THE EXHIBITION AT A GLANCE
How do we imagine the African forest?
In the mind of someone who has never set foot in Central Africa, the notion of forest is reduced to a stereotype: ‘the’ great dense rainforest of the Congo basin…
Click the numbers on the map for a glance in the exhibition
Wood in African material culture
In all human cultures, wood has been a fundamental material for all kinds of applications. Here we see how different shapes, colours and odours determine what kind of wood is used to make utensils, tableware, musical instruments, ritual objects, masks, pirogues...
Europe’s largest wood collection
The xylarium or ‘wood library’ of Tervuren is a global reference bank for exotic woods and, in particular, African woods.
A definition of wood…
Central African forests: a world
heritage
‘According to popular usage in Africa the word “forest” refers to everything found beyond inhabited or cultivated land whether or not trees grow on it!’
JP Vande weghe (in ‘Forêts d’Afrique Centrale: La nature et l’homme’)
A tale of forests and trees…
The following 11 categories, presented in four galleries, guide you through the exhibit, each telling a different story about the African forest and its wood.
