The Joli headdresses in the Fowler’s collection are a brilliant expression of Sierra Leone’s role as a crossroads of global trade and African aesthetic sensibility. Art Historian and Curator John Nunley traces the routes and roots of this trade beginning with the Age of Discovery. The African spirit world, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and their hybrids play within the Joli performance, its shimmering beauty reflecting a hope for a better world.