Art from the African continent occupies an unusual place in the concert of world cultures. Once considered "primitive" by colonial invaders it has long since been recognized and acknowledged for its highly developed sense of design and aesthetics. Similarly African art is often concerned with vital moral and spiritual concerns of the human condition and frequently has a ritual or religious functionwhether in masks ancestral figures ceramics basketry metalwork or weapons. The items in this volume mostly datable only with difficulty start with a sculptured head from Nigeria possibly dating from the 12th century and extend from a 15th/16th-century salt container from Sierra Leone to the 19th and 20th centuries to which most of the artworks belong. With examples from every region of the continentincluding Mali Democratic Republic of Congo Republic of Congo Madagascar South Africa and a dozen other countriesthis book demonstrates the profundity and astonishing variety of African arts describing the social and religious contexts without which these artworks cannot be fully understood.