"Africa" (18+)

On May 24, 2024 the Novosibirsk State Museum of Local Lore opened in the Khabarovsk Krai Museum named after N.I. Grodekov. The Novosibirsk State Museum of Local Lore opened an ethnographic exhibition from its own collections dedicated to the culture of more than 20 peoples of Tropical Africa.

The exhibition presents more than 280 authentic objects of domestic and ritual culture of the peoples of Western and Central Tropical Africa. Among the exhibits are ritual masks and statuettes used for various rituals, bronze plastics, weapons and jewelry made in the XIX-XX centuries in the territory of the modern states of Congo, Mali, Cameroon, Nigeria, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Angola and others. These objects belong to the culture of such African nationalities as Hausa, Bakongo, Yoruba, Fulani, Kuba, Maasai, Ashanti, Makonde, Baule, Bambara, Dogon, Songai and others. 

In the sweltering tropics on the banks of the Niger and Congo in the heart of Africa live the heirs of great civilizations: Ife, Benin, Ghana, Songai, Mele... These civilizations are no more, flowery cities and impregnable fortresses have been destroyed, mighty armies in shining armor have perished, great kings look sadly at the world through the eyes of golden statues. What remains is a legacy - a bright, unique culture, depicted in bronze and wooden plastics, in masks of ancestral spirits, in secret rites, colorful ritual festivals, in music and even in everyday objects.

The exhibition "Africa" is about this, it is about the Africa we don't know, about the original culture captured in things. More than two hundred authentic objects telling about the culture of two dozen large and small peoples inhabiting the states of Tropical Africa.