{"id":670650,"date":"2026-01-03T07:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T07:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/670650\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T07:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T07:00:15","slug":"manchester-museum-hides-sculptures-out-of-respect-for-african-taboos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/670650\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester Museum hides sculptures ‘out of respect for African taboos’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A top British museum has hidden a number of its sculptures out of respect for African cultural taboos.<\/p>\n

Manchester Museum kept carved wooden figures of naked men concealed from visitors because they are designed for women’s eyes only.<\/p>\n

Objects created by the Vai people of Liberia and Sierra Leone feature among those kept out of sight, as the community maintains various female-only rituals.<\/p>\n

The museum said: “We honour the specific cultural restrictions in each circumstance, providing access according to agreed protocols.”<\/p>\n

Sacred stone pipes made by the Sioux and an Australian stone phallus also remain locked up in storage.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, charms made by Nigeria’s Ogoni people are stored away from the public.<\/p>\n

The Ogoni observe several male-only rites and rely on “juju” men to guide their spiritual practices.<\/p>\n

The museum keeps these items hidden to respect these restrictions – as they would be back in Ngeria.<\/p>\n

\"Manchester<\/p>\n

Manchester Museum kept carved wooden figures of naked men concealed from visitors because they are designed for women’s eyes only<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS<\/p>\n

As a result, certain artefacts never reach the museum floor and are accessible only through special arrangements.<\/p>\n

But Manchester isn’t the only museum to have locked up its treasures.<\/p>\n

National Museums Liverpool has taken similar steps, withdrawing a Native American rattle from its displays.<\/p>\n

The rattle was likely used in sacred ceremonies.<\/p>\n

BRITAIN’S WOKE MUSEUMS – READ MORE:<\/p>\n

The museum group also keeps other items locked away, including another sacred rattle and two pouches of Aboriginal “ritual objects” reserved exclusively for men.<\/p>\n

British museums have become increasingly sensitive about foreign cultrural rules.<\/p>\n

Content warnings are now commonly put in place to alert visitors before they encounter certain artefacts.<\/p>\n

Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum even went as far as to not share an image of a Nigerian on its online database – before eventually giving in.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

The Pitt Rivers Museum even went as far as to not share an image of a Nigerian on its online database<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS<\/p>\n

The mask had been labelled “must not be seen by women” by its original collectors.<\/p>\n

A note explained: “This object has been digitised but we are unable to show the media publicly.”<\/p>\n

The museum’s policy permits images to be withheld if they are “culturally sensitive: not to be seen by women”.<\/p>\n

In 2020, the institution also removed its collection of South American shrunken heads from display.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A top British museum has hidden a number of its sculptures out of respect for African cultural taboos.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[113921,748,393,4884,2465,12,17444,512,16,15,77270],"class_list":{"0":"post-670650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-across-the-uk","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-north-west-of-england","15":"tag-sgg","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-woke-madness"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115829881161338451","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}