Frapper Le Fer : L'art Des Forgerons Africains

Exhibition at the Musée du quai Branly, Paris, 19 November, 2019 - 29 March, 2020

This exhibition catalogue explores the many ways in which this element was melted and forged by Africans, masters of fire and transformation. The Iron Age has revolutionized Africa and forever transformed civilization from a practical, symbolic and cosmological point of view. For more than two millennia, iron work has profoundly shaped African cultures, which offer a particularly diverse and sophisticated set of wrought iron tools and shapes. This book thus constitutes the most complete presentation ever realized in the world of the art of African blacksmiths and their role in the life of communities.