Form is never neutral. It is always charged with meaning. Imagine a griot in Mali, seated with a kora, his voice carrying genealogies of kings and the moral lessons of centuries. Now imagine a rapper in Ajegunle, Lagos, or in the Bronx, delivering verses that narrate survival, pride, and defiance. Separated by centuries and continents, […]

Form is never neutral. It is always charged with meaning. Few objects illustrate this truth more vividly than the ivory mask of Queen Idia, mother of Oba Esigie of Benin, and the iPhone, the global device of our age. At first glance, they appear worlds apart — one, a 16th-century masterpiece carved from elephant tusk, […]