West Africa
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of 1,450 objects from Western Africa, which date from 1872 to 2006. This collection comprises a broad range of cultural artefacts. It includes ceremonial masks, weapons, domestic items, body ornaments, costume and textiles. There are weaving implements, furniture, furnishings, musical instruments, ritual objects, and wooden, stone and metal carvings. The collection contains unique and rare examples from originating cultures rarely found in museums, in particular a carved wooden funerary screen from the Kalabari Ijo, Nigeria, an Afro-Portuguese dagger from Sherbro Island, Sierra Leone, and the only contemporary leaded brass sculpture in a British museum from Benin City, Nigeria. Western Africa is comprised of 16 countries including Ghana, Benin, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Islam is the main religion, though Christianity predominates along the coastal regions of Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. The region has been explored and colonized by Europeans since the 16th century and was severely affected by the transatlantic slave trade, a factor in the destruction of its population and economy. Most of Glasgow Museum’s collection from this region represents Western African cultures at the time of the British colonial administration, and is connected with Glasgow’s missionary activitiy.
- Broader term