Altar group (aseberia) with Oba Ewuakpe

~~The period from 1600 to 1750 was marked by significant changes in trading relations along the Atlantic coast, with profound consequences for Africans living there and inland. Gold had been the primary export, but by the beginning of the seventeenth century, the value of slaves exceeded that of gold. The demand for labor in the New...

What factors mattered to Africans in representing themselves through their arts? How are these visual forms to be understood in the broader spectrum of time and space? In many ways these issues speak to the larger ones of what it means to be human. Important here is how one portrays oneself as opposed to others. However, there are other questions in play as well: concerns as varied as the...