West Wing 

 COLLECTIONS FROM AFRICA 



Opening to the north from this hall of North American Archaeology is 

 the African Hall. This differs from other halls in containing besides 

 ethnographical specimens a number of characteristic African mammals. 

 The Forest Hogs, the rare Okapi and the so-called white Rhinoceros 

 are particularly noteworthy, and three cases are devoted to Antelopes, 

 characteristic of Africa. The future extension of the Museum will 

 provide room for groups of African mammals, including elephants. 

 The installation is roughly geographical, i. e., as the visitor proceeds 

 through the hall from south to north he meets the tribes that would be 

 found in passing from south to north of Africa, and the west coast is 

 represented along the west wall, the east coast along the east wall. 



There are three aboriginal races in Africa: the Bushmen, the Hotten- 

 tots, and the Negroes. In the north the Negroes have been greatly 

 influenced by Hamitic and Semitic immigrants and become mixed with 

 them. 



At the south end of the Hall the wall is decorated with reproductions 

 of cave-paintings made by the Bushmen, the most ancient and primitive 

 of African natives. 



Nothing is more characteristic of the Negro culture, to which the rest 

 of the Hall is devoted, than the art of smelting iron and fashioning iron 

 tools. The process used by the African blacksmith is illustrated in a 

 group near the entrance, on the west side, and the finished products, 

 such as knives, axes and spears, are amply shown throughout the Hall. 

 The knowledge of the iron technique distinguishes the Negro culturally 

 from the American Indian, the Oceanian and the Australian. 



All the Negroes cultivate the soil, the women doing the actual tilling 

 while the men are hunters and, among pastoral tribes, herders. Cloth- 



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