CH 1: INTRO TO THE MUSEUM

Welcome to the Museum of the African Diaspora, MoAD, the only museum of its kind in the
world. Were glad youre here. Our mission is to connect all people through the celebration and
exploration of the art, culture and history of the African Diaspora.
Diaspora comes from two Greek words meaning to scatter and to sow. The two main elements
of a diaspora are the movement of people and the establishment of roots in new lands.
This tour, which has been created specifically for first-time museum visitors, will begin at the
mirror opposite MoADs Mission Street entrance.
Pauses in the guided tour are indicated by musical interludes. Please feel free to pause and
explore the permanent exhibit at any time.
PAUSE
Once you are facing the mirror, look straight ahead. You will see the word MoAD composed of
small circles, symbolizing the scattering of people throughout the world. We invite you to look at
your own reflection and consider the idea that all humanity originated in Africa. How does this
notion affect how you see yourself and others? When did you discover you are African?
PAUSE
Now, stand in front of the visitor services desk and look up to your right. Above the museum
shop, you will see overhead panels symbolizing and defining MoADs four core themes:
The green earth represents humanitys African origins
The blue water represents movement, a fundamental part of the human condition.
The brown roots and tree branches represent adaptation of traditions and cultures.
The planted field changes from brown to green, representing transformation and a return to
origins.
The museums architecture and exhibit design reflect these four themes. MoADs first floor
focuses on origins, while the steps leading to the second floor represent movement and the
second floor focuses on adaptation and transformation.
Now, approach the LED map.
CH 2: ORIGINS
The wall facing you is lit up with an LED map of the world with Africa in the center.
Stop here for a moment. Wait until the map disappears, which indicates that the videos are
about to restart.

Museum of the African Diaspora 2006

Notice that the map, which traces the path of the Original African Diaspora, is first lit from the
northeast corner of Africa, and that the lights spread to the rest of the world, showing how
humanity originated in Africa and migrated to the rest of the planet. As the lights spread, you will
see images on the screens change from scenes of our beginnings in Africa to images from other
places. Notice how the museums four themes - origins, movement, adaptation, and
transformation - are represented within the origins map.
PAUSE
Today, evidence found by paleontologists and biologists confirms humanitys African
roots. Recent scientific discoveries show that ancestors of modern humans lived 5 to 6
million years ago in Chad, Kenya and Ethiopia.
About 1.7 million years ago, humans migrated from Africa to regions of what are today
Spain and China. These early migrants crafted stone tools that they used for both
hunting and defense. In these tools, we can see the first spark of creative genius that set
humans apart from other animals. A spark that has enabled us to adapt to different, often
changing conditions all over the world.
The discovery of 160,000-year-old fossils in Herto Ethiopia provide evidence that the
anatomical characteristics of modern humans were visible first in Africa, before the
scattering of people brought early humans to other parts of the world. Our common
African ancestors began to use their brains for abstract thought and their descendents
ultimately advanced the development of art, music, complex language and other skills
the roots of world cultures.
Today we humans number six billion, and our ranks are growing. Whether we hail from
Chicago or Johannesburg, Japan, Brazil or the Bay Area, when we trace our roots back
to their origins, we are brought to the same place. Our ancestors are African, and
through them we are all connected, to each other and to the continent where humanity
was born.
PAUSE
Now walk up the four stairs to your right and pause at the first landing.
CH 3: THE FACE OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA + MOVEMENT
To your right is the Face of the African Diaspora, a photo-mosaic of a Ghanaian girl made up of
more than 2,000 images submitted to MoAD following an international call for photographs.
Every image submitted was included in the mosaic, some on lenticular screens that combine
two or more photos. The images are geographically and racially diverse, communicating the
message that despite racial or cultural differences we are all descendants of continental Africa
and thus part of the African Diaspora. You may have seen this mosaic, inspired by a photograph
by Chester Higgins, Jr., from across the street before you entered the museum.
Of the photos that make up the mosaic, which one resonates most with you? If you could submit
one photo of your own to be part of the mosaic, which one would you submit?
PAUSE

Museum of the African Diaspora 2006

The music you hear as you walk up the stairs is one of 4 sections of the MoAD Suite. You will
hear elements of African ritual music, modern African choral music, African American spirituals,
gospel, blues, jazz, and Cuban salsa. Walk up the stairs to the second floor landing and
consider how the movement of music from Africa has shaped the musical traditions of the
Americas.
CH 4: ADAPTATION + TRANSFORMATION
At the top of the stairs leading to the 2nd floor, you will find definitions of the two most recent
African Diasporas explored at MoAD: the Modern African Diaspora, during which thousands of
Africans were scattered throughout the Americas by the transatlantic slave trade, and the
Contemporary African Diaspora, facilitated by globalization and the movement of people of
recent African descent at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st.
Notice the text of poet and author Maya Angelous Africa which appears to the right of the
MoAD salons entrance. Angelou once said that, for her, Africa was, more than a glamorous
fact. She called the continent a historical truth.
Undoubtedly this poem, in which Angelou speaks as the feminized African continent, is a
meditation on both the majesty of African civilization and the inescapable tragedy of the transAtlantic slave trade.
PAUSE
Now turn 180 degrees so that your back is to the MoAD salon.
Notice the baobab photomural on the outside wall of the Celebration Circle theatre before
turning your attention to baobab quilt opposite the theaters entrance. The baobab tree, also
known as the tree of life, is vital to African people today; for centuries, Africans have valued
both its sacred and practical uses. Not only is the baobab an excellent source of food, it stores
nearly 30,000 gallons of water during the dry season and its fruit, leaves and seeds have proven
healing and medicinal properties.
Now enter the Celebration Circle, a 180o theater with three screens. On them, you will see and
hear ordinary people describing how they experience the joys of a birth or a family reunion, the
excitement of a wedding or festival and the often-somber rituals associated with death. Even in
times of great adversity, people of the African Diaspora draw upon their heritage to meet change
and celebrate life.
Celebrations create a sense of belonging and evoke feelings of pride for those who participate
in them. Notice how adaptation and transformation are made concrete in the Celebration Circle
through stories of varying cultural practices, many of which have changed over time and as a
result of migratory constraints.
How does your family celebrate? Do you share traditions with the people represented in
Celebration Circle?
PAUSE

Museum of the African Diaspora 2006

Adornment, music and food often heighten experience of a celebration. They also send
messages about who we are. In the interactive exhibits adjoining Celebration Circle, visitors
can explore the adornments, music and culinary traditions of the African Diaspora.
On the wall adjacent to the exit of Celebration Circle, is What You Wear and Who You Are, A
World of Choices. This interactive exhibit consists of three figures: a woman, a man, and a child.
Each figure has a computer monitor for a head, lenticular screens for arms and legs, and a
mirror in the torso. The figures are adorned with clothing, jewelry, hairstyles, and body art worn
by people of the African Diaspora. Some styles, such as dread locked hair and cornrows,
closely resemble the original African styles from which they descended while other modes of
adornment, such as the use of patterned textiles in dress, have been adapted to suit changing
cultural and geographic contexts throughout the Diaspora. Now stand in front of one of the
figures with your torso aligned to the mirrored bust and consider whether there are traditions
outside of your own that you have adopted into your own personal style. What do these
traditions mean to you?
PAUSE
Now turn to the right to experience African Diaspora Music, Heartbeat of Converging World
Culture. This exhibit allows visitors to engage with the history, evolution, spread, and influence
of the music created by the Modern and Contemporary African Diasporas.
Enslaved African Americans and their descendants took elements of African music, such as
complex rhythms, call and response and melodic tension and resolution, and combined them
with European American folk music to create jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, soul, and hip-hop.
African music is the foundation of most American popular music.
Africans taken to the Caribbean, Central and South America transformed the sounds brought by
European colonists too. This creative adaptation, also influenced by indigenous music of the
Caribbean, can be heard in both Brazilian samba and Trinidadian calypso.
PAUSE
The first touch-screen console, Songs of Life, Songs of Freedom: African Music Past and
Present, explores the ways that African music reflects both ancient and modern influences.
The second console, Feeling the Spirit: African-Influenced Music in the American Vernacular
allows visitors to experience the ways that music has played a multidimensional role in African
American culture, serving not only as a way to express feelings of sorrow or romance, but also
as a vehicle for spiritual pursuits and a rallying cry for protest.
The third console, Moving Out: African-Influenced Music across the Caribbean and Latin
America allows visitors to experience the direct influence of African percussion in genres such
as Cuban rumba.
The fourth console, The Written Tradition: African-Influenced Composers, explains some of the
many ways that the music of the Modern African Diaspora has affected composers of African
and non-African decent.
PAUSE

Museum of the African Diaspora 2006

Opposite African Diaspora Music you will see From Africa to Your Table, A Culinary Journey. In
this exhibit visitors can explore the many ways that the Modern African Diaspora has influenced
cuisine around the world.
Culinary traditions pass from generation to generation through the practices of both families and
larger cultural communities. Foods are often transformed through movement and adaption, as
are growing methods, distribution systems, and modes of preparation.
The round displays, which symbolize the tabletops you may find in a restaurant or home,
contain information about production and agricultural influences and demonstrate the ways in
which African foods have influenced world cultures and tastes.
As you engage with the stations remember the celebrations and traditions you have participated
in and the foods involved. What is your most delicious memory?
PAUSE
Turn to your left and you will see the entrance to the Freedom Theater. We invite you to view
films about people of African descent who have contributed significantly to struggles for freedom
across the world. Check the LED marquee above the door to see what is playing next. Each film
runs for approximately twelve minutes.
Toussaint LOuverture: Heartbeat of Freedom, narrated by actor Danny Glover and featuring
scholar and writer Cornel West and Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean, tells the story of Haitis
original liberator, the only leader of a successful modern slave revolt.
Nelson Mandela: End of Apartheid, tells the story of South Africas first democratically elected
president and the freedom movement he led that helped to topple his countrys system of racial
apartheid. This film, commissioned for viewing exclusively at MoAD, was produced entirely by
South Africans in South Africa.
Howard Thurman: Spirit of the Movement tells the story of the nations first interracial and
interdenominational church, the Fellowship Church in San Francisco, founded in the 1940s on
Larkin Street. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, Thurman brought the practice of nonviolence to the
civil rights struggle in the US. Spirit of the Movement, produced in 2005, features a cameo by
then-Senator Barack Obama and is just part of a feature-length documentary being produced by
Bay Area documentarian, Arleigh Prelow.
PAUSE - 00:15:30/ 1 MINUTE, 28 SECONDS
After exiting the Freedom Theater turn left toward the wall just to the right of the Slavery
Passages entrance. On it you will see a photo of a door of no return, taken on Goree Island in
Senegal, West Africa. The door of no return was the door through which slaves passed from
West African forts onto ships bound for the Americas and Europe. They were just narrow
enough to allow one person to pass though, making mass revolt, and escape, nearly
impossible. For most newly enslaved Africans, the door of no return was the last image seen
before boarding slave ships bound for the new world.
Now turn to your left again and enter Slavery Passages. This darkened room with projected
abstract motifs was designed to heighten your auditory senses and honor the traditional art form
of storytelling.

Museum of the African Diaspora 2006

In Slavery Passages, you will hear first person stories spanning from the 19th century to the
present day. These stories were originally told by freed slaves from Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica,
Nigeria, Sudan and the United States. Some of these accounts are from biographies or
autobiographies, and others were transcribed from interviews conducted after the interviewee
became free. Abolitionist groups documented a portion of these personal accounts in hopes that
revealing the horrific stories would help overturn the institution of slavery. Slavery Passages can
also be accessed on the MoAD website and in the Heritage Center.
PAUSE
We see change as a constant theme in the history of the human experience. To honor this
theme, MoAD presents public programs and temporary exhibitions featuring poets, chefs and
other artists of the Diaspora in both the MoAD Salon and the third floor gallery. Be sure to visit
the MoAD website or the front desk to find out about our temporary exhibitions art, artifacts and
stories that further contextualize MoADs mission and vision.
PAUSE
Thank you for taking our guided tour of the museums permanent exhibit.
We are always seeking ways to make the MoAD experience more rich and meaningful. To that
end, your feedback is needed and appreciated. Please visit the Heritage Center or front desk to
share your reflections on the museum and the audio tour for the permanent exhibit.
PAUSE

Museum of the African Diaspora 2006