African Collections - Schools Resources
The Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology cares for thousands of objects, artefacts from 45 countries across Africa, across both our archaeological and anthropological, or ethnographic, collections. As of 2022, 420 of these are on display in our main galleries. Although there are 700 named collectors, donors, or vendors, many of our anthropology records have no provenance.
These resources have been created to support students' understanding of African collections, Kingdoms, and the considerations and questions we need to ask when looking at these objects and stories.
These resources are designed for Key Stage 4-5.
African Kingdoms
 | Kingdom of Benin (900 - present) Located in modern-day Nigeria and Benin City, the Kingdom of Benin is renowned for their people's amazing skills with brass, ivory, and wood. |
 | Kingdoms of Oyo (1500-1837) and Dahomey (1600-1894) Discover the Kingdom of Oyo, a Yoruba Kingdom which became the largest Yoruba state, and the Kingdom of Dahomey, known for its great artworks. |
Boer and the Anglo-Boer War
 | This object was made by a prisoner of the Second Boer War of Anglo-Boer War (1899 - 1902). How did the Boer war affect the British Empire? What impact doe understanding more about the Boer war have on your idea of post colonialism? What would be the impacts of the British on descendants of those imprisoned? |
Museum Ethics
Our resources for understanding Museum ethics, the relationship between Museums and people, and the current issues with collection, curation and repatriation surrounding African collections are divided into the following topics:
- Museum Ethics and the questions we ask
- How we talk about people