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Home , Ife, Yoruba culture

asked by museum visitors about facial striation, book review the illustrations of four artworks presented near the beginning of this commentary are evenly divided between striated and unstriated examples. On p. 6, cat. #1 presents a crowned and striated copper-alloy head (believed to represent a woman) found at the Wunmonije site in 1938, and on p. 7, cat. #2 illustrates the crowned terracotta head of another royal woman without striations, found in an intact Dynasty and Divinity shrine at Ita Yemoo. The fine, parallel lines on ife Art in Ancient some Ife faces are usually interpreted as cicatri- by Henry John Drewal and Enid zations that differentiate the status or lineages 5 schildkraut of Ife residents, and alternate theories that have been suggested are offered on pp. 10 and 12. new York: Museum for African However, in this introduction to archaeologi- Art, 2010. 200 pp. 140 color, 10 cal sites and to Ife’s royal regalia (pp. 2–12), ongo-

b/w illus., glossary. $40.00 paper ing problems with the designer’s layout of the Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/afar/article-pdf/45/1/90/1735693/afar.2012.45.1.90.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 catalogue’s illustrations are first encountered. reviewed by Barbara W. Blackmun First, there is considerable confusion between illustrations designated by figure numbers, Although from the medieval King- and those represented by catalogue numbers. dom of Ife are familiar to specialists in African with Henry John Drewal to produce two well- For example, Figure 4 appears as a full-page studies, they are relatively unknown outside researched discussions, each from a separate photograph on p. 11, while Cat. 4 appears as a of this field. A hundred years have passed point of view. Although both presentations are small photograph accompanied by text on p. since the sophistication of Ife’s early terracot- written for the general public, specialists will 9. In addition, beyond the informal black-and- tas and bronzes1 amazed the German explorer also find them informative. Nevertheless, the white photograph of a few bronze heads being Leo Frobenius;2 yet very few scholars are cur- catalogue is flawed by the publisher’s awkward unpacked from the Wunmoniije site in 1938 and rently exploring Nigeria’s early history through book design, possibly resulting from the rapid color photographs of two crowned examples archaeology. Thirty-one years have passed incorporation of two essays into a single volume. during Schildkraut’s excellent discussion of stria- since Michael Kan, Ekpo Eyo, and Frank Wil- Although periodic insertions of full-page pho- tions and royal regalia (pp. 4–11), no further pho- lett featured Ife’s extraordinary sculptures in tographs add unprecedented reference value, it tographs of Ife’s distinctive Wunmonije bronzes Treasures of Ancient Nigeria,3 and a reintro- is difficult to correlate these with the text, and can be found in the early part of the catalogue. duction is overdue. Perhaps the visual appeal from time to time, the narrative is abruptly cut Finally, on p. 50, far from this relevant discus- of the Dynasty and Divinity catalogue will off mid-sentence by multiple pages of unrelated sion, the bronze half-figure from Wunmonije, stimulate efforts to probe more deeply into the illustrations. Perhaps the placement of photo- portrayed in the full regalia of an Ooni of Ife, advanced state of culture in southern Nigeria graphs can be adjusted in a subsequent edition. appears unheralded in a full-page illustration as between 1000 and 1400 ce. The catalogue begins with Schildkraut’s “Ife cat. #38, followed by eight other full-page pho- A farsighted law prohibits the acquisition of Art in West : An Introduction to the tographs of Wunmonije bronze heads without Ife’s antiquities abroad, although multiple thefts Exhibition,” which frames the cultural setting: commentary on pp. 56–65. that occurred in Nigeria during the late twenti- Inexplicably, Schildkraut’s introduction to eth century have caused great concern.4 There- According to Yoruba myth, Ile-Ife was where the world the beaded regalia of the bronze Ooni of Ife on fore, the proposal presented by Enid Schildkraut began. The kings, queens, and deities whose stories ani- p. 12 is cut short in mid-sentence by the inser- and Suzanne Blier, requesting the loan of these mate Yoruba history and art all trace their origins to this tion of eight unrelated pages filled with indi- masterworks for a second traveling exhibition, ancient center of art and commerce … Ife is associated vidual photographs of early stone figures and was unusually ambitious. The complexities of with the ancestors, with the first dynasties and deities, other rudimentary carved stones, which are not the venture also included the rapid assembly and and with the invention of technology and art. As the discussed in detail until Henry Drewal’s essay in publication of the Dynasty and Divinity cata- ancestral home of some sixteen legendary kingdoms that the second part of the catalogue. It is not until logue in English and its immediate translation first flourished between 1100 and 1200 ce, Ife retains a Schildkraut’s interrupted introduction finally into Spanish, in time to accompany the exhibi- spiritual primacy for Yoruba-speaking people in Nigeria reappears on p. 22 and concludes with an - tion’s earliest venues in Santander and Madrid. and beyond (p. 2). entation to the traditions associated with Ife’s After His Majesty, the Ooni of Ife opened sacred groves and shrines, that the significance the exhibition at the in Lon- Schildkraut then explains that scholars have of these ancient stones is somewhat clarified. don, it was moved across the Atlantic for dis- not been able to resolve many perplexing ques- There seems to be no reason for interrupting play in Houston, Richmond, and Indianapolis. tions concerning Ife’s cultural inheritance, and her introductory essay with this long photo- Credit for its success should be particularly she provides a full-page map of contemporary graphic section illustrating individual stones, reserved for Enid Schildkraut, Chief Curator southwestern Nigeria, on which cities and states before adding the two concluding pages that and Director of Exhibitions at the Museum associated with specific Yoruba groups can be would assist the reader to make sense of them. for in New York, who personally located (Fig. 5, p. 13). After introducing two of Moreover, the eighteen-foot-tall Staff of supervised the shipping of the chosen sculp- the many sites that have yielded extraordinary Oranmiyan (Opa Oranmiyan), which is the tures from Nigeria and has also written the sculptures (Wunmonije Compound and Ita best known and most impressive of Ife’s stand- essay that forms the first half of the catalogue. Yemoo), she briefly comments on archaeological ing stones, does not appear among these In presenting Dynasty and Divinity in cata- investigations from 1938 through the present. instrusive photographs. This huge monolith logue form, Schildkraut has joined forces In anticipation of the questions most often is illustrated for the first time by Henry Dre-

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af_78-96.indd 90 11/14/2011 1:08:23 PM wal on p. 82 in the second half of the catalogue. the catalogue. headed lids from Ekpo Eyo’s excavation of Ife’s There it fits easily into his detailed explanation When the text resumes on p. 42, there is a Lafogido burial site (cat. #40–41), and finally, far of these shaped stones, which he divides into brief but inaccurate reference to Frobenius and from their introduction in the first pages of the Ife’s Archaic period and later Pre-Pavement his major discovery, stating that “a cast bronze Catalogue, the bronze half figure of an Ooni of period, which both precede the production of head in the exhibition represents , the Ife from the Wunmonije site (cat. #38) and eight the bronze and terracotta heads. In the cata- goddess of the sea, associated with beads and of the fifteen life-sized and uncrowned bronze logue design, all of the photographs of Ife’s wealth.” Fortunately, by the time this wide- heads (cat. #42–49) found at Wunmonije. stone sculptures could have been placed more spread misconception is encountered in the On p. 66, these illustrations are followed by appropriately into Drewal’s essay to support his text, the reader may have already found the one of the most fascinating images in the art detailed discussion of individual monoliths. correction on p. 27, accompanying the photo- of Ife (cat. #50): the unique, tiny, but detailed Schildkraut’s city diagram could have appeared graph of this crowned head (cat. #16): , four-and-a-half inches high, found on its own within her excellent introduction to in a cache of other bronzes near the Ita Yemoo the role of sacred shrines, as an aid to locating The name Olokun attributed to this head refers to the shrine. This impressive little bronze portrays the Ore Grove, as well as the Wunmonije and fact that it was dug up in the late nineteenth century in a bowl resting on the stool throne of Ife. (The Ita Yemoo archaeological sites. the Olokun Grove. At that time, it was used in annual unusual characteristics of these royal stools are Schildkraut’s interrupted section of the cata- rites honoring Olokun, goddess of the sea and patroness explained on pp. 86–87 and 124–25, and are logue continues with her comments on the of bead-making. It probably represents an Ooni and, in pictured in Figs. 21–22.) 7 need for increased research into the early his- its original form, had nothing to do with Olokun. The supple figure of a crowned Queen is Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/afar/article-pdf/45/1/90/1735693/afar.2012.45.1.90.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 tory of , arguing persuasively that lying on top of the stool, with her back curved scholars should examine linkages between The twelve inserted pages of bead-oriented around the bowl so that her head and feet are prominent African kingdoms from 1000– photographs conclude, surprisingly, with both positioned at the front. Her left arm rests 1400 ce, the period in which Ife developed its three full-page photographs that are extremely upon the thick, looped protrusion that forms superb artistry. A well-placed map that locates important in African art history (cat. #36, pp. the essential feature of every Ife throne. This some of these kingdoms introduces “Art and 38–41). They offer multiple views of a unique protruding loop, which has been compared to Trade in Early Ife,” in reference to the far-flung copper masterpiece: the Seated Figure found the trunk of an elephant as the locus of enor- trans-Saharan commerce evidenced by Ibn in a shrine at Tada, far to the north of Ife. In mous power, rests as usual upon its own smaller Battuta’s journals in the 1300s. When the King- this shrine, it was accompanied by other fig- four-legged stool. Her right hand lifts a scep- dom of Benin developed direct contact with ural bronzes, including two large, elaborately ter with the finial shaped like a human head. Portugal by sea in the late 1400s, the centers dressed officials (cat. #103–104), a tall figure of Two full-sized bronze scepters of this type were of West African commerce moved southward. a woman (not illustrated), and a shorter male found in the same Ita Yemoo cache, and on one This shift in trade routes led to the economic figure with clasped hands (cat. #107). of these, the finial head was gagged in prepara- decline of Ile Ife, but not to the end of its In the text box inserted on p. 42, Schildkraut tion for a victim’s execution as a human sacri- mythic significance. discusses the sources of copper and tin that were fice (see cat. #78–79, 83–84, 88–89). She then introduces the deified figure of available in this part of Africa between 1100–1400 In spite of its tiny size, this sculpture con- , outlining his putative descent from ce. She explains the process of cire perdue bronze veys an impression of physical, psychic, and the sky, his creation of the world at Ile Ife, his casting, mentioning that a variation of this tech- political power. The caption for cat. #50 is development of the world’s first kingship, and the nology had been used in the ninth century ce to plausibly informed by Yoruba traditions, in legendary foundation of sixteen Yoruba king- cast elaborately detailed bronzes at Igbo Ukwu in suggesting that “the bowl may have held fluid doms by his multiple sons. His young son Oran- southeastern Nigeria. Excavations at this earlier from a snail, mixed with herbs. This heal- miyan is credited with founding the kingships of site, which was associated with the tomb of a reli- ing balm (omi ero) which has been compared both Benin and Oyo. One of Oduduwa’s older gious leader, also revealed crotal bells and thou- to amniotic fluid, is still offered to the deity sons, the influential Alayemore (known as Obal- sands of variously colored glass beads. Obatala, the creator of humans … to soften ufon II), is remembered as the most successful Schildkraut concludes her portion of the his heart.” Although the association between of the following rulers of the Kingdom of Ife. catalogue with a discussion of dynastic rival- purity, healing, and ritualized execution is dif- Obalufon II is associated with bronze casting and ries between supporters of the population’s ficult to grasp, belief in the sanctity and neces- the manufacture of colored glass beads and is indigenous major deity Obatala and support- sity of human sacrifice was central within the identified with the early rise of Ife to wealth and ers of Oduduwa, the deified founder of Ife’s ancient Ife, , and Benin kingdoms. prominence. When the Wunmonije heads were kingship and royal ancestor of highly ranked The second half of the catalogue begins on p. created, a life-sized associated with Obalu- Yoruba kings. Oduduwa is considered an out- 70, with Henry John Drewal’s essay, “The Splen- fon II was cast in pure copper by the same work- sider, even though his followers claim that he dor of Ancient Ife: Art in an Early West African shop,6 and it has been kept for centuries inside descended from the sky on a chain at the very State”—an exposition based on extensive field the Ooni’s Palace. In the Catalogue, Obalufon’s beginning of time, as creator of the earth at Ile research among the twentieth century Yoruba. mask appears as cat. #37 on p. 48, far from this Ife. Other sculpture-producing cultures that He offers insights into the role of Ile-Ife as the discussion on p. 25. preserved dynastic ties to Ile Ife, such as Owo ancient center of Yoruba history, religion, and Schildkraut’s narrative is then interrupted and Benin, are also mentioned, in addition to culture, while also introducing Yoruba concepts again by twelve unrelated pages of illustration. the peripheral site at Esie, where images of this that offer the reader insight into the function of These offer photographs of terracotta objects city’s leaders were carved in stone (cat. #108). these artworks. In doing so, Drewal has deftly associated with bead-making (such as a cru- Another section of full-page photographs mined excerpts from his earlier work in Yoruba: cible for melting glass), then terracotta sculp- separates Schildkraut’s from Drewal’s essays Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, co- tural fragments portraying beadwork as part in this volume. They begin with images of two authored with John Pemberton III and Row- of royal accoutrements. This section of illus- sculptures kept in the Ooni’s Palace for centu- land Abiodun (New York: Center for African trations could more appropriately have been ries: the Obalufon II copper mask (cat. #37) and Art and H.N. Abrams, 1989). placed near Drewal’s substantial chapter on a terracotta head called Lajuwa (cat. #39). These Drewal stresses the hazards of choosing any “Beaded Brilliance at Ile Ife” toward the end of are accompanied by two of the terracotta animal- of the conflicting Yoruba versions of Ife’s prime-

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af_78-96.indd 91 11/14/2011 1:08:23 PM val creation as exclusively authentic, explaining although these evolving modes of representa- Ife terracotta of a similar pendant is on p. 135. that even the gender of Oduduwa is negotiable. tion have been difficult to date. Drewal suggests The nude bronze figure called “Obalu- To supporters of Obatala as the original creator, that growing interest in abstraction might relate fon” on p. 144 also has serpents issuing from Oduduwa is a female deity, while Oduduwa’s to Yoruba concepts of the Ori Inu, the “Inner his nostrils, and the short bronze figure from supporters identify this deity as a numinous war- Head” that determines each person’s individual- Tada seems almost to make a symbolic Ogboni rior king, who created the political structures ity. He also includes illustrations of other Nige- gesture on p. 159. that have guided far-flung Yoruba kingdoms for rian art to demonstrate that the accomplished Finally, far to the southeast of Ife, serpents and centuries. Drewal explains Yoruba acceptance of artworks of Ife’s Pavement Era had signifi- salamanders crawl in and out of the fierce bronze these deeply rooted disagreements as follows: cant impact not only upon the later arts of the Ododua mask from Benin (cat. #109). This Yoruba, but also upon the art histories of sur- intimidating royal mask personifies incalculable There are countless versions of the myth of the cre- rounding regions (pp. 124–43, 150–68). powers bestowed on the of Benin, through ation of the world … in Ile Ife. The richness of this lore Drewal’s section entitled “Ife Metalwork” ancestral inheritance from the mysterious ruler attests to its importance as an anchor that ultimately should have been titled “The Metal Heads at who descended from the sky on an iron chain, to unites all Yoruba-speaking peoples, despite the diversity Ife,” because it deals with questions of central create the earth that began at Ile Ife. among their many city states. [These variants] express interest concerning their function. For exam- the essence of flexibility, action, and openness in Yoruba ple, how were these bronze heads used? And Barbara Blackmun received the PhD from society, as well as the ways in which the fabric of society what was the function of the holes on the neck, UCLA with guidance from Arnold Rubin, after

can stretch and adapt, rather than rupture—by assimila- along the hairline, and around the mouth? In archival study with Frank Willett in Glasgow Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/afar/article-pdf/45/1/90/1735693/afar.2012.45.1.90.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 tion through intermarriage, incorporation, and/or divi- approaching these questions, he proposes that and field studies in Nigeria, specializing in the sion of rights and responsibilities (p. 71) “the heads were probably part of annual rites visual arts of Ife and Benin. bwblackmun@ of purification and renewal for the ruler and earthlink.net On p. 71 he also introduces the well-grounded his people and, more precisely, for his spiri- Yoruba concept that “specific materials, such tual head and beaded regalia .… Many heads Notes as stone, iron, [and] clay … possess distinctive … were made to be freestanding, probably for 1 Although many scholars choose to employ the sacred, performative power (ase) and are associ- display on an altar, as we now know from the accurate term “copper-alloy” to describe metal sculp- ated with named mythic entities.” Stones filled [image of an altar on] the figurated vessel at tures from Ife and Benin, I prefer to follow standard with power are flung at the earth by the Yoruba Obalara’s Land” (Fig. 30, p. 128). Because the museum practice, in which fine European and Asian storm deity during lightning strikes, an iron copper mask and the life-sized metal heads artworks are called “bronzes,” without regard to precise chain fashioned by enabled the warrior have evenly spaced holes around the hairline metal composition. The term “copper-alloy” is awk- deity Oduduwa to descend from the sky, Obat- for attachments (although the smaller crowned ward, and the word “brass” is rarely associated with the ala/Orisanla molded humans in sacred clay, and ones do not), “It seems logical that the heads color and patina found on Nigerian antiquities. 2 Leo Frobenius, The Voice of Africa (London: the manufacture of colored glass beads honored were created to display actual regalia in a shrine Hutchinson, 1913), Vol. 1, pp. 98–99. Olokun’s watery realm. He suggests that because context, or in performance.” He then describes 3 This pioneering exhibition opened in Detroit materials embody divine forces, their presence the annual crown rituals that are held in and traveled to Oslo, London, Stockholm, Hildesheim, in ancient myths may express remembrance of Okuku, a town northeast of Ife (p. 143). and Paris. The catalogue, Treasures of Ancient Nigeria certain ages and technologies, as well as specific In these comments pertaining to the func- (New York: Knopf, 1980), was written by archaeologists historical personalities who were later deified to tion of the metal heads, Drewal also suggests Frank Willett and Ekpo Eyo. 4 Security difficulties while Nigeria’s museums personify natural phenomena as orisa (p. 72). In a plausible relationship between the two large were not adequately funded are mentioned on p. 3. presenting Yoruba concepts of the Cosmos and holes in the neck and the attachment of a Other problems are discussed in Frank Willett’s “Com- the divination system called “Ifa,” he mentions heavy ring-like base to support and balance prehensive Catalogue and Database” in the CD-ROM the responsibilities of the Ogboni, whose mem- each head when it was displayed on an altar. The Art of Ife (Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 1998). bers select and guide the ruler of each Yoruba A terracotta portrayal of a head supported on 5 Fine parallel lines identical to those portrayed on kingdom. Above all, he stresses the ancient spiri- such a ring appears in Figure 26. Drewal goes Ife faces can still be seen on the faces of some individu- als across the western border of Nigeria, in the northern tual power of ase, which permeates every aspect on to discuss the probability that the bizarre Republic of Benin, where terracotta pavements have also of . and elaborate figurated bronze rings, with been found. One prominent example of a leader with On p. 78, Drewal outlines an archaeology- images of vultures pecking at human remains, striations similar to those at Ife is General Mathieu Ker- based chronology of Ife’s artworks. Much of this were used among the Yoruba and in Benin to ekou, the former President of the Republic of Benin. sequence is based upon the distinctive, patterned support the display of actual severed human 6 If one permits the possibility that Ife’s metal pavements of pottery shards that covered the heads after obligatory ritualized sacrifices (p. images are portraits (cf. cat. #43–49), the features of the floors of ife’s courtyards during the Pavement 163, cat. #86–87, and Fig. 35). Mask of Obalufon II (cat. #37), and of Head M7 (cat. #42) are very similar, and these sculptures could repre- Era. Although his temporal framework is clearly Both essays within this catalogue are valu- sent either a single individual or close relative. presented, the inconvenient layout of the book able in the ongoing study of Ife’s accomplished 7 The wrapper drawn around this figure covers is especially troublesome in this section, as the artworks. In spite of the inconvenient place- her upper body, indicating that a royal woman is rep- reader must repeatedly search for images that ment of the handsome illustrations, this cata- resented. The clothing is similar to that of the female illustrate Drewal’s text. The associated photo- logue is an improvement over every other member of the royal pair at Ita Yemoo (Fig. 3, p. 5). This graphs are far from this discussion, within the extant publication as an exploration of these indication of gender also adds credence to the state- ment by the former Ooni, Sir Adesoji Aderemi, that the misplaced pages that intrude into Schildkraut’s intriguing sculptures. Moreover, in the final multi flanged crown was worn by Ife’s queens (see cat. essay on royal regalia between pp. 12–22. catalogue images, other intriguing works from #2, p. 7). Drewal follows Frank Willett in explaining various sites in southern Nigeria are pictured 8 Frank Willett devoted considerable effort to that the Pavement era lasted from about 1000– in color. The Gara warrior’s forehead medal- ensure the accuracy of radiocarbon and thermolumi- 1400 ce and the refined naturalism celebrated lion portrays a horned head with serpents nescence dates for the broken terracotta figures at Ita as the classic Ife had been fully developed emerging from its nostrils (compare p. 150 Yemoo. These standing terracotta figures were found in situ within shrine II, which he excavated. The results by 1100–1200 ce.8 As time passed, there was with the images on pp. 112–13.) He also wears a were consistently between the limits of 1000–1300 ce. an increasing individuality in the artists’ styles, pendant portraying the head of a ram, and an

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