On June 23, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.
opened Where Gods and Mortals Meet: Continuity and Renewal in Urhobo Art. The
exhibit seeks to celebrate the lives of the Urhobo and their efforts to "preserve
and transmit knowledge of their ancestral culture in the face of their worldwide
diaspora," according to Sharon Patten, director of the museum as reported
by allAfrica.com. The Urhobo, the fifth most populous ethnicity in Nigeria, are
slash and burn agriculuralists whose territory has been exploited for oil reserves.
The opening of this exhibition closely follows the beginning of the construction
of a 30-acre Cultural Center in Uvwiamuge, Nigeria dedicated entirely to the
Urhobo.
