Author: Matt Starking

Poet, author, activist and entrepreneur
Arts and History

AKAN ARTS (part three)

BY WILLIAM DEWEYPENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY (FORMERLY UNIVERSITY OF IOWA) Ghana; Fante artist Female figure with twins Ceramic 46.4 cm (18 1/4”) Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company, 81.17.442 Many female funerary figures are known, but maternity figures such as this are quite rare. Perhaps this is because, although the figures are portraits of the subjects while young and vigorous, the people they portrayed … Continue reading AKAN ARTS (part three)

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Arts and History

AKAN ARTS (part two)

BY WILLIAM DEWEYPENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY (FORMERLY UNIVERSITY OF IOWA) Ghana; Akan artist Commemorative head Ceramic H. 18.3 cm (7 3/16″) National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 86-12-4 A related tradition among Akan peoples involves the use of terracotta human figures and heads. Both the abusuwa kuruwa and these figurative sculptures are memorials to the dead and have equally long histories, but the abusuwa kuruwa were used by ordinary people, while … Continue reading AKAN ARTS (part two)

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Arts and History

AKAN ARTS (part one)

BY WILLIAM DEWEYPENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY (FORMERLY UNIVERSITY OF IOWA) Ghana; Asante artist Vessel Early-mid 20th century Ceramic H x W x D: 25.4 x 21 x 21 cm (10 x 8 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.) Gift of Emil Arnold 69-35-36 Photograph by Franko Khoury National Museum of African Art Smithsonian Institution Among the Akan-speaking peoples of southern Ghana and adjacent Côte d’Ivoire, ritual pottery and figurative … Continue reading AKAN ARTS (part one)

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Arts and History

SIERRA LEONE STONE FIGURE

BY WILLIAM DEWEYPENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY (FORMERLY UNIVERSITY OF IOWA) Guinea-Conakry, Sierra Leone; Nomoli Style Male figure 15th-17th century Steatite H x W x D: 16.2 x 8.6 x 10.8 cm (6 3/8 x 3 3/8 x 4 1/4 in.) Museum purchase 85-1-2 Photograph by Franko Khoury National Museum of African Art Smithsonian Institution Figures such as this, carved of soft steatite or soapstone, are frequently found by … Continue reading SIERRA LEONE STONE FIGURE

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Arts and History

Great Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe is the name of the stone ruins of an ancient city near modern day Masvingo, Zimbabwe. People lived in Great Zimbabwe beginning around 1100 C.E. but abandoned it in the 15th century. The city was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, which was a Shona (Bantu) trading empire. Zimbabwe means “stone houses” in Shona. Great Zimbabwe was part of a large and wealthy global … Continue reading Great Zimbabwe

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Arts and History, History

Great Zimbabwe is the name of the stone ruins of an ancient city near modern day Masvingo, Zimbabwe.

Great Zimbabwe was part of a large and wealthy global trading network. Archaeologists have found pottery from China and Persia, as well as Arab coins in the ruins there. The elite of the Zimbabwe Empire controlled trade up and down the east African coast. However, the city was largely abandoned by the 15th century as the Shona people migrated elsewhere. The exact reasons for the abandonment … Continue reading Great Zimbabwe is the name of the stone ruins of an ancient city near modern day Masvingo, Zimbabwe.

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Arts and History

ARTS OF BENIN KINGDOM(part eight)

BY WILLIAM DEWEYPENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY (FORMERLY UNIVERSITY OF IOWA) Nigeria; Edo artist (Benin Kingdom Court Style) Plaque Mid 16th-17th century Copper alloy H x W x D: 47 x 34.2 x 8.2 cm (18 1/2 x 13 7/16 x 3 1/4 in.) Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn to the Smithsonian Institution in 1979 85-19-18 Photograph by Franko Khoury National Museum of African Art Smithsonian Institution Figures appear in … Continue reading ARTS OF BENIN KINGDOM(part eight)

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Arts and History

ARTS OF BENIN KINGDOM(part seven)

BY WILLIAM DEWEYPENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY (FORMERLY UNIVERSITY OF IOWA) Nigeria; Benin Kingdom artist Figure Bronze H. 63.5 cm (25”) National Museum, Lagos, Nigeria, 54.15.8 Photo by Dirk Bakker This type of figure was apparently also kept on the royal ancestral altars. An anonymous author in the Royal Gold Coast Gazette wrote in the 1820s, “The tombs are decorated by as many large elephant’s teeth as can be … Continue reading ARTS OF BENIN KINGDOM(part seven)

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Arts and History

ARTS OF BENIN KINGDOM(part six)

BY WILLIAM DEWEYPENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY (FORMERLY UNIVERSITY OF IOWA) Nigeria; Benin Kingdom artist Equestrian figure Bronze H. 47 cm (18 1/2″) Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mrs. Walter B. Ford II, 1992.290 From an 1823 account of the explorer Giovanni Belzoni and an accompanying sketch, we have one of the few descriptions and drawings of altars of the Kings of Benin before 1897, when all were dismantled. … Continue reading ARTS OF BENIN KINGDOM(part six)

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Arts and History

ARTS OF BENIN KINGDOM(part five)

BY WILLIAM DEWEYPENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY (FORMERLY UNIVERSITY OF IOWA) Nigeria; Benin Kingdom artist Queen Mother head Bronze H. 51 cm (20”) National Museum, Lagos, Nigeria, 70.R.17 Photo by Dirk Bakker Oba Esigie, the sixteenth king who ruled at the beginning of the sixteenth century, created the title of Queen Mother. His mother, Idia, was said to have had particularly potent occult skills and military savvy that helped … Continue reading ARTS OF BENIN KINGDOM(part five)

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