[Aaron Henkin] Aaron Henkin here with Pierre Larson, professor of African history at Johns Hopkins University. And we're looking at a powder horn. Did this hold gunpowder? [Pierre Larson] This is a representation of a powder horn. We don't think it held gunpowder. If you look at the piece and notice the silver snake, this is a silver alloy. You can see the dark horn beneath it. And then at the top of the piece with the handle, and toward the bottom where it comes to a point, there is the silver plate around the horn. So it's fashioned around the horn and represents a powder horn. And that's interesting because the region from which this came, the Dahomey kingdom, was a very powerful military state. So it's not surprising that an artist would choose to represent a powder horn, the font of state power. The Dahomey kingdom as a military kingdom was one in which there was a great deal of wealth. And that wealth came from the expansionist kingdom. It would draw the resources of the regions around it into the center of empire. And those resources included labor in the form of slave labor, also exported across the Atlantic.

[Aaron Henkin] The Dahomey Kingdom was located in what is today the country of Benin. [Pierre Larson] The king of Dahomey, we know, kept artists in workshops. Kings are individuals who are looking out for talent and they'll bring it to their court, whether they find it in the free or the enslaved. These enslaved artists would come from various parts of Africa surrounding Dahomey, and they would share artistic styles with each other. [Aaron Henkin] It really changes the whole way you look at a piece of art when you realize that it was made by someone who was enslaved. [Pierre Larson] It does, and something to ponder, that may not be so uncommon as we look at different pieces of art, both in this installation of African art and in other parts of the museum. Fine art is sometimes associated in very interesting ways, sometimes very odd ways, with the powerful and those who don't have much power.