From the Great Mosque of Djenné to Kongo power figures — mastering the African content area for the AP exam.
Objects in this unit were not made as "art" for contemplation. Masks are activated in performance; power figures require ritual specialists; textiles encode political rank. Function precedes and determines form.
There is no single "African art" — the continent contains thousands of distinct cultural traditions. The AP exam tests whether you can distinguish Yoruba naturalism from Dogon abstraction, Benin court art from Kongo ritual objects.
Works in this unit span 1100–1980 CE. Contemporary African artists (and the diaspora) actively engage these traditions. Colonialism disrupted but did not destroy African artistic production — the 20th-century works prove it.
Mali, Dogon, Baule, Mende, Asante — mosque architecture, wooden sculpture, textiles, goldweights
Royal brass plaques, ivory hip ornaments, cast heads — court art celebrating the Oba's divine authority
Ife naturalistic brass heads, Olowe of Ise's architectural sculpture — longest continuous African art history
Kongo nkisi, Fang bieri, Luba lukasa, Chokwe masks, Bamileke elephant masks — ritual and reliquary art
Great Zimbabwe stone architecture; Ndebele beadwork and wall painting — indigenous architectural and decorative traditions