Leo Frobenius on African History, Art and Culture

by Leo Frobenius, Léopold Sédar Senghor (Foreword), Eike Haberland (Editor)

Leo Frobenius' pivotal works on African culture represented a landmark study in ethnography. His writings, when discovered by young African intellectuals studying in Europe in the early 1900s, reverberated throughout the community of Africans in search of cultural legitimacy. Frobenius was credited with restoring Black Africa's soul and identity in the early part of the last century. His contributions and observations laid the groundwork for the concept of Négritude, which developed hand-in-hand with the self-determination of the Harlem Renaissance and was advanced by Léopold Sédar Senghor, who would later serve as the president of Senegal. Illustrated with 24 color and black/white plates.

Genres: History, Art, Africa, Nonfiction, Ethnography

274 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2006

About the author

German ethnologist and explorer, whose writings helped shape the culture-historical approach to ethnology.

Reviews

[Ana-Maria Bujor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this old edition and took a while before I actually delved into the two volumes, but it proved to be a very informative read on a topic I barely knew anything about. The book is quite respectful and maintains a great sense of awe regarding the African culture, in spite of the time it was written.
And even though the language gets a bit too academic for my taste, it contains a lot of interesting history, art analysis and folk tales, which I really enjoyed. It's also interesting to notice how some elements are common to the European lore and religion. Overall a good informative read that gets to be very entertaining in the second volume.