Animals in African Art: From the Familiar to the Marvelous is the first major book wholly dedicated to the animal images so common in African art. Their meanings and purposes are assumed to be so obvious that they are taken for granted. Once the animals in African art are looked at more closely, important questions arise. Why is it that from the astounding diversity of life-forms in Africa, so very few animals are chosen as subjects of visual and performative arts? Why are the animals that do appear repeatedly in African art so often downright peculiar—even preposterous? Why and how are animals such a useful, if purposefully distorting, mirror of humanity? Indeed, what does it mean to be “human” or “animal,” in the first place? Using metaphor and other devices of representation as vehicles of expression, Africans use animal behavior to define human values and encourage thinking about human social disharmonies. As such the animals most often found in African art are those that are most familiar or those through which irony and paradox are most tangible. Moreover, as a given animal suggests different things to different people, Animals in African Art celebrates African cultural diversity as well as the brilliance with which ideas are given form through plastic and performative arts.

Exhibition catalogue by Allen F. Roberts with Foreword: Meditating on Animals - Figuring Out Humans! by James W. Fernandez; chapters by the author: Hitching Up the “Horse”; Familiar “Friends”; Into the Garden; Out on the Edge; Beyond the Pale; Epilogue: Bringing It All Back Home; and catalogue notes by Carol A. Thompson. Published by The Museum for African Art and Prestel, Munich, 1995. 192 pp. Cloth: ISBN 3-7913-1455-6, Paper: 0-945802-17-X. LCCN: 94-73442.