# African Art Archive

> Open-access, trilingual (EN/FR/DE) digital archive of 1,418 objects (1,361 public) from a private West- and Central-African art collection, organized into 117 ethnic-group hubs. Each object has ethnographic documentation: provenance notes where available, ritual context, material analysis, and citations to standard literature. Also known as "African Archive".

The archive is non-commercial and ad-free. Stable URLs per object. Suggested citation: "African Art Archive (africanarchive.org), [object catalog number]."

Locale roots are reciprocal: each object and people's dossier exists at /en/, /fr/, and /de/ paths with `hreflang` cross-references.

## Core sections

- [The collection (EN)](https://africanarchive.org/en/katalog): Browse all objects with free-text search and faceted filters (people, country, category, material, century).
- [Peoples (EN)](https://africanarchive.org/en/staemme): 117 ethnic-group hub pages; most carry full dossiers, identification markers, and collector FAQs.
- [Glossary (EN)](https://africanarchive.org/en/glossary): 200+ terms across three registers — ritual vocabulary in the original language, French Arts-Premiers market vocabulary, and stewardship/ethics terminology.
- [Collector guides (EN)](https://africanarchive.org/en/guides): Evergreen how-to guides (dating African masks, provenance research).
- [Methodology (EN)](https://africanarchive.org/en/methodology): How the documentation is produced and verified.
- [About (EN)](https://africanarchive.org/en/ueber): The collection, its scope, and contact.

## Featured people's dossiers (EN)

- [Dogon](https://africanarchive.org/en/staemme/dogon): Mali; masks, ancestor figures, kanaga, sirige.
- [Yoruba](https://africanarchive.org/en/staemme/yoruba): Nigeria; gelede, egungun, ibeji, ifa divination.
- [Bamana](https://africanarchive.org/en/staemme/bamana): Mali; chiwara, komo, ntomo, n'tomo.
- [Baule](https://africanarchive.org/en/staemme/baule): Côte d'Ivoire; blolo bian, blolo bla, goli masks.
- [Senufo](https://africanarchive.org/en/staemme/senufo): Côte d'Ivoire / Mali / Burkina Faso; kpelie masks, rhythm pounders.
- [Kuba](https://africanarchive.org/en/staemme/kuba): DR Congo; ndop royal portraits, mwaash a mbooy.
- [Bamileke](https://africanarchive.org/en/staemme/bamileke): Cameroon Grassfields; beaded thrones, elephant masks.
- [Dan](https://africanarchive.org/en/staemme/dan): Côte d'Ivoire / Liberia; deangle masks, passport masks.
- [Lobi](https://africanarchive.org/en/staemme/lobi): Burkina Faso; bateba shrine figures.
- [Igbo](https://africanarchive.org/en/staemme/igbo): Nigeria; alusi figures, ikenga, mmuo masks.

## Glossary highlights (EN)

- [Nkisi](https://africanarchive.org/en/glossary/nkisi): Kongo power figure terminology.
- [Kanaga](https://africanarchive.org/en/glossary/kanaga): Dogon mask type and cosmological sign.
- [Gelede](https://africanarchive.org/en/glossary/gelede): Yoruba masquerade honoring mothers.
- [Egungun](https://africanarchive.org/en/glossary/egungun): Yoruba ancestral masquerade.
- [Anjenu](https://africanarchive.org/en/glossary/anjenu): Idoma spirit-shrine figures.
- [Bocio](https://africanarchive.org/en/glossary/bocio): Fon protective figures.
- [Patine suintante](https://africanarchive.org/en/glossary/patine-suintante): French market vocabulary for sacrificial patina.
- [Taille directe](https://africanarchive.org/en/glossary/taille-directe): Direct-carving terminology from Arts-Premiers discourse.

## Translations of this page

- [Français](https://africanarchive.org/fr/katalog)
- [Deutsch](https://africanarchive.org/de/katalog)

## Methodology

Object documentation combines multimodal AI vision analysis with grounded web search, source-anchored terminological correction (Kerchache, Bassani, Volper, Felix and others), and independently compiled people's dossiers. Errors are the archive's; corrections welcomed at the address on the About page.

## Licensing

Text content under the archive is original or paraphrased with citations. Images are commissioned works belonging to the collection owner — all rights reserved, no third-party reuse. Citations and quotation of textual content welcome with attribution to africanarchive.org.