National Museum Akure As a Spectator of Cowry Head Cult in Akure Kingdom

©Journal of Applied Sciences & Environmental Sustainability 3 (8): 127 - 138, 2017 e-ISSN 2360-8013

Research Article

Performative Culture: National Museum Akure as a Spectator of Cowry Head Cult in Akure Kingdom

Olufemi Timothy Ogunbode1, Yakubu Aminu Dodo2, Ezekiel Babatunde Ogunbode3

1National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Museums Department, Curatorial Unit, Akure, Ondo State. Nigeria. 2Faculty of Built Environment, Department of Architecture, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. 81310, Skudai. Johor Bahru. Malaysia. 3School of Environmental Technology, Department of Building, Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State. Nigeria. Corresponding Author: [email protected]

ARTICLE INFO A b s t r a c t This study is to re-enact the past objects in the museum store that has been Article history kept mute over years due to the absence of an action that brings to limelight Received: 15/07/2017 exhibition in the museum practice. This action is what makes museum a Accepted: 05/08/2017 spectator and not a player. It is the art of researching into the unconscious past that is made conscious through continuous probing into the object in the museum store. This study is not really interested in the external visitors but the inner visitors (Museum Officers). Therefore, the Cowry Head Cult which is found in the store of the National Museum Akure in Akure Kingdom of Ondo Sculpture, Assemblage, State is studied. The art of spectating comes first before the art of playing that Being-Culture, Performative comes thereafter. There is no doubt that, the head was/is considered the most Culture important part of the human body by generations then and now. Thus, it is of great influence to the being of any culture in performance. This being of culture in performance, is a sample of critical visual interest; negative and positive attitude occupying spaces. This research emphasizes living heritage; intangible and tangible. There is no tangible heritage that could exist without the counterpart of the intangible vis-a-vice. Of course, one could argue that every being-culture in performance has an oral or performative background. Performative culture and the recognition of this intangible cultural heritage makes alive the thought of man in sculpture or in the tangible. This study has therefore considered Cowry Head Cult that makes National Museum Akure a Spectator. Thus, National Museum Akure is a spectator of Cowry Head Cult under the Assemblage Sculpture of Akure Kingdom being-culture in performance.

1. Introduction Alexander (2004) opines that, performative is understood as the constitution of meaning through acts or practices. However, not all acts are necessarily performative; imitation may lack a constitutive effect on

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reality. Recently, certain researchers have described our whole culture as performative. Also, the performative research method observes, the conditions of meaning-production through detailed analysis of the social, spatial, structural, and physical conditions of the act, whether it is intentional or unintentional (Alexander, 2004). This paper negates the ideology of detached culture in all spheres, that is to say, separation of subject and object of a culture from the culture being of Cowry Head Cult in performance. Performance in this sense, is the probing into an object in National Museum’s store not the exhibition parse that comes thereafter. Therefore, information are gathered by Curator or Exhibition officer concerning an object in view. This ideology of detached subject and object of culture, for ages this has been a discourse in the traditional media, in the study of culture, against the Performative Culture of construct and interpretation. In addition, Performative Culture creates the being in every culture either as a Player or Spectator. Therefore, one thing is true, and every individual is a performer actively involved in the being-culture of any existence. Gadamer, (2011), articulates the mode of being of art, history and language in one of his works and emphasized them as cultural phenomena. So, in understanding the mode of being of culture in performance in this essay. It fits to follow Gadamer (2011) conceptual selection, which he developed, to articulate his understanding of art, history and language as dynamic change that retains the being in culture while in performance. Thus, all culture is a culture played and viewed by a being, the maker of the culture either in the past or in the present. Culture is playing and spectating of a being of the past then and past now, what keeps a being- culture is the cultural materials; tangible or intangible. In the opinion of this paper, Culture is limited to presenting itself as a being of spectator and player respectively. Also, its mode of being is self-presentation for post-production. Thus, visitors to the Museums Galleries, visit to observe the transformation that the being-culture has gone through in the past and now which can be in assemblage, casting, modelling, textile, and carving forms. In this mode of performance, Museum is the player in the performative culture, because of the visitor that has come to spectate the cultural objects on exhibition in the gallery. In other words, it is what the Museum plays that the visitor sees as being-culture. Moreover, when there is no Exhibition and the Museum is making plan to present a being-culture to the audience, the Museum stands as a Spectator in its strategy of what to select, how to arrange it and the theme that best fit the being-culture to be mounted for Exhibition as either permanent or temporary (Agarwala, 2011). On this note, this paper hangs on culture as a being and Museum as a spectator of the being of a culture. Nonetheless, Museum and visitor belong to the same culture of a being, spectator. But in order to save conflict, the level of engrossment in culture differs, based on the role of the mode of a being of a culture that is temporal and historical in the nature of a being-culture. Thus, the spectator of the play that has taken place in the past, is in itself would be player of the play that is continuing now in the being of a culture. So,

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it is in the Museum Practice, the usage of sculptural material at its disposal for spectating. The play of a being-culture is moral and ethical like the sittlichkeit of Hegel and ethos of Aristotle. This explains why a player has to be first a spectator and a spectator has to be a player thereafter. This is a permanent claim that always needs to be concretized as placed by being-culture to which we belong. Performative Culture here is a structure of the past then available for interpretation now (Agarwala, 2011). We all belong to a being- culture that is active always not a passive one. Belonging refers to the transcendental relationship between being and truth. Therefore, belonging is knowledge conceived as an element of being itself and not primarily as an activity of the subject according to Gadamer (2011). This article will concentrate on Cowry Head Cult an artefact made for the being Dada also known as Dreadlock in modern terms, it represents assemblage in pretence. Hence, Beauty makes an object pleasing to the spirits, the beauty of Cowry Head Cult appease the spirits of the being-culture of locks (Dada).

2.0. Concept clarified 2.1. Cultural Object Cultural object is a heritage which encompasses the entire corpus of national life of a community. In other words, UNESCO World Heritage Convention 1972 observes it as the manifestation of human ingenuity in the past or in the present as the case may be. This cultural object has the capacity or potential to contribute to our understanding or appreciation of human story which is an important part of continuing cultural tradition in a spiritual and emotional sense; positive and negative space. So, people their perceptions, values, and aspirations are therefore at the centre of cultural object, and movable cultural heritage is a cultural object of sculptural material too (Mumma, 2008). In addition, Ndoro and Kamamba (2008) observes that, in English speaking Africa perspective, cultural object according to the legislation of states is referred to as antiques. Also, cultural object is movable objects which include archaeological object of stone, wood, metal and other materials which depict the historical and cultural development of man from the earliest period till date. Also included in this category are human skeletal remains, both the fossilized remains of hominids and the skeletal remains of more recent populations (Ndoro and Kamamba, 2008).

2.2. Sculptural Material Artist Adolph ‘Ad’ Reinhardt an American, 1913–1967 once commented, ‘Sculpture is something you bump into when you back up to look at a painting.’ Despite Reinhardt's belief in the pre-eminence of painting relative to sculpture, three-dimensional works of art have withstood the test of time literally and figuratively (Getty, 2013). Sculpture according to Hugo Weber is a three-dimensional of human thoughts, emotions, and desire. Sculptural material is a work of art that has the features of three-dimensional or two- dimensional art creation especially by assemblage, carving, modelling, and casting at the same time a

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cultural movable heritage. In other words, Frances (2000) claims that, it is a value depicting the culture in a mild way in order to safeguard the antique of the object depicted in sculpture, in form of line, volume, plane, colour and texture. Also, it is information made available about an object that is composed, considering the research made about images.

2.3. Performative Culture In the opinion of Jain (2008), the aim of the performative approach to curating is to actively structure and mediate the relationship between art and its audience, as well as to reconfigure the relation between the curator and the artist. Performative curatorial practices adapted the working models of relational aesthetics, inasmuch as the outcome and the processes of performative curating are likewise realized through the active participation of the artist (player) and the viewer (spectator) Furthermore, the relational in contemporary art is also a form that calls the normal modes of exhibition production and display into question (Jain, 2008). Thus, performance refers not only to performance of art (which is still often at a distance from not only the larger art institutions but which has also been adapted by institutions by means of relational aesthetics) but to a visible performativity. This performativity is visible with regards to curatorial conceits; to strategic interventions into exhibition spaces, collections, expected and projected roles of audience and more. This curator is acting performatively, the store itself is presenting a performance to a spectator. Performative culture describes the speech act theory in a cultural objects and sculptural materials that constitutes an act of some kind that is, cultural objects and sculptural materials are operational in their attitude, with an observation that many cultural objects and sculptural materials do not merely describe reality but also have an effect on reality as being interpreted by the curator. Cultural and Sculptural objects are the performance of some orate acts rather than a report of their performance. In other words, it is the climax of art that resides in the functions of art works because it deals with the interpretation of the objects. Thus, the symbol of art works can also be said to epitomize the aesthetic, religion, ethical and social values of a society (Gadamer, 2011). In addition, the research has observed performative culture as a structural- functional ideology that reflects the management of negative and positive space of an object either tangible or intangible in an existence with experiences as a being-culture.

3.0. Historical Background of Akure kingdom Akure kingdom like any other town in yoruba kingdom is traced to Oduduwa, the ancestor of the Yoruba race and to Ile-Ife (the home for expansion) the ancestral home of Yoruba (Afrifalo, 1991). It is a possibility that Akure is one of the oldest towns in Yorubaland because it came into being around 1100s. Akure kingdom lies 311 kilometres north east of Lagos, the commercial centre of Nigeria. River Ijala or Ala river surrounds Akure town and which is buried in myths and traditions. Akure Kingdom boasts of 47 kings that

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had emerged and ruled. In the immediate past, it spread over three Local Government Councils; Akure north and south and Ifedore before and during the reign of Oba Olofintade Adesida Afunbiowo I (1897- 1957) (Ige, 2005). This kingdom is not too far from the Iwo-Eleru site at Ifedore, Local Government, where human fossils were discovered, dating 9000 B.C. Akure kingdom is now the state capital of Ondo state which came into existence in 1976 (Arifalo, 1991).

4.0. Overview of Museum in Nigeria Museum is buried in the Greek myth of the nine muses, the daughter to Zeus and Mnemosyne. It is attached to the sanctuary dedicated to these Muses in its original sense. The Greek word for Museum is ‘Museion’. The Muses were charged with these commands; to protect and encourage; art and science, poetry, music, dance and history of the Greece. These Muses are good dancers and singers which led to the relaxation of humanity from sorrow and anxiety. In the later years it became place where man’s mind found rest and aloofness from day’s stress and a place for inspiration. It also became a place for learning of encyclopedic normative science of human conduct; voluntary or involuntary. This is because the Muses were credited with great deal of imagination and infinite memory. This ideology was first practiced in Alexandria in 290 BC. According to the American association of Museums, it is a non-profit permanent established institution not existing primarily for the purpose of conducting temporary exhibition exempt from the federal and state income taxes. Also, ICOM came with her own definition of Museum which worked on the American Association of Museums and other definitions in 1951, 1971 and 1974. The 1974 definition as at today is relevant to us as far this study is concerned. The definition goes thus; it is a non-profit making permanent institution in the service of society and its development and open to the public which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits for the purpose of study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of man and his environment (Okpoko, 2006). The emergence of modern Museums in Nigeria can be traced to 1927 during the colonial rule, during this period Kenneth Murray an art teacher in British service was appointed to advice the government on the effect of colonial education system on local arts. In the process of making researches to give response to the question posed he gathered some of these Nigerian Cultural Heritages which later led to his advice to the government to establish Museum and make law that will guide against illegal exportation of these Heritages in 1933 which was punctuated by the World War II. On 28th July, 1943 Nigerian Antiquities Services was established in response to Kenneth Murray and Duckwork agitation. In 1946 Braunholtz J.H a keeper in the Department of Ethnography of British Museum was sent to Nigeria (Lagos) by the Colonial Office to advice the government on the preservation of Nigerian Heritages. In 1947 a trained Archaeologist B.E.B Fagg was appointed as Archaeologist and Assistant Surveyor of Antiquities which led to the establishment

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of Jos Museum in 1952 and excavated objects are preserved till today in the Museum. It was in 1953 that a law was enacted to protect the Heritages of Nigerian Arts through the Antiquities Ordinance No. 17. This automatically led to the institution of National Department of Antiquities and other laws; Antiquities Commission (1954), Export Permit (1957), Antiquities Amendments (1969), Prohibited Transfers (Decree No. 9 of 1974). In nut shell, the National Department of Antiquities led to the establishment of Museums in Nigeria. In 1979 there was review of the law guiding Nigerian Heritages which made possible Decree No. 77 that negated the National Antiquities Commission and Department of Antiquities for National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM). Since then the government has been maintaining Museums in places such as Esie (1943) Jos (1952), Lagos (1956), Ife (1954/6), Oron (1959) Benin (1960), Port Harcourt (1970), Ibandan (1970), Enugu (1970), Kano (1970), Sokoto (1970), Maiduguri (1970), Kaduna (1985), Calabar (1986), Oyo (1987) , Owo (1987), Akure (1988), Kogi (1989), Minna (1989), Ilorin, Abeokuta (1989), Birnin-Kebbi (1993),and Katsina (1990) among others as at present we have over thirty Museums in Nigeria which spread to almost all the thirty-six states and the federal capital as the headquarter of the museums under this caption NCMM. This was instituted by the Decree No.77 of 1979, Part 2, Item 3 of the concurrent list of 1999 constitution under the control of a Director-General. The commission is one of the Parastatals in Nigerian Federation under the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation. The general application of Museums in other states of the world is also workable in Nigeria as a place where the Heritages of the generations before ours are preserved and conserved. These materials to be cared for are got either through excavated objects or contemporary sculptural objects. The word Museum in Nigeria is used interchangeably with the National Commission for Museums and Monuments but in the organization of the Commission, Museum is a Department meaning Museum in Nigeria could be holistic encompassing the entire Six Departments; Administration and Supplies, Finance and Accounts, Museums, Monuments, Heritages and Sites, Research, Planning and Publication, Educational Services and Training in the Commission (Okpoko, 2006)

4.1. National Museum Akure The National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Akure is instituted along Deji’s Palace. The National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Akure was established in 1987 and took off officially in 1988 and is sited in the former Local government Council Office. It is also called National Museum Akure (National Museum Records, 2014).

4.3. Relevance of the National Museum Akure • It interprets the society’s objects, tradition, custom, values, interest, belief and institution among others

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• It preserves the society heritage both in moveable and immovable setup • It maintains the society the statoscope of a living society by reenacting the known facts of the past • It is a subset of society due to the link, it provides to the public as exhibitor, educator, entertainer, reenactor and instructor among others • It finds its living in the society through performative culture because the society supply all that the museum needs for her existence.

5.0. Performative Culture: Cowry Head Cult Makes National Museum Akure A Spectator In achieving this goal, one of the techniques of sculpture will be considered in this analysis of the study which includes assemblages, texture, line, volume and colour. The technique to consider is the dimension of Assemblage Sculpture. Sample of this is from the Store of National Museum Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. From observation over the years, it is discovered from the store of the museum that, Cowry Head Cult is an assembled sculpture of a three-dimensional object with length, width and depth. Figures 1 presents a full display of the cowry head cult in the National Museum Akure’s Store. The figure illustrates the cowry head cult four components; cowry, rope or twine, three sea stones and white flat plate The label of the three dimensional object of cowry head cult in the National Museum Akure

Figures 1: A full display of the Cowry Head Cult in the National Museum Akure’s Store

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Figures 2: An enlarged display of Cowry Head Cult in the National Museum Akure’s Store showing the primary three (3) components: Cowry, Rope or Twine, three (3) Sea Stones only.

In addition, it is in a balance which has negative and positive spaces which evolved into emotional tone or visual interest (Agarwala, 2011). Thus, Sculpture can also transform physical spaces; negative and positive into art. Art is skill or expertise in societies’ agreed symbolic values. Also, Performative Culture is a cultural object that is considered acceptable to a social system because it is a skill and an agreed symbolic value of a social system being of her ingenuity in choice making for structural and psychological functionalism. The social dimension of National Museum Akure as spectator of assembled Cowry Head Cult made the art that reenacted the dreadlock belief for appeasement to the gods; Ori (Head) and wealth. Therefore, it is an instrument that enhances the performatory culture for an equilibrium social order in the 21st century Museum Practice most especially in Nigeria and the world at large.

5.1. Cowry Shell an Instrument in the Performative Culture in Akure Kingdom Cowry (Kauri) shell is a beautiful white shell of an invertebrate ocean animal with glossy shell, a tropical invertebrate sea animal that has a glossy brightly colored shell with a long central toothed opening. Cowry is small gastropod mollusks commonly found in the Pacific and Indian oceans. It was once used as currency in many Asian and African kingdoms. Thus, it belongs to the family Cypraeidae, and collected from a seashore which has flat side with a longitudinal slit and smooth rounded side. Consequently, Cowry shells have been used for decoration and formerly used extensively as currency in Asia and Africa and the scientific name for Money Cowry is Cypraea moneta. It is this type that is used in the making of the cowry head cult in the National Museum Akure’s store (www.africaimport.com, 2012).

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5.2. Material Components of Cowry Head Cult in National Museum Akure’s Store Sculpture frequently occupies space in the same way as humans occupy space, man can identify with sculpture in a multiple different ways than with painting. Unlike painting, which traditionally represents an illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface, sculpture actually inhabits the space shared by the viewer or spectator. Sculpture is also a concrete being, one can actually touch it and feel its various textures and forms. More so, looking at sculpture is a dynamic activity: the work changes as the viewer moves through space and time (Getty, 2013). The four (4) components of the Cowry Head Cult which made National Museum Akure, Ondo State a Spectator include these; • Cowry Shell, • Rope or Twine, • White flat Plate and • Three Sea Stones (National Museum Akure Store, 2013).

5.2. Practical and Functional perspective of Cowry Head Cult in Performative Culture The functions of Cowry Head Cult are as follows; • Divination, • Appeasement of gods, • Replication of the Dada being-culture, • Ocean Spirit of wealth and earth, • The goddess’s protection, • Power of destiny and prosperity and • It taught the story of humility and respect (www.africaimport.com, 2012)

6.0. Analysis of National Museum Akure, Cowry Head Cult as Spectator in Akure Kingdom 6.1. National Museum Akure: A Spectator of Cowry Head Cult in Akure Kingdom Before dwelling on Museum as a Spectator of Cowry Head Cult, it will be good to define Museum within the scope of this study. Therefore, Museum is a building or institution where objects of artistic, historical, or scientific importance and value are kept, studied, and put on display. Besides Museum is an institution dedicated to helping people understand and appreciate the natural world, the history of civilizations, and the record of humanity’s artistic, scientific, and technological achievements. Museums collect objects of scientific, aesthetic, or historical importance; care for them; and study, interpret, and exhibit them for the purposes of public education and the advancement of knowledge (Ellen, 2008). In other words, Museum is defined as a place in which the past is remembered not only by the inclusion or exclusion of what is exhibited but also by how the past is interpreted within particular ideological frameworks. In addition,

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according to the ICOM’s definition of Museum, cited in Hudson, (1977), it is an institution which serves the community. It acquires preserves, makes intelligible and, as an essential part of its function, presents to the general public the material evidence concerning man and nature. It does this in such a way as to provide opportunities for study, education and enjoyment (Okpoko, 2006).

6.2. Justification of National Museum, Akure a Spectator in respect to Cowry Head Cult in Akure Kingdom Simon (2012), Performative curatorial strategies were emboldened by the biennial boom of the 1990s, offering more opportunities to experiment with new formats beyond the bureaucratic bounds of the museum. However, many practitioners of this type of nomadic curatorial attitude became affiliated as directors with different European institutions, providing the opportunity to elaborate on the experience within the frame of ‘new institutionalism (Simon 2012).’ • The activity of a being of a culture is past and the National Museum Akure tries to awake the paste consciousness of the Cowry Head Cult and its intangible values through exhibition in the gallery in modern day terms with critical construct and interpretation before the visitor arrives. • Cowry Head Cult is a religious material that initiates sacrifices which National Museum Akure cannot do, but can watch and imitates its processes for detailed understanding for the sake of posterity. • The critical study of the object of Cowry Head Cult by National Museum Akure is to identify its material components in terms of functions, techniques and types of sculpture, in this wise the Museums is a spectator. • The orientation of National Museum Akure as the custodian of cultural and sculptural materials makes it a spectator • The being of the sculpture, Cowry Head Cult is Dada which means without this Dada there cannot be this object that represents a being of a culture of appeasement to the god of the Head Cult. • National Museum Akure is not the real actor of the play of the being in space and time, she only tries to make up for it on exhibition. But as long as the Cowry Head Cult object remains in the store, she is a spectator. • The development of National Museum Akure has its place in safeguarding the cultural objects and sculptural materials by subjecting it for objective criticism and documentation in a digitalized format which make do with acceptable representations of the owners’ ideology for an ideal preservation and conservation where necessary and among others. • It is performatively conceived exhibitions that are self-reflective and employ experimental methods. Talks and discussions can be incorporated into this project as artworks, while artworks may take the form of

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exhibition decor, lighting, or labeling design and gallery furniture. Other works move around, are added, taken away or are placed outside of the institution. • It is Performative curating ideology, thus, it is interested in: dialogue (a curatorial praxis that develops together with artistic practices and reacts to former curatorial strategies); transparency (Schleiben, 2014).

7.0. Conclusion The study purposed at finding out the performative culture potentials in Cowry Head Cult of Akure Kingdom that is preserved in store of National Museum, Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria. One of the findings is that Cowry Head Cult like other objects are indispensable to the understanding of the tangible and intangible cultural values of the assembled object of any society. However, from viewpoint of performance, it is the spectator role that National Museum Akure played first thereafter the player’s role. In this paper the museum has played the role spectator because, she awakes the dead past which the external visitors can not appreciate if not appreciated by the museum practitioners as a spectator (inner visitor). Also, this paper has captured a life that neglects detached art for the study of culture of any kind. In other words, this has helped in the need for the reawakening of the sculptural materials in her custody as an assemblage that make museum a spectator or player. Thus, exhibition is what changes the level of any museum in the world either as a player or a spectator. Therefore, if museum is not interested in the being of a spectator, it must move its objects out of the store now for the role of a player. But as long as it is still in the museum’s store for keeping sake and for interpretation that will not see the light of exhibition, Museum remains a spectator and cannot go beyond this level no matter her effort in the preservation of culture. Exhibition is what makes National Museum Akure reflects its structural function as either player or spectator of any object in the museum custody while she prepares object for final exhibition either temporary or permanent. The Performative Culture could still prove to be a vital curatorial method. It may be practiced best as an independent agent, frequently collaborating with artists and occasionally with institutions, with the curator taking the same amount of existential risk as artists typically do, and inventing new methods of mediation.

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Afrifalo S.O. An Analysis and Comparison of the Legends of Origin of Akure, Bola-Sola Press, Akure, Ondo State, 1991:2-4 Austin J.L., How To Do Things With Words, (Harvard University Press, 1962). Ellen, H. ‘Museum’. Microsoft Encarta 2009 (DVD), Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008. Frances R. Guild to Sculpture, 2010 Getty, J. Paul, About Sculpture in Western Art, www.getty.edu.com, accessed on the 24th June, 2013 Ige, Timothy, Brief History of Akure, Before the Colonial Era, (Ondo, 2005):107-108 Judith B. Gender Trouble – Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, (Routledge, 1990). Schleiben, K. ‘Curating Per-Form’. 2002. http://www.kunstverein- muenchen.de/03_ueberlegungen_considerations/en_performative_curating.pdf, accessed 5th March, 2014 Milton S. When a Great Tradition Modernizes, an Anthropological Approach to Modern Civilization, (Praeger Publishers 1972). National Museum Akure’s Store, 2013. National Museum Akure Records, 2014 Okpoko, A.I., Fundamental of Museum Practice, (Afro-Orbis Publishing Co. Ltd, 2006), P.2 Jain, S. I. The Transformative Power of Performance, A New Aesthetics, (Trans Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2008) Simon, S. Burning from the Inside, New Institutionalism Revisited, In Beatrice von Bismarck, Jörn Schafaff, Thomas Weski (eds.), Cultures of the Curatorial, (Berlin, Sternberg Press, 2012) P.361-372 www.africaimport.com, accessed 20th January, 2012.

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