The collections
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A small, carefully developed collection of exhibitions and articles. More is added after editorial review.
Mansa Musa: Beyond the Gold
A ruler remembered for a famous pilgrimage, set back into the empire he governed: its trade, its scholars, its builders, and the records that let us see it.
Exhibition · 14 min read
Sunjata and the Founding of Mali
How the Mande epic of Sunjata remembers the birth of an empire, and how historians work with a story passed down by generations of jeliw.
Article · 9 min read
Timbuktu: City of Scholars
Mosques, teachers and family libraries: how a town at the edge of the Sahara became a centre of learning, and how its manuscripts survived.
Exhibition · 11 min read
Gold, Salt and the Sahara
The Sahara was a connector, not a barrier. Follow the goods, people and ideas that moved between the Sahel and the Mediterranean world.
Article · 10 min read
The Loma of Liberia and Guinea
An introduction to the Loma (also written Lorma), a Mande-speaking people of the forest region, whose name inspired this institution.
Article · 7 min read
The Vai Script
In the 1830s, a Vai man in what is now Liberia created a writing system for his language. It is still in use today.
Article · 6 min read
One Object: Country Cloth
Narrow strips of hand-woven cotton, sewn edge to edge. Follow one textile through its materials, makers, uses and meanings.
Article · 6 min read