The exhibition presents a great variety of finely worked ornaments and cult objects in “bronze”, production of the Gan people of Burkina Faso.

The Gan, neighbours of the Lobi, number about six thousand subjects, located in the south-west region of Burkina Faso. Their ancestors are said to have come from Ghana in the 15th century for political and religious reasons.

Armbands, amulets and other ritual objects, most of them animal representations, were dedicated to tutelary forces protecting the kingdom. They form a true royal bestiary that served as support of legends and histories, shaped and updated for each ancestor of a lineage thus honoured, dignitary of a then prosperous kingdom thanks to gold mining and trade.