Customer Reviews

African Ceremonies

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Beckwith and Fisher exceed their prior masterpieces with thistwo-volume collection of photographs and descriptions of traditionalceremonies. The diversity of settings, the splendor of styles and smiles, and the care and reverence they bring to this work speaks to their respect and faithfulness to the quest. The text is as clear as the customs are intriguing. The photographs capture the breadth of scenes and go to the details.

This is not the work of dilettantes or voyeurs, nor is it an exercise of academic minutiae, sensational reporting, or sentimental travel writing. AFRICAN CEREMONIES has been born of the drive in the human race to celebrate life and mystery, the wisdom of elders and officials who have granted access to private domains in a number of nations, and the hard work and devotion of two extraordinary women who have paid their dues in the field for decades.

There is something still missing, however, in their publishing odyssey. One can hope that they are hard at work on a volume to crown the splendor of their last six--a celebration of life in everyday terms. Who are better prepared to assemble visual albums of villages where there are no K-Marts? From cotton boll to blanket, palm nut to fragrant oil, log to canoe, their keen and practiced eyes can show us the process of lives much like our recent ancestors lived when they too cooked over open fires and chased birds from the fields before harvest.

I received African Ceremonies as a birthday present two months ago and soon began to read the book carefully since the photographs beg you to listen to the stories they tell about people, their lives, their aspirations and their ceremonies. For centuries Africa was a continent of massive migrations and vibrant cultures. All had their high time, declined in the normal course of events and left a legacy for their successors. Yet most ceremonies, although embellished and refined over time, remained largely the same. The hypnotic photograph of the Voodoo dancer from Ghana on the front of the slip case, for example, speaks of a time of spirits, oracles and divinations. Of soothsayers and intermediaries between man and the higher powers as well as of the unshakable belief that intervention is needed to protect man from evil, to solve his troubles, to cure his illnesses and generally to secure good fortune. And the Berber bride in her bejeweled headdress and cloak on the spine of the book reminds us that not all Africans are of black skin colour and that depending on what coast of Africa one finds oneself on, influences from out of Africa have helped to create new Africans. And with them ceremonies.

Beckwith and Fisher have been photographing Africa for over thirty years, and like a ripe savoury wine African Ceremonies was many years in the making. With the expert collaboration of writers and designers each volume now contains three sections: Birth and Initiation; Courtship and Marriage; Royalty and Power in Volume 1; and Seasonal Rites; Beliefs and Worship; Spirits and Ancestors in Volume 2. The Dagara shaman Malidoma Patrice Som‚ from Burkina Faso, a special friend and guide to the photographers, sets the tone in his Foreword by saying that Beckwith and Fisher's travails are really a labour of love for Africa and that the two women responded "to an urgent call from the continent's ancestors to record sacred ceremonies before it is too late." And record they did: the two volumes contain over 700 pages and hundreds of exquisite colour photographs showing 43 ceremonies in 26 countries.

Birth, childhood, initiation, marriage and death are fateful events in an African's life. The first photograph in African Childhood of a Surma father in Ethiopia surrounded by five children with their bodies painted has universal appeal as do those of ochred Himba children in Namibia and young Krobo girls draped in their beautiful cloths from Ghana. The initiation ceremonies and practices leading a young boy or girl from childhood to adulthood are elaborate, and while they are sometimes difficult for us to look at they have nevertheless been part of African life for time immemorial. The rituals of the Taneka initiation in northern Benin, of Ndebele womanhood in South Africa or Maasai warriorhood in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya and Tanzania are deeply rooted in the land and its people. Glistening with red ochre body paint and adorned with various implements, marching one behind the other across the arid savannah, the page literally palpitates with the excitement and eagerness of these young Maasai boys to at last become adults.

The photographs of a Tuareg wedding deep in the Saharan desert pulsate with a life unknown to the viewer. Descended from the ancient Berbers of North Africa who fought and then mingled with invading Arabs centuries ago, the two-page photograph of guests arriving in their finery on their camels from across the arid land is a breathtaking symphony of colours any contemporary fashion designer would love to create. The beautiful photographs of African Brides later in the book are a reminder that, whatever one's culture, a wedding day is one of the most significant days in a woman's life.

In the best of times man and nature in Africa have lived in harmony and in the spirit of reciprocity, and across the continent seasonal rites are a time-honoured means by which people seek the protection of the spirit world for themselves, their land and their animals. The tall lean Dinka of the southern Sudan, elegant in their traditional beaded corsets, are devoted to their cattle. So are the Omo from the Omo river valley in southwest Ethiopia who perform an elaborate bull jumping ceremony to prove the young initiate's prowess. Bedik planting rites from southeast Senegal call on the spirit world to appease the powers of nature and bless the crops and the people who work the fields. The Ewe people of Togo and Ghana perform a yam blessing ceremony, and for the agriculturist Bobo of Burkina Faso nature is a benevolent entity that only human actions can upset. Their colourful bush mask rituals are meant to reestablish that equilibrium.

To most Africans the worlds of the living and the dead are equally real, and the funeral is the last transitional rite before the departed joins the world of the spirits forever. The Surma burial rites in the southwest region of Ethiopia on the border with Sudan, and the collective Dogon Dama funeral in Mali south of the Niger, which takes place every dozen years, are fantastic ceremonies to witness. To have been allowed to photograph them speaks volumes about Beckwith and Fisher's talent to win the confidence of their subjects as well as of their ability not to let the lens become an annoying intruder.

African Ceremonies is photographic story telling and adventure at its finest. It is art rather than ethnographic documentation and will, no doubt, be the definitive photographic record of African ceremonies for a long time to come..................

The New York Times Sunday Book Review section today had a wonderful review of this book (2 volumes in a slipcase). The documentation of ritual and people performing rituals as the seasons change in Nature and life cycles turn for People is a sacred task. The photographers appear to have embraced their subjects with care and respect - perhaps others will follow in this way in the future. What strikes me most about the book and the reviews is the genuine approach of the authors to the dignity, honor and respect of the African People they have photographed and documented. This alone makes the book a winner for me.

Regarding the book, I am particularly impressed by their treatment of sacredness without judgment and jaded lens. Indeed the art and form of ritual itself creates tradition. The music of these images is at once visual and alive celebrating the sacred as timeless expressions of culture and community.

The "concise edition" of AFRICAN CEREMONIES opens with a preface by Dr. Malidoma Some, president of "Echoes of the Ancestors" and author of his autobiography OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT and THE HEALING WISDOM OF AFRICA. Malidoma is from the Dagara tribe of Burkina Faso. His name means "make friends with the stranger/enemy," and that is why he now lives in the West.

I have met Malidoma on a few occasions (participating in some of his rituals) and I corresponded with him for a time. He has been incredibly helpful and supportive in my own spiritual journey (he is an initiated shaman of his tribe and has recently become the youngest initiated elder), and therefore I trust what he says. Malidoma's preface makes it clear that, sadly, AFRICAN CEREMONIES documents a world that - unlike the claims of some - is not entirely gone, but that is quickly vanishing. Malidoma comments that these photographs are very important because they show the last time that some of these ceremonies will be performed in such elaborate nature, and perhaps they will never be performed again at all.

AFRICAN CEREMONIES continues the tradition of these well respected photographers by providing a beautiful volume of beautiful peoples.

There is no-doubt about the photos are more than good.

However, the attached CD is less than poor or wrong...at least on the tracks from the East Africa; 11, 15 and 17 as below.

- Track 11 : KAMBA DRUMS
This is not the Kamba(a Kenyan ethnic group) drum.
The tune played here is called "GONDA" of the Giriama tribe of Kenya and the play itself is not of a high quality. It was played by unskilled players is obvious.

- Track 15 : BUGO
Well, it is Bugo play, but not at all of a traditional way of it. Songs usually accompany Bugo and the high-pitch trumpet-like sound mixed on the track seems not of a traditional instrument. The player is not a good one, too.

- Track 17 : MABUMBUMBO (Indian Ocean)
This is totally wrong.
First of all, it is MABUMBUMBU, NOT Mabumbumb-o-.
Secondly, MABUMBUMBU is the plural of Bumbumbu, which is the name of a type of drum the Giriama tribe uses. The Giriama lives in the Coastal area of Kenya towards inland - you cannot call the Giriamas as people of Indian Ocean.
Moreover, the tune played here is not of Mabumbumbu!
The tune here is of a drum section only of ORUTU music - Orutu is a one-string instrument played by the Luo tribe. The sound of drum you hear on this track is of a drum called OHANGULA, which is not in anyway related to Mabumbumbu; for these two tribes reside in the both ends of Kenya, East and West, more than 1000Kms apart!


I wonder how these careless mistakes passed through eyes of the publishers prior to its publication.

Readers please ignore the above-mentioned tracks - I hope only these three tracks! - on the supplement CD.

I purchased this book (it's actually a two volume set) about a year ago and it still fascinates me. It sits underneath a glass coffee table in our living room. When company visits, invariably, someone picks it up and starts going through it, at that point they are "no longer there". It happens everytime, once you start, it becomes very difficult to put the book down. You tell yourself "I'll just look at one more page" but the photos are superbly done as well as the narration. WONDERFUL!

The photos alone make these volumes a treasure. The text is clear and brings new understanding to any reader.

These photos are simply stunning, and I've always been impressed with the artistic quality of Beckwith and Fisher's photos (their other books, their spreads in National Geographic, etc.). My problem with what they do--not just this title but their entire body of work--is that it purports to represent an Africa that doesn't really exist.

The Africa of Beckwith and Fisher is lovely to look at, full of color and motion and vibrancy. Its residents are splendid in their traditional attire, dancing their traditional dances and observing their traditional rituals. These images have a timeless quality to them; one comes away with the impression that African societies are little changed since the pre-industrial, pre-colonial era.

And this is precisely what's wrong with these presentations. Africa HAS changed, and immeasurably so. From Dakar to Dar es Salaam and from Cairo to Cape Town, Africans are living in the 21st century just like the rest of us. Many of them are going to work in the morning, coming home and watching TV at night, and wearing Adidas track suits. But you wouldn't know that from AFRICAN CEREMONIES or any of the other Beckwith/Fisher books, because that's not the Africa they're trying to sell. Their Africa is "traditional," "pure," and "authentic," whatever those words mean, and it bothers me that they've taken it upon themselves to determine what does and doesn't make the cut.

I would never suggest that the creators of this book somehow staged their scenes so as to filter out all vestiges of modern life. But they must have selected their photos very carefully to have the same effect. You have to look pretty hard in this collection to see so much as a wristwatch, even though the vast majority of Africans wear wristwatches nowadays.

I spent a few years in Africa, including among some of the peoples whose ceremonies are "recorded" here. But looking at AFRICAN CEREMONIES, I had a hard time recognizing the same places I'd been and the people I'd known. What you get with this package is a carefully screened presentation of African life. Admire its beauty, which is genuine, but don't be trapped into believing that these images represent some kind of ageless African truth. They don't, because Africa is not stuck in the past.

African Ceremonies represents a decade of hard work and a tremendous achievement. Its authors convey great insight and deep respect for vanishing African cultures. Does any other work of photography or cultural anthropology even come close in its importance?

Readers will be engaged and fascinated by this window into a disappearing world. My reaction was one of deep appreciation-- thank you, Beckwith and Fisher, for sharing your journey with us.

This two volume set contains beautiful, wonderful, photographs, showing some of the diversity of Africa and the beauty of the African people. As another reviewer mentioned, I would also love to see another book by these photographer/authors on daily life. For anyone interested in Africa, I cannot recommend this book too strongly.