Diverse in appearance, material, and purpose, LACMA’s African
artworks include body adornments, wooden masks with appliqués,
small figures of wood and ivory, bronzes, beaded crowns, and
stools. Exemplary beadworks and metalworks include bands of
imported beads made by Ndebele women used to signify marital
status, divination objects such as a Yoruba Ifa tray, a bronze
plaque depicting a seventeenth-century official of the Benin
Kingdom, and ritual figures used by Namchi women to encourage
pregnancy. Nigeria, Yoruba peoples The collection of African
textiles, from the late-nineteenth/early-twentieth century Kuba
culture of the Democratic Republic of Congo, feature unique
geometric forms and rhythmic patterns, and were created
collaboratively by both Kuba men and women. Within the culture
these textiles were of the utmost prestige—traded as currency,
given to kings as tribute, and used in ceremonial garb. Curator
Sharon Takeda discusses these textiles with LACMA Director,
Michael Govan. There is no doubt that ge