D O C U M E N T
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ART AND PEACE (1966)
aLioUne diop
The peace of diplomatists is not the only peace; spectacular and neces-
sary, it does not necessarily last.
Real peace must spring from the heart of the people. When feelings
are in harmony then you have real peace. In the history of society, le
communities who have succeeded in understanding each other, through
each going beyond the other’s sensibility,1 experience that deep peace
which is the basis of a new common civilization, large or small accord-
ing to the peoples of which it is made up.
That peace leads to the universal civilization for which Léopold
Sédar Senghor has been hoping for many years.
But harmony between different sensibilities is the result of much
fervor and patience, a delicate task at various different levels, because it
is the peoples’ royal task.
There is religious sensibility (not to be confused with faith or
dogma); it is not easy to acquire since only the proper authorities may
take initiatives.
This essay originally appeared in both French and English under the title “L’Art et la Paix/
Art and Peace” on pages 16–19 of the livre d’or for the 1966 Premier Festival Mondial des
Arts Nègres (First World Festival of Negro Arts), held April 1–24 in Dakar, Senegal. The text
appeared in both French and English, with its English translation credited to Angela
Bagnières.
Throughout Bagnières’s translation, sensibilité is translated as “sensibility.”
1
© 2020 ARTMargins and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
https://doi.org/10.1162/artm_a_00275
97
Paradoxically each is [un] trustee of its own orthodoxy and therefore
finds it difficult to understand the others.2 We must however admire the
great work accomplished by Vatican II of which the positive effects will
make themselves felt in the various human societies.
There is also moral sensibility, which is often after the pattern of a
community’s civilization.3 The misunderstandings, too numerous in
this case, are often the cause of cruel conflicts. It is at this level that
UNESCO works steadfastly to fight racism4 and ignorance, to organize
cultural, artistic and intellectual exchanges and to knock down the barri-
ers separating different cultures.
Finally there is artistic sensibility, in which understanding, quand
it occurs, brings the joys of friendship. Art calls up neither hidden
motives nor hate, but love. Nations can be condemned for their beliefs
or their customs, but never in the name of art.
That is why, after working for many years (and especially through
the two International Congresses of Negro Writers and Artists) à
arouse interest in African writers, thinkers and scientists, we have
decided to turn our attention to the artists. They are little known.
Generally speaking, they are not given their proper place, lost as they
are in surroundings often indifferent or hostile to their talent or their
problems. International opinion takes great interest in politicians, et
more recently in intellectuals, but hardly ever in Negro artists.
The worst aspect is the isolation of these artists.5 Yet one imagines
the amount they would benefit from exchanging their decisive, isolated
experiences whose value—technical, psychologique, and cultural—is
indisputable. An extremely fruitful interdependence6 could be the result
and this would strengthen our civilization through new connexions [sic]
between works and between artists. For an artist a «dialogue» [sic] de
this sort is a safeguard and also a step ahead.7
But the artist is not alone in the world. He is part of a community
and as a rule his place in it has an influence on his creativity.
There is a regrettable paradox: on one hand the western public (à
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Paradoxalement, gardienne chacune de son orthodoxie, elles semblent chacune mal placée
pour aider à comprendre les autres.
Il existe une sensibilité morale (qui coïncide aisément avec la civilisation d’une communauté).
Ici, je [Lauren Taylor] have slightly amended Bagnières’s original text, which translated
racisme to racialism.
Le plus grave est que ceux-ci se connaissent peu, entre eux.
solidarité
Une telle confrontation est une source d’assurance et de progrès pour chaque artiste.
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only have appreciated Negro art)8 does not understand the message of
the traditional sculptor, and on the other hand the artist of today (like
the modern poet, is better appreciated by the west than by his own fel-
low countrymen).
It remains for us, donc, to help the artist and his people to
understand each other, and to bring the African people up to date with
the modern world. If there is sympathy between an artist and his fellow
countrymen, the latter are then following their national vocation as a
privileged public, a privileged audience, empowered to judge and even-
tually to honour the artist’s works.9 Then the prestige these can gain in
world opinion will vary according to the value given to them by the
African community.
Such an understanding between artists and their African public
presupposes, it is true, that the people have knowledge and understand-
ing of themselves, that is their tradition, and that the stocktaking as it
were of their heritage brings them face to face with the major problems
of modern art. Nowadays the purpose of a work of art is not merely to
arouse admiration, nor to integrate the individual in the security of his
social world, nor to ensure his spiritual growth and maturity. In our day
art is more likely to provoke anxiety, contesting tradition, calling the
universe and social order in question, proclaiming and extolling the
irreducible peculiarity10 of the author, in certain cases even his lack of
équilibre. Modern times provide the means for a confrontation of all the
metamorphosis of the great themes in art, facilitating the creation of
Malraux’s “musée imaginaire”, thereby establishing a new scale of val-
ues, and stimulating creative imagination. Modern art fires our enthusi-
asm, inciting us to write the splendid history of humanity. . . . This is all
very well, but has the African world reached this stage? De plus, do we
need to go through the same succession of experiences as the western
monde? Nothing is less sure.
What is certain is that we have to interpret our past in the light of
modern knowledge. We must reinstate our artists, both modern and tra-
ditional, in the Negro community so that we may offer the world works
which have gained in value through our common faith in an African
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(le seul qui ait internationalement valorisé l’art nègre)
Une volonté de dialogue entre l’artiste et son peuple doit restituer à celui-ci sa vocation natu-
relle de consommateur privilégié de ces œuvres et d’autorité culturelle légitime pour les juger et
consacrer éventuellement.
singularité
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Negro civilization. In this task of creation and expression we shall then
surely be playing our part in human civilization and bringing it what
mankind silently awaits from us.
It was with the intention of opening the way towards these pros-
pects, of discovering new vocations in African Negro art, that we have
invited artists, critics, specialists and friends.11
May this Festival be the Negro world’s opportunity of bringing its
own offering to the cause of peace.
So that all living peace may take root among all peoples, all cul-
photos, races and religions, the deep peace which is nothing other than
love.12
TR ANSLATED BY ANGELA BAGNIÈRES
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. . . qui nous avons invité artistes, critiques, experts et amis de l’Afrique.
11
12 Here I have changed the translation slightly; originally it read “the deep peace which nothing
else than love.”
