Our agenda in using the cycle of life in Africa to teach about African art is to increase understanding of Africa, to increase appreciation for the power and beauty of African art, to increase understanding for African systems of thought, and to increase respect and tolerance for the different ways peoples around the world do things differently than we do. Art is the most eloquent statement any people make about themselves. People all over the world have, for millennia, used art to represent their systems of religious belief, their ideas about political power, to record their history, to describe important events in their lives and the lives of their communities.
Art reflects social, economic, and educational systems.
This is as much true in Europe and America as it is in Africa. The result is that, by studying art we are able to understand a great deal about the people who made it, or commissioned it. Art is a primary document for understanding other people, both our contemporaries and our ancestors. It is as valuable a resource as are the written documents of the past for understanding why people do things as they do. We understand that to most students, Africa and especially African art seem very different, very strange, very abstract, and often very difficult to understand.