PRE-COLONIAL SOCIETIES IN NIGERIA

The Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art (YSMA) of Pan-Atlantic University is an educational museum at the service of the university and the whole community. At the centre of YSMA’s mission is a desire to help audiences learn about art through art. Our educational programmes are a central component to achieving this objective. We believe that artworks, besides allowing viewers to experience multiple forms of beauty, meaning and skill, can also be an excellent educational resource to help persons of all ages engage, discover and learn about the history and culture of Nigeria.

With this aim of teaching history through art, YSMA has designed a full-day program (10:00 am to 3:00 pm) for secondary school students, titled “Precolonial Societies in Nigeria”. The programme will be museum-based and will use “object-based learning” methodologies. Using, as a starting point, artworks from Ife, Nok, Igbo-Ukwu and Benin currently on display at the Museum, participants in the programme will be able to learn about four significant historical events, periods and social systems that have shaped the cultural and societal heritage of Nigeria as we know it today. Learners will relive history in a different environment from the classroom and will discover how art can capture moments of life in time.

The programme involves a tour of the museum, with focus on artworks from the four selected cultures and societies, plus an interactive class on each of them. In addition to the activities of the programme at the museum, printed and digital resources will be freely accessible for the participants.