African Museum Essay Research Paper Wesam Berjaoui

African Museum Essay, Research Paper

Wesam Berjaoui

April. 01, 2000

Professor Gloster-Coates

History 132

CRN# 24386

Museum Project

The first museum I went to was my favorite. I went to the Museum for African

Art displaying the Hair exhibit. The name of the exhibit sounded very uninteresting, but I

was proven wrong. The first thing that I learned from this exhibit is that in Africa the way

your hair is done represents your position in society. Your hair was probably one of the

most important if not thee most important thing to an African person. A person was

distinguished into which clan or group he or she was in by his or her hair style. If you

were a very wealthy person your hair was extremely well done to make you stand out, be

respected and to show that you were from a high class. Leadership was usually associated

with wealth. Also if a female.s hair was messy that showed that she was a prostitute. The

way a child hair was showed how old he or she is. For a baby child the hair was mostly

compacted near the fontanel part of the brain to protect the baby since that is the most

sensitive part of the baby.s brain. Other signs that distinguished an African from another

African was his facial scars. Facial scars doesn.t mean he was sliced with a knife and was

physically scared. Facial scars was done by wearing masks. They had three types of

masks: helmet, paint, and face mask. Some clans that used these types of masks were

used by the Igala people in Nigeria and the Ngangala people in Angola.

One of my favorite exhibitions was the showing of the children doll by the Ashanti

people. The Ashanti people gave their children dolls. They didn.t give their children the

dolls to play with. They gave it to them so that they can socialize with them and to take

care of them as if they were real human beings. I don.t think it was a good idea for the

parents to give a child a doll to socialize because the doll couldn.t talk back and

communicate. Why not socialize with the neighbors kids. Most families kept to

themselves. They didn.t socialize outside their clan or group. They were very close to

each other. The children.s were given dolls to take care of to get them ready for

parenthood. The reason was that they get married at a very early age, probably around 12

years old for a female. This showed that them to be responsible. The children in Africa

grow up fast. They start working at a very early age, around 6-7 years old.

My other favorite exhibition was the twin doll by the Yurola people in Nigeria.

The yuroba people thought that twins were double trouble or double prosperity. They

thought that since a person had a twin, then they like the same things, which we all know

is not true for all twins. But they associated the twins to be very close to each other.

They perceived the twins as having one spirit. If one twin dies then the other one makes a

doll of the other twin that has died so that he or she can stay .alive.. I thought that this

ideas and concepts of the twins as being fascinating. I think I was drawn to this exhibition

because when I have children I want to have twins.

The second museum that I went to was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When I

walked into the Temple of Dendur I was really fascinated. Walking in I looked around

and saw about a dozen statues guarding the temple. There is also a waterway (most likely

coming from springs) and palm trees around the temple. This waterway has crocodiles in

it. This temple was put in a very strategic place and very well protected. Once you go up

to the temple you are able to see carvings on the walls. There are all types of carvings.

Some of the carvings show people eating, working, people trading, slaves and guards.

Basically all different types of lifes activities. The pharaoh that lived in this temple must

have been very strong and smart. He probably lived a very happy and prosperous life.

The next exhibit that I like a lot was Nur al din. This room was gorgeous. Nur al

din was most likely rich. This room was his living room. When you first walk in there is a

beautiful little water fountain to welcome you in. The couches were very low and wide,

but looks very comfortable. The colors of the couches were a rich burgundy color. The

couches could fit approximately 33 people. To add to this nice design Nur al din had a

nice symmetric pattern designed on his ceiling. This pattern went nicely with his rooms

pattern. Nur al din is an Islamic name. This name means the (sun) rise of Islam. On the

walls of this room there is writings of the holy Quran. Also there is no figures or statues

of anyone or anything in this room because idol worshipping is forbidden in Islam. This

room is beautiful and looks like it had a nice social atmosphere.

Another item that caught my attention somewhat was a exhibition called Monkey

Figure by the Baule people in Cote d.Ivoi

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