African Art

conclusion may be too strange a result of the premises, a paren-

thesis furnishes the necessary explanations briefly and the

auditors are satisfied.

MMoorraall TTaalleess

I have spoken of moral tales. I mean by this, stories that teach

a moral. They may seem to us immoral, but that is another

affair. It is certain, for example, that the number of fables

exalting cunning, as the means put at the disposition of the

weak for triumphing over the powerful, is considerable. The

heroes of these fables vary according to the countries: in

Sudan, it is generally the hare; on the Guinea coast it is often

a little antelope; on the lower Niger, usually a turtle; elsewhere

a spider. The others present in emulation of each other, the

stupid hyena and the simple-minded elephant. But it must be

remarked that the crafty personage of the tales, though his

success arouses laughter, is never given a sympathetic

character in Negro fables except when he employs his trickery

for a good cause or uses it against the wicked, the deceitful,

the cowardly, or the miser, or at least when his slyness is not

accompanied by malice. The hare is the prototype of trickery

that is fine, benevolent, the righter of wrongs; the adventures in

which he figures always turn out to his advantage. The spider,

on the contrary, who lets his intelligence and his cunning serve

for the gratification of his lower instincts, his mean vengeance,

his cupidity and pride, finishes by being duped in his turn, to

the great joy of the public who applaud his undoing. Among

the faults that are the most often and the most rudely turned to

ridicule or chastised in the popular literature of the Negroes are

foolishness, self-sufficiency, avarice, forgetting one’s duties to

the family or the duties of hospitality, and bad breeding. The

contrary virtues, especially generosity, are constantly exalted

and recompensed.

Proverbs and common sayings abound among the Negroes and

their discourse is frequently embellished with them in everyday

conversation as well as in the most serious conferences.

Thousands of them have been collected in all regions of tropical

Africa. The most wholesome good sense emanates from these

short and expressive maxims, in which an often very profound

thought is condensed into a striking comparison or a cutting

answer. Andre Demaison, in his Diato, has introduced many of

these Negro proverbs, whose savour contributes not a little to the

originality of his novel.

The contempt for those who want to elevate themselves above

their position or who do not conform to established customs is

frequently expressed in these maxims, as in the following: “A piece

of wood may remain ten years in the water, it will never become

Bell (Tsogo-Sango).
Gabon.
Wood, iron, height: 45 cm.
Private collection.

Ritual bell with a large pavillion; the wood handle is sculpted with a double
human face, representation of Kombé, the sun, male mythical entity, source of
life, and last judge of mankind. Emblem of the Evovi cast, judges from the secret
society of Bwitiand Mwiri.