West African American Culture Essay

Aside from clothing being an art unto itself, the earliest forms of sculptured art found as early as 500 B.C. in West Africa consisted of distorted human statues and masks. It is speculated that these statues and figures inspired Picasso's experiments with Cubism. The Yoruba people of Ife also influenced lost-wax cast metal art, also known as Benin Art after the people of Benin perfected the art to the highest quality. The Village craft workers had extensive knowledge of pottery and metalworking temperature changes to prevent the materials from cracking during the casting process. The guild workers in Benin City forged and cast clay and metal in wax casts that were shaped into pots, masks, and statues. After which they hammered and embellished with one of kind designs. An official of the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde once stated that:

Slave trading companies categorized Africa as a Dark Continent; however, white Europeans were very late in terms of
They quickly formed bonds with Benin leaders that they viewed as different, but equal. when Portuguese traders arrived in Africa they were intrigued with by two factions – first, they encountered sophisticated agricultural systems complete with successful crops, modern irrigation systems and tools like cutting blades, grindstones, hide scrapers, and, mortars and pestles; and secondly, they found an existing slave society in Africa.
Its important to note that slavery existed in some capacity in ancient civilizations on all continents since the beginning of human social interaction. Before the birth of Christ, classical Greek and Roman empires depended on a slave society; and portions of Italy, France, Spain, and Russia, adopted the practice enslaving other white Europeans from areas in Eastern