In 2019, the Block Museum partnered with institutions across three continents to create Caravans of Gold, the first major exhibition addressing the scope of Saharan trade and the shared history of West Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe from the eighth to sixteenth centuries. Weaving stories about interconnected histories, the exhibition showcased the objects and ideas that connected at the crossroads of the medieval Sahara and celebrates West Africa’s historic and underrecognized global significance.
The international partnerships that enabled the Caravans of Gold created lasting scholarly relationships and institutional connections that extend far beyond the exhibition itself. In 2021, these partnered institutions met once again for the first installment of the African Heritage in Dialogue: Looking Ahead with Caravans of Gold Partners. Through this series of discussions, The Block and PAS “seek to sustain and extend engagement with cultural heritage specialists across Africa, providing a structure for sharing ideas, challenges, questions, and priorities.” This series explores essential questions such as: How are cultural institutions and researchers managing during the pandemic? What other factors have impacted their work over the past year? How do archaeologists and museums in each country work together in beneficial ways? And, where lies the future of archaeology, museum practice, and cultural heritage in different countries and regions?
The first of three videos in the series features Abidemi Babatunde Babalola (Smuts Research Fellow at the Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge, and Research Affiliate at the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Heritage Centre of the Cyprus Institute) and Edith O. Ekunke (immediate past Director of Museums, National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria). The conversation is moderated by Kathleen Bickford Berzock (associate director of curatorial affairs, Block Museum) and Amanda Logan (Associate Professor, Anthropology, Northwestern University).
Caravans of Gold is currently at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African Art: https://africa.si.edu/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/caravans-of-gold-fragments-in-time-art-culture-and-exchange-across-medieval-saharan-africa/
The exhibition can also be viewed through the app: https://caravansofgold.org/progressive-web-app/
Additional resources can be accessed through the exhibition website: https://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/exhibitions/2019/caravans-of-gold,-fragments-in-time-art,-culture,-and-exchange-across-medieval-saharan-africa.html