Asian Studies

Religion is the belief in the existence of a supreme deity and the collective forms of worship that accompany the belief. Most often than not, the people in their respective religions hold beliefs that the respective deities are responsible for the creation of the universe and everything in it including humanity. Usually, the deities can be represented in many ways like for instance, some religions believe in an omnipresent God while others have their gods represented in sculptures. This differs from religion to religion. In ancient Africa, the different regions would usually be practicing different forms of worship. For instance, there was a general belief in the existence of an omnipresent God. Most of this can be traced in most of the ancient regions that had some form of worship usually with a set of believes that were reinforced by the events. For instance, when there was drought, the gods were appeased by the offering of sacrifices mostly burnt offerings that were either offered during the night or late in the evening. These are some of the practices that would at that time make the more civilized continents to consider Africa as a backward region.

The sculpture and art forms was a common feature in the African continent. Apart from forming part of recreational activities, the sculptures could be considered as a way of immortalizing the great leaders and maintaining their presence through the curving of sculpture that would represent them even in death. These were evident mostly in the predominantly Islamic countries though their other counterparts were not left behind. Some of the other countries used sculpture as a way of making artifacts that could be presented as presents to the people that one wanted to award for the various achievements. It was always common for the leaders of certain regions to visit another and present gifts of things that had been curved out of wood or even soft stones. In ancient Egypt, sculpture was used as a way of preserving culture. The pyramids of Egypt, as they are now famously known, have been around for a very long time and attest to the fact that sculpture was in existence since way back.

As a way of life, religion was observed by almost all of the existing African tribes. Before the coming of the foreign religions into Africa, existence of primitive forms of religions is recorded as early as the time before the first century, i.e. before Christ. It is also found that the regions of Ethiopia and Egypt were largely mentioned in the bible. The religion that was found here could largely be seen to have a lot of influence from Christianity. After the first century, there was then the introduction of various religions into very many areas in Africa. Of big notice is the introduction of Christianity between the seventh and the sixteenth century. It should also be noted that Christianity was introduced into Africa, mostly northern Africa, in the early first century C.E. Other notable areas where there was religion before the thirteenth century are the regions that mostly bordered the current day Middle East apart from Egypt. These were mainly the northern areas of Africa. this is due to their proximity to the region widely believed to be the origin of Christianity which is in particular areas around Palestine and Israel. The religions that did not encompass the beliefs that surround Christianity were mainly found in the northern and western Africa where there was a widespread activity relating to the incoming of Arabs who would introduce Islam into the region. In this period, around the fifth century, the popular drive for the Arab invasion was more for slave trade than for the introduction of religion. None the less, they went ahead and intermarried with the natives creating a new set of cultures that was a fusion of Arabic and the native one. A new language was born as was a string of other ideas. For instance, the culture of intermarriage amongst the pure Africans. The architecture of these areas also changed. This is widely seen in the coast of East Africa where the Arabic architecture was practiced to bring about buildings whose designs were highly influenced by the Islamic religion. These buildings were mainly built with designs that included high walls around villages for protection against enemies. These bore fruits later when there was the Portuguese inversion along the same coast.
The religion that the Arabs introduced was Islam. The most affected regions that accepted the Islamic religion included the west of Africa, those regions that were along the coast of Africa and the most of Northern Africa. The horn of Africa region also accepted Islam though not all of it was covered.       


The region around Egypt which is known for being the cradle of mankind and agricultural revolution was one of the regions that experienced a rich heritage in the art of sculptures. The sculptures found in these regions were more often than not surrounded by hidden meanings as those responsible for them could not be traced at the time of their location. Other than that, most of the driving force behind the creation of the sculpture could be deduced to be the aesthetic value that they carried apart from the fact that some Africans might have use them for more social and cultural reasons. These can be said to include worship and the immortalization of their leaders in the sense that the sculpting of images in likeness of some of their leaders could create a sense of continuity as the sculpture would serve as the feature that reminded the people about their long gone leaders. Other artifacts that were found in the African continent was in the Central African region of Congo where the art forms were mainly expressed through wood carvings made into the head statues of famous people of that time. Much of it can now be found in the museums in these countries in as much as some of the art forms were sold to colonialists or were given as presents to them. The influence of these art forms was majorly felt in the western form of art. They contributed to the current western sculpture being more subjective. For instance, the creation of sculpture in the western world is more thematic than before.
The Nok people of the Niger region are known to have produced the most ancient sculptures. These are said to have influenced the sculpture of other African regions up till now. The sculpture found in this region were mainly of human beings and animals and also, just like others, lay emphasis on the preservation of the immortalized leadership. These people were not known to indulge in the worship of one god but many though evidence of them worshipping their sculpture is not recorded. Sculpture formed part of their culture in as much as religion did but both had different influences on them. For instance, the gods were mainly responsible for the human nature while the sculpture might have been inspired by the aspect of religion. The people of this region did not practice the representation of their gods in the form of sculpture otherwise referred to as idol worship but used sculpturing as a form of continuity as observed earlier.

    In Egypt, just like other areas in Africa, the sculpturing of the images of Pharaohs happened. It is believed that the art in the ancient Egypt history is so rich it can only be compared to that of the Greeks. These were the sculpture of such leaders as the Rameses. They were mainly found in temples and other places of worship. Their worth is rather of much more sentimental value as the woods that were used in curving them were referred to as the mortal wood. Other material used to curve them would include copper, bronze and gold. There is evidence that some of them might have been used in the culture of worship though much of this is mainly registered in the bible. The religion in Egypt during the ancient times was epitomized by the worship of as many as 2000 gods. At some instance, the gods were represented as sculptures while at others, they were deities that were portrayed as omnipresent. The omnipresent nature was brought about by the need of the people to seek explanation for things that happened without them being able to forecast or control. The idol worship varied from region to region as some regions had their own unique representation of their god. The gods had different aspects of life covered as some would represent the aspect of life while others would represent aspects like agriculture and fertility of both human and the land. There was also the existence of goddesses and it is them who were responsible for aspect such as fertility and the feminine aspects of life.
The culture of that time revolved around religion and therefore it is only prudent to say that religion wielded more influence on the people of Egypt than sculpture. This is not to say that sculpture had insignificant influence. Sculpture was a mainstay to most of the population as the influence was virtually everywhere. Sculptures of famous people like the leaders could be found almost in every other place apart from the ones in the temple and the areas of worship. Here also, we find that sculpture was used to express the aesthetic value of human in the form of beauty. For instance, the beauty of a woman was embodied in the sculpting of beautiful sculptures to represent the value of a woman in the society. This would go a long way in representing the woman as a symbol of continuity even in the then patriarchal society. Not only was the woman seen as a symbol of continuity but also as a representation of the family unit.     

In conclusion, the sculpture and religion in Africa might not compare much due to the fact that many of the ethnic groups in Africa lay more emphasis on the existence of gods who could be appeased at times of natural disasters. They believed more on the existence of an omnipresent god though the concept of representation of gods in sculpture cannot be thrown away as foreign. The manifestation of gods in sculpture was mainly found in the areas where empires had been established or captured and the new leadership wanted to introduce worship of their desired gods so they had to represent them in a way that the captured could visualize and transform faster. The influence of sculpture on the people of Africa on the other hand is seen as a way in which the preservation for continuity of immortalized leaders was done. It would be safe to say that both had their influence on the people and the influence itself might have been rather similar than very different though mainly on the issue of culture.