For 2,500 years, Africans have shaped metals into tools for farming and hunting, emblems of wealth and authority, protective talismans, and burial offerings.

During most of that time, iron was the king of metals. Today, Africa’s industrial mines yield over 60 metals and other minerals, contributing significantly to African economies.

Most African metalworkers are men. Skilled craftsmen, they are esteemed for their knowledge of ores and fuels and for their technical command of complex physical processes.

In the past, many Africans viewed smelting as a powerful act of creation. The smelter controlled the fire’s intense heat to transform ore into useful metals, an act that was likened to human fertility and birth.

Although industrial processes have replaced the smelter, modern smiths still work metals to provide essential goods.