What Roger Fry thought about Africa

- Posted: 16.Aug.2007.




As we have seen Roger Fry took the friendly, or paternalistic, approach to racism. In an instructive letter, directed to a certain Mr. Stevens in 1925, Fry writes about the "degeneration of African art", and about the problem the brave British collector has in collecting it.

What beats me is why there has been this degeneration in African art. It’s by no means merely the arrival of the white man for it has been going on for some centuries and we hardly counted a hundred years ago. It is very curious – we trace the degeneration of our handiwork to all sorts of external causes (machinery etc) but none of these apply to Africa until quite recently.

And yet a similar spiritual exhaustion seems to have been taking place. It is very mysterious. The other strange thing about African culture is that with such an extraordinary pitch of sensibility and power as their early art shows they seem never to have had the extended race memory which holds together Asiatic and European cultures and also those of Peru & Mexico. They have never kept records and that is very strange it shows a lack somewhere of the sense of continuity and though we often curse our historical memory which won’t let old wrongs die and our archaeological fervour which won’t let new art live I suppose this conscious continuity does inspire and control our expression. I think the attempt at African History of immense importance in this. If only a beginning could be made. I suppose hardly anything is known [?also] of the great civilizations that built up places like Kano and the deserted cities of the Sahara but anyhow that belongs to another race (I suppose) from your Coast people who have never had any highly organic culture at all. But if only some kind of historic continuity could be made apparent to them I’m sure it would have a great effect.