A new exhibition at Louvre Abu Dhabi is exploring a thousand years of African history through the lens of the continent’s royalty.
Kings and Queens of Africa: Forms and Figures of Power opened to the public on Wednesday and will be running until May 25. The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with Musee du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, and features loans from several notable African institutions.
It brings together more than 350 historical artefacts and contemporary artworks, which collectively show the diversity of the Sub-Saharan Africa. The exhibition delves into the rich traditions and mythologies of the region, while also showing how their stories continue to inspire and inform artists from Africa and its diaspora. In that way, it dismantles monolithic conceptions of the continent, to instead show how Africa has been a birthplace to several ancient kingdoms, empires and states, each with their own unique set of customs and beliefs.
![More than 350 historical artefacts and contemporary artworks from various collections are being featured. Victor Besa / The National](https://thenational-the-national-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/YB3Q6MRPWFG2DDWBPNOAO67GFA.jpg?smart=true&auth=5ecb998a4bc716a9582fe3e67ceeda3f3b5aedae1df2d192117f5ca11f71ef20&width=400&height=546)
“I wanted to show the history of Africa. I wanted to go against the preconceived idea Africa has no history because she has no writings,” the exhibition’s curator, Helene Joubert, head curator of the African Heritage Unit at Musee du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, says. “Sub-Saharan Africa was mainly oral in the past, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a history. And these objects are a witness to that.”
The exhibition predominantly looks at unpacking African history between the 11th and the 21st centuries. Expressing such an expansive timespan coherently can be curatorially challenging, but Joubert says she sought to make it digestible by segmenting the collection into themes.
It opens by establishing Africa’s ancient place in the global gold trade, showing how the precious metal was abundant in the continent and attracted international interest. Several interesting artefacts are presented in this opening space, including a 13th century circular ornament that was found in the tomb of a prince in Senegal. The ornament was worn on the chest, and features concentric designs, which give it a hypnotic quality.
The following room features a multimedia element that shows centuries-worth of efforts in understanding and mapping Africa. It delineates external perceptions of the continent, from early Arab depictions to more recent Western maps. As such, the exhibition’s opening spaces establish trade and cartographic histories of Africa, cleverly setting a springboard from which to step into the continent and see it from within.
![One of the opening spaces of Kings and Queens of Africa: Forms and Figures of Power. Victor Besa / The National](https://thenational-the-national-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/XBN7CW77TVCRZKICE76RAEQRIY.jpg?smart=true&auth=45b54e54720e7ef8e6898105e9561a52a7e0b73ef848377d83de75ea03849405&width=400&height=267)
The space that follows features one of the oldest pieces in the exhibition – a wooden statue from the Bandiagara region. The figure features a tribal chief, with male and female characteristics, whose raised arm places him as a mediator between the heavens and the earth. The figure signals the beginning of a path through the gallery space that is flanked by statues of several royal personalities, including a 14th century copper figure of a Yoruba king, as well as a head of a royal ancestor from the kingdom of Benin.
The works in this space represent the diversity of the Sub-Saharan continent with its range of depictions, which span from more realistic characteristics to ones that verge on the fantastical.
The figures are sharply juxtaposed by a contemporary artwork, which also responds to the theme at hand. Mali, a Treasure by Malian artist Abdoulaye Konate is a sprawling drape of embroidered cotton and synthetic threads that touch upon the history of the country. It includes a portrait of Mansa Musa, who ruled the region in the 14th century. The ruler is perhaps best known for his pilgrimage to Makkah, where he travelled with a boisterous entourage and with an incredible supply of gold.
From this point onwards, the exhibition begins to present a range of regal objects from across the Sub-Saharan regions, including thrones and headdresses to textiles and weaponry. It contrasts these historical artifacts with works by contemporary artists, who also delve into the histories of the continent’s royalty. For instance, Behanzin Aboard the Segond by Romeo Mivekannin, an artist from Cote d’Ivoire, features a portrait of Behanzin depicted with acrylic washes on unstretched canvas. The king of Abomey, a region in modern-day Benin, was renowned for his fierce resistance against French colonialism. However, Behanzin was eventually defeated and exiled to Martinique, before dying in Algeria in 1906. Mivekannin’s portrait shows the king aboard the cruiser that took him to Martinique.
Other contemporary works draw from the mythologies that came out of Africa, while challenging colonial perceptions. In her Take Me to the Water series, US artist Ayana Jackson subverts colonial-era imagery of Africa. In one work, Sea Lion, the artist presents herself as Queen Elizabeth I, drawing attention to the fact that her empire was a dominant maritime force during the Atlantic slave trade. Jackson’s work challenges historical attempts to force constructed identities that revolved race and gender by depicting herself, a black woman, in the queen’s place.
![Helene Joubert, head curator of the African Heritage Unit at Musee du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. Victor Besa / The National](https://thenational-the-national-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/LPTHUEHXZJEN5MIDY54URHP4DQ.jpg?smart=true&auth=a3c1f80c6881760e1c541777cfb5858cd6198027194e8f1f9e1e6b87cd285cf1&width=400&height=267)
Celestial Thrones by Cameroonian artist Herve Youmbi, meanwhile, features three carved seats decorated with colourful beads. The thrones are suspended above mirrored surfaces and reveal African proverbs, statements of power and sound leadership.
Congolese artist Eddy Kamuanga llunga’s Forget the Past and You Lose Both Eyes, on the other hand, shows a different aspect of power. The painting reflects on the trade that has shaped the destinies of Africa and its kingdoms. Its figures, seemingly weary and despondent, are etched with patterns that bring to mind circuit boards and microchips. The work draws attention to the mining of coltan prevalent in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The metallic ore is indispensable in the production of tantalum capacitors, used in mobile phones and other electronic devices. Yet, whereas the resource should be a point of wealth and prosperity for the Congolese is instead a symbol of exploitation.
El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, curator of the Theodore Monod Museum of African Art, who supported Joubert in curating the exhibition, says the contemporary art segment shows how “African culture is dynamic and vibrant”.
![El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, director of the Theodore Monod Museum of African Art, Dakar, Senegal. Victor Besa / The National](https://thenational-the-national-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/DSLYQ2MLDNBG7NF5CCCPREYHLQ.jpg?smart=true&auth=7a93a4f46610b6ba9d2496047125e3635bef3a70da9bea73f4d2d5d9e3970454&width=400&height=368)
“These artists are the ambassador of all Africa,” he says. “They talk about the world, they talk about their country. They talk about many problems that we face. Most of them, they're telling stories about kings and queens who really existed in the past. Some of them tell stories about the allegory of power.”
The exhibiting artists have also another common element, namely in the way they challenge monolithic depictions of Africa. “They are against a certain iconography how we use in the past to see African people,” Ndiaye says. “Those artists change the point of view. They help us criticise history and criticise archive. They offer subtle ways to learn about African culture.”
A symposium is also being held on the side lines of Kings and Queens of Africa to unpack these very issues. Joubert, Ndiaye, as well as Cindy Olohou, an art critic who helped in the exhibition’s curation, are taking part in the talks, which aims to offer insights about the exhibited works, and to show the continuing legacy of Africa’s kings and queens.
Kings and Queens of Africa: Forms and Figures of Power is running at Louvre Abu Dhabi until May 25