Savannah Gold Videos : Ife Head (Part 1)

ife head history of the world neil macgregor british museum bronze statue brass casting lost wax casting naturalism naturalistic stone terracotta metal sculpture yoruba nigeria niger river africa african art history medieval civilisations babatunde lawal yt:crop=16:9 ife head part 1

Ife Head (Part 1)

Audio from BBC Radio 4 "A History of the World in 100 Objects - Ife Head" www.bbc.co.uk Ife head (probably made 15th century). Bronze statue; from Nigeria The Kingdom of Ife "This crowned head of a ruler is a remarkable piece of brass-casting which reflects important aspects of the landmark culture developed in Ife, on the lower Niger River, dating back around 2000 years and blossoming in the twelfth-fifteenth centuries. The time known in Europe as the medieval period was the golden age of West Africa. Powerful empires controlling vast territories flourished in the West African savannah, with a huge impact on the history and cultures of the whole subcontinent: the Ghana Empire (800s-1100s), the Mali Empire (1200s-late 1300s), and the Songhay Empire (1400s-late 1500s). To the East, in the Central African savannah, the Kanem-Bornu Empire expanded around Lake Chad. Trade routes criss-crossed West Africa, linking the northern savannah cities such as Gao, Timbuktu, Djenne, and the southern forest centres such as Begho, Igbo-Ukwu, Ife and Oyo, to the Hausa states such as Kano and Zaria, and reaching Ngazargamo in Kanem-Bornu. That regional trade was in turn connected to the considerable trade across the Sahara desert to the north. These trans-Saharan exchanges linking Northern (together with Andalusia in Spain) and North-eastern Africa to trading cities in West Africa and on Lake Chad. Diverse local and Mediterranean commodities were traded -- woven and dyed cloths, kola nuts ...

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