Observation

This question was not popular among the candidates and some of the candidates that attempted it failed to give satisfactory responses. Expectedly, these inadequate responses earned them poor marks. Candidates should have answered the question by giving some of the following points:

• - Religion was the driving force of traditional West African art, as art objects were made primarily for religious purposes e.g. Ancestral figures for Ancestral worship
• - Ancestral figures and masks were created to serve as intermediaries between the physical and supernatural worlds.
• - Christianity has contributed immensely to the patronage and development of contemporary art of West Africa. For example, the Father Kelvin Carroll workshop in Oye Ekiti was established to train artist and churches in West Africa have commissioned contemporary artists to produce artworks based on religious themes. An example of this is the Rising Christ by Ben Enwonwu at the University of Ibadan.
• - Churches are decorated with murals mosaics  and stained glass based on biblical subject matters.
• - The early missionary regarded traditional art practice in West Africa as idolatory driven by pagan ways and beliefs.
• Images and carving were regarded as idols and resultantly, numerous traditional artworks were burnt or destroyed in West Africa.
• Islamic religion forbids figural representations.