African arts and crafts are often found in the form of statues, figures and figurines, as well as decorative cloths, and musical instruments, particularly drums. Most African art is sculpture, with statues in human form as the most popular, as these statues serve to give praise or tribute to a great leader, or an honorable man or woman. Since Africans don't typically find it proper to show affection towards each other, a figure in someone's likeness is an important gesture.



Most of the time the statues of animals will be included with human sculptures to honor great people and to respect them. Because animals like horse are well known as noble animals, when a persons figure is carved with this kind of animals, that person is considered as a noble person, who should be respected. The carvings are mostly made out of wood and stones.

There are many evidences which show that African arts could be found as early as 500BC. In some places of Sahara and Nigeria there are sculptures carved on rocks and woods. Metals like Bronze were also used by the people to make statues out of it. They even used terracotta and ivory to make their art work more rich, which was usually reserved for royalties. These kind of unique art pieces were the decorative items for many houses in those days. People use to wear fabrics made with art work, which resembles the wearer as a part of an art piece. They even made wall paintings which were made out of wood and they used it as decorative items.

African arts and crafts mainly resembles it's tradition. Every single piece of art resembles the culture and daily life of African people. Many historical African arts can be found in museums, one of the best examples is the African Mask. African people mainly used masks at the time of wars. And they even used it in some religious occasions and also on the day of harvesting.

They design the masks according to their county or tribe, each design has its own kind of pattern and style. For example the Dan people of Ivory Coast and Liberia carve their masks with features such as wide fore head, flattened nose, full lips, and the strands of rope attached at the top of masks to make it look like hairs. The people of Congo in Punu make their masks with wood and paint it in white color, which resembles rich women. And they use these masks to scare off evil spirits and witches.

Other African art and craft include the old African tradition basket. Esths and Gumare tribes of Botswana are the two places which is famous for African baskets. These baskets were usually carried over the head, but as the culture grew, they modified the baskets and were carried on the shoulders. As a result hand bags came in to existence and they were made with some of the artistic work of African culture. And they used some of the rare materials like mud cloth and suede to manufacture bags. Even today there is a great demand of African arts among the people around the world. Africa as a great name on its culture and tradition.