The second floor is dedicated to different cultural manifestations of Africa. They belong to three ethno-linguistic groups:  the Yoruba, the Bantu and the Calabar, but the Yoruba objects are in the majority. The artistic objects are made from different materials, such as vegetable fibers, wood, clay, ivory, metals and stone.

A rich collection of costumes that constitute a form of cultural resistance against the European colonialism, is one of the main features of the museum. A few baskets that you will see in the rooms, are made of different vegetable fibers and colorized by the dyes, got form the nature.

To express its gratitude to Fernando Ortiz Fernández, the famous Cuban ethnographer and expert on Afro-Cuban culture, the museum exhibits all the furniture in his study room on the second floor. The term Afro-Cuban was used for the first time by Fernando Ortiz (1881-1969). You will see also the wooden Abakuá masks from his collection, used in different ceremonies.

The second floor contains many samples of some Afro-Cuban religious expressions, such as Santería, Palo Monte (a society that has its roots in the cults, practicing in Kingdom of Congo), and Abakuá (secret Cuban society where only men were accepted). The guides give some information about the sculptures of various Santería gods, but it is highly recommended to read about this religious belief before visiting the museum. It really takes time to watch all the details on the sculptures of the Yoruba gods, such as Oshun (represents the sensuality and the love, owner of the rivers), Eleggua (god of roads), Oggun (god of metals), Ochosi (god of mountains), Osain (god of hunting), Obba (goddess of the river Obba in Nigeria), Obatala (represents the wisdom), Yemaya (goddess of the sea, considered as universal mother in the Yoruba religion), Oya (represents the storms) etc. You will see a fortune teller sitting on the ground. He is the Babalawo, the highest priest of Yoruba religion. When there were problems or when important decisions had to be made, he was in charge of interpreting the Ifaa oracle through his board. Additionally, many wooden masks are hung on the walls, mostly representing man’s face in varying expressions.

In the room where a wide variety of musical instruments from different areas of Africa are exhibited, the Arará drums are among the striking pieces of the museum. One of such drums that was carved into an African head, has been made for a slave tamborero (the musicion that plays the percussion instrument tambour) by the order of the Arará Sabalú town council of the Aladá African kingdom (today Benin). The name Arará was given to the slaves in Cuba that belonged to some ethnic groups, such as ewe, adjá and fong, captured in the territory of the ancient kingdom of Dahoney, today Republic of Benin. Although these African slaves were spread out almost to the entire island, they could maintain their cult Regla Arará only in the provinces of Havana and Matanzas (today only in Matanzas).

Another valuable piece of the drum collection is the Batá drum. A Batá drum is a double-headed drum, shaped like an hourglass with one end larger than the other. The percussion instrument is used primarily in the land of Yoruba, located in Nigeria, as well as by the worshippers of Santería in Cuba. In Cuba, the batá drums consist of a set of three that are manufactured in various size. The largest one, Iyá, is referred to as mother drum, the middle one, itótele, as father drum, and the smallest one, okónkolo, as baby drum. The museum has two Batá drums.

Other original African musical instruments are also exhibited in the same room, such as the agogó, the yuka, the maracas and the güiro. An agogó, the oldest samba instrument, is a bell that was used to call the saints by the Yoruba people. Commonly two bells, each in different size, are attached by a U-shaped piece of metal, so that different pitch would be produced depending on which bell has been hit. The yukas are long drums that are made from hollowed-out trunks of the avocado tree. The well-known palo largo is also a yuka with which the first African music was heard in Cuba. The güiro is a Latin American percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines along the notches to produce a ratchet sound. In a showcase a musical instrument from Madagascar that was made of the mandible of a zebu, a rattle from South Africa, maracas from Mali are exhibited together. Some of the religious musical instruments were collected by  Fernando Ortiz that constituted the references for his study on Afro-Cuban culture.

There is also a library, dedicated to honor his work, for the use of academicians, researchers and university students that are interested in acquiring knowledge about the African culture, and a valuable collection of various pieces from the current 27 African states from which the slaves were brought to the island.

Currently, the Casa de Africa is the headquarter of the Scientific Workshop of Afro-American Social and Cultural Anthropology.