AP® Art History review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/art-history/units/6)
Unit 6
About 6% of examAfrica, 1100–1980 CE
Unit 6's 14 African works span about 900 years, from the stone walls of Great Zimbabwe to masks, figures and royal objects made in the 1800s and early 1900s. Many of these works were made to be used: worn in performances, activated by ritual specialists, honored as ancestors or displayed at court, not just looked at. Learning who used them, and why, gives you the tools to analyze African works you've never seen before.
Study this unit
Flashcards (28)Practice questions (40)Art History must-know sheetFree-response questions on this unit
Write your own answer, then score it with the rubric or with AI.
Big ideas
- Many African works were made to be performed, used or activated, not only displayed
- Art often expresses the authority of rulers and the status of leaders
- Masks and figures link communities with ancestors and the spirit world
- Materials such as brass, gold, wood and adobe carry meaning as well as form
- Outsiders' assumptions have shaped how African art was collected and explained
Full unit reviews
Longer videos that cover the whole unit. Good for a first pass or a final review.
Topics
African works carry the beliefs and social order of the people who made them: the Golden Stool is believed to hold the soul of the Asante nation, a Kuba ndop (royal portrait figure) stands for a king's ideal reign rather than his exact face, and a Kongo nkisi n'kondi was activated when a ritual specialist drove nails or blades into it to seal oaths or ask for help. Reading a work's context (who used it, when and why) is the key to understanding it.
Key terms
- cultural context
- lost-wax casting
- hierarchical scale
- ibol (royal emblem)
- nkisi n'kondi
- nganga (ritual specialist)
A few quick questions on this topic, with the answers explained.
Who a work was for shapes how it looks and how it was used. A Baule mblo honored a specific, admired person in performance; a Sande Society sowei mask is worn by senior women when girls are initiated into adulthood; a Luba lukasa helped trained Mbudye Society members recall history; and a Fang byeri guarded a container holding ancestors' relics.
Key terms
- masquerade
- Sande Society
- initiation
- Mbudye Society
- reliquary
- ancestor veneration
A few quick questions on this topic, with the answers explained.
How people explain African art has changed over time. Colonial-era writers wrongly claimed that outsiders must have built Great Zimbabwe, but archaeologists showed that ancestors of the Shona built its mortarless granite walls between about 1000 and 1400 CE, as the center of a wealthy trading state.
Key terms
- Great Zimbabwe
- Shona peoples
- coursed granite
- dry-stone (mortarless) masonry
- colonial bias
A few quick questions on this topic, with the answers explained.