Panel Abstract
The concept of art in pre-colonial Africa was psychically based, in the sense that artistry was first recognized in the psyche of the individual whose cognitive sphere is charged with creative imagination. The manifestation of this creative mind will then give the external realities of different categories of art forms and products—including music, dance, drama, oral literature, craft, visual, and plastic arts. It was indeed very hard to find the African artist who is solely confined to one category of art; rather you find in one artist a high level of versatility in performing, visual, plastic, and literary arts. In the pre-colonial African custom of ascribing gender status to both abstract and concrete items of culture, the ‘art’ was considered feminine—a pointer to the deified place of woman as a medium for the perpetuation of life. The environment was therefore perceived and preserved as a vital product of the art. Literary and oral historical records allude to the possibility that the pre-colonial African environment was dominated by the artistic products of females of various classes and classifications.
The panel proceeds to probe the peculiarities of the environment impacted by the women-dominated pre-colonial African arts. Topical as the issue is, there exists a paltry presence of empirical research reports in literature on the subject matter. In problematizing the inherent issues, the panel seeks to interrogate the past so as to situate the points of divergence and convergence with the present African arts and the resultant environmental influences and impacts. The result of this investigation may likely open a vista into climate change adaptation.