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Tanzania. Masterworks of African Skulpture (original title: Tanzania. Meisterwerke afrikanischer Skulptur/Sanaa za Mabingwa wa Kiafrika ) was an art exhibition of traditional African sculptures originating from the mainland region of modern Tanzania. The exhibition was shown in 1994 at the House of World Cultures in Berlin and later at the Lenbachhaus art museum in Munich, Germany. It was accompanied by a bilingual catalogue with numerous photographs, maps and illustrations as well as contributions by ethnologists, art historians and collectors in German and Swahili, the national language of Tanzania.

The exhibition

From 29 April to 7 August 1994, the House of World Cultures in Berlin presented an extensive exhibition of African art objects. The same exhibition was shown from 29 September 1994 to 27 November 1994 at the Lenbachhaus-Kunstbau in Munich. More than 400 historical sculptures and masks from Tanganyika, the East African mainland in present-day Tanzania, had been selected for this exhibition. Some of the objects on display came from German museums, while others were provided by private collectors from Europe, the USA and Africa.

In the course of the former colony of German East Africa, cultural artefacts and other objects worthy of preservation from the point of view of ethnology came into the possession of German museums and private collections. As evidence of the traditional culture of African peoples, such objects have been kept in ethnological museums in numerous cities since the end of the 19th century. Until the exhibition in Berlin and Munich, sculptures from a wide range of Tanzanian ethnic groups had not been presented as evidence of the country's cultural traditions on such a large scale.

In contrast to sculptures from West Africa, which have been appreciated by European artists and collectors such as Picasso, Braque and Apollinaire since the beginning of the 20th century, there had been a prevailing judgement based on art exhibitions and ethnological literature that East Africa was poor in traditional African art. With the 1994 exhibition of East African art objects in Germany, the organisers wanted to make "a previously unknown rich cultural landscape accessible to the wider public."

The catalogue

The 528-page, large-format exhibition catalogue was compiled under the direction of Munich-based art historians Maria Kecskési and Iris Hahner-Herzog. The book contains contributions by European and American ethnologists, art historians and collectors on aspects of traditional sculptural art from Tanganyika. More than 500 black-and-white photographs of sculptures and masks from public and private collections as well as maps, illustrations and a bibliography complement the individual chapters.

Maria Kecskési. Introduction

In the introductory section, Maria Kecskési, then head of the Africa department of the Ethnological Museum in Munich, describes the aim of the exhibition of sculptural art objects from various ethnic groups in what is now Tanzania. Referring to comparisons between the traditional arts from West and East Africa, she mentions the appreciation and formal richness of West and Central African art, for example from Nigeria and today's Democratic Republic of the Congo. Then, she comments as follows on the thesis by art historian Gerald W. Hartwig, who wrote that East Africa has generally brought forward few sculptures compared to other African regions:

Handbooks, exhibition catalogues and other summaries of the traditional arts of Africa tend to treat the art of East African countries, including Tanzania, very briefly. The justification for this is an alleged scarcity of art among the indigenous peoples and cultures. We know, however, that music, dance and poetry flourished and continue to flourish in East Africa, and the diversity of the so-called applied arts cannot be overlooked: pottery, weaving, wood carving, blacksmithing and beadwork also offer aesthetically remarkable, often richly ornamented products, and the traditions of body adornment are also significant, both in the areas of jewellery and in that of hairstyles, body painting and scarification. They speak clearly enough against the notion of artistic scarcity.

Refuting this thesis of an alleged poverty of figurative art in Tanzania's history was one of the reasons for putting together this comprehensive exhibition from public and private collections in 1994. Kecskési also refers to changes in the appreciation of traditional African art by European artists such as Georg Baselitz and A. R. Penck who "recognised the 'raw' sculpture of East Africa as rich and expressive and which inspired their own works since at least the 1980s." Furthermore, Kecskési points out that research into traditional cultural objects has only been possible from the middle of the 19th century onwards on the basis of written sources. She also comments on different approaches to cultural anthropology and art history in relation to African art. On the fundamental question of how tradition and creativity relate to each other in African art, she writes the following:

The adoption of foreign impulses, the creation of a stylistic tradition of one's own, stimulated by foreign models, is a thoroughly creative process; and loyalty to forms that have become traditional in no way means reproducing them. The carver is generally guided by the traditional, ideal model (which he does not have before his eyes, but in his memory); in the design of the individual piece, however, he feels largely free.

Marc L. Felix. A short history of Tanzania

The introductory article by the Belgian art expert and collector Marc L. Felix provides information about the peoples who have inhabited the Tanzanian mainland over the course of its millennia-old history. In addition to the Cushitic, Nilotic and Bantu-speaking groups with their developed cultural techniques in agriculture and animal husbandry, these also include the Swahili-speaking coastal inhabitants, whose societies were characterised by the cultural influences of immigrants from the Persian Gulf, India and Indonesia. Since the 19th century in particular, gradual population movements and cultural change have taken place as a result of the trade in ivory and slaves, the introduction of plantation farming and finally the colonisation of Tanganyika.

Marc L. Felix. The traditional sculpture of Tanzania

This art-historical overview with extensive pictorial material provides a typology of objects that have been handed down as part of the material culture of different ethnic groups. For the most part, these are wooden sculptures including figurines, masks, practical household items or symbols for positions of power and ritual purposes. Felix identifies eight geographically overlapping stylistic groups with specific art-historical, stylistic and typological similarities for the more than 100 ethnic groups on the Tanzanian mainland. Further, he distinguishes between the respective function and the type of sculpture. As an example, he cites an ornately decorated axe as a type that did not serve as a tool, but as a symbol for the ritual function of its use. Depending on the situation, such a symbol could serve "to heal, protect, deter or as a mediator between spirits and humans."

Enrico Castelli. Traditional sculpture from east-central Tanzania

Enrico Castelli, ethnologist at the University of Perugia, describes above all the so-called mwana hiti (transl.: children made of wood) figurines of the Zaramo, Luguru, Kami, Kwere, Kutu and Ngulu ethnic groups, who live between the coast and the hinterland. As a uniform element, these figurines have female features such as stylised breasts, scarified navels and specific hairstyles. Furthermore, many figurines are decorated with geometric patterns that Castelli interprets as a sign of kinship relationships (lineage). Mwana hiti figurines were used as ritual objects in initiation rites for girls who were accompanied by mothers or godmothers in their passage into the age group of young women.

Similar figurines were also used at the upper ends of ritual staves, musical instruments and for grave steles as an image of an ancestor. Similar grave steles with male figurines exist from the end of the 19th century alongside female ones. The male figurines feature elements such as knives, axes or the Islamic headdress kofia. According to Castelli, the use of grave sculptures of the same ethnic group showing female and male elements indicates the change from matrilineal to patrilineal kinship relationships.

Georges Meurant. Sculptures made of clay and wood from northeastern Tanzania

In his article, Georges Meurant, collector, author of studies on African art and former professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium, discusses the mostly small-format sculptures made of wood or clay of the ethnic groups south of the Kenyan border in the north-eastern part of the country. These were used in connection with initiation, fertility or agriculture, but also as tools of sorcerers and healers.

In his explanations, Meurant refers to the collection and publications of the self-taught British ethnologist of Austrian descent Hans Cory. Thanks to Cory's long years of residence in Tanganyika and his knowledge of the language, he had collected ethnographic information since the 1930s, including on clay figurines and their ritual use. Cory had published numerous studies, particularly on topics such as African customary law, local customs and rites, secret societies and witchcraft, traditional medicine, music and initiation rites.

Meurant further describes common features of the wooden and clay figurines of the ethnic groups with respect to the design of the heads, ears, legs and arms. In doing so, he identifies locally specific characteristics of both anthropomorphic and animal figures.

Georges Meurant. The sculptural art of the Nyamwezi

Before Meurant discusses the sculptures of the Nyamwezi and neighbouring ethnic groups, he provides an overview of the formal characteristics of their sculptures according to the geographical classification on the map in the catalogue p. 39. He distinguishes three categories with regard to the provenance of the sculptures in Western collections: First and even before the official founding of the German colony in East Africa in 1891, German collectors had acquired sculptures in this region. Later, ethnologists such as Karl Weule handed over their artefacts to ethnological museums, including those in Berlin and Leipzig. A second group of artefacts were taken to Europe by private collectors from the subsequent Belgian and British mandates in East Africa. The third and most extensive group is the contemporary trade in African art, which, according to Meurant, includes thousands of sculptures and masks from Tanganyika. However, there is often a lack of background information on the origin and original use of these objects.

Meurant also comments on the most important forms, cultural functions and the categorisation of individual ethnic groups in the settlement area of the Nyamwezi and their sub-groups such as the Sukuma. He categorises the sculptures according to formal similarities such as size and texture, the execution of body parts (for example heads, limbs or secondary sexual characteristics), the depiction of female and male figurines or animal figures. Finally, he assesses the earlier scholarship regarding an alleged scarcity of sculptures as inaccurate. Furthe, he criticises Tanzania's centralist cultural policy during the first decades after independence as a "rejection" of indigenous traditions in favour of the modern state's national culture.

Nancy Ingram Nooter. East-African high-backed stools: a transcultural tradition

The US-American art historian and former curator at the National Museum of African Art Nancy Ingram Nooter begins her description of stools with raised backrests by referring to similar forms of this type of sculpture among various ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa. As ceremonial thrones for dignitaries, stools are also known from Ghana, Cameroon and Angola, among other places. However, many examples originate from Eastern Africa, from Ethiopia in the north to Zambia and Zimbabwe in the south.

Numerous examples of such surviving stools have been attributed to the Nyamwezi, Zaramo, Gogo, Kaguru, Luguru, Doe and Kwere people. The latter four ethnic groups have matrilineal traditions, which is reflected in stools with female attributes such as stylised breasts or hairstyles. There are also some examples with male attributes, with the social status of both male and female dignitaries expressed by such ceremonial stools.

Characteristic features of the stools are their round seat, three legs or, alternatively, a pedestal. The backrests are much higher than the stool itself and often feature stylised human figures or abstract and geometric shapes. They are also carved from a single piece of wood. Apart from the specimens from Tanzania, these features can also be found on stools made by the Tabwa and Bemba people, who live west of Lake Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Zambia. Such similarities in sculptures from different ethnic groups are attributed to migratory movements and the exchange of goods, e.g. through the transregional caravan trade in East Africa.

Allen F. Roberts. Affinity of forms: aesthetic points of contact between the peoples of western Tanzania and south-east ern Zaire

On the basis of his field research in Tanzania and studies in the Belgian Royal Museum for Central Africa as well as the relevant specialist literature, the social anthropologist at the University of Iowa and former director of the African Studies Center at UCLA, Allen F. Roberts, describes aesthetic and formal similarities in sculptures found on both sides of Lake Tanganyika. In particular, the sculptures' shapes of the eyes, necks or arms and their proportions are similar among different ethnic groups in these regions on both sides of the state borders of Tanzania and the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

In his 1967 book Masks and Figures from Eastern and Southern Africa, art historian Ladislav Holy had already pointed out such similarities. Roberts, however, disagrees with Holy's judgement, who claimed that the ethnic groups in Tanzania had merely created an art that "lacks unity and presents a disparate image." Roberts, on the other hand, describes the similarities between sculptures attributed to the Tabwa, Hemba and Luba peoples, living on the western side of the lake in DRC and those of the Fipa, Jiji, Tongwe, Hehe, Ha and Sukuma people in Tanzania. He attributes these similarities to centuries-old kinship, commercial and cultural relationships between these ethnic groups based on human migration and trade relations. Roberts also mentions the East African slave trade, which led to relative wealth and a lively exchange of goods for example in the city of Ujiji, as a reason for cultural exchange. According to Roberts, these relationships and the willingness to adopt originally foreign ways of life, even across natural and political borders, explain the appreciation and use of sculptures from neighbouring traditions.

Charles Meur. Approach to the carving of masks in Tanzania

The essay by Belgian artist and collector Charles Meur contains detailed formal descriptions and stylistic analyses of wooden masks from numerous ethnic groups. Meur lists nine stylistic groups that cover the whole of Tanganyika with the exception of the Makonde region in the south. His text also contains a map with drawings of the various types of masks. Further drawings describe characteristic forms, such as the design of the carved inner and outer sides of a mask, the eyes, noses, ears, mouths and other figurative elements. The author assumes that most of the masks were originally painted in colour and mentions other distinguishing elements, such as human teeth, hair and pieces of animal fur attached to some masks.

Meur, who also created all the geographical maps in the catalogue, describes his subjective impressions and associations based on the "extreme simplification, which is free of any attempt at probability", as follows: "The original block is not lost in the hewn form, it remains a fragment of nature. For these farmers and hunters with a their lose relationship to nature, a few details are enough to recognise a self-contained, independent reality in a block of wood that appears to us to have hardly been worked on at all..." Also, Meur points out that Homo habilis first appeared in the vicinity of the great lakes of Central Africa, where the first evidence of art in the form of rock paintings has been preserved.

Giselher Blesse. South-eastern Tanzania: the art of the Makonde and neighbouring peoples

In his description of masks worn by the Makonde people living on both sides of the Ruvuma river in Mozambique and Tanzania, Giselher Blesse, ethnologist and former collaborator of the Leipzig Museum of Ethnography, begins by describing the use of these masks (singular: lipiko, plural: mapiko) in ritual dance performances. Especially at the end of initiation rites for boys and girls, masked young men performed such dances for the village community. The fully veiled dancers represented the ancestors and spirits of the ethnic group with energetic, sometimes frightening movements to the sound of drums and singing. A distinction can be made between masks that were attached in front of the dancer's face and masks that were worn on the dancer's head. Both forms, as well as carved breast plates attached in front of the dancer's body, have been represented in Western collections as early examples of traditional carvings from Tanganyika since the beginning of the 20th century.

Masks and the much rarer figurative sculptures of the Makonde and neighbouring ethnic groups bear male or female facial features, with the latter also being characterised by the characteristic lip plate. Some masks depict animals such as antelopes, whereby animal figures with long horns are also known as devil masks (sheitani). Blesse also mentions artistically decorated Makonde objects such as stools, containers for tobacco or ritual medicine, as well as figurative parts of musical instruments.

Marc L. Felix. Art historical conclusion

In his concluding contribution, Felix describes the various theories and indications of far-reaching regional influences from southern and eastern Africa as well as South Asia and the Persian Gulf on traditional art forms in mainland Tanzania. He then poses the question of what can be characterised as typical for this art. He names three typical themes that are assigned to different ethnic groups in different forms and materials. The most common is the female figure, followed occasionally by sculptures or masks in pairs each with male or female features. The third theme is represented by sculptures of cattle, usually made of clay, but also of wood or, more rarely, of metal. Even though these themes are found in many sub-Saharan regions, the author considers them to be unmistakably Tanzanian in their specific design. As examples, he mentions the numerous variations of mwana hiti doll-like figurines which have not only been found on the Tanzanian mainland, but also in neighbouring regions. Other typical themes are the so-called "piggyback figures" and the widespread high-backed stools. Wooden abstracted grave poles, which are known in pairs with long arms and features for both sexes, as well as long decorated staves as status symbols for important persons are further characteristic Tanzanian stylistic forms. Finally, Felix also notes striking differences between the masks from Tanganyika and those from other regions of Africa.

Rezeption

In ihrem Bericht über die Ausstellung in Berlin für die Fachzeitschrift African Arts bemerkte die Ethnologin Kerstin Volker unter anderem eine Synthese grenzüberschreitender stilistischer Einflüsse auf die verschiedenen Kulturen Tansanias, die nach ihrer Einschätzung auf Wanderungsbewegungen und regionalen Handel zurückzuführen sind. Im Einzelnen hob sie hochstilisierte rituelle Stäbe und Fliegenwedel sowie Mwana hiti-Figuren und Huckepack-Figuren hervor. Bei letzteren sitzt eine jüngere Frau auf den Schultern einer älteren, wobei diese als eine Art Patin in Initiationsriten interpretiert wurde. Hierbei betonte Volker die Darstellung weiblicher Attribute dieser Objekte als Hinweis auf die Matrilinearität der betreffenden osttansanischen Ethnien.

Weiterhin kommentierte Volker die ausgestellten Skulpturen der Makonde. Diese Objekte stammten zum Großteil aus dem Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig und wurden zwischen 1850 und 1950 erworben. Darunter betonte sie wenig bekannte und außergewöhnliche Beispiele für asymmetrische Masken sowie Masken mit dem typischen Lippenpflock. Andere ausgestellte maskenartige Skulpturen, die von Männern in rituellen Kontexten verwendet wurden, wiesen Brüste, einen hervorstehenden Nabel oder pyrographische Dekorationsformen auf.

Mit Hinweis auf das geringe Wissen um traditionelle Kunst aus Tansania vermisste Volker kulturspezifische Informationen zu den Ethnien und der Verwendung der Objekte: „Obwohl in den Texten an den Wänden betont wurde, dass diese Objekte nicht als selbsterklärende Kunst um ihrer selbst willen verstanden werden, entsprach die Präsentation ohne ethnologischen Kontext genau diesem Ansatz. Auch die Beschriftungen der Objekte tendierte eher dazu, die Objekte zu klassifizieren, als Informationen über deren Bedeutung, Verwendung oder andere Hintergründe zu vermitteln.“

Die Ethnologin Elisabeth Grohs bezeichnete die Ausstellung in ihrem Beitrag „Tanzania oder die längst fällige Aufwertung der künstlerischen Tradition dieses Landes“ als „Entdeckung für das deutsche Publikum.“ Der Katalog stellt ihr zufolge ein wichtiges Dokument dar, denn viele Objekte würden künftig „nur mehr über diesen Katalog zugänglich sein, da sie von Privatsammlern aufgekauft und entsprechend verstreut sein werden.“

Bei den einzelnen Beiträgen vermisste sie jedoch einen einheitlichen theoretischen Ansatz, der auch die Funktion und Bedeutung bei der ursprünglichen Verwendung durch die Ethnien einbeziehen würde. Weiterhin stellte sie Fragen, warum Tansania erst spät als Kunstregion entdeckt wurde und wie Sammler seit den 1970er Jahren eine große Zahl an zuvor unbekannten Objekten erwerben konnten. Hierbei fehlten ihr zufolge entsprechende Informationen über die Provenienz von Skulpturen im Privatbesitz. Die stilistischen Zuordnungen hielt sie für teilweise zu ausführlich und wenig erhellend. Weiterhin wirft sie die Frage auf, ob es sich bei einigen Skulpturen um Originale oder Kopien handelt.

Auch angesichts des Anspruchs der Ausstellung und des Katalogs, das Publikum in Tansania und Deutschland über die künstlerischen Traditionen des Landes zu informieren, kommentierte Grohs die Motive der Kunsthistoriker und Sammler auf kritische Weise: „Warum legen westliche Kunstsammler und Forscher so großen Wert darauf, als wohlmeinende Mäzenaten aufzutreten und sich in völlig uneigennütziger Weise für die Rehabilitierung missachteter Kunst einzusetzen?“ Auch die zahlreichen Abbildungen dienten nach Grohs kommerziellen Zwecken, da die Darstellung afrikanischer Kunst in Katalogen den Wert einer Skulptur im Kunsthandel beträchtlich erhöhe. Insgesamt hält Grohs die Beschäftigung mit afrikanischer Kunst durch das vorherrschende Interesse in Europa und Amerika bestimmt. Ihr zufolge wurden die „Eigeninterpretation der afrikanischen Bevölkerung und ihre Reaktion auf westliche Sammelleidenschaft dagegen lange nicht reflektiert.“ Schließlich kritisierte Grohs Klischees bezüglich afrikanischer Kunst wie beispielsweise im Beitrag von Meur, der von einem „blinden und stummen Materialblock“ oder einem „animistische Künstler“ spricht.

In ihrer Rezension des Katalogs in African Arts bezeichnete Diane Pelrine, Kunsthistorikerin und Kuratorin an der Indiana University in Bloomington, USA, das Buch als wichtige Erweiterung der einschlägigen Literatur und hob die Abbildungen als bedeutende Ergänzung von zuvor selten publizierten tansanischen Kunstobjekten hervor. Andererseits vermisste die Autorin Bezüge auf kontextuelle Informationen zu vielen Objekten.

Weiterhin bemängelte die Rezensentin, dass das Buch fast ausschließlich figurative Skulpturen behandelt und nur wenige Abbildungen nicht-figurative Objekte wie Musikinstrumente, Haarnadeln oder Schnupftabakdosen zeigen. Dabei könne der stilistische Reichtum einiger dieser Objekte einen interessanten Kontrast zu vielen Figuren und Masken vermitteln. Daneben bemängelte sie, dass die Swahili-Kultur mit ihrem bedeutenden Einfluss auf die Kunst in Tansania außer im Beitrag von Felix über Stilregionen kaum erwähnt wird. Schließlich kritisierte Pelrine, dass kein tansanischer Autor unter den acht Verfassern von Beiträgen vertreten ist, was keinen Austausch zwischen afrikanischen und westlichen Wissenschaftlern ermöglicht habe.

Masks and sculptures from Tanganjika

The objects shown were not part of the exhibition, but merely serve as examples of similar sculptures and maskp.

• Ndimbu Maske, Makonde oder Mwera Ethnie
• Mwana hiti Figur, Zaramo oder Doe Ethnie Mwana hiti Figur, Zaramo oder Doe Ethnie
• Mwana hiti Figur, Doe Ethnie
• Maske mit Lippenpflock, Makonde
• Thronhocker, Luguru Ethnie
• Weibliche Figur, Kwere Ethnie
• Maske der Makonde Maske der Makonde

Literature

• Enrico Castelli, Speranza Gaetano: Die Skulptur Ostafrikap. In: Werner Schmalenbach, Enrico Castelli (Hrsg.): Afrikanische Skulptur aus der Sammlung Barbier-Müller. Prestel, Genf, München 1988, ISBN 3-7913-0848-3, p. 206–303. 
• Manfred Ewel, Anne Outwater (Hrsg.): From Ritual to Modern Art: Tradition and Modernity in Tanzanian Sculpture. Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, Dar es Salaam 2001, ISBN 9976-973-85-3 (englisch). 
• Marc L. Felix: Mwana hiti: life and art of the matrilineal Bantu of Tanzania = Mwana hiti: Leben und Kunst der matrilinearen Bantu von Tansania. Fred Jahn, München 1990, p. 504 (deutsch, englisch). 
• Elisabeth Grohs: Kisazi: Reiferiten der Mädchen bei den Zigua und Ngulu Ost-Tanzanias (= Mainzer Afrika-Studien 3). Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-496-00122-4. 
• Gerald W. Hartwig: Sculpture in East Africa. In: African Artp. Band 11, Nr. 4, 1978, ISSN 0001-9933, p. 62–65, 96, doi:10.2307/3335347. 
• Gerald W. Hartwig: The Role of Plastic Art Traditions in Tanzania, Baessler–Archiv, N.F. 17, 1969, p. 25–40.
• Ladislas Holy: Masks and Figures from Eastern and Southern Africa. Paul Hamlyn, London 1967 (englisch, archive.org). 
• Maria Kecskési: Afrika-Ausstellungen in München – ein Rückblick. In: Alexander Röhreke (Hrsg.): Mundus africanus: ethnologische Streifzüge durch sieben Jahrtausende afrikanischer Geschichte; Festschrift für Karl-Ferdinand Schaedler zum 70. Geburtstag. Verlag M. Leidorf, Rahden 2000, ISBN 3-89646-018-8, p. 81–99. 
• Kurt Krieger: Ostafrikanische Plastik (= Veröffentlichungen des Museums für Völkerkunde Berlin, Abteilung Afrika). Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-88609-251-8. 
• Dominicus Zimanimoto Makukula: The Development of Visual Arts in Tanzania from 1961 to 2015: A Focus on the National Cultural Policy and Institutions’ Influencep. 2019, doi:10.17169/refubium-4095 (englisch, fu-berlin.de). 
• Charles Meur: Peoples of Africa: Ethno-linguistic map. In: Tribal arts SPRL. 2001 (englisch). 
• Georges Meurant: La Sculpture Tanzanienne Traditionelle Révélée par le Marché de l’Art Primitif. In: Musée national des arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie (Hrsg.): Creer en Afrique / 2e colloque européen sur les arts d'Afrique noire, p. 33–42, Paris, 1993.
• Fadhili Safieli Mshana: The Art of the Zaramo: Identity, Tradition, and Social Change in Tanzania. New Orleans University Press of the South, 2009 (englisch). 
• Nancy Nooter. East African High-Backed Stools: A Transcultural Tradition. Tribal Arts, Autumn 1995.
• DNB-IDN 941766381 Ausstellungskatalog im Bestand der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek.

Notes and references

] ] ] ] ]

1. Jens Jahn, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin und Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, München, ed. (1994), Tanzania: Meisterwerke afrikanischer Skulptur. Sanaa za Mabingwa wa Kiafrika. (in German and Swahili), München: Fred Jahn, p. 528, ISBN 3-88645-118-6{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
2. "Tansania-Skulpturen". www.nd-aktuell.de (in German). Neues Deutschland. 1994-03-29. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
3. For definitions of the term "African art", see the relevant section in the article African Art and the sources cited therein.
4. "Tanzania. Meisterwerke afrikanischer Skulptur". www.lenbachhaus.de (in German). 1994. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
5. The catalogue lists the ethnographical museums in Berlin, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Cologne, Leipzig, Mannheim, Munich, Stuttgart, Vienna as well as private collections in Germany and other countries. See Jahn 1994, pp. 9–10
6. ^ See the catalogue preface by Helmut Friedel and Wolfger Pöhlmann in Jahn 1994, pp. 13–14
7. Apart from cultural objects, these include human remains such as skulls and palaeontological finds of dinosaur fossils from the Tendaguru formation.
8. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. "Human Remains from the Former German Colony of East Africa" (in German). Retrieved 2024-11-13.
9. Felix in Jahn, 1994, p. 37: "By 'traditional' we mean sculptures for ritual purposes that were made in a traditional way by members of a people for clients from that people."
10. See Kecskési in Jahn, 1994, p. 18–22.
11. See Jahn, 1994, p. 13
12. "Galerie Fred Jahn". www.fredjahn.com (in German). Retrieved 2024-11-15.
13. Gerald W. Hartwig (1978), "Sculpture in East Africa", African Arts, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 62–96, doi:10.2307/3335347, ISSN 0001-9933, JSTOR 3335347
14. Kecskési in Jahn 1994, p. 17
15. See Kecskési in Jahn, 1994, p. 24.
16. Kecskési in Jahn 1994, p. 22
17. See Felix in Jahn, 1994, p. 31–33
18. See the detailed map of Tanzania and neighbouring countries with their respective ethnic groups, Jahn, 1994, p. 39.
19. See Felix in Jahn, 1994, p. 37–38 and the images of ceremonial axes, p. 57, 144 and 145.
20. See Felix in Jahn, 1994, p. 37–74.
21. Direzione generale delle relazioni culturali, ed. (1997), Missioni archeologiche italiane: la ricerca archeologica, antropologica, etnologica (in Italian), L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER, pp. 327–328, ISBN 88-8265-002-2, retrieved 2024-11-11
22. Außer den Abbildungen im Text wird dieses Kapitel wie auch die folgenden durch einen ausführlichen Bildteil mit Abbildungen der besprochenen Skulpturen ergänzt.
23. See also Marc L. Felix, Mwana hiti: life and art of the matrilineal Bantu of Tanzania, Munich, Fred Jahn, 1990.
24. See Castelli in Jahn, 1994, p. 94–95
25. See Castelli in Jahn, 1994, p. 96–97.
26. In addition to the illustrations in the text, this chapter and the following ones are supplemented by sections with photographs of the sculptures discussed.
27. Meurant describes the following ethnic groups and their sculptures in detail: Chaga, Pare, Kamba, Shambaa and Zigua. This roughly corresponds to the style region V introduced by Felix, p. 39
28. See Meurant in Jahn, 1994, p. 154–166
29. Hans Cory (1956), African figurines: their ceremonial use in puberty rites in Tanganyika., London: Faber and Faber, retrieved 2024-11-18
30. See Meurant in Jahn, 1994, p. 154–166
31. See Meurant in Jahn, 1994, p. 219 and 235
32. See Meurant in Jahn, 1994, p. 220–235.
33. "Obituaries". The Washington Post. 2020-04-18. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
34. ^ See Nooter in Jahn, 1994, pp. 294–306.
35. See the images in Jahn, 1994, pp. 316–349
36. "Allen F. Roberts". www.international.ucla.edu. UCLA. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
37. ^ See Roberts in Jahn, 1994, pp. 350–363.
38. Holy, 1967, p. 38, as quoted after Roberts in Jahn, 1994, p. 350.
39. Meur, pp. 371–372
40. See Meur in Jahn, 1994, p. 371–387
41. In his work Native life in East Africa (1909), the Leipzig ethnologist Karl Weule described the forms and functions of the Makonde masks he acquired during his expedition.
42. See Blesse in Jahn, 1994, pp. 432–444.
43. See Felix in Jahn, 1994, p. 504–514.
44. Tatsächlich wurden Skulpturen aus der Ausstellung und dem Besitz der Galerie Jahn mit Hinweis auf den Katalog in Auktionen zum Teil für mehrere Zehntausend US-Dollar angeboten. "Kaguru-Luguru Throne Chair". Retrieved 2024-11-18. "A Superb and Rare Luguru Throne, Tanzania". Sotheby's. Archived from the original on 2024-11-18. Retrieved 2024-11-18.
45. "Diane Pelrine | Indiana University - Academia.edu". Retrieved 2024-11-17.