African women, spirituality, folklore and cultural memory are explored through objects in Glasgow Museums’ collections during this specialist Black History Month tour.
Led by Gallery Assistant and African art enthusiast Lizzie Eidson, the session examines how African women and spiritual power have been represented through historic artefacts and contemporary artworks.
The tour moves between different African cultural traditions, drawing upon Ethiopian and Mende histories, wider African oral traditions and ideas influenced by Yoruba culture. It also considers how these traditions have sometimes been misunderstood, erased or interpreted through outside perspectives.
Myth and storytelling have played an important role in communities across the African continent, carrying knowledge, beliefs and historical memory between generations.
Those histories cannot always be understood simply by looking at an object in a museum case.
The meanings attached to figures, materials and symbols may be connected to spirituality, ancestry, community responsibilities or oral traditions that were never written down in conventional historical records.
This tour encourages visitors to look more closely at how museums interpret those objects and whose voices have traditionally shaped the stories told about them.
That makes the session particularly interesting during Black History Month, when questions about representation, historical interpretation and the recovery of overlooked perspectives are especially relevant.
The tour is suitable for all ages and is free, although places are strictly limited to 15 participants, making advance booking essential.
For anyone interested in African art, women’s history, mythology or the way museums tell cultural stories, this intimate Glasgow Museums tour offers an opportunity to explore Black history through objects that are rarely encountered in everyday displays.
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