Independent research archive
Sourced history from Africa and its diaspora.
Researched articles on African and diaspora history. Each one lists the sources behind it, and says plainly where the record is disputed.
Read our sourcing methodology and corrections log.
Gold soul disc (akrafokɔnmu)
Provenance The Cleveland Museum of Art records it in the treasury of the Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh I until 1896, the year British forces arrested him in Kumasi. It then passed through the Charles Ratton Gallery in Paris and was sold to the museum in 1935.
Cleveland Museum of Art, 1935.310
Image: Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0, background removed. Licence · Source
The Asante state →
Saint Anne
Provenance Uncovered by a Polish excavation in 1961-64. The National Museum in Warsaw holds more than 60 of the cathedral's paintings; the rest are in Khartoum.
National Museum in Warsaw, Faras Gallery
Image: Google Art Project scan, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
The Miracles of Mary (Te'amire Maryam)
Provenance In a private collection in Nîmes, France, by the mid-1980s, then with a London dealer by 1998; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002. The museum records nothing about how it left Ethiopia.
Art Institute of Chicago, 2002.4
Image: Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Licence · Source
Veranda post (òpó ògògá)
Provenance Commissioned by Onijagbo Obasoro Alowolodu, the Ogoga (king) of Ikere, and kept at the palace until at least 1964. It then passed through collectors in London and New York and was sold to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1984.
Art Institute of Chicago, 1984.550
Image: Art Institute of Chicago, public domain, background removed. Licence · Source
Memorial head (nsodie)
Provenance The museum's record begins with a Paris dealer, Arts Primitifs, which sold it to Cleveland by 1990. Where it was before that is not recorded.
Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990.22
Image: Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0, background removed. Licence · Source
Golden rhinoceros of Mapungubwe
Provenance Found in a royal grave on Mapungubwe Hill in 1932 by University of Pretoria archaeologists. The university is the official custodian of the Mapungubwe gold, a national heritage collection since 1997.
University of Pretoria Museums
Image: Photo: Sian Tiley-Nel, University of Pretoria Museums, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, background removed. Licence · Source
Bronze ceremonial pot
Provenance Held at the National Museum, Onikan, Lagos.
National Museum, Lagos
Image: Photo: Ochiwar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, background removed. Licence · Source
Lydenburg head
Provenance University of Cape Town collection, on loan to Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town.
Iziko South African Museum
Image: Photo: Nkansahrexford, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, background removed. Licence · Source
Royal statues of Abomey
Provenance Taken during France's conquest of Dahomey in the 1890s and shown in Paris for more than a century. They were among 26 royal objects whose ownership France transferred to Benin on Nov. 9, 2021.
Returned to the Republic of Benin, 2021
Image: Photo released to the public domain by its author, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
Saint John the Evangelist
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MS W.850
Image: Walters Art Museum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
The Battle of Adwa, 1896
British Museum, E_Af1974-11-34
Image: Photo: Szilas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
Processional cross
Provenance In Paris about 2004, then with a London dealer; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. Its earlier history is not recorded.
Art Institute of Chicago, 2006.12
Image: Art Institute of Chicago, public domain, background removed. Licence · Source
Pylon of the Lion Temple at Naqa
Image: New York Public Library scan, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
Njoya, king of Bamum
Image: Photograph supplied by Friedrich Lutz, May 1906, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
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About this archive
Provenance Africa researches and publishes the history of Africa and its diaspora, working from academic monographs, archival records and reported journalism, with the sources for each piece listed on the piece itself.
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