Yoruba Arts

1. Yoruba Arts The Yoruba are one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa, numbering about 30 million in Nigeria and neighboring countries (see the map in the Kingdom of Benin PowerPoint for locations). Further, millions of people of Yoruban descent live in Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the United States, and elsewhere in North America and Europe. Thus, Yoruba Arts form a truly worldwide artistic heritage. It is an ancient artistic tradition, reaching back well over a thousand years; it is also a vital one, as artists in Africa and the Americas continue to create masterworks in traditional as well as innovative styles. One reason for the continuity of Yoruba Arts is the culture’s powerful religious base, a belief system that was carried to the New World during the 18th and 19th centuries. In West Africa, the Yoruba developed an urban society ruled by kings, priests, and councils of elders. Unlike the neighboring Edo of Benin City, the Yoruba are known for their colorful masquerade performances. Yoruba beadwork, formerly reserved for royalty and high ranking religious practitioners, is famed throughout the world and forms one of the main types of art produced in the Americas.

2. Predecessors: NOK & IFE In the early 20th century, mining projects in central Nigeria uncovered astonishing terra cotta sculptures from a previously unknown civilization (upper left). Carbon 14 dating puts the figures between 500 BCE and 500 CE; they are large, usually hollow sculptures made through a subtractive process (carving away the clay). As many of these sculptures were found near the village of Nok, the people/culture that produced them are now called ‘Nok.’ Mining and looting have destroyed most archeological evidence that could tell us more about this civilization. Nonetheless, many scholars classify these figures as ‘proto-Yoruban,’ mostly on the basis of the eye treatment and the prominence of the head (as well as geographical congruence). Also in the early 20th-century, remarkable terra cotta and bronze or brass heads (made with the lost-wax process) were coming to light in Nigeria, near the important Yoruba city of Ile-Ife. These heads, which seem to be commemorative portraits, are notable for their naturalistic depiction of facial features and their technical virtuosity. According to Yoruban belief, Ile-Ife is ‘the navel of the world’ – at the very least, the first highly organized Yoruban city-state. It was well-established by 1000 CE and lasted until the 1700s; in its early centuries, it dominated Yoruban culture throughout Southwestern and South Central Nigeria. Like Benin City and other Yoruban or Yoruban-related urban centers, it was established on a circular plan, with the king’s palace at the center, and surrounded by moats and fortifications. It’s thought that the heads were used on ancestral or royal altars; the distinctive striations on the faces may indicate tribal markings or may simply be an aesthetic convention (remaining photos).

3. Epa masquerades, performed mainly in northern Yoruba communities, try to guarantee health, prosperity, and fertility. They are distinguished by huge headpieces, carved from a single block of wood, which can weigh 100 pounds or more. the bottom is a roughly carved face; the superstructure is a more complex figural group. Common themes for the superstructure are maternity (left) and masculine power, often symbolized by a man on horseback (see the example on slide one). Gelede masquerades, performed throughout Yoruba lands, function to amuse and placate ‘the mothers.’ The Yoruba believe that older women have strong powers that must be contained – they are associated with witches and birds (because witches can fly unseen and do things from stealing babies to healing illnesses). Gelede & Epa Masquerades The other purpose of Gelede masquerades is to ensure social harmony. The performances resemble theater, in that maskers enact skits that satirize, criticize, or praise individuals, groups, and trends. The headpieces, like those in Epa, have two parts: the bottom face and the narrative superstructure. The face shows traditional Yoruba features; the superstructure depicts a parable or social practice. If antisocial behaviors are curtailed, ‘the mothers’ will not punish the community.

4. TheEGUNGUN & The Ibeji Yoruba people revere ancestral spirits, who can mediate between the natural and supernatural worlds. In general, the dead are called the egungun. They are honored by spectacular danced masquerades in which performers wear elaborate costumes of beaded, appliqued, and otherwise embellished cloth (upper left). When an egungun dances, the fabric panels whirl outward in a dynamic display of spiritual power (lower left). Sometimes the egungun wear wooden face masks, depending on local custom, but it is the swirl of magnificent cloth that enacts ancestral force (which can be dangerous as well as beneficial). A different sort of ancestral spirit are the ibeji, the spirits of deceased twins. The Yoruba have one of the world’s highest rates of twin births, but infant mortality rates -- particularly in multiple birth cases, is also high. When a twin or twins die, parents commission a sculpture of the dead child or children(upper right). These statues show the dead child in ideal physical maturity. Ibeji live in house shrines, where they are clothed, washed, and fed. They also travel outside the home, tucked into their mothers’ wrappers, just as a live baby would be. When mothers die, custody of the ibeji passes to the surviving twin or female relative (lower right – a woman with the ibeji of her dead twin brother).

5. Orishas: Ifa & Eshu Yoruba religion has, at the top, a creator god (or two, in some areas). Below this/these are deities that help control all aspects of daily life. These are called orishas. There are many orishas, but traditional Yoruban religion elevates a handful into orishas worthy of independent rituals and worship. One of these is Ifa, the orisha of divination. Ifa is both a deity and a practice; in Yoruba culture, Ifa is experienced most as the art of divination. Ifa has specially trained priests able to predict future paths with aid of divining trays (upper left) on which are thrown sixteen cowrie shells or a chain of shells. Whether the shells rest up- or down-side forms the matrix of how the priest interprets the future. His other implements are a divination tapper and a container for the shells (bottom left). Ifa needs the orisha Eshu. Eshu is the messenger (somewhat like Hermes in Greek mythology), the trickster, and the guardian of the crossroads between the mundane and the supernatural world. Ifa’s divination trays always include the face of Eshu (upper left), but Eshu also has his own cults and rituals (bottom near and far right). His image is distinguished by a long, pointed hairstyle emphasizing masculinity. In the Americas, he appears as a rough concrete head with cowrie-shell features and a protruding metal spike at the top of his head (small insert).

6. Orishas: Shango & Oshun Shango and Oshun are two of the most popular orishas, with many shrines, priests, rites, and followers devoted to them. Shango, the orisha of thunder and lightning, supposedly was a historical personage – an Oba whose unpredictable temper led to an early death but who was then deified. His main symbol is the double axe, representing thunderstones he hurled to earth during a storm. Followers of Shango often carry dance wands; these usually depict a female devotee, with bared breasts, whose head is ‘crowned’ with the double axe. Yoruba religion accommodates spirit possession (when an orisha actually enters and takes over the body of a human): Shango dance wands and shrine sculptures can be read as a visual metaphor of spirit possession, with the devotee humbly offering herself as a vessel for the orisha, who enters through and possesses her head and subsequently controls her body. Possession usually occurs during drumming and dancing ceremonies. Top Left: Field Photograph of female follower of Shango, holding a dance wand; Bottom Far Left: a dance wand for Shango; Bottom Near Left: a shrine sculpture for Shango. Oshun, the orisha of rivers, femininity, and fertility, is associated with brass, bronze, gold: expensive luxury materials that reinforce her ‘feminine’ love of finery. Devotees of Oshun often carry fans (Bottom Far Right) that both refer to her coquettishness and to the need to ‘cool down’ her hot personality. The photo (Bottom Near Right) shows the sculpted wall of a major Oshun shrine, located on the banks of the river Oshun (it’s unclear whether the river was named after the orisha or vice versa). The brass and bronze materials honor the orisha, and she here is imagined as a mermaid. Supersized cowrie shells are also visible, more indications of luxury as well as femininity.

7. Yoruba society is organized largely into city-states ruled by a king (Oba – except in some cases, like Ile-Ife, where the king is called the Oni). The Obas said to be descended from Odudua (one of the creator gods) can wear a veiled crown (near left). Elements of this royal crown include a face or faces that represent royal ancestors, birds that represent ‘our mothers,’ and the beaded veil that obscures the Oba’s human face. On ceremonial and ritual occasions, the Oba is clothed entirely in beaded garments (see the photo on slide 1), from his crown to his shoes (lower right). On less formal occasions, the Oba will wear a beaded coronet (lower middle, lower left). These are fashioned in many styles reflecting various influences, such as Islam (the white fez coronet) and British colonialism (the yellow coronet in the shape of a bishop’s miter). In many Yoruban city-states, the king’s power is checked by the Ogboni society, a council of respected male and female elders. Their marks of office are twinned bronze/brass figures, called edan, (upper left) worn on chains around their necks (see photo on slide 1). Ogboni members usually are not of royal blood – they represent the will of the community, and the edan are visual reminders of this function. Royal Arts

8. Olowe of Ise Master carvers have always been celebrated by name among the Yoruba. It wasn’t until the 20th century that Westerners began to recognize the creative individuality of Yoruban artists rather than continue to accept a quasi-Ruskinian colonial fantasy of anonymous African craftsmen following static traditional conventions. The man responsible for this shift was Olowe of Ise. Olowe was commissioned (c. 1910) to carve elaborate palace doors (upper left) for the Yoruban kingdom of Ikere. These were so impressive that the British Museum later purchased them and, in so doing – and for the first time – recorded the artist’s name. Subsequently, Western collectors travelling to Nigeria asked for other works by Olowe; eventually, a body of his work was established and his distinctive elongated style was recognized as unique. His sculpture ranged from large offering bowls (near left) to carved pillars adorning palace verandahs (near right; shown in situ far right; another of Olowe’s verandahs is far left). Olowe’s fame led to Western identification of other Yoruban artists, and the myth of the anonymous African artist started to fall apart.

9. The Yoruban Diaspora Art from the Yoruban Diaspora is so identified when non-Nigerian-born artists claim Yoruban descent, participate in Yoruban-derived religious practices, or both. Usually, these artworks reference Yoruban beliefs as reinterpreted in the Americas: as Santeria in Cuba (and the U.S.), as Candomble in Brazil. Yoruban artists who have migrated from Nigeria can also be considered part of the Yoruban Diaspora. Upper Left: Wifredo Lam, Malumbo, God of the Crossroads, Cuba, 1943. Cuba’s greatest artist, Lam was of mixed-race background, and he grew up in a Santeria environment. He studied in France and Spain, where he became friends with Picasso, Matisse, and the Surrealists. Traveling back to the Caribbean during WWII with some Surrealist friends, he saw Afro-Cuban culture with new eyes and incorporated its iconography and color symbolism into his work. He characteristically worked in oils. Lower Left and Middle: Tatti Moreno, Orisha installation, Lake Tororo, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, 1998. The major Orishas are depicted as monumental sculptures dancing on the water. The panoramic view shows three: Shango (red), Yemoja (blue), and Oshun (yellow); the close-up of Oshun discloses her crown and mirrored fan. Lower Right: Prince Twins Seven Seven, Three Wise Ocean Gods (Nigeria and U.S.), 1990. Born and trained in Nigeria, Twins Seven Seven emigrated to Pennsylvania where he spent the last 15 years of his life. He is known for his distinctive reinterpretation of traditional Yoruban myths, deities, and cultural practices.