Skip to main content

African Art and the Slave Trade

This program is over. Hope you didn't miss it!

African Art and the Slave Trade

Evening Lecture/Seminar

Monday, May 3, 2021 - 6:45 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. ET
Code: 1H0580
Location:
This program is part of our
Smithsonian Associates Streaming series.
Select your Registration
$20
Member
$25
Non-Member
Materials for this program

Between 1400 and 1900, nearly 20 million Africans were captured and sold into slavery. They left the continent in the holds of ships or on the backs of camels, bound for destinations across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The modern world was built on the backs of these individuals, and their arrival in the northern hemisphere contributed greatly to its growth and development. In contrast, the African continent’s own development suffered as a result of this forcible depopulation.

Art historian Kevin Tervala examines the Atlantic and Indian Ocean slave trades, with a focus on how African artists—and the societies that they were a part of—reacted to the sudden and brutal disruption and transformation and depopulation of the world’s second-largest continent. From the protective arts like Kongolese minkisi minkondi to the defensive architecture of Ganvie, a city built in Benin’s Lake Nokoué, Tervala highlights how the trauma of the slave trade forever altered Africa’s cultural history.

By focusing on African states and societies that were the victims of widespread enslavement as well as those that rose to prominence by choosing to sell slaves, he also highlights how the slave trade simultaneously brought great wealth—and with it, luxurious arts made in silver and gold—to the continent.

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1/2 credit*

Patron Information

  • If you register multiple individuals, you will be asked to supply individual names and email addresses so they can receive a Zoom link email. Please note that if there is a change in program schedule or a cancellation, we will notify you via email, and it will be your responsibility to notify other registrants in your group.
  • Unless otherwise noted, registration for streaming programs typically closes two hours prior to the start time on the date of the program.
  • Once registered, patrons should receive an automatic email confirmation from CustomerService@SmithsonianAssociates.org.
  • Separate Zoom link information will be emailed closer to the date of the program. If you do not receive your Zoom link information 24 hours prior to the start of the program, please email Customer Service for assistance.
  • View Common FAQs about our Streaming Programs on Zoom.

*Enrolled participants in the World Art History Certificate Program receive 1/2 elective credit. Not yet enrolled? Learn about the program, its benefits, and how to register here.