The celebration of West African culture and literature, tagged West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song at the British Library which opened last October continues till 16 February.
The exhibition traces a millennium of the region’s history and showcases the incredible creativity that has come from the region.
The exhibition looks at how West Africans have harnessed the power of words and influenced culture today charting developments from the great empires of the Middle Ages, through to colonialism and independence, right up to the 21st Century.
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Photo by Toby Keane
Bele carnival costume
Bele carnival costume by Ray Mahabir, a drum dance and song closely linked to Caribbean history, struggle, freedom.
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Courtesy of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
Decorated sheet-brass box with symbolic designs such as a Sankofa bird, Ananse the spider and two crocodiles with one stomach
Decorated sheet-brass box with symbolic designs such as a Sankofa bird, Ananse the spider and two crocodiles with one stomach.
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Photographed by Bernard Matussière and reproduced by kind permission of Knitting Factory Records for West Africa
Fela Kuti
Fela Kuti
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Image of Mansa (King) Musa, the Mali emperor
Image of Mansa (King) Musa, the Mali emperor (ruled 1307–1332) from a Catalan atlas created in 1375, indicating that his fame had reached Europe.
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Photographed by Toby Keane
Janet Topp Fargion and Marion Wallace, Co-Curators of West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song
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On loan from the British Museum
Necklace with amulet from The Gambia (before 1869)
Necklace with amulet from The Gambia (before 1869)
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Image courtesy of the British Library
Obituary of the Right Reverend Samuel Ajayi Crowther
Obituary of the Right Reverend Samuel Ajayi Crowther from the Illustrated London News, 1892.
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On loan from the British Museum
Tiny brass statue of a Sankofa bird, used for weighing gold.
Tiny brass statue of a Sankofa bird, used for weighing gold.
On display is an impressive array of West Africa’s literary history:
- Exquisite illuminated Qur’ans and manuscripts plus contemporary graphic novels.
- The Akonting, a West African lute, made especially for the exhibition, which is thought to be one of the earliest ancestors of the banjo.
- ‘Talking’ drums which were (and still are) used to communicate between communities including a show playing a recording from the 20s.
The event also features the work of some great characters involved including:
- Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.
- Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti - ‘a world music legend’
- Lemi Ghariokwu, a self-taught Nigerian artist and graphic designer who created the album sleeve art for most of Fela Kuti’s classic albums and responds to not only the music but its social and political message
- Ben Okri, a Nigerian poet and novelist who was awarded a Booker prize in 1991. Okri is considered one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions.
- Gus Casely-Hayford, a renowned British curator and historian with Ghanian roots.
- The eminent Olaudah Equiano also known as Gustavus Vassa, the most famous 18th-century British writer of African heritage. The exhibition shows a 1789 edition of his autobiography telling the story of his life in Nigeria, his kidnapping and traumatic transportation to the Americas, enslavement and regaining freedom.