n an earlier essay in African Arts, "Is dence that lend indirect support to a ideas and activities that inform the There History in Horizontal Masks? horizontal mask history. masks. Earlier sightings, however, can A Preliminary Response to the Taking stock in advance of the next be vague and frustrating. Among the Dilemma of Form" (April 1991), I tried research phase is helpful for two reasons. many wonderful photographs in Visit of to show why horizontal masks, a sculp- First, in spite of our long-standing inter- His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to tural form found across est, we have only recently begun to con- the Gold Coast Colony (Guggisberg and into the northern savanna of cern ourselves seriously with questions 1925),1 one on page 175 records an out- Central Africa, may present an interest- of history, and in a moment of irony rageous intersection of two cultures ing and complex historical problem. My Sidney Littlefield Kasfir suggests we may (Fig. 5). The prince with his retinue, evidence was strictly visual (with some not be very well equipped for the task bright as sunlight in starched white and background support from known pat- (1985:1). Second, my inquiry into hori- pith helmet, is shown with right foot terns of distribution), and part of my zontal masks is broader and more gener- raised, left hand on dress sword, parad- point was to suggest that even though al than most historical studies of African ing casually past an ominously large- studies of form are out of fashion, form art (e.g., Barnes & Ben-Amos 1989; Berns headed, long-mouthed horizontal mask is nevertheless a useful enough re- 1989; Kasfir 1985; Lamp 1983, 1990), and worn with raffia costume. Everyone is source that serious research projects can some perspective on the character of the smiling, and the caption reads: "The be sparked by its consideration. Ac- research and its potential value is certain- Prince is much amused by an Akwamu cording to my thinking right now, hori- ly in order. In effect, the question this tribal symbol...." The accompanying zontal masks are those that 1) are worn article seeks to answer is whether the text elaborates in this way: "His Royal horizontally or on a strong diagonal, 2) research is worth continuing. Highness examined with great interest use helmets to fit on or over the many of the curiously shaped orna- ments and emblems the dancer's head, 3) have long snouts or Conditions forming regalia mouths projecting forward from the of the various stools, his attention helmet, 4) have horn-like projections Several conditions help determine the being particularly aroused by the grin- that sweep up and out from the back, nature of horizontal mask research. First ning model of a crocodile's head and and 5) are often created in tripartite there are the boundaries set by availabil- other of the more primitive emblems" compositions (Figs. 1-3). ity of information. This is the same tired (Guggisberg 1925:175). In this essay I want to consider con- old song that pushed African-art histori- A photograph some fifty-three un- ditions, instances, and possibilities in ans toward explorations of context this numbered pages into "The Secret horizontal mask research. The condi- side of the mythic "ethnographic pres- Album of Africa," volume two of the tions include circumstances that will ent." Much useful information will undated and anonymous The Secret limit or otherwise govern such research, never be available, because records do Museum of Mankind, is equally frustrat- and circumstances that are requisites not exist. ing. Here another marvelous horizontal for demonstrating a shared history. The Many documented sightings of hori- mask greets us, this one with wart-hog instances are specific examples of his- zontal masks have appeared in our liter- tusks emerging from the rear of the torical interaction that support the ature during the past several decades, mouth and a nice collar of raffia setting probability of transmission. The possi- and often they include enough informa- off the rest of the raffia costume. Its cap- bilities are elements in the available evi- tion to allow an understanding of the tion reads: "Tutelary Deity of Fanti Village in Wassaw," leaving us to pon- der exactly what is meant by a Fanti (Fante) village in the Wassaw (Wasaw) area. This is one of those challenging realities in the field of histo- ry. Such photographs offer information we must use, without overstepping the From Mande Komo boundaries inflicted by their texts. Old internal documents such as The Kano Chronicle (Palmer 1928) are very useful at one level because they suggest to Jukun Akuma contacts between people. But at another level, they are generally not detailed enough to tell us if horizontal masks were being used, or where they might Approachinghave originated. External documents such as the fourteenth-century travel- ogue of Ibn Batuta (Defremery & Sanguinetti 1922-1949) do sometimes the Question describe art (though not horizontal Difficult masks). But here too, useful detail is rare, as are the written sources. Horizontal masks in archaeological contexts would be enormously helpful, but thus far they ofHistoryare not leaping out of site reports. Horizontal masks are certainly polit- ical, but not always overtly. Thus the resources that political historians use PATRICKR. McNAUGHTON will be helpful, but they are not enough. The development and spread of these masks would also have been strongly grounded in social history, and in that arena the resources available to

76 1. NALU BANDA MASK, . WOOD, PIGMENT;134.6cm. COLLECTIONOF JEROME L. JOSS. same is true of mask users' impressions help generate patterns that complement THIS MASK BLENDS SHARK, CROCODILE, of where the artworks originated. historical data. Archaeological informa- AND HUMAN FEATURES. It would be wonderful to spend the tion about trade, professional specializa- time talking to people all across the hor- tions, social configurations, and cultural izontal mask range, but since that is not complexion could be very helpful. researchers are, if anything, more tenu- feasible, I have to hope that colleagues Ultimately the relationships these data ous and chronologically limited. will share information they have establish with one another will offer All this does not mean we cannot learned, as, in fact, many already have. insights about mask history. continue the inquiry. But if the masks, Of course, long-standing debates about More thought about form will also be distributed across approximately 4,800 how to use oral histories further compli- in order, particularly because form's kilometers of West Africa, do share his- cate the problems, and hard direct data role in historical reconstruction is so tory, our reconstructions of it may be will be perpetually elusive on every contestable. The most basic formal issue somewhat fuzzy and generalized, the front. But that is true for African-art his- of what constitutes a horizontal mask more so the deeper we go in time. In fact torians under the best of circumstances remains problematic, even (or especial- we may never be able to demonstrate an in most research situations. ly) from the armchair vista of formal uncontested shared history. But we may Exploring the combinations of ani- definitions and analysis. Sieber states well be able to demonstrate the very mals in the many masks that are com- that the Ijo mask in Figure 6 is worn on strong probability of one, and that in posite images might prove illuminating, the top of the head but should not be itself would be extremely useful. especially if coupled with an analysis of considered a horizontal mask. Of course These restrictions dictate the broad- functional contexts. Glottochronology he is right. By any reasonable analysis, est possible search for information. (the analysis of words by sound shifts) in isolation it is shaped like a face mask, Travel and missionary accounts, as well can be a simplistic and misleading tool with no extensions beyond forehead or as publications in history, art history, for reconstructing histories, but like for- chin and no vestiges of a helmet. ethnography, archaeology, linguistics, mal analysis it might suggest useful Yet its elements and proportions folklore, and even zoology can all be avenues of additional research.2 The strongly resemble the central portions of examined, as can the museum records of same could prove true for the examina- the Ijo masks in Figures 7 and 8, whose masks themselves. Roy Sieber points out tion of other artworks and objects found horizontal orientation and suggestion of that local Islamic texts that include lists to be associated, or not associated, with a tripartite structure make them much of "don'ts" (such as "Don't dance with horizontal masking traditions. In the stronger candidates for horizontal cate- masks") could be very useful if they same way, details about social, political, gorization. Have these two sorts of con- can be found (pers. com., 1990). The spiritual, and economic structures might ceptions emerged from the artistic

77 2. IGBO MASK, (FRONT AND REAR VIEWS). tern of historical interaction to a great WOOD, 53.3cm. many peoples of southern Nigeria and COLLECTIONOF TOBY AND BARRY HECHT. southwestern Cameroon. In short this condition is broadly recognized in our profession, and my use of it differs only in my need to apply it across a very large area. The second condition is the fluidity of components within institutions. The possibility of adding and subtracting core visual features of artworks is a good example. In the process of histori- cal transmission, artwork elements of primary value to one group will possess co0 -t,, secondary, tertiary, or absolutely no value to other groups. Kasfir's findings on ancestral masquerades in southwest- ern and central Nigeria testify to this (1985). So do Barnes and Ben-Amos' on describes symbols, forms, and function- the imagery of Ogun (1989). I think one al contexts. Therefore, I think it is could build a most interesting study of important to clarify my own thinking on this idea around the medicine-activated resonance of human interaction, or are how people in Africa may have been power sculptures used all over Zaire, they simply two kinds of mask in simi- making art history, even at the risk of from Kongo environments at the mouth lar styles? We cannot know from just the sometimes stating the obvious. The con- of the Zaire River to Songye environ- form, but at times in this kind of study ditions I will describe both derive from ments close to Lake Tanganyika. As there may not be much more to go on. and contribute to the hypothesis of cre- sculptures in human or animal form that In addition to the conditions that ative adoption and adaptation I suggest- assist people in specific or general goals, govern my study, the conditions that ed in my earlier essay in this journal. they are quite similar conceptually and characterize historical change also war- The first condition is the accessibility functionally. But the figures vary a great rant some enumeration, because schol- across ethnic and cultural boundaries of deal in style and attachments, and one ars have not thought about them that institutions-their symbols, activities, would need to examine the herbal much, and I think we are inclined and art. That accessibility is situational, medicine and occult practices of each toward simplistic interpretations. In but we have not yet determined to what group to understand the kinds of organ- 1979 Henry John Drewal noted: "In the degree and according to what sorts of ic ingredients and sculpted forms they continuous interaction between African restrictions. Barnes and Ben-Amos used to encourage certain ends. people and their art, forms undergo (1989:39-64) demonstrate the principle In its most extreme manifestations both subtle and dramatic change..." quite convincingly in their reconstruc- this fluidity can engender tremendously (1979:87). In 1989 Sandra T. Barnes and tion of a complex cultural environment creative situations, where new institu- Paula Girshick Ben-Amos made the rea- shared by Edo, Fon, and Yoruba peoples tions and art forms emerge from the flux sonable statement that "it is well under- between A.D. 1400 and 1700 in coastal of thought and experience that offers stood that symbols are adapted to, and West Africa. Intense interaction across people opportunities to contemplate and then elaborated in ways that are unique porous ethnic boundaries resulted in the change older traditions. This idea is rich- to, or consonant with, the culture of the sharing of what these authors call a sym- ly demonstrated by Paul S. Breidenbach adopting groups" (1989:39). bolic complex uniting iron, war, and and Doran H. Ross' research on the Both statements seem obvious tru- state-building around the deity Ogun to Twelve Apostles Church and their isms. But relatively few scholars of create an "ideology of progress" (Barnes Healing Gardens in (1978) , and African art have addressed historical & Ben-Amos 1989:42; their quotes). Each also by Susan Domowitz and Renzo problems, and too much of their work group in succession established a power- Mandirola's work on cement grave mon- on the meanings and contexts of art has ful empire-the Edo's , the Yoru- uments in C6te d'Ivoire (1984). been laden with dogma, which suggests ba's Oyo, and the Fon's Dahomey-and A third condition of historical process they do not always consider how each institutionalized and politicized the complements and amplifies the first two. human beings actually behave. Again Ogun symbolic complex (Paula Ben- It is the porousness of ethnicity, and it ten years ago Drewal noted that those in Amos, pers. com., 1990). also is not new. A rapidly expanding the field were too dominated by a Rene Bravmann provides another number of researchers are finding this research perspective that good example (1974:80-82). He notes condition to be true. that in the Bondoukou of C6te It is not that ethnic boundaries a or immutable situa- region just implies rigid d'Ivoire and west central such are members of it Ghana, easily penetrated by tion; stressing uniformity, ignores Akan art forms as state other ethnic the internal and it does swords, stools, groups. Rather, individuality creativity; and various forms of kente cloth and structure of ethnic is also not consider the or patrimony dynamics, are used several flexible and rather the internal mechanism royal regalia widely by constantly shifting. Clans, by ethnic that are not Akan in their which are cornerstones for which can occur and groups frequently change by affiliations or and are also fundamental at the same traditions language political personal identity, which, time, social characteristics. Bravmann blocks in African social can be it building sys- sustained; and, finally, attributes this to tems. As their members lacks a historical dimension. large-scale adoption move, respond historical forces and the to events, or behave to (Drewal 1979:88) "particular opportunistically receptivity of most peoples here to create events, clans realign themselves Drewal was referring specifically to imported art types" (1974:80). Ottenberg to make new configurations of people "structural models," but his statement and Knudsen (1985) state that the that we call ethnic groups. This is cer- can easily be applied more generally to Leopard Society and its masquerades tainly the case among Bamana, the ways so much of the literattire have been transmitted in a complex pat- Maninka, and Wasuluka Mande, who

78 have used clan relationships to forge all hunters covet secret expertise and This opportunistic wanderlust is not kinds of social and economic alliances, make much of their ability to acquire monopolized by Mande hunters. Sieber including alliances of ethnicity. and use it. As individuals hunters may reports that hunters in Ghana are con- A step above clans, regional alle- possess various sculpted devices that ceived of as leaders of migration (pers. giances can also compete with ethnicity enhance that supernatural competence. com., 1990), in part because they are the in importance, as the Yoruba demon- Their institution, however, does not only ones who know the forest well strate. And at a higher order of organi- seem to possess masking traditions. enough to maneuver people through it. zation than ethnic groups, broad social Nevertheless, a very large number of In the late seventeenth or early eigh- affinities can be powerful coalescing Mande hunters are also members of the teenth century, for example, the Kwahu, entities, having many linguistic, social, Mande Komo institution, which of an Akan group, were led by a hunter on and historical similarities that people course uses one of Africa's classic hori- a northeastward migration to their pres- perceive and use. This is also certainly zontal mask versions. ent location east of Kumasi. And when true of Mande people, who use the Institutions that employ horizontal we remember that in many areas of unity in their Mandeness as an expedit- masks generally impose strict tenets of Africa the mechanics of moving include ing vehicle and explanation for every- secrecy on their members that involve the use of ritual and sorcery to help thing from personal friendships and most aspects of their group operations, make the new location home, it is possi- marriages to an ideology of pride and including what the masks do and how ble that hunters, perhaps in league with accomplishment. The latter is powerful- they look. Art historians write about this spiritual specialists, would find an ly manifest in the pilgrimages the far- mandated secrecy all the time. And yet occult mask cult quite useful. flung members of Mande culture make the rugged individualism and pro- A sleeper in this deck of potential from their homes in Gambia, Cote nounced opportunism that drive a great agents is the "casual" initiate. At least d'Ivoire, Ghana, and elsewhere back to many Mande hunters could easily lead for the Mande Komo, these individuals the Mande heartland. to their using information about the are of considerable importance. I was We should not deduce from this that components of the Komo institution, told by both members and leaders that ethnicity is unimportant. Rather, it is including masks, as collateral in activi- Komo employs two kinds of initiation. simply one of several levels of commu- ties designed to expand their status and The more formal one involves much nity, all of which are important and con- power. They would even be likely to try study, preparation, and ritual. The more stantly contributing to culture and to establish new Komo institution spontaneous one involves giving a gift history. This means that individuals branches, if that would be advantageous and receiving quick information ex- have recourse to several rationales of to themselves, their families, their clans, plaining how to identify oneself as a allegiance, which gives them more or their hunting groups. Komo member and pass ritualized veri- choices as they evolve their identities Among the Mande, hunters have his- fication quizzes. Historically these and negotiate their lives. Artworks are torically enjoyed a strong geographic "casual" initiations were for individuals often involved in those choices, a phe- instability. Authors from Charles Bird such as merchants or hunters who trav- nomenon nicely illustrated by Drewal (1972:276-77) and Youssouf Cisse (1964) eled a great deal, because to arrive in a (1979:88-98). to Gerald Cashion (1982:81-82, 101-17) town on a night when its Komo mask A fourth condition of transmission is and Nehemia Levtzion (1973:56-58) have was abroad would be dangerous unless agency. Too frequently, in our efforts to reported evidence that hunters traveled one was a member. Such initiation could generalize or see the big picture, we for- widely, as explorers, adventurers, and be administered to a new arrival on the get that individuals and groups of indi- opportunists. Indeed, oral traditions spot, enabling him to see the mask and viduals are the manipulators of culture ascribe the founding of the famous city witness proceedings that are strenuous- and the creators of history. To recon- of San and the migration of many ly proclaimed to be deep secrets. struct history, we must identify con- Mande clans into the area to the imagi- These spontaneous initiations were structors. They may be migrants, native wanderings of a legendary hunter of course humanitarian, saving inno- invaders, or citizens who purchase cults named Koyate (Kalilou Tera, pers. cents from the agonies of accidental from their neighbors. Many kinds of coms., summer 1977,1978, fall 1989). encounters with mask and ritual. They people can act as agents in the transmis- sion of art, and they need not even use the art themselves. Christopher Roy has shown that single workshops of sculp- tors in make masks for several different ethnic groups (1985: 3-7). They serve as a kind of art depot, and one can readily imagine them par- ticipating in the proliferation of mask types or even institutions. Hunters offer interesting possibilities as potential agents of transmission.3 Mande hunters, for example, form politically powerful and socially influ- ential institutions (donson tonw) that emphasize toughness, adventure, and physical and supernatural competence in the dangerous space of wilderness. In fact, like cult leaders and sorcerers,

3. LIGBE BUFFALOMASK, COTE D'IVOIRE. WOOD, BLACK PIGMENT;48.3cm. BEQUEST OF SAMUEL RUBIN, NATIONALMUSEUM OF AFRICANART, WASHINGTON.D.C., 79-16-37. PHOTO: KEN HEINEN. COURTESY OF THE NATIONALMUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART, ELIK

79 were also pragmatic, adding modest but casual initiates of Komo could have been They have been linked to, and indeed at useful sums to the coffers of the associa- in a position to replicate aspects of the least in part have grown out of, what we tion. More recently, they could be used association on new terrain many times might call subsistence-plus economies. on researchers, with the goal of swear- during the course of West African histo- Subsistence-plus boils down to mod- ing them to silence on anything consid- ry, if they were motivated to do so. est excess for export. A. G. Hopkins ered to be for members' senses only. Commerce is an obvious wellspring describes it in this way: But in the Mande secrets of the of West African have world, agency. peoples The of households un- sort that built states and majority engender supernatural power grand empires, incorpo- the are One can the rated into their of doubtedly produced greater negotiable. acquire panoply beliefs, of the as to break the tenets of or new part goods they required power secrecy, migrated, developed technologies but the subsis- one can use established Mande and new commodities to insert them- consumers, pure, systems tence was an of occult which make such selves more into of economy exception exchange, beneficially patterns rather than the rule. Most house- secrets commodities that can be (careful- mercantilism. Those patterns have been holds regarded trade as a normal ly and properly) bought and sold. complex and extensive since at least the and an integral part of their activi- Indeed, though it is dangerous, difficult, middle of the first millennium A.D., ties, and planned their production and expensive, one can acquire great involving both micro- and macrocosms, strategy accordingly. stores of supernatural expertise this way that is, local systems and much more (Hopkins 1973:51) (McNaughton 1982; 1988:40-72). Thus extensive regional systems of exchange. For our purposes this market strate- gy could help explain many things. It facilitates and encourages, for example, divisions of labor and product special- izations at the extended family, commu- nity, and even ethnic levels, which leads to active local and dynamic regional markets that attract the attention of enterprising souls from nearby cultures. We could argue that the opportunity for artists to make masks for the sacred institutions of other ethnic groups, the very situation Roy found in Burkina Faso, rests ultimately on this subsis- tence-plus foundation. It allows people to create for each other the time to mas- ter lucrative techniques, generate prod- ucts, and establish markets for them. That, in fact, is what work on ancient complex societies by Susan and Roderick McIntosh suggests for the Jenne region of , and the work of Randi Haaland (1980) suggests for sites associated with the old . The McIntoshes have documented the development of a thriving metal industry with production specialists, production centers, and a dependence on at least short-distance trade for raw materials, beginning in the first centuries A.D. (1988a:146-53; 1988b:114-19, forthcoming). While agents for the movement of art may abound, some form of motivation would have to serve as catalyst. Motivation is yet another condition that I will need to explore. Hunters, migrants, military groups, traveling merchants and itinerant craftspersons, technologists and spiritu- alists-everyone who ventures into new space would encounter specific situa- tions that could motivate their manipu- lation of artworks. Consider, for example, the people who moved into Burkina Faso from the south in the late fifteenth century to meld with earlier inhabitants and create Mossi society

4. CHAMBA BUFFALOMASK, NIGERIA. WOOD, ANIMALHIDE; 70cm. DONATED BY ROBERTAND NANCY NOOTER, NATIONALMUSEUM OF AFRICANART, WASHINGTON,D.C., 81-11-17.

80 5. PHOTOGRAPHIN VISITOF HIS ROYALHIGHNESS THEPRINCE OF WALES TO THE GOLD COAST COLONY (GUGGISBERG 1925:175). be an expeditious resource that helps a very mobile recent history, moving empower newcomers to accomplish into and out of towns among several their goals. In the next section we will ethnic groups, which included the (Roy 1979a:23; 1979b). People in this see that George Brooks suggests just this Degha, Dyula, Hwela, Kulango, Nafana, kind of motion would benefit from insti- for the spread of masks in the vast areas and Numu, at least from the beginning tutions and artworks that offer social, south and west of the Mande heartland. of this century (1974:119-46). More political, or spiritual leverage in their recent research by Raymond Silverman new environment. They could have Instances (pers. com., 1990) confirms and expands used art they brought with them or art upon this mobility. they found in local use. In fact, in this A loose and not very detailed collection Less than 160 kilometers to the south, instance Roy has shown they invented a of data suggests that horizontal masks near the Ghana coast, Roy Sieber4 and new form, zazaido animal headdresses, may have been moving around much of Patricia Coronel5 encountered equally based on indigenous, older institutions, the western half of West Africa by the dynamic traditions of horizontal masks to help them in the processes of asser- middle of the present millennium. Their among the and Fante, used in tion and accommodation that constitute origins seem to be Mande, but our cult groups called Do.6 Some of these their long-term social acclimatization sketchy evidence does not allow us to mask dancers apparently performed on (1979b, 1980). Kathryn L. Green's assert that, and only allows an incom- red-hot coals, and here too there was, at research (1984, 1987) on the migrant plete glimpse of the routes they could least in this century, a very lively pat- Mande warrior group called Sonongui have taken. In this section I will present tern of movement into and out of com- in C6te d'Ivoire also suggests that the some of those data to show why I think munities. One Aowin chief told Sieber, operational means and ends of this additional research on these masks for example, that he had sent his people group could also have involved manip- could prove useful. to another town to acquire the sculp- ulation and proliferation of masks. When Rene Bravmann did his disser- ture, and Sieber was also told these While specific motivating situations tation fieldwork in the Bondoukou masks came from "the north." One would vary greatly, we can make an region of eastern C6te d'Ivoire and west Fante chief told him that he remem- obvious generalization. Wayfarers and central Ghana in 1967-68, he encoun- bered when an Aowin carver named immigrants alike need instruments, a tered a dramatic tradition of horizontal Kwado Kumani came to town to make means to integrate themselves and con- masks called Gbain;these masks spit fire theirs. Sieber visited many towns and ciliate their ambitions with the social and were used by and non- talked with many people. Once he and spiritual forces they encounter. Muslims in an initiation society that arrived in an Aowin town whose citi- Horizontal masks would make very use- resembles quite closely the Komo insti- zens were still glowing with excitement ful instruments. They are fundamentally tution of the Bamana and Maninka, from the previous evening's horizontal associated with extremely potent sor- some 640 kilometers to the north in mask performance. In fact, people were cery and spirits (as I noted in the first Mali. Colonial sources led Bravmann to so enthusiastic when they learned that essay). Employed with care, they could conclude that the masking tradition had Sieber was interested in that very mask

81 tradition that they performed it for him used horizontal masks in an institution And that brings us back to Brav- on the spot (Roy Sieber, pers. com., 1989; called Do (pers. coms., 1987, May 1990), mann, who also considered Mande pers. com., 1990). and the Ivoirian scholar Martin Kouadio groups to be instrumental in the history In 1981-82 and 1984 Monica Visona Aka has noted horizontal Do masks of Gbain horizontal masks. He notes that encountered horizontal masks used by among the Moronu Anyi (1982). Numu (the Mande blacksmith groups) Akye and Adjukuru, Akan-related North of the Lagoons in east-central migrated into the area in the 1400s with groups living in the Lagoon region of Cote d'Ivoire, Philip Ravenhill found Mande Dyula and Ligbi groups, and he Cote d'Ivoire. These masks are part of horizontal masking traditions, again feels the evidence points irrefutably to an institution (but not a secret associa- often called Do, among the Koyara a Mande source for the Gbain masks. tion) also called Do. Its masks offer pro- ("Malinke"), Wan, Guro, Baule, and Mande heartland oral traditions tection against malevolent sorcery, and Senufo.7 He notes that people have assert that the Komo association with its they are considered particularly power- moved around quite freely in this potent horizontal masks was a thriving ful. People told Visona they remem- region, making the history of ethnicity enterprise by the time of those migra- bered when the masks were "borrowed complex. He also suggests that Senufo tions, and that in fact, a bit closer to from the north" at the end of the nine- and Mande smiths could have played home the association may have been teenth century, though she feels in some important art-making roles in the area used to enlist supporters to help estab- cases they could have come earlier, and (1988; pers. com., 1990). Susan Vogel has lish and expand the some people told her the masks had discussed the two forms of Baule hori- (McNaughton 1979:17-19; 1988:130; been used locally "from eternity" zontal masks, Bonu Amuen and Goli, and Dieterlen & Cisse 1972:15-16). One of (Visona, forthcoming). Northern Akye described the Goli's adoption from the old Mali's greatest legendary heroes is people also told Visona that another nearby Wan in the first decade of the Fakoli, a great general and military Lagoon Akan-related group, the Abe, twentieth century (1977:71-101,124-51). strategist of Sunjata, who was also a North again, Green provides espe- renowned sorcerer so closely associat- cially interesting information about the ed with the Komo institution that in area around Kong in northeastern C6te many versions of oral traditions, descrip- d'Ivoire (pers. com., 1990), noting that tions of his head are readily confused oral tradition suggests that two distinct with the appearance of Komo masks horizontal mask traditions, each with (McNaughton 1988:109, 130, 136-37).8 different origins, operated in this re- There are tremendous holes in this co gion occupied by the Mande Jula- patchwork of data, not the least of Sonongui warriors. Inhabitants told which is the simplistic use of oral tradi- Green that before this century they pos- tion. But nevertheless the possibility of sessed a Komo association, which historical development emerges for hor- came at a date izontal masks. Zc apparently very early from Sikasso, a Mande and Senufo The historian George Brooks has town in southern Mali. But by at least speculated on a much broader field of 1700, Hwela people had moved west play (1985:16, 19-31, 43-54, 77-153; 1986; into the Kong area from the collapsed, 1989). He considers it probable that commerce-oriented city of Begho in Mande blacksmiths were involved in Ghana, and people today say these very early migrations for the exploita- Hwela brought their own horizontal tion of metal resources (the manufacture mask tradition with them. of iron and its insertion into trade net- works), and he thinks we could build a U) strong case for a Mande blacksmith pro- liferation of secret initiation associations and horizontal masks. Let us take a step back and see why. Brooks views western West African history as a story of uncanny entre- preneurship that typified a good many peoples' responses to a constantly changing natural, social, and political environment. He divides the region into a series of wet and dry climatic eras,

FT:6. IJO MASK, NIGERIA.WOOD, 29cm. )LLECTIONOF ROY AND SOPHIE SIEBER. THOUGH IT IS WORN ON TOP OF THE HEAD AND SEMBLES THE CENTRALPORTIONS OF THE MASKS FIGURES 7 AND 8, THIS EXAMPLESHOULD NOT BE )NSIDEREDA HORIZONTALMASK.

)P:7. IJO MASK, NIGERIA.WOOD, 70cm. )LLECTIONOF TOBY AND BARRYHECHT. IS MASK IS WORN HORIZONTALLYATOP THE HEAD, AND E TRIPARTITEDIVISION CHARACTERISTIC OF HORIZONTAL ASKSIS SUGGESTED IN ITS COMPOSITION.

GHT:8. IJO MASK, NIGERIA.WOOD, 30.5cm. )LLECTIONOF TOBY AND BARRYHECHT. KETHE MASK IN FIGURE7, THIS EXAMPLEDISPLAYS VERALCHARACTERISTICS OF HORIZONTALMASKS.

82 each associated with particular histori- ers and spirit relationships all support Senufo make several horizontal cal developments. In what Brookslabels that monopoly, and all of these features, mask versions. One, called Kunugbaba, a great state- and commerce-building especiallythe ones that focus on spiritual is the blacksmiths'senior mask, "incor- era, tentatively dated from 700 to 1100, power, coalescearound the Komo associ- porating the primary symbol of the he sees iron as a key trade item, and he ation and its awesome, dramatic, and power and authorityof Poro leadership; suggests that Mande smiths traveled extremelypowerful masks (Fig.9). having punitive powers, it seeks out with Mande traders,both as suppliers of Brooksfeels it is entirelypossible that evildoers and law-breakers, including importantgoods and technology and as Mande smiths may have used their witches" (Glaze 1981:257).That descrip- entrepreneursin their own right. By the Komo masks and associationto enhance tion matches almost exactly my own middle of the eleventh century, for their monopoly on metal technologyand descriptions of Mande Komo masks example, Brooksthinks these smiths and to gain leverage in long-distance com- (McNaughton1988:129-45). traders controlled production at the merce. As a powerful spiritualresource, Moving west, there are the enor- Bambuk gold fields on the upper both mask and association would have mous masks called Landai or Dandai, River. become themselves highly desirable associatedwith Poro institutionsamong In Brooks's next era, a dry period acquisitions, and one can readily imag- the Bandi, Kissi, Loma, and Mende. dated 1100 to 1500, political realign- ine opportunities for their broad prolif- Although it demonstrates nothing by ments and trade development contin- eration.Brooks goes so far as to suggest itself, the fact that all of these groups ued at a prodigious rate, with an that Mande smiths and their Komo asso- except the Kissi have Mande origins emphasis on people movement (includ- ciation may have spawned the secret suggests at least the possibility of Komo ing blacksmiths) and resource exploita- societies known as Poro and Simo, influence in the masks. tion to the south. Commerce in iron which enjoy very large distribution in Further west, the Baga-Landuman- had become a vital mainstay, but man- western West Africa(1985:132-39). Nalu clusterof peoples may be the most ufacturing iron from ore demands Thus we have partial and tentative problematicin terms of exploring mask enormous quantities of hardwoods. explanations for many of the West history. Van Geertruyendescribes them Candice Goucher documents this con- African horizontal mask variants, with as a diverse group of populations who vincingly (1981), as does Nicole Echard Mande peoples as agents of transmis- moved from the interiorearly in the sec- in her film Niger: Iron Making the Old sion. If we wanted to pursue a Mande- ond millenniumin response to Fula and Way (1970), which depicts the great origins hypothesis further, we might Mande pressures (1976:63).Lamp adds piles of charcoal needed for each smelt- first look to the masks in use among the useful detail (1986),noting that a people ing operation. As the savanna dried Voltaic-language speakers, who live in called Baga have been in coastal Guinea and wood resources diminished, smiths the savanna lands between the Niger since the fourteenth century, and they followed the forest line to continue and Volta River systems. Here too there probably migrated from the Futa Jallon their iron production. are hints for possible historical links. area with Landuma, Temne, and Tyapi Smiths seem to have flocked to Futa One is especially interesting. Roy notes peoples. Beginningin the fourteenthcen- Jallon, making the area an important a prominentMande presencein this vast tury, they frequently were invaded by iron productioncenter. The Senufo areas area (1979b), apparently dating from peoples that include the Nalu, Fula to the southeast around Kong and well before the fifteenthcentury. Voltaic (Fulbe),and the Mande-speakingDjalon- Korhogo may also have supported a smiths share many traits with their ke, Maninka, and Susu. A process of smelting industry. Further east along Mande neighbors, suggesting definite major Baga transformation"began first the Black Volta, gold fields apparently possibilities for the shared historical with the Susu and Loko-Gbandi(Mani) attractedthe Mande smiths and traders development of horizontalmasks. invasions of the sixteenth to eighteenth referred to by Bravmann, and Green We might also find historical veins centuries,when these groups settled the also documents an assertive presence of leading to a Mande mother lode if we coast from Conakryto the GreatScarcies Mande factorsin this large area, from at look to the south and west. The Senufo, River... and subsumed the Baga linguis- least the early 1400s(Green 1986). for example, appear to have a complex ticallyand culturally"(Lamp 1986:64). Nehemia Levtzion (1968:3-14) and history that includes the absorption of The materials presented in this sec- Ivor Wilks (1961, 1962) have considered several Mande artist groups. Anita J. tion are anything but conclusive. At the this general region extensively. Draw- Glaze notes that same time, however, they bring a variety ing from their work and that of other of data to indicatethat a shared ...a possible reconstruction of together scholars, Mahdi Adamu notes that by history of horizontalmasks across West the 1470s Mande merchantswere effec- brasscasting history suggests a movementfrom Africa is plausible, and they most cer- tive in the area around the town northernManding agents via the medieval trade tainly encouragefurther research. of Begho, which may have been "a country center of commerce and route to Kong, from where the flourishing brasscasters later into two Possibilities crafts since the twelfth century" (1978: split of is the area principal branches, one (the 59-60). This, course, very west to Senufo The gap between eastern and western where Bravmannfound Gbain associa- Kpeene) migrating horizontal mask versions is not auto- tion countryand the second (the Lorho) masquerades. to the southeast. matically troublesome.It is, after all, an We must now ask how all this could migrating area void of most forms and (Glaze 1981:37) sculpture relate to horizontal masks. As it hap- an area that experiencedintense Islamic pens, in Mande culture it is the smiths The Senufo Kule woodcarvers (also influence in the late-eighteenth- and who make all the sculpture, and they known as Kulebele)are a southernexten- early-nineteenth-century Holy Wars own and operate, as administrators, sion of Mande woodcarversalso known begun by Usuman dan Fodio. In addi- chief priests, and horizontal mask as Kule (Glaze 1981:31; McNaughton tion, it is instructiveto realize that there dancers, the powerful Komo secret initi- 1988:5,18, 101). Finally, Glaze suggests are other gaps in the horizontal mask ation association(McNaughton 1979). that the Senufo Tyeduno blacksmiths range that are quite large but apparently Mande smiths have long been known group "are Senufo-ized numu,Manding no substantial impediment to interac- for their monopoly on metal technolo- blacksmiths of the Bamana area" and tion between people. gies. Endogamy, secrecy, lengthy ap- cites an unpublished manuscript by If a shared history for horizontal prenticeships, and a marvelously DoloresRichter as lending supportto the masks were to emerge, but stopped complex ideology featuring occult pow- idea (Glaze1981:30). short of joining the eastern and western

83 ranges, this in itself would present inter- sive commerce and art-making, and also adding that Hausa social and political esting implications for the nature of because so many of them never adopted organizations were geared to take West African history and culture. Islam. As of a 1953 census, there were advantage of commerce opportunities Nevertheless, there is the possibility that 49,893 non-Muslim Hausa living in the and that many Hausa individuals were masks and institutions (or portions of city of Kano alone (Smith 1976:190). long-distance traders. either) passed through middle West Called Abakwariga, the non-Muslim While we do not know how early Africa, and in this section I want briefly Hausa have been highly mobile and this Hausa artifact and commerce strat- to establish just that possibility. very active in central Nigerian history, egy developed, there are hints that it By the early centuries of the second including in the Plateau State, where so may have been quite ancient. By the millennium, complex, commerce-orient- many horizontal masks are used 1400s the Hausa city of Kano seems to ed societies were in abundance across (Unomah 1982, Rubin 1982, Isichei have been trading regularly with West Africa as part of a tradition that has 1982). They have a spirit association Kwararafa, a major commerce center its routes in the first centuries A.D., if called Bori, which the Jukun call over 320 kilometers to the south below not earlier. Ife and other Yoruba city- Ashamu. It emphasizes spirit possession the Benue River (Adamu 1978:38-39). states certainly were involved in trade, and employs a complex cloth masquer- Hausa merchants and artists (including as was the Mali Empire. So too were the ade. In fact, Kasfir argues that this if not emphasizing the non-Muslim peoples we now know as the Hausa. Abakwariga Hausa masquerade may be Abakwariga) may have begun settling Therefore extensive networks of commu- the source for similar masquerades there that early, and they were certainly nication may well have been in place, among "Yoruba, Igala, Anebira (Igbira) present by the 1600s at the latest. which would have facilitated the move- of Okene, Idoma, Gwari, Alago, Onitsha On a more international scale, Ada- ment of more than just commodities. Igbo, Afo, Gade, Koro, ...and certainly mu states that the Hausa and Timbuctu Some scholars think the ancient others" (1985:2). We have no record of areas have been in contact since the Yoruba city-state of Ife may have the Hausa, non-Muslim or otherwise, 1400s. According to The Kano Chronicle, acquired its power and perhaps even its using horizontal masks. But at this point "Wangarawa" merchants arrived in origins through trade up into the savan- we are certainly in no position to say Hausa territory sometime after 1350 na, where east-west connections could they never did. (Adamu 1978:59, 86; Palmer 1928, vol. be made (Garlake 1978:134-35; Shaw On the other hand, even if they never 3:70, 97-132), and Adamu notes that 1978:158, 164). Some scholars feel the did use them, we are in a position to say "Wangarawa" is a Hausa name for the same way about the rise of Old Oyo that non-Muslim Abakwariga sculptors Wangara long-distance traders of the (Shaw 1978:164-65; Obayemi 1976:237, did carve horizontal masks. Arnold old Mali Empire. Lamin O. Sanneh adds 260). It has even been suggested that Rubin notes that Abakwariga a twist (1979). Using M. A. al-Hajj's both Ife and were connected to of Asl the seven- Oyo have lived the study al-Wanqarayin, Mande trade and it is long among Jukun chronicle on networks, perhaps and other of the middle teenth-century early of some that in remote times peoples Mande in he that significance and lower Benue as Kano, suggests the Bussa set- specialist have referred to the Mande-speaking (or Busa) craftsmen Wangarawa might (weavers, dyers, casters, a of tled nearby (Garlake 1978:135-36; and , group clerics, educators, blacksmiths, woodcarvers) and healers who the Greenberg 1966:164). traders. is originated among The Bussa have a somewhat Especially interesting of the old Ghana played their role as creators and peoples Empire (Hajj role in this of Africa's purvey- Sanneh 1979:25, 28-29), mysterious part ors of distinctive of 1968:10-14; Some sources them as types masquer- history. identify ades.... In the three the founders of both a former state in fact, working mask-carvers I encountered northwestern and the among Nigeria peoples the of the Wukari area all known as Ibariba or Bariba Jukun (Borgawa) claimed to be 222). But Abakwariga. (Decalo 1987:52-53, 60-61, 65, (Rubin 1985:60) while the Bussa are generally classified as Mande-language speakers, the On a visit to the family workshop of Ibariba are generally classified as one, Barde Sangari, Rubin photo- Voltaic (or Gur) speakers. Within Bussa graphed a large number of these masks and Bariba society, royal and princely in the family's "sacred enclosure" lineages are called Wasangari,9 a war- (Rubin's quotes), and he observed there rior group that Samuel Decalo calls all three horizontal mask types used in "cavalry." Decalo also states that their the Jukun Akuma cult (see also Rubin name "has a slightly pejorative mean- 1969:66-71). Other authors report that ing in Bariba, signifying vagabonds or Abakwariga Hausa played many spe- adventurers. Classically, wasangari cial roles in Jukun society, including were involved in warfare, pillage, and royal drummers and praise singers hunting, but rarely sedentary work" (Adamu 1978:38-43; Isichei 1982:17). (1987:222). Adamu notes that Hausa economy Ade Obayemi notes that Mande peo- featured "an elaborate system of agri- ples, specifically the Wasangari, may culture and manually operated industri- have exerted some influence on the al production geared to both local founding of such Yoruba city-states as consumption and export" (1978:10). He Oyo (1976:234-35, 238, 259-60). He believes that dyed cloth, woven cloth, describes Wasangari activity in north- leatherwork, and metalwork were all west Nigeria and the neighboring export-oriented artistic enterprises, Republic of Benin as the establishment of "a series of mega-states," and he identifies their language as Mande. 9. ELEPHANTMASK. KOMO SOCIETY,BAMANA, MALI. The Hausa are another WOOD, FIBER, ENCRUSTATION;114.5cm. interesting DONATED BY ROBERTAND NANCY NOOTER, group to consider, particularly because NATIONALMUSEUM OF AFRICANART, they have very old traditions of exten- WASHINGTON,D.C. 80-271-1.

84 10. MAMACAP MASK, NIGERIA. WOOD, PIGMENT;21.4cm. DONATED BY ROBERTAND NANCY NOOTER, NATIONALMUSEUM OF AFRICANART, WASHINGTON,D.C., 81-11-16.

11. MUMUYEMASK, NIGERIA.WOOD, 33cm. COLLECTIONOF TOBY AND BARRYHECHT. THIS IS A VERSION OF A MASK IDENTIFIEDAS THE "WIFE"THAT ACCOMPANIES THE MUMUYE BUSHCOW MASKS DURING PERFORMANCES. IT IS IN HELMETFORM AND HAS A MODEST PROJECTIONAT THE FRONT, AND SO MIGHT BE CONSIDERED A HORIZONTALMASK.

PHOTO KEN HEINEN. COURTESY OF THE NATIONALMUSEUM OF AFRICANART. ELIOTELISOFON ARCHIVES

although he places their Hausa arrival from the coastal Ijebu lagoon region some one hundred years later. (1989:133,144-45, ills. 145, 146), which John Hunwick identifies the Wangara nevertheless still assert quite strongly as Mande Dyula who have specialized the spirit of Ijo masks. These latter PHOTO TOBY HECHT in far-flung commerce since at least the authors emphasize the ports of Ijebu time of old Mali (1976:274-80). He states "as entries for the exchange of goods, that in another important Hausa state, ideas, and arts," noting that these Blier. The origins of these masks may be centered on the city of Katsina, a new Yoruba adapted their mask tradition southern Yoruba. They could also dynasty took power in the second half from the Ijo (1989:144). involve people in the Benue River basin of the fifteenth century and adopted The geography of such exchange or people to the west. Islam, quite possibly because of Wan- may extend much further west. The flat Thus we can conclude that there are gara influence. We have no concrete evi- surfaces and tubular eyes that typify possibilities for a shared horizontal dence that Hausa traders entered many of these southern Nigerian masks mask history between the masks' east- Mande lands, but, as Adamu notes seem echoed in the Kru (Krieger & ern and western ranges. We cannot (1978:146), that just reflects the nature of Kutscher 1960:39, bild 16) and Grebo begin to guess which directions they our sources, and such travel may well (Leuzinger 1971:101, no. F-6) masks we may have traveled, or if any one way is have been practiced. know from and C6te d'Ivoire, as likely as multiple directions and the Complex patterns of political forces even if the latter compositions are not compounding of influences over time. and people in motion typify the known worn horizontally. How much time is another difficult history of middle Benue River Valley G. I. Jones notes that by the mid- question, because if there is shared his- societies. Therefore, whatever the point nineteenth century 2,000 Kru were tory, we cannot yet say if it is recent- of origin, be it local or from afar, once working in the Niger Delta and Cross early in the millennium-or an ir- horizontal masks became associated River Delta regions each year (1961, regular, continuing process that un- with the area (Figs. 4, 10, 11), they 1963). But data on coastal trade are slim folded over many centuries. If there is undoubtedly would have spread. In and inconclusive. In an overview exam- a shared history, it is these questions, fact, it is again Arnold Rubin who sug- ination of West African maritime histo- and many more, that I would like to gests possible patterns of interaction for ry, Jean-Pierre Chauveau documents answer. several Benue groups-the Goemai, localized regions of intense activity Art's propensity for conceptual asso- Jukun, and Mama (Rubin 1969:66-131). (1986). Studies more focused on the ciations, sensual power, and drama We should not focus all our atten- eastern regions emphasize obstacles make it a profound vehicle through tion on the north, because in southern and the relay nature of routes between which people can change the lay of their Nigeria the exchange of ideas and art the Niger Delta and Accra, giving little social landscapes. Its dynamic flexibility forms has also very clearly been an idea of how old such a trade might be is a cornerstone of this propensity, but it important feature of the art historical or if it might have extended to points also creates many difficulties for explor- landscape. The Ijebu-Yoruba water- further west (Austen 1987:81-102; ing art's history. Yet, as we shed our spirit masks (Agbo) of the Ekine cult Hopkins 1973:124-64; Manning 1985). perception of art as a passive, reflective that Father Carroll illustrates (1966:157, Nevertheless, it is the possibility of such element of culture, historical reconstruc- ill. 14) resemble in several ways many trade that led Robert Farris Thompson tion becomes particularly important, of the water-spirit masks used by the and Roy Sieber to consider a "Creek because it offers us an excellent rough Ijo (Jones 1984: ill. 68) (Fig. 8). Carroll International Style" that might help index of how instrumental art can be, notes the similarity and directs readers account for similarities such as those in and how creatively people can act. to Robin Horton's work on the Ijo the masks I have mentioned.10 Ultimately, understanding art's instru- Ekine cult (Horton 1960, 1963). A quar- Yoruba horizontal masks are not mentality and people's creativity is as ter century later, Drewal, Pemberton, restricted to the coast. I noted in the ear- important as knowing where, when, and Abiodun illustrate two very differ- lier essay the findings among the north- and why works of art are made. D ent Yoruba water-spirit masks, also ern Yoruba by Carroll, Curnow, and Notes,page 99

85 or rectangularleather charms, often worn on a leatherstring aroundthe neck, upper arm,or waist. These containArabic writing from the Koranon paper produced by Muslim or Fulanikarimoko or otherreligious persons. contributors Referencescited Bateson,Gregory. 1973. "Style,Grace and Informationin PrimitiveArt," in PrimitiveArt and Society,ed. Anthony Forge,pp. 235-55.London: Oxford University Press. articles Bazin,H. 1906.Dictionnaire bambara-francais. Paris. Clarke, Mary Lane. 1971. A Limba-EnglishDictionary: An SIDNEYLITTLEFIELD KASFIR teaches Africanart at in Atlanta. English-LimbaDictionary. Gregg: Westmead, England. 1st EmoryUniversity pub. 1922. She is currentlyconducting research in Kenyaand Nigeria. Davenport, Peter S. 1984. "Formand Structure in Kondi Music of Northeastern : Kututeng Music PATRICKR. McNAUGHTONis on the art historyfaculty of the IndianaUniversity among the Limba." M.A. thesis, University of School of Fine and is Washington,Seattle. Hope Arts, Dialogue Editorand a Consulting Editorfor Devereux, George. 1971. "Art and Mythology. A General AfricanArts. He is currentlydoing research on the historyof horizontalmasks and Theory,"in Art and Aestheticsin PrimitiveSocieties, ed. the constructionof in the visual arts. He is also the authorof The Mande CarolF. Joplin, pp. 193-224.New York:Dutton. meaning Durkheim,Emile. 1961. The Elementary Forms of theReligious Blacksmiths:Knowledge, Power, and Artin WestAfrica (1988). Life,trans. J. W. Swain.New York:Collier. 1st pub. 1915. Ortner, Sherry B. 1973. "On Key Symbols," American SIMONOTTENBERG, Emeritus Professor of Anthropologyat the Universityof Anthropologist75:1338-46. in Seattle, has carried out research on the arts of the of south- Ottenberg,S. 1989."The Dancing Bride: Art and Indigenous Washington Igbo Psychologyin LimbaWeddings," Man 24:57-78. eastern Nigeria and the Limba of northern Sierra Leone. He is the author of Ottenberg,S. 1988a."The Bride Comes to the Groom:Ritual Masked Ritualsof Afikpo:The Contextof an AfricanArt of and Drama in Limba Weddings," The Drama Review (University Washington 32:42-64. Press, 1975) and anotherwork on Afikpo,Boyhood Ritualsof an AfricanSociety: Ottenberg,S. 1988b."Religion and Ethnicityin the Arts of a An Interpretation(University of WashingtonPress, 1989). LimbaChiefdom," Africa 58,4:437-66. Ottenberg, S. 1984. "Two New Religions: One Analytic ALLEN F. ROBERTS is Associate Professor Frame,"Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 24, 4: 437-54. of Anthropology and African- Ottenberg, S. 1983. "Artistic and Sex Roles in a Limba AmericanWorld Studies and Co-Director(with Africanist art historianChristopher Chiefdom,"in Femaleand Male in WestAfrica, ed. Christine D. Roy)of the for the Advanced of Artand Lifein Africa at Oppong,pp. 76-90. London:Allen & Unwin. Project Study (PASALA) Ottenberg,S. No date. "Design and Song Text in a Limba the Universityof Iowa in IowaCity. Chiefdom."Unpublished ms. Phinney, Jean S. and Mary J. Rotheram.1987. Children's EthnicSocialization: Pluralism and Development.Newbury Park,CA.: Sage Publications. departments Trimingham, J. S. 1959. Islam in West Africa. Oxford: Clarendon. DONALDJ. COSENTINOis Associate Professorof Folkloreand at UCLA Wagner, Roy. 1981. The Invention of Culture. Chicago: English Universityof ChicagoPress. Rev. ed. and an Editorof AfricanArts. JACK FLAMis DistinguishedProfessor of ArtHistory at BrooklynCollege and at the GraduateCenter of the of New York. McNAUGHTON:Notes, from page 85 CityUniversity This researchwas made possible by a NationalEndowment JANET L. STANLEYis Librarianat the NationalMuseum of AfricanArt Library, for the HumanitiesSummer Stipend and a semestersabbat- SmithsonianInstitution Libraries, Washington, D.C. ical from IndianaUniversity. I am grateful to both institu- tions. Marla Berns, Kate Ezra, Diane Pelrine, and Roy FREIDAHIGH W. TESFAGIORGISis Chairof the of Afro-American Sieber offered extensive advice after reading an earlier Department draft, for which I thank them heartily.I also wish to thank Studies, Universityof Wisconsin-Madison. Paula Girshick Ben-Amos, Charles Bird, Suzanne Blier, Kathy Curnow, Martha Kendall, Abu Nasara, Philip Ravenhill, Raymond Silverman, and Monica Visonh for their thoughts and suggestions at various stages of the work. 1. I am most gratefulto RaymondSilverman for informing me of this photograph. 2. The kind of formal analysis Vansina pioneered in his Universityin February1968, in which he discussedthe pos- ChristianSculpture in Nigeriaand Dahomey.New York: study of "TheBells of Kings"(1969) is closely relatedto glot- sibilityof a "CreekInternational Style." Lou Ann Lambeth,a Frederick A. Praeger. tochronology.Its majordrawback, I think,is that it depends Siebergraduate student, briefly explored that possibility in a Cashion, Gerald Anthony. 1982. "Hunters of the Mande: A on the relative of permanence meanings and functions to 1968paper that I have readand found helpful. Behavioral Code and Worldview Derived from a Study of generate dependable results. We now realize that kind of Their Folklore." 3 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana permanenceis itself not somethingwe can depend upon. Referencescited University. 3. Glaze documentsan instanceof hunters'music transmis- Chauveau, Jean-Pierre. 1986. "Une histoire maritime sion amongthe Senufo(1981:43-45). Adamu, Mahdi. 1978. The Hausa Factorin WestAfrican africaine est-elle et histoire de la 4. possible? Historiographie Roy Sieberhas sharedhis knowledgeof horizontalmasks History.Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press. navigation et de la peche africaines a la c6te occidentale in Ghanaand Nigeriawith me on numerousoccasions, and I Austen, Ralph A. 1987. AfricanEconomic History: Internal depuis le XV siecle," Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 101-102, want to thankhim for his generosity.He workedin Nigeria Developmentand ExternalDependency. London: James XXVI-1-2:173-235. in 1958and in Ghanain 1964. Currey. Cisse, Youssouf. 1964. "Notes sur les societes de chasseurs 5. Patricia Coronel is presently completing an article on Barnes, Sandra T. and Paula Girshick Ben-Amos. 1989. Malinke,"Journal de la Societedes Africanistes 34, 2:175-226. Aowin horizontalmasks, based on researchconducted in "Ogun,the EmpireBuilder," in Africa'sOgun: Old World Decalo, Samuel. 1987. Historical Dictionary of Benin. 2nd ed. 1972-74. and New, ed. SandraT. Barnes,pp. 39-64. Bloomington: Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. 6. The name should not be confusedwith Dodo, the Hausa IndianaUniversity Press. Defremery, C. and B. R. Sanguinetti. 1922-1949. Voyage d'lbn namefor a cult group in northernNigeria. The Mandetrans- Berns, Marla. 1989. "CeramicClues: Art History in the Batoutah.4 vols. Paris: Nationale. lation do Imprimerie of is roughly "mystery"or "mysteriousknowl- GongolaValley," African Arts 22,2:48-59,102. Dieterlen Germaine, and Youssouf Cisse. 1972. Les fonde- edge." Bird,Charles S. 1972."Heroic Songs of the MandeHunters," mentsde la societdd'initiation du Komo.Paris: Mouton. 7. Philip Ravenhill carried out research in this area in in AfricanFolklore, ed. RichardDorson, pp. 275-94.Garden Domowitz, Susan and Renzo Mandirola. 1984. "Grave 1978-79. He has delivered three papers on the subject,at City:Doubleday. Monuments in ," African Arts 17,4:46-52, 96. the African Studies Association meeting in 1984, the Bravmann,Rene A. 1974.Islam and Tribal Art in WestAfrica. Drewal, Henry John. 1979. "Art, History, and the Individual: Seventh TriennialSymposium on AfricanArt in 1986,and Cambridge,England: Cambridge University Press. A New for the of African Visual the Perspective Study AfricanStudies Association Meetings in 1987. I thank Breidenbach,Paul S. and Doran H. Ross. 1978. "TheHoly Traditions," Iowa Studies in African Art 1:87-114. him for graciously providing me with copies of these Place:Twelve ApostlesHealing Gardens," African Arts 11, Drewal, Henry John, and John Pemberton III, with Rowland papers, the third of which was part of my panel, 4:28-35,95. Abiodun. 1989. Yoruba:Nine Centuriesof AfricanArt and "Exploringthe Landsof Do,"which we hope will soon be Brooks,George E. 1989. "EcologicalPerspectives on Mande Thought. New York: The Center for African Art. published. Population Movements, Commercial Networks, and Echard, Nicole. 1970. Iron the Old A film 8. We Niger: Making Way. have no conclusive evidence yet for the origins of Settlement Patterns from the Atlantic Wet Phase (ca. distributed by Texture Films, but I think it Chicago. Komo, is quite possible that the institution 5500-2500B.C.) to the Present,"History in Africa16:23-40. Garlake, Peter. 1978. The Kingdomsof Africa. Oxford: Elsevier- could prove to have originallybeen Soninke,and therefore Brooks,George E. 1986."A ProvisionalHistorical Schema for Phaidon. associatedwith the old GhanaEmpire. WesternAfrica Based on Seven ClimatePeriods," Cahiers Glaze, Anita J. 1981. Art and Death in a Senufo 9. At this I Village. early date would not even want to speculateon d'EtudesAfricaines 26,1-2:43-62. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. the possible relationship between the Bussa-Bariba Brooks, George E. 1985. WesternAfrica to c. 1860 A.D.: A Goucher, Candice L. 1981. "Iron Is Iron 'Til It Is Rust: Trade Wasangariand the Mande Wangarawaor Wangara, the ProvisionalSchema Based on ClimatePeriods. Bloomington: and Ecology in the Decline of West African Iron- well-knownearly tradersof Mande culture.I merely draw Indiana University African Studies Program,Working Smelting,"Journal of AfricanHistory 22, 2:179-89. yourattention to the similaritiesin these names. PapersSeries, 1. Green, Kathryn L. 1987. and Roles in the 10. Robert "Dyula Sonongui Farris Thompson gave a lecture at Indiana Carroll, Kevin. 1966. YorubaReligious Carving: Pagan and Islamization of the Region of Kong," in Rural and Urban

99 CLASSIFIED ADS Islam in West Africa, eds. Nehemia Levtzion and Lambeth, Lou Ann. 1968. "Coastal Horizontal Masking Humphrey J. Fisher. Boulder: Lynne Rienner. Traditions in West Africa." Term paper for Roy Sieber, Green, Kathryn L. 1986. "Dyula and Sonongui Roles in the Indiana University. $1.20 per word, mininum $30. African Arts box number $15. Islamization of Kong," Asian and African Studies 20:103-23. Lamp, Frederick J. 1990. "Ancient Wood from Sierra Classifieds must be Figures prepaid. Green, Kathryn L. 1984. "A Study in Dyula and Sonongui Leone: Implications for Historical Reconstruction," African Ethnic Identity." Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University. Arts 23, 2:48-59,103. Greenberg, Joseph H. 1966. The Languages of Africa. The Lamp Frederick J. 1986. "The Art of the Baga: A Preliminary BOOKS Hague: Mouton. Inquiry," AfricanArts 19, 2:64-67,92. and ancient art. Guggisberg, Sir Frederick (publisher). 1925. Visit of His Royal Lamp, Frederick J. 1983. "House of Stones: Memorial Art of African, ethnographic, Highness ThePrince of Walesto the Gold Coast Colony. Fifteenth-Century Sierra Leone," Art Bulletin 65, 2:219-37. Important,rare, and out-of-printtitles bought Haaland, Randi. 1980. "Man's Role in the Changing Habitat Leuzinger, Elsy. 1971. AfrikanischerKunstwerke: Kulturen am and sold. available of Mema during the Old Kingdom of Ghana," Norwegian Niger. Recklinghausen: Aurel Bongers. Catalogues upon ArchaeologicalReview 13:31-46. Levtzion, Nehemia. 1973. Ancient Ghana and Mali. London: request. Further details from: Michael Hajj, M. A. al-. 1968. "A 17th Century Chronicle on the Methuen. Graves-Johnston,54, Stockwell Park Road, Origins and Missionary Activities of the Wangarawa," Levtzion, Nehemia. 1968. Muslims and Chiefsin West Africa:A Kano Studies 1, 4:10. Study of Islam in the Middle Volta Basin in the Pre-Colonial P.O. Box 532, London SW9 ODR.Tel.: 01- Hopkins, A. G. 1973. An EconomicHistory of WestAfrica. New Period.Oxford: Oxford University Press. 274-2069. Fax:01-738-3747. York: Columbia University Press. Manning, Patrick. 1985. "Merchants, Porters, and Canoemen Horton, Robin. 1963. "The Kalabari Ekine Society: A in the Bight of Benin: Links in the West African Trade Borderland of Religion and Art," Africa33, 2:94-114. Network," in The Workersof African Trade,eds. Catherine Horton, Robin. 1960. The Gods as Guests. Lagos: Nigeria Coquery-Vidrovitch and Paul E. Lovejoy, pp. 51-74. RARETITLE AVAILABLE Magazine. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications. Hunwick, John. 1976. "Songhay, Borno and Hausaland in McIntosh, Roderick J. and Susan Keech Mclntosh. 1988a. 1966 edition: Robbins, African Art in the Sixteenth Century," in History of West Africa, eds, J. F. "From Siecles Obscurs to Revolutionary Centuries on the AmericanCollections, very rare.$425. Other A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder, vol. 1, pp. 264-301. 2nd ed. Middle Niger," WorldArchaeology 20, 1:141-65. London: Longman. McIntosh, Susan Keech and Roderick J. McIntosh. 1988b. out-of-printAfrican art titles also availablefor Isichei, Elizabeth. 1982. "Introduction," in Studies in the "From Stone to Metal: New Perspectives on the Later new collectors' libraries. Tel.: (202) 547- History of Plateau State, Nigeria, ed. Elizabeth Isichei, pp. Prehistory of West Africa," Journal of World Prehistory 2, 0324. Fax: 544-9352. 1-57. London: Macmillan Press. 1:89-133. (202) Jones, G. I. 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria. Cambridge, McIntosh, Susan Keech. Forthcoming. "Blacksmiths and the England: Cambridge University Press. Evolution of Political Complexity in Mande Society: An Jones, G. I. 1963. The TradingStates of the Oil Rivers. London: Hypothesis." Oxford University Press. McNaughton, Patrick R. 1988. The Mande Blacksmiths: GALLERYAVAILABLE Jones, G. I. 1961. "Review of WestafrikanischeMasken," Africa Knowledge, Power, and Art in West Africa. Bloomington: EstablishedAfrican art gallery in southwest- 31:196-97. Indiana University Press. Kasfir, Sidney Littlefield. 1985. "Art in History, History in McNaughton, Patrick R. 1982. "Language, Art, Secrecy and ern U.S. sunbelt area available as business Art: The Idoma Ancestral Masquerade as Historical Power: The Semantics of Dalilu," Anthropological or inventoryonly. Ownersretiring. Tel.: (602) Evidence," WorkingPapers 103. Boston: Boston University Linguistics24,4:487-505. 795-1997 or 886-7468. Fax: 791- African Studies Center. McNaughton, Patrick R. 1979. Secret Sculptures of Komo:Art (602) (602) Kouadio Aka, Martin. 1982. "L'artagni du Moronou," Godo- and Power in Bamana (Bambara) Initiation Associations. 9168. Godo 8:67-111. Abidjan: Universit6 Nationale de C6te Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues. d'Ivoire, I.H.A.A. Obayemi, Ade. 1976. "The Yoruba and Edo-Speaking Krieger, Kurt and Gerdt Kutscher. 1967. Westafrikanische Peoples and Their Neighbors before 1600, in History of Masken.2nd ed. Berlin: Museum fur Volkerkunde. West Africa,eds. J.F.A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder, vol. 1, pp. 196-263. 2nd ed. London: Longman. Ottenberg, Simon and Linda Knudsen. 1985. "Leopard Society Masquerades: Symbolism and Diffusion," African Arts 18, 2:37-44, 93-95, 103. A DVERTISER INDEX Palmer, H. R. 1928. "The Kano Chronicle," in Sudanese Memoirsby H. R. Palmer, vol. 3. Lagos. Ravenhill, Philip L. 1988. "African Triptych: On the Interpretation of Three Parts and the Whole," Art Journal 47, 2:88-94. Aboriginals, Art of the First Person, Harmattan, Washington, DC 12 Roy, Christopher D. 1985. Art and Life in Africa: Selections Sanibel Island, FL 93 Indigo, Minneapolis, MN 93 from the Stanley Collection. Iowa City: University of Iowa DC 10 Affrica, Washington, International Warri Society, New York, NY 39 Museum of Art. Africa Place, S. Stratford, VT 94 Italiaander Galleries, Amsterdam, Roy, Christopher D. 1980. "Mossi Zazaido," African Arts 13, African Arts, Ltd., Tucson, AZ 91 The Netherlands 93 3:4247,92. Alexander Gallery, St. Louis, MO 4 Roy, Christopher D. 1979a. African Sculpture: The Stanley Charles Jones African Art, Wilmington, NC 6 Collection.Iowa of Iowa Museum of Art. The Arcade Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2 City: University L. Kahan Gallery, New York, NY 36 D. 1979b. "Mossi Masks and Crests." Ph.D. Arts du Monde, New York, NY 12 Roy, Christopher Alitash Kebede Fine Arts, Los Angeles, CA 14 dissertation, Indiana University. Ron Atwood, San Francisco, CA 22 Rubin, Arold Gary. 1985. "Akuma: the Masks at The Lacy Collection, Aspen, CO, Los Angeles, CA, Carving Joan Barist Primitive Art, Short Hills, NJ 26 Takum," AfricanArts 18, 2: 60-62,103. Honolulu, HI 35 Barrister's New LA 35 Rubin, Arnold Gary. 1982. "Prologue to Art History in Gallery, Orleans, Helene & Philippe Leloup, Paris, France, Plateau State," in Studies in the History of Plateau State, Don Bennett & Associates, Agoura, CA 24 New York, NY 23 Nigeria, ed. Elizabeth Isichei, pp. 58-66. London: Alfons A. Bermel, Berlin, Germany 12 TX Macmillan Press. Alan New NY 34 Majkel, Houston, 95 Brandt, York, Rubin, Arold Gary. 1969. "The Arts of the Genevieve McMillan, Cambridge, MA 16 Jukun-Speaking Cavin-Morris, New York, NY 29 Peoples of Northern Nigeria." Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana Richard Meyer African Art, New York, NY 8 Channing * Dale * Throckmorton, University. Charles D. Miller, III,St. James, NY 36 Sanneh, Lamin O. 1979. The Jakhanke:The an Islamic Santa Fe, NM 33 History of R. David Miller, San Francisco, CA 91 Clerical People of the . London: International Christie's, New York, NY 7 Alain de Monbrison, Paris, France inside back cover African Institute. Contemporary African Art, New York, NY 92 Paolo Morigi Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland 20 The Secret Museum of Mankind. No date. 5 vols. in 1. Vol. 2, The SecretMuseum New York: Manhattan House. Davis Gallery, New Orleans, LA 14 Natural Museum, Los CA 39 of Africa. History Angeles, Shaw, Thurstan. 1978. Its and Drew University, Madison, NJ 24 Nigeria: Archaeology Early OAN, Oceanie-Afrique Noire, New York, NY 16 History. London: Thames & Hudson. back cover Entwistle, London, England Pace Primitive, New York, NY 27 Smith, Abdullahi. 1976. "The Early States of the Central in West eds. Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, The Pear Tree, Brookline, MA 91 Sudan," History of Africa, J.F.A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder, vol. 1, 152-95. 2nd ed. London: Los Angeles, CA 32 pp. Radford University, Radford, VA 21 Longman. Galerie Afrikanische Stammeskunst, Robertson African Arts, New York NY 30, 31 Terray, Emmanuel. 1979. "Un mouvement de reforme 92 dans le abron Le culte de Ulm, Germany Bernd Schulz, Kamp-Lintfurt, Germany 10 religieuse royaume precolonial: Sakrobundi," Cahiersd'Etudes 19, 73-76:143-76. Galerie Amadani, Cotonou, Republic of Benin 6 Simonis African Arts, Dusseldorf, 95 Africaines Germany Unomah, A. Chukwudi. 1982. "The Gwandara Settlements Galerie Peter Herrmann, Stuttgart, Germany 94 Merton D. New York, NY 1 Simpson Gallery, of Lafia to 1900," in History of the Plateau State, Nigeria, ed. Galerie Koulanga, Nice, France 32 Michael Sorafin Primitive Arts, Los Angeles, CA 25 Elizabeth Isichei, pp. 123-35. London: Macmillan Press. Galerie Noir d'lvoire, Paris, France 13 Tambaran Gallery, New York, NY 17 Van Geertruyen, Godelieve. 1976. "La fonction de la sculp- Galerie Sonnenfels, Vienna, Austria 94 ture dans une soci6et africaine: Les Nalu et Farid Tawa, New York, NY 16 Baga, Galerie Tambaran, Dortmund-Mengede, Lanuman (Guinee)," AfricanaGandensia 1: 63-117. Totem Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa 37 Germany 93 Vansina, Jan. 1969. "The Bells of Kings," Journal of African Tribal Reality, New York, NY 34 Galleria d'arte AKKA, Rome, Italy 95 History 10:187-97. Turkana * Ernie Wolfe III, Los Angeles, CA 11 Visonh, Monica Blackmun. "Manifestations of Gallerie La Taj, Alexandria, VA 91 Forthcoming. of Press, IL 16 Do in the Southeastern Ivory Coast." Gallery DeRoche, San Francisco, CA 28 University Chicago Chicago, * Vogel, Susan Mullin. 1977. "Baule Art as the Expression of a Walu, Zurich, Switzerland 9 Steven Vanderaadt Kathy Vanderpas, Gallery World View." Ph.D. dissertation, New York University. Maud & Rene Rotterdam, The Netherlands 14 Garcia, Gallery 66, Wilks, Ivor. 1962. "A Medieval Trade Route from the Niger Paris, France 15 James Willis Gallery, San Francisco, CA 5 to the Gulf of Guinea," Journal of African History 3, Philippe Guimiot, Brussels, Belgium 18, 19 Wright Gallery 2, New York, NY inside front cover 2:337-41. Wilks, Ivor. 1961. The Northern Factor in Ashanti History. Legon.

100