the yoruba of south western africa

8/11/2019 The Yoruba of South Western Africa

1/13

YORUBA ART

The Yoruba of South Western Africa (Benin Republic, Nigeria and Togo, also including parts of Ghana, Cameroon

and Sierra Leone) are responsible for one of the oldest and finest artistic traditions in Africa, a tradition that

remains vital and influential today.

Much of the art of the Yoruba, including staffs, court dress, and beadwork for crowns, is associated with the royal

courts. The courts also commissioned numerous architectural objects such as veranda posts, gates, and doors that

are embellished with carvings. Other Yoruba art is related shrines and masking traditions. The Yoruba worship a

large pantheon of deities, and shrines dedicated to these gods are adorned with carvings and house and array of

altar figures and other ritual paraphernalia. Masking traditions vary regionally, and a wide range of mask types are

employed in various festivals and celebrations

Yoruba bronze head sculpture, Ife, Nigeria c. 12th century A.D.

Abundant natural resources enabled the Yoruba to develop one of the most complex cultures in sub-Saharan

Africa. By the beginning of the second millennium CE, Ile-Ife, their most sacred city, had become a major urban

center with highly sophisticated religious, social, and political institutions.


2/13

By AD 1100 the artists at Ife had developed a refined and naturalistic sculptural tradition in terracotta and stone

that was soon followed by works in copper, brass, and bronze. The dynasty of kings at Ife, which regarded the

Yoruba as the place of origin of human civilization, remains intact to this day.

There have been a series of Yoruba kingdoms over the past nine centuries. The Oyo was one of the earliest of

these; the Owa kingdom in the southwest maintained close ties to Ife and also experienced the artistic and cultural

influence of Benin between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. Owa artists supplied fine ivory work to the

court at Benin and Owa royalty adapted and transformed many Benin institutions and the regalia of leadership.

Yoruba kingdoms prospered until the slave trade and warfare of the nineteenth century took their toll. One of the

effects of this devastation was the dispersal of millions of Yoruba all over the world. This resulted in a strong

Yoruba character in the artistic, religious and social lives of Africans in the New World.

Art and Life in Yoruba culture

The custom of art and artists among the Yoruba is deeply rooted in the If literary corpus, indicating the orishas

Ogun, Obatala, Oshun and Obalufon as central to creation mythology including artistry (i.e. the art of humanity).

In order to fully understand the centrality of art (on) in Yoruba thought, one must be aware of their cosmology,

which traces the origin of existence (w) to a Supreme Divinity called Oldmar, the generator of ase, the

enabling power that sustains and transforms the universe. To the Yoruba, art began when Oldmar

commissioned the artist deity Obatala to mold the first human image from clay. Today, it is customary for the

Yoruba to wish pregnant women good luck with the greeting: May Obatala fashion for us a good work of art.

The concept of ase influences how many of the Yoruba arts are composed. In the visual arts, a design may be

segmented or seriate- a "discontinuous aggregate in which the units of the whole are discrete and share equal

value with the other units."Such elements can be seen in Ifa trays and bowls, veranda posts, carved doors, and

ancestral masks.

The importance of the head in Yoruba sculpture

The Yoruba people regard the human head (ori) as the most important part of a person. Likewise, the head is the

most prominent part of Yoruba sculpture. An analysis of Yoruba ontology reveals that the Yoruba regard the head

as the locus of the ase of Olodumare. Therefore, the head constitutes a person's life -source and controlling

personality and destiny. Babatunde Lawal identifies three different modes of representing the head in Yoruba

sculpture: "the naturalistic, which refers to the external, or physical head (ori ode); the stylized, which hints at the

inner, or spiritual, head (ori inu); and the abstract, which symbolizes the primeval material (oke ipori) of which the

inner head was made.


3/13

The issue of anonymity and authorship has long troubled the field of African art history, particularly as it

relates to the political disparities between Africa and the West. Such information was, at least initially,

rarely sought in the field and deemed unnecessary and even undesirable by many collectors. Susan

Vogel has identified a further paradox. In their own societies," Vogel writes, "African artists are known and

even famous, but their names are rarely preserved in connection with specific works... More often thannot, the African sculptor becomes virtually irrelevant to the life of the art object once his work is

complete... Cultures preserve the information they value."

The problem of anonymity in Yoruba art in particular is troubling in the context of Yoruba culture where "it

is absolutely imperative for individuals to acknowledge each other's identity and presence from moment to

moment, there is a special greeting for every occasion and each time of day."

Metal arts

Yoruban blacksmiths create sculpture from iron, through hand-beating, welding, and casting. Ogun is honored as

the god of iron.

Metalworkers also create brass sculptures by lost-wax casting. Brass is seen as being incorruptible by the Ogboni

Society.

Ife head, terracotta, probably 1214th centuries


4/13

Bronze head from Ife

Ife Sculpture of Warrior Riding a Beast


5/13

Mythic origin of Ife, the holy city: Creation of the world

The Yoruba claim to have originated in Ife. According to their mythology, Olodumare, the Supreme God, ordered

Obatala to create the earth but on his way he found palm wine, drank it and became intoxicated. Therefore the

younger brother of the latter, Oduduwa, took the three items of creation from him, climbed down from the

heavens on a chain and threw a handful of earth on the primordial ocean, then put a cockerel on it so that it would

scatter the earth, thus creating the land on which Ile Ife would be built. Oduduwa planted a palm nut in a hole in

the newly formed land and from there sprang a great tree with sixteen branches, a symbolic representation of the

clans of the early Ife city-state. The usurpation of creation by Oduduwa gave rise to the ever lasting conflict

between him and his elder brother Obatala, which is still re-enacted in the modern era by the cult groups of the


6/13

two clans during the Itapa New Year festival. On account of his creation of the world Oduduwa became the

ancestor of the first divine king of the Yoruba, while Obatala is believed to have created the first humans out of

clay. The meaning of the word "ife" in Yoruba is "expansion"; "Ile-Ife" is therefore in reference to the myth of

origin "The Land of Expansion". Due to this fact, the city is commonly regarded as the cradle of not just the Yoruba

culture, but all of humanity as well, especially by the followers of the Yoruba faith.

Origin of the regional states: Dispersal from the holy city, Ife

Oduduwa had sons, daughters and a grandson who went on to found their own kingdoms and empires, namely Ila

Orangun, Owu, Ketu, Sabe, Popo, Oyo and Benin. Oranmiyan, Oduduwa's last born, was one of his father's

principal ministers and overseer of the nascent Edo empire after Oduduwa granted the plea of the Edo people for

his governance. When Oranmiyan decided to go back to Ile Ife after a period of service in Benin, he left behind a

child named Eweka that he had in the interim with an indigenous princess. The young boy went on to become the

first legitimate ruler of the second Edo dynasty that has ruled what is now Benin from that day to this. Oranmiyan

later went on to found the Oyo empire that stretched at its height from the western banks of the river Niger to the

Eastern banks of the river Volta. It would serve as one of the most powerful of Africa's medieval states prior to itscollapse in the 19th century.

Traditional setting

The King (Ooni)

The Oni (or king) of Ife claims direct descent from Oduduwa, and is counted first among the Yoruba kings. He is

traditionally considered the 401st deity (rsh), the only one that speaks. In fact, the royal dynasty of Ife traces its

origin back to the founding of the city more than two thousand years ago. The present ruler is Alayeluwa Oba

Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II, styled His Imperial Majesty by his subjects. The Ooni ascended his throne in 1980.Following the formation of the Yoruba Orisha Congress in 1986, the Ooni acquired an international status the likes

of which the holders of his title hadn't had since the city's colonisation by the British. Nationally he had always

been prominent amongst the Federal Republic of Nigeria's company of royal Obas, being regarded as the chief

priest and custodian of the holy city of all the Yorubas. In former times, the palace of the Oni of Ife was a structure

built of authentic enameled bricks, decorated with artistic porcelain tiles and all sorts of ornaments.

Cults for the deities

Ife is well known as the city of 401 or 201 deities. It is said that every day of the year the traditional worshippers

celebrate a festival of one of these deities. Often the festivals extend over more than one day and they involve

both priestly activities in the palace and theatrical dramatisations in the rest of the kingdom. The most spectacular

festivals demand the King's participation. These include the Itapa festival for Obatala and Obameri, the Edi festival

for Moremi Ajasoro, and the Igare masqueraders, and the Olojo festival for Ogoun.[7] During the festivals and at

other occasions the traditional priests offer prayers for the blessing of their own cult-group, the city of Ile Ife, the

Nigerian nation and the whole world.


7/13


8/13

p.c.). As part of his plan to reunite the feuding parties, Obalufon II also is credited with the creation of a new city

plan with a large, high-walled palace at its center. Around the perimeters, the compounds of key chiefs from the

once feuding lineages were positioned. King Obalufon II seems at the same time to have pressed for the erection

of new temples in the city and the refur- bishment of older ones, these serving in part to honor the lead- ing chiefs

on both sides of the dispute. Ifes ancient art works likely functioned as related temple furnishings. One

particularly art-rich shrine complex that may have come into new prominence as part of Obalufon IIs truce is thathon- oring the ancient hunter Ore, a deity whose name also features in one of Obalufons praise names. Ore is

identified both as an

important autochthonous Ife resident and as an opponent to Odudua. A number of remarkable granite figures in

the Ore Grove were the focus of ceremonies into the mid-twentieth century. One of these works called Olofefura

is believed to represent the deified Ore (Dennett 1910:21; Talbot 1926 2:339; Allison 1968:13).

Five features of the sculpture suggest a dwarf or sufferer of a congenital

disorder in keeping with the identity of many first (Obatala) dynasty shrine figures with body anoma-lies or

disease.


9/13

Regalia details also offer clues. A three-strand choker encircles Olofefuras neck; three bracelet coils embellish thewrist; three tassels hang from the left hip knot. These features link this workand Oreto the earth,

autochthony, and to the Ogboni association, a group promoted by Obalufon II in part to preserve the rights of

autochthonous residents. The left hip knot shown on the wrapper of this work, as well as that of the taller, more

elegant Ore Grove priest or servant figure , also recalls one of Ifes little-known origin myths within the Obatala

priestly family (Akintitan p.c.). According to this myth, Obatala hid the ase (vital force) necessary for Earths solidity

within this knot, requiring his younger brother Odudua, after his theft of materials from Obatala, to wait for the

latters help in completing the task. Consistent with this, Ogboni mem- bers are said to tie their cloth wrappers on

the left hip in mem- ory of Obatalas use of this knot to safeguard the requisite ase (Owakinyin p.c.). Iron inserts in

the coiffure of the taller Ore figure complement those secured in the surface of the Oranmiyan staff, indicating

that this sculpturelike many ancient Ife works of stonewere made in the same era, e.g. the early fourteenth

century. An additional noteworthy feature of these figures, and others, is the importance of body proportionratios. Among the Yoruba today, the body is seen to comprise three principal parts: head, trunk, and legs (Ajibade

n.d.:3). Many Ife sculptural examples emphasize a larger-than- life size scale of the head (or) in relationship to the

rest of the body (a roughly 1:4 ratio). Yoruba scholars have seen this head- privileging ratio as reinforcing the

importance of this body part as a symbol of ego and destiny (or), personality (w), essential nature (w), and

authority (se) (Abimbola 1975:390ff, Abiodun 1994, Abiodun et. al 1991:12ff).6 Or as Ogunremi suggests

(1998:113), such features highlight: The wealth or poverty of the nation *as+ equated with the head (or)of the

ruler of a particular locality.


10/13

A CORPUS OF REMARKABLE COPPER HEADS PERSONIFYUNG LOCAL IFE CHIEFS

A striking group of life-size copper and copper alloy heads was unearthed in the 1930s at the Wunmonije site

behind the Ife palace along with the above-discussed king figure (Fig. 15).23 In addition to the original corpus of

fifteen life-size heads from this site, a clearly related 4.25 inch high fragment of a copper alloy head consisting of a

portion of a face showing a nose and part of a mouth also was collected at an estate in Ado- Ekiti and has been

described as identical with those from Wun- monije (Werner and Willett 1975: facing p. 142).

These sixteen life-size heads appear to have been created as part of the truce that Obalufon I I established between

the embattled Ife residents. One of the heads above indeed is so similar to the Obalufon mask as to depict the

same individual.24 Frank Willett, who published photographs of many of the life-size metal heads in his

monograph on Ife, suggests (1967:2628) that these works had important royal mortuary functions in which each

was dis- played with a crown and robes of office, in the course of ceremonies following each rulers death.25

Willett proposes further that the heads were commissioned as memorial sculptures (ako) consistent with a later

era Ife and Yoruba tradition of carved wooden ako effigy figures used in commemorating deceased hunters. This

theory, which identifies the corpus of life-size cast heads as effigies of successive rulers of the Ife city state,

however, is premised on an idea (now largely discredited; see also Lawal 2005:503ff.)that the works were made

by artists over a several-hundred-year period (the reigns of sixteen monarchs). This theory is problematic not on ly

because the styles and material features of the heads are consistent, but also because the heads were foundtogether (divided into two groups) and share a remarkably similar condition apart from blows that some of them

received during their discovery. The shared condition indicates that they were interred for a similar length of time

and under similar circumstances. The formal similarities in these heads have led most scholars, myself included

(Blier 1985), to argue that the works were created in a short period of time and by fewer than a handful of art-

ists.With respect to style, as Thurstan Shaw notes (1978:134), they are of a piece and look like the work of one

generation, even perhaps a single great artist. These heads, I posited in this samearticle, were cast in part to

serve as sacred crown supports and used during coronation rituals for a group of powerful I fe chiefs who head the


11/13

various core first and second dynasty lineages in the city. These rites appear also to have been associated with

Obalu- fon since related priests have a role in Ife coronations still today.

The site where the heads were found today is identified as Obalu- fon IIs burial site (Eyo 1976:n.p.). Ife Chief

Obalara (Obalufon IIs descendant and priest) crowns each new monarch at a Obalufon shrine (Igbo Obalara) near

the Obatala temple a short distance from here (Verger 1957:439, Fabunmi 1969:10, Eluyemi 1977:41).Today,

when a descendant of King Obalufon wishes to commis- sion shrine arts in conjunction with his worship, two

copper alloy heads, one plain faced, the other with vertical line facial markings, are created (Oluyemi p.c.).

Some of these ancient Ife life-size heads have plain faces. Others show vertical lines. These facial marking variables

support the likely use of these heads in coronations and other rites associated with the powerful early Ife first- and

second-dynasty-linked chiefs who were brought together as part of Obalufon IIs truce. The grouping of these

heads, which in many ways also resemble the Obalufon mask , together reference (and honor) the leaders of key

families (now seen as orisa or gods) who had participated in this conflict. Obalufon II also created a new city plan

as part of this truce, one in which the homesteads of these lineage leaders were relocated to sites circumscribing

the center of Ife and its palace (Blier 2012). In the eighteenthnineteenth centuries, when the city came under

attack, the heads appear to have been buried for safe keeping near their original shrine locale after many centuries

of use and their location eventually forgotten. There are several ways that the heads could have been dis- played

in early Ife ritual contexts, among these earthen step- form altars and tall supports similar to one photographed

with heads in Benin in the late nineteenth century . The latter staff would account for the presence of holes near

the bases of these works. Wooden mounts such as those known today here as ako were fashioned to

commemorate Ife elephant hunters. These also could have been used for display purposes. A perhaps related

Ijebu-Ode known as okute and discussed by Ogunba (1964:251)features roughly 4-foot wooden staffs with a

symbolic human head. These pole-like forms were secured in the ground and dressed during annual rites

commemorating early (first dynasty) rulers of the region.


12/13

Ancient Ife art works, as we have seen, are works not only of great visual power, striking beauty, and rare technical

accom- plishment, but also objects that speak to core issues of history and politics in this early center. As such

these sculptures offer unique and critical insight into the social fabric of the city. Look- ing at the complex visual

codes of these remarkable objects through details of body form and proportion, gesture, facial marking, material

properties, regalia form, animal symbolism, site locations, oral history, mapping and traveler accounts, as well as

modern day Ife beliefs and rituals about this center and its arts allows us to see these ancient Ife works as a vitalpart of the citys early history. The artists of these works clearly were interested in the sculptural meanings being

known, and through an in-depth analysis of the variant symbolic formula at play, we now have a much better

understanding of both this important early city and its arts.


13/13

REFERENCES

Abimbola, Wande, ed. 1975. Yoruba Oral Tradition:

Poetry in Music, Dance, and Drama. Place: IAP Publishers.

Abiodun, Rowland. 1974. African Arts and Leadership

ed. by Douglas Fraser and Herbert Cole *review+. Odu:

A Journal of West African Studies 10:13539.

Allison, Phillip. 1968. African Stone Sculpture. New York: Frederick A. Praeger.

Blier, Suzanne Preston. 1982. Treasures of Ancient Nigeria *review+. Art Journal 42 (3):23436.

Dennett, R.E. 1910. Nigerian Studies: The Religious and

Political System of the Yoruba. (1968 reprint, London: Frank Cass).

Clarke, essay by Babatunde Lawal ; exhibition co-curated by Carol Thompson, Christa

(2007). Embodying the sacred in Yoruba art : featuring the Bernard and Patricia Wagner

Collection. Atlanta, Ga.: High Museum of Art. Drewal, Henry John; Wardwell, John Pemberton, 3rd with Rowland Abiodun ; edited by Allen

(1989). Yoruba : nine centuries of African art and thought(2nd print. ed.). New York: Center

for African Art in Association with H.N. Abrams.

Eyo, Ekpo. 1974. Odo Ogbe Street and Lafogido: Con- trasting Archaeological Sites in Ile Ife, Western

Nigeria. West African Journal of Archaeology 4:99109.

Eyo, Ekpo, and Frank Willett. 1980. Treasures of Ancient Nigeria. New York: Alfred Knopf.

Eluyemi, Omotoso. 1977. Terracotta Sculptures from Obalaras Compound, Ile-Ife. African Arts 10

(3):41, 88.

Fabunmi, M.A. 1969. Ife Shrines. Ife: University of Ife Press.

Lawal, Babatunde. 1996. The Gelede Spectacle: Art, Gen- der, and Social Harmony in an African

Culture. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Ogunba, Oyin. 1964. Crowns and Okute at Idowa. Nigeria Magazine 83:24961.

Talbot, P.A. 1926. The Peoples of Southern Nigeria (II).

London: Oxford University Press.

Verger, Pierre. Notes sur le culte des Orisa et Vodoun. Mmoires de lInstitut Franais dAfrique

Noire, 51. Dakar: IFAN.

Vogel, Susan Mullin (Spring 1999). "Known Artists by Anonymous Works".African Arts.

Werner, O., and F. Willett. The Composition of Brasses from Ife and Benin. Archaeometry 17:141

63.

the yoruba of south western africa

Documents