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.
West Africa
Ivory spoons from West Africa were imported into Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Spoons from West Africa in Renaissance Lisbon
The bronzes from Igbo-Ukwu have intricate designs and symbolism, and demonstrate technical virtuosity.
Igbo-Ukwu
Paa Joe created large-scale, painted wood sculptures that represent architectural models of Gold Coast castles and forts, which served as way stations for more than six million Africans sold into slavery and sent to the Americas and the Caribbean between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Paa Joe: Gates of No Return
This large sculpture was made for Mami Wata, pidgin English for “Mother of Water," a charismatic being of great spiritual power celebrated in West and Central Africa and reimagined as deities such as La Sirene (Haitian Vodou) and Yemanjá (Candomblé and Umbanda) in Afro-Atlantic spiritual traditions.
“Mami Wata” figure, Igbo artist
Curator Gus Casely-Hayford looks at the origins and history of the Asafo flags, made by the Fante people of the Gold Coast of Africa, now known as Ghana.
Gus Casely-Hayford on Fante Asafo Flags | ...
This exceptional mask has a solid wooden core carved with two similar faces in opposing directions, often referred to as a Janus face.
Janus-Faced Headdress (Ejagham or Bale peoples)
These carved wooden figures have human faces but animal attributes, and reflected the achievements of their owners.
Ikenga (Igbo peoples)
The Koutammakou landscape in north-eastern Togo, which extends into neighboring Benin, is home to the Batammariba with their remarkable mud tower-houses
Mud tower-houses (takienta), Koutammakou region
Timbuktu was an intellectual and spiritual capital and a center for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries
Timbuktu
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
The site consists of four large groups of stone circles that represent an extraordinary concentration of over 1,000 monuments
Stone circles of Senegambia
with its imposing stone walls, Loropéni is the best preserved of ten fortresses in the Lobi area and is part of a larger group of 100 stone enclosures that bear testimony to the power of the trans-Saharan gold trade
Ruins of Loropéni
From 1625 to 1900, 12 kings succeeded one another at the head of the powerful Kingdom of Abomey (in Benin)—and they built palaces.
Royal palaces of Abomey
This brass head clearly portrays a person of status and authority, possibly a king (ooni) of Ife
Head of a ruler, Ife
Twin figures known as Ère Ìbejì reveal how a Yorùbá mother navigates the loss of twins
Yorùbá artist, pair of twin figures (Ère ...
Ghanaian coffins are famous for their creative shapes
Paa Joe, Coffin the Shape of a ...
This wooden coffin in the form of eagle with painted gold feather markings was made in the village of Teshie in Ghana.
Coffin in the shape of an eagle
Royal patrons, artists, and power in the Kingdom of Benin.
Benin Art: Patrons, Artists and Current Controversies
The audience hall in the palace in Benin City communicated to visiting ambassadors, traders, courtiers, and subjects the power and wealth of the Oba, or king.
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