Established in 1980, the museum is an outgrowth of the work of the SMA Fathers, a Catholic missionary group whose missions are located in Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Tanzania and the US. The museum is one of five in the world dedicated to “…respect & preserve the culture of the peoples…” that SMA serves. (see website) Objects have been donated by various collectors and according to information written by Fr. Thomas Wright on the museum’s website, the goal is to showcase quality African art. Pieces in the collection come from Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, the Guinea Coast, Sudan and Cameroon.
There are traditional Yoruba woodcarvings that are decidedly Christian in their depiction and illumination of religious references.
Statues of spirit lovers from the Baule people of the Ivory Coast are on display. According to Baule tradition, each person has an earthly lover and a spirit lover. Difficulties in a marriage were thought to occur when the spirit lover was displeased and to remedy the couple’s problems its statue would be placed near the couple’s bed. Improbably and surprisingly, even though the Ivory Coast was a French colony, one of these statues in the group displayed is a brass statue cast as Charles DeGaulle in uniform.
The masks are fascinating and diverse in style. Some like the masks of Mali’s Dogon people worn by male dancers during religious ceremonies held before the entire village are almost abstract and indeed, otherworldly. They look neither human nor animal. To the Dogon, the masks embody the spirits and those spirits pass through into the bodies of the dancers during the ceremony.
Unlike the masks of the Dogon, the masks from Burkina Faso represent nature spirits with painted rings encircling the eyes to give the masks an intense look. The masks are worn on top of the head or on the forehead.
The masks of Liberia can be either beautiful with human faces
or terrifying with bits of metal and hair incorporated into their design.
There are examples of twin statues decorated with beads and shells and other finery thought by the Yoruba of Nigeria to protect a living twin from sickness and being called to the spirit world to be rejoined with its dead twin. Called the “cult of ibeji” these twin statues and their adoration stem from the high rate of twin births and infant mortality found among the Yoruba.
Visitors to the museum are especially in luck because in addition to the art there is another gem found in the museum: the explanatory material written by the museum’s director, Robert J. Koenig. Sometimes, museum information about what’s on display can be dry and ho-hum or simply not much more than a label. Mr. Koenig does not merely identify an object and its source. He explains its significance within each culture in an engaging, articulate and informative style. His writing and depth of knowledge makes you stop and read each and every card. Mr. Koenig educates. You leave the museum with vivid images of African art and knowledge of African cultures.
The museum is open 7 days a week from 10 am to 5 pm.
