New Exhibit Shines Light On Medieval Africa

WDCB’s Gary ZIdek takes a closer look at the Block Museum of Art’s new exhibition, CARAVANS OF GOLD, FRAGMENTS IN TIME: ART, CULTURE AND EXCHANGE ACROSS MEDIEVAL SAHARAN AFRICA.

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WDCB's Gary Zidek talks to Block Museum of Art curator Kathleen Bickford Berzock about CARAVANS OF GOLD, FRAGMENTS IN TIME: ART, CULTURE AND EXCHANGE ACROSS MEDIEVAL SAHARAN AFRICA.

“What we’re doing with this exhibition, is we’re engaging with a period of time in African history that predates Atlantic trade, Atlantic slave trade and certainly predates colonialism.” - Kathleen Bickford Berzock talking about CARAVANS OF GOLD, FRAGMENTS IN TIME: ART, CULTURE AND EXCHANGE ACROSS MEDIEVAL SAHARAN AFRICA

Kathleen Bickford Berzock, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Block Museum

A new exhibition at Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art aims to change perceptions about medieval Africa. CARAVANS OF GOLD, FRAGMENTS IN TIME: ART, CULTURE AND EXCHANGE ACROSS MEDIEVAL SAHARAN AFRICA sheds some light on the largely unknown story of medieval West Africa and the Saharan trade routes that connected Africa, the Middle East and Europe

Atlas of Maritime Charts (The Catalan Atlas) [detail of Mansa Musa], Abraham Cresque (1325–1387), 1375, Mallorca. Parchment mounted on six wood panels, illuminated. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Courtesy of the Block Museum.

Berzock’s journey to creating CARAVANS OF GOLD started over 7 years ago. The Block Museum secured artworks and artifacts from an astounding 32 lenders across the world.

Seated Figure, Possibly Ife, Tada Nigeria, Late 13th-14th century, Copper with traces of arsenic, lead, and tin, H. 54 cm, Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments, 79.R18, Image courtesy of National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Abuja, Nigeria.

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CARAVANS OF GOLD, FRAGMENTS IN TIME: ART, CULTURE AND EXCHANGE ACROSS MEDIEVAL SAHARAN AFRICA will be on display at Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art through July 21. The exhibit will then travel on to the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.

Go to blockmuseum.northwestern.edu for more information.