Region
Art of West Africa
West Africa — from Senegal and Mali to Nigeria and Cabo Verde — is home to many of the traditions people picture when they think of African art: the terracottas of Nok, the bronzes of Ife and Benin, the masks of the Dogon, Bamana, Dan, Baule and Yoruba, and cloths such as kente, adinkra and bogolan. In the twentieth century it produced the modernist schools of Zaria, Oshogbo and Dakar, the studio photography of Bamako, and highlife and Afrobeat.
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Ancient sculpture
West Africa holds some of the oldest sculpture on the continent south of the Sahara. The Nok culture of central Nigeria made terracotta figures in the first millennium BCE. At Igbo-Ukwu, bronzes of extraordinary detail were cast around the ninth and tenth centuries; at Ife, naturalistic heads between the twelfth and fifteenth; and the Kingdom of Benin produced the brass heads and plaques now known as the Benin Bronzes. In Mali, the ancient city of Djenné-Djenno yielded terracotta figures. See African sculpture.
Masks and masquerade
The region's mask traditions are among the most famous in the world: the Dogon kanaga and Bamana chi wara of Mali, the plank masks of the Bwa of Burkina Faso, Senufo, Dan and Baule masks in Côte d'Ivoire, and the Yoruba Gelede and Egungun masquerades of Nigeria and Benin. They are still danced at funerals, initiations and festivals. See African masks.
Cloth
West Africa is a continent of cloth in miniature. Ghana gave the world kente, woven in narrow strips by Asante and Ewe weavers, and adinkra, stamped with symbols that carry proverbs. Mali is the home of bogolan, or mudcloth. The Yoruba dye adire in indigo and weave aso oke for ceremonies. See African textiles.
Earth architecture and manuscripts
The Sahel developed a monumental architecture in sun-dried earth. The Great Mosque of Djenné, rebuilt in 1907, is the largest earth building in the world and is replastered by the whole town every year; the mosques of Timbuktu date back to the fourteenth century. Timbuktu was also a centre of scholarship, and its libraries preserved hundreds of thousands of manuscripts, many beautifully illuminated.
Modern art
Independence brought new art schools and movements. In Nigeria, the Zaria Art Society argued for a "natural synthesis" of Nigerian traditions and modern art, while the Oshogbo school grew from open workshops; Ben Enwonwu had already become the country's most famous artist, and El Anatsui later made Nsukka a world centre. In Senegal, the École de Dakar gave the new state its painting and tapestry, and Ousmane Sow its great sculptor.
Photography
Bamako's studios produced two of the most admired photographers of the twentieth century, Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé, and the city still hosts the African biennale of photography. See African photography.
Contemporary scenes
Lagos, Dakar, Accra and Abidjan have busy contemporary art scenes, with events such as Dak'Art and ART X Lagos (see African art fairs and biennales) and new institutions such as the Museum of West African Art in Benin City. See our lists of Senegalese, Ivorian, Beninese and Malian artists.
Nigeria and Ghana have the region's largest art scenes. Among Nigeria's artists are the potter Ladi Kwali, Twins Seven-Seven of the Oshogbo school, and today Yinka Shonibare and Otobong Nkanga; among Ghana's, Ibrahim Mahama, Amoako Boafo and the leaf-print painter Sharon Dede Padi. See our lists of Nigerian artists and Ghanaian artists.
Music
West Africa's music — highlife, Afrobeat, Afrobeats, Senegal's mbalax and Cabo Verde's morna — is as influential as its visual art.