African cultures
Saharan and sub-Saharan societies
African cultures encompass the diverse traditions, customs, beliefs, and artistic expressions of the peoples across the African continent and its diaspora.
With over fifty nations and thousands of ethnic groups, the term resists any single characterization—ranging from the Maasai of East Africa to the Yoruba of West Africa to the Zulu of the south.
Common threads include oral storytelling traditions, communal values, music and dance as integral to daily life, and rich visual arts.
The museum's exhibit on African cultures highlighted both ancient traditions and contemporary expressions.
- sacred grovesReligiously significant protected woodlands
- SwahiliBantu language of East Africa
- trans-Saharan tradeCommerce crossing African desert
- masksFace-covering disguises
- griotsHereditary oral historians
Yoruba · drumming · Zulu · harvest festivals · ubuntu · village elders · ancestor worship · kente cloth · cowrie shells · beadwork · rite of passage · storytelling · call and response · talking drums · initiation rites · jollof rice · naming ceremonies · fufu
- culturescounterculture, underground, bohemian, monoculture, intercultural
- geography topicsGIS, GPS, mapping, cartography, digital maps
- colonial AfricaBelgian Congo, Ghana, Gold Coast, Freetown, Lagos
African culturesWestern civilization
Euro-American cultural tradition
African culturesWestern culture
European-originating civilization heritage
African, Africa, Africans, Africanization, culture, cultures, cultural, culturally, cultured