Africa’s Many Worlds : Family-oriented exhibits explore the continent’s history and artifacts.

The journey into Africa begins with a jitney typical of today’s Senegal and ends with a slave ship. In between, “Africa: One Continent. Many Worlds” at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles incorporates hands-on activities and multimedia presentations to weave together the complex story of the second-largest continent.

Children can feel how hard it is to use a pulley to bring up a large water bucket, then read a panel that discusses what it’s like to do this every day. In the ecology section, they can view a life-size robotic rhinoceros on the savanna. In the gorilla research area, they can peer through binoculars at a video of mountain gorillas to get a feel for what it’s like to save them. After hearing the stories of four enslaved Africans, they will appear to step off a ship and into slavery in the United States.

“It deals with Africa in its totality,” says Christiana Hill, a spokesman for the Natural History Museum. “We want families to recognize that Africa is one of the most significant continents in the world.” The traveling exhibit from the Field Museum in Chicago had its West Coast premiere when it opened Wednesday.

Throughout the exhibit, which runs through Jan. 4, weekend workshops will be held for families to experience a bit of the culture firsthand. Darrell Cox, a storyteller who uses African music, will weave tales at 10:45 a.m. Saturday, using instruments he creates from gourds. At 12:30 p.m., families can learn to make African healing dolls out of such objects as scraps of material, twisted wire and string.

This week’s Sunday classes will teach children to make batik designs on paper and African wrap dolls out of recycled materials. Beginning Oct. 19, several workshops also will feature dance performances.

A behind-the-scenes flashlight tour of the exhibit is offered at the sleepover that begins Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. Children 5 and older can spend the night, accompanied by a parent, create traditional crafts and meet “living representatives” of animals from the African continent, says Linda Abraham, the museum’s acting chief of education. (The sleepover is $50; call [213] 763-3534 for more information.)

Children from 7 to 10 can go “Into Africa” on Nov. 8, when Cathy Campbell, a museum educator, shares what it was like growing up in Tanzania and Kenya. She will teach children how to speak a little Swahili, and together they will make braid dolls. The workshop, from 10 a.m. to noon, is $20.

Also a part of the exhibit is “Africa’s Legacy in Mexico,” almost 30 black-and-white photographs by Tony Gleaton of present-day descendants of slaves who were taken to what is now Mexico from the 1500s to 1700s.

“When you look into these faces, you are able to see the African American influence in Mexico,” Hill says.

The museum’s rotunda also will feature paintings by artist Synthia Saint James, whose work will be featured on the Kwanzaa stamp the U.S. Postal Service is bringing out later this year.

To augment the exhibit, the museum has put together “The Community’s Choice,” a selection of 150 African artifacts from 5,000 objects in the museum. Community leaders were brought together to help select the items, including masks, ivory hairpins from the Congo and a beaded Zulu necklace.

“They have written very personal copy on what these items mean to them. They are wonderful tributes,” Hill says. “This exhibit is going to appeal to the entire family.”

BE THERE

“Africa: One Continent. Many Worlds,” Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ends Jan. 4. $6 adults, $3.50 children 13 to 18 and seniors, $2 children 5 to 12. Unless noted, workshops are free with admission. (213) 763-3466. The museum’s Web site is https://www.nhm.org.