How to Identify African Masks: A Region by Region Guide for Beginners
Learn how to identify African masks by region, material, and style, from Yoruba Gelede to Dogon Kanaga masks. A clear starting point for beginners.
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Ibibio Masks: The Beautiful Dead and the Ugly Dead, Dancing on Separate Nights
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Some masking traditions sort their spirits by clan, or by animal, or by rank within a secret society. The Ibibio, over two million strong between the Niger Delta and the Cross River in Nigeria,…
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The Benin Bronzes: A Timeline of What Has Been Returned and What Still Is Not
See which Benin Bronzes have been returned to Nigeria since 2021, which museums still hold them, and what is left to bring home.
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Yohure Masks: Dangerous Spirits Worn to Steady the Living After a Death
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → A people squeezed between two much larger, much more famous neighbors could easily end up as a footnote to both. The roughly 20,000 Yohure of central Côte d’Ivoire sit exactly in that geographic position,…
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How Companies Can Sponsor African Heritage Preservation Without It Being a PR Stunt
A practical guide for CSR teams on real corporate sponsorship of African heritage preservation, from paying knowledge holders to multi year commitment.
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Punu Masks: The White Face of the Dead, Dancing on Six-Foot Stilts
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Color carries specific, deliberate meaning across many of the masking traditions on this site, but few peoples built an entire mask type around a single color the way the Punu did. Punu masks are…
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Traditional African Leadership Lessons: What Griot Councils Teach Us About Consensus
What griot councils teach about consensus and traditional African leadership lessons still worth learning today. Memory, mediation, and truth telling.
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Mbole Masks and the Ofika: Carved Warnings From a Society That Hanged Its Own
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Most ancestor figures in this book commemorate someone worth remembering fondly, a chief, a founder, a mother of the lineage. The Mbole carved figures meant to commemorate the opposite kind of person entirely: men…
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How African Proverbs Taught Entire Generations Without a Single Written Word
No textbooks, no classrooms. See how African proverbs teach patience, respect and justice, and still shape Igbo and Yoruba households today.
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Biombo Masks: A People Known Mostly by Comparison to Their Neighbors
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Some peoples in this book are documented through pages of ritual detail, named ceremonies, and recorded myth. The Biombo are documented mostly through resemblance. Their masks carry surface decoration close to that of the…
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African Naming Ceremonies: What Your Name Really Means and Who Gets to Give It
Discover how Igbo, Yoruba, and Akan families choose a name and why an African naming ceremony is never just a family affair.
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African Naming Ceremonies: What Your Name Really Means and Who Gets to Give It
Discover how Igbo, Yoruba, and Akan families choose a name and why an African naming ceremony is never just a family affair.
