Earthen Architecture of Africa: Buildings & Belief
Kevin Tervala, associate curator of African art at the Baltimore Museum of Art

Across the African continent, men and women have built monumental and aesthetically innovative structures from mud and earthen material. In large kingdoms and small-scale societies, these buildings were used not just as dwellings or gathering spaces, but as ways for the people to express fundamental social, cultural, and religious beliefs. This lecture draws on the architectural expression of states and societies in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo and explores how people used the buildings to express themselves. Through this lecture, Tervala will also track how the entrance of Islam in the 7th century restructured the social and architecture fabric of these western African societies and cultures.

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