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Africa is a great place for arts and crafts. In Africa the art work is made out of wood and stones, which will mainly be in the form of statues, musical instruments, paintings, decorative items or drums. And commonly they carve statues in the form of a human being which represent their leaders or great peoples. African people usually don't show affection among each other, they make their art work which resembles their tradition.

Africa is a great place for arts and crafts. In Africa the art work is made out of wood and stones, which will mainly be in the form of statues, musical instruments, paintings, decorative items or drums. And commonly they carve statues in the form of a human being which represent their leaders or great peoples. African people usually don't show affection among each other, they make their art work which resembles their tradition.

The statues of animals in African art are included with human figures, to further give praise to the person being honored. For example, a horse is considered a very noble animal, and including one in a sculpture of a man or woman means that person is being held in very high regard. Most contemporary statues are made of either stone or carved of wood.

Evidences of African art could be found as early as 500 BC, with carved rocks in the Sahara and sculptures from Nigeria. The use of bronze, brass and other metalwork, as well as the incorporation of terracotta, ivory and other embellishments were attributed to go back as far as 10th century AD, and usually reserved for royalty. African art forms that were not statues or figurines were still meant to be three-dimensional pieces. Decorative fabrics are meant to be worn, with the wearer becoming part of the art piece, while wall paintings, usually carved from wood, though flat, become part of the residence that it is hung in.

Most of the African arts and crafts resemble its tradition and culture. Each and every art piece resembles the daily life and culture of African peoples. And today those arts can be found in museums, one good example is African masks. African people used masks on some occasional days or on some regional ceremonies, and even in wars and also on the day of harvesting.

African people design the masks according to their place, country or tribe. You can find many different patterns of masks which are made out of ivory and woods. For example, the people of Liberia and Ivory Coast make their masks with wide foreheads; flatten noses, big lips, and pieces of rope attached to one point to make it look like hairs. And the Punu people of Congo and Gabon carve their masks usually with wood and also the hairs on the masks will be made out of wood, which resembles rich women. And they paint these masks with white color, as they believe that the masks serve them to scare of evil spirits and witches.

African baskets are another art which was made in old African tradition. There are some particular places in Africa where baskets are famous, like Esths and Gumare tribes. In those day's the basketry were usually carried over the head, as the culture grew, two ropes were tied on each side of basket and they were carried in hands and named as handbags. As a result many unique and rich varieties of hand bags were made with some appealing arts on it. They even used materials such as mud cloth and suede to make bags. Even today African arts and crafts are in a great demand among people as they are very magnificent.

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