The Roots of Cool 1: Composure
Part 1: Tracing Cool Composure from Africa and Italy
This is the first post in a five-part series exploring the roots of American "cool" over continents and centuries leading up to WWII.
Before diving in, a question… When you think of someone who is “cool”, what specific qualities come to mind? What is it about them? My hypothesis is that these qualities are more consistent and timeless than they appear. This series will help us start defining the elements of cool, starting at the roots.
The year is 1963 and you find yourself in Nigeria, on the west coast of Africa. The Yorùbá people, one of the most significant cultures in Africa, are celebrating with music and dance.
Among the drums and dancing, you see something unexpected: a white guy in his thirties enters the celebration. His dances and clothes match those of the revelers, his drumming is in sync with the locals, and he speaks the Yorùbá language.
You think to yourself: who the hell is this?
This gentleman is Robert Farris Thompson. He was born in El Paso, Texas, and spent his life studying and teaching Afrocentric music and art at Yale University, where he was known as “Master T.”
He spent much of his life studying art and culture in West Africa and was among the first Westerners to help Americans understand and appreciate African art. Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Byrne, and Henry Louis Gates Jr. have praised his contributions. Basquiat famously said that Master T’s book, Flash of the Spirit, gave him a “guiding ideology.”
David Byrne:
Jonathan Demme and I planned to make a documentary about Prof Robert Farris Thompson, known as Master T, as we were both huge fans. Besides throwing out culture bombs that have disrupted the world of art, music, dance and philosophy – Thompson is an amazing performer… His lecture style is full body, and has been described as a meeting of Kerouac and Coltrane.
Watch Master T’s moves in action
Master T and Coolness in Africa
In his years in Africa, Master T noticed something unique that he didn’t see in Western cultures: the notion of coolness as an essential part of society. In this context, coolness is not about temperature, but composure. He found similar terms across many African cultures. Master T writes:
Struck by the re-occurrence of this vital notion elsewhere in tropical Africa and in the Black Americas, I have come to term the attitude "an aesthetic of the cool" in the sense of a deeply and complexly motivated, consciously artistic, interweaving of elements serious and pleasurable, of responsibility and of play.
In the Yorùbá culture, this is known as “itutu,” which literally translates to “coolness” and is one of the pillars of Yorùbá society along with “àshe”, which relates to character.
The Foundations of African Cool
Master T’s book, The Aesthetic of the Cool, describes coolness in terms of the interrelated Yorùbá concepts of itutu and àshe which indicate composure, character, and beauty.
"The ability to be nonchalant at the right moment, to reveal no emotion in situations where excitement and sentimentality are acceptable. It is particularly admirable to do difficult tasks with an air of ease and silent disdain.
In everyday life, itutu and àshe are part of customary interactions that involve generosity and grace.
“Coolness, then, is a part of character, and character objectifies proper custom. To the degree that we live generously and discreetly, exhibiting grace under pressure, our appearance and our acts gradually assume virtual royal power. As we become noble…we find the confidence to cope with all kinds of situations.”
These qualities have been with the Yorùbá people for thousands of years. We can ask: Did they invent the idea of coolness? Or did their culture come to practice it at a level that made it apparent to academics like Master T?
I believe cool composure isn’t limited to specific cultures or to Africa. At heart, it is a human quality that is expressed differently around the world. What we see in Yorùbá history and religion is the quality being recognized, named, and appreciated.
A Video on Itutu
The School of Life does a good job of explaining the concept:
Cool Composure in 16th Century Italy
We can also look to Italian culture, known today for its appreciation for coolness, composure, and style. In the 16th century, Baldassare Castiglione wrote The Book of the Courtier, which described people visiting the royal court.
He describes visitors to the court as having:
"A certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it”
“An easy facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them"
He called this quality “sprezzatura,” which continues to be a goal related to gentlemanly composure, effortlessness, and authentic style.
Castiglione’s book was popular at the time as courtiers across Europe used the idea of sprezzatura as a guide for courtly behavior and influence.
Internal Composure and Control
This sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Both itutu and sprezzatura describe a similar quality: calm grace and effortlessness, even under pressure. Both itutu and sprezzatura are mostly emotional states that are internal to the person. They describe someone’s ability to control their actions and emotions. This is why I think the term calm composure works for this analysis.
One Thread of Many
We’re getting closer to defining coolness, but gaps remain. To fill them, we’ll need to travel over 1,700 miles from Nigeria to another culture in West Africa and consider a different perspective on coolness. That will be part two of this series.
Before You Go
Think again about the qualities that come to mind when you think of someone with a “cool” vibe. Could that vibe be possible without cool composure?
I can see where calmness and an effortless affect would be a valuable social signal that someone has experience or competence at handling the issue at hand, and therefore would naturally be seen as a leader. But it's interesting where the two - competence and coolness - aren't always coupled. We often think of cool as a character trait - 'he *is* cool', not 'he acts cool when knitting because he's done it for years'. It seems like there's cool derived from competence/experience, cleverness/talent, and also sometimes that can't be attributed to either.