African women in traditional societies enhanced their natural beauty with scarification and cosmetic preparations. For example, they applied black kohl to their eyes, painted their faces and bodies with a reddish powder or paste, and moisturized their skin with shea butter. These and other cosmetic substances required containers for mixing and storage.

Figures like this one with a columnar form, sloping shoulders and hips, long arms framing the abdomen, and short, notched legs are used by Mumuye diviners and healers to diagnose and treat illness and other misfortune.

Shaped like a particular type of gourd sliced in half, this cup displays an incised face within concentric circles on each side. The slightly convex eyes are closed on one side and open on the other. The faces refer to the hemba nkisi, a wooden helmet mask that appeared during the boys' initiation into adult society.

For the Baule peoples, fly whisks have functions beyond swatting away insects—they can be part of the Baule royal regalia. The value placed on this object is apparent from its gilded wooden handle. Red cloth and string are wrapped around the whisk's handle. The fabric's dye has transferred to the horsehair tail over time.

Kente from Ghana is undoubtedly the best-known African textile in the world.

This vessel depicts a seated male wearing a hat and jacket with carefully rendered details such as decoration on the shoulders, buttons, and buttonholes. The figure holds a flask for liquor in one hand and a drinking cup or glass in the other.

Heavy castings like this one were used as currency in West Africa prior to the introduction of coinage.

The Portuguese introduced tobacco (Nicotiana tobacum and Nicotiana rustica) to West Africa in the 17th century after they discovered it in the Americas.

Elaborately embroidered and voluminous men's robes made of handwoven strips of cotton are distributed widely throughout Cameroon and Nigeria.

Ndebele women wear curved goatskin capes adorned with a wide rectangular strip of beadwork on ceremonial occasions.