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Àwòrán: Representing the Self and Its Metaphysical Other in Yoruba ArtAuthor(s): Babatunde LawalSource: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Sep., 2001), pp. 498-526Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3177240

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Aworan: Representing the Self and Its MetaphysicalOther in Yoruba Art

Babatunde Lawal

Among the Yoruba of Nigeria and the Republic of Benin, theword dwordn commonly refers to any two- or three-dimen-

sional representation, ranging from the naturalistic to the

stylized (Figs. 1, 2). A contraction of d (that which), w6 (to

look at), and rdnti (to recall, that is, the subject), dwordnis

mnemonic in nature, identifying a work of art as a construct

specially crafted to appeal to the eyes, relate a representation

to its subject, and, at the same time, convey messages that may

have aesthetic, social, political, or spiritual import.1 It should

be emphasized, however, that Yoruba is a tonal language, so

that the same word may have different meanings depending

on how it is pronounced.2 For example, because of a change

in the vowel tones, the word aworan refers not to a represen-tation-which is dwordn-but to its beholder, being a con-

traction of a (the one), w6 (looking at), and iran (spectacle).3

The meaning of the root verb w6 (to look) remains intact in

the two words, linking the beholder to the beheld.

In this article, I want to focus not only on the interconnect-

edness of art and language in Yoruba culture but also on how

their cosmogony and concept of procreation draw on the met-

aphors of artistic creativity. In the process, I will underline the

nature, contexts, functions, peculiarities, and poetics of visual

representations, their impact on cultural behavior, and the ex-

tent to which portraiture has been used to reinforce the body

politic at both the physical and metaphysical levels. As Richard

Brilliant has rightly observed, "The synthetic study of portraiture

requires some sensitivity to the social implications of its repre-

sentational modes, to the documentary value of art as aspects ofsocial history, and to the subtle interaction between social and

artistic conventions."4 In addition, I will attempt to shed some

light on the nexus between dw6rdn(picture or representation)

and iworan (the act of looking).

Much of my data derives from field observations and inter-

views in Yorubaland, where I have conducted art historical re-

search since the 1960s. I have also made use of Yoruba oral

tradition, a good part of which has been studied by scholars in

different disciplines and found to contain substantial factual

information that can be used for historical reconstruction.5 The

fact that I conducted the field interviews in the Yoruba language

(of which I am a native speaker) sometimes enabled me to play

the role of a participant-observer and then follow up with ques-

tions pertaining to the semiotics of images and spectatorship.

Hence, my theoretical approach combines linguistic, visual,

iconographic, contextual, and anthropological analyses.

Omo Oduduwd: The Quest for Unity in Diversity

Numbering over 25 million people, the Yoruba are divided

into several kingdoms, each headed by a king (oba).Almost all

the kings and their subjects regard themselves as Omo

Odutduwd, he descendants of Odfduwat, a mythical progeni-

tor popularly identified as the first "divine" king of If&, the

ancient city widely regarded as the cradle of Yoruba civiliza-

tion.6 Although Yoruba culture appears to be homogeneous,there are significant regional variations, suggesting that what

we have today is a synthesis of previously diverse, even if

related, elements. This phenomenon is apparent in the

Yoruba language, which has various dialects differentiating

one kingdom from another,7 and in the fact that Oduduwa

has a double identity. In some parts of Yorubaland, he is

regarded as a powerful warrior and the leader of an immi-

grant group that subjugated the aboriginal population of Ife

and established a new ruling dynasty that eventually brought

the whole of present-day Yorubaland under its hegemony. In

other parts, the same Odfduwa (also pronounced Oo6dua) is

worshiped as an earth goddess who sustains humanity in the

same way that a mother nurtures her children. The fact that

Odfduwa, the male warrior, is sometimes addressed as a

"mother" has led some scholars of Yoruba history and reli-

gion to suggest that the male aspect is a later development,

reflecting an attempt by a new dynasty to legitimize its hege-

mony by grafting a male aspect onto a preexisting earth

goddess. This dynastic change, often dated between the sev-

enth and eleventh centuries C.E.,8 reverberates in one cos-

mogonic myth concerning a power tussle between two deities

in the Yoruba pantheon. According to the myth, the universe

at first consisted of only the heavens and was governed by

Ol6dfimare, the Supreme Being and the generator of dse

(pronounced dshe), the vital principle empowering existence.

Assisting Olo6dmare to administer the universe was a pan-

theon of deities and nature spirits called orisd,each of whompersonified different attributes of the Supreme Being, such

as water, land, creativity, industry, wisdom, beauty, fertility,

vision, dynamism, healing, and so on. After some time, 016-

duimare decided to create land below the sky and assigned

the job to the creativity deity Obatala. Unfortunately, Obatala

got drunk after receiving the sacred instruments of his com-

mission and fell asleep by the roadside. Thereupon, a rival

deity, Odfiduwa, stole the sacred instruments, descended

from the sky, and created what we now call the earth. When

Obatala woke up and discovered what had happened, he

challenged Oduduwa and a fierce fight ensued. The Su-

preme Being later intervened, compensating Obatala with

another assignment-to mold the images of the first human

beings, who later became inhabitants of the earth.9 There are

indications that the warring factions later intermarried and

united to form a central government in Ife under Odfiduwta,

agreeing to rotate the kingship among themselves.10 These

events are commemorated annually during the Edi, Itapa,

016j6, and Obatala festivals in If& and its environs when the

devotees of Obatala-representing the aborigines-and

those of Odfiduwa-representing the immigrants-engage

in ritualized mock battles that usually end in favor of the

Odfduwa faction, after which there is a reconciliation."

Suffice it to say that the Omo Odiduwa ethos, which seems to



THE SELF AND ITS METAPHYSICAL OTHER IN YORUBA ART 499

1 Standing figure of an unidentifiedooni (king) of Ife, Yoruba, Ife, Nigeria,brass, h. 189/16 n., ca. 14th-15th

century. Lagos, Nigeria, National

Commission for Museums andMonuments (photo: copyright 1979Dirk Bakker)

have influenced the Yoruba concept of portraiture, was ap-

parently invented as a political strategy aimed at forging a

kind of "Unity in Diversity" relating the immigrant and ab-

original groups-royals and commoners alike.12

Ere Eniydn:The Archetypal Human Image, and

Ondyzyd:Creating a Work of Art

Of special interest to us here is the myth that the creativity

deity Obatala molded the archetypal human image (ere eni-

ydn) from divine clay. According to the myth, Ogun, the deity

((risd) associated with iron tools and weapons, put the fin-

ishing touches to the form, clarifying and delineating the

principal features, especially the face. The image (ere) turned

into a living human (eniydn) after receiving from the Supreme

Being the divine breath or soul (emi)-a form of dse (the

enabling power). Since then, every image thus produced has

been placed inside the womb of a pregnant woman and left

to develop from an embryonic form into a normal baby.



500 ART BULLETIN SEPTEMBER 2001 VOLUME LXXXIII NUMBER 3

2 Seated female altar figure signifying Onile (Earth Goddess),Yoruba, Nigeria, brass, h. 102 in. Lagos, NationalCommission for Museums and Monuments

(photo: author, 1995)

Hence the prayer for an expectant mother: "KiOrisa ya ona

ire ko ni" (May the Orisa [Obatala] fashion for us a good

work of art).13The implication is that procreation, in spite of its

biological aspect, has an artistic dimension as well: the human

body is the handiwork of Obatala, a piece of sculpture (ere)

animated by a soul (emi).In other words, the body (ara)makes

the spirit manifest, enabling an individual to have iwd (physical

existence) in the visible world. Iwd denotes not only the fact of

being but also the distinctive quality or character of a person.14

The Yoruba identify a work of art as ont, that is, an em-

bodiment of creative skills, implicating the archetypal action

of Obattal'a,the creativity deity and patron of the Yoruba

artist. The process of creating a work of art is called ondyiyd

(literally, ond, art, and yiyd, creation or making), a term

implicated in the aforementioned prayer for an expectant

mother. Yiyd derives from the root verb yd, meaning to

create, fashion, or make. The fact that the female body

mediates Obatala's creation15 has led some to translate iyd,

the Yoruba word for a mother, as "someone from whomanother life is fashioned" or the body "from which we are

created."'16 The term jora denotes a striking resemblance

between a child and any of its parents or among members of

the same family. Thus, a naturalistic representation is called

dydjora, a contraction of d (act of), yd (to create), jo (to

resemble), and ara (physical body of the subject). That is to

say, the artist's main goal is to capture individual likeness, as

in a portrait of one of the ancient kings (ooni) of Ife (Fig. 1).

The reason for the prominence of the head in Yoruba art will

be discussed shortly. A conceptual representation, on the

other hand, is called droyd(a contraction of d, act of, r6, to

think or imagine, and yd, to create) because it is done from

memory.17For

example,the seated female of

Figure2 is far

from being a portrait of a known person. Rather, the image

is a construct-a figure for an altar signifying the Earth

Goddess (le) in her symbolic role as the "Mother and Care-

taker of the World" (Iya Aye), hence, her appellation Onile

(Owner of the House). The two small figures in her hands

represent the male and female aspects of nature, whose

interaction ensures the perpetuation of life on earth.18 The

emphasis here is not so much on empirical observation as on

the use of the mind's eye to visualize and give material form

to an idea. The literary equivalent of droyd (conceptual im-

agery) is drofo(oral poetry)-a shortened form of d (act of),

r6 (to think or imagine), and fo (to chant or utter).

Although it has individual and regional variations (just as

the Yoruba language has subdialects), the Yoruba sculptural

style (evident especially in wood but also in stone and ivory

sculpture) is distinguished by stylized figures-standing,

kneeling, or riding on horseback-with large heads, elabo-

rate hairdos, and protruding facial features (Figs. 4, 18, 20).19

Through the apprenticeship system, young artists are trained

to create images in the substyle characteristic of a particular

region as well as to master and interpret the iconographicconventions (dsd)handed down from the past.20 The fact that

much of Yoruba art functions in a religious context has

stabilized these conventions, imposing some limitation on

the extent of change within the canon, while, at the same

time, allowing creativity, innovation, and the incorporation

of newelements in time and

place.An

apprentice graduatesafter demonstrating enough imo (mastery of time-honored

conventions), imoose(technical proficiency), and ojuiond (lit-

erally, artistic eye) to practice as a professional. Ojuiond can

be defined as "design consciousness,"21 or the visual cogni-

tion that enables an artist to select and process images from

daily experience into schemata or templates (determined by

the Yoruba style), which are then stored in pictorial memory,

to be retrieved and modified when needed to express an

idea. As a result, a well-trained artist does not need a life

model or a preparatory sketch to represent a particular sub-

ject. A carver, for example, begins by staring intently at the

wood while conjuring up the relevant schema from his pic-




torial memory. Thus, the term dwordnsignifies much more

than an image that recalls the subject. It also alludes to the

creative process, especially an artist's preliminary contempla-

tion (d-w6) of the raw material and the pictorial memory

(irdnti) necessary for visualizing and objectifying the subject.

Thereafter, the carver projects the schema onto the wood,

reaches for his tools, and follows an established procedure:

(a) sisd (blocking out), using a big adze to reveal mass and

volume and to outline the image(s), emphasizing the

head(s); (b) ontlile (tracking forms), using a smaller adze to

clarify the image (s); (c) daletunl(consolidation), using chisels

and knives to further define the component parts; (d) diddn

(smoothening), using knives and abrasive leaves to remove

tool marks and rough edges; and (e) finfin (incising), using a

knife to accentuate facial features and body parts, cut pat-

terns, and create surface designs.22 Modeling in clay (later

cast into brass or bronze) follows a similar procedure, though

differences in material, tools, and technique invariably pro-

duce different results. Carvings tend to look more linear and

angular, due to the subtractive technique, while modeled

forms have a smoother finish because of the additive tech-nique. According to the artists interviewed in different parts

of Yorubaland, the creative process involves three deities,

Obatala, Ogun, and Esu. Obatala (creativity deity) provides

the imaginative component, Ogfin (iron deity), the tools for

transforming the material, and Esf (divine messenger), the

vision and dse (enabling power) that facilitate execution.23

Ontki:Glorifying the Head in Word and Image

Literally meaning "head praise," the term oriki refers to a

eulogy or poem (drofo)glorifying the worthiness of an indi-

vidual. It is chanted at critical moments to goad the head to

action and thereby spur a person to greater achievement.24

For the head (ori) is perceived as the seat of the dse (enabling

power) that determines one's identity and existence, influ-

encing behavior and personal destiny:

If I have money

It is my Ori [head] I will praise

My Ori, it is you

If I have children on earth

It is my Ori to whom I will give praise

My Ori it is you

All the good things I have on earth

It is Ori I will praise

My Ori, It is you.25

In effect, the head (or) is the lord of the body and thereforemust be acknowledged and given pride of place. A similar

message is apparent in the emphasis on the head in Yoruba

art. It is almost always the biggest and the most elaborately

finished part of a typical figure sculpture, often adorned with

a crownlike coiffure or headgear (Figs. 1, 2, 4, 18, 20) .26With

this complementarity of word and image in mind, the Yoruba

linguistic scholar Olabiyi Yai has suggested, "When approach-

ing Yoruba art, an intellectual orientation that would be

consonant with Yoruba traditions of scholarship would be to

consider each individual Yoruba art work and the entire

corpus as on7ki."27his is because while most oriki (eulogies)

undergo changes and embellishment in the course of their

3 Altar (ibori) or the inner head (Oriinu), Yoruba, Nigeria,h. 5?/2 n., 20th century. Ife, Nigeria, Obafemi Awolowo

University Collection (photo: author, 1970s)

oral transmission from one generation to another, they often

retain a core of historical or iconographic elements that

defines the essence and character of the subject. Moreover,

Yoruba artists in the past were expected, as part of their

training, to familiarize themselves with the onikiof important

personalities and the major orisd (deities) in their community

and with indigenous theology, which they took into consid-

eration when creating shrines and related images. Thus,

apart from their aesthetic qualities, shrine images speak vol-

umes about Yoruba society, its social practices and worldview.

One of the fundamentals of this worldview is that the

visible head (onrode) is no more than an enclosure for the

inner, spiritual head, called ori inu, which localizes the dse

that empowers the physical self.28 Although the dseemanates

from the Supreme Being, it is mediated by Esufi pronounced

Eshtu), the divine messenger and principle of dynamism in

the Yoruba cosmos.29 One myth claims that before an indi-

vidual is born into the physical world, its soul must select an

inner head (on int) from a collection of ready-made clay

heads molded by Ajala, the heavenly potter. Because of their

association with personal destiny, these clay heads are ab-stracted and made to look similar, though each is intrinsically

different. The one selected by an individual becomes an

integral part of the metaphysical self, constituting the inner

core of the physical head and determining a person's lot on

earth.30 In the distant past, most adult Yoruba dedicated an

altar called ibori to the inner head in the form of a cone-

shaped object covered with leather and adorned with cowrie

shells (Fig. 3). Once used as currency, these shells allude to

the wealth that a "good head" can bring to a person. Apart

from concealing that person's fate (ipin), the ibori links the

self with Esf, who originates the motions, emotions, and

actions associated with iwa, earthly existence. As the divine




pie of intelligence, vigilance, and surveillance, among others,

in Yoruba culture. No wonder that the Esui image illustrated

in Figure 6, one of three once installed in a public square in

the middle of the village ofIgbijo (about thirty-five miles

from Ife) was reportedly vandalized by Ijesa warriors during

their invasion of Igbajo in the 1880s;36 note the damage to

the left arm. Incidentally, Esfi is anthropomorphized here,

combining the look of a child with that of an adult in allusionto the paradoxical, betwixt-and-between nature of the deity

and his association with the threshold-a recurring theme in

much of his orzki(eulogies):

The short and tall one

Whose head is barely visible when he walks through a

peanut farm

Thanks to the fact that he is very tall

But Esfi must climb the hearthstone in order to put salt

in the soup pot ...

Lib6lirind6,37 if you reach the frontier and do not

encounter him at the citygate working in the field

You will find him in the vicinity and he is always acces-

sible to everyone, including the infirm..3

'f ? ;Ay'jora: Portraying the Physical Self

The emphasis on ara (physical body) in the word dydjora

reveals the objective of the Yoruba artist in a naturalistic

4 Esustaff (Ogo Esui),Yoruba,h. 15% n., ca. 19th-20th century.

Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Arthur and

Margaret Glasgow Fund (photo: Katherine Wetzel)

messenger and the omnipresent agency of the Supreme Be-

ing in all living things, Esfi is asojt (the observer),31 and thusthe catalyst for sight.32 Esui'sconnection with the head, espe-cially the face (ojf), is illustrated by the popular notion that by

blinking his eyes, he can make a person look beautiful or

ugly.33 Even fellow 3ristdn the Yoruba pantheon depend on

Esfi for their vision; according to a myth, he once confused

Odfiduwa's sight, with the result that the latter mistook the

divination deity (Ifa) for a leopard and ran away in fright.34

In other words, Esfi activates the face, the site of perception

and communication, reflecting the feelings of pain and plea-

sure, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, and other passions

associated with temporal existence and behavior. The Yoruba

word for a facade is oji-ie (literally, the face of the house)

because the facade is to a house what the face is to the body,

an index of identity. The doors of a house open and close just

like the eyes. That is why Esfi images or staffs are often -

placed, for security purposes, near the doorway, at the cross-

roads, and at the town gates. Some have two faces looking in

opposite directions (Figs. 4, 5), as though monitoring devel-

opments from within and without, from left and right, from :.

above and below, and from nearby and the great beyond.35 '

The cowrie shells on this staff denote the blessings that Esfu :..:i,' . ?may bestow on those he favors, despite his prankishness. The " :

flute or whistle motif identifies him both as the herald, who

coordinates the activities of all the deities, and as a gate-

keeper, guide, and detective. He thus exemplifies the princi- 5 Back view of Fig. 4 (photo: Katherine Wetzel)




portrait (Figs. 7-15): to capture a recognizable likeness of the

subject with an emphasis on oji dmutiwdygliterally, earthly

face), the face one is born with and which identifies one's ziwd

(telluric existence). This face is time-bound, changing with

mood and age.39 However, the artist frequently ignores the

transitory emotional aspects, idealizing only those features

that facilitate identity, the emphasis being on jijora, or what

Robert Farris Thompson calls a "midpoint mimesis" between

absolute abstraction and absolute likeness.40 In the past,

many Yoruba treated the naturalistic representation of a

living person with ambivalence for two main reasons. One

stems from a popular notion that every living person has a

spirit partner ( a "look-alike") in heaven called enikeji (heav-

enly double) who offers spiritual protection to its earthly

counterpart.41 The creation of a lifelikeness in art (a human-

made "look-alike") is perceived as a distraction that may

jeopardize this relationship, causing the heavenly double to

withdraw its spiritual protection. The second reason has to do

with the belief that through sympathetic magic, a naturalistic

portrait could be transformed into a surrogate for the human

body and then manipulated for positive or negative ends. Forinstance, in preventive medicine called idira or is6ra (fortify-

ing the body), a portrait, infused with charms, is kept in a

secure place or a shrine to immunize the referent from

witchcraft and infectious diseases.42 In sorcery called dsdsi

(evil spell) or edi (tethering), an image may be gagged or

strangled or have sharp objects driven into the eyes, ears, or

throat to disable, maim, or kill the person it represents. In

another type of sorcery called dpeje(instruct and obey), the

subject is hypnotized, via a sculpted portrait, to act or behave

irrationally, such as dancing without music or laughing at

random for no justifiable reason. In some cases, a physical

likeness is not necessary; giving the image the subject's name

or attaching an article from his or her body (such as clothing,

a lock of hair, or a nail paring) will suffice.43

Yoruba diviners trace most acts of sorcery to twon ayg,the

evil-minded ones, such as witches, sadists, rivals, jealous

neighbors, enemies, or close relations who either have a few

old scores to settle or simply envy the success of another

individual. Of major concern is Esfi, the unpredictable trick-

ster, divine messenger, and controller of fate who could be

benevolent at one moment and malevolent the next, capri-

ciously turningjoy into sorrow, and vice versa. He is the agent

provocateur who plays a lot of pranks with a view to reform-

ing humanity. Like the trickster motif in other cultures, Esfu

embodies what Lewis Hyde calls the "paradoxical category of

sacred amorality" by which societies articulate and regulate

their social life and behavior.44 That is why the Yoruba codeof ethics enjoins everyone to be courteous, sociable, respect-

ful, humble, diplomatic, and to "bear both wealth and pov-

erty stoically."45 Also, one must exercise self-control in the

face of provocation or temptation; one must learn a lesson

from the Olofeffinra myth. According to the myth, Olofe-

fiunra, a deity in ancient Ife, had a peculiar way of welcoming

visitors to its grove by laughing loudly and making humorous

remarks as though he was reuniting with old and long-missed

friends. But should any visitor reciprocate, his or her facial

features "would remain permanently fixed in the contortion

of mirthless laughter "46 By the same token, it would be risky

to allow oneself to be portrayed in a naturalistic and overtly

6 Esu statue, Yoruba, formerly located in Igbajo, soapstone,h. 24 in., ca. 19th century. Lagos, National Commission for

Museums and Monuments (photo: author, 1995)

expressive manner; there is the fear that enemies might read

arrogance into an innocent smile, steal the portrait, and

instigate a sorcerer to harm the subject through it.47 This

explains why naturalistic portraits are few and far between in

Yoruba art and there is little interestin

physiognomy,that

is,the use of the face to reveal the "soul" or character of the

subject.48

Ako and Ipdde: Naturalistic Second-Burial Effigies

for the Dead

However, during second-burial ceremonies for the dead, nat-

uralistic portraits appear with some frequency (Figs. 7-12).49

This can be attributed to two major factors. The first derives

from the belief that the soul of a deceased person now

operates at a superhuman plane of existence and so is im-

mune to sorcery.50 The second is that the mnemonic power

of a life-size naturalistic effigy (dk6)vivifies the presence of the




8 View of Fig. 7 partiallydressed or a parade through thevillage (photo:Justine Cordwell)

deceased.52This partly explains why some second-burial effi-

gies look much younger than the deceased at the time of

death. Thanks to modern photography, many families now

keep photo albums from which a good picture of the de-

ceased (usually n his or her middle age) may be selected and

given to an artistto translate nto a second-burialeffigy. Sincethe image is usually costumed, the carverpays most attention

to the head, forearms, and legs, leaving the other parts of the

body relativelyunfinished (Fig. 7). During a typical ako cer-

emony, the effigy, dressed in the best clothes of the deceased

(Fig. 8), would be displayed in his or her residence for a few

days to allow friends, relations, and well-wishers o pay their

last respects. Specially designated family members chant the

ariks eulogy) of the deceased at regular nterwls. For example:

Oronaye (O )

May you be fortunate

May your fortune last

7 Unclothed second-burial ffigy representing he chief of avillagenear Owo,wood and paint, 1949 (photo:Justine ordwell)

dead during the second-burialceremony, enabling mourners

to treat the image as if it were al*e. The costly ceremony

usually takes place some days or weeks after the burial of the

corpse and is normally performed only for the rich and

famous as well as for those who had lived to a ripe old age and

were survived by children.5l One of the reasons for theceremony is that it would enable the deceased to carryover to

Ehzn-Iwathe Afterlife) the high status achieved on earth. Not

until the performance of this ceremony will the soul of the

deceased leave the community. Failure of the children to do

so in time or after a reasonable period may cause the soul to

haunt them in the form of a ghost. In addition, as an artist

must have been aquainted with the deceased to produce his

or her visual ikeness, the longer the intervalbetween the first

burial (of the real corpse) and the second (of the effigy) the

weaker the artist's pictorial memory of the deceased. To

circumvent this problem, an artist is allowed to use as a

reference point the face of a child who closely resembles the




You, who have the great sword....

The sharp sword that draws blood

The one of great fame

My father is the great one being celebrated .

A popular man of 0w6 oGreat men of 0w6, my father is the great one being cele-

brated.53

After the indoor ceremonies, the image would be carried in

a public procession around the town accompanied by survi-

vors, all singing and wishing the deceased a happy retirement

in Ehin-Iw, the Afterlife:

Do not eat millipedes

Do not eat earthworms

It's what they eat in the Afterlife _'

That you should eat

May you fare well

Until we cross paths ..~i *'(

Until you appear in our dreams . -' :

Shall we meet again.54

Through the effigy, messages are sent to long-dead ancestors. .

At the same time, the newly dead is beseeched not to forget

the living and to use his or her spiritual powers to protect

them.55 After the public procession, the effigy is buried, =.

destroyed, or abandoned in the forest.56:-, : .Figure 9 is a portrait of the late Queen Ameri Olasubude of

Ow6, carved by Lamuren for Olasubude's second-burial cer-'

emony in 1944. The portrait, however, was rejected by the

family of the deceased on the grounds that the artist did not .

10 Full view of Fig. 9 on display in the Ow6 Museum of

Antiquities (photo: Robin Poynor, 1973)

achieve enough idealization. For instance, the toes and fin-

gersof the figure are touching one another (Fig. 10) instead

of being carved separate, as required by tradition.57

Unlike the dk6,which is almost always a full figure that can

be displayed in a seated position by virtue of its articulated

body and limbs, the ipade (a hunter's second-burial memo-

rial) is usually unarticulated. Only the head is finished, with

the rest of the body given a rudimentary treatment, as in the

portrait of Chief Aniwe, one of the most powerful hunters in

Ife before his death in 1962 (Fig. 11). It was carved by Taye

Adegun. A short stick nailed to the chest of the figure serves

as the shoulders for fitting one of the garments of the de-

ceased (Fig. 12).5 In some cases, two sticks shaped like across and draped with a hat and garment of the deceased may

serve as a substitute for a naturalistic effigy.59 A portrait statue

carved by Taiwo Fadipe of the late Chief Akinyemi Osogun of

Ife, a high-ranking priest of Ogun (iron and war deity) who

died in 1964, was later acquired by the Ife Museum of Antiq-

uities. In 1976, I took a print of the statue to the compoundof the deceased, where I compared it with a photograph of

him. The statue bore only a faint resemblance to the de-

ceased, but the three marks (dbajd)on the cheeks are exactly9 Lamuren, second-burial effigy (ako)of Queen AmeriOlasubude, detail of face, Ow6, Nigeria, wood, paint, and the same as those on the photograph, conceivably creating

fabric, 1944. Ow6 Museum of Antiquities (photo: Robin enough likeness for those who knew Chief Akinyemi OsogunPoynor, 1973) when he was alive.60I




11 Taye Adegun, unclothed memorial (ipdde) igure of Aniwe,a famous hunter, Ife, Nigeria, wood and paint, approx. 40 in.,1962. Ife Museum of Antiquities (photo: author, 1976)

That the memorial function of the "lifelike" image has a

long history in Yoruba culture seems to be attested by the

discovery at Ife of several naturalistic, life-size brass heads

dated between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries C.E. (Figs.

13, 14).61 Some of them wear crowns, while others have holes

around the hairline, apparently for securing real headgears

or crowns. Amost all the heads have holes at the neck(Fig.

13), indicating that they might have been nailed to wooden

torsos and attired in the same manner as the tk6. Conse-

quently, Justine Cordwell and Frank Willett have suggested

that most of the heads were probably used in funeral or

second-burial ceremonies for kings and other distinguished

persons.62 This speculation has been questioned on the

grounds that the creation of a funeral effigy for a king (oba)

is incompatible with the public perception of him as a divine

being who does not die but simply disappears "into the

earth."63In view of a ceremony in present-day Okukfi during

which the king of the town makes sacrificial offerings to his

"inner head" (ori inu) in a special room inside the palace

12 View of Fig. 11 costumed and abandoned in the forest,1962 (photo: FrankWillett)

where many beaded crowns are displayed, though not on

portrait heads, Henry Drewal is of the opinion that the

life-size Ife brass heads might have been "created to display

actual regalia in a shrine context," perhaps during an annual

rite of purification and renewal for the king and his people.64

While the possibility cannot be ruled out altogether, it does

not necessarily follow that all the heads performed only this

function in the past. Neither does the public perception of

the king as divine automatically preclude him from being

honored with a second-burial ceremony. Despite the king's

liminal status and the secrecy surrounding his death and

burial, it is public knowledge that he is a flesh-and-blood

human being who reigns and then passes away. The popular

saying"Oba

m6wa; igb/amewa"

(Ten kings;ten

epochs)makes it clear that the notion that the king does not die is

only a metaphor for the antiquity and continuity of divine

kingship among the Yoruba. As to be expected, a good king

would be fondly remembered; a bad one could be impeached

by a council of elders (called Ogboni in some areas) and if

found guilty of a serious offence, forced to commit suicide or

executed. In fact, some unpopular Ife kings of the eighteenth

and nineteenth centuries met with violent deaths at the

hands of their subjects.65 Moreover, a king's mortality is

explicit in the word ab6bakti,referring to "those who die with

the king" in order to serve him in the Afterlife.66 The ques-

tion then arises: If chiefs and other important persons could




be honored with a befitting farewell or second-burial cere-

mony-to enable them to carry over to the Afterlife the high

status achieved on earth-why not the king himself, the most

distinguished individual in a given community? That the

ceremony was performed for kings in ancient Ife may be

inferred from a legend that palace officials once colluded

with court artists to delay the appointment of a new king.

Instead of disclosing the death of the incumbent king to therelevant authorities, these officials installed his effigy in a

dark corner of the state room and continued to conduct

business as usual, issuing orders on behalf of the dead king.

The senior chiefs and members of the public unsuspectingly

paid homage to the effigy until the deception was uncov-

ered.67 This legend has two implications. First, it suggests that

the plotters had misappropriated an effigy that could have

been used eventually for the second-burial ceremony of the

same king and which, predictably, would have received a

similar homage and befitting farewell messages. Second, it

corroborates the thesis that the holes around the hairline of

the life-size Ife heads (Fig. 13) might have been used for

securing a beaded crown with veil (some still have beadfragments) that would have covered the face-as they nor-

mally do when worn by the king (Fig. 22).68 The holes

around the mouth probably sported a combination of beard

and mustache that would have further obscured the face,

thus enabling the alleged conspiracy to succeed for a while.

Finally, that second-burial ceremonies for kings were com-

mon in the past is evident in the Adamuoi6risa Ey6) obsequy

of the Aw6ri Yoruba of Lagos.69 Until recently, a new king

would not be allowed to perform certain rites until he had

"completed the final funeral ceremonies of his predeces-

sor ... which included the staging of the Adtamuorisa. . . .70

Two of the most memorable Adtamiuorisiawere performed for

Oba (king) Akitoye on February 20, 1854, and for Oba Do-

sumu on April 30, 1885.71 However, unlike the dko figure,

which may be carried in a public procession, the Adamuoi6risa

(Eyo) second-burial effigy for a deceased king is displayed

inside the palace only. The effigy is usually a banana tree

trunk dressed up in expensive clothes and made to look like

a real human figure wearing a hat or crown, though the face

is covered with cloth. The display is accompanied by drum-

ming and eulogizing, as is done for an dk6figure. On the last

day of the ceremony, hundreds of Eyo masquerades in white

robes participate in a public parade to bid the deceased the

last farewell.72 Since a king's corpse is sometimes dismem-

bered for ritual purposes, a second-burial effigy is, as it were,

a "re-membering" of that body, providing a unique opportu-

nity for a farewell ceremony that would enable the deceasedto carry over to the Afterlife the high status achieved on

earth.

There is ample evidence that the Ife heads might also have

functioned in interregnum, succession, and/or coronation

ceremonies, among others. According to a Benin oral tradi-

tion, before the fourteenth century, the head of a deceased

Benin king (oba)was taken to Ife for burial and, in return, a

brass head would be sent to Benin along with other royal

emblems to confirm the successor on the throne. This is

because Oranmiyan, one of Odfiduwa's youngest sons,

founded the Eweka ruling dynasty in Benin between the

thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and ruled there for a

13 Head of an o6ni (king) of Ife, Yoruba, Ife, brass,h. 12316 n., ca. 12th-15th century.Lagos, National Commissionfor Museums and Monuments (photo: copyright 1979

Dirk Bakker)

while before returning to Ife, where he eventually died.73 The

Benin practice may very well be a variation on an ancient

Yoruba ritual of removing the head of a deceased king andusing it for the transfer of royal power to his successor.74 The

latter then kept the head "among his principal objects of

worship."75 Could the need to preserve the heads and mem-

ories of famous kings for a longer period have led to the

creation of their likeness in brass? If so, could this phenom-

enon be responsible for the scarcity of the life-size royal

heads? As yet, only about sixteen or so have been recovered

out of almost fifty rulers on the Ife king list.76 Even then, only

a handful of the heads can now be positively identified with

particular individuals. The mask in Figure 14, for instance, is

said to represent O6ni (king) Obaluif6n, the son of Osan-

gangan Obamakin, an Ife indigene who succeeded Oduduwa




14 Mask said to represent Obaluf6n,Yoruba, Ife, brass, h. 11%5/ n., ca.

12th-15th century. Lagos, NationalCommission for Museums andMonuments (photo: copyright 1979Dirk Bakker)

probably because he sided with the latter in his quest for

political supremacy.77 Obalff6n (also known as Alayemoore)

ascended the throne after his father's death but reigned for

only a short period before being deposed by Oranmiyan, who

had earlier left Ifr to found ruling dynasties in Benin and Old

Oy6. Obaluf6n was recalled from exile to reoccupy the Ife

throne after the death of Oranmiyan. The exact time of his

reign is unknown, though some historiansare inclined to

putit at the beginning of the second millennium C.E. He is said

to have changed the title of the Ife king from ol6fin (owner of

the palace)-introduced by Odfiduw?a-to ooni (owner of the

land) to indicate the return of the Ife indigenes (that is, the

pre-Odfiduwa people) to power.78 Before Obaluf6n ascended

the throne, Ife had been constantly raided by the Igb6, a

pro-Obatala group in exile that refused to acknowledge

Oduduwa's sovereignty. This group was defeated, pacified,

and reintegrated into Ife society during Obalufofn's reign,

when the city witnessed an unprecedented era of peace,

cultural development, and economic prosperity.79 Obaluf6n

is remembered today as a great patron of the arts and as the

one who introduced brass casting to the Yoruba. Thus, it may

very well be that the tradition of making life-size brass heads

at Ife began during his reign. The stylistic similarity of this

mask to the other life-size heads, dated between the thir-

teenth and fifteenth centuries, suggests that it was probably

made within the same period.80 Despite the popular legend

that Odfiduwa originated the bead-embroidered crown

(whichhe then

gaveto his

sons,who

subsequentlyleft Ife to

become kings in other parts of Yorubaland), Obaluf6n is

regarded as the epitome of that crown, apparently because of

his long, peaceful reign and his exemplary leadership. This

may explain why at the coronation of a new king in Ife, the

crown would first be placed on Obalufon's "head"-a stone

image-before being put on a new king's head.81 The open-

ings below the eyes of the Obaluf6n mask suggest that it was

worn on the face. It is therefore not impossible, as Suzanne

Blier has proposed, that the mask might be integrally linked

to this ceremony and "the related rites of rulership transi-

tion" in the past, reflecting Obalufo6n's legendary contribu-

tions to the early formation of the Ife state and his posthu-




15 Head said to represent Lajuwa,

Yoruba, Ife, terra-cotta, h. 12l/e in.,ca. 12th-15th century. Lagos, NationalCommission for Museums andMonuments (photo: copyright 1979Dirk Bakker)

group came to Ife from the northeast, which some scholars

have identified with the Nile valley or the Arabian Penin-

sula.85

Be that as it may, the palace conspiracycited earlier is so

similar to Lajuwa'sthat one is tempted to take the two as

different versions of the same event.Yet they could very well

refer to separate events. The chances are that Lajuwahadexploited an established tradition of using an effigy or a

human surrogateto represent or impersonate the king when

he could not be physicallypresent in court or at a public

ceremony. The cover provided by the beaded crown with

fringe might have encouraged this tradition, apartfrom the

fact that, in the past, the king frequentlyused an interpreter

who already knew what to say. Even today, some kings are

barely audible, leaving the interpreter to speak on their

behalf which conceivablymight have made it easier in the

past for an impersonator to pass for the king. For example, a

Old Oyo, whose ruling dynastywas founded by Oranmiyan

(who later returned to Ife to depose Obalufonduringhis first

mous deification and association with prosperity and good

government.82

A terra-cottaportrait head assigned to the same period as

the Obalufon mask (Fig. 15) is said to commemorate the

usurper Lajuwa, he chamberlainwho temporarilyseized the

throne after the death of Ooni Aworokolokin, Obalufon's

successor. There is an allegation that Aworokolokindid notbelong to the Oduduwafaction and that he "probablydied by

some foul means at the hands of his courtiers, after his wife

had been abducted."83Lajuwa reportedly hid his corpse,

wore the royal regalia, and started impersonating the king.

The disguise succeeded for some time apparentlybecause, as

mentioned earlier, the fringe of the beaded crown normally

obscures the face of the person wearing it (Fig. 22). But the

trick was soon uncovered and Lajuwa was executed along

with accomplices, although his name continues to appear in

some Ife king lists.84Lajuwa's ong, wavyhairstylemight lend

some credence to this story in that it seems to betray his

mixed ancestry, recalling the legend that Oduduwaand his




16 Head with a wrinkled face, Yoruba, Ife, terra-cotta, h. 6 in.,ca. 13th-14th century. Ife, Obafemi Awolowo UniversityCollection (photo: Frank Willett)

term in office), a court official called Osiefa specialized in

impersonating the king legitimately wearing his crown and

receiving the same honors due the king when the latter could

not be physically present at a particular ceremony.86 While

there is no evidence as yet that a similar official impersonated

the king in ancient Ife, it is significant that one of the early Ife

kings, Oo6ni Giesi, often asked his daughter (Debooye) to

represent him at certain ceremonies because he was too old

to attend.87 The question then arises: Could some ofthe Ife

life-size heads have been made at the beginning of a new

king's reign with surrogate, ritual, memorial, and other func-

tions in mind?88 The answer to this question must await

further investigation. Nonetheless, the prominence given to

royal regalia and bearing in many of the underlife-size por-

traits in the Ife corpus (Fig. 1) hints at a court art patently

concerned as much with the personal appearance of the

living as with the collective memory of the dead.

After studying them for more than four decades, Frank

Willett, along with other scholars, has observed that many of

the Ife life-size heads share certain "family resemblances"

both in form and style. However, it is not clear at the moment

whether all of them were made by only one artist, artists from

the same workshop, or artists from different workshops, re-

moved in time and space.89 The similarities of the faces could

be due to the fact that the artists probably did not work

directly from life models, and therefore had to depend partly

on memory and partly on time-honored formulas for repre-

senting the human face. Note that a good majority of the

heads have a dignified look, with relaxed facial muscles; thereis little or no attempt to express emotion. This idealization

recalls the premium placed by the Yoruba on composure,

suggesting, at the same time, that the artists might have been

working within a stylistic idiom presumably aimed at relating

all the individuals portrayed as OmoOduduwd,or members of

the same "extended" family.90 Jean Borgatti has observed a

similar tendency in other parts of Africa, namely, the down-

playing of "individual" in favor of "social" identity, when an

artist simplifies the face to conform to archetypes handed

down from the past, though there is enough room for artistic

inventions within a given stylistic convention.91

Not all the naturalistic figures from Ife and Ow6 had

functioned in second-burial contexts. This is confirmed by

the fact that some are not life-size, while others have their

mouths gagged, recalling the custom of muzzling the vic-

tims of human sacrifice to prevent them from cursing the

headsman.92 We are also reminded of edi, the sorcery (men-

tioned above) for rendering a person tongue-tied. One striking

terra-cotta figure excavated from Obalara's land (Ife), dated

between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (Fig. 16),

wears a skull pendant around the neck; the face is contorted,

with the mouth wide open, revealing the tongue. Other

figures from the site have swollen faces.93 The finding of such

representations amid ritual vessels and several human skulls

and bones has led to the hypothesis that the site "must have

some direct relevance to human death" and that "the terra-

cottas also may have played some part in post-mortemitual."94It is significant that the site belongs to the Obalara5family.

The head of the family is a priest of Owinni, a deified ances-

tor whose shrine once served as a sanctuary for smallpox

sufferers. This fact, as Peter Garlake points out, could very

well link the terra-cottas to rites aimed at preventing the

recurrence of infectious diseases in the community.95 Equally

intriguing is a fifteenth-century terra-cotta representation

from Ow6 (about eighty miles southeast of Ife) of a basket

filled with severed heads slashed on the face (Fig. 17). Ac-

cording to Chief Obadio, the high priest of Oduduwa in Ife,

human sacrifice was offered to the deity in the past and that

"terracotta human heads adorn the ritual spots."96 In that

case,can we

regardthis basket of heads from Ow6 as a

variation of the practice at Ife?97Or are the heads substitutes

for real ones in between major sacrifices? Insufficient archae-

ological evidence makes it impossible at the moment to an-

swer any of these questions with confidence. What seems to

be fairly certain is that in the past, naturalistic portraits had

precise, limited, and specialized functions in ritual and cer-

emonial contexts in which recognizability of a living or de-

ceased person was very important.

Aroyd:Imaging the Metaphysical Self

Whereas in dydjora(the naturalistic portrait), a Yoruba artist

endeavors to summarize the iwd, the fact of being and the




17 Basket with severed heads, Yoruba, Ow6, Nigeria, terra-

cotta, ca. 14th-15th century. Lagos, National Commission for

Museums and Monuments (photo: FrankWillett)

observable and recognizable features of the physical self, in

droyd(the conceptual portrait), he is more concerned with

the essence of the subject or the metaphysical self. This is

particularly the case with memorials used in communicating

with a dematerialized soul in Ehin-iwd, the Afterlife (Figs. 18,

20). As it is invisible to the naked eye, this Other self-the

soul-can only be imagined. For this reason, most altar me-

morials are stylized to signify the return of a dematerialized

soul from telluric existence to "prenatal" spirituality, as well

as its ability to be omnipresent and to intercede with the oraisa

(deities) on behalf of the living. Accordingly, an artist neednot know the dead to create an appropriate memorial-

though he would be briefed about gender identity or any

special mark worn on the face or body to identify the de-

ceased with a family or lineage. However, after leaving the

artist's workshop, the image usually undergoes etutu, a per-

sonalization or naming ceremony aimed at establishing a

spiritual kinship between object and subject. The ceremony

varies from place to place. In some cases, it involves the

dipping of a memorial into the water (omi iweku) used in

washing the corpse of the deceased and preserved for this

purpose. In other cases, the image may be rubbed with the

soil (ilepa) collected from the grave of the deceased. There-

after,a

given image maybe

placedin a

shrine, becomingthe

focus of prayers, oriki (eulogies), and libations intended to

influence the deceased.

The shrine figure performs three major functions in

Yoruba religion. First, it is an dmi (a signifier), objectifyingthe human essence of the signified, making visible the invis-

ible, and providing a locus of veneration and devotion. Sec-

ond, since art (ond) commands admiration-as indicated by

the popular Yoruba name Onaneye (literally, Art is honor-

able)-a memorial sculpture is ohun eye(a dignifier), reflect-

ing the high esteem in which the deceased is held. Third, it

is droko a visual metaphor), embodying a message; for exam-

ple, the motif of a mother and child reminds a female ances-

18 Equestrian image said to represent Alaafin Sang6, Yoruba,

Oy6, Nigeria, wood, h. 38 in., ca. 19th century. Lagos,National Commission for Museums and Monuments (photo:author, 1973)




tor of her maternal duties as a provider and nurturer, whilea lance-holding male figure implores an ancestor so depictedto play the role of a protector.98 These functions would seemto account for the frequent use of the equestrian warrior

motif (jagunjagun) to memorialize male ancestors, in an at-

tempt to secure their benevolence and divine protection. A

nineteenth-century example is said to commemorate Alaafin

(king) Ofinran (Fig. 18), a grandson of Oduduwa and one ofthe earliest kings of Old Oy6, whose reign is often dated

somewhere in the fourteenth or fifteenth century.99 Yoruba

oral traditions identify Alaafin Ofinran, popularly called

Sang6, as a great magician and warrior who led the Old Oy6

cavalry to many spectacular victories, reportedly using his

magical powers to attract the thunderstorm to overwhelm his

enemies in the battlefield. On his death, he was deified and

identified with thunder power. Alleged to have been salvagedfrom the principal Sang6 shrine at Old Oy6 before its de-

struction by the Fulani about 1835, this equestrian statue

conflates the historical and the mythological aspects of

Sang6-the warrior king and deified ancestor who now hurls

down the thunderbolt from the sky. A similarimagery

rever-

berates in his oriki (eulogy), often chanted in front of shrine

images dedicated to him:

Your eyes are white like bitter kola nut

Your cheeks are round like red kola nut

Fire-spitting masquerader,

you frighten the big cat....

Fire in the eye, fire in the mouth, fire on the roof

You ride fire like a horse ??00

Accordingly, this statue of Sang6 has a "sight-and-sound"dimension that further deepens the metaphoric meanings of

dwordn. It may be classified under what WJ.T. Mitchell calls

the "imagetext"-an "inextricable weaving together of repre-sentation and discourse," so that the visible becomes read-

able,101 and audible. Contrary to expectations, Sang6 looks

quiet and serene in the statue; the horse is motionless. This

manner of representation is part of a complex aesthetic

strategy aimed at dissuading Sang6 from violent eruptions; it

is an exercise in "latent ambiguity," underscoring the fact that

an artistic representation can hardly do justice to the kinetics

of the thunderstorm: the latter is better experienced than

represented. The image falls into the category of what Philip

Wheelwright calls the "intensive symbol," which conceals and

reveals at the same time.102

One other important Yoruba tradition of memorial figureis the ere ibeji,a statuette dedicated to a dead twin (Fig. 19).

Underlying the practice is the notion that while twins are

physically double, they are spiritually one, and thus insepa-rable. If one of them should die, a statuette is made to

localize the soul of the deceased. It is usually kept in a safe

place in the house and sometimes given to the surviving twin

to play with as if it were a doll, the main objective being to use

the statuette to maintain the spiritual bond between the

living and the dead. The statuette, made to reflect the genderof the deceased child, is normally commissioned from a

carver on the recommendation of a diviner. When com-

pleted, the statuette is washed in herbal preparations before

being handed over to the diviner, who then invokes the soul

of the deceased twin into it. Thereafter, the statuette istreated like a living child, being fed symbolically at the sametime as the surviving twin is having its food. If a new dress is

bought for the surviving child, a miniature is acquired for thestatuette. The one held by this woman represents her de-ceased twin brother, who reportedly died about 1895, afterwhich the memorial was carved.103The picture was taken in

the early 1960s. The smallness of the statue-and twin me-morials in general-is both symbolic and functional: on theone hand, it reflects the fact that, in the past, a good majorityof the twins died in infancy; on the other, the small sizefacilitates portability, especially when the statuette is given tothe surviving twin to play with or when the mother danceswith it in honor of the deceased twin. If both twins should

die, another statuette is commissioned, and the two are

treated like living children in the hope that they will be born

again to the same mother (Fig. 20).104 Tradition requires thecarver to give both statuettes the same facial features to

emphasize the onenessin their twoness,even if the deceased

twins were not identical. The statuettes are usually placed ina shrine

(Fig. 23) for contacting the souls of the departedtwins in the Afterlife. The belief that they are capable of

attracting good fortune to their parents is reflected in the

following oriki (eulogy) of twins:

...The intimate two, the royal egrets, the natives of

Isokun'05

Offspring of the colobus monkey of the tree tops....106The intimate two by-passed the house [womb] of the

wealthy

By-passed the house [womb] of the rich and famous....

But entered the house [womb] of the poor

Transforming the poor into a rich person .... 107

Apepa [sorcery] cannot affect the natives of Isokun....

Both wizards and witches pay homage to the intimatetwo. . . .108

Oj6 a ku ld a d'ere: Portraiture, Posthumous Beauty, and

Social IdentityThe tradition of dedicating shrine figures to the dead is said

to date back to an "Edenic" period in Yoruba history called

igbd iwdse (literally, beginnings of existence), when human

beings reportedly did not die as they do today. Whenever the

physical body became too old or weak to sustain the soul

within it, all an individual needed to do was to enter a cave

that led to heaven, where the soul would reincarnate in a new

body and then come back to resume earthly life.109Whoever

was tired of living on earth returned to heaven through the

cave. Newly embodied souls entered the earth through the

same cave. Some powerful figures did not depart the normal

way; they simply turned into stone figures.110 This is called

didi ota (the art of becoming stones). According to J. A.

Ademakinwa, an indigene of Ife, where many ancient stone

figures abound, such a person, prior to death, would com-

mission a portrait that would be hidden in a place known

only to a few close friends. It was these friends who secretlyburied the deceased and later announced to the general

public that a well-known personality had turned into stone,

disclosing where the effigy had been hidden, which would

then be set up as a shrine to perpetuate the memory of the




19 Woman holding the memorial ofher deceased twin brother (carved ca.

1895), Yoruba, Nigeria, 1960s (photo:courtesy Robert FarrisThompson)

deceased."1 One such stone dated to the early part of the

second millennium C.E. (Fig. 21) is said to commemorate

Idena, a famous hunter and one of the bodyguards of Ore-

luere,the custodian of

indigenous traditions and domesticmorality in ancient Ife, who reportedly teamed up with

Obatala to challenge Odfuduwa after the latter had usurped

the throne.112 Before being transferred to the Nigerian Na-

tional Museum in Lagos, the statue stood at the entrance of

the Oreluere shrine at Ife, the spot where Idena allegedly

turned into stone.

The legend that the ancient ones did not die but turned

into stones resonates in the popular Yoruba saying "Ojo a ku

la a d'ere, eniyan k6 sunw6n laaye" (It is death that turns an

individual into a beautiful sculpture; a living person has

blemishes) .1ls In other words, a person's earthly existence be-

gins as a piece of sculpture molded by Obatala and ends with

the separation of the empirical self from its meta-empirical

Other; the human body becomes a corpse, reverting, as it

were, to what it was originally-an ere(sculpture). The phrase

"aliving person has biemishes" bespeaks the Yoruba tendencyto canonize the dead. Their code of ethics demands that a

loss of life be mourned, regardless of an individual's foibles

before death; even former critics, enemies, and detractors are

expected to pay the proverbial last respects to the deceased.

Similarly, an artist is obliged to honor the dead with a well-

carved memorial, and he frequently makes the subject look

younger. As Mosudi Olatunji, the famous Imeko carver, told

Robert Farris Thompson in the early 1960s:

If I am carving the face of a senior devotee I must carve

him at the time he was in his prime. Why? If I make the

image resemble an old man the people will not like it. I




20 Twin statuettes (ere beji),Yoruba,

Nigeria, wood and metal, h. 13?/2 n.,20th century (photo: courtesy GeorgeChemeche, New York)

will not be able to sell the image. One carves as if they were

young men or women to attract people."4

So it is that twin memorials (ere beji)are often carved to recall

people in their prime (Figs. 19, 20), notwithstanding the fact

that a good majority of twins died in infancy.115 If naturalism

(dydjora) s required, as in the life-size brass heads from Ife

(Figs. 13, 14) or in second-burial dk6offigies (Figs. 7-10), the

artist idealizes the portrait, transforming it into an ere(sculp-

ture) and emphasizing composure while ignoring accidental

facial features such as scars and deformities associated with

iwd, physical existence. As Rowland Abiodun points out, "The

deceased person may have lost an eye, ear or even a few

fingers during his life, but the [dko6effigy allows for a recon-

struction of these parts."'16 Thus, death transforms the ugly

into the beautiful; "a living person has blemishes." A memo-

rial destined for the altar may be criticized while in the

workshop of the carver, but once consecrated and placed on

an altar, it is no longer criticized because it partakes of the

sacredness and spiritual beauty associated with the dead."17

Thereafter, the focus is on its ritual rather than formal values.

In the past, many Yoruba wore permanent face marks that

identified them with particular families, lineages, or subeth-

nic groups.118 The same marks adorn the faces of second-

burial statues, altar memorials, and ancestral masks, thus

relating the living to the dead and the human to the di-

vine.119 As Frank Willett aptly observes, "It is indeed one of

the surprises of living in Yorubaland that one does frequently

see people whose features remind one very forcibly of a




particular sculptural style, yet the sculptures are not portraits

of individuals, but they are supposed to look as if they might

be."120In short, the Yoruba style, particularly in woodcarving,

combines the generic with the specific, relating the individ-

ual to the collective, stressing "social identity" and thereby

epitomizing the quest for unity underlying the Omo Oduiduwa

concept. This quest finds its most popular political expres-

sion in the image of the oba (king), the temporal and spiritualhead of a given community and a personification of its cor-

porate existence. In the past, the king seldom left his palace

except on special occasions, and when he did, he usually

wore a beaded crown with veil that partly concealed his face

(Fig. 22). However, this tradition has since been modified, so

that the king appears more frequently in public today without

donning the crown, doing so only on certain ceremonial

occasions. Most crowns have a stylized face in the front that

serves as the king's official face. The same face (or a similar

face-should a new king decide to replace an old crown)

identified his predecessors in public and will do the same for

his successors. This face, commonly identified with

Oduduwa, transforms the king into a masked figure-an iconconjuring up the image of the mythical progenitor, function-

ing as a paradigm of the oneness of the king and his subjects,

on the one hand, and of the reigning king and the royal

dead, on the other.121

itinra'nit.. Is Obatfili a Self-Reflection of the Yoruba Artist?

According to Yoruba cosmology, the decision of Ol6odumare

(Supreme Being) to create humans was prompted by a desire

to transform the primeval wilderness below the sky into an

orderly estate. Human beings are called eniydn (the specially

selected) because, as a divination verse puts it, they are the

ones ordained "to convey goodness" to the wilderness below

the sky.122In other words, divinity abides in humanity, and

vice versa. It is therefore not surprising that some of the orisd

(deities) allegedly assumed human forms in order to accom-

pany the first humans to the earth-which easily accounts for

their personification in shrine sculptures and spirit medium-

ship. Ogun, the iron deity, led the way, using his machete to

cut a path through the primeval jungle, laying the foundation

for Yoruba civilization.123 The popular name Oginlana

(Ogun paves the way) commemorates this archetypal event,

emphasizing the importance (first) of stone and (later) of

iron tools in agriculture, urban planning, lumbering, archi-

tecture, warfare, and art.124We are also reminded of Ogfn's

vital contributions to the human image molded by Obatala,

detailing the face and "cutting open" the eyes later activated

by Esfi. The resultant image-a "masterpiece"-embodies aspecial dse (transformatory power), inspiring and sustaining

the creativity manifested in the visual and performing arts

and enabling the Yoruba collective to continually redesign its

environment as well as to re-present itself through body

adornments and idealized or conventionalized portraiture.

As one divination verse remarks:

If I am created, I will re-create myself

I will observe all the taboos

Having been created, I shall now re-create myself.125

Three major questions remain, however. Since the creativity

21 Image of Idena, hunter and gatekeeper, granite-gneiss,h. 401/2 n., ca. llth-12th century. Lagos, National Commissionfor Museums and Monuments (photo: author, 1995)

deity Obattila also assumed an anthropomorphic form in order

to accompany the first humans to the earth, was the archetypal

human image a self-portrait?Or was Obatala originally a mortal

who once lived in ancient Ife and was deified as an 8risd or his

phenomenal creative endowment? Or was he a figment of the

imagination and a self-reflection of the Yoruba artist? That

Ob;atalawas a deified culture hero, if not a self-reflection of the

Yoruba artist,is evident in the popular Yoruba saying "Bieniyan

k6 si, orisa k6 si" (No humanity, no deity).126In other words, the

worshiped depends on the worshiper for its existence; divinities

are human constructs.127Put differently, it is eniydn(humanity)that visualized and anthropomorphized the orisd (divinity), si-

multaneously inverting the process to rationalize its own cre-

ation. This act of self-reflection and self-re-creation (ituinra'nite)

constitutes the divinities (6risd) into a sort of superhuman

Other-an extension of the metaphysical self-providing a basis

for involving them in the ethics, aesthetics, poetics, and politics

of human existence. It has resulted in a conventionalized form

of portraiture that easily relates the self to the body politic,

called OmoOduduwt,128on the one hand, and to the superhu-

man Other, venerated as Olodufimare, he orist (divinities), and

deified ancestors, on the other. Whether Odfiduwa (the Yoruba

mythical ancestor) is an earth goddess or a historical male figure




22 Alaye(king) of Ode Remo in royalregalia, Yoruba, Nigeria, 1950s (photo:courtesy Ministry of Information,Western State of Nigeria, Ibadan,

Nigeria)

is not an issue here. Much more important is how the concept

of a common ancestor (aldjobi)has been used to create a socio-

political framework and a mode of portraiture in which myth

and reality, word and image, the human and divine are intri-

cately joined to forge aYoruba identity out of previously diverse,

even if related, groups.

Iworan: Portraiture, Spectacle, and the Dialectics of

Looking

Since the face is the seat of the eyes (oju), no discussion of

aworan (representation), especially portraiture, would be

complete without relating it to iworan, the act of looking and

being looked at, otherwise knownas the

gaze.To

begin with,the Yoruba call the eyeball eyin ojf, a refractive "egg" empow-

ered by ase (mediated by Esfi), enabling an individual to see

(riran).As with other aspects of Yoruba culture, the eyeball is

thought to have two aspects, an outer layer called oju ode

(literally, external eye) or oju ldsdn (literally, naked eye),

which has to do with normal, quotidian vision, and an inner

one called ojui nt (literally, internal eye) or ojt okdn(literally,

mind's eye). The latter is associated with memory, intention,

intuition, insight, thinking, imagination, critical analysis, vi-

sual cognition, dreams, trances, prophecy, hypnotism, empa-

thy, telepathy, divination, healing, benevolence, malevo-

lence, extrasensory perception, and witchcraft, among

others. For the Yoruba, these two layers of the eye combine to

determine iworan, the specular gaze of an individual. The

stress on the root verb, w6 (to look at), clearly shows that

twordn (portrait or picture) is a "lure" for the gaze-to

borrow Jacques Lacan's term.129 As noted earlier, the term

dw3rdn s a contraction of a (that which), wo (to look at), and

rdnti (to recall [the subject]), alluding both to the capacity of

a representation to recall its referent and to an artist's pre-

liminary contemplation (d-w6) of the raw material and the

pictorial memory (irdnti) involved in visualizing and objecti-

fying the form. As Lacan has pointed out, the act of looking

is influenced by a host of factors, such as desire, mood,

knowledge,cultural

milieu,and individual whims and ca-

prices, and it is a reciprocal process as well. What we see

(animate or inanimate) also "sees"us and has a particular way

of relating to our eyes.130 This illusion is most striking in

dwordn(especially a portrait), which stares back at the aworan

(spectator), turning him or her into an iran (spectacle), if not

another picture (woirdn).131The fear that a viewer may sub-

jectively read into a portrait's gaze what was not intended by

the artist or the subject may very well be one of the reasons

why many Yoruba in the past (especially the rich and privi-

leged) refrained from having themselves portrayed natural-

istically or in a manner that may trigger jealousy in the

have-nots and awon aye (the evil-minded ones). A divination




verse sums up the mutual suspicion associated with the gaze

in the following manner:

You are looking at me; I am looking at you.

Who has something up his/her sleeves between the two of

us?132

Some may resent how a portrait seems to snub them; others

may be frustrated by something they see about themselves in

that portrait-something they subconsciously want to be but,

somehow, cannot be. It is as though the achievements of one

person have hindered the progress of another.

It should be pointed out, however, that naturalistic effigies

of the dead are not treated with the same suspicion, being

primarily intended to mark their last physical, even if sym-

bolic, appearance among the living. The popular saying "Okfi

ol6mo ki i sun gbagbe" (Those survived by children do not

sleep forgetfully)133 explains why most second-burial por-

traits have their eyes wide open (Figs. 7-12). It is an appeal to

the departed to remain vigilant in the Afterlife, protectingthe interests of their living relations and interceding with the

deities on their behalf.134 When installed indoors, seated on

a stool, a second-burial effigy receives many salutations, be-

coming dpew6(a focus of the gaze) and recalling the phrase"It is death that turns an individual into a beautiful sculpture;a living person has blemishes."135 Some relations would look

at the effigy straight in the eyes while chanting the onrki

(eulogy) of the deceased, imploring its soul not to stay too

long in the Afterlife before reincarnating as a newborn baby.Former peers may talk to the image, calling the deceased byname and pledging to assist in completing any unfinished

project or in ensuring that the toddlers left behind do not

suffer. In 1967, at the second-burial ceremony (ipdde) of a

hunter at If6, near Abeokuta, I witnessed what the Yoruba

would call dwosunkiin, that is, "look and cry." The effigy hadjust been delivered to the family by the carver and was taken

to the backyard of the house for a dress rehearsal before the

real ceremony began in the evening. It was rendered in the

same style as that of Chief Aniwe (Figs. 11, 12), except that it

had three vertical marks (pel) on the cheeks. Placed againstthe wall, the effigy was fitted with a cotton smock (ddnsiki)and

a pouchlike hunter's cap (ddir6). Then, some people knelt

down and prayed in front of it. But the children of the

deceased just stared speechlessly at the effigy, unable to

control the tears welling up in their eyes and running down

their cheeks. For them, it was a sad reminder of a physicalself-once full of life, energy, and enthusiasm-now gone

irretrievably with the past, to be encountered in an immate-

rial form only in dreams, visions, and flashes of memory,

according to the dirge cited earlier.136

Whereas most second-burial figures are life-size and in-

tended for public and open-air display, a good majority of the

altar figures are smaller in scale, being designed to fit into

private, prosceniumlike indoor spaces or small rooms servingas sites for offering periodic prayers and sacrifices to the

deities or ancestral dead. Here the view of the figures is

restricted to a handful of people such as the priest in chargeor the owner of a given altar and those seeking spiritualassistance. Nonetheless, the diminutive and schematized

forms of most altar figures, barely visible in the dimness of an

indoor shrine, tend to place the figures at a considerable

remove from the worldly, creating an illusion of an other-

worldly space into which a beholder gazes in awe of the

sublime (Fig. 23).137 With protruding eyes and looking like

extraterrestrial beings, the figures (especially those with well-

defined pupils) return the viewer's gaze so fixedly as if seeing

beyond the visible or reading the viewer's mind. In the scopic

encounter (and from the author's personal experience) onesoon begins to identify with, or see oneself in the fig-

ures-not necessarily in the Lacanian sense of a mirror image

in which the self is alienated138 but, rather, in a futuristic

sense (as the figures are not mimetic) of what this mortal self

shall eventually and inevitably become: an ere (sculpture).

This calls to mind, once again, that popular saying "Itis death

that turns an individual into a beautiful sculpture...." Some

altar figures (especially those without clearly defined eyes)

seem to look inward, as if in a reverie, or as if meditating on

the fate of humanity.139

The Yoruba ambivalence toward the gaze is summed up in

the popular phrase "Ejeji la a wo eniyan; bi 6 bi se yinyin, a

se eebui" (We look at a person in one of two ways: either to

commend or to condemn).140 The positive aspect, which

elicits commendation (iyin), has to do with the adun (plea-

sures or benefits) derived from looking or being admired.

What attracts and nourishes the eyes (ojii) is the ewd (beauty),is6na (creativity), or drd (tour de force) manifested in a given

spectacle, portrait, or a work of art in general. Any strikingevidence of the beautiful or the virtuosic is said to fa ojt m6ra

(magnetize the eyes), bt ojuiimu (fit the eyes), becomingdw6ow-ttin-w6 that which compels repeated gaze) or dw6md-

leelo (that which moors the gaze).141 The genuine or a pre-cious object is called ojfl6w6 (literally, the eyes have money),

implying that the object is so unique that "the eyes can spend

any amount to look at it." An image is designated dw6yanu

(literally, that which causes the viewer to gape) if it manifestssuch an incredibly high artistic skill as to suggest the use of

occult powers. Consequently, the Yoruba use the same term,

duiin delicious), for a palatable meal and a memorable spec-

tacle, both arousing a desire for more. In the words of a

Yoruba poet:

What do we call food for the eyes?What pleases the eyes as prepared yam flour satisfies the

stomach?

The eyes have no food other than a spectacle....Never will the eyes fail to greet the beautiful one;

Never will the eyes fail to look upon one-as-elegant-as-a-

kob-antelope.

"Egungun masks are performing in the market; let us goand watch them."

It is because we want to feed the eyes.142

Thus, for the Yoruba, a verbal description, however vivid, can

never match a direct observation. This is illustrated by the

popular saying "Ir6hin k6 t6 afojfiba" (Listening to a report is

not the same thing as being an eyewitness). The term dw&arrin

(look and laugh) often refers to a funny-looking image or a

satirical performance, although it may also be applied to a

poorly executed portrait that exposes the subject to publicderision. Any image or spectacle (such as a performance by




23 Agbandada shrine with altar

figures and twin statuettes, Yoruba,Ilobfi, Nigeria (photo: copyright 1954Ulli Beier)

Gelede masks) that entertains and educates at the same time is

called dwok6gb6nlook and learn). The term dwodunnu (look

and feel the sweetness in the stomach), on the other hand,

refers to a spectacle or image that fills one with joy. Yemoja, a

fertility goddessand the source of all

waters,is often called

Awoyo(literally, the sight that fills the stomach) because of the

popular belief that looking at her altar figure or into a pot of

sacred water with pebbles from the OgfunRiver (which is sacred

to her) fills her devotees' wombs with children.143

So far, we have dealt with the benefits of looking. What are

the positive sides of being looked at, directly, or indirectly

through one's portrait? Compliments (iyin) from admirers

about one's physical endowment, character, taste, dress, or

achievements boost one's ego and confidence and may also

facilitate social mobility within one's community. One be-

comes a gbajiumo, the Yoruba term for a celebrity, which

literally means "someone known to two hundred [many]

faces."144 Since only a few achieve such a status, most people

find solace in the possibility of obtaining the spiritual benefits

of the gaze from Ol6dfimare (Supreme Being) and the orisd

(deities). As a matter of fact, the root verb wo (to gaze or look

at)also means to

nurture,to look

after,or to

cure,145as

evident in the prayer for a newborn child, "Oldfiumare a

w6o" (May the Supreme Being look at or after it). In this

context, wo (look at or after) is synonymous with toju (liter-

ally, bring up under the eyes), meaning to take care of. A

medical facility is Ile itioj (literally, a house for health care).

A successful treatment is iwosan, a contraction of i (act of), wo

(being gazed at), and sdn (be cured), or iwoye,that is, i (act

of), wo (being gazed at), and ye (be saved). In preventive

medicine, as mentioned earlier, the portrait of an individual

may be kept in a shrine to immunize the subject from infec-

tious diseases or sorcery. Now and then, a woman who con-

ceived and had a child after offering sacrifices to an ancestor




or a particular deity may return to its shrine to deposit a

votive mother and child figure portraying herself and the

child.146 That such portraits are under the protective gaze of

the ancestors or orisd s obvious in popular Yoruba names like

Ogfinw66 (Iron deity, look after this [child]) and S'ango-

bamiw66 (Thunder deity, help me to look after this [child]).

The following invocation to Ifa (the divination deity) sheds

more light on this phenomenon:

Ifa, fix your eyes upon me and look at me well

It is when you fix your eyes upon one that he is rich;

It is when you fix your eyes upon one that he prospers.147

This type of gaze is called ojuirere(the benevolent eye) or ojui

ddnu (the merciful eye).148 It follows, therefore, that the

Yoruba altar, called ojubo (literally, face of the worshiped),

functions as a kind of mask that facilitates ifojuikojii, amely, "a

face-to-face communion" between the worshiper and the wor-

shiped, enabling the latter to appreciate the oriki (eulogy)

rendered in its honor.149 It is worth noting that the most

sacred symbol of a deity-an organic substance or a collec-

tion of charms-is usually concealed inside a wooden bowl

with a face carved on it to provide an ocular outlet for its

content (Fig. 24). Such a face also implicates Esfi, the agent

of sight and receiver and courier of all the sacrifices offered

to a deity.150

This brings us to the consequences of being looked at in a

negative manner. To begin with, any transgression of the social,

moral, or dress codes often attracts frowns (ibojuje'), ncompli-

mentary remarks (eebii),and such actions as may affect one's

reputation or career. However, the gaze most feared by the

Yoruba is that of an djg a woman with mystical powers) or an os6

(her male counterpart), whose ojiiokdn(mind's eye) is deemed

to have both beneficent and maleficent aspects. Its maleficent

aspect, called ojfi or6 (poisonous eye) or ojii burukui evil eye)generates-according to popular belief-enigmatic rays that

penetrate the victim's body, either directly or through a portrait,

causing high blood pressure, mental derangement, malignant

sores and tumors, paralysis of the limbs, infertility in men and

women, epileptic seizures, and debilitating diseases, among

other effects. Anyone who dies suddenly after complaining of

seeing strange faces in dreams is suspected of being a victim

of dwopa (literally, killer gaze). This term is also used sarcas-

tically for an incompetent doctor (known for wrong diag-

noses) and whose patients are more likely to die than survive

their illnesses.'51

Aiwoo : The Politics ofImnage

Concealment

The emphasis on observable representations in the current

discourse of the gaze tends to ignore a practice common in

sub-Saharan Africa whereby images are deliberately con-

cealed to stress their ontological significance or "affecting

presence."152 For instance, among the Baule of Cote d'Ivoire,

as Susan Vogel has observed, "the act of looking at a work of

art, or at spiritually significant objects, is for the most part

privileged and potentially dangerous.... The power and

danger of looking lie in a belief that objects are potent,

capable of polluting those who see them."153 The Yoruba

have a similar concept, as expressed in the popular admoni-

tion "Eni t6 ba w6 iw6kuw6, y6 ri irikfiri" (Whoever looks at

24 Ifa divination bowl (igede fd),Yoruba, Nigeria, wood,h. 12 in. (photo: Don Cole, UCLA Fowler Museum ofCultural History)

the forbidden will see the fearful). In other words, delightful

as looking may be on certain occasions, it could be fraught

with danger at times. This is because eyin ojui,the refractive

"egg" called the eyeball, could weaken or be extinguished

like a lamp if exposed to the sight of the "forbidden," which,

in Yoruba thought, may range from ghosts to potent charms

and images. Such phenomena are called dwof6jijuliterally,

look and be blinded) or dwoku (literally, look and die),

depending on the mystical powers attributed to them.154

Only initiates or those whose eyes are ritually protected may

safely look. The images in this category derive their mystique

partly from folklore and partly from the fact that they are

frequently covered up when displayed in broad daylight. For

example, before being taken out of the shrine for a special

ceremony in the forest, the stone images of the creativity

deity Obatatlai (right) and his consort Yem66 (left) are

wrapped in white cloth (Fig. 25). Tradition requires that the

bearers of the images chant a special incantation, which, as

Phillips Stevens puts it, "will cause the images to become

lighter and their bearers more comfortable. If the incanta-

tion is not sung with a will, or if it is neglected entirely, the

bearer of the images will tire and become weak."155 Con-

scious of theonlookers,

whokeep

a safedistance,

the bearers

often turn the occasion into a performance, using cadence

and body language to dramatize the sacredness and heaviness

of the wrapped images.

Whenever an exceptionally potent image is to be exposed

in a public ritual that takes place mostly at night, a curfew is

usually in force. During the event a voice warns intermit-

tently, "Don't look at it [Aiw6 ]";'You see it, you die [ Won,

Woku.]"; "Don't look at it [Awoow ]."This is particularly the

case with the Agan, a mythological being that comes out on

the eve of the annual festival of masks (Odfin Egfingfin)

honoring the "Living Dead." The Agan image (sometimes

represented by a bundle of charms, a carving, a masked




25 Sacred images of creativity deity Obatala (right) and hiswife Yem66 (left), wrapped in white cloth to shield them from

public gaze; sitting behind the images is Obalale, the chief

priest of Obatala, Ife (photo: author, 1973)

figure, or spirit medium) is enveloped in darkness and closely

guarded by attendants holding whips. As the procession ap-

proaches an area, the residents are cautioned to put out all

the lights within and outside their houses to ensure totaldarkness. Now and then, an eerie voice cuts through the

night, followed by a chorus proclaiming the Agan's supernat-

ural power. For example:

Agan's arms are smaller than the sand fly's

Its tail is not as big as the ant's

Yet 1,460 men lifted Agan

And could not lift it to knee level.156

One divination verse hints at the dire consequences of spying

on the Agan:

Do not set your eyes on me

No one looks at the Orombo'57If the Agan comes out in daytime

Trees will fall upon trees; palms will fall upon one another

Forests will be razed to the ground

The savannah will burn out completely

This is what the Ifa oracle predicted for Mafojukanmi

[Do-Not-Set-Your-Eyes-on-Me]

Popularly called Agan.158

According to Peter Morton-Williams, a British anthropolo-

gist who did fieldwork in Yorubaland in the 1950s, the Agan

was accompanied by other "unlookable" beings during the

Egfngfin festival at Ota:

My escort to Ota had spent the night with his kinsmen,

shut in another house, and he told me the next day that

they had all been very much afraid, for they believed that

Agan and Matriwo had magic which enable[d] them to

"see" and attack anyone they wanted, wherever he was

hidden in a house. On the last night of the festival, there

is again a terrifying incursion, under the same conditions,

with people locked in their houses with lights extin-

guished. This visitation is of Aranta. The Aranta is said to

be accompanied by the voice of many animals and birds,

and the sound of "witchcraft," made with a variety of

voice-disguisers.159

It is important here to draw attention to the calculated use

of sound effects and picturesque language against the dark-

ness of the night, to project a surreal vision of the unseeable

while, at the same time, denying the people confined indoors

access to its material representation.160 The ultimate aim is to

control visual behavior and instill a reverential fear of the

sacred so complex that the mere realization that one has seen

the forbidden may precipitate the psychosomatic complica-

tions popularly associated with dw6f6jti(look and be blinded)

or dwoku (look and die).

New Forms, Old Values: Contemporary Developments

Since the turn of the twentieth century, Yorubaland, like

other parts of Africa, has been witnessing unprecedented

cultural, political, and economic transformations due to the

impact of Western education, modern technology, and in-

creasing urbanization. Yet manyYoruba have not totally aban-

doned their ancient customs. Mass conversion to Islam and

Christianity, both of which associate traditional sculpture

with paganism, has led some Yoruba to adopt new forms as

camouflage in order to continue with those indigenous val-

ues to which they are still emotionally attached. While mod-ern photography has encouraged a good majority to record

important events in their lives through individual and family

portraits, the fear lingers that a printed image is susceptible

to sympathetic magic. Hence, individuals keep their photo-

graph albums in a secure place to prevent them from falling

into the wrong hands. Some Yoruba herbalists advise that one

should hold one's breath while posing for a photograph to

immunize the image against sorcery. Photographs now play

major roles in a number of public and private ceremonies,

either alone or in conjunction with sculptures carved in the

traditional style.

The image on the lap of the seated woman in Figure 26

(carved by Ajayi Ibuke in 1970) represents the current king ofOy6, Alaafin Oba Lamidi Adeyemi II, who is required to be

present, in spirit but not in person, at certain public ceremo-

nies intended to promote the social and spiritual well-beingof his subjects. I took this picture in Oy6 in 1972 at the grand

finale of the annual festival in honor of Sang6, one of the

ancient kings of Old Oy6 who was deified and is now associ-

ated with thunder power (Fig. 18). The carved image has a

photograph of Oba Adeyemi attached to stress his liminal

role as a living representative of Sang6 on earth.161 All the

important guests arriving at the venue bowed before the

"photo-sculptural" image of Oba Adeyemi, and during the

ceremony it was the focus of attention. The drummers, danc-




ers, and Sang6-possession priests performed before it most of

the time. During the intervals, praise singers entered the

performance arena, moving back and forth in front of the

image and chanting the king's oriki (eulogy). The audience

responded intermittently with "Ka-bi-ye-si " (Long live the

king ). At the end of the ceremony, the chief possession

priest faced the image, as if it were the king himself, and

wished himgood health, long life, and the continued blessingof Sang6. In fact, when not in use, this carved portrait is usu-

ally kept inside the Sang6 temple in the K6so area of town,

an act that metaphorically places the king (Oba Adeyemi)

under the divine and protective gaze of Sango.

Enlarged photographs are now a popular substitute for

carved effigies in second-burial ceremonies, being buried in

the same manner as the effigies.162 In some cases, a second-

burial memorial for a hunter (ipdde)may be no more than an

assemblage of flintlocks, hunting dress, hat, and charms, in

front of which is displayed a photograph of the deceased.

Those who can afford the expenses now commission natural-

istic, Western-type memorials in cement, stone, or marble in

honor of deceasedparents.163 Yet,

in times ofcrisis,

these

memorials often double as shrines for clandestine rituals

enlisting the spiritual aid of the dead.

There is a peculiar use of photography in twin rituals that

denies the specificity of its naturalism in order to emphasize

the oneness n the twoness of twins. For instance, if one of the

pair should die without leaving behind a photographic im-

age, the surviving twin is photographed in the dress of the

deceased, becoming its proxy in the photograph, whether or

not they are identical. This photographic image thereafter

serves as a means of maintaining the twins' togetherness in

life and death. If the twins are of the same sex, the photog-

26 Woman carrying image (carved by Ajayi Ibuke of Oy6),with photograph attached, of Alddfinof Oy6, Oba Lamidi

Adeyemi II (photo: author, 1972)

27 Girl (right) wears male dress (left) to represent herdeceased twin brother, gelatin silver print, Ila Oranguin,Yoruba, 1975. Tucson, Center for Creative Photography, The

University of Arizona (photo: copyright David Sprague)

rapher sometimes exposes the image of the surviving twin

twice on the same paper, so that the living and the dead

(represented by the living) appear to be sitting side by side in

the print. But if the twins are of the opposite sex, the surviv-

ing twin is photographed in a male dress and then in a

female's. The two images are eventually combined in the

final print as if the twins had posed together (Fig. 27).164

Such photographs are thought to have spiritual powers and

are sometimes placed in shrines, receiving offerings of food

like the carved statuettes.165 As Marilyn Houlberg observed in

the field, "The life of the survivor is said to depend on theexistence and veneration of the photograph, just as it would

be in the case of a wood image."166 Through this photomon-

tage technique, contemporary Yoruba photographers perpet-

uate old values in new forms, especially the tradition of

deemphasizing individual identity for a collective one, which,

in the case of twins, affirms their sameness.

In sum, despite the impact of Western aesthetics and mod-

ern technology on the Yoruba, they have not completely

given up their belief in the ontological, mnemonic, and ritual

significance of dwordn(representation). Art in the traditional

styles continues to be made, though it is gradually being

modified to reflect the dynamics of change. Naturalistic por-

traits of living persons (in oil painting and other media)are

now a commonplace in Yorubaland, due, in part, to a grow-

ing acceptance of the documentary function of modern pho-

tography and, in part, to a significant decline in the fear of

sorcery, especially among the elites in the urban areas. Some-

times, as we have seen in twin memorials, the physical like-

ness inherent in photography may be ignored to make it

serve a conceptual and ritual function, so that the same form

may be duplicated to represent the self and its metaphysical

Other. In short, a strong belief in an interface of the visible

and invisible, the tangible and intangible, the known and

unknown makes it evident that the act of looking and seeing

in Yoruba culture is much more than a perception of objects



522 ART BULLETIN SEPTEMBER 2001 VOLUME LXXXI II NUMBER 3

by use of the eyes. It is a social experience as well, involving,on the one hand, a delicate balance of culturally determined

modes of perceiving and interpreting reality and, on the

other, individual reactions to specific images and spectacles.

Babatunde Lawal is professorof art history,Virginia Commonwealth

University.He has publishedextensivelyon traditional and contem-porary African art, most recentlyThe Gelede Spectacle: Art,

Gender, and Social Harmony in an African Culture (1996). A

new book,Sang6: Art, Spirit Mediumship, and Thunder Power

in Yoruba Culture, is nearing completion [Department of Art

History, Schoolof theArts, Virginia CommonwealthUniversity,PO

Box 843046, Richmond, Va. 23284-3046, [email protected]].

Frequently Cited Sources

Abiodun, Rowland, "A Reconsideration of the Function of Ak6, Second Burial

Effigy of Owo," Africa, Journal of the International African Institute 46, no. 1

(1976): 4-20.

Abiodun, Rowland, HenryJ. Drewal, andJohn Pemberton III, eds., The YorubaArtist: New TheoreticalPerspectiveson African Arts (Washington, D.C.: Smith-

sonian Institution Press, 1994).

Akinjogbin, Isaac A., ed. The Cradle of a Race: Ife from the Beginning to 1980

(Portharcourt, Nigeria: Sunray, 1992).

Beier, Ulli, YorubaPoetry:An Anthology of Traditional Poems (Cambridge: Cam-

bridge University Press, 1970).

Blier, Suzanne, "Kings, Crowns, and Rights of Succession: Obalufon Arts at Ife

and Other Yoruba Centers," Art Bulletin 67 (1985): 383-401.

Drewal, Henry J., and John Pemberton with Rowland Abiodun, Yoruba:Nine

Centuries of African Art and Thought (New York: Center for African Art,

1989).

Eyo Ekpo and Frank Willett, Treasuresof Ancient Nigeria (New York: Alfred A.

Knopf, 1980).

Fabunmi, Michael A., Ife Shrines (Ile-Ife, Nigeria: University of Ife Press, 1969).

Idowu, E. Bolaji, Olodumare: God in YorubaBelief, rev. ed. (New York: Original

Publications, 1995).

Lawal, Babatunde, 1974, "Some Aspects of Yoruba Aesthetics," BritishJournal

of Aesthetics14, no. 3: 239-49., 1996, The GeledeSpectacle:Art, Gender,and Social Harmony in an African

Culture (Seattle: University of Washington Press).

Willett, Frank, 1966, "On the Funeral Effigies of Owo and Benin, and the

Interpretation of the Life-Size Bronze Heads from Ife," Man, Journal of the

Royal Anthropological Insitute, n.s., 1: 34-45.

, 1967, Ife in the History of WestAfrican Sculpture (New York: McGraw-

Hill).

Notes

The first version of this article (titled "Beyond Physiognomy: The SignifyingFace in Yoruba Art and Thought") was presented at a special session of the

African Studies Workshop, University of Chicago, Jan. 27, 1998. I am gratefulto Ralph Austen, Andrew Apter, Fredrika Jacobs, Howard Risatti, Robert

Hobbs, Sharon Hill, Allan Roberts, Polly Nooter Roberts, and the anonymousArt Bulletin readers for their thoughtful comments. Special thanks are due to

John T. Paoletti and Perry Chapman for their criticisms, insights, and sugges-

tions, Lory Frankel for her meticulous copyediting, and Ulli Beier, George

Chemeche, Justine Cordwell, Ron Epps, Robin Poynor, Robert Farris Thomp-

son, Frank Willett, and Richard Woodward for photographic assistance. I

would also like to acknowledge the research support provided by the FacultyGrant-in-Aid and the School of the Arts Research Leave programs, VirginiaCommonwealth University. Translations are mine unless otherwise indicated.

1. See Babatunde Lawal, "The Role of Art in Orisa Worship among the

Yoruba," in Proceedingsof the First WorldCongress of Orisa Tradition, ed. Wande

Abimbola (Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Department of African Languages and Literatures,

University of Ife, 1981), 318-25. Whereas aworan is a generic term for all

artistic representations, the word ere refers to an image in the round, that is,a piece of sculpture. The word adr denotes an intricate design or pattern,

although it is also used to describe a tour de force manifested in the visual and

performing arts.

2. For example, awo means plate; awo, fishing net; and awo, secrecy.3. See also A Dictionary of the YorubaLanguage (Lagos: Oxford University

Press, 1968); and R. C. Abraham, Dictionary of Modern Yoruba (London: Uni-

versity of London Press, 1958).4. Richard Brilliant, Portraiture Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press,

1991), 11.

5. See Samuel Johnson, The History of the Yorubasrom theEarliest Times to the

Beginning of the British Protectorates Lagos: Church Missionary Society, 1921);Saburi 0. Biobaku, ed., Sourcesof YorubaHistory (Oxford: Clarendon Press,

1973); Wande Abimbola, ed., YorubaOral Tradition (Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Depart-

ment of African Languages and Literatures, University of Ife, 1975); ToyinFalola, ed., Yoruba Historiography (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin

Press, 1991); and Abiodun et al. In his extensive study of oral tradition in

Africa and other parts of the world, Jan Vansina has demonstrated that, while

they may not be as reliable as written documentation, oral traditions "embodya message from the past" and so can contribute much to the reconstruction

of the past, provided that they are used with caution and correlated with

independent evidence. See Vansina, Oral Tradition as History (Madison, Wis.:

University of Wisconsin Press, 1985); and idem, Art History in Africa (London:

Longman, 1984).6. The city's name Ife is an abbreviation of Ile-Ife, meaning "the place from

where civilization spread to other lands." The two names are used inter-

changeably in the literature on Yoruba art. For consistency, I use Ife through-out this article, except in quoted passages and bibliographic references.

7. Notwithstanding the fact that they spoke different dialects of the same

language, each kingdom was independent of the other and identified by a

distinct name. The term Yoruba formerly applied only to the Oy6 subgroup.However, after the British colonization of Nigeria in the 19th century, the

term was used to categorize all the kingdoms speaking the same language as

the Oyo. For a good introduction to the history and culture of the Yoruba, seeG. J. Afolabi Ojo, Yoruba Culture:A GeographicalAnalysis (London: Universityof London Press, 1966); and Robert S. Smith, Kingdoms of the Yoruba,3d ed.

(Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988). For a comprehensive

survey of Yoruba art, see Robert F. Thompson, Black Gods and Kings, YorubaArt

at U.C.L.A. (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971); and Drewal et

al.

8.J. Olumide Lucas, The Religion of the Yorubas(Lagos: Church Missionary

Society, 1948), 93-97; Ulli Beier, "The Historical and Psychological Signifi-cance of Yoruba Myths," Odu, Journal of Yoruba and Related Studies 1 (1955):

19-22; and Idowu, 25-27. For details, see Biodun Adediran, "The Early

Beginnings of the Ife State," in Akinjogbin, 77.

9. For details, see John Wyndham, Myths of Ife (London: Erskine Mac-

donald, 1921), 13-34; Phillips Stevens, "Orisa-Nla Festival," Nigeria Magazine,no. 90 (1966): 187; Idowu, 18-27; Fabunmi, 6-7; Smith (as in n. 7), 14; and

Isola Olomola, "Ife before Odfiduwa," in Akinjogbin, 51-61.

10. Adediran (as in n. 8), 90; and Isaac Akinjogbin, "The Growth of Ife from

Oduduwa to 1800," in Akinjogbin, 98.

11. For details, see Abiodun A. Adediran and Samuel A. Arifalo, "The

Religious Festivals of Ife," in Akinjogbin, 305-17; and Joel Adedeji, "Folkloreand Yoruba Drama: Obatala as a Case Study," in African Folklore,ed. Richard

M. Dorson (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1972), 321-39. See

also Blier, 3, 386.

12. For a review of the evidence, see Robin C. Law, "The Heritage of

Oduduwa Traditions: History and Political Propaganda," Journal of African

History 14, no. 2 (1973): 207-22; Ade Obayemi, "The Yoruba and Edo-

Speaking Peoples and Their Neighbours before 1600," in Historyof WestAfrica,ed. J.F.A. Ajayi and Michael C. Crowder, vol. 1 (London: Longman, 1971),

196-263; Isola Olomola, "The Eastern Yoruba Country before Odfiduwa: A

Reassessment," in The Proceedingsof the Conferenceon Yoruba Civilization, ed.

Isaac A. Akinjogbin and G. 0. Ekemode (Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Department of

History, University of Ife, 1976), 34-73; Ulli Beier, "Before Oduduwa," Odu,

Journal of Yorubaand Related Studies3 (1956): 25-42; Robin Horton, "Ancient

Ife: A Reassessment," Journal of the Historical Societyof Nigeria 9, no. 4 (1979):

69-150; and Samuel 0. Arifalo, "Egbe Omo Oduduwa: Structure and Strat-

egy," Odi, Journal of WestAfrican Studies, n.s., no. 21 (1981): 73-96. To further

reinforce the Omo Oduiduwadoctrine, the Yoruba also call themselves Omo e

k'aaddro,6 ji ire? (Those who love to say, "Good morning, did you wake up

well?)-alluding to the emphasis on courtesy in their culture. The quest forsocial harmony is emphasized in the proverb "Ek'aaro e oji ire ki i s'omo iya

ija" (figuratively, Good neighborliness and quarrelsomeness are not compat-

ible).13. Idowu, 71. This prayer is necessary because Obatala is characterized in

some myths as a habitual drinker who, when drunk, creates albinos, hunch-

backs, cripples, and other disfigured persons.14. For details, see Wande Abimbola, "Iwapele: The Concept of Good

Character in Ifa Literary Corpus," in Abimbola (as in n. 5), 389-418; Lawal,

1974, 239-49; Rowland Abiodun, "Identity and Artistic Process in Yoruba

Aesthetic Concept of Iwa,"Journal of Cultureand Ideas 1, no. 1 (1983): 13-30;

and idem, "The Future of African Studies: An African Perspective," in AfricanStudies: TheFuture of theDiscipline, SymposiumOrganizedby the National Museum

of African Art (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990), 63-89.

15. The identification of the female body with procreation was probably

responsible for the taboo in the past that a woman should not engage in

sculpture because it might interfere with her reproductive power. Hence, only




postmenopausalwomen were allowed to do figurativepottery.Although thistaboo is still strong in rural Yorubaland,it is no longer honored by theWestern-educatedYoruba n the urban areas,who now allow their daughtersto specializein sculpturein art school.

16. See Beier, 19-20. AnotherYorubawordfor mother is iyeor yeye,which

means, according to several field informants,"the one who laid me [ye] likean egg."Because of the tonal nature of the Yoruba anguage, it is significantto note that while ydmeans to visualize or fashion in any medium, ydmeansto draw. I am gratefulto severalYoruba artists or the ideas expressedin this

paragraph, most especially, Michael Labode of Idofoyi, Ayetoro, Ganiyu

Sekoni Doga of Imeko (both interviewed in 1971), Ajayi Ibuke of Oy6(interviewedin 1972-73), Gbetu Asude of Ife (interviewedin 1971); and

George Bamidele of Osi Ekiti (interviewed n 1973).17. The carver Ganiyu Sekoni Doga of Imeko drew my attention to a

cognate term, drogbe, contraction of a (actof), r6(to thinkor imagine), and

gbe(to carve).18. The Earth Goddess is frequentlyrepresented on the altar as a pair of

male and female figures to symbolizeher androgynousnature and the factthat she transcends the manifestation of gender in the physicalworld. Formore details,see BabatundeLawal,"AYAGBO,A YATO:NewPerspectivesonEdan Ogb6ni,"AfricanArts28, no. 1 (1995): 36-49, 98-100; Peter Morton-

Williams,"AnOutline of the Cosmologyof the Oy6Yoruba,"Africa, ournaloftheInternational frican nstitute 4 (1964): 243-60; and E. Roache-Selk,Fromthe Womb f theEarth:An Appreciationf Yoruba ronzeArt(Washington,D.C.:

UniversityPress of America,1978).19.AlthoughYorubaartistshaveproducedworks n variousmedia, ranging

from clayand ivoryto stone, iron, and brass,a good majorityof them are inwood. This is partlybecause wood is easyto sculpt and partlybecause muchof Yorubaland ies in the rain-forestzone with abundant trees for carving.

20. For more details, see Peter Lloyd, "CraftOrganizations in YorubaTowns,"Africa, ournal of theInternational frican nstitute 3 (1953): 30-44;and Abiodun et al.

21.Abiodun, 1990 (as in n. 14), 76-77.22. See also Kevin C. Carroll,YorubaReligiousCarving London: Geoffrey

Chapman,1967), 94-95; and Tunde Akinyemi,"Is6Ona Sise," n IseIsenbaye,ed. T. M. Ilesanmi (Ile6-If,Nigeria:ObafemiAwolowoUniversityPress,1989),257-59.

23. I am especiallygratefulto indigenous carverssuch as GeorgeBamideleof Osi Ekiti,AjayiIbuke of Oy6, and GaniyuSekoni Doga of Imeko for their

hospitality during my fieldwork. For more information on dse, see Pierre

Verger,"TheYorubaHigh God:A Reviewof the Sources,"Odu,Universityf IfeJournal of AfricanStudies2, no. 2 (1966): 19-40; and Rowland Abiodun,"UnderstandingYorubaArt and Aesthetics:The Concept of Ase,"AfricanArts27, no. 3 (1994): 68-78, 102-3.

24. For more information on onri, see ChiefJ. A. Ayorinde, "Oriki," nBiobaku (as in n. 5), 63-76; Bolanle Awe, "Notes on Oriki and Warfare nYorubaland,"n Abimbola (as in n. 5), 267-92; and Karen Barber,I Could

Speak ntilTomorrow:riki,Women,nd thePast n a Yoruba own Washington,

D.C.: SmithsonianInstitutionPress,1991).25. WandeAbimbola,Ifd:AnExpositionfIfd LiteraryCorpusIbadan,Nige-ria:Oxford UniversityPress, 1976), 133-34 (trans.).Yorubatext: "Bimo ba16w6 16w6 Ori ni n 6 r6 ffun Ori mi iwo ni / Bi mo ba bimo lay6/ Ori nin 6 r6 fun / Ori mi iwo ni / Iregbogbo ti mo ba ni lay6 Ori ni n 6 r6 fun /Ori mi iwo ni."

26. For more details,see BabatundeLawal,"Orilonise:he Hermeneutics ofthe Head and Hairstylesamong theYoruba,"n Hair n AfricanArtandCulture,ed. Roy Sieber and Frank Herreman (New York:Museum of African Art;Munich:Prestel, 2000), 93-109.

27. OlabiyiB.Yai,"InPraise of Metonymy:The Conceptsof 'Tradition'and

'Creativity'n the Transmissionof YorubaArtistryover Time and Space," nAbiodun et al., 107.

28. Fordetails,see BabatundeLawal,"Ori:The Significanceof the Head inYorubaSculpture,"ournalofAnthropologicalesearch1, no. 1 (1985): 91-103.

29. For more on Esu,see Idowu, 78-83; Joan Wescott,"TheSculptureandMythsof Eshu-Elegba,he YorubaTrickster,"Africa, ournalof the nternational

Africannstitute32,no. 4 (1962): 337-54;JuanaE. dos Santos and Deoscoredesdos Santos, Esu Bara LdroyeIbadan, Nigeria: Institute of African Studies,

Universityof Ibadan,1971); andJohn Pemberton,"Eshfu-Elegba:he YorubaTricksterGod,"AfricanArts9, no. 1 (1975): 20-27, 66-70, 90-91.30.WandeAbimbola,"TheYorubaConcept of Human Personality,"n La

notiondepersonne n Afrique:Colloquesnternationaux u CentreNationalde laRecherchecientifique,o. 544 (Paris:Centre National de la Recherche Scien-

tifique,1971), 80. See also Lawal(asin n. 28), 91-103; and RowlandAbiodun,"Verbal nd VisualMetaphors:MythicalAllusionsin YorubaRitualisticArt ofOri,"Word ndImage, ournalof Verbal-Visualnquiry , no. 3 (1987): 252-70.

31. ChristopherL. Adeoye, Asa ati Ise YorubaOxford: Oxford UniversityPress,1979), 30.

32. In theYoruba anguage,the wordojurefers to both the face and the eye;the eyeballis eyinojzi the egg of the eye). The face, asused in thisarticle,also

implicatesthe eyes, except when it is necessaryto differentiate the one fromthe other.

33. William Bascom, Ifd Divination: Communication betweenMen and Gods inWestAfrica Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana UniversityPress,1969), 159.

34. Ibid., 97.

35. See also Nathaniel Fadipe, TheSociologyf the YorubaIbadan,Nigeria:Universityof IbadanPress,1970), 285-86.

36. Philip Allison, AfricanStoneSculptureNew York: Frederick Praeger,1968), 21.

37. Labolarinde is the name of the individualbeing asked to go and lookfor Esfi'sfigure at the citygate.

38. PierreVerger,Notes urle cultedes Orisd t Vodund Bahia,la Baiede touslesSaints,au Bresilet d l'AncienneCotedesEsclaves n AfriqueDakar,Senegal:IFAN,1957), 127.Yoruba text: "A1e kiurui 1ega / 0 nlo ninu epa atari renhan firifiri Opelopegigati 6 ga / Esu ni 6gun ori aroni 6 fi buiyosi ob&....

/ Labolarind6,i o ba d6 bode ti o k6 bAba ni enu odi ni nro oko / On na ni6 da oko nibiti arfgb6 1ede." See also Pemberton (as in n. 29), 25;Beier, 28;and Adeoye (as in n. 31), 32.

39. For the Yoruba,iwdhas two aspects,the external and internal;the onehas to do withphysicalappearance,and the other with character.Bothaspectsare takeninto considerationin the assessmentof an individual'sbeauty(ewd).For instance, a person with a beautiful body but who has an unpleasantcharacter is regarded as no more than a wooden doll, whereas the popularsaying asserts,"Iwa 'ewa" (Characterdetermines beauty). For details, seeLawal, 1974, 239-49.

40. Robert F. Thompson, "YorubaArtistic Criticism," n The TraditionalArtist n AfricanSociety,d. WarrenL. d'Azevedo (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana

UniversityPress,1973), 32.41. For more on the Yorubaconcept of the spirit double, see Raymond

Prince, "IndigenousYorubaPsychiatry,"n Magic,Faith and Healing,ed. AriKiev(NewYork:FreePress,1964), 93-94; and Idowu,173. In the case of twins

(ibeji),omeYorubabelieve that an individual has been born alongwith his orher spirit double. For details, see MarilynHoulberg, "IbejiImages of theYoruba,"AfricanArts7, no. 1 (1973): 20-27, 91.

42. Frequently,the patient may be given some herbal mixture to drink oran amulet to wear on the body to link the portraitwith the portrayed.

43. Informants wish to remain anonymousbecause of the sensitivenatureof the materials. According to them, to prevent abortion or prematuredelivery, or instance, a piece of twine maybe wound around the belly of animage representing the patient. This ritual is called oyuindide (tying ofpregnancy). The twinewould be removed a few weeks before the babywasdue, otherwise,normal deliverywould be impossible. In sorcery, the samemethod maybe used to delay or postpone deliveryindefinitely.That is whyanywoman with an unusually ong pregnancy s advised to consult divinerstohelp trace the cause. A patient with persistent or chronic body pain issometimes given a small effigy to be kept veryclose to the body so that thepain can transfer nto it. Aftera while, the effigyis thrown nto a riverto coolthe pain. Gagging an effigy may cause the subject to stammer or becomeincoherent or speechless. This is called edi (muzzling). Another form of ediinvolvesbinding up an effigy'slimbs with a string to hamper movement orcause paralysis.WilliamFaggillustratesa bound figure in his book MiniatureWoodCarvings f WestAfrica Greenwich,Conn.: New York GraphicSociety,1970), pl. 24, although, according to him, the function of the string is

unknown. An image with a swollen leg or scrotum is expected to causeelephantiasis, hough the sameimagemaybe used to effect a cure. In a specialritual called dpeta invoke and shoot) or idppa(invoke and kill), a clayeffigyis procured and then shot at with a gun or poisoned arrow. The subject isexpected to die sooner or later.Among the Fon of the Republic of Benin,"power mages"variouslycalled bocio bo,charm,and cio,corpse) and atin vlegbeto atin, wood, vle,resembling, and gbeto,human being) perform similarfunctions. Some bocio re portraitsof specific individuals,while others repre-sent personifiednatureforces.Fordetails,see Suzanne P. Blier,AfricanVodun:Art,Psychology,nd Power Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress,1995).

44. LewisHyde, Trickster akesThisWorld:Mischief,Myth, ndArt NewYork:Farrar,Strausand Giroux, 1998), 7-10. See also Lawal, 1974, 242-43.

45. TimothyA. Awoniyi,"Omolufiwabi:he FundamentalBasis of YorubaTraditionalEducation," n Abimbola (as in n. 5), 379.

46. Idowu, 11; and Fabunmi,8.47. As cautioned in the popularproverb:"Bi su eni ba tfi,nse ni a a f'ow6

bo oje" (Aftercooking a good yam,one mustcover one's mouth while eatingit). In otherwords,to avoid thejealousyof the have-nots,one mustnot paradeone's good fortune in public. SeeJ. 0. Ajibola,OweYorubaIbadan,Nigeria:

Oxford UniversityPress,1979), 63.48. In the past, physiognomywas considered an important aspect of por-traiture in the West. For a review of the literature,see Hans P. L'Orange,Apotheosisn AncientPortraiture1947; reprint, New Rochelle, N.Y.:CaratzasBrothers, 1982); Flavio Caroli, StoriadellaFisiognomica: rtee psicologiadaLeornado Freud(Milan:Leonardo, 1995); ChristopherRivers,FaceValue:

Physiognomicalhought nd theLegibleBody n Marivaux,Lavater,Balzac,Gau-thier,and Zola(Madison,Wis.:Universityof WisconsinPress,1994); FredrikaJacobs, Defining heRenaissanceVirtuosa:WomenArtistsand theLanguageofArt

History nd CriticismNewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1997);JenniferMontagu, TheExpressionf thePassions:TheOriginand Influence f CharlesLeBrun's "Conferenceur l'expression enerale t particuliere"New Haven: Yale

UniversityPress, 1994); Ernst H. Gombrich, "The Maskand the Face: ThePerception of PhysiognomicLikeness in Life and Art," n Art,PerceptionndReality, d. Ernst H. Gombrich,Julian Hochberg, and MaxBlack (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins UniversityPress, 1972), 1-46; andJoanna Woodall, ed., Por-traiture: acingtheSubjectManchester:ManchesterUniversityPress, 1997).




See also Daniel P. Biebuyck,ed., Tradition ndCreativityn TribalArt Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress,1969); and RobertF. Thompson, AfricanArt nMotion LosAngeles: Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1974).

49. A second-burialfigure is called ako f it representsa deceased chief or

communityleader and ipade f it representsa deceased hunter. However,the

ipademay also represent those who are not hunters, including women. SeeP. 0. Ogunbowale,Asa IbileYorubaIbadan,Nigeria:OxfordUniversityPress,1966), 60-61.

50. The following song sung during an akodisplay n Owo is alsosignificant:"May be privileged o burymyfather May be privileged o burymyfather

Despite all evil machinations Despiteall evil forces / I will carrymy fatherthrough the path of honour . . ." See Abiodun, 10-11. Note the oriki ordeceased twins cited below at n. 105.

51. For more information on second-burial images, see Justine Cordwell,"Naturalism nd StylizationnYorubaArt,"Magazine fArt46 (1953): 220-25;Willett, 1966, 34-45; Abiodun,4-20; BabatundeLawal,"TheLivingDead:Artand Immortalityamong the Yoruba,"Africa,ournalof theInternational fricanInstitute 7, no. 1 (1977): 50-61; and RobinPoynor,"Ak6Figuresof Ow6 andSecond Burials in Southern Nigeria," AfricanArts21, no. 1 (1988): 62-63,81-83, 86-87.

52. Abiodun, 14-15. In other cases, the child, clad in the best dressof thedeceased (regardlessof whether the dress s oversize),is led around the town,functioning like a living effigy. If the deceased was a chief, the human

surrogatewould be greeted, addressed,and paid the same respectsas one.

However,the human surrogate s not buriedlike an effigy.See Lawal(asin n.

51), 52.53. Abiodun, 11 (trans.).Yoruba text: "Or6nayeo / Wana ire / Waa bero

t6oll / Oluda iramen.... / Agadamimi ye rekun eje / Urogho ola / Ba mi1e esfuleo / Oma ow66to6n woosin 6gh6 / Urogh6 ola, ba mi 1eesul6 o."

54.Yoruba ext:"Maj'okunrun Maj'ek6olo6Ohun tiw6n nje l'ajfulerun /Ni ki o ba won e / 0 di gbere / 0 di arinako 0 di ojiuala Ki a t6 rira."Forvariantsof this dirge, see BadeAjuwon,FuneralDirges f YorubaHunters NewYork:Nok, 1982), 66-67; and BabatundeOlatunji,"Asa sinkuatiOgunjije,"in IweAsaIbileYoruba,d. OludareOlajubu(Ikeja,Nigeria: Longman, 1978),77-78.

55. To the Yoruba, the souls of those who died prematurelydo not godirectly to the Afterlife (Ehin-Iwd).uch souls mayrelocate in foreign lands,reincarnate in bodies identical to those interred, and continue to live likenormal human beings. Some reincarnatedsouls (akdaadddyd)ayeven remarryand have children. Fordetails,see WilliamBascom,"TheYorubaConcept of

the Soul," in Men and Cultures,d. A.F.C.Wallace (Berkeley:Universityof

CaliforniaPress, 1960), 401-10.56. For more information on second-burial mages, see Cordwell (as in n.

51), 220-25; Willett, 1966, 34-45; Abiodun,4-20; Lawal(asin n. 51), 50-61;and Poynor (as in n. 51).

57. Willett, 1966, 37. See also Abiodun, 14-15.58. FrankWillet, "A Further Shrine for a Hunter,"Man 65 (1965): 66.

59. For an illustration,see Ajuwon (as in n. 54), 132, 133.

60. These face marks identify an individual with a particularfamily orlineage. For illustrations,see Lawal(as in n. 51), pl. 1. Two differentviewsof

the image are illustratedin this article.61. See, for example, Cordwell (as in n. 51), 220-25; Willett, 1967, 26-27;

and Eyo and Willett,34. The German anthropologistLeo Frobeniuswasthe

first to bring the Ife heads to the attention of Westernscholars in the earlyyearsof the 20th century.See Frobenius,TheVoicefAfrica1913;reprint,New

York:BenjaminBloom, 1968).62. Cordwell (as in n. 51), 224; Willett, 1967, 23, 26-27; and Eyo and

Willett,34.63. See, for example, RowlandAbiodun,reviewof AfricanArtandLeadership,

ed. DouglasFraserand HerbertM.Cole, Odu,n.s., 10 (1974): 138;and HenryJ. Drewal,"Ife:Origins of Art and Civilization,"n Drewal et al., 66-67.

64. Drewal (as in n. 63), 66-67.65. Akinjogbin,"Ife:The Yearsof Travail,1793-1893,"in Akinjogbin,148-

49.66. Ironically,even though abobakus a commonlyused term,it is forbidden

to say openly that a king (oba)has died (ku). Rather, one must use the

euphemism obawdja,meaning "the king has ascended the roof" to join his

ancestors.67. See Idowu,224-25. Accordingto the legend, the next kingwas so angrywith the plotters that he ordered their execution, including all the court

artists nvolved.See also Willett, 1967, 150.68. The fact that the crownsworn by some of the Ife brassand terra-cotta

heads do not appearto have a beaded veil (Fig.1) mayindicate that between

the 12th and 15th centuries, ancient Ife kings did not cover their face when

appearingin public. If so, it would be unnecessary o conceal the face of their

second-burialfigures. However, the absence of a veil on the crownworn bythis figure cannot be taken as incontrovertibleevidence that the kingsof the

time appeared in public without veils. From the dress of the figure, it is

evident thatbeaded ornamentsformed an important partof the royalregaliaat this time. Indeed, the Are crown, said to predate the arrival of Oduduwa in

Ife, had a veil, though it is uncertain whether it was made of beads (see

Adediran [as in n. 8], 84-86; an Are crown is illustrated in Omotoso Eluyemi,Oba Adesoji Aderemi:50 Yearsin the History of Il-Ife [Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Ogunbiyi

Printing Press, 1980], pl. 25). The Oduduwa dynasty is credited with intro-

ducing the bead-embroidered crown with veil and bird motifs to the Yoruba.But according to Olomola (as in n. 12), 56-57, the Oduduwa dynasty would

seem to have simply used a preexisting design as a model for its beaded

crown. The question then arises: Is the absence of a beaded veil on the crown

worn by many of the Ife (post-Odfiduwa) king figures due to the technical

problems of modeling the veil in clay and casting it in brass? Alternatively, the

type of crown worn by a good majority of the Ife figures may very well belongto the category of coronets called ornkogb6focasual headgear) worn by the

king within the palace, when his face was uncovered.

69. Bode Osanyin, "A Cross-road of History, Legend and Myth: The Case of

the Origin of Adamuofirisa," in "The Masquerade in Nigerian History andCulture: Proceedings of a Workshop, September 7-14, 1980," ed. Nwanna

Nzewunwa (School of Humanities, University of Portharcourt, Portharcourt,

Nigeria, 1982, mimeographed), 411-14. One legend traces its origin to the

17th century during the reign of Oba (king) Addo, while another claims that

it began in the 18th century when Oba Ologun Kutere was on the throne.

70. Ibid., 432-33.

71. Ibid., 410; and MichaelJ.C. Echeruo, VictorianLagos: Aspects of Nineteenth

Century Lagos Life (London: Macmillan, 1977), 69-70.

72. As Olumide Lucas (as in n. 8), 145, has observed, "Even the Oba [the

reigning king] ... may himself be an Eyo [masquerade] on that day." Since

the 1940s, the function of the Admfuorisah festival has been expanded.Whereas in the past it was staged to honor only kings, chiefs, and members of

the royal family, today it may also be staged to honor distinguished citizens of

Lagos and to mark important events. See Osanyin (as in n. 69), 433.

73. Jacob Egharevba, A ShortHistoryof Benin (Ibadan, Nigeria: University of

Ibadan Press, 1960), 12. According to Egharevba, this tradition stopped when

Oba Oguola (who reigned in the 13th-14th century) requested the king of Ife

to send a brass caster to teach Benin artists how to cast in metal. An Ife brass

caster called Iguehae was later sent to Benin City. See also Willett, 1967, 132;and Paula G. Ben-Amos, The Art of Benin, rev. ed. (Washington, D.C.: Smith-

sonian Institution Press, 1995), 20-25.

74. Nathaniel A. Fadipe, The Sociologyof the Yoruba Ibadan, Nigeria: Ibadan

University Press, 1970), 206.

75. Ibid., 207.

76. For a review of the Ife king list, see Akinjogbin (as in n. 10), 96-121.

77. Adediran (as in n. 8), 90; and Akinjogbin (as in n. 10), 96-97.

78. Adediran (as in n. 8), 91; and Akinjogbin (as in n. 10), 96-97. Aldafin

(owner of the palace), the Oyo title for the king, evidently derives from olofin,which is said to have been first used by Oduduwa.

79. Adediran (as in n. 8), 91-93. Until recently, some scholars had assumed

that it was Obalufon who led the Igb6 raids on Ife because he had been

deposed by Oranmiyan (see, for instance, Adedeji [as in n. 11], 326-27,

quoting J. 0. Abiri; and Blier, 388-89, quoting Adedeji). But, as Adediran

(ibid.) and Fabunmi, 17, have pointed out, the defeat of the Igbo occurred

during the second reign of Obalufon (Alaye/moore), when the Ife heroine

Moremi allowed herself to be captured by the Igbo. She later married the

Igb6 king, acquired knowledge of the Igb6 war strategies, and then escaped.

She returned to Ife and revealed these strategies to Obalufon, and the Igb6were routed when next they raided Ife. See also Duro Ladipo, Moremi(Lagos:

Macmillan, 1971).80. For a comprehensive review of Ife art and culture, see Willett, 1967.

81. Fabunmi, 10-11. See also Adediran (as in n. 8), 90-91; and Akinjogbin

(as in n. 10), 98-99, 105.

82. See Blier, 385-90. According to Frank Willett, 1967 (150), the Obalufon

mask might have been worn by somebody masquerading as the king, possibly

playing the role of Obalufon at certain ceremonies.

83. Akinjogbin (as in n. 10), 99.

84. Willett, 1967, 57, 150; and Sir Adesoji Aderemi, "Notes on the City of

Ife," Nigeria Magazine 12 (1937): 3-6.

85.Johnson (as in n. 5), 3-8; and Saburi 0. Biobaku, The Origin of the

Yoruba, Humanities Monograph Series, no. 1 (Lagos: University of Lagos,

1971), 8-13.

86. See Johnson (as in n. 5), 59.

87. Akinjogbin (as in n. 10), 104. According to some accounts, Debooyelater succeeded her father, although others claim that she became king not

immediately, but several years later. Only a few female kings are mentioned in

the If&king list, the most famous being Luwo.88. At Old Oyo, there was a custom of commissioning a carved, though

sylized, portrait of a new king to serve as his surrogate at certain public and

private ceremonies. The tradition has survived at present-day Oyo (see below

at n. 161 and Fig. 26). Elsewhere in Africa, among the Kuba of Zaire, it was the

practice in the past to make a stylized portrait (ndop) of a new king at the

beginning of his reign, which then served as his surrogate on certain occa-

sions. This portrait was also involved in the ritual transfer of royal power from

a deceased king to his successor. See Jan Vansina, "Ndop: Royal Statues

among the Kuba," in African Art and Leadership, ed. Douglas Fraser and

Herbert M. Cole (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1972), 41-55;

and Monni Adams, "18th Century Kuba King Figures," African Arts 21, no. 3

(1988): 32-38, 88.89. See Willett, 1967, 28-30; and idem, "StylisticAnalysisand the Identifi-

cationof Artists'Workshopsn AncientIfe," n Abiodunet al., 49-57. Because

of the heads' formaland stylisticsimilarities,Kenneth Murray "AncientIfe:Letterto the Editor,"Odu [1963]:71-80) hassuggestedthat agood majority




might have been made by one or two artistswithin a short period. AgreeingwithMurray,Blier, 395-99, is of the opinion that, given the fact that most of

the heads resemble the Obalufo6nmask (Fig. 14), they may very well be

associatedwith that famous ruler.90. The leading Yorubahistorian IsaacAdeagbo Akinjogbinrefers to the

Omo Oduduwd oncept as the "EbiCommonwealth"; hat is, an "extended

family."See IsaacA.Akinjogbin,Dahomeynd ItsNeighbours,708-1818 (Cam-

bridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1967), 14-17. Some of the Ife heads have

striationsand raisedweals on the face, but we arenot sure at the moment that

such facialmarkingsrefer to particular ndividuals. Since people withsimilar

facialmarkingsare to be found in the northwesternand northeasternpartsof

Nigeria,hundreds of miles away rom Ife, is it possible that such heads refer

to outsiders? It is significant, however, that some Yoruba oral traditions

identify Oduduwai as coming from the northeastern part of present-dayNigeria.

91.Jean Borgatti, "Portraituren Africa,"AfricanArts23, no. 3 (1990):35-36; see also Borgattiand RichardBrilliant,Likeness nd Beyond: ortraits

fromAfricaand the WorldNewYork:Center for AfricanArt, 1990).92. For illustrations,see Willett, 1967, colorpls.v, vi, pl. 62.93. See Peter S. Garlake,"Excavations t Obalara'sLand, Ife: An Interim

Report,"WestAfrican ournalof Archaeology (1974): 111-48; and Eyo and

Willett,fig. 30.94. Garlake(asin n. 93), 146.Forother representationsof diseasedpersons

in Ife art, see Willett,1967, 63, pl. 40, figs. 7, 8.95. Garlake(as in n. 93).96. Omotoso Eluyemi,"NewTerracottaFindsat Oke-Es6,Ife,"AfricanArts

9, no. 1 (1975): 34. See also Willett, 1967, 68.97. According to RowlandAbiodun, the heads represented in this basket

maybe those of

"strangers,"ince it wasforbiddenin ancient times to sacrifice

an Ow6 indigene in local shrines. See RowlandAbiodun, "TheKingdom of

Owo," n Drewalet al., 101.98. Fordetails,see BabatundeLawal,"FromAfrica to the New World:Art in

YorubaReligion," n SanteriaAestheticsn ContemporaryatinAmerican rt,ed.Arturo Lindsay (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996),3-37.

99. RichardLaw,TheOy6Empire,. 1600-c. 1836: A WestAfricanmperialismin theEraof theAtlanticSlaveTrade Oxford:Oxford UniversityPress, 1977),32-33.

100.Beier, 31. Indeed, the frequency of the equestrianwarriormotif in

Sang6'soriki reflects the criticalrole playedby the cavalryn the heydaysofthe Old Oy6 empire, between the 17th and 19th centuries, when its kings

(aldafin)controlled a good part of northern and southwesternYorubaland.We are also reminded of the importance attached to Sang6's apotheosisduring the period when his veneration as an ancestor was elevated to a state

religion (transforminghim into a deity [risda]and manySang6 priestsservedas tax collectors or resident governors in tributary kingdoms. For more

details, see Law (as in n. 99), 104; and Morton-Williams as in n. 18).101.

WJ.T. Mitchell,Picture

Theory: ssaysn Verbal nd Visual

Representation(Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress,1994), 88-89. He defines "imagetext"as a work that combines image and text.

102. PhilipWheelwright, Metaphornd RealityBloomington, Ind.: Indiana

UniversityPress,1968), 94-95.103.RobertF. Thompson, "Sonsof Thunder, TwinImagesof the Yoruba,"

AfricanArts7, no. 3 (1971): 8-9.104. For more on Yoruba winmemorials,see ibid., 8-13, 77-80; Houlberg

(as in n. 41), 20-27, 91-92; MareidiStall,GertStoll, and Ulrich Klever,Ibeji:

ZwillingsfigurenerYoruba/Twinigures f theYorubaMunich:Bythe authors,1980); and Babatunde Lawal,"A Pair of tre ibeji (Twin Statuettes) in the

KresgeArt Museum,"KresgeMuseumArt Bulletin41, no. 1 (1989): 91-103.105. According to one Yoruba egend, twins were first born in Yorubaland

at isokfunvillage in Old Oyo.106. The Yoruba associate twins with the colobus monkey because this

animal often givesbirth to two babies at a time.107. Traditionrequiresmothers of twinsto dance frequentlyin public in

honor of their livingchildren or to appease the souls of deceased twins.Onsuch occasions, they are showered with gifts of all kinds by relativesand

onlookers to enable them to meet the expenses of takingcare of themselvesand the children.108. 0. DaramolaandA.Jeje,AwonAsa ati Orisa leYorubaIbadan,Nigeria:

Onibon-OjeBook Industries,1967), 282-83.109.According to the myth, the Supreme Being withdrewthis privilege,

replacing it with death.110.See also Idowu, 13. There is a tendency among the Yorubato regard

as embodiments of ancient ancestors sculpturesaccidentallywashed out ofthe ground by floods or recovered in the course of laying building founda-tions. Such sculpturesare usuallyplaced on altarswith a view to harnessingthe spiritualpowerof the souls theyrepresent.The town of Esie, aboutninetymiles from Ife, has more than eight hundred such stone figures.The presentinhabitantsof the townclaim that their ancestors found the sculptures n thetown when they first settled there in the 18th century, so these figures arevenerated as petrifiedaborigines.For more details,see Allison (as in n. 36),21-24; and Phillips Stevens, The StoneImages of Esie, Nigeria(New York:Africana,1978).

111.J. A. Ademakinwa,Ife:The Cradle f theYorubaLagos:PacificPrintingWorks,1953), 40-41.

112.Idowu, 22; and Fabunmi,fig. 2.113.AdegboyegaSobande, "Isinkuni II Yoruba,"Olokun, o. 9 (1970): 26.114. Cited in Thompson (as in n. 40), 58. Thompson's interviewswith

several indigenous Yoruba carversand critics reveal that one of the most

importantcriteria for an ideal sculptureamong the Yoruba s that it should

representthe subject n the primeof life (see esp. 56-58). I havedocumentedsimilarcomments from carvers n Osi Ekiti,Oy6, and Ayetoro in northeast-

ern, northcentral,and southwesternYorubalandrespectively.Frank Willett

(1966, 37) has also observed that an dkosecond-burial effigy of the latemother of Chief SasereAdetula of Ow6 (carved n 1943 byOgunleye Ologan)"representsher as a young woman ..." The fact that this phenomenon is

evidentin both naturalisticand stylizedportraits howsthat it isdeeplyrootedin indigenousYorubaaestheticsand cannot be explained solely by the prac-tice of modeling the face of a second-burialeffigy after that of a child who

closely resembles the deceased. A similar tradition has been recorded inBenin City. According to a legend, King Ewuareof the 15th century once

commissioned the royal brass caster and woodcarver guilds to make his

portrait. The woodcarversportrayed him as he really looked in old age,whereasthe brasscastersdepicted him as a much younger man. KingEwuarewas displeased with the woodcarversand demoted them. See Borgatti andBrilliant(as in n. 91), 32, quoting Ben-Amos(as in n. 73). For a discussionofthe concept in other parts of Africa,see Thompson (as in n. 48), 5-7. Itshould be noted, however,that not allYorubarepresentationsemphasizethe

prime of life. In the edanbgb6ni, pair of male and female brassfigures thatservesas an emblem of the Ogb6ni society,the stress s on maturity. t signifiesthe desire of members for long life and prosperity.See Lawal (as in n. 18),37-38.

115. For more on Yorubatwinmemorials,see n. 104 above.116.Abiodun, 8.117. See Lawal,1974, 245.118. Illustrated n Lawal, 1996, 236-37.119. For more on Yorubamasks,see Drewal et al., passim.120. FrankWillett,AfricanArt,rev. ed. (NewYork:Thames and Hudson,

1993), 212-13.121. For more on Yorubacrowns,see Robert F. Thompson, "TheSign of

the Divine King:Yoruba Beaded-EmbroideredCrownswith Veil and Bird

Decorations,"n Fraserand Cole (as in n. 88), 227-60; and Ulli Beier, YorubaBeadedCrowns:acredRegaliaoftheOlokukufOkukuLondon:Ethnographica,

1982).122. Cited in AkinsolaAkiwowo,AjobiandAjogbe:Variations n the Theme f

SociationIle-Ife,Nigeria:Universityof Ife Press,1983), 11. See also Lawal(asin n. 104), 23-24.

123. See, for instance, Idowu, 84-85.124.Polishedstone axes and iron tools are sacred to Ogun, suggestingthat

the one preceded the other in his iconography.125. E.M.Lijadu,Ifd:Im6oleti iseIpilelsinni le YorubaAd6Ekiti,Nigeria:

StandardPress,1908), 35. Yoruba ext "Njebi a ba te mi, ng6 tun 'rami te /Eewoti a ba kafun mi, ng6 gb6 / Tite la te mi, ng6 tun 'ra mi te."

126. Idowu, 60; and Wole Soyinka, Myth,Literature nd theAfricanWorld

(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1976), 10.127.For details, see KarinBarber,"How Man Makes God in WestAfrica:

YorubaAttitudes towardsthe Orisa,"Africa, ournalof theInternational fricanInstitute 1, no. 3 (1981): 724-45.

128. The Omo Odduwd doctrine assumed a new aspect in 1945 whenYorubastudents in London formed the EgbeOmoOduduwd Odfduwa De-scendants' Club), a cultural organizationcharged with the responsibilityof

advancingthe cause of the Yoruba n colonial Nigerian politics. The organi-zation eventuallydeveloped into a political party (the now defunct Action

Group) whose membership included non-Yorubapoliticians.The leader ofthe party,Chief ObafemiAwolowo,was fond of wearinga specialhat thatsoonbecame fashionableamong his followers,enabling them to projecta common

identityat partyralliesand conventions. See Arifalo (as in n. 12), 72.

129.Jacques Lacan, TheFour FundamentalConcepts f Psycho-Analysis,d.

Jacques-AlainMiller,trans.Alan Sheridan (NewYork:W. W. Norton, 1981).130. Ibid., 67-119. For a recent review of the literature on the gaze, see

MargaretOlin, "Gaze,"n CriticalTermsor ArtHistory, d. Robert F. Nelsonand RichardShiff (Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press,1996), 208-19.131.The word iran (spectacle) should not be confused with Iran(genera-

tion) or iran (the tail of a tortoise), even though the three words have thesame pronunciation.

132.Lawal(as in n. 118), 39. Yorubatext: "Onw6 mi, mo nw6 6, / Taniseun ninu ara wa."

133. See Idowu, 205; and Olatunji (as in n. 54), 79. Fairlynaturalisticmemorials also occur on the superstructuresof Gelede headdressesduring a

special farewellceremony intended to terminate the participationof a de-ceased member in the annual festivals.

134. See Abiodun (as in n. 97), pl. 103.135. Having grown up in, and traveled throughout, Yorubaland,I have

witnessedseveralsecond-burialceremonies involvingnaturalisticmemorialssuch as dko, pide, djeej, nd related forms, like the Ey6 Adamuofrisa Eyo)effigyof Lagos,Igbogbo, and Ijebu.Unfortunately,most of these opportuni-ties predated my research interest in the subject. More recently, I encoun-




tered other ceremonies while on social visitsto some townsbut had no cameraon me to record them.

136. However,theYorubabelieve that the soul of a deceased parentcan bereincarnated as a grandchild and begin a new life on earth. Lawal(as in n.

51), 50-61.137. For illustrations,see Ulli Beier,A Story fSacredWoodCarvingsromOne

SmallYoruba own(Lagos:Nigerian Printingand PublishingCompany,1957).138. See Bice Benvenutoand RogerKennedy,TheWorksfJacques acan:An

IntroductionLondon: FreeAssociationBooks, 1986), 55-58.139. The inwardlook on the face of certain altarsculptureshas led some

scholars to compare it to the countenance of devotees possessedby a deity.140. I am grateful to Chief IfayemiEleburuibon,a famous Osogbo-based

Yoruba diviner, for drawing my attention to this saying taken from thedivination verse (Idikan),n an interviewon July 6, 1998.

141. For Yoruba chants meant to attract positive gazes, see David A.A.

Adeniji, OfoRere Ibadan,Nigeria:UniversityofIbadad n Press,1982).142.AdeboyeBabalola,"Oinje Oji," Ol6kun9 1970): 39: "Ki 'a npe '6nje

ojfi? Ki 1'6ny6 oj biokka ti ny6 ikfn? / Ojfik6l' 'nje m6jibik6seiran.... /

MejipAtLki'irufirr / Idan,orisi ran ni / EwA, risi iran mil'eyi / Ojfiki irwak'6maA ki i / Enih ki ikoadarabiegbin k'oma w6 6.... /Eggun npidan'oja,

jj a lo w6 6." / Onje ojiu a f fi fun n. . . ."143. For details, see Lawal (as in n. 118), 39 n. 3, 128-29.144.The word gbajumo an be etymologized as igba (two hundred),oju

(faces or eyes), and m6(know).145. Abraham (as in n. 3), 667.146. See WilliamBascom,TheYorubafSouthwesternigeria NewYork:Holt

and Winston, 1969),11.147. Idowu,77 (trans.).Yorubatext: "Ifa e' ju m6 mi ki o w6 mi 're / Bi o

ba te ju m6 'ni ltow6 1'16w6oBi o ba te' jf mo 'ni la ri're."

148. In her reviewof the literatureon the subject,MargaretOlin (as in n.130), 209, notes, "There s usuallysomething negativeabout the gaze as usedin art theory."This may partlybe due to an emphasis on the "evileye"in

Judeo-Christian thought. According to Jacques Lacan (as in n. 129), 115,whose theoryis a major nfluence on contemporaryhermeneuticsof the gaze,"thereis no trace anywhereof a good eye."In his words (118-19), "Theeye

may be prophylactic,it cannot be beneficent-it is maleficent. In the Bibleand even in the New Testament,there is no good eye, but there are evil eyesall over the place."The existence among the Yorubaof the notion of a good

eye (oju rereor oju anu) contradictsthis assumptionand calls for a more

open-minded approach to the subject.For a critiqueof the paranoid impli-cationsof the Lacaniantheoryof the gaze, see Norman Bryson,"TheGazein

the ExpandedField," n Vision ndVisuality: iscussionsn Contemporaryulture,ed. Hal Foster (Seattle:BayPress, 1988), 104-8.

149.As a result,flattery,drumming,dancing, and commemorativedisplaysare often employed to influence the deities in Yorubareligion, as Andrew

Apter has rightlyobserved. See his BlackCritics ndKings:TheHermeneuticsfPower n Yoruba ociety Chicago:Universityof Chicago Press, 1992), 99. Forother implicationsof the face in Yorubaart, see Lawal(as in n. 28), 91-103.

150.WandeAbimbola, SixteenGreatPoems fIfa (Zaria,Nigeria:UNESCO,1975), 233. That the otherorisa (deities) depend on Esu for vision is mostevident in the iconographyof Ifa, the divinationdeity. Most divinationtrays

(opon fa)have at least one stylizedface said to representEsiu, nabling Ifa to

revealthe past and foretell the future. See also Bascom (as in n. 33), 34;andHans Witte, "IfaTraysfrom Osogbo and IjhebuRegions," n Abiodun et al.,58-77.

151. Abraham (as in n. 3), 667.152. For a survey,see MaryH. Nooter, ed., Secrecy:fricanArt That Conceals

andReveals New York:Museumof AfricanArt;Munich:Prestel, 1993).153. SusanVogel, Baule:AfricanArt/Westernyes New Haven:YaleUniver-

sityPress, 1997), 110.154.According to popular belief, shortly after its abandonment at the

crossroads, a second-burial effigy would momentarilybe animated by the

ghost of the deceased and its eyeswould be filled with tears as the mournersreturn home. If the effigyis buried, the ghost would stand on the spot, sadly

staring at the mourners. Tradition enjoins the mourners not to look backafterdisposingof the effigy;whoeverdoes so runs the riskof seeing the tearful

face of the figure or the ghost and would subsequentlydie if certain propi-

tiatoryrites were not performed.

155. Stevens (as in n. 9), 194.

156. Oludare Olajubu and J.R.O. Ojo, "Some Aspects ofOy6 Yoruba Mas-

querades," Africa,ournal of the International African Institute 47, no. 3 (1977):269.

157. The term Oromb6lludes to the unseeable.158. Solomon 0. Babayemi,Egungun mongheOy6Yoruba(ibba dan,Nigeria:

Board Publications, 1980), 8-9 (trans.). Yoruba text: "MAfojfkin mi /Enikan k6 gbod6 fojf kan Orombo / Nij6 Agan bajtde 6san / Igi A ma w6lu igi, 6ppAma w6luope / Igb6a majona tagbatagba Odan a sij6nateruwatrfiwa / A dif ffin Mfojfikanmi / Ti i

jeAgan." Solomon Babayemi

translates he name Mifojfiukanmiiguratively s "Youmust not see myface,"whichis correct. But I preferthe literaltranslationof the name,which is "Donot set your eyes on me."

159. Peter Morton-Williams,"The Egfingin Society in South-WesternYorubaKingdoms," n Proceedingsf the ThirdAnnual Conferencef theWest

AfricanInstituteof Social and EconomicResearchIbatdn, Nigeria: WAISER,

1956), 95. I had a similarexperience as a child growingup inYorubaland. nsome towns,the sound of bull roarers(oro)wouldfill the air as the processionmoved from one wardto another, as if deliberately ntended to awake the

uninitiated,stressing he fact of their exclusion. In some cases,a sacred mage

may be brought out in daylightbut concealed. Among theIjebbi subgroup,women are not allowed to see the charm of the Agemo masks, even in aconcealed form, because of its use to reinforce the patriarchal ocial system.Women are therefore warned in advance to stayindoors: "Orisa s treadingthe highways Lordof Life / Who dares behold him?/ Who daresscan thefeaturesof the god / A chance glance, a chance death / Swellingson your

body like ripe corn / Glimmering shadow / A surreptitiousglance, a

surreptitiousdeath." See John Pemberton, "TheKing and the Chameleon:

OdfinAgemo,"fe: Annalsofthe nstitute f Cultural tudiesObafemiAwolowoUniversity, f&)2 (1988):52. In other cases,a sacred magemaybe seen bythe

general public but not at close range.A good example is the headdressof the

lya mask,which representsthe Great Mother among the Ketu and Egbad6

subgroups.The maskusuallycomes out at night during the annual Geledefestival hat is held in her honor. When the maskappears n the dance arena,all lightsmust be extinguished.Fordetails,see HenryJ. Drewal,"Artand the

Perceptionof Women in YorubaCulture,"Cahiers EtudesAfricaines7, no. 4

(1977): 553.

160. Similar raditionsof concealmenthave been observed n other partsofAfrica and areexemplifiedbythe so-calledacousticmasks,whichappearonlyat night, using sound rather thanvisibility to indicate their supernaturalpower. For details, see RosalindIJ. Hackett,Art and Religionn Africa NewYork:Cassell, 1996), 55-56; and EdwardLifschitz,"HearingIs Believing:Acoustic Aspects of Maskingin Africa," n WestAfricanMasks and Cultural

Systems,d. SidneyL. Kasfir(Trevuren:Mus6eRoyalede'Afrique Centrale,

1988), 221-27.161. Since such an imageismade at the beginningof an aldafin's eign,one

can only wonder whether or not a similar tradition obtained in ancient Ife

withwhich the life-size brassheads maybe associated,one wayor the other.162.Sometimes,a framedphotographof the deceased maybe carried n a

public paradebefore the corpse is interred; n other cases,photographsarecarried in a public procession during annual memorial celebrations. For

illustrations,see MargaretT. Drewal, YorubaRitual:Performers,lay,Agency

(Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana UniversityPress, 1994), fig. 3.4. For Westerninfluences on contemporaryYorubaportraiture,see idem, "Portraiture ndthe Constructionof Reality nYorubalandand Beyond,"AfricanArts23, no. 3

(1990): 40-49, 101. See also StephenF.Sprague,"Yoruba hotography:Howthe YorubaSee Themselves,"AfricanArts12, no. 1 (1978): 52-59, 107.

163.See Drewal,1990 (as in n. 162), 40-49.164.Sprague (as in n. 162), 57.165. Ibid. See alsoHoulberg (asin n. 41), 26-27; and idem, "Collecting he

Anthropologyof AfricanArt,"AfricanArts , no. 3 (1976): 18-19; SusanVogel,ed., AfricaExplores:0thCentury fricanArt(NewYork:Centerfor AfricanArt;Munich: Prestel, 1991), 44-47; and Olu Oguibe, "Photographyand theSubstance of the Image," n In/Sight:AfricanPhotographers,940 to thePresent

(NewYork:GuggenheimMuseum,1996), 243-46.166.Houlberg (as in n. 165), 18.

aworan and ori

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