Through the medium of masks, Dogon dancers carve out an opening into ancestral, spiritual worlds, urging souls onward to the afterlife. The Dama, Through the Eyes of the Observer line of one …

Pestles against mortars, axes against wood, the rattling of loom shuttles, and the gasps of billows all set the tempo, the cadenced backdrop, for traditional West African music. And its …

There is a certain beguiling artistry to having backwards feet. This rather anomalous attribute ―demarcating, droll, and devious ― is much-vaunted in the legendary creature realm and happens to be …

Kuiye, the Batammaliba sun and Creator god, is the ultimate architect, having not only built an enormously tall, multilevel Tata Somba — fortified house — in the “sun village” in …

All of the elements attributed to classical drama are present in traditional Yoruba folktales: setting, mood, a colorful cast of characters, some intervening dilemma or an ethical contrast between good and …

In traditional West Africa, humans and spirits have always stood side-by-side, occasionally reaching over to tap one another on the shoulder, as if to remind each other of their mutual …

Comedians, contrarians, jokesters and tricksters have made their appearance in all human societies, from the more or less secular, bell-capped court jesters of the English Royal Court to the humorous …