Behind the Mask: The Living Tradition of African Sacred Art
The masks and bronzes of Africa that sit in European museum cases were never meant to be still. They were made to move, to perform, to speak on behalf of the community to the forces that surround it.
Egungun Masquerade
In Yoruba communities across Nigeria, Benin, and the diaspora, the Egungun masquerade brings the ancestors back into the world of the living. The masquerade is performed by members of a hereditary society; the costume, which covers the performer entirely, is understood to transform the wearer into an ancestral presence rather than to represent one. The fabrics used in a single Egungun costume can number in the hundreds, layered and trailing, each piece contributed by a family or community member. The masquerade is a juridical event as well as a spiritual one: ancestors speak through it to adjudicate disputes and deliver community decisions.
The Benin Bronzes and Lost-Wax Casting
The Benin Kingdom in present-day Nigeria developed one of the most sophisticated metal-casting traditions in the medieval world. Working in bronze and brass using the cire perdue, or lost-wax, method, Benin artists produced commemorative plaques, portrait heads, and ceremonial objects of extraordinary technical and artistic precision. The guild system that organized this production was tightly controlled by the Oba, the king, who held rights over brass casting as a royal prerogative. The objects now held in European museums, many of which were looted by British forces during the punitive expedition of 1897, represent a fraction of what was produced over several centuries.
The Repatriation Debate
The question of where African art objects belong has moved from the margins of museum policy to its center in the last decade. Germany, France, and Belgium have each announced partial repatriation programs for objects taken during the colonial period. The Benin Dialogue Group, which has been negotiating the return of bronzes since 2007, achieved its first concrete results in 2021 and 2022 when institutions in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States agreed to transfers. The debate is not only about objects: it concerns who has the authority to tell the history those objects carry.
What Akente Carries
Akente Express carries a curated selection of contemporary African art and craft objects, sourced from artists who work within living traditions. The collection includes carved wood pieces from Yoruba artists in Atlanta and Lagos, bronze and brass work from Nigerian and Ghanaian craftspeople, and a small selection of textiles. The store does not carry objects of contested provenance or items removed from active ceremonial use. Staff can discuss the traditions behind any piece in the collection and connect customers with the artists directly.