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Mali

Fun and festive, Nuit de Noël (Happy Couple) is exemplary of Malick Sidibé’s best known body of work: photographs of young people at social gatherings and events during the 1960s and 1970s.

Malick Sidibé, Nuit de Noël (Happy Couple)

by Dr. Kristen Laciste

Djingareyber Mosque, built 1327, Timbuktu, Mali. Two tombs at this mosque were attacked by Islamic extremists in 2012. (photo: Johannes Zielcke, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) — Timbuktu was an intellectual and spiritual capital and a center for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries

Timbuktu

by UNESCO

Askia — This tomb bears testimony to the power and riches of the empire that flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries through its control of the trans-Saharan trade, notably in salt and gold

Tomb of Askia

by UNESCO

Timbuktu, December 05, 2013 - Deputy Director Abdoulaye Cisse explains how over 10000 manuscripts were hidden and saved at the Institut des Hautes Etudes et de Recherche Islamiques Ahmed Baba in Timbuktu — A heroic effort to save and preserve Mali's long manuscript tradition.

Saving Timbuktu’s manuscripts

by Father Columba Stewart, OSB and Dr. Beth Harris

Seated Figure, terracotta, 13th century, Mali, Inland Niger Delta region, Djenné peoples, 25/4 x 29.9 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) — Are these little-understood figures representations of diseased people, or an attempt to ward off illness?

Lost History: the terracotta sculpture of Djenne ...

by Dr. Kristina Van Dyke and Dr. Steven Zucker

Seydou Keïta, Untitled [Seated Woman with Chevron Print Dress], 1956, printed 1997, Mali, Bamako, gelatin silver print, 60.96 x 50.8 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) — Studio photography produced mementos for the growing middle class: Keïta’s Bamako studio was abuzz with clients.

Seydou Keïta, Untitled (Seated Woman with Chevron ...

by Dr. Christa Clarke

Kòmò Helmet Mask (Kòmòkun), 19th–mid-20th century, Guinea or Mali or Burkina Faso or Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa, Komo or Koma Power Association, Wood, bird skull, porcupine quills, horns, cotton, sacrificial materials, 35.2 x 22.1 x 85.6 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) — Intended to intimidate, this headdress was used by a member of the powerful Kumo society of blacksmiths.

Kòmò Helmet Mask (Kòmòkunw) (Bamana peoples)

by Dr. Christa Clarke

Headdress: Male Antelope (Ci Wara), 19th–20th century Mali, Bamako region, Bamana, wood, metal bands, 71.1 cm high (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) — These headdresses celebrate the divine Ci Wara, half man and half antelope, who introduced humans to agriculture.

Male and Female Antelope Headdresses (Ci wara) ...

by Dr. Christa Clarke

Mask (Kanaga), Mali, Dogon peoples, 20th century, wood, fiber, hide, pigment, 53.6 x 97.2 x 15.9 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) — Kanaga masks were traditionally worn during the dama, a six-day long funerary ritual for Dogon men.

Mask (Kanaga) (Dogon peoples)

by Dr. Christa Clarke

Seated Figure, terracotta, 13th century, Mali, Inland Niger Delta region, Djenné peoples, 25/4 x 29.9 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) — This hunched figure is a large part of the material record of an egalitarian society that disappeared around 1400.

Seated Figure (Djenné peoples)

by Dr. Christa Clarke

Dogon Couple, 18th-early 19th century (Dogon peoples), Mali, wood and metal, 73 x 23.7 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) — Is this a couple, or could this pair relate to a story from Dogon cosmology?

Dogon Couple (Dogon peoples)

by Steven Zucker and Dr. Peri Klemm

bamana grid — Each of these works embodies complementary Bamana ideals of physical beauty and moral character

Mother and Child & Seated Male with ...

by Dr. Christa Clarke

ark grid — This type of vessel has been interpreted by art historians as a representation of the mythic ark central to Dogon accounts of genesis.

Ritual Container (Dogon peoples)

by Dr. Christa Clarke

A view of the Great Mosque of Djenné, designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988 along with the old town of Djenné, in the central region of Mali. — The largest mud-built structure in the world, the Great Mosque of Djenné has been reconstructed multiple times.

Great Mosque of Djenné (Djenné peoples)

by Dr. Elisa Dainese