeansforus,today,tosculptlike that.Andthatistheonlytruequestion.ForMunroandGuillaumethegoodnewscontained in the break, between the artist who has created the great works of Negro sculpture and theAfricanworldtoday,isexactlythatitfreesusfromtheconcerntoreconstitutetheAfricanitythatwassupposedtoprovidecluesfortheunderstandingofAfricanart.Wecanandweshould“forgetwhomadeitandtolookatitafresh.”16Preconceptionscomefromtwodifferentgroups,accordingtotheauthorsofPrimitive Negro Sculpture. Firstthereistheethnologists,alwayskeenonproducing“abstractmetaphysicalconstructions”toexplaintheAfricanmentality,thatinterposebetweenthe

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workofartandusasetofconsiderations--descriptionsofethnicgroups,rites,etc.--whichhardlyenlighten,butratherobfuscatetheart.Thesecondgroup,thatoftheEuropeanartistswhomwewould have expected, because they were the first to recognize that this form of art was at the root ofthemoderntendencies,tobemoreentitledtospeakaboutit.Whatwenoticeonthecontraryisthatthediscourseofthissecondgroupdoesnotgobeyondmaking“extravaganteulogies.”Andthisfrom artists who find themselves almost struck by impotence in front of the forceful reality of the works,“feelingintuitivelytheirqualities”butbeingalso“inarticulatewhenitcomestoexpressingtheir feelings,” and finally, producing in their comment only “vague rhapsodies, flowery, incoherent, confused.”17Wecanaddtothesetwotypesofdiscoursesthatoftheprofessionalartcriticwithhisgibberishgossip,whoveryoftenonlyshowshisownpreferences.He,too,failstotelluswhatkindsofsatisfactionsareprovidedbytheworksofAfricanart. Contrary to all these discourses it is necessary to find our ground, not on what we think to beitsnecessarycontext,butonwhatisintheveryworkofart,hereandnow,inthepresentmomentwhenitoffersitselftous.Bysodismissingtheconcernforthecontext,toreturntotheartisticmatterMunroandGuillaumerequirefromusthatwelearnhowtoreadAfricanartbyforgettingeverythingthatitisnot,andeverythingbesidesitsartisticqualities.Theythusinaugurateaphenomenologicalapproach,consistinginfocussingontheartobjectthewayitgivesitself,indescribingitbyputtingin brackets those who created it, and without any preconception. This approach is thus defined:

[It tries] to avoid subjective reverie and the unverifiable generalization, and [makesa]systematicattempttoseeinstead,asclearlyandobjectivelyaspossible,thedemonstrablequalitiesintheworksofartthemselves,andtheirrelationtotheconsciousprocessesof theobserver.Anattempt ismade toconsider theplasticqualities of the figures--their effects of line, plan, mass, and color--apart from all associatedfacts.18

Inordertokeepawayanyoutsideconsideration,itisnecessarytodismissthecontextbutalso,onthesideofthelookingsubject,certainexpectationscreatedinhimbyhisownhistoryandhis taste as constituted in and by this history. At first the subject has to be informed about what is not in the work and what, unconsciously he expects to find there, because he learned to find enjoymentintheVenus of MiloortheApollo Belvedere.InordertodiscussanAfricanartthathasnot been flattened in its sheer value by testifying for Africanity, Munro and Guillaume begin by opposingitto“classical”art.TolearnbetterhowtoenjoytheplasticqualitiesofAfricansculpture,it is necessary to understand at first the nature of the enjoyment that is provided by the Greco-Romanstatuary,sincethisisthereferenceforEuropeanart.Thequestionbecomesthenthatoftheerotic,intheGreekstatuaryandintheAfricansculpture.ThisiswhataccountsforthechoiceofthosecanonicalworkssuchastherepresentationsofVenus-Aphrodite,goddessofbeauty,andApollo,hermaleequivalent.ThegoddessandthegodintherepresentationsgiventotheminGreco-Roman statuary express the ideal of the human figure, its perfection. The erotic here belongs to the categoryof“thepleasanttolookupon,”whichtranslatesaswhatwewishtolooklikeourselvesandwhatwewishtolovinglypossess.Theenjoymenttheworkofartbringsresultsfromthecaressoftheglance,andmaybeofthehand,whenthebodyputsitselfmentallyinthepostureofimitatingorembracing. Other works, without having so explicit a link with love or the ideal of physical beauty, belong nevertheless to this category of mimetic pleasure. We smile mentally, mimicking the “fine and enigmatic” smile of Voltaire in front of the bust of the philosopher (1778) by the neo-classical

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artistJean-AntoineHoudon;andwebreakloosetowardsfreedomwithMichelangelo’sRebel Slave,byfeelinginourbody,sofrailincomparison,alltheenergyofhispowerfulmusculature.20

To get into African sculpture without prejudice is to not expect to see this category ofmimesisworkinit.It istolearn,byopeninguptoit,toseeadifferenteroticregisteractivated.DoestheAfrican,too,feellikekissingtheVenus?Well,yes!Doeshewanttoembracethesymbolof maternity from Guinea that is represented (as number 35) among the illustrations in Munro and Guillaume’s book? Certainly not! When considered through the category of “the pleasant to look upon,” this work and the others, where the natural figure of the human body is deformed or disrupted are, for any viewing subject, “a freakish monstrosity.”21 Under such a category, theseworkswouldonlybeseenasontologicallylacking,orasexpressingsomedemonicinversion,whichispreciselywhatthemissionariesofthedifferentrevealedmonotheismsassertedwhenattackingthemas“fetishes.”Howthenarewemovedbythiskindofartandhowisitthatwithexperience,“onfurtheracquaintance,”andwithdeterminedopen-mindednesstonewsensations”wecometofind enjoyment in the African statue?22 We could be satisfied with evoking habit, in explaining why things which “first seem ugly come to be pleasing on further acquaintance,” just as one becomes accustomedtoeatingspicyfood.23ButwecouldunderstandwhatGuillaumeandMunroaresayinginadifferent,morepositivewaytoo.Itisnotthatcustommakesthetruthofart,butthatthistruthis grasped in the very first experience of the eidetic reduction when intentional analysis makes visible, in the plastic qualities of the art object, that what at first seemed a “distorted copy of a humanbody”isinfact“anewcreation”initsownright.24Itisthisothertruththatisgoingtobebecomemoreandmoremanifestaswegrowaccustomedtotheobject. WhatisthetruthofAfricanartforGuillaumeandMunro?WhatisthenatureofthepleasurethatwegetfromanAfricansculpture?

…[It] is apt to be unmeaning or even disagreeable to civilized people. But in shapes anddesignsofline,planeandmass,ithasachievedavarietyofstrikingeffectsthatfewifanyothertypesofsculpturehaveequaled.Theseeffectswouldbeimpossiblein a representation of the human figure, if natural proportions were strictly adhered to. They would be impossible in an ideal figure, conceived, like the Greek ones mentioned, on the basis of what would be humanly desirable in flesh and blood.26

Again, we find the register of the poweroftheeffectsrisingfromimmoderation,fromtheabsenceofproportion,inthenameofanotherlogicinternaltothework.Thislogicdoesnotseekpleasure from “the beautiful reality” consonant with our usual faculty of desire for what is “in flesh andblood,”butratherfromtheshockobtainedfromafreeplayof“theimpulsivefeelings”intheface of “the figure dissociated into its parts, regarded as an aggregate of distinct units.”27Enjoymentherecomesfromanexperienceofthelimit,fromthetransmutationofthefearofseeingtheunitydisappear,ofseeing“thewholepiecefallapart”andbecome“confusinglyunrelated”intosurpriseatthework’s“meanstoweldthecontrastingthemestogetherbysomenotecommontoboth.”28Itisbyamusictobecomposedatwill,saytheauthorsofPrimitive Negro Sculpture,thatwearepossessed when we walk around an African statue, seeing “its lines and masses flow constantly and infinitely into new designs and equilibria with no hiatus or weak interval between.”29Heremusicismorethanametaphor.Theplasticworkisacompletevisualmusicwherein,

...contrasting rhythms affect the sensitive eye and brain as a series of powerful

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reiteratedshocksinline,ridgeandroughenedhollow,alternatedwithsmootherintervals,likerecurringburstsofdrumsandbrassesinmusic.Distributed,spaced,contrasted, welded firmly together by repetition of theme, each shape is given its maximumaestheticeffectiveness,andthepowerofthewholeismadecumulative,broughttoafocusbytheunityofdesign.30

The phenomenological approach of Munro and Guillaume invites us to place ourselvesinanontologyofrhythms,soastofullygraspthenatureoftheworldweareledintobyAfricansculpture and the emotion that it provokes, as an effect of powerful and violent stimulants. Creation consistshereinacompositionofrhythms,inbuildingarhythmfromunitswhicharethemselvesrhythmsbyrepeatingthemwithoutrepeatingthemexactly,bymakingthemrespondtoeachotherunder the figure of contrast, of inversion.31ThatisindeedwhatSenghorwillalsodo,andMunroandGuillaume’stextwillalwayscontinuetoshowthroughhiswritingsonAfricanart,thatisonrhythm,vitalforce,andtheoxymoronhecoinedasthebestexpressionofwhatgivesit itsmostdistinctivecharacteristics:“asymmetricparallelism.” ItisinCe que l’homme noir apportethatSenghorwritesthisformulatowhichhisthoughtistoooftenreducedinordertorejectitinonesinglegesture:“emotionisBlackasreasonisHellenic.”32 Not enough attention was paid, in the numerous comments that it aroused, to certain important elements. The first is the choice of words. Senghor did not say “European” or “albo-European,” but “Hellenic.”33 Is this the simple coquetry of a “scholar fed on the Classics? Is it the choice of a poet whoisfondoftherhythmofthealexandrine,becauseitistruethatasfaraseuphonyisconcerned,“Hellenic”soundsevidentandnecessary?Theseareallvalidreasons,certainly,butthisformulaalsoreferstotheoppositionthattheauthorsofPrimitive NegroSculptureclaimedbetweenGreekstatuaryandAfricanplasticart.Thesecondimportantelementisthatofthecontext.Senghor’stextistrulyorientedtowardsthetopicofitslastpart,whichisthemajorcontribution,accordingtohim,ofAfricanstotheworldofthetwentiethcentury:Art.Moreover,inthelinesimmediatelyfollowingthe famous formula, Senghor explains the concept of emotion by that of “rhythmic attitude,”thusannouncinghisconsiderationsonart.“EmotionisBlackasreasonisHellenic”canthusbeunderstood,inthecontextwherethisformulaappears,asmeaning:emotionistoAfricanworksof art what reason is to Hellenic statuary. In my view it is at first and essentially in the aesthetic reflections of Senghor that what is primarily and above all an analogyfounditsmeaningbeforeitwas transferred, with less fortune certainly, to the field of epistemology.34BecausehisreadingsonAfricanart,andinparticularofMunroandGuillaume,hadplacedhisapproachintheframeofanoppositionbetweensculpturefromHellenicandAfricantraditions,Senghor,too,installedhimselfwithinthatpolarity. Whentryingtoestablish,inthecontextofcolonialFrance,“whattheblackmancontributes,”Senghorwouldobviouslynotagreewith theway inwhichMunroandGuillaume’sbook invitesthereader“to forget”about theAfricanssoas tobetterunderstandandenjoytheart that theircontinent has given to the world. One can easily imagine that he wrote in response to the quiet and normal racism in the colonial situation of the authors, who declared that, except for some“definite traditions” like the one which says that, “as early as the third century A.D.” the empire of Ghana “was flourishing in the Western Sudan,” and that its “probable capital ruins have lately beendiscovered,”“thenegroesareapeoplewithouthistory”and“theirpastcanbedescribedonlyintermsofgeneralracialintermixtures.”35 Already three years before the publication of Ce que l’homme noir apporte, Senghor

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himself claimed that the most important author for him and his companions in Negritude was Léo Frobénius.36 Itbecameaneed,forSenghor,tobringbacktoAfricanarttheAfricanitythatMunroandGuillaumehadevacuated fromit.Hisstudiesof theworksofAfricanistsat the InstituteofEthnologyinParisandattheEcole Pratique des Hautes Etudes,hadpreparedhimtorestorethelinkbetweenthesculptureandtheAfricanethnos,to“re-ethnologize”art.Hedidsomainlybyfollowingthe meditation of Léo Frobenius on African civilization, but without fully giving up the approach of theauthorsofPrimitive Negro Sculpturethatconsistedinfocussingontheplasticqualitiesofartobjects.IntheworkofFrobenius,Senghorfoundsupportforhis“strategicessentialism.”37WecanguesstowhatextentheagreedwiththefollowinglineswhenhereadtheminFrobenius’sHistory of African Civilization:

And wherever we can still find evidence of this ancient [African] culture it bears the samestamp.WhenwewalkthroughthegreatmuseumsofEurope,TheTrocadero,the British Museum, the museums in Belgium, Italy, Holland and Germany--inallofthemweencounterthesame“spirit,”asimilarcharacterandnature.Fromwhateverpartofthiscontinentthevariousarticlesmayhavecome,theyalwaysgetunitedinspeakingthesamelanguage.38

And,further,inthesametext:

ThisisthecharacteroftheAfricanstyle.Anyonewhohascomeclosetoitenoughtogetarealunderstandingofitwillrecognizethatitprevailsthroughout Africaas the very expression its being. It manifests itself in the movements of all Negro peoplesasmuchasintheirplasticart;itspeaksintheirdancesandintheirmasks,intheirreligioussentimentaswellasintheirwaysofliving,thenatureoftheirStateandtheirdestinyasapeople.Itlivesintheirfables,fairytales,sagas,myths.39

WhatSenghorwantedtoassertagainstthegrainofMunroandGuillaumeisthatthereisanAfricanstylewhichmakestheunityofthecontinentandthatinit,beingisexpressed,meaningthisspiritthatcrossesagesandthislanguagethatcontinuestobespokeninalltheaspectsandgesturesofAfricanlife.Ifwedonottakeethnographicknowledgeasastarting pointtoreadtheartbecausethatitwouldonlyobscureourunderstanding,itstillremainsthatthisunderstandinghastobring us backtoanAfricanwayofseeingthingsandtoAfricanlifeingeneral.ItistruethattheauthorsofPrimitive Negro SculptureadmittedthatartbytheancestralartistsoftheAfricancontinentcouldconstitute a source, “the most revealing” that we can find, “for understanding the primitive Negro mind.”ButSenghorwasalsointerestedinestablishinganorganiccontinuitywiththeAfricanlifeoftoday,howeveraltereditmaybe,aswellaswithlifeintheblackDiaspora,howeveralienateditis.Itisforthesakeofcontinuitythatheplacedethnologyatthecenterofhisphilosophy,thusmaingAfricanpeoplevisibletoo,aftertheirarthasbecomevisible.TheoneSenghoralwayscalledhis “master,” Léo Frobenius, had proposed had also proposed this: to take Africans out of their invisibility and make them seem like real “antagonists,” that is to say “interlocutors.”40 Whileit is this “master” thatSenghorevokes inorder to restore the linkbetweenAfrican lifeand thesculpturetowhichitgavebirth,itisthestrictlyplasticapproachofMunroandGuillaumethatisthe determining factor for his philosophy of African art. It is determining first for the elaboration of Senghor’snotionofrhythm. Here is how he speaks about it in 1939, in his first article:

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The ordering force that constitutes Negro style is rhythm.Itisthemostsensibleand the least material thing. It is the vital element par excellence. It is the first conditionandthesignofart, like thebreathof life; thebreathwhichrushesorslows down, becomes regular or spasmodic, following the tension of being, thedegreeandthequalityoftheemotion.Suchisrhythmprimitively,initspurity,soit appears in the masterpieces of Negro art, particularly in sculpture. It is made upofatheme--sculpturalshape--whichisopposedtoakindredtheme,thewayinspiration is opposed to expiration, and it resumes itself. It is not symmetrywhichgeneratesmonotony;therhythmisvivid,itisfree.Becauseresumptionisnot repetition,nor is itduplication.The theme is resumed inanotherplace,onanother plane, in another combination, in a variation; and it produces anotherintonation, another tone, another accent. And the whole effect is intensified, but notwithoutnuances.Andsotherhythmactsuponwhatistheleastintellectualinus,despotically,tomakeuspenetrateintothespirituality of the object;andthisattitudeofsurrenderthatwehave,isinitselfrhythmic.41

This reflection on the meaning of rhythm is echoed by the following lines, written seventeen yearslater:

What is rhythm? It is the architecture of being, the internal dynamic confersform,thesystemofwavesgivenofftowardstheOthers,thepureexpressionofthelife-force.Itisthevibratingshock,thepowerwhich,throughthesense,seizesattherootsofourbeing. It finds expression through the most material and sensual media:line,surface,colour,volumeinarchitecture,sculptureandpainting;accentinpoetryandmusic;movementinthedance.But,indoingthis,itdirectsallthisconcretematerialtowardsthelightoftheSpirit. For the Negro-African, it is only insofarasitisincarnateinsensualitythatrhythmilluminatestheSpirit.

Andwhenhespeaksoncemoreofrepetition,itistoclarifythat“thereisalmostalwaystheintroductionofanewelement,variationintherepetition,unity in diversity.”42

Let us consider first the passage on rhythm in the article of 1939. If the center of Senghor’s textishisconsiderationofAfricanart,thecenterofthislatterisinthisparagraphonrhythm.WeseeinitthewaySenghorgoesoverandreworkstheremarksofMunroandPaulGuillaume.Whathe saysabout rhythmasaconditionofAfricanartat thebeginningof thecitationanswers thewaythat,inPrimitive Negro Sculpture,theartistinfrontoftheworktobecreatedisdescribedastakenawaybytherhythmwhichimposeditselfuponhisimagination--heissaidtobe“obsessed”withit--andthat“hewillentermatter.”AccordingtoMunroandGuillaume,atthebeginningofcreation is rhythm that will capture matter and whose primary figure is repetition. The work is madeof“plasticrhythms”respondingtooneanotherinrepetitionandcontrast.ThisisshowninthefollowinganalysisofamaskthatwecanimagineSenghorreadingwiththegreatestattention:

The mask has a direct aesthetic effect, independent of all associations, by theshapesandcombinationsofitsparts.Theeyesarerough,irregularcircles,boldly

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outlined;thehugeupperlip,asasemicirclerelatesthemouthtothemandjoinsinarhythmic seriesthatiscontinuedabovetheeyes.Thelowerlip,astiffcontrastinghorizontal relates themouth to thebaseof thenoseand to thehorizontal linesoftheforehead,andthussetsanotherrhythmic series.Thenose,asharp-edgedpyramid, is echoed in the line of rough, ribbed cones ofhair that marchacrosstheforehead.Theverticalridgeabovethenoseconnectsitwiththehairbridginganotherwiseblankexpanse,andhelpstobalancetheheavymassingoffeaturesatthebottom.Itjoinswithnoseandmouthtoformawedge-shapedsubordinatepattern;torightandleftofthiswedge,asaresult,aretwoshield-shapedplanes;eachpiercedbyaneyeandeachasmallerversionoftheface’stotalcontour.Thesecontrasting rhythms affect the sensitive eye and brain as a series of powerfulreiteratedshocksinline,ridgeandroughenedhollow,alternatedwithsmoothedintervals,likerecurringburstsofdrumsandbrassesinmusic.Distributed,spaced,contrasted, welded firmly together repetitions of theme, each shape is given its maximumaestheticeffectiveness,andthepowerofthewholeismadecumulative,broughttoafocusbytheunityofdesign.44

Senghor will keep this approach of the African art object as combination and unity ofrejoiningrhythmicseriesfromhisreadingofMunroandGuillaume.ThecrucialadditionhemakesistoturnitintothelanguageofAfricanontology,understoodasontologyofvitalforce.45Beforehereads,intheimmediateaftermathofWorldWarII,PlacideTempels’Bantu philosophy,theideathatAfricanartisanexpressionoftheontologyofvitalforceisalreadypresentinhisthought.46Hespeaksofan“orderingforce”whichis“thevitalelementparexcellence,”thusinvitingustothinktogethersculptureandontology.ThediscoveryofFatherTempels’work,whichhegreetedwithan overflowing enthusiasm, allowed him afterward to be more precise in his presentation of the universeoftheartistasthetruereality.Thevitalforcesare,ashesays,thestuffartismadeof.47ThethesisofFatherTempelscanbethussummarized:tounderstandAfricanlifeinitsmultiplemanifestations,whether it isreligion,art,ethics,medicine, law,orgovernment, is togobeyondethnographicdescriptionandtoreachtheknowledgeoftheontologythatistheratio essendiandtheratio cognoscendiofwhatthesedescriptionspresentwithoutaclueabouthowtograsptheirtruemeaning.Andthisontologywhichgivessensetoeverythingisallinthefollowingequation:beingis force. Not that force is an attribute, even an essential one, of what is; what is meant rather isens sive robur:being,in other wordsforce.Truereality,theforcefulrealityaboutwhichPicassospokeandthatSenghorpreferstocall“sub-reality”ratherthan“surreality”--tobetterindicatewhatisunderappearance,theenergyunderthething--isthusthatofapluralistic energetismasitwasdesignated by the Belgian philosopher Léo Apostel.48ApostelsummarizedBantu Philosophyinthefollowingseventheses:

1. “Something exists” means that something exercises a certain specific force. 2. Every force is specific. Against some pantheistic interpretation, this is a question ofassertingtheexistenceofmonadic,individualforces.3. Various types of beings are characterized by various intensities and types of forces.4.Eachforcecanbeincreasedordecreased.AsSenghorputsit,anyforcecanberein-forcedorde-forced.

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5. Forces can influence and act on each other by virtue of their internal natures. (All forces are radically interdependent in an internal way. The actions thus have nothing“magic”aboutthem.)6.Theuniverseisahierarchyofforcessetaccordingtotheirpower,startingfromGodandgoingallthewaydowntothemineralthroughthefoundingAncestors,thegrandDead,livinghumans,animalsandplants.7.Thedirectcausalactiongoesfroma“plus”being,thebiggerforce,toa“less”being, the weaker force. (The action can be indirect and use beings of lower rank toactonanequal.)

IsthisuniverseofforcestheoneAfricanslivein?Anyway,itistheonetowhich,asthetruereality, theInitiated,theSageshaveaccess;andthereforetheartiststoo,whoknowbetterthananybody else how to find the door to this world. “If the hierarchical and pluralistic energetism that is described as Africa’s most original contribution to philosophy is no myth,” Léo Apostel writes, “then it should find its expression in African art.” He adds: “and we believe that this is indeed the fact.”51 For Senghor, Negro art is certainly the proof of Negritude. As a matter of fact, if the work ofartgivesaccesstotheontologythatwecharacterizeaspluralisticenergetism,that isbecauseitconstitutesits language.SenghorcouldaddtotheseventhesesonwhichBantu philosophy isfoundedthefollowing:

a.Whatconstitutestheindividualityofagivenforceisitsrhythm.b. We open up ourselves to the object, the art object in particular, through arhythmic attitudewhichmakesusbeinphasewithit,withitsownrhythm.Thatiswhatismeantbybeingintouchwithitsspirituality.c.Theharmoniouscombinationofrhythmsinaworkofartdependsonaforce-rhythmthatordersthewholeintoanindivisibleorganicunity.

In other words, the whole precedes the parts that are ordered, just as the music or thelyriccomesbeforethewordsthatconstitutesit.Itisnotsurprising,then,thatSenghor,thepoet,developedaphilosophyofartthatwasaphilosophyofinspiration,northathealsomet,onthispoint, Henri Bergson’s thought. Senghor defined himself first of all as an auditive,andlikeallthepoetsof theAnthology,asa“singer, tyrannicallysubjectedto the innermusic,andprimarily torhythm.”52 To what Sartre writes referring to Césaire’s poetry, when he notes that the words of the latter “arehuddled togetherand thecementedbyhisalmightypassion,”53Senghorgivesanexplanationinthefollowinglines:“when[thepoet]writesapoem,hedoesnotcalculate,hedoesnotmeasure,hedoesnotcount.Hedoesnotlookeitherfortheideasorfortheimages.Heis,infront of his vision, like the Great black Priestess of Tanit, in Carthage. He says his vision, is in a rhythmicalmovement,becauseheisfuriouswithasacredfury.Andevenhissong,themelodyandrhythmofhissongaredictatedtohim.”54Therhythmicalmovementisawhole,itisindivisible.Anditexpressestheidealofcreation,fromwhichonlyjoycanspring:thesentimentthatinformsusthatthedestinationisreachedwhentheinnerrhythmisinperfectsymbiosiswiththetranscribedrhythm.55 If African sculpture can be said “Cubist,” it is not because it would analyze the object into separatedelements,partes extra partes, before reorganizing them. On the contrary, it is because itinsistsontheindivisibilityofthewhole,onthetotaleffecttowardswhichalltherhythmswhichmeltintoitconverge.

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Once again, it is important to emphasize that Senghor has a plastic understanding of rhythm. It is in sculpture that he first came across the notion of rhythm as a principle of creation and asthesupremeaestheticvalue,beforehespokeaboutitinrelationtothoseareaswhichareusuallymoreimmediatelyassociatedwithit,suchaspoetry,musicordance.56“Reading”afeminineBaouléstatuetteinthesamemannerMunroandGuillaumedescribedaFan mask,Senghormakesitspeak“inmusic”inthefollowingway:“[In]itanalternatedsongissungbytwothemesofsweetness.Ripefruitsofthebreasts.Thechinandtheknees,thecroupandthecalvesarealsofruitsorbreasts.Theneck,thearmsandthethighsrepresentcolumnsofblackhoney.”57WhatinthelanguageofMunroandGuillaumewewouldcallthe“rhythmicseries”offruits/breasts,isherereferredtobySenghoras a “song” or a “theme of sweetness,” which alternates with (Senghor), or opposes (Munro and Guillaume),therhythmicseriesofthe“columnsofblackhoney.”Soifwecanmovefromtheplasticlanguage to the musical language it is because the ontology that finds its expression in sculpture or inpoeticsongisone:thatofrhythms. Senghor was obsessed by the “Negritude” once claimed by Arthur Rimbaud, and very oftenhequotedthelatter’sfamouswordsfromUne Saison en enferwhichmarkRimbaud’sbreakwith the European world: “Yes, I have closed my eyes to your light. I am a beast, a Negro...The smartthingtodoistoleavethiscontinent,wheremadnessroamstoprovidewithhostagesthesescoundrels. I enter the real kingdom of the children of Cham.”58Inatextentitled,“Lettre à trois poètes de l’Hexagone,” Senghor,morethanquotinghim,proceedstoarealcollageofthesentencesofRimbaud,takingthemfromdifferentplacesintheoriginaltexttoachievewhathedeclarestobea Negro-African re-reading of the author of The Illuminations.Hereisthere-reading:

I am an animal, a Negro but I may be saved. You are fake Negroes…I invented the colour of vowels! Iadjusted the shapeandmovementofeveryconsonant,and,withprimitive rhythms,Itookprideininventing a poetic verb,accessible,someday,toall senses.59

Itisnotonlythecollagewhichtranslatessuchare-reading,butalsothechoicetounderscoresuchorsuchword,suchorsuchexpression.Whatthisre-readingindicatestheniswhatSenghorinhiscommentpresentsasthesuggestionofa“radiantsymbolismwhereallthesenses--sounds,smells, flavors, touches, forms, colors, movements--maintain mysterious correspondences and give birth to theanalogical images.”60Anontologyof rhythmsagain.Rimbaudwentas faras to thesub-reality, what reality is made of, to find that it is constituted by primary, “instinctive” rhythms. Underthelanguageandthewordswithwhichitismade,hewentdowntothevowelsthataretheprimary colors, and to the forms and prime movements that are the consonants. Like an alchemist witnessingthecreationfromtheprimalelements,hethensawandalsoheard howtheserhythmscombinetogethertomakeapoeticverbwhichisinphasewithallthesenses. SohereisRimbauld’alchemyoftheverbpointingtowardsthesamepluralistic energetism,towardsthesameontologyFatherTempelsdescribedasbeingattherootofBantuphilosophy.Isit necessary to consider seriously the “Negritude” of Rimbaud, this word which he claimed because itmeant inhiseyestheradicalalteration, themostcompleteachievementof“I”asan“other?”Why, after him, consider as “Negro” poets like Paul Claudel or Charles Péguy, or even Saint John Perse?61 Senghor was tempted to take as Negro whatever evoked for him the ontology of vital force. This racializing approach, consisting of tracking down influences, that is, traces of black blood or characterological affinities often to the point of absurdity, is definitely irritating.62Butin

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fact, ultimately, this “racialization” eventually neutralizes and destroys itself. If there is a Negro style thatexpresses itself in the juxtapositionof rhythmicserieswhich rejoin inanasymmetricparallelism,wecanthenseethingsthisway:thisstyleisnotthenaturalemanationofsomethinglikea“race,”butthechoice,thepreference--andmaybethereligiousandaestheticobsession--foraparticularfigure,thatofparatax,whichSenghoropposestosyntax.Thus,inTristanTzara,heandAimé Césaire recognized themselves, he says, in the taste of the surrealist poet for “‘paratax’, that is juxtaposition or coordination replacing syntax, and [when] melody is made of nature’s ‘noises and sounds.’”63ThiswayofreadingSenghor,bypayingattentiontothepointwhenracialismeventuallynegates itself, is explicitly required by the author himself. Let us consider the following passage, a part of Senghor’s conclusion to his article of 1956 on “The aesthetics of the Negro-African:”

People will say that the spirit of the Civilization and the laws of Negro-African’s Culture, as I have exposed them, are not exclusively valid for the Negro-African, butaresharedbyotherpeoples.Idonotdenyit.Everypeopleunitesonitsfacethevarious features of the human condition. But what I say is that we find nowhere thesefeaturestogetherunitedinthisequilibrium,underthislight;nowherehasrhythm reigned so despotically. Nature did well making sure that each people, eachrace,eachcontinenthascultivated,withaparticulardilection,certainvirtuesof Man; which is what constitutes its originality. And if we add that this Negro-African Culture is very much alike that of ancient Egypt, of Dravidian and Oceanian peoples, I shall answer that ancient Egypt was African, that some black blood flows in passionate streams through the veins of Dravidians and Oceanians.64

This is certainly racialism, when the essential negritude of Dravidians and Oceanic people is decided by their epidermis. But this is also a definition of what constitutes difference, specificity, whatiscalledhereoriginality. And according to Senghor, this is not a specific feature that would belongsolelyandexclusivelytoonerace,butratheracertain“balance,”letussayacertainratio,betweendifferentfeaturesthatareidenticaleverywherebecausetheymakeuptogetherthehumancondition.Differentcultureswillbecharacterizedthenbydifferentratiosbetweenthesamefeaturesthattheywillemphasizeindifferentiatedmanners. No mystery would need to be explicated by scrutinizing influences, biology, or ethnic characterology,ifgivenculturalpractices,breakingorrevoltingagainstthecustomsandtraditionsofthecontextoftheirbirth,cansometimesrecognizethemselvesinthemirrorthattheyareofferedby another way of establishing a ratio between the features that define the human condition. At the TrocadéromuseumPicassowouldneverhaveencounteredthoseother answerstotheproblemoftheartisticrepresentationthathesawembodiedintheAfricanmasks,hadhenotbroughtwithhimthoseotherquestionsthatwerehauntinghim.ParaphrasingBorisVian,wemaysaythathisnotionofl’art nègre,Africanart,wastrueonlybecauseheentirelyinventedit. This theory of fluid cultural sets is very present in Senghor’s texts, and it appears here and thereunderhisgenerallyessentialistdiscourse,allowingustobringsomenuancetohisracialism--oreventode-racializehisthought.Afterall,hewasthephilosopherofmétissageatleastasmuchasof Negritude. When he praises the métis,hedoesnotseethemasderivedbeings--asthesheereffectof the meeting between already-constituted essences--but as the first, the primal affirmation of the freedomtocreate,whichiscultureitself.ForSenghor,indeed,anytrulyalivecultureismétissse,andthemétis isacreatorofculturebecausehestandsfortheliberty“tomake,fromreconciled

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elements,aworkexquisiteandpowerful.”65 Nimrod quite rightly opposes this “affirmative word” which is the métissage thus eulogized by Senghor, to the succession of refusals and negationsbywhichthe“praiseofcreoleness”begins.66Wecanre-readSenghorfromthisperspective, too,understanding that under the massive, biological, essentialist discourse of “Negritude” filters the fluid, cultural, hybrid notion of a “devenir nègre” (becoming Negro) to use the language of Gilles Deleuze.

Senghor’s writing allows the language of becoming and movement, rather than essenceandpermanence.Sucha languagepermits--withoutanyproblemorparadox-- theevocationofadevenir nègre of Rimbaud, Picasso or Claudel, or even of French, or German, or Dutch culture atsuchandsuchaperiod,insuchandsuchaplace.Italsopermitsustospeakforthepastandtoevoketheexistenceofa“black”Greece,withoutanyracialistobsession.

In a footnote to their book, Munro and Guillaume, after they have affirmed that Greek statuary, incontrastwithAfricansculpture,appealstothecategoryof“whatwouldbehumanlydesirable in the flesh,” claim that this does not apply to the wholeofGreeksculpture.Inparticular,theynotethatconsiderabledistortionforplasticpurposescanbefoundinmorearchaicworksofart.67 Senghor, in various passages, also insists on the existence of Negritude in ancient Greece. To speakratherofdevenir nègre, inacivilizationofmétissagesuchasthatofancientGreece,wouldhave themeritof saying that thesameworldhasknownacreative tensionbetweenaprinciplesubjectedtotheidealofthebeautifulshapeandananotheronethatdrewfromthedeepsourcesof emotion. It would then be appropriate, along with Nietzsche, to call the first one “Apollonian” andthesecond“Dionysian.”SenghorhimselfmadesuchareferenceinalecturehegaveinMayof1983 at the University of Tübingen, upon the occasion of the conferral of a doctorate honoris causa.Presenting Nietzsche, along with Bergson, as an agent of the radical change in the history of ideas that he called “the 1889 Revolution,” Senghor declared: “For Nietzsche, the vocation of Man...is less intruththaninlife:inthefreewillofmanwhomakeshimselfasuperman,inventingnewvalues,pulledoutofthewill,certainly,butalsoanddeeplyoutofintuitions,sensibility.Hetoopreachesthe ‘eternal return’ to the symbiosis of Apollonian spirit with Dionysian soul, but with an emphasis on the latter. The 1889 Revolution was ripe. Let us not forget that it is in 1883-1885 that Thus Spoke Zarathustraispublished.”

Asaconclusion,twopointsneedtobeemphasized.First,thatAfricanartofyesterday,asLeo Apostel affirms, does provide convincing evidence for an African philosophy considered as pluralisticenergetism,inparticularforSenghor’sthought.Suchanontologyoflifeforcesgivesagoodenoughaccountofthatart,bothinthedifferencesofstylesandtheunitythatcharacterizesit.Thatsaid,thefollowingsecondpointneedstobeunderlinedtoo:thatAfricanartistsinthepastcould access that ontology as the driving force behind their creativity does not make it a specific and exclusive difference defining Africans as bound together by an unconscious collective metaphysics. Therefore, today’sAfricanartistsdonotneed, inorder tobe themselvesandtobe true to theirhistory, to find the same access to a metaphysics that has mostly disappeared. Senghor celebrated anAfricancreationthathas,inmanydifferentways,helpedshapeandcolortheartistictwentiethcentury,inparticularwhenhemadetheWorldFestivalofBlackArtsinDakarin1966oneofthehighlights of his presidency. He also wished for a School of Dakar in art that would define and illustrate for today the aesthetics of rhythm and asymmetrical parallelisms. That endeavor was

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boundtobeuseless,becauseitwasnotnecessary.ThatisbeingdemonstratedbycontemporaryAfricanartists,theSenegaleseamongtheminparticular:Africanity,forthem,isaquestionandanopenone,tobeceaselesslyexplored.

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1 Marie-Laure Bernadac and Paule du Bouchet, Picasso Master of the New Idea (London: Harry Abrams, 1993), 41. 2 Ibid.,42.3 SeeAndréMalraux,“Introductiongénéraleà’lamétamorphosedesdieux,”inEcrits sur l’art. Oeuvres Complètes V

(Paris: Gallimard, 2004), 7-37.4 From 1909 until his death in 1918, Apollinaire repeatedly called for such a reform and for “l’art nègre” (Negro art) to

gettherecognitionitdeserves.SeeGuillaumeApollinaire,A propos d’art nègre 1909-1918 (Toulouse: Toguna, 1999), 11etpassim.Hereandelsewhere,unlessotherwisenoted,alltranslationsfromFrenchtoEnglisharetheauthor’s.

5 Ibid.,66 André Malraux, Ouevres Complètes. Vol.III (Paris: Gallimard, 1996), 696-697. In his book Ce que je crois (Paris,

Grasset, 1988; p. 221), Senghor speaks about his encounters, back in the 30’s, with “the artists of the School of Paris, or,ifoneprefers,ofCubism” when theyhadtheirheadquartersattheCafé de Flore. “Sometimes”,hesays,“oneofthem would suggest: ‘why don’t we go to Picasso’s?’ He used to live not very far, two or three blocks from there. I still rememberPabloPicassowalkingmefriendlytothedoor,asIwastakingmyleaveofhim,andsayingtome,eyesineyes: “We must remain savages.” And I would answer: “We must remain Negroes.” And he would break into laughter.

5 Theword,“savage,”closerto“untamed”than“primitive,”istobeunderstoodaswhatgrantstheartistthisrightthatMalrauxclaimedPicassohadreadintheAfricanforms:therighttothearbitraryandtherighttofreedom.SeeMalraux,“Chefs d’oeuvre de l’art primitif,” in Oeuvres Complètes, V,1215,1217.

6 Ibid.7 DouglasFraser,presentinganexhibitionofphotosofAfricanartorganizedby theDepartmentofArtHistoryand

Archaeology of the University of Columbia; in Fraser, African Art as Philosophy (New York: Interbook, 1974), 1.8 Leo Apostel quotes W. E. Abraham speaking of the Akan people: “Akans unable to write expressed their philosophical

andreligious ideasthroughart, throughthetimeless,age-old,silentandelementarypowersocharacteristicof thetraditional African art.” Leo Apostel, African Philosophy Myth or Reality (Gent: Story-Scientia, 1981), 390. Apostel’s book is characterized by a precise, analytical approach, and proves that Placide Tempels was right to see (in Bantu Philosophy)a“pluralistenergetism”asthecharacteristicfeatureofAfricanontology.SeealsoAbraham,The Mind of Africa (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1962), 111.

9 Léopold Sédar Senghor, Liberté I: Négritude et humanisime (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1964), 24.10 Ibid.,PaulGuillaumeandThomasMunro,La sculpture nègre primitive (Paris: Crès et Cie, 1929). The work was first

publishedinEnglishasPrimitive Negro Sculpture (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1926).12 When it was published in English, it contained a supplementary final chapter on the relation between primitive Negro

sculptureandcontemporaryart.Inthisconclusion,afterhavingquotedfromnumerousmodernwriterswhoseworksowed something to Negro art, the authors write: “These [modern works] exemplify the power which the anonymous artistsofthejungleareexercisinguponthemindofaracewidelyseparatedfromtheminblood,civilization,geographyand time. The modern works are not, of course, a basis for judging the merit of the ancient sources themselves.Primitivenegroart,likemostgreatoriginations,isessentiallyinimitable,andsomeofitspowerisapttobelostinmodernversions.”Ibid., 133.

13 GuillaumeandMunro,Primitive Negro Sculpture,10.14 Ibid., 13. Along the same lines, in an interview given in 1967, Michel Leiris declared that the concern of sounding

African, for the artist, only ends in “artificial stuff” and he added: “What is to be done? I cannot make any more masks or statues which refer to the things in which I do not believe any more or which are very distant from me...AfricanpainterswhowillnotgiveathoughtaboutwhatitmeanstobeAfricanwillcreateworksinthepresenceofwhichweshallsaytoourselvesthatonlyanAfricancouldhaverealizedthem.TheywillhaveunintentionallyfoundanAfricanism of their art. But to look for it deliberately, is like socialist realism...” Michel Leiris and Paul Lebeer, “Au-delà d’un regard” Entretien sur l’art africain (Lausanne: La Bibliothèque des Arts, 1994), 91.

15 Jean-Godefroy Bidima explains this strange reversal created by the logic of trade, in which the foreign consumerdefines what African art is and its local fabricators therefore define their own identity accordingly. “African art?” he writes,“that’stheartoftheAfricans,reviewed,edited,soldandpresentedbyWhitepeople.”Jean-GodefroyBidima,L’art négro-africain (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, QSJ, 1997), 6.

16 GuillaumeandMunro,Primitive Negro Sculpture, 11.17 Ibid., 5.18 Ibid.,7.20 Ibid., 3021 Ibid.22 Ibid., 3323 Ibid.24 Ibid.

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26 Ibid., 32.27 Ibid., 35.28 Ibid., 37.29 Ibid., 37-38.30 Ibid.,76.31 Describing a mask they write (52): “...the eyes are rough, irregular circles, boldly outlined; the upper lip, as a semicircle

relatesthemouthtothemandjoinsinarhythmicseriesthatiscontinuedabovetheeyes.Thelowerlip,astiffcontrastinghorizontal,relatesthemouthtothebaseofthenoseandtothehorizontallinesoftheforehead,andthussetsanotherrhythmicseriesinmotion.”

32 Senghor,Liberté I, 24. Later he will explain his choice of this very provocative formula by his youth. This is what he declared in 1967 in Dakar, in a speech he delivered at the second session of the international Congress of the Africanists: “some thirty years ago, schematizing with the inflexible passion of youth, I wrote: ‘emotion is Black, as reason is Hellenic.’” Senghor, Liberté III: Négritude et civilisation de l’universel (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1977), 168.

33 See, for example, this formulation that we find in his text on “L’esthétique négro-africaine” which he published in the journalDiogène in 1956: “European reason is analytical by use, Negro reason is intuitive by participation.” This reprise is not a simple variant of the formula of 1939, which remains an analogy.Senghor,Liberté I, 203.

34 About what he calls “the sentence which brought the scandal,” Nimrod, who also regrets the way in which it is often usedagainstSenghor,writesthat“thissentenceintheformofanaphorismisoneofthoseintellectualgameswhich,inspiteoftheirpredictableconsequences,givetheirauthorsagreatpleasure.”Andheaddsthatwiththatformula,ultimately, “Senghor has trapped himself with panache.” Nimrod, Tombeau de Léopold Sédar Senghor (Paris: Le temps qu’il fait), 37 and 39.

35 MunroandGuillaume, Primitive Negro Sculpture,16.36 This is how Senghor presented the encounter with Frobenius’ books, (Liberté III, 13): “I cannot do better than to speak

hereofthelessonswehavelearnedfromreadingtheworkofFrobénius,andaboveallhistwofundamentalworks,which have also been translated into French: Histoire de la civilisation africaine and Le Destin des Civilisations.WhenIsay“we,”IrefertothehandfulofblackstudentswholaunchedtheNegritudemovement in the 1930’s in the Latin Quarter, in Paris, with Aimé Césaire from the Antilles and Leon Damas from Guyana. I still have before me, in mypossession,thecopyofHistoire de la civilisation africaine on the third page of which Césaire wrote: ‘décembre 1936.’ A year earlier, when I was teaching at the Tours Lycée while preparing my doctor’s thesis on ‘Verbal forms in Languages of the Senegal-Guinea Group’ ...I had started to attend courses at the Paris Institute of Ethnology and at the École Pratique des Hautes Études. So I was intellectually on familiar terms with the greatest Africanists and above all theethnologistsandlinguists.Butsuddenly,likeathunderclap--Frobenius!Allthehistoryandpre-historyofAfricawereilluminated,totheirverydepths.Andwestillcarrythemarkofthemasterinourmindsandspirits,likeaformoftattooing carried out in the initiation ceremonies in the sacred grove.” See, Senghor, “The lessons of Leo Frobenius,” aForewordtoLeo Frobenius 1873-1973 An Anthology, ed. Eike Haberland (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH, 1973), vii.

37 Here I use Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s expression. Spivak, in an interview, declared that if we should oppose essentialism and universalism because of their link with domination, strategically, we cannot be totally exemptfrom them. From time to time, and in the name of the fight against domination, it is necessary to choose a strategic essentialism. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, The Post-Colonial Critic: Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues, ed. SarahHarasym (New York: Routledge, 1990), 11-12.

38 Léo Frobenius, Histoire de la Civilisation africaine, (4th ed.) trans. H. Back and D. Ermont (Paris: Gallimard, 1936), 16.

39 Ibid.,17-18.Theemphasisistheauthor’s.MunroandGuillaume,Primitive Negro Sculpture,11.40 While the Greeks of Homer, he writes, knew how to look at the life of the Ethiopians (for Frobenius, as for the

Ancients,thewordisasynecdochefor“Africans”)thedistinctionbetween“Romans”and“Barbarians”willestablishthe European custom of taking strangers out of representation. The division between Christians and Pagans, and then between Civilized and Savages will strengthen this custom. “At first, it was necessary for these human beings to be completelyeliminatedfromourEuropeanconcernstospringagaininfrontofoureyes,comingsuddenlyoutoftheirinvisibility,andappearingtousasourantagonists.”Frobenius,Histoire de la civilisation africaine,29.

41 Senghor,Liberté I, 35. The emphasis is Senghor’s. Senghor,Liberté I, 211-212. I use here John Reed and Clive Wake’s translation but correcting it on some points. See

Léopold Sédar Senghor, Prose and Poetry. Selected and translated by John Reed and Clive Wake (London: Heinemann, 1976),87.

42 Senghor, Liberté I, 211-212 and 213. These lines are excerpted from the article, “L’esthétique négro-africaine,”

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publishedbySenghorinthejournalDiogène in October 1956. My emphasis.44 MunroandGuillaume,PrimitiveNegro sculpture,51-52.Myemphasis.45 Indeed,he insistsonmeta-aesthetics: “thepaintersand thesculptorsof theSchoolhaveseen [inBlacksculpture]

essentiallyanaestheticswhile,beyondthelawsofthebeautiful,italsoexpressedameta-physics,Imeananontology,and an ethics.” Senghor, “Lettre à trois poètes de l’Hexagone,” inOeuvre poétique (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1990), 371.

46 PlacideTempels, BantuPhilosophy (Paris: Présence africaine, 1947).47 Senghor,Liberté III,66.48 Leo Apostel, African Philosophy: Myth or Reality? (Gent: Story-Scientia, 1981), 26-29.51 Ibid., 325.52 Senghor,Liberté I,222.53 See Jean-Paul Sartre, “L’Orphée noir,” Preface to L’Anthologie de la novelle poésie nègre et malagache de langue

francaise, ed. Léopold Sédar Senghor (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1948).54 Senghor,Liberté III, 396-397. The text is from Senghor’s foreword to The Concept of Negritude in the Poetry of

Léopold Sédar Senghor,bySylviaWashington.55 HereIusetheconceptofRenéeTillot,whocallsprimitiveorinner rhythmtherhythmicalmovementasitexistsout

thereasitresonatesonthesensibilityoftheartist,andtranscribed rhythmaswhatisre-createdbytheartist.RenéeTillot,Rhythm in the Poetry of Léopold Sédar Senghor (Dakar: Les Nouvelles Éditions Africaines, 1979).

56 SeeSenghor,Liberté I,215.HereheanalyzesAfricanmuralsreproducedinParades pintadas da Luanda,bystressingthe rhythmic series created by colors: “always flat, without shade effects,” and he writes, with obvious care for the paradoxical formula that “rhythm is even more obvious in the Negro-African painting.” The novelist and poet Nimrod commentsastutelythat,“Senghorisnotapoetofthetom-tom,”meaningthathedoesnotfallwitheaseintotheeffectsof drumming in his poetry. See Nimrod, Le tombeau,62.

57 Senghor,Liberté I,214.58 ArthurRimbaud,Poésie. Une saison en enfer. Illuminations (Paris: Gallimard, 1999), 182.59 Senghor,Oeuvre poétique, 372. Senghor quotes here from “Mauvais sang”(182), and “Alchimie du verbe” (192) in

Rimbaud,Poésie.60 Ibid., 375. The analogical image is not one fixated in immobility to just portray (that is called an image-equation by

Senghor)buttheonetowhichrhythmisconsubstantialandwhichisthus“power.”61 Senghor writes (in Oeuvre poétique, 377): “Why, in the 1930s, we the militants of Negritude, did we use to call Claudel

and Péguy: ‘our Negro poets.’ Along with the surrealists, they influenced us--in fact less than was said--as they wrote inFrenchbutbecauseoftheirstyle,theylookedlikeourpopularpoets.”

62 Here too, Frobenius, who saw a deep affinity between Africanity (which he called, following the Ancients, “Ethiopianity”) and a German mystical spirit (which Senghor will baptize as “Germanity”) had a deep influence on his approach.

63 Senghor,Ce que je crois (Paris: Grasset, 1988), 218.64 Senghor,Liberté I,216.65 Senghor,Liberté I, 103.66 Nimrod, Tombeau, 30-31. See also In Praise of Creoleness, which begins as follows: “Neither Europeans, nor Africans,

nor Asians, we claim to be Creole.” Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Raphaël Confiant, Eloge de la créolité/ In praise of creoleness (Paris, Gallimard, 1989).

67 MunroandGuillaume,Primitive Negro Sculpture,51-52.

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