Iconoclash or Iconoconstrain Truth and Consequence in Contemporary Benin B®and Brass Castings

Joseph Nevadomsky

YOU WANT THE TRUTH? YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH. cally strategic, at the same time. The documented barricade —JACK NICHOLSON AS COL. JESSUP, IN A FEW GOOD MEN (1992) disarticulates the post-1897 production of cast objects from pre- 1897 castings, creating a dichotomy between categorizations— … UNTIL THE LIONS HAVE THEIR OWN HISTORIANS, THE Euro-American aesthetics and art trade vs. Benin civic efficacies HISTORY OF THE HUNT WILL ALWAYS GLORIFY THE HUNTER. and power memory objects—and in the end constitutes an intel- —CHINUA ACHEBE, THE ART OF FICTION (1994:3) lectual dissociation. The date disenfranchises twentieth century Benin castings at the same time that it adds substantial worth to pre-boundary objects. One has somehow to deconstruct the n his introduction to the exhibition catalogue Icono- border crossing between classical Benin art and contemporary clash Bruno Latour (2002) questions the (art) histori- Benin art as exemplified by the temporal cutoff. The difference cal narrative of modernity and turns it into a matter of in merit/value between an object made in the 1890s and, say, doubt. What happens, he asks, if iconoclasm is not a another made ca. 1900–1920 is in the perception of the com- definite dividing line between those who commit the modity as dictated by the date. Scavenging canonical castings hideous act of breaking images and those who don’t? result in few pickings these days, and a change in the academic What if we are all iconoclasts and what if we only differ by the weather makes a paradigm shift likely. Ironically, now that the motives and attitudes we have towards images?1 twenty-first century is here, art historians are researching twen- I 2 Fiddling with Latour’s questions allows for a blast of fresh tieth century Benin cast objects, true to their calling. air into the study of Benin art, especially for gauging the exten- As one examines twentieth century brass-casting, the absence sion of the boundaries of traditional brass-casting in the once- of documentation is striking. Not until the latter decades of that upon-a-time or forever-and-a-day Benin kingdom. Here I look century has attention turned to acknowledging the production at Latour’s questions as they relate to Benin’s brass-casting over of one hundred years, such as Philip Dark’s An Introduction to the past hundred years. I argue that both the Benin palace and Benin Art and Technology (1973), but even here the study of cast- Western art historical scholarship indulges in iconoclastic ges- ing techniques sought data not to examine twentieth century tures. Just as art historians think of 1897, the year British troops objects, but to understand the classical corpus, as in Dark’s ear- looted the Benin palace and deprived the kingdom of many of its lier Benin Art (1969). It raises, Sylvester Ogbechie says, “the issue artifacts, as a date which has changed artistic productions once of how to theorize Edo-Benin art in the era after the end of its and forever (the conceit of a pre-1897 art heritage and a post- ‘history’” (2007). 1897 kitsch consequence) the palace focuses on 1897 in to The cultural contours of in landscape, ideology, brand Benin art as an eternal reference to the past/heritage and hierarchy, and social formations have also infected art histori- to justify demands of repatriation. cal interests in directing the studies of classical sculptural pro- The removal of palace objects after the punitive event made duction in the Ẹdo (Bini) to acquisitions the date real and artificial, historically accurate and art histori- removed from the palace in 1897. An art historical myopia inci-

14 | african arts AUTUMN 2012 VOL. 45, NO. 3 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 14 5/24/2012 3:55:20 PM 1 Brass castings in shop on Igun St., Benin City. A THE PLOT AND THE PLACE few shops, like this one, are retail only. Most do cast- The former Kingdom of Benin, with its capital in Benin City, ing on the premises as well as sales. PHOTO: JOSEPH NEVADOMSKY encapsulated now as , , included an area that in its heyday extended over a large part of southwest Nigeria. It is known internationally for brass-cast art and ivory carving. From the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, this kingdom, as it expanded, produced commemorative art of such exceptional quality that it now enjoys a fame placing it at the apex of Black dentally accorded market value to objects, in Ogbechie’s telling African art, on a par with Renaissance cast art, Classical Indian brief, “whose veneration in Western historiography consigns all brasses, and Chinese bronzes. In 1897 the British invaded the subsequent products of Benin art to the realm of lesser objects” Kingdom of Benin. Britain sought to gain control over trade on (2007) (i.e., “fakes,” or “repros”). the Niger River and in the Bight of Benin. The “massacre” of a I show that these two different historical imaginations of Benin trade delegation to Benin precipitated the invasion, later justi- City are deeply entangled. By virtue of their mutual ensnarement fied by British morality. The British destroyed the palace, exiled they have also created a constrained environment, an iconocon- the king, hanged the chiefs guilty of the massacre, and confis- strain, in which initiatives of creative efforts on the side of brass- cated palace ivories and brass-cast objects that were shipped to casters appear to be stymied, but in fact are not. The innovations England and sold to offset expedition costs, ostensibly ravaging a of production butt up against the hegemonic frame that has its civilization’s memory markers and visual imagery. genesis in the coded 1897 date and in the corner of Airport and With the kingdom conquered and the king ousted, Benin art Adesogbe/Plymouth Roads, a.k.a. “The Palace.” A potential radi- production of merit was considered defunct by subsequent schol- cal art progressivism is subdued, maybe trumped, by the revan- arship. Or was it? A British fort built on the royal palace grounds chist conservatism of kingship manicured by art historians. The became the center of administrative authority. The British set up result is a conceptual stalemate that prevents both scholars and a prison and a hospital adjacent to the old palace, and near the actors from conceiving alternative ways to understand contem- sites of the notorious crucifixion trees that had brought moral porary Benin brass casting, but that is only one-half the story— outrage from England. A crucifixion tree became the ninth hole the short answer is not the whole answer. of a golf course at the newly established European Club (now

VOL. 45, NO. 3 AUTUMN 2012 african arts | 15 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 15 5/24/2012 3:55:22 PM (this page) 2 Igun St. artisan modeling a replica plaque based on a the Benin Club) a month after the conquest. In the same year, photograph in one of the major art history texts. however, a colonial report by Sir Ralph Moor, the Consul-Gen- PHOTO: JOSEPH NEVADOMSKY eral, states that brass-casting was alive and well, commercialism 3 Shop brass figures Igun St, one of many that is a com- had quickly replaced clientage, and colonial patrons took up the bination of contemporary and traditional motifs. slack left by an empty palace (HMSO 1899). I surmise that the PHOTO: JOSEPH NEVADOMSKY same kinds of objects were produced in this post-palace period (opposite) for a very simple reason: if the British had removed the brass 4 Braising and welding are techniques used to fill in, objects from the palace because they were seen by local casters repair, or weld components. Oloton Lane. to desire them, their future needs could be satisfied by casting PHOTO: JOSEPH NEVADOMSKY more of the same (Nevadomsky in press, 2012). Benin City was not shell-shocked by European conquest. The checks and balances built into Benin’s structural and cognitive ex-kingdom did not enter a catatonic or epileptic state. Contact fabric (e.g., the palace vs. town distinction), fostered compro- with , which began in 1485, was followed by the exchange mise and internal political turmoil, warfare with other chief- of emissaries, trade, and diplomatic delegations from the Portu- doms, and alterations in hierarchical command, from Ẹwuare, guese, Spanish, Dutch, French, with the British incursions the Ọzọlua, and Ẹsigie, the “warrior” kings of the fifteenth–sixteenth most recent. Swainson, the British trader, received a wedding centuries, to the internecine conflicts in the seventeenth century, gift of an equestrian figure from Ọvonramwen in 1892. British to the Ọba/Iyase (Ogbaseki era) and NCNC/AG politics of the reporters such as Sir Richard Burton bounced in and out of the mid-twentieth century, and the Midwest State Movement con- palace from time to time. Nor was there a rupture in the ritual tested by the NCNC Otu-Ẹdo-Ọwegbe/ROF Ogbonism (Neva- and craft structures of society. Benin, ideologically ensconced domsky 2010, n.d.a). in the fabric of a highly integrated society and former empire, is The colonial government exiled Ọba Ọvonramwen after 1897, a total society and functions as a total metaphor. However trau- but reestablished kingship in 1914 as part of a policy of Indirect matic the British encounter appears, political conflict had racked Rule and in response to World War I global strategies. Ẹweka II (r. Benin’s history from the beginning. Empire building, and the 1914–1932) authorized new workshops for brass-casting and other

16 | african arts AUTUMN 2012 VOL. 45, NO. 3 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 16 5/24/2012 3:55:26 PM crafts, locating them near the main gate of a reconstructed smaller palace. In 1927 he inaugurated a Benin Divisional Council School for training casters and carvers to absorb commissions. Casters relied on a repertoire of replicated castings, for shrine refurbish- ing and for sale to expatriates. Like his predecessor, Akenzua II (r. 1933–1978) revived the kingdom’s ritual and ceremonial culture, a process that continues with the present king, Ẹrediauwa (r. 1979–). In fact, the palace continues to grip the citizenry of Benin and visitors and scholars alike, as a message control unit and opera- tions command center, despite the 1897 fissure. “This centraliz- ing significance of the monarchy is also reflected in the role of the monarchy as patron of Classical Bini Art” Toyin Adepoju tells us (2009). That grip on art as tied into a historical production format, with plaque, bust and other images that span Benin’s history, and an ideology of patronage has continued, updated and reframed to suit contemporary economic requirements according to and reconstituted by traditional accords. Homologies between ceremony and public life, spatial configu- rations and urban administration, hierarchy and space, or urban religious practices, expressions, and art, sustain Benin City as a densely webbed landscape for the Ẹdo, a symbolism so deeply layered that it is not surrendered to the untutored.3 The sheer impenetrability for the outsider to comprehend Benin City and its culture is inscribed in spatial terms: A gha sẹ Ẹdo, Ẹdo rree (“When one arrives in Benin, Benin is distant”) refers to a place that requires a deep social comprehension, while Ẹdo ore isi agbọn (“Benin is the center of the world”) refers to cosmological geo- graphic space. Centralization and strict orders of hierarchy and precedence prevents the outsider becoming an insider; still, the outsider is quickly sucked into the vortex of the centralized narra- tive, a touchstone for the Ẹdo but a mental millstone for research- ers who want to explore Benin’s contemporary art, crafts, rituals, and religions beyond the center but who fail to fathom the internal political intricacies, a quagmire for the uninitiated.4

CASTING PRODUCTIONS AND CULTURAL ARTICULATIONS How have the casters of Benin City dealt with their art indus- To understand how brass-casters perceive their enterprise, and try in conditions of tradition on the one hand and modernity on how art historians have categorized it, let us have a look at the the other? Ẹwẹka II, recognizing that post 1897 was a very dif- casting productions. Brass-casting is the historical monopoly ferent world from that of his father, loosened the casters from of the guild which has its center in Igun Street. The basic his- the palace’s strict patronage and casting restrictions. John Ogene tory of Igun Street has been briefly documented by others, most tells us that “the shift caused by Ọba Ọvonramwen and the sub- recently by Charles Gore (1997:51–63, 91; 2007) and Daniel Inneh sequent [art] renaissance by Akenzua [II] is yet to play out with (2007:103–18) and, while the re-emergence of brass-casting after the incursion of the new democratic disposition and the nou- the Punitive Expedition is known, the history of a reinvented or veau-rich that removes loyalty from royalty and places it before recreated art form in its casting technology, its artists, and their the highest bidder. To the twenty-first century Igun artist, por- production is not. A major shift, of course, was the market, from traits of governors are no less historical a document than those a palace-patronized guild to a commercially viable one. A less of Queen Idia and Ọba Ẹsigie” (2007). known geographical fact was that Igun Street butted up against The terms of production have changed, but not so much the the original palace5 when Ẹwẹka II resurrected “the arts” near cultural narrative of the city and its ideological envelope. As what is now the water tower beyond the main gate and disarticu- Ogene says, “the streets of modern day Igun harbors artists lated the Igun casters from their former umbilical cord, allowing with a traditional contemporary disposition towards artistic for an identity that did not preclude other occupational roles, creation …” (2007). Most objects are the standard fare: busts of especially those that colonialism encouraged (clerks, secretar- Idia, castings of leopards, the ọba, hip masks galore, store shelf ies). On the one hand, individuals could venture into colonial upon store shelf of them, floor spaces covered by them. Com- capitalism; on the other hand, the traditional role for the brass- mercial extensions of this repertoire show the American bald casters was still aligned with the Inẹ of Ẹrọnmwọn (the official eagle, giraffes, and lions, what Ogene calls “a diversification of head of the guild). general trade” (2007).

VOL. 45, NO. 3 AUTUMN 2012 african arts | 17 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 17 6/1/2012 2:35:49 PM The brass-casters’ clientele has expanded, opening up new facturing copies to pass off as authentic. In some cases this is a commercial avenues. The indigenous artists of Benin City since fair accusation, but mostly Hausa middlemen re-engineer cast- 1897 have evolved a peculiarly traditionalized “house ” in ings (and casting stories) for resale as “genuine antiquities.” Cast- brass-casting. Igun Street has been upgraded with a street made ers are up front about this. They tell me, for example, that local of pavers and an identifying arch. Each Igun Street caster has his clients prefer a shiny brass finish, while expatriates and tourists residence fronted by a shop that displays his brass art. There is prefer pieces that look old, with a patina made by applying vari- one kiosk that just displays objects, and several are workshops ous concoctions of lime juice, battery acid, palm oil, or engine oil, only. Most modeling is done in the shop front, the artist sitting at that leave a charcoal grey or dull bronze finish, according to cli- a small table modeling and greeting potential buyers. An impor- ent preference. This is in line with the preconceptions of Benin tant secondary hub is Oloton Lane,6 with an offshoot on Textile art especially among expatriate visitors and clients, and it is one of Mill Road. What strikes one is that Oloton Lane has a cohesive the merchandising procedures that casters cater to. They are also casting format and a more consistent style, a kin-based cottage- aware of local clientele for busts honoring deceased relatives or style industry uniformity. for castings to decorate the mega-mansions of successful entrepre- Igun Street is more varied; each caster has a discernible neurs with ancestral predecessors and to bestow wealthy evangeli- style. One caster specializes in replicating the canon of proto- cal ministers with biblical-themed brass decor. typic images, from perfect wax models to a casting excellence that would have impressed his predecessors. He does not see his THE BENIN BRASS B®AND “repros” as fakes to deceive buyers (Hausa traders do that for History looted the brand and art history dichotomized it. In an him), but they exemplify the casting tradition based on a reper- odd twist of fate, art history did its part by publishing books on tory culled from book photos of museum objects. A few shops pre-twentieth century Benin art. The palace did its part by encour- down, a caster makes funerary busts, but the first caster does aging craft production, maintaining its hold while encouraging not see himself as a “true artist” and his neighbor as a “commer- commercial production, and not interfering with innovations,8 cial artist.” Such distinctions are irrelevant where there are no and continues today through the politics of repatriation. Casters assumptions of a idealized and privileged art form vs. a com- did their part by working through these contingencies, adopting a mercial and pedestrian craftsmanship, or a contrast between a regimen to suit circumstances and not ruffle feathers. historical style Ọba head and a commemorative bust of a recent dignitary. Both a Queen Idia bust and one of Queen Elizabeth II are worthwhile contracts provided somebody commissions them or they strike the public fancy. On Igun Street some artists do their own casting, so brass- casting is dictated by flexible schedules. As a family unit Oloton Lane is in-house (or compound), from modeling to casting and welding or braising, and therefore more orchestrated. Welders are hired on a task-work basis. Oloton Lane operates collectively and, as a band of brothers, schedules are effectively coordinated, including a coherent specialization of duties. There are differences in casting processes. Igun Street has one traditional bellows at Chief Ihama’s house, mostly for show. Cast- ers now use electric motors from air conditioner units to produce a charcoal fire hot enough to melt metal in crucibles that hold a maximum of 2–4 kilos. Oloton Lane uses a diesel powered gas fired ground level furnace. Peter Omodamwen worked in a smelt- ing factory in Ibadan and brought this technology to Benin City. The smelter at Oloton Lane can hold 20 kilos. The large crucible ensures a consistent temperature of molten brass through the sprues into the mold for the transfer of a large amount of metal.7 Igun Street is considering a diesel-generated gas-fired unit but there is no agreement on cost sharing and maintenance. Oloton Lane has more innovative casting technology and techniques than Igun Street. Both do section castings; the dif- ference is that sections can be larger on Oloton Lane because of larger crucibles. Both employ welders to attach tails and heads to leopards and crocodiles or splice full size statuary. The difference is that welders come to Oloton Lane, while Igun Street casters take their pieces to the welders. One problem both groups face is that the more “authentic” their reproductions, the more they are accused of copying, or of manu-

18 | african arts AUTUMN 2012 VOL. 45, NO. 3 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 18 5/24/2012 3:55:29 PM Neither the accusation of dereliction of duty against art histo- rians who ignored twentieth century brass-casting nor the tight traditional hegemony of the Ẹdo landscape have, in retrospect, played a deleterious role on present-day brass-casting industry. In fact, quite the contrary. The brass-casters have their anten- nae wired to both local needs and national (also international) cell-phone connections. While little documentation exists for a replay of a century of brass casting, there are enough residues to offer a tentative reconstruction. And while Benin City (and envi- rons) is a complex palace/town environment at times moored, grounded in a cohesive tradition or perceived as backward, it is a tightly run ship with legal precedents set by tradition, leaks caulked by tradition, and political turmoil boarded up by tradi- tion (see 2004; Nevadomsky 1996, 2012). Precedent rules, protocol reigns, and ideology dominates (Achebe 1994, (opposite) Osofison 2001). Nearly everybody—art historians, filmmakers, 5 Just-cast female figure with pot; H 100 cm. Olotun Lane. university dons, guild members, and citizens—succumbs by PHOTO: JOSEPH NEVADOMSKY sycophancy, acquiescence, intimidation, silence, or curse. (this page) Re-litigating the past also has its pitfalls. I want to suggest that 6 One Oloton Lane production method: the rough mold is lined with engine contemporary brass-casting as practice and commodity produc- oil then filled with wet clay and left to dry. The oil prevents adhesion of the clay to the mold. tion was forged during the long encounter with Europe from at PHOTO: JOSEPH NEVADOMSKY least the fifteenth century. The pre-1897/post-1897 dichotomy is

7 Joseph Igbinovia carving a replica Idia ivory in 1976 after Britain refused to an argument for some autonomous space outside of global inter- lend the original. The hip ornament is now in the National Museum, , and a actions, a pristine artworld that is impossible to envision except full-face catalogue photograph is in Plankensteiner 2007:505. as a categorical supposition, less a historical condition than an PHOTO: JOSEPH NEVADOMSKY empty signifier. Presumably a denouement in casting practices occurred after the Punitive Expedition, a political debacle, an economic shift, and a collapse of cognitive categories. The few available facts do not bear this out, however. The British incur- sion was just another bump in the road. Recall Consul-General Sir Ralph Moor’s report on the brass- casters bounce-back a few months after the 1897 incursion. Ẹwẹka II had experience as a brass-caster; Akenzua II fostered wood carving and terracottas. He encouraged Chief Idah and had Idah’s terracotta plaques embedded in the palace facade. He enjoyed listening to the private poetry recitals of Ikpọnmwosa Ọsẹmwegie. During the colonial period these two Ọba were amenable to the development of the arts and crafts, includ- ing painting. Although Ogbechie (2008:58–64) tells us that Ben Enwonwu, a Western Igbo, indicted Akenzua II for ignor- ing Benin art, especially brass-casting, we are also told that Enwonwu painted several portraits of Ọba Akenzua II and taught at Ẹdo College, a privileged posting at an elite boys sec- ondary school.9 There is the famous brass-casting of Akenzua II sacrificing an elephant to commemorate his coronation and at least three cast- ings of him greeting Queen Elizabeth II in 1956 on her visit to Benin. The 1933–1934 elephant casting is reminiscent of the his- torical plaque style: frontality, monumentality, and centrality, a looking back at a traditional format. The 1956 castings are photo- graphic, framed, and realistic, a reflection of the growing interest in photography to historicize events of record, complete with a stylized but traditional “rope of the world” border. The surviv- ing photographs taken at Akenzua II’s accession in 1933–1934 are examples of this medium for documentation. The rectangular photographic format found its way to the casters, who adapted it to the traditional plaque style adjusted for borders and content.

VOL. 45, NO. 3 AUTUMN 2012 african arts | 19 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 19 5/24/2012 3:55:32 PM Political internecine conflict of the 1950s between the AG trope of commodity value in FESTAC’s discourse on modernity. (Action Group) and NCNC (Pure, Otu-Ẹdo), with their politi- Idia castings are now the most iconic artworks in Benin. They cal spearheads, the ROF and Ọwegbe respectively (Nevadom- swamp anything else, in castings and carvings, and in the popu- sky 2010b), and the split of the Western Region that hived off lar imagination. Like a Forbes Magazine cover, Idia is the most the Midwest Region (now Ẹdo State), did not favor many palace famous Ẹdo of all time and tops the list (Nevadomsky n.d.b). public ceremonies or a palace focus on brass-casting. For years The most popular purchase is a queen mother bust, in one of there were no public Igue ceremonies. (Igue has now metamor- the traditional forms (Early, Middle, and Late Periods accord- phosed into a festival, sacred and profane: palace rituals with a ing to a standard chronology) but sometimes in what I call “civic county fair ambience.) contemporary” or, forgive the oxymoron, “historic contempo- Nigeria gained its independence in 1960. Expatriate and Leba- rary” style: a half bust with natural features, several strands of nese contract-seeking businessmen and idealistic Peace Corps coral beads round the neck, maybe a few forehead wrinkles, and volunteers entered the equation, adding to the support of local an elaborate “modernized” coiffure. Idia, not Ẹsigie or Ẹwuare arts and crafts by British colonial wives up to that time (for more or Ọzọlua, has achieved that casting prominence as most hon- on this see Nevadomsky in press, 2012). When Nigeria hosted the ored icon, like Jeanne d’Arc instead of the Dauphin d’ Rheims, or Second Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) l’Éminence rouge rather than Louis XIII. Secondary school stu- in 1977, it celebrated a global Pan-African vision funded by the dent essays and a sociological survey confirm her hold over the exuberance of its emergence as a petro-state. FESTAC “expanded public imagination (Nevadomsky n.d.b). the horizons of blackness in Nigeria to mirror the global circuits One of the most remarkable ironies of the casting (and of its economy … and subsumed all black and African cultures carving) image industry is that Ọba Ọvonramwen is within its empire of cultural signs” aimed, we are told, to erase accorded a positive recognition that he lost a century ago. “its colonial legacy from collective memory” (Apter 2005:end- For nearly a century there was a quiet lull in memorializa- page blurb), which deftly illuminates Paul Gilroy’s (1993) postu- tion as Ọvonramwen disappeared into the dew of history, late of a Black Atlantic cultural connection. There was, of course, not so much a negative figure as a pitiable one. Ọvonramwen the FESTAC flag of black and gold that valorized the “black peo- has reappeared as a captive, in a canoe on his way to exile ple of the world with cultural value.” However, the trademark in (a casting inspired by the 1997 movie Amistad), as emblem that carried the most symbolic density was the sixteenth a prisoner, flanked by Hausa jailers on the British yacht Ivy, century Benin ivory hip mask of Queen Idia, honored internally sad and wretched in a way, noble and abandoned in another as emblematic of kingship and queen-motherhood, and prized view, but softened by historical revisionism and clarion calls as Punitive Expedition war booty housed in the British Museum, for repatriation. The 1897–1997 centenary commemoration in a piece of imperial conquest. When the British refused Benin City was an awakening of an Ẹdo national and interna- to lend the mask for FESTAC due to its fragility, two local casters tional identity. Ọvonramwen is now a patriotic image of resis- were commissioned to produce a copy. Britain’s refusal to lend tance to oppression.10 Ẹwẹka II remains blurred, a shadowy the mask may have inspired an initial clarion call for restitution, intermediary figure, while Akenzua II is high in the public but as an immediate result, T-shirts, badges, pens, and other sou- esteem and accorded legitimacy in cast art. Erediauwa is fast venirs flooding the market were emblazoned with this logo, and becoming the local equivalent of Elizabeth II, for regnal lon- hundreds of brass copies of the mask confirmed it as a master gevity and astute political balance.

(this page) 8 Wax model of Ọba Ọvonramwen and British Marines; approx. L 53 cm. PHOTO: JOSEPH NEVADOMSKY

(opposite) 9 Tableau of brass court figures secured to a wood base, Oloton Lane; H 20 cm. PHOTO: JOSEPH NEVADOMSKY

10 Folklore figure of pregnant woman; H 115 cm PHOTO: JOSEPH NEVADOMSKY

20 | african arts AUTUMN 2012 VOL. 45, NO. 3 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 20 5/24/2012 3:55:33 PM The conservatism of the palace, a client base of expatri- ate businessmen and Peace Corps volunteers, and art history’s glamorization of pre-1897 objects actually worked to preserve the memory of traditional aesthetics and enthuse casters with catalogs of photographs of major, desired objects. Consider this: if the coffee table books by Dark and others like William Fagg (1963) had not been written, what examples would cast- ers have had to recreate traditional motifs? Casters covet these books. Unfortunately, more recent catalogs are comprehen- sive but regrettably expensive and weigh more than a gold ingot. The limited collection in the Benin Museum is dismally unkempt, empty cases abound, and how many casters have been domsky 2011). This hype only makes the brass-casting industry to the British Museum or Vienna? Besides, as any photographer more popular than ever, empowering contemporary castings knows, photos of objects show more detail than peering at the with the legitimacy of museum display and participatory acco- objects themselves or offer focused versions of them. The occa- lades, while still asserting restitution and sloughing off castiga- sional caster now invited to accompany an entourage to a Euro- tions to that devil reeking repository in . American museum opening is an actor in a de rigueur spectacle, While repatriation is low on the palace agenda, lending care- a Roman circus, a celebratory diplomacy, a recreation of palace fully diplomatic acquiescence at best, it is espoused by one of delegations at the Portuguese court in the fifteenth and sixteenth the Ọba’s half brothers, a few local lecturers at the University of centuries, maybe even a political act that defuses calls for object Benin, and the British repatriation efforts spearheaded by the repatriation by implicating the descendants of those who made parliamentarian Bernie Grant, whose movement typically con- the objects into a foreign commemoration of them, careful, fuses Ife heads with Benin brasses. For most Ẹdo, this is rhet- always careful, to reglamorize the objects at the same time that oric, “empty containers making the most noise,” and they are participants acquiesce in their foreign acquisition. All the while, indifferent to it. For casters it works in their favor, highlighting lip service is paid to repatriation (reparations). their industry. As John Picton (in Gore 1997:60) tells us, there The Voice of History has shifted. Objects from Benin are no is now more brass-casting production in Benin City than ever longer war booty but were stolen or pillaged; the burning of the in its history. I would add that there are more “authentic” Benin palace was not accidental but malicious destruction. The possi- objects in museums and collections than were actually produced bility of a shared, negotiated history is a marked departure from between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, backed by some the dichotomous art historiography that allotted only two spaces test or other as verification. The market in certification and lab (winners v. losers, pre-1897 v. post-1897 castings) to a postcolo- sophistication is matched by the excellence of reproductions and nial sensibility that alters the discourse (Barkan 2000). There are a middleman market of reproductions and replicas, nurtured by the implicit/explicit fingers of blame and shame pointed at the Hausa traders. The spin-off market in the antiquities trade adds perennial scapegoat, that repository of colonial spoils, a vener- another incentive to production. able bastion of imperial debris, the British Museum. Recently, Casting technology and innovation is now widespread, allow- both the Museum für Völkerkunde in Vienna and the Stockholm ing for casters to pick their niche, from near-life-size leopards Museum procured and displayed contemporary castings (Neva- for hotel portals to funerary busts of deceased relatives or com-

VOL. 45, NO. 3 AUTUMN 2012 african arts | 21 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 21 5/24/2012 3:55:35 PM memorative busts of civic figures. Standard decorative pieces are However, there is not much reaching beyond border constraints: popular, especially at airport or hotel shops for expatriates to cart the Eisenhofer text with a panoply of middling to excellent mostly off as trophies of a successful business contract instead of a colo- contemporary castings all conform to the traditional canon. The nial conquest. If modernity is a presumption to differentiate itself Plankensteiner effort nods to possibilities, however. The exhibition from tradition, Benin’s casters do not abide that boundary. They at the Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna, includes a casting based are at home in the world of mix-and-match, seeing the mixture of on the photograph of Ọba Akenzua II greeting Queen Elizabeth the two as unproblematic, possibly desirable, and certainly com- and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, at the Benin Airport in mercially viable. To answer Latour’s question, and confounding 1956 (Nevadomsky 1997a:20, 1997b:54; Plankensteiner 2007:500). modernity’s assumption, Benin’s brass-casters live in a world that It consists of three modeled figures secured on a wooden base. glides easily between the embrace of the traditional and the mar- Another is a tableau setting of the king, his musicians, and court- ketability of the contemporary. Casters have had no problems iers, secured on a mahogany base. Both are similar to the tradi- negotiating these cultural and commercial spaces, embracing the tional aseberia, altar tableaus (Ezra 1992:79–83). What impresses modern while not eschewing the traditional. is that they depict episodes that can be marked down as a con- tinuation of the canon, rather than a breach of it (e.g., as in works EXHIBITIONS AS AUTHORIZED FRAMES OF REFERENCE by the inspirationist Leonard Oronsaye, the curator Patrick Oron- With few exceptions, exhibitions on Benin art reflect a cura- saye, the modernist Greg Agbonkonkon, the musician sculptor Sir torial conservatism and give due respect to the iron curtain of Victor Uwaifo, the pioneer modernist Felix Idubor, the maverick 1897 Punitive Expedition Art History. The first exception was a Chief Ovia Idah, the Camberwell-trained Ben Osawe,11 the multi- small exhibition, “Art of the Royal Court of Benin” (February media artist-teacher ). 4–15, 1985), curated by Flora Kaplan at the National Museum, How much art history’s role in African art is determinative Benin City, as part of her Fulbright duties to the University of is equivocal. In the study of Benin art it may be pivotal. Cast- Benin. A tasteful blend of museum objects, it also showed cast- ers use Dark’s or Fagg’s books and request new images. Like art- ings from Oloton Lane and the eclectic collection of High/Chief ist entrepreneurs everywhere, they are quick studies, acutely Priest Ebohon Ọsemwegie. attuned to current interests. Neither the Eisenhofer nor Planken- Equally telling are the catalogue for “Benin. Kings and Ritu- steiner exhibitions and catalogs, for all their brilliance of schol- als: Court Arts from Nigeria” (Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna, arship and execution, gets edgy, beyond the limits of conformity 2007; Plankensteiner 2007) and the book by Stefan Eisenhofer and into confrontation with the canon (but see Plankensteiner (1997). Eisenhofer’s book shows mostly objects of twentieth-cen- 2007:498–511). This is quizzically evident in the works coming tury vintage with traditional motifs. The exhibition orchestrated out of the SBCA (Society of Benin Contemporary Artists) and by Plankensteiner et al. displays crème de la crème objects garnered Curio Studios, whose manifesto has a double edge to “highlight from world-renowned museums. It includes several Oloton Lane the development of Benin Art in modern times using mod- castings that reflect a bow to the contemporary. One admires the ern media in colors and to also glorify the heritage and reveal incorporative aspects of these catalogs that, in the Plankensteiner the greatness of the arduous meticulousness of our ancestors” case, have essays by indigenous authors and known authorities. (Nevadomsky 1997b:59). The SBCA (especially in the works of

22 | african arts AUTUMN 2012 VOL. 45, NO. 3 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 22 5/24/2012 3:55:37 PM (opposite) 11 Standing Oba figure; H 42 cm. The figure is unfiled, has the runners, and has the burnt charcoal-like clay base form. PHOTO: JOSEPH NEVADOMSKY

12 Trivet of colonial officer with pith helmet and brogue shoes receiving gifts from a chief and his servants; 19 cm x 25 cm PHOTO: JOSEPH NEVADOMSKY

(this page) 13 Very thinly cast Queen Mother head with rusting iron forehead inserts on decorated base; H 38 cm. PHOTO: JOSEPH NEVADOMSKY

14 Warrior chief in military regalia of ornate kilt with ornate spear, shield, and leopard; H 41 cm. PHOTO: MICHAEL SMITH

15 Janus figure of the deities of childbirth and death; 49 cm x 36 cm. PHOTO: MICHAEL SMITH

Victor Amayo, Uyi Igbinigie, Nick Ehigie, Victor Ọbasuyi, Val- iant Uhunmwangho, and Ero Osahon) aims to “promote Benin arts and give it new direction; to cherish, preserve and enhance the tradition and culture of Benin and promote its dynamism” (ibid.). The manifestoes of the two local art societies are self-con- tained, self-imposed, and not dissimilar to the ideological ethos of local brass-casting in its retained “house style,” edging toward technical innovations but embracing tradition, an egg unable to break, a lingering literalism and retentionist relative realism (see Okeke-Agulu 2007); for brass-casters, from the enclave com- modity of production for the king prior to the twentieth century, to the enclave commodity of local patronage in the twentieth, to an all-important international enclave commodity defined by art history (see Appadurai 1986). The brass-casters, like their clients and cultural brokers, consult publications on pre-1897 Benin works of art and art magazines as source of trends and innovations.12 The three- dimensional casting called “boat composition” (Plankensteiner 2007:Fig. 273) depicting Ọba Ọvonramwen in a canoe with Brit- ish soldiers escorting him to exile in Calabar was inspired by a poster for the movie Amistad.13 Several researcher-cultural bro- kers provide issues of African Arts, even Harper’s Bazaar and National Geographic, to energize the bunny (Nevadomsky in press, 2012), establish outside contacts and help in negotiations (Kaplan), and secure contracts with Lebanese construction com- panies (Nevadomsky, for which he was given kickbacks of cast- ings). Flora Kaplan popularized Oloton Lane in the 1980s when it was hardly known outside Nigeria. Maybe Kaplan “discovered” Oloton Lane but what is certain, she helped open up their work to outside commercial clients and piqued a professional interest in castings with a contemporary theme.

VOL. 45, NO. 3 AUTUMN 2012 african arts | 23 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 23 5/24/2012 3:55:40 PM 16 Cockerels. The one on the left is cast brass, that on the right is beaten copper sheathing held in place with copper nails over a wood frame Brass cock: H 59 cm. There is the intriguing casting of Obiẹmwẹn and Ogiuwu, Beaten cooper over wood cock: H 50 cm. PHOTO: MICHAEL SMITH deity of childbirth and death, produced by a still elusive caster, or maybe a casting complex (a very old Ẹdo caster, I just learned, 17 (left–right) but maybe others too). The middlemen contacts are also difficult Basket with leopard lid; H 42 cm 17 Basket with mudfish lid; H 35 cm to pin down. Similar castings, ostensibly from the same work- Basket with crocodile lid; H 45.5 cm shop, include an ọba on horseback, standing warrior figures, sev- PHOTO: MICHAEL SMITH eral plaques, a divination bowl, and terrific containers, baskets, and vessels with exciting motifs of snails, snake motif handles, What is needed is a revitalized passion by art historians for and motif legs of human feet and horseman figures. These dis- brass-casting in its twenty-first century dimensions. A few play a stunning artistry, a mastery of technique and execution, (Ogbechie 2007, Ogene 2007) have offered theoretical musings an excellence in casting production, equal to or better than and an awareness of these issues. There are no takers to study what came before. They are a renaissance canon of presumptive contemporary brass-casting in depth, to intensively investigate potentialities. individual creativity and life histories, to study individual styles, to investigate brass-caster artists linked but not resident on Igun APOSIOPESIS AND COLUMBUS’S EGG street (Oloton Lane), or somehow tied to it (Lucky Oboh, Eliz- As I have shown, African art history and Benin palace policies abeth Olowu), or completely independent of it. Where is Dio- have engaged in a relationship of mutual, albeit unintentional, genes of Sinope when needed? support. Though coming from different directions and pursu- There once were several Igbo artisans involved in wood and ing different agendas, both share in the same iconoclastic ges- ivory carving on the then-outskirts of the city (Sapele Road), ture, that is to say, both are fixated on an assumed radical break and one who cast but fronted his casting enterprise with a weld- presumed to have changed the kingdom and the art it produces. ing, gate construction, and bicycle repair business (Uwasota The constraints and sanctions resulting here from this not only Street). There is the defunct casting artistry at Urhonigbe (seat affected the artistic production. Conceptually, they have also cre- of a famous Olokun Shrine, 20 miles south). Six known cast- ated a powerful foil against which contemporary Benin brass ings of that enterprise survive, five owned by a German woman casting is perceived and judged. At the same time these poli- then married to an Urhonigbe man, and I have one, The Ọba in cies have the unintentional consequences of fostering a nostalgic a Kolanut Tree.14 Wonderful visual expressions in a miniature (and commercial) traditionalism. stage-set kind of casting, they depict legends linking the Ọba to Ligatured to a golden past, African art history sees contemporary the peripheries. There is the remarkable unfiled casting by the casting endeavors as crude and the motifs as gross; for whatever rea- late Chief Inẹ’s grandfather, sent to Oloton Lane for prepping by sons, art historians were “jus’ triflin’” with contemporary brass-cast- having feet added before sale, fortuitously rescued by me, with ing, guilty perhaps of the same conventional opinions still clinging an intact original burnt clay core.15 There is the intriguing cop- to the “invention of Africa” (Mudimbe 1988) and a presumed Africa pery trivet-like plaque that resembles a framed photograph and associated with “traditional” African essences. Stuck in a time warp, depicts relief images of varying height from colonial officer to there has been a lack of energy to explore alternative options for chief and servants, the horror vacui catered by branches from a coming to terms with contemporary casting. tree. There is an undated Late Period style queen mother head It is fortunate that the consciousness of art historians of Benin with the anomaly of an exquisite casting thinness and fine execu- is slowly being raised above eye level to include contemporary tion, Where these fit into an art historical placement is woolly.16 brass casting as a legitimate interest of research, and for an occa-

24 | african arts AUTUMN 2012 VOL. 45, NO. 3 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 24 5/24/2012 3:55:42 PM (this page, counterclockwise from top) 18 Round lidded container used to hold charms, cowries, or chalk; W 20 cm PHOTO: MICHAEL SMITH

19 Oba with fish legs holding two crocodiles and suggesting mastery over supernatural forces and association with Olokun as well as divine kingship; H 33 cm PHOTO: MICHAEL SMITH

21 Ewer with snake-shaped handles and seated Oba figure on lid in a form inspired by Victorian ewers; H 28 cm PHOTO: MICHAEL SMITH

sional contemporary casting to appear in international museum the brass casters will — ? Maybe outcomes of the next two exhibitions. Unfortunately, castings chosen for exhibition are decades will — ? extensions of traditional motifs and do not endorse surges of What those outcomes would look like is a baffle. Forbidden creativity, or seek evolving ones.18 The scholarship of twentieth questions linger. Will the connections between the nature of century brass-casting in Benin City is a black hole, mostly an Ọbaship and the traditional authority of brass-casting endure in untraceable trajectory of history. Maybe in the twenty-first cen- the onslaught of globalization and commercialization? Should tury the scholarship on Benin art will experience a — ? Maybe the institution of Ọbaship change drastically in the twenty-first

VOL. 45, NO. 3 AUTUMN 2012 african arts | 25 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 25 5/24/2012 3:55:44 PM century, will brass-casting become more or less relevant for art nation? A “who knows, what if ” puzzle. The Egg of Columbus historians? Will it remain mostly memory object making or turn has yet to be solved. in new democratic directions? Should “Born Agains” and Pen- tecostals continue to decimate paternal altars and burn village Joseph Nevadomsky is H&SS Distinguished Professor (2000) in the Department of Anthropology at California State University, Fullerton. His shrines, will brass casting take a turn to depicting the new reli- 19 interests include Benin art, ritual, and material culture. He is presently gions as seems to be happening? Civic possibilities and per- researching Benin traditional architecture and cartography and trans- sonal memory markers of family and social history, or startling lating Oro, a contemporary Ẹdo epic by Ikpọnmwosa Ọsẹmwegie on the explosions outside those frames of interest?20 Imitation or origi- Benin-Idah War of 1515–17. [email protected]

Notes 6 I began using Oloton Lane (Chief Oloton lives repatriation, but not humiliation (1983:78). at the end of the street) as an easy location description 11 The late Ben Osawe, the internationally 1 An abbreviated version of this paper, “Icono- like Igun Street, rather than use the of the family, acclaimed artist who received instruction at Camber- clash or Iconoconstrain? The Contemporary Traditional and it has stuck. well, England, also employed the section method, the in Benin Art or The Traditional Contemporary in Benin 7 Mrs. Olowu has a foundry built for her in the version called Roman-jointed, for piecing large castings. Art,” was first presented at the 15th Triennial Sympo- late 1970s by one John Forseyth, an expatriate metal- I find that there was a very limited interaction between sium on African Art organized by ACASA and hosted lurgist then in the Faculty of Creative Arts, University his workshop and that of Igun Street casters. This may by UCLA, March 23–26, 2011. of Benin, who left Benin City under extraordinary partly be due to the multimedia studio he operated, 2 I had earlier wondered why Benin art history circumstances, without completing her private foundry. employing brass, concrete, and sheet metals. had to wait until the fin d’siècle before studying the She had it later rebuilt. It is probably the largest foundry 12 One needs to look more closely at the relation- production of 100 years of casting (1997a, 2003). Appar- in Benin City. However, she is best known to us for her ship between the various formal art schools and the ently, that is a problem in the academy itself. Polly cement statuary documented in Betty LaDuke’s book brass-casters (or sculptors, wood carvers, etc.), such as Nooter Roberts addresses this in a First Word essay in (1991). As a relative to the Ọba she had rights of model- the School of Art and Design, Auchi, and the Depart- African Arts: “… early in the twenty-first century, we ing but, as a woman, not of casting. She interpreted this ment of Fine and Applied Arts as the University of find ourselves asking major questions once again about widely and the guild made no bones about it. Until her Benin, and the popular art galleries such as Idubor the field of African art, about the coherence of ‘Africa’ as retirement, she taught art at the University of Benin’s Gallery (Sakponba Road), Victor Uwaifo Gallery (Daw- a term of identification, and about the varied nature of Demonstration Secondary School. son Road), Wangboje Creative Arts Center (Owoseni material and intangible forms of expression … as [Afri- 8 It is important to note that palace control varies, Street), and Ebohon Cultural Center (off Dumez Road). canist art historians] raced to keep up with the creative strong over court chiefs and the guilds, weak over town For that matter, one needs to investigate the disappear- output of the continent … there are important intel- chiefs, local cults such as Olokun, and village ceremo- ing worlds of the traditional storytellers and musicians lectual issues begging for discussion at this particular nies such as Ovia. When performers of an Ekpo dance beyond that given to us by Dan Ben-Amos (1976), for moment in time” (2005:1; see also Vogel 2005:12–17, 91). stopped me from photographing them in the palace example. 3 In trying to reach an elusive Benin City and its grounds and I complained, I was told it was their right 13 The Amistad Tableau cost N200,000. An Ọba cultural contours, one has to take the frame of refer- to do so. and Iyoba about 6 inches tall, with brass thread to ence, not from urban structures or administrative 9 Ogbechie (2008) says Enwonwu was an Edo secure it to the base, is N5000 each. Half-life figures buildings, nor even the marketplaces and busy com- critic (understandably since he was a Western Igbo) and about 4 feet high are N200,000. A 2 foot high Mami mercial streets, but from a more abstract and symbolic a modernist painter. Such paintings as Agbogho Mmuo Wata is N60,000. Prices are for the year 2005, when landscape. That landscape is a special one, consisting (1978) and Ogolo (1987), reflecting Igbo masquerades, US$1=N100. of places or points on a mythological and historical are indeed exciting, yet his paintings depicting Benin 14 This casting recreates the story of Ọba topography. At each of these places or points are certain palace dancing are out of synch with any semblance and Ise. Ise was the son of a famous warrior in Oka features, many physically nondescript, some seem- of realistic modernity. Take, for example, Benin to village who opposed Ozolua. Ozolua killed Ise’s father ingly unkempt, and mostly unarticulated until they are -Ado (1989) of bare-breasted girls against a and married his mother, Eruvbi. Ise was made one of pointed out. Aisien (2001) has referred to these places background of what look like northern emirs and local Ozolua’s sword-bearers but, committing many offenses, as stations. This is an apt metaphor. These stations are chiefs dancing at the palace, and The Glory of Ancient was discharged from palace duty and settled at Utekon, the nodules that every candidate who is bestowed with Benin (1989), of bare-breasted dancing girls beating where he mounted a rebellion against Ozolua. Losing, a chief ’s or other high ritual honor stops at in the drums. What disturbs is that there is nothing remotely Ozolua sought refuge in a kolanut tree. Ise was about to process of the validation of the honor or title. Like the Edo about these women except for allusions to hairstyle cut down the tree when Ozolua told him that the law Stations of the Cross, like the pilgrims in Chaucer’s and a few brass ornaments. The vibrant depictions of of the land forbids felling a kolanut tree. So Ise waited Canterbury Tales, or like the Tour de France—that dancing do not reflect the sedate and stately formal for Ozolua to come down. In the meantime, Orinmwio- wonderful bicycle race that is really more of a cultural dancing of Edo women who, dressed and holding white ria, one of Ozolua’s sword-bearers, happened upon the odyssey round France—these places in the ritual map of handkerchief-size cloths, are exercises in slow and styl- scene and, surprised to find Ozolua in a tree, suggested Benin City are brief but highly charged interludes on a ized dance steps. This dance format is similar to that of that Ozolua and Ise wrestle; Ozolua won and then killed journey. This is a physical journey, made on foot by the male chiefs dancing ukpukpe, a simple two-step, also Ise. On the way home, Ozolua killed Orinmwioria, fear- recipient and his entourage. But it is also, like a pilgrim- stylized and formal. Besides, Edo women do not dance ing he would be humiliated if people found out that he age, a journey of the mind, a spiritual tour. bare-breasted. Enwonwu’s paintings of his Edo period had earlier taken refuge in a kolanut tree. 4 There are many examples of the power of the suggest to me that he imposes a non-Edo dance chore- 15 The late Chief Ine sent it to Oloton Lane because Ọba’s injunctions and curses. The Ọba stopped my ography onto Edo subject matter. he didn’t want the Igun Street casters to know that research at a time when I was getting too much “deep” 10 A remarkable academic pugilism pitted Paula he wanted to secretly prepare it for sale and, he said, information. Summoned to the palace, I had to explain Ben-Amos (now Girshick) vs. Flora S. Kaplan (now because he thought the Oloton Lane casters were good myself, after which the Ọba told his chiefs that each knew Flora Edouwaye [sic] Kaplan), competitors for control and fast. where the boundaries of secrecy were. Actually, they over Benin art scholarship and authoritative space. In 16 Copper is difficult to cast. The trivet-like feet didn’t (quite); the result was an openness I hadn’t found a contentious review of Kaplan’s 1981 edited exhibi- are difficult to explain. Beside the tree branches as a before as chiefs felt they had been given permission to tion catalog, Images of Power: Art of the Royal Court modern take on the horror vacui, another feature of tra- open up. Reliable sources told me that against their will of Benin, Ben-Amos, who edited The Art of Power, The ditional Benin art—hierarchy—is evident in the declin- the Alonge family surrendered their father’s photographic Power of Art (1983), also an exhibition catalog, takes ing height of each of the figures to depict their status negatives to Flora Kaplan on orders from the Ọba. For Kaplan to task for, inter alia, the juxtaposition of an and, of course, in the colonial officer accepting offerings other examples see Nevadomsky 1986 and 1996. 1897 photograph of a “defeated and humiliated Ọba from a chief and his servants. The date of the plaque is 5 Now Idubor Gallery and the abandoned Leven- Ọvonramwen being sent into exile” directly opposite a probably 1920–1950, when brogue wingtip shoes were tis Stores; it wasn’t that all casting was done within the lead essay about Benin art and power (1983:23). Kaplan’s common for colonial officers. palace itself as some have suggested, but that a short reply, while naïve, is closer to the local view whereby 17 An extraordinary figure, the goddess of child- path led from the Igun area through a side door into the Ọvonramwen is a sad figure, an agent of historical fate, birth sits atop the figure of death and in its Janus- palace at Sakpọnba Road. now of historical repositioning as an emblem for object figured features looks at both aspects of life: birth and

26 | african arts AUTUMN 2012 VOL. 45, NO. 3 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 26 5/24/2012 3:55:44 PM death. I surmise that life ultimately conquers death or Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cam- African Kingdom.” Ivie: Nigerian Journal of Arts and that both life and death are aspects of life. The Nordic- bridge University Press. Culture 1 (3):6–18. like horns remain problematic. Apter, Andrew. 2005. The Pan-African Nation: Oil and ______. 1996. “Benin City: A Royal Capital in a Con- 18 This is already happening, as evident in some of the Spectacle of Culture in Nigeria. Chicago: University temporary World” [Lecture]. National Museum of Afri- the castings. While orthodox religions (Roman Catholi- of Chicago Press. can Art. Smithsonian, Washington, DC, September 16. cism and Anglicanism) have become more incorpora- tive, bringing in features of the traditional belief and Barkan, Elezar. 2000. Guilt of Natons: Restitution and ______. 1997a. “Studies of Benin Art and Material ritual into church services (such as singing and danc- Negotiating Historical Injustices. New York: W.W. Norton. Culture, 1897–1997.” African Arts 30 (3):18–27. ing), Born-Agains, Evangelicals, and Pentecostals are Ben-Amos, Dan. (1975). Sweet Words: Story-telling in ______. 1997b. “Contemporary Art and Artists in dead set against it. They see traditional belief systems Benin. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Benin City.” African Arts 30 (4):54–63. as Satan’s disguise, diabolical and evil. Many family Issues. paternal shrines are destroyed when a family converts ______. 2003. “Benin History and Its Interpretations.” over to Born-Again religions. The same applies to vil- Ben-Amos, Paula (Girshick). 1983. “Images of Power: Art Conference on African Studies. Institute of African lage community shrines: the objects are carted out into of the Royal Court of Benin by Flora S. Kaplan.” Review. Studies, St. Petersburg, Russia, July 23. African Arts 16 (2):17, 19, 21, 23. the square and burned. Since the trend is toward being ______. 2010. “Benin 1897. Com. Art and the Restitu- “modern” in life style and religion, anything traditional Dark, P. 1969. Benin Art. Paul Hamlyn: London. tion Question. An Art Exhibition of Installations and is seen as rustic and uncouth, a sign of backwardness Sculptures by Peju Layiwola.” Review. H-AfArt@h-net. ______. 1973. An Introduction to Benin Art and Tech- and being “bush.” msu.edu. October. 19 Besides the New Genesis of art history to nology. Clarendon Press; Oxford. ______. 2010. “The Owegbe Cult: Origins and Post- revamp itself as the interpreter of contemporary African Eisenhofer, Stefan, ed. 1997. Kulte, Künstler, Könige in Colonial Contexts.” Paper presented at the International art, in the study of Benin art it may be that the Benin Afrika: Tradition und Moderne in Südnigeria. Linz, Aus- Conference on Aspects of the Foreign Affairs of Benin canon has run out of steam: much has been docu- tria: OÖ Landesmusem. mented and what is not known by this time is probably Empire in History. Benin City. March. Erediauwa (Ọba of Benin). 2004. I Remain, Sir, Your not knowable. For more obvious reasons of species ______. 2011. “Review of William Ostberg’s Whose Obedient Servant. Ibadan: Spectrum Books. endangerment, ivory carving is a dying industry, like Objects? Art Treasures from the Kingdom of Benin in the shark finning and the harpooning of whales, appropri- Ezra, Kate. 1992. Royal Arts of Benin: The Perls Collec- Collection of the Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm.” ately left for art history to explore. tion in the Metropolitan Collection. New York: Metro- [email protected]. July. 20 On the other hand, this paper could have been politan Museum of Art. written as a survival tale of what might have been a ______. (in press, 2012). “Vergangenheitsbewältigung: defunct or lost tradition, putting a different spin on Fagg, William. 1963. Nigerian Images. London: Percy Recursive Practices and Historical Consciousness iconoclash/iconoclasm, whereby it becomes a story of Lund, Humphries and Co. among Brass-Casters in Benin City.” Critical Interven- tions 11 (Fall). transformation and renewal, regeneration and revival, Gilroy, Paul. 1993. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and an honest-to-god made-in-Hollywood survival morality Double Consciousness. Cambridge MA: Harvard Uni- ______. n.d.a. The Owegbe Cult: Political and Ethnic tale: greedy imperialists burn palace and ransack city, versity Press. Rivalries in Early Post-Colonial Benin City. unpub. ms. objects looted amid drunken orgies, chiefs hanged, king exiled, tradition adrift. Intermission. Then: greedy Gore, Charles. 1997. “Casting Identities in Contempo- ______. n.d.b. Secondary School Students: Idia Survey imperialists relent for political reasons, son of king rary Benin City.” African Arts 30 (3):54–61, 93. Essay and Attitudes. Benin City. unpub. data. installed, arts and crafts restored, son of king’s son ______. 2007. Art, Performance, and Ritual in Benin Ogene, John. 2007. “Two Extremes of One continuum: invested, beautiful (by British standards) queen of City. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. the politics of patronage and the Igun artworker.” 14th greedy imperialists visits Benin, shakes hands with son Triennial Symposium on African Art. ACASA: Harn HMSO. 1899. Correspondence Relating to the Benin Ter- of king’s son, returns some booty, greedy imperialists go Museum of Art, University of Florida, March 29-31. home but leave behind a golf course, schools, and ritories Nigeria. London: Darling and Son for HMSO. Ogbechie, Sylvester. 2007. “Benin-Edo Art after the End travelers, son of king’s son of king’s son is invested and Inneh, Daniel. 2007. “The Guilds Working for the Pal- of (Indigenous) History.” Paper presented at the 14th reinforces authority, inaugurates civic statuary, buys ace.” In Benin. Kings and Rituals: Court Arts from Nige- Triennial Symposium on African Art, ACASA, Harn kitschy praying hands for august visitors, calls for repa- ria, ed. B. Plankensteiner, pp. 103–118. The Netherlands: Museum, University of Florida, March 29–31. triation of booty including booty returned by beautiful Snoeck Publishers. (by British standards) queen, then returned as gift to ______. 2008. Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an Afri- Kaplan, Flora. 1983. “Reply to Ben-Amos.” African Arts beautiful (by British standards) queen, repatriation can Modernist. Rochester: University of Rochester Press. 26 (3):28, 29, 78. advocates confuse Ife head with Benin queen mother Okeke-Agulu, Chika. 2007. “Benin Sculpture in Modern head and beautiful (by British standards) queen, more LaDuke, Betty. 1991. Africa Through the Eyes of Women (Nigerian) Art.” In Benin. Kings and Rituals: Court Arts politics, confusion … Sequel follows. Artists. New York: Africa World Press. from Nigeria, ed. B. Plankensteiner, pp. 263–70. The Latour, Bruno. 2002. “What Is Iconoclash? Or Is There References cited Netherlands: Snoeck Publishers. a World Beyond the Image Wars.” In Iconoclash: Beyond Osofisan, Femi. 2001. The Nostalgic Drum: Essays on Lit- Achebe, Chinua. 1994. The Art of Fiction. Pris: Paris the Image Wars in Science, Religion, and Art, ed. Bruno erature, Drama and Culture. Eritrea: Africa World Press. Review. Latour and Peter Weibel, pp. 14–37. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Adepoju, Toyin. 2009. “Spatial Cosmology, Ethnon- Roberts, Mary (Polly) Nooter. 2005. “New Directions in African Art(s).” African Arts 38 (4):1–6, 91. ational History and the History of Ideas: Relationships Latour, Bruno, and Peter Weibel, eds. 2002. Iconoclash: between the Palace of the Ọba of Benin and the Struc- Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion, and Art. Plankensteiner, Barbara, ed. 2007. Benin. Kings and ture of Benin City.” December 9. http://www.usaafrica- Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Rituals: Court Arts from Nigeria. The Netherlands: [email protected]. Snoeck Publishers. Muhimbe, V.Y. 1988. The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Aisien, Eghaguosa. 2001. The Benin City Pilgrimage Sta- Philosophy and the Order of Knowledge. Bloomington: Vogel, Susan. 2005. “Whither African Art? Emerg- tions. Aisien Publishers: Benin City. Indiana University Press. ing Scholarship at the End of an Age.” African Arts 38 (4):12–17, 91. Appadurai, Arjun, ed. 1986. The Social Life of Things: Nevadomsky, Joseph. 1986. “Doing Fieldwork in an

VOL. 45, NO. 3 AUTUMN 2012 african arts | 27 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00008 by guest on 30 September 2021

14-27_CS5.5.indd 27 5/24/2012 3:55:44 PM