Historical overview of the African continent: to 1600

Recent discoveries in southern Africa provide remarkable evidence of the earliest stirrings of human creativity.

Historical overview of the African continent: from the 1600s to the present

By the sixteenth century, Western trade involved Africans being forcibly brought to the Americas as slaves.

Arts practices on the African continent have evolved both independently of and in response to European imperialism.

Islam, one the world’s main monotheistic faiths, was founded in the 7th century by Muhammad, a merchant from Mecca.

Many forms of African art are characterized by visual abstraction or departure from representational accuracy.

Objects created by African artists often express, aesthetic, functional, and moral values all at once.

In addition to local indigenous religions, Christianity and Islam are also practiced throughout Africa.

Ife’s refined and highly naturalistic sculptural tradition was unlike anything else in Africa at the time.

Who told you not to get a big head? In some African art, a large head is believed to guide one to success!

Art has always played a role in African politics—both in large kingdoms and smaller, village-based societies.

In transitional periods, art objects are often employed to assist rites of passage and reinforce community values.