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oye-ekiti workshopcreating african Christianart in nigerianicholas j . bridger

In 1947, Irish missionary priests and Yorubaartists began developing a unique genre of visualexpression, a Yoruba-Christian art fusion, for theuse ot churches, schools and laity in Yorubalandin British colonial Nigeria. A radical departurefrom both the customary arts ot the Yorubapeople and European Catholic visual practicesutilized in missions in the early twentieth century,this art production was centered at a nevi/iyestablished workshop in Oye-Ekiti, in ruralnortheast Yorubaland, The ideas of the Oye-Ekiti art workshop (1947-1954) challenged thedominant colonial and clerical attitudes towardsthe tocal culture and signaled a clear step awayfrom the Eurocentric status quo.

During the first half of the twentiethcentury and the last decades of Europeanimperialism, the Church itself began theprocess of decolonizing its Asian, African, andLatin Ajnerican dioceses. A key promoter ofthese efforts was Archbishop (later Cardinal)Celso Costantini (1876-1958), the secretary ofPropaganda Fide (its directorate of missions). Inthe 1930s, Costantini formalized the approachcalled "inculturation" which is "the creative anddynamic relationship between the Christianmessage and a culture or cultures" (Shorter1988: 11 ). In a mission context, it refers to thecreation of indigenous Christian art, therebyhelping a person, through artistic expression,to figure out how to be both a Christian and anAfrican at the same time.

Father Patrick "Doc" Kelly (1911-88) of theSociety of the African Mission (S.M,A.), wasinfluenced deeply by this farsighted, high-level Vatican discourse. In 1946, his fellowmissionaries elected the dynamic Keily to besuperior of the Irish province of the S.M,A,from which he planned to build a new kind ofinstitution to inculturate Christianity within Africanculture (Carroll 1982:1). He recruited two youngpriests with aptitude and enthusiasm for artand innovation, Kevin F. Carroll (1920-93) and

Michotas J. Brictger teaches World Art at Otilone Coltege(Frernoni. CA) and has compleled field and archivalresearch in Nigeria, ireiano. and Ftome for his torthcomingbook, Africar)iäng Ct^nsîian Art in Nigeria.

Sean Oliver Plunkett O'Mahonay (1920-2001}to establish a workshop and create a new genreoí art at Oye-Ekiti in rural northeast Yorubaland,hoping thereby to establish a new reiationshipbetween the Church and the local people.

Carroll recruited dozens of local Ekiti menand women as wood carvers, weavers, beadworkers and others to develop a Yoruba-Christian art production for the uses of Catholicchurches in Yorubaland. He carefully assembledthree woodcan/ers whose work becameemblematic of the workshop and its new art.The central figure among these Oye-Ekiti artistswas an accomplished Catholic sculptor, GeorgeBandele of Osi-llorin (1908-95), the son of"one of the greatest masters of the pre-moderntradition" of the Ekiti region, and trained by oneof his father's assistants in the Opin-Ekiti style(Picton 2002: 100). Another recruit, a home-trained, 23-year-old can/er, Lamidi OlonadeFakeye (b. 1927), a Muslim from a distinguishedcarving lineage in lla-Orangun, had agreedto a formal apprenticeship under Bandele forthree years in the workshop context. A thirdsignificant carver, who put in a brief stint asa carver for Carroll, was Bandele's father, theelderly but greatly respected carver and Yorubatraditionalist, Areogun (1880-1954), Carrollsuccessfully wooed him in the last year of hislife to try his adept hand at the new Ycruba-Christian art and thereby aligning the workshopand its new Christian genre even more stronglywith the illustrious pre-modern carving traditionof Opin-Ekiti. Carroll's open acceptance ofnon-Christian artists in the workshop paralleledhis belief and encouragement that the artists,especially the carvers, should continue to acceptcommissions from their traditional sources ofpatronage, the royal courts and the traditionalreligious shrines, to keep them in touch withtheir cultural roots, the source of their artisticinspiration (Bridger 2002: 55).

In terms of collaboration between the patronand the artist, Carroll was reluctant to allowmuch exploration in the uncharted waters ofthe new genre, Carroll believed that the tactiche used with Bandele of challenging the newlyemployed cancer to attempt a Christmas Nativityset was a successful catalyst. He asked Bandeleto carve the kings in the mounted Yorubaverandah post style, who were followed by theHoly Family in a less characteristically Yorubastyle (Carroll 1967: 4), Carroll encouragedBandele to illustrate Bible-based stories in aliteral approach, using Yoruba techniques andformal elements. He aiso recruited a well-versed

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parishioner to tell Bandele the particular storyand then sometimes Carroll personally followedup on specifio details (Carroll 1967: 4).

Anticipating tiie Vatican's secondinternational exhibition of "sacred art" from themissions tor the Holy Year of 1950, Carroll,Bandele, and ether artists collaborated on aseries of pieces beginning in 1949 to comprisethe international debut of this Yoruba-Christianfusion in Rome (Carroll 1967: 5-7). Ttiewori<shop's Nativity sets from this experimentalperiod reflect local Ekiti region's artistic practicesmerged with well-established European custom,as well as the Workshop's own innovations(Figure 1). Incorporating woodcarving,beadwork, embroidery, leatherwork. andweaving, the mixed-media art program of thecrèches sent to Rome at this time exemplify wellthe concerns of the missionaries to explore theadaptation of Yoruba art forms to communicateChristian ideas for an African audience.

F l G lA CtiNSlnias ftótiwly set. Or uretfie. thai Kitluuos ihe holyFaniilv and the Three Kings or Magi and irvcorporaieswoodcarvlrtg. bBadwork. anbroiderV: leatlwrwork, artdhandwsaving. The use ot kenie cloth garmente ia a resultof Father Carroll's earlier Bnree-year residertoe in Ghana-Plwtograph: Nek Bridger.

In both garb and features, the Three Kings^pear as oba. or Yoruba kings. The iHolyFamily presents a much less clear cuituraiidentity, distinguished from the Magi by theirlighter skin tone and their carved and painted(i.e. non-textile) garments in the European HolyFamily tradition (Cairoll 1950: 344-54). But theirphysical features seem quite compatible with anAfrican identity, except when grouped alongsidethe dark-skinned Magi. In his 1950 NigeriaMagazine article, which published the firstphotos of the workshop's new Yoruba-Christianfusion, Carroll, pointedly denies the Holy Familyeven a symbolic Afrioan identity: "She [Mary]is not painted dark as an African becauseeveryone knows she was not an African but aJew" (Carroll 1950: 353).

In retrospect, pertiaps attempting to forestallthe foreseeable criticism, Carroli seems to beprotesting this inevitable African interpretationof the Holy Family. He rightly anticipated astrong negative reaction to the image of ablack-skinned Jesus and Mary and the pathof Africanization that this art experiment wastaking. Seventeen years later in 1967, whilestill relating anecdotes to illustrate the patrons'watchful eyes and insistence that the artistsfollow biblical detedls rather literally in their work,Father Carrofl's own comments reflect a fullycomfortable acceptance of a clearly AfricanizedJesus and Mary in the Yoruba-Christian art hecontinued to patronize and promote (Can-oil1967: 128).

The three dark-skinned Kings of 1950appear unmistakably as traditional Yoruba obawearing Kente-type strip-woven cloth, sacredbeaded crowns and carry the accoutrementsassociated with Ifa divination, symbolizingCan-oH's view that Yoruba traditional religion wasa legitimate precursor reiigion to Christianity.In Lamidi Fakeye's recollection years later, hestrongly felt that Father Carroll had alwaysgiven the carvers great freedom in such matters(Bridger 2002: 70).

Despite the many positive comments anda growing international clientele lor Oye-Ekiti'sart production, pronounced opposition tothe project also appears among the Nigerianhierarchy and the indigenous clergy, laity, andcollege students (Bridger 2002: 70). Theirattitude is reflected in the critical comment ofan older Yoruba monsignor to Carroll, "Are youtrying tc take us baok to what we have left?"(Carroll 1982: 6). The wori<shop's instigatorand mentor, Fr. Patrick "Doc" Kelly, was notrenewed in his term as provincial in 1952 due toa backlash within the Irish province against hismore African-centered mission policies, includingthe workshop. By 1954, the new provincialsuperior ordered the workshop closed, althoughCarroli and O'Mahoney were allcwed to carryon with their Yoruba-Christian experiment witha lowered profile in a decentralized way at theirnew assignments in Yorubaland (Bridger 2002:68-9). For almost four more decades FatherCarroll continued his leadership in promotingand commissioning African Christian art inYorubaland and Nigeria's Middle Belt until hisdeath in 1993 in Ibadan.

PostscriptIn a period of recent fieldwork in Yorubalandinventorying Yoruba-Christian art in thesummer of 2006,1 visited St. Paul's Churchin Ebute Metta, Lagos, where Fr. Carroll hadcommissioned the interior art in the Workshop'sYomba-Christian style for this new churoh in

1960. At the time Carroll believed that someof the congregation's discomfort with theAfricanized Christian art was based on thenewness of the genre, which the passageof time would resolve. Forty-six years later, itbecame apparent that Fr. Carroll's forecast thatpopular discomfort with the Yoruba-Christian artwould disappear was overly optimistic.

I noted the large Oye-Ekiti style Nativityfigures, a carved baptismal font, and a baptismalscreen dusty and pushed out of the way andunused. The biggest shock to me inside thechurch was the utter neglect and demotion ofan imposing African Madonna by Carroll's carverOslfo in a prominent side altar, also dusty andobscured by a subsequently interposed statueof Our Lady of Fatima (a European devotionalimage) (Figure 2). Outside, the final shock was

FIG 2Tlve Airican Madonna, comrmssionetl by Father i ^arroll(rom the Yoruba carver. Osito, in a sids aitar, obscured by asubséquent statue ot Our Lady ot Fallma, at the St. Paul'sOiurch in Ebiite Metta, Lagos. PhotograFJh: Nick Bridger.

visible on the large front doors, which featuredLamidi Fakeye's ten carved panels. In thepane! celebrating Yoruba Traditional Religionas a worthy precursor to Christianity, the priestof Shango to the right of the risen Christ wasbeheaded (Figure 3). I have not had the heartto inform the vigorous, 80-year-old can/er ofthis highly targeted vandalism. Apparently,

FIG3The large front doors ol St. Paut Church in Ebute Metta.Lagos, which (eatured Lamidi Fai eye's ten carved panels. Inthe pane) celebrattng Yoruba Tradittonal Religion as a worthyprecursor to Chnstianity, the head ot the priest ol Shongostanding on the ncfit of the risen Chrisi has been beheaded.Photograph: Nick Bridger.

Afrioanized Christian art still presents acontested terrain at least on the parish ievel.

referencesBridger, Nichoias J. 2002. The Oye-Ekiti Workshopand its origins, a study ot missionary art patronage incoioniai Nigeria, 1947-1954. Unpubiished MastersThesis, San Francisco State University.

Carroii, kevin F. 1950. Yonjba Craft Work at Oye-Ekiiî,Ondo Province. Nigeria Magazine 35; 344-54.

Carroii, kevin F 1967. Yoruba Religious Can/ing, Paganand Christian Sculpture in Nigeria and Dahomey.London; Geoffrey Chapman.

Carroii, Kevin F. 1982. The Cye-Ekiti Scheme. 1946-1954. Typed manuscript. Archive, The Kevin CarroiiCoiiection, Society of African Missions, irish Province,Cork, ireiand.

Picton, John. 2002. Neo-Traditiona! Sculpture inNigeria, tn An Anthology ol African Art: the TwentiethCentury. N'Goné Faii and Jean Loup Pivin, eds. NewYork; Distributed Art Pubiishers, inc. 100-1.

Shorter, Ayiward. 1988. Toward a Theology ofInculturation, Maryknoii, NY; Maryknoii Press.

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