I

African

Royal

Court Art
c^^?a

Hichele Coquet
is

Vf^'>

C:5K3
Translated by Jane Harie Tndd


$55.00

In this visually stunning

work, anthro-

pologist Michele Coquet presents the

power and the brilliance of African

court art. Grounding her analysis in
the social and historical context of traditional royalty systems. Coquet
examines the diverse roles played by
artisans, nobles,

and kings

in the pro-

duction and use of royal objects. From

the precolonial

kingdoms

Edo

of the

and the Yoruba, the Ashanti and the

Igbo, Coquet reconstructs the essential
cultural connections between art, representation, and sovereignty.

More than ornamentation,

objects

embodied

sta-

The gold-plated

tus of African rulers.

stools

royal

and

the strength

of the Ashanti,

the delicately

carved ivory bracelets of the Edo

meant not simply to

adorn but to affirm and enhance the
power and prestige of the wearer. The
objects also worked in a vast constellathese objects were

tion of other artistic disciplines, such as

music,

dance,

textile

making, and

poetry, in ceremonies both spectacular

and

ritualistic.

Coquet examines the

royal objects in these contexts

considers

and

also

how realism became manifest

court objects. Unlike the abstract

in

commonly understood

style

to

tral

African

art,

to

be cen-

realism directly

linked the symbolic value of the object,

be
cal

it

a portrait or relief, with the physi-

person of the king. The contours of

the monarch's face or his political

military exploits rendered

walls

became

visual

and

on palace

histories

that

essentially corroborated the ruler's sov-

ereign might. Coquet's understanding

{continued on back flap)

AFRICAN
ROYAL

COURT ART

AFRICAN
ROYAL
COU RT ART
Michele Coquet
Translated by Jane Marie Todd

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICACO PRESS

CHICACO AND LOMDOH

MOBILE
N7391 .65
.C66613
1998
Michele Coquet

an anthropologist and mennber of the Systemes de pensee en Afrique

la Recherche Scientifique. She has published widely
on systems of visual representation in West Africa, including Textiles africains.
is

noire section of the Centre National de

Jane Marie Todd has translated major French works, including Jean Starobinski's Largesse
(1997), also published by the University of Chicago Press.

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
1998 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 1998

Printed in

Hong Kong

12

07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99

3 4 5

ISBN: 0-226-11575-5
Originally published as Arts de

coiir

en Afrique noire,

1996, Societe Nouvelle

Adam Biro.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Coquet, Michele.
[Arts de cour en Afrique noire. English]
African royal court art / Michele Coquet translated by Jane
;

Marie Todd,
cm.
p.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-226-11575-5

(acid-free paper)

Africa, Sub-Saharan. Symbolism in art Africa,

Narrative
Art and state Africa, Sub-Saharan.
Sub-Saharan.
Africa, Sub-Saharan Kings and rulers
art Africa, Sub-Saharan.
Art patronage.
Africa, Sub-Saharan Court and courtiers
1.

Art, Black

2.

4.

3.

5.

6.

Portraits.

I.

Title.

N7391.65.C66613
709'.67 dc21

1998
98-5071

CIP
This book

is

printed on acid-free paper.

Contents

Introduction
1

vii

Empires, Kingdoms, and Chieftaincies:

The King's Singularity

A Few Conceptions of the Portrait

History Told in Images

Insignia of Sovereignty

Elements of Archaeology and History

Map

of Empires,

Map

of Ethnic

Notes

Bibliography

179

and Court Objects

Groups Cited

173

Photographic Credits

Index

67

Kingdoms, and

169

178

29

Cities

168

147
166

105

Introduction

Every king who ever reigned saw the arts flourish in his court, arts that corrobokingdom and

rated the exercise of power, the greatness of the

was

framework

master. Conceived within the

its

man who

of the

of a hierarchical society, court art

has the primary function of magnifying the sovereign's power: his economic and

power

martial

and

as well as his spiritual

and mystic power. The

right to use the images

objects thus created, reserved for the chief or king, for his family,

bers of the noble lineage, distinguishes those close to

from

it,

by marking each one's place on the

accompany

objects always

titles

and

for

mem-

power from those far removed

social ladder.

Ornaments and

particular

Europe and

of nobility. Like their counterparts in

elsewhere, the kings and chiefs of black Africa, whether leaders of states hardly
larger than a

The
ety,

few villages or of true empires, favored the development of these

and richness

diversity

though one does not find

arts.

of African court arts vary considerably with the socidisparities

comparable to those that existed in seven-

teenth-century France, for example, between the arts celebrated in Versailles and
those invented by the

kingdom

to visit the

ware pots

for

people. In the sixteenth century, the

was

same

living in the

amounted

to very

little.

were struck by

and

simplicity as his subjects

few mats

Europeans

first

of Kongo, to the north of present-day Angola,

the fact that the king

material comfort

common

for sleeping, a

that his

few earthen-

cooking food, and a few calabashes for drinking palm wine repre-

sented virtually

all

of his personal property.

the fortune of the king of the

Zulu cause

his lifestyle to differ greatly

number

wives and homes he possessed. In general, the economy of most

of

from

Nor did

that of his subjects, despite the greater

tional African societies never permitted their

wealth. All the same, though the

may be

small,

some

of

number

them display

real

accumulation of

of domestic objects in certain

workmanship equal

ated within richer courts. Moreover, states

commerce with

members any

tradi-

monarchies

to that of art

works

whose economies were based

cre-

partly in

the Europeans enjoyed a prosperity that allowed the king

and the

noble classes to become wealthy. Such was the case in western Africa for the old

kingdoms

of Benin (present-day Nigeria)

doms, the

pomp

of court arts

and Dahomey (present-day Benin), and

kingdom

central Africa (though briefly) for the

of Kongo. In a

in

few of these king-

and ceremonials became quite impressive. Whatever

the degree of their splendor, however,

all

the court arts of black Africa remained

attached to their peasant roots.

Different

modes

of expression of the

were privileged, and the

available

far

rarely or not at

from
all

it.

power

of the

objects presented in this

monarchy and

book

and costume

arts,

institutions

are not the only evidence

In the realm of plastic arts, there are

here, such as textile

its

some

body

art,

that will

and

appear

architecture.

vii

viii

IMTRODUCTION

Dance, music, and song should also be included within the court

was

gestures and language fashioned by etiquette, which

codification to the etiquette of

Rwanda and Buganda,

cation in singing

and the

European

courts. Certain

developed poetic

also

arts; in the

arts, as

no way

in

kingdoms,

court of

should the

inferior in

like those of

Rwanda, an edu-

and pastoral epic poetry was

recitation of historical

its

re-

served for young Tutsi nobles.

The

objects fabricated

by

artisans for use

by the king and members

of the aris-

tocracy cover the entire field of utilitarian objects. In this respect, the set of objects

but

displayed in this book

may be

considered a kind of inventory, nonexhaustive

fairly representative, of the material culture of

the reader

may

catch a glimpse of

power

the insignia of

modes

(various canes

and

African societies. Through

it,

and thinking. In addition

to

of living

staffs, flyswatters,

ceremonial arms, and

crowns), other objects will appear: seats, headrests, containers (makeup cases, snuffboxes, goblets,

gunpowder

bracelets, combs),

and other

boxes), elements of

adornment

By

objects such as pipes.

morphology

ship, the richness of their decoration, or their

(necklaces, pendants,

the quality of their

itself,

express their intended purpose. Within that set of objects are those
ing, material, or

and presence,

history
yet,

these objects

all

whose use, wear-

shape are reserved for the king. Regalia are the most sacred objects

monarchy, since they give material form

of the

workman-

legitimate the existence of the

they are not always the fruit of the court's

very principle and, by their

to its

kingdom and its sovereign. And

artistic

production.

Many

of

them

never appear in public and bear no decoration. Certain of these regalia, such as the

Golden
is

Stool,

on which the sacred character

of the Ashanti

monarchy

founded, can be "reproduced," however; the king and principal chiefs

sess a similar object,

which partakes symbolically and

spiritually in that

in

Ghana

may

pos-

unique and

original object.

Court

artisans, generally professionals

sculptors, jewelers,

and so on

aristocracy. In certain large

Kuba
(facing page)
la

Matubani, one of the wives of Okondo,

Mangbetu

chief (Zaire), having her

painted. Photo taken in 1910.

American

body

New York,

Museum of Natural

gated form of the skull was in vogue

the

Mangbetu and

the

in the early twentieth century.

kingdoms,

belonged

sometimes gave him the right

cerning religious

dedicated their work to the royal family and the

like those of Benin,

to guilds

headed by

to intervene in the

protection they enjoyed allowed

them

to

a chief,

kingdom's

matters. The concentration of these

produce

Dahomey, Ashanti, and

whose high

status

affairs, particularly

artisans in

in quantity

con-

one place and the

works

of art with a

History

Archives, 111920. The artificially elon-

among

(Zaire), artisans

smiths, founders, weavers, embroiderers,

Azande

specific

iconography and style that became differentiated from popular

case of the

Ghana

kingdom

of Benin in Nigeria

and

arts.

The

that of the Ashanti confederacy in

are exemplary in this respect. Their artisans

left

behind an unusually diverse

INTRODUCTION

collection of objects, the largest

known in Africa. These groups of artisans often had

diverse ethnic origins, since, through the fortunes of war, sovereigns always wel-

comed

foreigners, or introduced

tated the exchange of technical

them

and

into the

aesthetic

group by

force. This practice facili-

knowledge, and the introduction of a

vocabulary of different forms and motifs and of their related meanings. Numerous
authors have noted the influence of Muslim arts on the iconography and even the
configuration of

The

Akan

arts (Ivory

Coast and Ghana), Ashanti objects in particular.

art of filigreed jewels, of sheets of metal fashioned

of decorative patterns observed

aspects of

Muslim

by embossing, and the

and various other

objects

sometimes led them

of court artisans

freedom of expression

greatest

its

fabrics

style

evoke certain

plastic arts.

The professionalism
found

on

to a virtuosity that

in ornament. In the fifteenth

and

teenth centuries, the Portuguese exploited the skills of the Sapi,^ Edo, and

six-

Kongo

ivory carvers, ordering table utensils such as saltcellars or spoons with very finely

sculpted decorations that expressed a pronounced taste for detail. The

skill

and sense

for the

very ornate object were expressed in

many ways:

artists'

great

in the atten-

tion given the particulars of dress in the depiction of figures in the art of Benin; in

Igbo-Ukwu

the engravings on ancient bronzes by the

141, 144-46); in

(figs.

gold plate and the sheets of metal decorating Ashanti stools

the

open lacework

laced design of

120, 121, 125); in

(figs.

and

effect of certain ivory bracelets (figs. 136, 137);

Kuba

goblets

and

fabrics

as these objects are beautiful to our

own

(fig.

138).

eyes, so

It

and

its

were they also

to their users; they

who

invented them. In

corollary,

ornamental profusion, have

always served the cause of monarchy, since they allow the kingship

hegemony

and

in visual

plastic terms.

in the inter-

goes without saying that just

reveal the high level of aesthetic aspiration in the peoples

Africa and elsewhere, that dexterity

Akan

To speak of profusion

is

to

impose

its

also implicitly to

speak of diffusion. Under such circumstances, ornament always has a dual function:

on one hand

become
that of

it

serves as embellishment, on the other as description. Every motif can

symbol of royal power, and the abundance

emblems. The choice of

this

mode

of

ornaments

is

of expression, characteristic of so

court arts, manifests a clear desire to inscribe the real existence of

surface possible
ence.

and

The modest

of prestige.

in a

utensil

The image,

acteristic of court art,

works

manner recognizable
becomes capable

then,

often linked to

to

all,

and hence

to intensify its pres-

of bearing motifs also

increases royal power. The

such as profusion and precise

to escape a certain conventionalism.

it

found on objects

different attributes so char-

detail,

Because

many

power on every

did not allow African art

wishes to demonstrate and

describe the greatness of the sovereign, court art always runs the risk of becoming

INTRODUCTION

dogmatic; in Benin, the proliferation of nearly identical kings'

plaques and in statuary of the same metal

is

proof of

In various locations, such a context facilitated

an

artistic

which was encouraged by the sovereigns themselves. Some

heart of this book, which

is

not a

on

rather an iconological reflection

The emergence

of these objects

monograph on

seems

to

on brass

quest for originality,

of these quests

lie at

the

the court arts of black Africa, but

certain conceptions of the

be closely linked

created to serve the principles of monarchy. In

effigies

that.

fact,

image and the

object.

to the fact that they

African art

is

were

indebted to the

inventiveness of court artisans and artists for effigies of kings and chiefs in which

invoked. In these works, the rules of composition

realist figurative principles are

and representation follow narrative conventions.

that these

largely

images

unknown

first

It is

because of the

artists'

audacity

appeared, since works of art taking such an approach were

in Africa.

The

art of

some

of these

kingdoms made use

of types of

expression in which the hieratic attitude adopted toward images in other African
societies

tended to become muted, to the advantage of an attention

existed. That attention to reality

and bodies and

human

figures.

was expressed

to capture in material

which the symbolic order comes

the spirit

made

to redefine

and the body language of

form elements

only after the

possible by African monarchies.

it

in the contours of the flesh of faces

in a transcription of particular events

The desire

to reality as

of objective reality,

fact, is

an adventure of

^M'

\.^

CHAPTER ONE

EmpireSr KingdomSr and

Chieftaincies: Tiie King'^s Singularity

Palaces,

castles,

pomp,

courtiers,- and conquests:

empires

call for fortresses,

im-

pregnable citadels, vast territories traversed by roads traveled with dispatch

by emissaries and warriors. The term "empire" makes us think

of

Rome and

its

Alexander launching his Asian campaigns, the Egypt of the pharaohs,

caesars,

Charles V, the Napoleonic armies, China retreating behind the Great Wall. Only

Japan
lete,

still

are

shelters

an emperor within. The same

now

sorts of images,

almost obso-

evoked by the word "kingdom": the kingdom of France and of Navarre,

Bourbons and

Shakespearean tragedies, wars and marriages between the

Valois,

"houses" of England, Spain, and Portugal. The history of these empires and king-

doms

is

our

own European

history: evidence of

museums, even our memory.

that

renown,

because,

it is

and writings, the tangible

more

If

among

seem

suffocating heat of tropical forests

Numerous African kingdoms

speak of

all

them

of

between Africa and Europe

and

exotic monarchical

other things, they have

left

powers share

behind monuments

traces of their splendor. In contrast, the sovereigns of

Africa and their royal art works

sible to

distant

inhabits our landscapes, books,

it

to

have been forgotten, as

and the

existed,

here.

lateritic

however

One need

to discover a

if

absorbed by the

sands of the savannas.

so many that

it

will not

only look at the history of contacts

few of the reasons

for that relative

experienced by the peoples of Europe about those of Africa.

It lies

amnesia

in great part in

the peculiar relations they established with African potentates, before

the colonial era

be pos-

and during

the demanding and often rapacious commercial relations of mer-

chants hungry for profit. The fascinated, sometimes admiring descriptions of travelers

do not suffice to alleviate the threat of oblivion and contempt. There were mon-

archies, but traces of

to find

them

them would be sought

in Europe.

in vain

on the

sites

we

There are no great architectural works as

are accustomed

we know

them,

except perhaps Great Zimbabwe, in the country of the same name, where impressive stone ruins stand

(previous pages)

2. King Justin Hao, flanked by two of

his

wives

nin.

in his

palace in

Abomey,

iticians

Photo by Dominique Darbois, 1954

only have been Phoenicians, Sabaeans, or Celts. There

is

rarely testimony written

by the persons concerned: In the past, Africans used writing very

IV,

Bunyoro. Ceremony for the

onnikama of

Arabic was

Rodger, 1954. The king welcomes

mem-

bers of the mpango, the royal council, to

The sovereign and the other

participants are dressed in the

ample

costume made of the beaten

fig tree.

of western

Sudan and
^

in certain non-Islamized states

kingdoms

such as Ashanti (present-day

thirtieth an-

niversary of his reign. Photo by George

bark of the wild

little.

useful for a written language of diplomacy, particularly in the Islamized

(facing page)

3i Tito Gafabusa Winyi

traditional

refused to acknowledge the African origin of these ruins: the builders could

Be-

(detail).

his palace.

even today. For a long time. South African novelists and pol-

Ghana).

few African languages, such as Haussa and Fulani, reaped the benefit

of a transcription into Arabic characters. Original writing systems also emerged: in

the early nineteenth century, the Vai of present-day Liberia invented a system of

writing that

was used within

the

framework

of official correspondence, to take

down common laws, tales, and legends. A century later. Sultan Njoya of the Bamum

:ii|,^H;^^1ll;l-

-^i.;:

^^H
mi'

:!

N'

'^'^'

CHAPTER ONE

in

Cameroon

also invented a

form of writing.

Its

served for a small number of persons, and with

use, unlike Vai writing,

its

and customs of the Bamum. Writing experiments remained few

ever, in favor of the oral tradition. In

it,

the narration of events

less

an objective and definitive account than a poetic and epic

and

a continuous celebration of a creation ever

In contrast, ours

is

a civilization of

was

re-

help he transcribed the history

in

number, how-

from the past was

art,

the art of song,

begun anew.

books and archives,

in

which we have

for

centuries inscribed fragments of our history: edicts, treaties, letters, genealogies,

commentaries. European kings and princes built monuments to their glory. What

does the African tradition offer us in relation to that abundance of signed and

stamped evidence constructed

in a

for eternity?

Our notion

quandary when we are confronted with the

woven of straw
to

delicate palaces of African princes,

made of clay dried by the sun, dwellings that are often purposely

or

lightweight, designed to be taken apart

happens

of a royal residence puts us

change location. In these

and reconstructed whenever the occupant

edifices,

where can we find the timelessness we

associate with constructions that endure for centuries without

bygone age but synibols

of a history

on which our

societies

damage, emblems of

depend

to construct

themselves?

We

believe that

permanence

lies in

stone and in the accumulation of evidence

fixed in writing. African societies conceived of

were also anxious

deeds of

to glorify the great

of themselves. Every royal court possessed

acts of the founders of the dynasty,

war

its

it

differently,

however: their kings

their ancestors, of their people,

genealogists,

who sang or recited the

exploits of heroes, alliances

the activity could even be perilous, since, in

many

and

and

betrayals;

cases, royal chroniclers,

under

pain of death, had to recite their text without any hesitation, comparable at the time
to profanation.

Every day

capital of the old

at

kingdom

dawn, the
of

pronouncements in Abomey,

criers of the king's

Dahomey

(present-day Benin), sang the

names and

praises of each sovereign, from the founder to the reigning king (Mercier 1962, 48).

Commemorative heads and

statues celebrating

wood or cast in bronze or copper.

societies,

was so

ancestor, a
of

to

Finally,

it

deed were sculpted

in

was conceived by African

speak eternal because sacred, always inherited from a mythic

that of

Societies with very different social

the African continent, from small

gatherers, to

royal

monarchy, as

god or demigod. That divine origin meant

mere history and intersected

whom

some

it

lay outside the

framework

myth.

and

nomad

political organizations

long coexisted on

bands, pygmies or bushmen, of hunter-

communities of stock breeders or sedentary crop farmers, some of

were organized

into chieftaincies or

kingdoms. Despite

their

number and

EMPIRES, KINGDOMS, AND CHIEFTAINCIES

diversity, African societies

can be classified into two large groups based on their

without centralized authority, also called

sociopolitical structure:

first,

acephalous or

and second, those possessing a centralized authority

stateless;

societies

in

"emperor" or "chief" (Fortes and Evans-

the person of a "king," or at times an

Pritchard 1947).

The structure
pose

and the exercise

it,

of

power depends on

a genealogical

that

and kinship

com-

order.

such a way that

among themselves by a system of interdependany important difference in status among individuals. Among

Matrimonial exchanges and

members

on the clans or lineages

of the first type of society relies

ritual obligations establish alliances in

of the society are linked

ence, precluding

farming societies in western Africa, which grouped together into villages, authority
is

often represented

village

is

composed

by the

eldest

member

of several lineages,

of the village's founding lineage; each

some

leader plays a political, and especially a ritual

agement

of the territory

and land

them

of

and

of the village,

kin, others strangers. This

religious role regarding the

which are conceived

less as physical

matter than as a spiritual entity. Hence, lords of the land are also lords of the

harvests,

and the

fertility of

air

and

community an abundance of rain

water; through their ritual acts, they guarantee the

and

man-

the earth. Other individuals in these communities

perform similar and complementary duties in other domains, such as managing the
wild areas of the brush, waging war, hunting, or overseeing a particular
eldest

member

peers to

make

of the founding lineage necessarily

cult.

The

depends on the consensus of his

decisions; in such a system, the village represents the largest political

entity.

Sometimes, in addition to

and

shared power of the lineage, which rests on a ritual

religious mastery of the forces of nature

also a real political

in

this

germ

power exercised by

the structure necessary for the

many African societies,

and of

relations to the gods, there

a single individual.

is

Such a situation contains

emergence of a monarchy. In the history of

the actual traces of the emergence of this dual

power can be

found: the society of the Mossi in Burkina Faso rests on a bipartite social and political

The

organization.

the royal dynasty in

people of power, descendants of the conquerors

which the king was named, hold

political

who founded

power, while the

autochthonous people of the land hold spiritual and religious power. One of the roles
of the naaba, the

Mossi king,

is

to see that these

other (Izard 1990, 71). The Mossi example

doms had peoples

is

is

far

two powers cooperate with each

from unique: many African king-

of foreign provenance as their founders. In the case of Africa,

it

not always easy to apply the definitions normally used to determine what a king-

dom is. Although

the ethnological literature refers to both

"kingdoms" and

"chief-

CHAPTER ONE

taincies,"

between the two terms.- The system of

shall not distinguish

between kinship groups and the importance granted

determining factors here. Thus, the chief or king
that link the political

some

composed

are

ers are densely

of only a

emerged

as well.

eral peoples, or

much larger

numerous kingdoms

were

The term "empire"

do with a

states

came

composed
less

and

had

ereignty

It

scholars (including Maghrebi

Sudan during

archy, in

center.

the

were rather

government, which be-

The emperor's sov-

the border country. In

Middle Ages, the sover-

political apparatus.

of Islamic

The majority

of the

traditional institutions, however.

its

kingdoms resembling our concept

which the king names

The

A sort of clergy, composed of Muslim

kingdoms have been distinguished (Vansina

the rare case of

is

the term, since the

of believers," in accordance with Islamic law.

and formed the administrative and

There

have advanced the

determine whether

and Levantines), oversaw the application

population remained faithful to

Several types of

a central

become muted when one reached

governors of the provinces were also converts.

rules

by

one moved away from the

"commander

title

which sev-

in

in fact, that in black Africa there

the great Islamized empires of western

eign bore the

empires

centrally organized political unity that controls

would seem,

a tendency to

difficult to

it is

way we understand

of a kernel closely controlled

less effective as

territory.

coexist. Certain authors

in fact part of empires, in the

the territory as a whole.

varies greatly:

much vaster expanse,

refers to a

even several kingdoms,

definition of empire has to

kingdom

that prospered in Africa,

idea that, in the case of African political history,

societies

size of a

few villages and have a sparse population, while oth-

populated and extend over a

In addition to the

remain the

to ritual events

invested with particular powers

is

and symbolic realms. The

relations

all

his officials

and exercises

1962, 331-33).

of absolute

mon-

a despotic power:

Rwanda, nineteenth-century Buganda, Bunyoro, and sixteenth-century Kongo meet

that definition.

Certain kingdoms have chiefs at the head of their provinces

of autochthonous chiefs, the king's

companions or

bers of the royal lineage. Another type of

taincies,

with each one conserving

ileke of

Cameroon

its

traditional chief. That

Luba and Lunda empires

or the

in that case, the

torate of the provinces.

before the king. There

only

known

case

is

At
is

who are descendants

and sometimes mem-

monarchy integrates autochthonous chief-

centralized kingdoms, such as the Kuba,

nous leaders and,

favorites,

all

kingdom

more

the case for the

Bam-

of central Africa. In the least

chiefs are
is

is

descended from autochtho-

like the central kernel's protec-

court, these chiefs serve as the people's representatives

also another

form of

the Ashanti of Ghana.

state, the federation, of

The members of Ashanti

which the

states feel they

4. The

king, or iimmnii, of

wives. Tervueren,

Rwanda, Yuhi Musinga (deposed

Musee Royal de

in 1932); the

I'Afrique Centrale, E.RH. 4811.

the royal headdress fringed with a curtain of beads

queen mother, Kanjogera; and four royal

The queen mother and the

and edged with colobus

fur.

The

iiiwami share the right to

royal spouses

wear headdress

elements on either side of their heads suggesting the shape of horns. Similar ornaments are placed on either side of the
entrance door to the palace, above the awning
culture

horns.

and the prestige value attached

Custom has

it

to

(fig. 8).

them,

it is

Given the

ritual

and symbolic importance

of cattle in

Rwanda

probable that these appendages reproduce the silhouette of cow

that the horns of the finest cows, inyambo,

were shaped while the animals were

still

growing, to

obtain particularly elegant arabesques. In the photo, these six prestigious persons, the wives and the queen mother in
particular,

have

their legs encircled

by

a thick

network of woven strands of straw; these leg ornaments hindered walk-

ing because of their weight and width and conferred a particular gait on Tutsi
idleness

and wealth (personal communication from Daniele de Lame).

women when they moved, a

sign of

CHAPTER ONE

belong more to the federated states than to a united kingdom. The federation

in-

cludes several geographical areas, each of which has a leader responsible to the king

and the organization

for law, order,

own war

five in all) possesses its

of services

organization.

eracy living in the capital of Kumasi, could

his

name. He named the

dom

officials

call

and payments. Each

The

state (there are

asantehene, chief of the confed-

on each

chief's forces to

do

battle in

responsible for controlling admittance to the king-

along commercial roads and for collecting

tolls.

The boundaries between the

metropolitan region and the provinces were marked by stations where travelers

were detained and charged a

tax.

African monarchies have either a hereditary or an elective system of succession.

Sometimes, the sovereign chooses his successor during his lifetime from among his
sons. That

was

the case for the

crown prince while

the latter

kingdom of Dahomey, where

was

still

The Bamileke /on (Cameroon) does the same: before

ous notables and

kingdom
sion

allied chiefs

whom this

until the eighteenth century.

among

to

rare.

belong to the same clan and lineage,

the king's

own children.

is

In general, dignitaries

Kotoko kingdom of Togo,

among seven lineages of the same

that of the founders of the kingdom, who are of Gourma origin. Sometimes the

royal inheritance

is

chosen by turns from

is

disputed and the interregnum, as in the kingdom in Uganda,

the occasion for great disorder. In Ankole,

on

succeed him. In the old,

But such examples are

role fell orchestrates the succession. In the

example, the king

clan,

to

he informs the vari-

of Benin (present-day Nigeria), the principle of primogeniture in succes-

was not introduced

not necessarily chosen from

for

his death,

which son he has chosen

The sovereign's successor, though he has

to

the king designated the

young, to prepare him for his future duties.

where

the rules of succession

a patrilinear system, at the death of the mugabe, the king's sons

another until only one of them was

mother and
ends.

When

sisters of the

left alive;

one

he then became the mugabe. The

pretender to the throne turned to magic to achieve their

exile.

to

Following that fratricidal war, the mugabe governed

without any living brothers or uncles. The war could

the

to fight

one son had fewer followers than the others, he was rapidly put

death or condemned to

which

had

is

were based

kingdom was plunged

last several

into chaos; the great chiefs,

who

months, during
did not partici-

pate in the struggle for power, sought to protect the borders from potential invaders

(Oberg 1947, 157-61). The old kingdom of Loango (present-day Congo) also went

through

a long

interregnum during which the key notables of the kingdom fought

one another. The country was then controlled by the leading dignitary, the ma-booma
or lord of fear,

whose name gives

good indication

of the atmosphere that reigned

during these periods of conflict (Balandier 1965, 194-95).


EMPIRES, KINCDOMS, AHO CHIEFTAINCIES

The

subjects of the African sovereign have partial control over the

He

exercises power.

the duties he

way

the king

usually governs by consent and his subjects are fully aware of

owes them,

just as they are

monarch. The Zulu king had

aware of

to follow the

their

own

duties toward their

advice of his council;

if

not,

was

it

said

the council could take a head of cattle from him. For the Zulu, the prosperity of the

country rested on the

criticize

people

fact that the

him (Gluckman

1947).

king possessed wise and strong advisers ready to

Even though the

territory of the

country and the

who inhabits it belongs to the king, who can order them to work for him, can

seize the products of their labor,

judge, the sovereign's

power

is

and could even put them

supreme

to death as

not unlimited; he always has to act within the frame-

work of rules imposed by tradition and celebrated by ritual. Other institutions, composed of religious associations or councils, including

and

specialists in religion, seek to balance royal

sions have to be approved

be agreed
its

to

by

by the

territorial chiefs, dignitaries,

power. In theory, the king's deci-

have

to

the king. In short, neither the council nor the king can govern

on

councils, just as those of the council

own.

Among the Moundang of Chad, two collegia of notables assist the sovereign: one,
the Council of Elders,

makers

is

composed

of the elder

members

lords of the land

and

rain-

from the principal Moundang clans; the other consists of men representing

the sovereign's subjects (Adler 1978, 30).

king's power, so that the sovereign's

counterpower can come

freedom of action

is

limited.

to

oppose the

The king of Porto-

Novo

(present-day Benin) shared certain of his powers with the "king of the night,"

called

more

precisely zunon,

the zunon to death

the

same

if

if

which means "lord

of the brush."

The king could put

he met him during the day, and the zunon had the right

to

do

he met the king during the night. These two individuals symbolically

divided the kingdom into two complementary and antagonistic parts: the king
reigned over inhabited,

human spaces,

the zunon over areas of brush,

where powers

dwelt that would be dangerous for the king should he come into contact with them.

Abomey included a comparable duplication. There was a "king of

the countryside," who shared responsibility for the kingdom, again in the symbolic
mode, with the king of Dahomey (Mercier 1962, 130-31).
The monarchy

of

In distributing certain

powers

to the provincial chiefs of his state, the

neutralizes or satisfies the ambitions of

members

king

of the royal lineages or of autoch-

thonous chieftaincies, and rewards those who support him. This principle sometimes

had

the result of multiplying the posts within the administrative apparatus, pro-

ducing a bureaucracy of great complexity, the organization of which might appear

confused

to us. Paul

Mercier links the function and status of the great dignitaries of

lO

CHAPTER ONE

African monarchies to those of royal officers in the early Middle Ages of Europe.
describes the role of the seven Uzama, the principal

new

for electing the

rity of

some

one of the gates of the

Edo

chiefs officially responsible

also have priestly duties;

city;

and another

The Ashanti confederacy

1962, 140-41).

The

king:

offers

is

also the

the asantehene

manages

one guarantees the secu-

main army

an edifying example

dignitaries, in accordance with their administrative

ganized into guilds in which duties are

At the top of the

asantehene, sits the guild of king's linguists or messengers,

chief (Mercier
in this respect:

and honorific

totally hierarchical.

the confederacy.

He

It is

role, are or-

through them that

state hierarchy, after the

who speak in his name on

public occasions, in particular during the enthronement of provincial chiefs and in

They serve

delicate court matters.

and provincial
Certain palace

as intermediaries

chiefs subordinate to him.

officials

and horn players

also

Each

between the king and the guild

chief, in fact,

has his

own

linguist.

accumulate several posts: for example, the king's drummers

compose

the guild of the asantehene's merchants.

pany singers celebrating the names

They accom-

of royal ancestors and, every night at midnight,

play a sort of national anthem in which the king thanks his officers and his people.

The

chief of the

horn players and of merchants receives advances

from the asantehene

to

see that commercial deals

human

ganizes the

many

as

two

Akan world.

among

hundred persons. The asantehene controlled the flow

as currency throughout the confederacy and,

In the eighteenth century,

became the symbol

or-

more

of gold,

generally, in the

under the influence of commerce established

of the asantehene's authority

that metal, gold

and divine essence. The

asan-

oversaw the production of gold deposits, and the lineages holding a share of

tehene

power
guild,

and he

caravan might involve as

by the Portuguese, which increased the economic importance of

truly

gold powder

the Ashanti were conducted properly,

caravans necessary for transport.

to three

which served

in

purchase foodstuffs for the king's benefit. This chief had to

all

hoarded a certain quantity of gold proportionate

which included more than

of gold powder. Yet another

to their

power. Another

thousand persons, managed the royal revenues

was made up

of founders of gold,

who

reduced the

nuggets to powder. In about 1870, one hundred persons were employed

at that task.

The members of another guild weighed gold powder. Others assured the upkeep
and oversight

them levied
there

were

of the roads necessary for the Ashanti's

taxes

and secured the preeminence

five to six

hundred armed men

at

economic prosperity. One of

of royal

commerce. At one point,

each of the stations controlling the

roads leading to the capital of Kumasi.

The payment
center of the

of a tribute of allegiance

kingdom and

its

is

often the only link existing between the

provinces. That tribute, offered by the regional chiefs.

EMPIRES, KIHCDOHS, AND CHIEFTAINCIES

has more symbolic than economic value; in general,

it

consists of bits of animals

considered emblems of royalty because they possess qualities shared by the person
of the king, such as strength, cleverness, or imposing size.

Leopard or

lion skins,

bodies of pangolins or eagles, elephant tusks, hippopotamus teeth, or buffalo horns

are the elements

Tswana (South

making up

Africa) took

down an

touch the ground (Vansina 1962, 327

lects a certain

When

the tribute sent to the king (Vansina 1962).

elephant, they sent the king the

n. 2). In

first

quantity of goods, for the most part produced locally

crops, meat, products of the forge, fabrics

which

tusk to

community

addition, each village

the

col-

shares of

sends to the king. Other forms

it

of tribute consist of hostage pages sent to the court or the obligation to give the

king certain

girls as

had pages, sons

wives. The

Azande king
kingdom,

of nobles of his

among them were

free to enter the

were excluded; they participated

and Central African Republic)

(Zaire

for his

companions. The youngest

domestic quarters, from which

in the king's private

he went to wage war, hunt, or consult the

life,

all

other

During journeys, they

oracle.

men

accompanied him when

slept

within range of his voice. They brought bowls of food prepared every day for

people of the court, and served as messengers and

The youngest helped the royal wives

royal fields:
died,

some

of

them followed him

hundred

girls the

common

Abomey

in

subjects.

The daughters

Some even

in their gardens.

cultivated the

When

to the grave. In the case of a rebellion

these pages were likely to be killed.

six

spies.

by

the king
their kin,

Under King Glele during the nineteenth century,

people had given as a gage lived in the palace of

Dahomey. The king supported them and offered them

resulting

to certain of his

from these unions then returned

to the royal

house.

The sovereign's wealth

is

proportionate to his power, whether measured by the

dimensions of his home, the number of his wives, the expanse of his
size of his herd. In the 1950s, the treasury of the
(Zaire),

fields,

Bushoong nyim, king

of the

or the

Kuba

included more than five storehouses stocked with "embroidered fabrics,

precious sculptures, masks, clothing, leopard skins, elephant tusks, pottery, knives,

and baskets" (Vansina

dred wives. The

numerous

}n/im

gifts that

1964, 106). His

had

to

harem

be the richest

at the

time numbered about six hun-

man in the kingdom; thus he was brought

increased his wealth, in addition to that coming from the

butes paid by villages and the labor of his slaves and wives.

Above

all,

tri-

however,

new acquisitions provide

Much of the royal wealth is

that king's treasury belongs to everyone and, every year,

the occasion for a public exhibition (Cornet 1982, 29).

redistributed, serving especially to support visitors

products of

fields

and herds and the labor

and persons

of the court: the

of slaves, sharecroppers, or warriors are

12

CHAPTER ONE

often hardly adequate to provide daily support for the court

army existed,

regular

and

as

for the hospitality

the prince's gifts

had

among the Zulu

and

to

among

owes

his people.

Among

cultivated their masters' eleusine, the harvest ought to be

Edward

same

for those

Evans-Pritchard).

the Azande,

raw beans went

his subjects: "If

royal residence, they ought to return to court as cooked beans. ...

cooked as porridge

when a

for the organization of large ceremonies,

aid the sovereign

be divided

and army

If

into the

the subjects

pounded, ground, and

subjects to eat at court" (Mair 1977, 95, quoting

seems there was no economic monopoly by the sover-

It

eign except in kingdoms engaged in long-distance commerce. The mansa of Mali

commerce

reserved the

in gold

nuggets for himself, while panners for gold kept

only the powder. The asantehene in Ashanti controlled the flow of gold and had the
privilege of trade in slaves

and firearms,

as did the sovereign of

Dahomey and

the

Kotoko king of Togo.

Slave labor
it

was an important factor

in the

economy of African kingdoms because

allowed an increase in the production of foodstuffs and goods necessary for trade.

Domestic slaves were usually prisoners of war or

assimilated after a few years

by the lineage

their descendants,

had

that

and were often

originally acquired them. These

"captive" slaves formed a class of workers in the service of the monarchy. They are
to

be distinguished from slaves acquired in trade,

even playing the role of currency. At

by Europeans, they were

Within Islamized

for the

least before the establishment of the slave trade

most part

political or

common law

prisoners.

came from unconverted populations.

states, slaves generally

the empires of Mali

who were veritable commodities,

and Songhai (present-day

Mali), they

In

grew grain on royal farms

dispersed throughout the territory. Gao, the capital of Songhai, had a large slave

market
the

visited by traders from Maghreb which occupied a significant place in

economy

much

in

of the empire. In the fifteenth century, these slaves

demand

in the south of

Tripoli, Egypt, Turkey, Sicily,

In the old

worked

kingdom

Morocco;

and

of Benin, slaves

the lands of their masters.

few

many

of

them

Italian cities

Naples, Genoa, and Venice.

were brought together

Among

were even very

also left for the north, to

in villages,

ing plantations, where they produced food for the great houses of the
fruit

and vegetables

for sale,

principal task, however,

5. The king, or nyim, of the Kuba, Kot

a-Mbeeky

III,

Photo taken

by

to

lar status, at

work

in

Nshyeeng

(Zaire) in 1970

Washington, National

Museum of African

city,

raised

their owners. Their

in gold mines, since the Ashanti, for ritual

once privileged in relation to

covered in his regalia.

Eliot Elisofon.

Archives.

was

and even watched the children of

reasons, could not extract the gold themselves.

(facing page)

where they

the Ashanti, they were engaged in build-

The

many

slaves of the court

subjects of the

had

a particu-

kingdom and hardly

enviable in view of certain customs. Although they were allowed to occupy important posts, they

became victims

Art, Eliot Elisofon

monies, such as royal funerals.

in the sacrifices that

accompanied

certain great cere-

^k^

1
^M^
.ap^

iiT

M'

^**.
^^m
T*M>*.

mm

%^0m

**<*.':*'''

#Bl^^

:s;,:^

L'^pi^-

-i.Tj!SS?!W(9f

CHAPTER ONE

The peoples of black Africa did not build

risen

up

in

Europe over the past

cities

The

centuries.

comparable

have

to those that

kingdoms,

capitals of African

though some had a more advanced urbanism than others and may have been home
thousand residents, ought rather

to several

eyes of the
of

first

European

Kongo appeared

to

be compared to large

villages. In the

visitors in the fifteenth century, the capital of the

kingdom

"avenues lined with palm trees or

to lack "aligned streets" or

ornamental trees"; they were traversed by "narrow paths" running "in every direction through

grass,

tall

with dwellings arranged in accordance with the

caprice of each individual" (Balandier 1965, 142).

their size

and the number

The palace

is

composed

taste

from the small

lived.

of a set of buildings housing a population that

exceed that found elsewhere in the kingdom.

It

might

represents the administrative and

religious center of the country. In the organization of

tation of entrances, the layout of buildings

and

of the capitals, however, in

of their inhabitants, could be differentiated

where the common people

village agglomerations

Most

its

space

the cardinal orien-

and in the decoration of

dwellings,

its

the palace ought to be read as the cosmogonic transcription of the universe, at

center the person of the king, guarantor of the order of the world.
are found

on

certain textiles used during royal ceremonies,

walls of the palace or were

fabrics

worn by people

when

Maps

they adorned the

of the court. These include

dyed indigo or the embroidered gowns

of the

Kotoko

its

of palaces

Bamum

princesses of

Cam-

eroon (Coquet 1993, 46-47).

Bamum kingdom, Fumban (Camthousand residents. A wall several

In the early twentieth century, the capital of the

eroon),

numbered between

fifteen

and twenty

meters high and twenty kilometers long, defensive in nature, encircled the
royal palace, built in the center of the constructed space, included

buildings housing the king's wives, servants, and children; in

hectares

(fig. 9)

In 1817

it

The

hundreds of

covered seven

(Tardits 1992, 45).

Kumasi, the capital of Ashanti, had twenty-seven principal

largest of them,

used

for

hundred meters wide.

sectors,

itself

city.

streets; the

parade processions by the asnniehene, was more than

In the late nineteenth century, the city

had seventy-seven

each bearing a name. The palace, the most imposing building in the

city,

covered a surface area of about two hectares. In the courtyard past the main entrance, piles of skulls,

and drums adorned with the same macabre decoration,

greeted visitors, reminding them of the exploits of Ashanti armies. Another court-

yard followed the

first;

there dignitaries in charge of the asantshene's affairs met. That

space measured thirty-five meters long and fifteen meters wide. Ornamental whorl
motifs were modeled in the clay covering the pillars and base of the buildings
(fig.

11)

(McLeod

1981, 42-44).

EMPIRES, KIMCDOMS, AMD CHIEFTAINCIES

The palace of the

a true city: as

obn, the

many

sovereign of Benin, in

as fifteen thousand persons lived in

rated the palace proper from the quarters housing

and

A broad

it.

avenue sepa-

numerous guilds of court artisans

monarchy. The palace

priests in the service of the rites associated with the

was divided

reached the proportions of

itself

into three quarters, the first reserved for the king's wives

children, the second set aside for royal servants,

and the

itself

and young

third containing

numerous

storehouses, sanctuaries, meeting rooms, and working areas for artisans. "In the

Oba's palace there

"palace chiefs,"

is

never silence," the Edo used to say (Ben-Amos 1995,

who

lived in the royal sector of the city, Ogbe,

dwelling and were divided into three associations. The

first

managed

12).^

The

the royal

took care of the regalia,

including the throne and ceremonial wardrobe, and secured transactions with Europeans; the second took care of the oba's wives and children; and the third

charge of the king's domestics

on the other

lived

territories of the

The

main

artery,

kingdom; they collected

its

center,

were responsible

tributes

room was imposing

twenty meters wide. In

in

pages, cooks, and servants. The "city chiefs," who

side of the city's

king's receiving

was

for the different

and mediated between

in size,

villages.

about thirty meters long and

an impluvium, supported by

pillars

covered with
6. Gbadebo, King Yoruba

bronze plaques adorned with figures in bas-relief or high

illuminate the room. All

wooden

parts of the building

relief,

allowed daylight to

were completely sculpted. In

(Nigeria), predecessor of

had

to build his

own

palace; there

were

thirty-three palaces

within the royal enclosure. In the end, however, the old buildings of the deceased
oba

fell

into ruins (Mercier 1962, 178).

The palace complex

of the

Dahomey

kings in

Abomey

(present-day Benin) also

give a sense of the kingdom's history: as in the former Benin, every king
in his residence,

and

his successor

had

to

was buried

have a building constructed in turn, next

one that had preceded him. The palace of the deceased king continued

to the

inhabited by his soul, present in the altars erected in

royal ancestors took place one

by one

in

its

to

be

honor, and ceremonies to

each of the palaces, built by members of the

dynasty as a whole.^ In the nineteenth century, that vast collection of palaces, housing both the living and the dead, covered an area of about forty hectares and

enclosed by a wall whose perimeter was nearly four kilometers (Mercier and

bard 1959,

7).

During

that time, the population of the palace

was estimated

Lom-

at eight

thousand residents, the vast majority of them wives in the royal harem and
slaves.

court,

The palace had two main

which looked out on

courts, in

which

a square extending

messengers, dignitaries, and the king's drummers,

went outdoors, were permanently

few buildings stood. In the

beyond

their
first

the palace, sentries, servants,

who accompanied him when he

stationed. In the second court,

the king presided over ceremonies

was

beyond

and dances, and consulted with

the

first,

his ministers.

Abeokuta

Early twentieth century, Lyon,

Africain.

principle, each obn

of

Ademola

II.

Musee

7. Ashanti chief.

On his throne in cere-

monial coshime, his

Above him,

feet

on

a footrest.

a forest of parasols.

Ghana,

Kumasi, "Golden Jubilee of the Restoration of

Asanteman." Photo by Rene and

Denise David, 1985.

8. The mumnii
Europeans

Museum

of

Rwanda

receiving

at his court in 1953.

fiir

Vienna,

Volkerkunde, D. 25. 099.

9. View

of the palace of Sultan Njoya in

Fumban,

the capital of the

Bamum king-

dom. Photo by Oldenburg,

1923. Vienna,

Museuni

B. 17.176.

fiir

Volkerkunde,

I0> The king, or mjim, of the Kuba,

Mbope

Mabiinc. Photographed in one

of the houses of his palace in

(Zaire), capital of the

1950. Tervueren,

Nshyeeng

kingdom, about

Musee Royal de

rique Centrale, E.PH. 8044.

I'Af-

CHAPTER ONE

18

Beyond these courts was the private part

would be buried, and

of the royal residence,

where the king

the apartments of his favorite wives, the kposi, or "panther

wives." The dwellings of the other wives, princesses, and servants were arranged

around them

women

no precise

in

order. These included the dwellings of the

whom

soldiers in the king's service,

of

famous

"Amazons," a

women warriors of antiquity. In both the palaces of Benin

reference to the legendary

and those

the Europeans called

Abomey, an intricate network of lanes covered the entire space between

these buildings.

Not
or

all

same prestigious

palaces displayed the

Dahomey. Some were simpler in

their structure

plex in their use. The royal quarters of the

composed
roof,

of buildings of

comparable

unbaked

to ordinary

clay,

characteristics as those of Benin

and

Azande

round

architecture, but just as

sovereign, for example, were

form and covered with

in

houses but built with more

section, a sort of square reserved for people

coming

com-

care.

to attend a

They had

a straw
a public

ceremony or judg-

ment. About twenty meters farther on lay a reserved space called the court of whispers,

where the king discussed matters

of secrecy with his close advisers.

Along the

path connecting these two squares stood the houses of royal pages, overlooking

on one

the entrance to the court. Military companies lived

the king

and

side.

The residences

of

wives were separated from that group of buildings by a long ex-

his

panse of grass. Every wife had a separate house, surrounded by a garden; the king's
residence stood in the middle. At
of the royal diviners.
II.

some

distance from this complex

The Azande palace was

was

the house

a rustic, country dwelling, but the

Buildings of the palace of the asante-

hene in Kumasi, 1901. Easier Mission.

The decorative
(jade

niotifs

seen on the

fa-

painted or cut into the clay and

the longitudinally cut

for the roof

etiquette observed within

inferior to those of

bands of thatching

were reserved

for royal

its

it

and the

of

royal occupant

its

were

in

no way

counterparts in Benin or Dahomey.

The ancient kings spent

and

power

day

their

in idleness; they

were forbidden

to

work. Ser-

vants rubbed them with oils and fed them. They spent most of their time with

religious buildings.

young people.

children and

made

of oil extracted

covered with

made from

it.

forest

and arm

draped

That

is

in a

The pomade with which they were covered was

seeds.

The

king's entire

body was

His beads and gold bracelets were rubbed with white powder

mushrooms.

arms were laden with

leg

from roasted palm

bracelets.

bracelets.

He was

pagne the color

The king wore

He wore

gold, a great deal of gold. His

precious beads, red in color ... as

girded in an orange-colored [breechcloth], and

of brick. (Perrot 1982, 103)

how an Anyi king. Nana Bonzu II, described in 1964 the clothing regulations

and the conduct imposed by

ments and garb

tradition

on the Anyi

of the Ivory Coast.

The orna-

that covers the king, the cosmetics he uses, the care lavished

him, and the gestures he has to make indicate his extraordinary nature to

all

on

eyes.

EMPIRES, KINGDOMS, AND CHIEFTAINCIES

The king

Kuba, the nyim, has his personal clothing maker. Only he and great

of the

many pleats
human actions

notables wear pagnes descending to the ankle; the

clothing

sweep up and absorb the

caused by

evil

nmmmi

Certain sovereigns, such as the Yoruba kings in Nigeria or the

veil their faces

the

at court,

learn

composed

upon

that

their arrival (Tardits 1980, 748).

were presented

kingdom

him

pieces of meat,

of

Every morning

Rwanda,

(fig. 4).

was

to

Among

be spoken

in the

which had

at

to

dawn, the sovereign

Uganda, touched the foreheads of young bulls

him and asked them

to

young virgin brought him milk

teeth; otherwise, the

they appear in public

that a particular language

in

few hundred words, which the wives and servants had

of a

of Bunyoro, a pastoral

fed

when

with a curtain of beads

Bamum (Cameroon), tradition held

of these articles of

(Cornet 1982, 183).

morning and

to enter his

cook would be put

him and

to protect

his

kingdom; a

noon. In the evening, his cook

at

mouth without brushing

The king had

to death.

against his

to eat alone,

away

from onlookers.

Dapper described comparable customs ob-

In the seventeenth century, Olfert

served

at the king's court of

One

finds very

Loango (present-day Congo):

amusing laws regarding the

king's eating

and drinking. He

eats

only two meals and there are two houses set aside for them. In one he does

nothing but eat and in the other nothing but drink.

may

Neither

man

nor beast

see the king eat or drink, under penalty of death. That prohibition

observed, as the following will demonstrate. The Portuguese

the king of a very beautiful dog,

which delighted the

prince.

is

strictly

made a present to
One day, this little

animal escaped from the hands of his guard while the king was having dinner

and scratched open the door

of his master

and

eat

to his

He

with him.

room, thinking he would leap onto the lap

received sorry

payment

had him taken and

king, having called his people,

killed

for his caresses; the

on the

spot.

(Dapper

1686,329)5

The

different rules of behavior

indicative of his singular identity.

and
At

of

first

life

that

govern the king's existence are

glance, the etiquette to

monarchs submitted does not seem so distant

in

its

principle,

which European

though

it

was

less

severe and rested on rules that were the reverse of those prevailing in African
courts.

The

cult of the royal

person conceived by Louis XIV organized the sover-

eign's daily life as a spectacle: the

most common

having supper, going to bed, and so forth

acts

rising, dining, taking

walks,

were part of a meticulously regulated

public ceremony, which a hundred persons or so always witnessed. The spatial lay-

out of the king's chamber, as

it

can

still

be seen in

of dramatizing the royal activities of rising

Versailles,

and going

was invented

to bed.

as a

way

"stage" with the

20

CHAPTER ONE

royal

bed

in the place of

where the crowd

honor faced

a "parterre"

demarcated by a small

of courtiers thronged.

Things are completely different for the African sovereign.

thing that brings to
erated.

mind

The king has

modes

strict

his

human

submit

to

be identified with his

very

own

It

to a strange destiny,

which

that every-

dictates that the country

on the part of the sovereign, behavior

that

seems

nmmmi of Rwanda, for example, could not bend at the knee,

since that gesture might have led to a reduction in the size of the

The monarchy possesses the

mic energies are lodged

seems

nature in too precise a manner has to be oblit-

body; that mystical relation between the two requires

of behavior

strange to our eyes. The

1954, 147).

railing,

The king

king.

in his person; often,

he

is

kingdom (Maquet

a sacred being, since cos-

of divine origin, in that dynasties

is

frequently traces their genealogies to a divine founder.

The notion

of divine kingship, as analyzed

in African societies as

someone who,

whether exerted voluntarily or

of rejuvenation.

The king

is

not.

Our

Jukun of Nigeria

in his being, possesses a

a result, he

beans!

body must be

in

rain!

Our

kingdom and

health!

Our

crops!

the

Our

when he leaves the palace (Mul-

and the

stability of the

kingdom. For that

good health and whole, must display no physical

Anyi kings were subjected

to verify that they

Our

nature,

progress of his existence, and even his emotions

are likely to affect the course of events

infirmity.

power over

must submit periodically to rites

to their sovereign

ler 1990, 65). All the king's acts, the

reason, the king's

Frazer, defines the king

the guarantor of the well-being of the

balance of the world. "Our grain!

riches!" sing the

As

by James G.

to periodic ritual examinations of their bodies

bore no traces of blows or wounds; they were not allowed to hold

sharp instruments, since a cut would have brought catastrophe on the kingdom
itself.

were

Their grooming, shaving in particular,

skillful at the task.

was reserved

for certain servants

during wartime. They were not even allowed contact with the dead;
their

who

Kings avoided taking risks and were excused from combat

wives died, a close friend was designated

to play the role of

when one

widower

of

in their

place (Perrot 1982, 103 and 105). Similarly, the nnaha of the Yatenga (Burkina Faso)

never carried weapons, not even during military expeditions; everything that manifested his

human

nose, the noise

nature had to be concealed.

he sneezed, coughed, or blew his

If

was immediately covered up by

the snapping of his servants' fingers

(Izard 1985, 112).

The king

is

a thaumaturgist:

he can make rain

famine by putting his bare foot on the ground.

pretended to take

would dry up

off his

the earth.

fall

on cue, heal the

When

sick, or

cause

an Anyi king was angry, he

sandal (Perrot 1982, 106): the contact of his shoeless foot

The same

is

true for the

Bushoong sovereign, the mjim. His

EMPIRES, KINCDOHS, AND CHIEFTAINCIES

title

and the praise made of him reveal

God on

the Bushoong,

one

earth," the

his

power and divine

who

"dispenses births, the

oong" and "the god who passes through the

He

origin:

life

"king of

is

of

all

Bush-

god who creates plains and

capital, the

He is not allowed to sit on the ground either, or to cross

of scorching the earth (Vansina 1964, 100). He possesses

forests" (Vansina 1964, 101).

a field,

because of the risk

powerful charms that allow him to transform himself into a leopard and to

kill.

power, which the king carries within him, and over which he does not seem
full

mastery,

When
arms

makes him

This

have

a redoubtable being:

the king dances,

to the sky.

to

no one can go up

him and embrace him.

to

All

lift

their

He is in the middle, no one approaches him. Others far from him

dance. People try to calm

him

"Gently, gently," so that he doesn't get going

too strong. "Everything belongs to you, don't quarrel."

He

holds out his arm

I am the
who com-

designating by turns the sky, the earth, then himself: "The whole world,

who commands it, except for earth and

mand them." (Perrot 1982, 105-6)
one

The Jukun king

him from

(Nigeria) controls the rain

charm consisting

sky; trees

and men,

it is I

and wind. That particular

of a part of the

body

skill

comes

to

of one of his predecessors, the

heart reduced to a powder, which he feeds on from time to time. The

power over

nature exerted by the queen of the Lovedu of southern Africa stems from a comparable charm,

made up

of fragments of skin

previous queens (de Heusch 1990,

The cycle of agrarian

sovereign's

festivities of the

multaneously with the feast of the

"filth"

taken from the cadavers of

9).

cycle (Adler 1978, 37).

life

and

Moundang

The advent

first fruits,

the

in

of the

first

crops,

ing

During the second

emblems

feast,

of the king's power,

to reflect the

celebrated

is

si-

annual feast on the Moundang

calendar; the king presides over that ceremony, during

to the regalia.

Chad seems
monarchy

which

a sacrifice

which marks the end

which allow him

to

make

is

offered

of the getting in of
rain

fall

or stop

fall-

an iron hoe, a miniature throwing knife, and a sickle are invoked and pres-

ent during the

hunt takes

rite.

During the third

feast, called feast of the

guinea fowl, a collective

place: the king, stripped of his garments, dressed as the

his subjects, participates in the hunt,

condemned

to

most modest

of

submit to the mockery of his

people. That feast prefigures the end of the sovereign's reign and symbolically depicts his death (Adler 1978, 35-37).
to the

The

role of

metonym

of the

kingdom assigned

person of the king, and more particularly to his body, the intimate connection

he maintains with the cycle of vegetation and hence with the prosperity of the com-

munity as

a whole,

doms. Regicide

is

must be linked

to the practice of regicide in

many

African king-

one of the principles defining "divine" kingship, as proposed by

21

22

CHAPTER ONE

James G. Frazer: according

since, in a

dom,

the physical degeneration of one

death

cannot die a natural death,

system that establishes a correspondence between the king and his king-

the order of the world

to

to that principle, the king

end of

at the

is liable

to lead to that of the other.

from being disturbed and

falling into chaos, the

To keep

king was put

which was predetermined or decided

his reign, the length of

as a function of the sovereign's physical condition. Thus, certain inhabitants of the

Jukun kingdom

still

habitually establish the genealogy of their kings

by counting by

intervals of seven years (Muller 1990, 58). In the event of catastrophe (famine,

drought, a serious military defeat), accident

sion, the king

mud
I2i Oludasa, the chief, or olowo, of
(Nigeria).

London, Royal Anthropological

tute,

oloivo

Owo

Photo by William Fagg, 1958.

1958 (58/58/10).

(cf. fig.

124)

hand. In Benin, that insignia

is

reserved

for the dignitaries of the oba

and

the oha himself

Numerous

(cf. fig.

sess objects of

Edo

or buried alive as soon as he

and locks

of a river.

of his hair

were removed from

They were believed

was

Before he

ill.

was

killed,

body and then buried

in the

to preserve the well-being of the country.

When

the reth, king of the Shilluk of Sudan, could

old age and impotence, he

seriously

fell

his

no longer

wives because of

satisfy his

strangled, since his debility threatened the fertility

of

human beings and

domesticated animals and the success of crops. The

nated the founder of the royal dynasty, Nyikang, whose

spirit

was

reth incar-

the object of a

and brandishes

a ceremonial sword, ehen, in his right

chiefs or kings in the

a horse), or ritual transgres-

Insti-

On his chest, the

Oludasa wears a brass pendant

from Benin

from

could also be put to death. The iwembe of the Nyakyusa of Tanzania

was strangled
his nails

(a fall

103).

cult

throughout the country. Yet the Nyikang

as a result,

it

had

to inhabit a

body

full

spirit

of vigor.

was by

The body

definition incorruptible;
of the king,

whose good

for

Yoruba world pos-

health guaranteed the wealth of the kingdom, functioned as an object through

whose intermediary society attempted to intervene in the world, to master the forces

origin, a sign of the

governed

which were joined together

close relations once maintained with the

that

Benin monarchy.

eign (de Heusch 1990,

it,

in the corporal

envelope of the sover-

11).

Thus, tradition works to

make

uncommon

the sovereign an

being, through the

mystic power that inhabits his body and that destines him for an extraordinary

The

etiquette that regulates

size of his palace,

and

all

the actions of his

to

number

become

effective,

fate.

of his wives, the

openly displays his

however, certain

rites

be performed during the period of enthronement. These rituals transform

the future king into a being

a being almost

who is

on the margins

by the commission

definitively different

from

of society because his identity

all
is

others, abnormal,

marked

or defined

of acts of transgression against the ordinary laws of the

munity. For example,

when

their predecessor, they are

the

Jukun

committing

eating the hearts of their dead

Rukuba

the

his necessary physical perfection

singularity. In order for that singularity to

have

life,

is

not

chiefs (Nigeria) acceded to

com-

kings periodically eat pieces of the heart of

a

dangerous

among

act,

anthropophagic in nature:

the usual practices of the Jukun.

power following

The

a ritual of investiture that in-

cluded the same provisions. After drinking beer from a calabash in which the skull-

EMPIRES, KINGDOMS, AND CHIEFTAINCIES

cap of one of his predecessors had been immersed, the future chief was led to con-

sume, without warning, pieces of

mixed

in

baby from

with the meat of a ram. Through these two

of endocannibalism, the

him and

flesh of a

power

the

of

one

to live to a very great age,

Other

who might have

but

succeeded him, a child of his

own, the

at the cost of a terrible act,

and which made him

union gives birth

a couple

clan.

was supposed

1990, 55-57).

with the choice of his

marked by

the

That particular practice tends to affirm that the king,

Many myths

monarchy depict

own

and possessing

a being lying outside normality

alone at the top of the social hierarchy, can only

the

chief

relation to his wife frequently appears to be

seal of incest, real or symbolic.

organizing society.

rite

abhorred by his subjects

rites establishing the king's singularity are associated

The sovereign's

which was

second of them a

acts, the

ambiguous powers, both beneficent and maleficent (Muller

wife.

clan,

Rukuba chief integrated the wisdom of those who preceded

In adding the generation of the sacrificed child to his

as a whole,

own

his

lie

outside the system of alliances

explaining the origin of the royal dynasty and of

composed

to the first king.

of a brother

Woot, the

first

and

a sister,

whose incestuous

mythical ancestor of the Bushoong

dynasty among the Kuba of Zaire, slept with his

own

sister.

At

his coronation, the

nyim, personifying Woot, reenacts that incestuous union by marrying the daughter
of his mother's sister, contrary to the

Heusch

1987, 132). In the

exogamic matrimonial rules

kingdom of Bunyoro, the victor in the tournament between

the sons of the deceased sovereign in the

war

of accession to the throne, similar to

that practiced in Ankole, marries a half-sister, daughter of the

tial ritual is

marked by

great beauty:

are brought together at the palace.

will

in place (de

be his queen. The young

on the day

same

of the ceremony,

father.

all

The nup-

the half-sisters

The king chooses from among them the one who

woman

steps forward

and takes her place on the

throne. Objects symbolizing the future queen's authority are brought to her: a

sword, a four-pointed spear, and a spearhead, which

seat; its

two points are covered with bleached palm

suspended above

ing coffee beans

is

ereign, followed

by

her.

the ground in front of the king. While she

the princess's former

them

for a

home appear

at the

A small basket contain-

woman

is

then led to the sov-

two-headed spear, which he thrusts into

is

seated on a skin, a

cow and

a calf

from

threshold of the room. The king looks at

moment, then extends both hands, palms up. The future queen, on her

knees, kisses them, then goes into her house,

sure (de

placed to the right of her

leaves.

The young

a dignitary carrying the

is

Heusch

1987, 66). She will not truly

the milk ceremony, during

brought as a

gift to

which

is

built to face the royal enclo-

become queen

until she has

performed

which she consumes milk from one of her own cows

the king. After

two or four days, she

will bring the king a

cow

23

24

CHAPTER ONE

and a

calf

ought not

from her house. The presence of these animals during

to

be surprising.

Among

a rite so

a pastoral people such as the Bunyoro, the gift

of a cow, like the rite of drinking milk,

must be interpreted

an

as

act celebrating the

anticipated future prosperity of the union of the sister to her brother (de
1982, 68).

the king
the

The

kingdom an

heir (de

The daughters and

who

to the king,

Heusch

king, however, will choose other half-sisters to be his concubines (only

allowed to have concubines), and

is

solemn

Heusch

1987, 66

sisters of the Shilluk

it is

The queen

ff.).

who will give

they, not the queen,

is

condemned

to sterility.

king (Sudan) cannot marry. They belong

also lies outside the system of matrimonial alliances organizing

Shilluk society. Thus, the king's daughters have sexual relations with the sovereign

own half-brothers

himself or with their

Bunyoro, however,

Among

king's sons.

half-sisters, aunts,
official "sister,"

which the

half-sisters

the

and

(de

Heusch

Lunda

of Zaire, the royal

that of the

room where

responsible for a cult on

is

kingdom depend. She

rized to enter certain parts of the royal enclosure

the

the king spends the night

is

and sees

sister,

is

to

the only one autho-

it

that the

ground

in

always covered with fresh sand. Ac-

cording to the traditions of the kingdom of Dahomey, the

twin

the monarch's

Among the Jukun of Nigeria, the king reigns with an

nieces.

and

in the case of the

harem included

daughter of a former sovereign. She

king's health

As

1987, 100).

on the mother's side are forbidden the king and the

first

king reigned with his

but since then the heir to the kingdom can only be born of a

woman

of

nonroyal blood.

These unions will no doubt bring

to

mind

the matrimonial customs of the royal

families of ancient Egypt; however, there are

union with a

sister of the

dom of Mutapa
of

the

still

king, his sister

new

royal

same mother. The matrimonial

(present-day

Mutapa, while

Once

fire;

Zimbabwe) seems

is

Heusch

only with

have a very particular

true for the king's mothers; the copper

women

in the

in the

former Benin

Edo kingdom, by

the

mere

of his clan

who came

to

myth

of the

monar-

numerous examples

establish that the king

is

of

who

a being

women of his own blood.

role to play

that of his wives. The same

and brass sculptures

attest to the

of the heads of

queen

importance of the role granted these

fact that they

frequently, at the enthronement, the king

woman

own sister for his mistress.

responsible for lighting and tending

official wife,

1982, 312-13, 320). There are

way form an alliance

king's sisters

mothers

rule prevailing in the king-

be an exception: the future king

only the heir presumptive, had his

became the

the specific quality of royal weddings, which

The

to

in black Africa of a

the rites of lighting the fire are linked to the

chy's foundation (de

can in some

few examples

was

were depicted

ritually joined to his

(fig. 36).

Very

mother or

to a

perform that function. Within that close relation-


EMPIRES, KINGDOMS, AND CHIEFTAINCIES

ship, the destiny of

kingdoms

of

one appears

have been linked

to

25

to that of the other. In the

Bunyoro and Ankole, during the war of accession

to the throne,

each

candidate prince had to attend to his mother's safety, since the mother was con-

demned

to follow her

son

to the

grave

if

he ever

lost the battle.

seems that rule

It

prevailed not only in Bunyoro and Ankole; mothers always played an important
role in the affairs of succession, in that they

means

possible in his effort to take the throne.

lived in a

home specially constructed

protected

for her

him with an amulet supposed

possessed a double-edged sword, and

spear,

had

emblems

to

defend and aid

women

him

to assure

Heusch

a long

tzvins,

her son, she

like

life;

four-pointed

mother was immediately

1982, 65

Swazi of Transvaal, the king and his mother govern together

are called

She

to face her son's house.

like the sovereign's wife, a

of her clan (de

son by any

The queen mother of the Bunyoro

and turned

of power. In case of her death, the royal

replaced by one of the

their

in

even though the mother resides in a village

and

66).

such a
far

Among

the

way that they

from the

capital.

That was also true in the kingdom of Rwanda, where the monarchy was occupied

by two persons, the mwami, or

king,

and

who were

his mother,

designated by a

single term, abami, the kings, thus demonstrating the force of the union of that particular

couple (Maquet 1954,

Among

the Ashanti,

148).

where

system of matrilinear succession prevails,

through his mother rather than his father that the king acquires his right

Golden

symbol of Ashanti

Stool,

the asantehene"

women
ever,

is

royalty.

The

woman

not the king's real mother, however; she

is

title

is

to the

"mother of

chosen from among the

belonging to the lineage of the sovereign's mother. The true mother, how-

accompanies her son

to request the future

at great

annual

abundance of wealth

feasts,

where

represent the moon, while her son

1987, 142).

As

away

war

at

a respected

or

member

when he

is

certain rites are

in the country.

in reality the true mistress of the country, because she

is

with the

it

is

It

would seem

"mother of

performed
that she

all."

She

assimilated to the sun on earth (de

of the council, she presides

when

is

may

Heusch

the asantehene

visits his provinces. In cases of the sovereign's absence,

A German traveler visiting the

Bamum kingdom, reported that

the king's mother can thus perform her son's duties.

Cameroons

in 1907, in

Fumban, the

capital of the

he was welcomed by the mother of Sultan Njoya,

who was away on

a distant mili-

tary expedition:

13. The king, or oba, of Benin (Nigeria),

Akenzua
1958.

II.

Photo by William Fagg,

London, Royal Anthropological

stitute,

1958 (58/65/5). The king

the

ceremony

an ivory

called emobo.

bell to

He

strikes

chase the powers of evil

from the kingdom. The whiteness of the

The queen mother was seated

slaves with parasols

and

in front of the porch.

ostrich

plume

Beside her stood two large

fans attached to the

end of

a long handle.

tifs

is

associated with purity.

adorning the

living in

bell all depict

each side of the throne were two large birds, living eagles or vultures,

who squawked and beat their wings in a threatening manner. Around the throne,

The moanimals

an aquatic environment

crocodiles, fish, turtles, etc.

to

In-

wear-

ing his royal insignia of coral beads, at

ivory

Chained

is

from the

world of the god Olokun (Ben-Amos

1995).

Jean Rose, Import. - Export.

ifiieri

Abidjan

Interdite

8 Cote d'lvoire
14. Old postcard. Chief Ndenye, Aben-

gourou (Ivory Coast), moving

retinue.

spokesmen and

his

their insignia. Paris,

Karen Petrossian

I5>

vv'ith

At the head of the march, the

collection.

Queen Njapndunke, mother

tan Njoya of the

Bamum, and

of Sul-

her

reti-

nue. The Cameroons, 1913. Photo Easier

Mission. Beside the queen mother, two

royal wives. Behind them, the wives of

her retinue

lift

pipes with clay bowls,

insignia of authority.

ABENGOUKOU

Le Roi dans on

hamac

Cliche

Kante

EMPIRES, KINGDOMS, AND CHIEFTAINCIES

members

of the court

formed semicircles

in close ranks.

dred men, armed with spears and bows.

greater distances she used a sort of palanquin carried

entire duration of the reception,

remained squatting,

silent

which

lasted

and respectful

There were several hun-

She moves very

by

six slaves.

more than an hour,

in the

on

little

burning sun.

foot.
.

For

For the

the servants

(fig. 15;

Geary and

Njoya 1985, 92)

In

Oyo, a former

palace

had

official

city-state of Nigeria,

a "mother": These

not only the

women assumed

alafin,

the king, but every

ritual responsibilities for the

palace altars, and the most important of them were also the "mothers" of the principal cult organizations in the city.

mother who,

in this case,

was put

The

official

"mother" of the king (not the

to death at her son's accession to

real

power) reigned

with her "son"; the heir presumptive, the eldest son, had to be accompanied by two

"mothers" when he visited the palace. Similarly, the "mother" of every minister was

when the minister was received by the king. In the kingdom of Dahomey,
every man at court also had an official mother. These women exerted their authority
present

over

all

the

European

women

visitors:

it

in the palace. In the

was

same way, "mothers" were assigned

their responsibility to

remember what had been

to

said dur-

ing audiences. The king's mother, the kpodjito, or "panther mother," lived in a palace
adjacent to that of her son and governed with him. Even today, there are "king's

mothers"
284).

who care for the altars and thrones of their supposed "son" (Mercier 1962,

The words

of Olfert

Dapper regarding

of that custom: "This prince honors his

the king of Benin attest to the great age

mother

in the extreme,

and does nothing

of

weight without taking her advice. However, by virtue of some unknown law, they
are not permitted to see each other; that

house outside the

(Dapper 1686,
the oba could

city,

311).

where she

is

is

why

the

queen mother dwells

served by a great

number

Dapper's remarks are consistent with

no longer come

however, a court with

its

into contact with his mother.

dignitaries organized

participated in the affairs of the kingdom.

of

in a lovely

women and

reality:

girls"

once enthroned,

She possessed a palace,

on the model

of her son's court,

and

27

CHAPTER TWO

Few Conceptions

of the Portrait

The

extolling of monarchical virtues has always

modes
in

of expression in the arts,

dance and music, or

tion, court

much

us from

of the

war

exploits in particular.

tomb

feats,

artists

and

common

lating their activities: the

Whatever the age or

What we admire

frescoes, sculptures

and

objects that

pharaohs and

of peasants

tive of the prosperity of the en\pire; the

work

of artisans;

What we know
is

due

of the old

in Egyptian art
to us,

have come

down

dignitaries.

There are

and images

re-

and herders, representaand the military

Mesopotamian kingdoms such

victories

as Assyria

and

and sculptures adorning royal dwell-

in great part to the steles

that of Nineveh in Assyria, for example, where scenes of hunting and war,

delicately carved in bas-relief in alabaster, celebrate royal glory.

Rome, borrowing from

the classical art of imperial

was

to

demonstrate

to the Latin, Italic,

domination the power of

its

mind

that

The vocation

Middle Eastern

of

tradition,

and barbarian peoples under the empire's

founders, through portraits of

rations of scenes relating their exploits.

to

or of

life,

leisure activities of the court; funerary rituals;

work

ings

civiliza-

unknown

of sovereigns, either painted or sculpted,

pomp and

the industrious agricultural or pastoral

Babylonia

sung or recited text,

people, which remains quite

artisans in the service of

numerous representations

of kings.

privileged

of his entourage, or of events linked to palace

the art of the

but architectural
to

form

in painted or sculpted images.

and members

the monarch's exploits,

not so

in the

its

iconography has favored certain themes, such as the representation of

the sovereign

is

whether

found one of

its

emperors and

figu-

The famous Trajan's Column in Rome comes

in this context.

The court

art of certain African

reproduced tableaux of time spent

kingdoms took
at

war,

similar paths,

though

at court, or in the fields

it

never

comparable

to

those offered in the arts of ancient peoples. African artists were not concerned with
a descriptive transcription of

seems

to

determined

(previous pages)

century. Terra cotta.

tiquities, 79. R. 7.

to eighteenth

Ile-Ife, Ita

Yemoo.

Museum of Ife An-

The headdress

of five

rows adorned with beads may indicate

this is a
still

lips.

on the

ears, forehead,

The head was part

statue.

30

queen. Traces of red paint are

visible

how

have of monarchy and of the person

royalty

of kings or chiefs,

I6. Head. Seventeenth

Ife,

The iconography they imagined

is

who

expressed in visual representations.

stone, copper, brass, gold, or terra cotta, African statuary offers

(facing page)

Height: 25 cm.

activities.

have been entirely concentrated on the royal person; the particular concep-

tion African societies

Detail of figure 52.

human

and

whose strange

resents their close relatives

status

some degree

at times,

it

it

has

wood,

effigies

also rep-

rarely,

people

priests. This last case is essentially lim-

former kingdom of Benin.

Even though these

offer

and

in

numerous

mother or wife dignitaries, and, more

of the court, soldiers, pages, musicians,

ited to the art of the

we have just described;

incarnates

Whether

portraits treat their subject schematically, in certain cases they

of realism.

Schematism

is

requisite throughout African art,

and

of a full-length

so can be found in these particular genres. But

what can be

called realism within

'V*S


32

CHAPTER TWO

the

framework

of African creations? Black Africa has a wealth of statues of

gods

supernatural beings or ancestors, which are used especially in the cult of the dead

and of masks. Although masks sometimes depict imaginary forms, representational

human and

animal masks are also abundant. They are rarely

that they are not the result of a quest for resemblance.

to express

examples of court

tain elements of reality, as

if

art are

the celebration of the

more god than man, and every

nature, his portrait

restores to

him

that they seek

effort is

may sometimes have

spirits. In

monarchy could not do without

we have

made

seen, the figure of the

to obliterate his too

human

which paradoxically

a degree of realism,

"humanity" elsewhere denied. The same attention

sion of real details

of the

is

to the expres-

may be found in the representation of the attributes and emblems

monarchy, those that the sovereign wears

in public

and

that are

handled on

ceremonial occasions. The figuration of court pomp, particularly detailed in the

of the

kingdom

also that of the

of Benin,

is

kingdom, by evoking its

sentation, the

art,

and

art

designed to demonstrate not only the king's power but

to transcribe the details of reality

ism." In African

in

attempts at a faithful transcription of cer-

such an observation of the world. Even though, as

is

reason

however,

an idea not of the human world but of the world of gods and

contrast, certain

king

One

realistic,

social

and political organization. That desire

through plastic means

in particular in

models of which are

to

its

is

what

court arts, there

be sought in the

is

art of

veloped during the Renaissance. In the brass plaques in high

no

shall call "real-

illusionist repre-

trompe

I'oeil

relief of the

as

it

de-

kingdom

of Benin, however, one finds certain tendencies toward perspectivist figuration.

Such tendencies ought

birth of that art,

to

be linked, no doubt, to the particular conditions of the

which was created during contact with the Portuguese and with the

images they brought with them. African court artisans did not seek
transcribe

realism

what they saw. To borrow the expression

shall

speak of

is

of

faithfully to

Andre Leroi-Gourhan,

a "partial realism of form, of proportion, of detail, of

movement," with strong tendencies toward schematization (Leroi-Gourhan

and

n. 1).

1943, 91

Realism, the desire to faithfully transcribe reality, never has to do with the

representation
its

the

image or sculpture in

its totality,

but only with one or several of

parts.

Beginning with the Renaissance, several centuries of painting and sculpture and a
17. Head. Twelfth to sixteenth century.

Brass with zinc content. Nigeria,

Ife.

of

Height; 21 cm. London,

Mankind,

of an oni.

1939.

AF

34

conception of the image and of representation. Grounded in a search for a mimetic

Ile-

Museum
Portrait

century and a half of photographic art have accustomed Westerners to a certain

expression of the real world, these arts have relied on the experience of perception

and, in particular, on the mathematical discovery of the perspectivist representation

A FEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

Even though twentieth-century

of space.

and even destroying

that vision,

art

has assumed the task of questioning

has not been able to transform a culture of the

it

"image," in the broad sense of the term, which in Europe

ciples of

making and matching.

African societies used different

33

In

all

modes

probability,

it

is

of transcription,

grounded on the prin-

never be able to do

will

so.

which reveal other ways of

conceiving the expression of reality in images and objects.

may be surprising to hear

It

The notion

and

of "realist portrait," as

genre in which the

literary

individual physiognomy and

supposed

African art works discussed in terms of the portrait.

artist

more than

replicate the poses

brief look at

trait,

art,

and the place reserved

never

civilizations
it.

Western

When we

made

The

portrait

who

appears in the

is

also

in fact, the photographic portrait did nothing

and techniques of the

pictorial or sculptural portrait.

however, teaches us that there too the notion of porfor

it

in society,

have changed over the centuries.

Many

we understand
of antiquity, we

use of the individual portrait in the sense

consider the experiments in this area by the peoples

on various meanings depending on the

meanings

in relation to African portraits

preliminary questions they raise regarding the problem of

works

artistic

person

instructive to look at these

refer to art

an

specificity of a particular person.

see that the notion of portrait took

It is

art, refers to

seeks to render as accurately as possible the

to express the psychological interiority of the

image or sculpture. For a long time,

took root in Western

it

in the round, since there has

been no

18. Head. Twelfth to fifteenth century.

Copper. Nigeria,

Ile-Ife,

Wiinmonije

Compound. Height: 30.4 cm.

seum of Ife Antiquities.

Ife,

Mu-

culture.

and the

human figuration. I shall

art of the pictorial portrait

in Africa (at least until recently).

In Egypt, the role of the portrait

of the

pharaoh's portrait
his double,
trait

was to ensure the

pharaoh and of the dignitaries

and

survival of the physical bodies

in the service of the court

and temples. The

in the round, on frescoes, or in bas-relief was conceived as

portraits of dignitaries followed royal models.

The Egyptian por-

did not really seek resemblance, but combined "personalizing realism" and

"plastic idealization" (Yoyotte 1968, 24). Despite a certain fidelity to reality in the

expression of anatomy, and sometimes even of physiognomy and the effects of time

and age, more pronounced under the reign of Amenhotep

obeyed an

intellectual realism

and

IV, the

Egyptian portrait

a mystic representation of royalty,

which

fixed

the figuration of the sovereign in a calm hieratic pose. In Egypt, gods, kings,

Egyptians themselves were depicted, generally

ous

full length, in

attitudes. Conversely, the plastic interpretation of

and

posed and harmoni-

enemies of the kingdom and

of wild animals depicted an attitude of agitation

and disorder (Yoyotte

When portraits represent very different versions

pear now young, now old, they are not so much

of sovereigns, in

1968, 63).

which they ap-

proposing naturalistic images as

19. Head. Twelfth

to fifteenth century.

Brass with zinc content. Nigeria,

Ile-Ife,

Wunmonije Compound. Height: 24 cm.

Ife,

Museum of Ife Antiquities,

19

(79.R.11). Traces of red paint in the

headdress.

34

CHAPTER TWO

conveying the notion that the pharaoh must be

which only great age

yet also rich in experience,

As

vigor and passion, and

full of

brings.

Greek naturalism, the Romans pushed the principle of physiognomic

heirs to

resemblance even further, to the point of breaking with the idealization of forms
characteristic of

Greek

statuary, in

which parts belonging

chosen for their plastic perfection, were combined

els,

Among

total beauty.

Romans, the history

made from the faces of the dead;

prints

and the

rites

the

rites of

ancestor cults.

this

of the portrait

portraits

men whose

remembered. Other

portraits represented the emperor:

they stood in

all

easily identifiable, at times not

which the unforgiving nature

ization,

were

in marble,

made during

Rome

sought to make their

even yielding

of certain faces

his lifetime,

to relative ideal-

might have called

lover of classical art will recall the series of imperial heads exhibited in

museums, representing men and women with

or,

on the contrary, marked by the ordeals

and displaying the

Roman portrait,
ner.

at the

unformed

the

expense of the body, which

is

The question

of the

realistic in their

man-

aim, parts

were treated schematically.

of the mimetic transcription of reality

regarding the definition of

cients' debates

of power,

treated in a stereotypical

Even though these portraits were individualized and

of them, such as the hair,

European

The head makes up the greater part

fat deposits.

Every

features of adolescents

and the exercise

of adulthood

for.

prominent jaw, elongated nose, receding

face nature gave them:

hollow cheeks, ugly

chin,

however,

greatness and earthly merits were celebrated and

public places. The artisans of imperial

and

began with wax im-

imago was then exhibited during funeral

Most Roman

depicting illustrious

portraits lifelike

mod-

to several different

to create a single figure of

art.

The

skill

was

and

core of the an-

at the

virtuosity of the painter

Apelles were thus measured by his capacity to produce images giving the illusion
of reality,

"He

which led

to legendary stories

painted portraits so absolutely

about him. Pliny reports

lifelike that, incredible as

of those persons called 'physiognomists,'

who prophesy

it

this anecdote:

sounds

people's future

by

one

their

countenance, pronounced from their portraits either the year of the subjects' deaths
hereafter or the

number

of years they

cited in Reinach 1985, 350).

tions.

20. Head.

These

had already lived"

The notion

texts attest to the fact that

Thirteenth to fifteenth cen-

traits lifelike.

of resemblance

(Pliny 1947, 327 [35.88];

mentioned here

Greek sculptors sought

make

their por-

art that

has come

to

But to what degree did they succeed? All the Greek

raises ques-

tury. Terra cotta. Nigeria, Ile-Ife. Height:

17 cm. Paris,

Musee National des

d'Afrique

et

d'Oceanie (formerly collec-

tion of the

Musee

Arts

to us

Balzac

is

is

highly idealized.

more

true to

its

And

yet,

can

we

really say that Rodin's portrait of

model? To our eyes, perhaps. The

artist

took a different,

Barbier-Mueller),

A 96-1-4. The head is hollow and was

made without a

down

potter's wheel, follow-

ing the procedure habitually used in

Africa for the fabrication of pottery.

more

expressionist approach.

The

definition of the principle of resemblance

pletely relative, corresponding to certain requirements of the age

representation within each culture.

is

com-

and the history of

A FEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

African sculptors

left

behind a few portraits whose degree of realism allows us

were conceived

to say they

with a very

real, if

in a

manner meant

to

linked without difficulty to that of Egyptian or

unique

in Africa,

produce an

resemblance

effect of

not unique, person. The workmanship of these portraits can be

was conducted by court

Roman

artists of the

That experiment,

portraits.

kings of the city-state of

Ile-

present-day Nigeria, between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. There

Ife in

were no

more

real heirs to that art, until twentieth-century African artisans fell

deeply under the influence of Western images. Opinions

this century,

We now understand

and judgment made by Leo Frobenius:

the error in evaluation

he considered the

art

works of the

however, on the

differ,

possible influence of the works of Ile-Ife on the art of old Benin.

beginning of

in the

civilization of Ile-Ife to

be the result

of a foreign artistic tradition, that of the Greeks or the ancient inhabitants of the

mythical Atlantis.^ Such a European influence,

sible to

demonstrate, since the art of

Ile-Ife

if it

in fact existed,

remains impos-

predated by far the arrival of the

first

Europeans.

from

Portraits

Ile-Ife, in terra cotta,

most of them kings and queens

that these portraits

to us.

Another

sculpture too

a single intact full-length portrait

was probably made by

have been attributed

to particular

said to depict a usurper, Lajuwa,

upon

the latter

death

(fig. 32).

resent the oni Obalufon,

traditions of that city

are for the

and one bust have come

man, was found outside

of the city, in the village of

a founder

They

from

Ile-Ife.

Tadda

Some

Ile-Ife,

(fig. 22).

That

of these portraits

persons by the traditions of the kingdom: one

who

is

seized the throne of the oni Aworokolokin

Another, in the form of a mask,

is

believed to rep-

who introduced the art of lost- wax casting in Ile-Ife. But the

do not

tell

kings, queens, dignitaries, or

their

lifetime of their models.

portrait, representing a seated

some two hundred kilometers north

men and women,

16-32).^ Nothing allows us to assert, however,

were made during the

most part heads; only

down

(figs.

copper, or brass, depict

us the identity of the other individuals represented:

men condemned

to

be

sacrificed,

who wear gags over

mouths.

Sculptors paid particular attention to the treatment of the contours of the face. In
certain cases, the headdress

is

elaborated with great concern for detail. Hair and

hats are treated methodically, even schematically. Certain brass heads have
dresses, only holes following the root line of the hair, above the forehead

base of the ears, and along the upper and lower lines of the mouth

seem

that these holes

kings

still

raised

by

were used

to affix

beaded

veils, similar to

wear, which are designed to hide their faces. That

a

few of these

portraits,

like the face of their royal

model.

whose fate seems

to

is

no head-

and

(fig. 17). It

to the

would

those that Yoruba

one of the questions

have been

to

remain invisible,

35

21. Male

effigy.

Fourteenth to fifteenth

century. Brass with zinc content. Nigeria, Ile-Ife, Ita

Ife,

Yemoo. Height:

47.1

cm.

Museum of Ife Antiquities, 79.R.12.

Oni covered with his

22.

Seated man.

regalia.

End

of thirteenth

century to fourteenth century.

Copper. Nigeria, Tadda. Height:

53.7 cm. Lagos, National

Museum,

79 R.18.

23. Head. 500

cotta. Nigeria,

b.c. to a.d. 500.

Terra

region of Sokoto. Height:

13 cm. Paris, private collection.

24. Head.

Fourteenth to fifteenth cen-

tury. Terra cotta. Nigeria, Ile-Ife. Height:

Obafemi Awolowo Univer-

17.1

cm.

sity,

Department of Archaeology.

Ife,

25. Head. Twelfth to

Terra cotta. Nigeria,

Grove.

Ife,

fifteenth century.

Ile-Ife,

Iwintin

Museum of Ife Antiquities.

26> Head.

Twelfth to fifteenth century.

Terra cotta. Nigeria,

Ile-Ife, field

kun Walode. Height:

National

Museum,

12.5

of Olo-

cm. Lagos,

S91.L9.

A FEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

Although some of the

sculptors,

human

most

face:

to

markings of

around the eyes, rims of

circles

have been taken from

Such

knowledge

ears. All these features

These characteristics were confined

life.

tradition of the portrait, did not

this area.

of less trained

contours of the flesh on a

attest to great skill in representing the

artisans of other city-states, such as

Ile-Ife;

work

curve of the cheeks, tension of the jawbone, positioning of the eyes in

their sockets,

seem

portraits of Ile-Ife are obviously the

39

manage

to

to the art of

Owo, though they adopted

equal the

skill

the

same

of their counterparts in

of the muscular structure of the face can only be the

product of meticulous and passionate observation, a long apprenticeship, and a dereproduce what

sire to

tude

is

is

altogether unique

revealed

among

when one

looks objectively at

That

reality.

atti-

African civilizations. The attention given to the

somethe corners indi-

positioning of the nose, the swelling of the nostrils, the bulge of the lips

times slightly parted and with the trace of a smile vanishing at

cates the intense desire the sculptors of Ile-Ife

of

life

had

and quiver

to capture the breath

in the faces of their models. In addition, true to the

demands

of the portrait,

the shape of the nose, and, to a lesser degree, of the lips, the proportion of the face,

and the positioning

of different muscles

and organs within the

portrait to the next, so that

no head was

ornaments (headdress and

scarification)

physiognomy

many Roman portraits:

other, not because of the

superimposed on

it,

but because of the

facial feature is

still

idealized, in the

manner

of Egyptian

and

they depict young people and, apart from the scarifications,

more prominent than any

men from

always easy to differentiate the

bone structure and envelops

it

same calm impassivity found

of Egypt.

any

from one

itself.

Nonetheless, these portraits are

no

identical to

face varied

in a firm,

in

the

other, to

plump

is

it is

not

flesh stretches over the

oval; the expression

numerous heads

The depiction of the eyes

such a degree that

women. The

of kings, queens,

fixed in the

is

and

dignitaries

almost identical on each of the

faces:

two

mandorlas stretching toward the temples house sculpted sockets just under the skin,
without any marking for the pupil.

The upper
arch, giving

eyelid,

some

made with

a double incision, covers the eyeball with a curved

of these faces a slightly lowered, almost Oriental, gaze.

schematic treatment

head coverings, as

is

if

used

to depict the headdress, the

woven

The same

tresses of hair,

the concern for verisimilitude that allows a spark of

and

life to

animate these faces no longer had anything to do with the elements that surround
them, which are reduced to soberly sketched signs with a purely descriptive function.

The

folds or rolls, similar to furrows, that

are part of the

same

interpretation.

form rings around some of the necks

They are conventional elements

recalling the

and magnificent

women and

status of the persons represented: noble, powerful,

27. Head. Twelfth

to thirteenth century.

Terra cotta. Nigeria,

Height: 25 cm.

Ife,

Ile-Ife, Ita

tiquities, 79.R.7. Profile

fig. 16,

Yemoo.

Museum of Ife Anview of head

in

30. Male effigy. Twelfth to

century

(?).

ria, Ile-Ife,
Ife,

Stone and iron

Ore Grove. Height:

Museum of Ife
this

work

markable
realist

of art

for that.

is

The

art

rare in Africa,

is all

the

more

re-

Note the concern

for

expression in the gesture of the

hands folded over the

is

Nige-

101.3 cm.

Antiquities.

of sculpture in stone

and

fifteenth

nails.

belly.

depicted knotted on the

cording to the custom, as

The pagne

left

it

hip, ac-

would

later

be in the art of the kingdom of Benin.

Iron nails

(bottom)

(top)

28. Head.

Twelfth to fifteenth cen-

29. Head. Probably

twelfth to

tury. Terra cotta. Nigeria, Ile-Ife,

teenth century. Terra cotta. Nigeria,

Olokun Grove. Height:

Ile-Ife,

Olokun Grove. Height:

Berlin,

Museum

Berlin,
III

Museum

27530.

in 1910.

fijr

17.2

cm.

Volkerkunde,

Head found by Frobenius

27526.

1910.

fiir

15.6

Volkerkunde,

were inserted

to represent the hair.

fif-

cm.
III

Head found by Frobenius in

into the stone

A FEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

men. These folds of

which are

fat,

also

found

and prosperity

the Akan, express the beauty

west Africa in heads sculpted by

in

of those

who

sport them.

As

if

to

...Am-

un-

derscore their emblematic role, these rolls shape necks that are sometimes exaggerated in length, in comparison to the volume of the head: The necks are in that case
similar to pedestals
idealization.

to disappear as

At

first

on which the head proper

The individualized realism found

soon as one moves

glance, a

to the

man

thus accentuating the effect of

periphery of the

few rare examples escape

the portrait in terra cotta of a

rests,

in the contours of the face thus

that conformism.

men forming

heads of two

made

of rope,

which

the handle of a cane

is

and

(fig. 31);

one of whom

the case for

is

to the

for the metal

wearing a gag

signals his fate as a sacrificial victim, while the other has a face

furrowed with deep wrinkles

(Willett 1967b, plates 4

be called expressionistic, and,

in

however, the

Such

with bloated features, a prominent arch

eyebrows, and open mouth, similar to a garden gargoyle

seems

face.

and

5).

Both examples might

our tradition, almost caricatural. In the

first case,

symmetrical, the

effect of idealization persists: the face is perfectly

31a Head. Thirteenth

to fourteenth cen-

tury. Terra cotta. Nigeria, Ile-Ife,

flabby cheeks equal in size on the

left

and

right; the

protuberance triangular in shape, which

is

bump on the

forehead forms a

equivalent to the hole forming the

mouth; the curved ridge formed by the arch of the eyebrows corresponds

formed by the bloated pockets around the

to the arch

eyes. Unlike the other heads, which

all

depict harmonious youth, this one presents us with a swollen face creased by deep
wrinkles.

The

appeared, yet
try

ideal of

we

and regularity

of ugliness.

The

are

harmony

ment of the

figure

is

feet

is

conform

it is

dis-

symme-

an idealization

ritual position in the society of Ile-Ife.^

face always stems

it

have

wearing a large bead on his forehead, thus revealing that

works and busts display similar

Like the headdress,

to

dealing with an idealization, as suggested by the

still

characteristics:

although the

treat-

from the same mode of creation, relying on a principle

of idealized resemblance to a model, the

hands and

heads seems

of the contours of the face. This time, however,

he occupied an important
Full-length

that prevails in the other

same

is

not true for the rest of the body.

depicted in a more schematic and conventional manner:

to a stereotypical

model, and the body

is

reduced

to a

monolithic parallelepiped partly covered with always identical ornaments, representing the attributes of the

who

is

monarchy

(fig. 21).

The

sole exception

is

the

Tadda man,

devoid of ornament. Although the faces are always conceived as a function

of a desire to transcribe realistic details in a relatively faithful manner, the bodies

appear to be interchangeable. That rule seems

of the seated

Tadda

figure, in

prevailing for the face:

its

to

have been sidestepped

which the conception

of the

body is

in the case

a reflection of that

accurate proportions and stoutness, the contours of

lara.

Height: 15.2 cm.

Ife,

Oba-

University Art

Museum, Obafemi Awolowo University.

42

CHAPTER TWO

muscles in the

and even the shape

legs,

of the foot,

which

is n:\ore

other sculptures, are consistent with the treatment of the face

Tadda man

of the seated

homogeneous
have been in

of art that

In the full-length art works, the

head corresponds

to a

suffice to

by

head

is

disproportionately large.

we shall

treatment given

it

or

in

see, in the

animals, which are

subject to the

most important part

at least the

numerous

same laws

it,

and other

in the art of Ile-lfe, also

seem

a prince of Ile-lfe,

kingdom. Oranyan,

second dynasty of Benin: custom has

ceased king of the Edo was sent to

In return, the oni of Ile-lfe

form of a brass effigy.

the oni of Ile-lfe to send

reveal sharp teeth

that,

was

to

of Benin,

him an

artisan

new

be buried

to a naturalist ren-

is

even more unusual

said to have

in the place

who was

spewed

all

32. Head. Twelfth

to fifteenth century.

Terra cotta. Nigeria,

32.8 cm.

Ife,

Ile-Ife.

Height:

palace of the oni,

Museum

of Ife Antiquities, 20 (79.R.10).

the

is

not negligible:

more worthy

it

two

(fig.

granting

former Benin shared certain motifs

mask whose mouth opened

to

serpent or fish bodies that climbed

and

170).

Nonetheless, the art of

Ile-lfe.

The

stems from an entirely different intellectual attitude,

Edo were

familiar with the naturalistic art

full-length brass sculptures depicting dwarves,

the king of Benin liked to have

Dapper

but

expert in the casting of metals, so

(Willett 1967b, 168

of notice in that the

of Ile-lfe. Consider the

obn,

Oguola then asked

Benin does not include works that attain the degree of realism found in
difference

of the de-

Oranyan had

art (Willett 1967b, 131). In addition to

nostrils

in the

founded the

send the Edo the head of their

of Ile-lfe, such as the grotesque

and whose

the face. Apart

on one occasion, the head

to the heads, the art of the

toward the temples of the mask

it,

which followed

In the late fourteenth century, the oba

he could teach the Edo that

works

it

Ile-lfe to

of the

to privilege a creation

faces of Ile-lfe appears

kingdom

offer a

and

life

detail.

wake

art

do not accept

heads show such ex-

Ile-lfe

the

same importance

figurations, such as those of

and conventional

of decorative

The almost naturalist conception of the

of the Ile-lfe

of

which the attention the sculptor gives

when we consider the art of the Edo in

with the

would

Edo world,

larger than

is

dering concerns the body as a whole, only the faces of

the

it

prove the contrary. In contrast, the role and significance attrib-

perimentation. The bodies partly escape

that

larger than

canon of African sculpture. There are numerous counterex-

from the Tadda bronze,

in the

is

several authors, that the disproportionate size of the

uted to the head in the Yoruba world, and, as

come from.

The sculpture

formally and stylistically

though the head

possible explanation, both of the fact that the head

realist

is

(fig. 22).

reality.

the hypothesis advanced

amples that

work

constitutes a

in the treatment of its parts,

detailed than in

around him as "entertainment," according

33) (see below, p. 148).

whom

to Olfert

A FEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

The

effigies of sovereigns, kings,

of the court,

which the

art of the

and queen mothers,

kingdom

dance, are also portraits. But, whereas in

in

physiognomic resemblance,

in

of dignitaries

and

officers

of Benin has bequeathed to us in abun-

Ile-Ife

the sculptors manifested an interest

Benin no particular attention was given to the ex-

pression of such a resemblance. And, contrary to the case of the statuary of

full-length portraits

respond

abound

to a canonical

same

in Benin.

The

portraits of the

model, in which the rendering of

single schematic mold. In

43

kingdom

of Benin

Ile-Ife,
all

cor-

facial features is fixed in a

Edo art as in Egyptian statuary,

all

human beings have the

face as the king. That stylization also applies to the figurations of animals:

silurids, leopards, lions,

similar manner.

and

The oval

roosters.

Each of these species was always formed

and the disposition

face, the structure of the nose,

in a

of the

mouth and eyes are identical from one sculpture to the next. The eyes are wide open,
disproportionately large, and surrounded by two eyelids with prominent edges, the
lashes sometimes

marked with grooves, brought

serve as the pupil. Also unlike the art works of

to life

Ile-Ife,

with a recessed

circle to

those of Benin are packed

with details describing headdresses, ornaments, clothing, emblems, and attributes,

which allow the beholder

to define the social

and symbolic identity of the individual

represented. Physiognomic portraits never appeared in Benin, with the exception of

the effigies of dwarves previously cited; the portrait

on

merely emblematic and based

is

a multiplication of faces identical to that of the oba.

In the court art of Benin, the entire effort of sculptors appears to have

been

di-

33.

Sculpture representing a court

dwarf. End of fourteenth to beginning of

rected toward the detailed transcription of the attributes of the different individuals

represented. That quest for refinement in decoration seems to have occurred at the

fifteenth century. Brass, lost-wax casting.

Nigeria,

kingdom

59.3 cm. Vienna,

expense of a more faithful rendering of the morphological

reality of the effigies:

the proliferation of ornament invades the entire surface of the image

carved backgrounds of brass plaques in bas-relief and high

matism

Here again,

that conception

where man disappears behind

absolute

monarch by divine

may be

right, liked to

our

He was

was broadly practiced

context, Louis XIV,

mode

in allegories, at

represented dressed in the

whose greatness he believed was comparable

Thus, even though the portrait, as a

own

have himself depicted

tributes of historical or mythological characters, such as

personality,

costumes and

linked to Near Eastern expressions,

his function. Closer to

the expense of the principle of resemblance.

416).

The general sche-

of the figures contrasts with the meticulous description of

insignia.

Apollo,

relief.

and even the

at-

Alexander the Great or

to his

own

(see

Laude

1965,

of representing an individualized

in the seventeenth century, the "official" portrait

continued to privilege decoration and pomp,

at the

expense of physiognomic and

kunde.

of Benin, Edo. Height:

Museum fiir Volker-

Inv. 64.745.

Musee Dapper,

Copyright Archives

Paris.


44

CHAPTER TWO

psychological resemblance. Emblematic figuration celebrated the sacralization of

power. The portraits of sovereigns and dignitaries of Africa did not break that

Although the

oral tradition has preserved very

little

meaning

of the

rule.

of these art

works, the abundance of motifs and decorations that adorn the royal portrait and
court art generally allows anyone able to read

whole and

to reconstitute a

them

few pieces of history and

to discover the
rites.

meaning

In that case, the

of the

ornament

almost comes to resemble writing, since the profusion of detail cannot be the result

merely of a decorative intention:

it

also attests to a desire to take note of everything.

That profusion thus had both a mnemonic and a commemorative function, as an

inscription in time of information having to

memory by

designed to be committed to
Ife,

unlike that of Benin, gives us very

of the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth,

the

Edo turned

do with each reign and

little

Ile-

information about what the monarchy

and fourteenth centuries was

The

like.

fact that

their interest to the detailed description of attributes rather than the

expression of an individuality bestowed by nature

shows the importance

of the political

In Benin, the oba heads

the individuality of the face

and informative vocation

wear a kind

of high necklace

posed of several rows of coral beads and, on top of

a hairnet, also of coral beads

(fig. 35).

more complex headdress,

sport a

of elements

future generations. In fact, the art of

around

their heads, a

The heads created

still

of their court

art.

their necks,

com-

cap in the form of

in the nineteenth century

used by the kings of today,

winglike appendages stick up from either side of the head

which two

in

(fig. 34).

These wings

represent either the barbels of a mudfish, a symbol of royalty, or the ceremonial

sword with

slightly

most important
Depicted

curved blade, called an

and the

chiefs.

at the

base of certain of these heads are symbols of the sovereign's

power: leopards, elephant trunks,

headdress, likewise

which historians
is still

ada, also reserved for the king

made

silurids, crocodiles, etc.

The

king's

mother wore

of a hairnet of coral beads, but in the shape of a peak,

of Benin art

have called a "chicken's beak"

worn by high-ranking Edo women. Red

(fig. 36);

coral beads were,

that headdress

and

still

are, re-

served for the oba, his mother, his wives, and the high dignitaries of the kingdom.
Like

all

royal attributes, they have a mythical meaning, since they

were supposed

have been stolen from Olokun, the god of seas and waters, source of
riches,

one of the most popular gods

Osanobua, the god of

a Benin oba,

the divine

creation.

On

in the

kingdom

village altars,

of Benin.

Olokun

is

Olokun

is

all

to

earthly

the son of

depicted in the form of

wearing the crown and the costume of coral beads, of which he remains

owner (Ben- Amos

Olokun, located

in Ile-Ife, that

1995, 64-69).

It

was

in the sacred

grove dedicated to

Leo Frobenius discovered several heads

in terra cotta

34. Head

oioba. Eighteenth century.

Brass, lost-wax casting. Nigeria, king-

dom

of Benin, Edo. Height: 52 cm.

Geneva, Musee Barbier-Mueller,

1011-103.

35> Head

oi oha. Eighteenth century.

Brass, lost-wax casting. Nigeria, king-

dom of Benin,

Edo. Height: 36 cm. Lei-

den, Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde,

RMV 1163-2.

BMG

46

CHAPTER TWO

One

28 and 29) and numerous beads, this time of glass.

(figs.

during the feast of Olokun in

of beads rise out of the earth

1967b, 25).

As

Ile-Ife
.

Rise

up out

of the earth, children of water" (Willett

the seat of a vital force inherited

from the god and transmitted

times were human. These beads are the receptacle of a power,

everything said by the king in their presence will become

heavy beaded costume," says Ihaza,

this

shake or blink but stays

he

is

not a

still

human being but

god" (Ben- Amos

era; these,

queen mother. Sixteenth

however, do not

full-length portraits in the

it

up

form of

to the

(fig. 37),

mouth

while more
34 and

(figs.

re-

35).

figurines, brass plaques in high,

in their

beaded costume. Convention

dictates that the frontal

privileged, in full-length sculptures as in high relief plaques.

of

throne

or drawings carved in ivory, portraits of the sovereigns of Benin always depict

them dressed
36. Head

down on the

of the sculptures. For example, in the older

cent examples (eighteenth century) imprison

relief,

"When the king is

1995, 96).

heads (sixteenth century), the necklace leaves the chin free

Whether heads,

in past

ase, that dictates that

reality.

as he sits

The Benin heads display variants depending on the

compromise the general configuration

which

to the

a chief of Benin, "he does not

and unmoving. As soon

a

"God

invokes the god Olokun in these terms:

king, every year these beads receive the blood of sacrificial victims,

wearing

hymns sung

of the

tume and

worn by

the headdress, like the objects

the king

The form

view be

of the cos-

and those around him

century. Brass, lost-wax casting. Nigeria,

kingdom of Benin, Edo. Height;

Berlin,

50.8 cm.

Museum fiir Volkerkunde, III

12507.

Presumed

Queen Idia.

to

be

and the gestures

of figures, always relate to a specific ceremony, each requiring the

wearing of particular ornaments, the handling of

objects,

and an immediately iden-

head of

tifiable

The

body language.
social

and

ritual identity of the figures is recognizable

objects represented.

The most common representations of the

hand

in all his royal insignia, holding in his right

with which he dances to honor his ancestors

(fig.

evil

away and

brandishes in his

from

his father

to

left

and

make
hand

depicts

symbol of

him

is

and grasping

utters.

hand

designed to

Elsewhere, the sovereign

which are invoked when he

ground. In his right hand he holds a rough-hewn neo-

his supernatural authority.^

Another frequently found image

flanked by two individuals supporting his forearms and hands while

(fig. 68).

According

the successor to the throne, the edayken,

to certain versions, the first

and the second

is

chief of the army, the ezomo (Duchateau 1990, 69); in that case, the triad

power

sword

in his left

a rattle staff, ukhurhe, a sign of the authority inherited

he travels on foot or horseback

courier

words he

show him dressed

staff, isevbere igho,

of his union with ancestral spirits,

strikes the staff against the

lithic ax,

effective the

oba

the eben, the ceremonial

103),

another object, a small ivory bell or a proclamation

send

by the costume and

in its future fulfillment

and the

bellicose element that allows

the

supreme

would depict
it

to

be main-

A FEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

seem

tained. In certain scenes, servants

shields held over his

the

and

left

head

right can

still

(fig. 67).

be sheltering him from the sun with

their

That same scene of the upright oba supported on

be observed during his enthronement and

As

great palace ceremonies.

to

47

at

most of the

reminder of his status as divine king, the oba

be depicted with two silurids in place of his

may also

legs; the silurid, a privileged sacrificial

victim offered to Olokun, god of the sea and waters, alludes to the close relation
linking the oba to that god,

which

on earth and

The

in the water.

is

recalled in the capacity of the fish to live both

domain

oba's

dry land, while the god's

is

is

water

(fig. 69).

The

by

some

servants,

to that

the

mother may also be depicted standing, hands and forearms supported

king's

used

same

of

whom protect her with two lifted shields, in a manner similar

for the oba

(fig. 70).

In these representations, the

queen mother sports

and the

regalia as the oba himself: the crossed bandolier, the crown,

of coral beads, for example. In addition to the oba, only the oba's mother, the
prince, or edayken,

(Ben-Amos

and the

1983, 82).

have the right

chief of armies, ezomo,

The ezomo, commander and war

chief,

and

necklace and coral beads adorned with leopard's teeth, which

warriors

on

(fig. 73).

their left hip,

to

shirt

crown

such a costume

city chiefs

mark

wear the

their status as

Important individuals camouflage the knot of their pagne, resting

with a mask of brass or sculpted ivory depicting the face of a leop-

ard or a crocodile head

(fig.

Portuguese are also part of the

126). Portraits of the

representations found in the art of Benin from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries:

men with bushy

hair

and long beards, dressed

ered at the waist to form a

lously portrayed. Others

Over the course

(fig. 77).

a particularly

baggy

trousers,

wear small buckles,

of these

two

and gath-

ruffs,

and morions with

a central crest

centuries, the faces of the Portuguese

become

sufficient to transcribe not the specificity of a particular individual,

visitor's singularity as a foreigner.

determining costumes of kings or

be lengthy, and
effigies:

in doublets buttoned

and hats with plumes are meticu-

common motif. A few distinctive elements drawn from the headdress

and costume are

but the

skirt,

shall not

The catalog

officials in the

attempt to compose

it

of attitudes

and

attributes

iconography of Benin would

here.

It

includes

numerous other

ceremonial chiefs, horsemen, warriors, Portuguese soldiers, members of

guilds, musicians, dignitaries,

young boys (probably

pages), servants,

and

priests.

Within that vast nomenclature, there are a few images that have been interpreted
insignia that

accompany

him, and a reference to a specific event in the history of the kingdom,

commemo-

as the figuration of a particular oba, recognizable

rated

by

History

tradition.
tells that

One

portrait of a king's

by the

mother also meets these requirements.

the oba Esigie, the Benin sovereign

who

witnessed the arrival of

37. Man's head.

Fifteenth to sixteenth

century. Brass, lost-wax casting. Nigeria,

kingdom

of Benin, Edo. Height: 21 cm.

Geneva, Musee Barbier-Mueller,

1011-121.

Trophy head

the headdress

and

scarifications

the eye sockets indicate this

an Edo.

BMG

of a foreigner:

is

above

not

38> Ndop effigy

nyim).

End

of a

Kuba king

(or

of eighteenth century.

and vegetable

fibers. Zaire,

Kasai, Nshyeeng,

Wood

western

Bushoong (Kuba).

Height: 51 cm. Tervueren,

Musee Royal

39. Ndop

effigy of a

Bushoong (Kuba). Height: 55 cm.

vueren,

Musee Royal de

mi-Mbul (eighteenth

to Torday, the effigy depicts

the nyim Kot a-Mbul (late eighteenth

century).

Ter-

I'Afrique Cen-

R.G. 27655. Portrait of King

trale,

Brought back by Emil Torday

According

(or

Wood and

metal. Zaire, western Kasai, Nshyeeng,

de I'Afrique Centrale, R.G. 15256.

in 1908.

Kuba king

nyim). Eighteenth century.

century).

Miko

40. Ndop effigy of a Kuba

king (or

Wood. Zaire,
Nshyeeng, Bushoong

nyim). Eighteenth century.

western Kasai,

(Kuba). Height: 54.6 cm. London,

Mu-

seum of Mankind, 1909.12-10.1. Posthumous portrait of the nyim Shyaam-aMbul a-Ngoong, founder of the Kuba
kingdom (seventeenth century).

A FEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

the Portuguese in the late fifteenth century, inaugurated the tradition of portraits

creating the

queen mother,

and by having

iye oba,

(fig. 36).

The

first in

a long series, the portrait of Idia

queen's portraits that followed.

mid base

lusion to the efforts of Idia's warriors,

shows the

wings outspread. This picture

oba

is

supposed

have put

to

much

(fig.

the

it,

to

refers to the

II,

win

68) (Ben- Amos 1995, 35).

and the

Edo recognize

came back

on horseback,

emblems have

arms supported

new

He

Eweka

II,

oba so

sacrificed these

armor forged by

is

the story of the pro-

Akenzua

unbaked
were

clay

just as

These portraits represent

Ovoranwen, who was sent

of the sixteenth century,

Ozolua and

recognizable by certain elements. Thus,

two animals

Ozolua the war king

at his

his artisans;

is

set aside his shield to

the

enthronement, thus reproducing

Akenzua

I,

and

in this

way appropri-

depicted dressed in a long metal suit of

one of his arms

invincible. This shield alludes to

arm protected by

split in

It is

represented holding a leopard with one hand and an elephant with

ating his emblems.

he

61).

his grandfather

the gesture of his eighteenth-century ancestor

make him

the

commemorative voca-

royal portraits, which, however,

son Esigie (mentioned above). Each

the other.

1978, asked that the eroded bas-reliefs of

be replaced with

himself, his father

II is

in

effigy of a bird,

into fashion in the twentieth century; in the 1940s, the oba

by the English, and two famous oba

Akenzua

al-

time on a

war previously mentioned, when

monarch and can thus remember

the

II

image

his

this

The picture does not represent the

into exile

More

an

the battle, demonstrating the superiority

Akenzua

of the

artisans, they are

Another image,

conventional as the previous ones (Blackmun 1990,

after

Edo

oba appears as the principal actor of the scene: looking

who reigned from 1930 to

in the palace

his

to all the

death a bird that had predicted the defeat of his

phetic bird.^ These portraits, in which the

tion,

Queen

as the principal elements allowing the beholder to reconstitute an event.

a portrait, however,
at

35).

oba Esigie

armies, and then to have gone on to

of his force

seems similar

by two men, one of whom bears the

the classic ceremonial position

depicts

who pushed enemy soldiers back beyond the

River Niger during a battle (Ben-Amos 1995,

its

it

What differentiates it are the fish adorning the pyra-

that supports the head: according to certain

sixteenth-century plaque,

by

head made of his mother,

A portrait dating from that era exists; according to tradition,

Idia.

Idia

of

title

is

protected by a shield reputed to

an event

in

which Ozolua was

go bathing, thus becoming vulnerable. With the hand

magic

shield,

two by the scimitar he holds

he

is lifting

in the opposite

an enemy, whose body is being

hand (Blackmun

1990, 62-65).

surprising, but a confirmation of a similar conception of the portrait,

that depicts the oba

spired by a photo taken

killed

Ovoranwen

by the

relieved of his

English,

and

command. The

familiar to the Edo, in

artist

is

was

the
in-

which the king

49

CHAPTER TWO

50

appears on the deck of the ship carrying him

without his regalia, and seated in a

which allow beholders

and the
The

chair.

dressed in a simple toga,

off to exile,

The sculptor has kept the

to identify the scene: the toga, rolled

chief elements,

up under

his armpits,

chair.

statues of the

Kuba sovereigns

of Zaire also belong to that set of portraits

with a commemorative vocation, in which the emblem

enough

is

individual represented and thus to individualize the portrait. The

ndop and reserve their use for their kings

show him

resented, these statues

(figs.

to identify the

Kuba

call

38-40). Whichever sovereign

sitting cross-legged

on

them

is

rep-

a pedestal symbolizing the

royal platform; the king wears a sort of headdress with visor, called a shody,
41. Handles of flyswatters
Zaire,

23

cm

Kongo. Height: 26
Tervueren,

(right).

(?).

cm

Ivory.

(left)

sports a particular hairstyle produced

and

Musee Royal

head on

to his

de I'Afrique Centrale, R.G. 38571 and

R.G. 43708. The chief

on a

circular throne.

is

depicted seated

At right the hands

of a prisoner holding his ankles are visible.

The body

on the other
his knees

rope.

of the prisoner

and

his

neck

The same theme

found

is

is

on

of the prisoner

at left: this time, his

at the

sculpted

caught in a

hands are

around the column. The royal

placed

is

side of the object; he

stool

is

tied

bracelets

ilwoon,

same
tor.

its

for all the statues,

vueren,
trale,

Kongo. Height: 34 cm. Ter-

Musee Royal de I'Afrique Cen-

R.G. 50.29.1.

manner of the two

One

grips the

in the back.

pommel

stylistic variations

half-closed in a full

shells of

is

Ile-Ife

supposed

to

the object, called

of the

His right hand

due

and oval

was

to the

face, the

of

hand

ihol,

the

of the sculp-

to the ringed

What

differentiates these por-

represented on the front face of the pedestal.

The ndop

liable to manifest itself

to

name

their king, or nyim, is ngesh,

statue

it is

is

becomes a ngesh and

then regularly rubbed with red

reign,

on the ndop

form of a

nick.

wood powder,

any incident concerning the royal person

as well. Tradition tells us that the mortal

The ndop was kept by the

birth, the statue

the birthing process.

was placed beside her

The ndop was

which

fabricated at the time of his enthrone-

received by a certain nyim appeared simultaneously on the

them gave

is

two eyelids drawn

and prosperity comparable

of the nineteenth.^

words the Kuba use

at his gravesite.

statue, in the

on

rests

an almond joined together; the bust, often marked

and with palm oil. During his

wound

and

have begun toward the middle of the eighteenth century

ment, along with the royal drum;

tiikula,

applied

of a ceremonial sword, an

also designates the spirits of nature. After his death, the king

remains

is

heads, stands vertically on minuscule legs. The tradition of these

and disappeared toward the end

traits is

pagne

slight stoutness, a sign of health

necks of the
portraits

left

which

encircle his shoulders,

A wide cowrie shell belt is crossed over his

a sort of

with a few

The monarch's eyes are

in the

a coat of black cosmetics,

blade facing backwards (Cornet 1982, 58-59).'^ The workmanship

Chief's cane handle, or imuala.

Ivory, Zaire,

up

belt holds

by

Curved ornaments

wrists.

the corresponding knee, while his

by some
42.

adorn his forearms and

abdomen. Another

is

top of this column.

certain occasions.

and

king's wives,

to assure a

body

of the

and when one

happy outcome

to

thus conceived as the bearer of a part of the

nyim's soul.

At his death, the ndop was placed near the nyim's deathbed, so

that

it

could collect

the sovereign's vital force. Then, during the period of seclusion that preceded his


A FEW COMCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

accession to the throne, the king's successor

statue, so that the

Custom has
name,

it

remain beside the

to

own body.

captured force would come to inhabit his

new

during his enthronement, the future nyim reveals his

that

name, and the corresponding symbol. For each symbol and each

his official

name, a proverb

was required

is

composed

to signify

it.

The Kuba,

like the

Edo

of Benin, seek to

preserve the traditions of the kingdom; just as the interpretation of certain objects

Edo

to recognize the oba represented, so

Kuba

to reconstitute certain events in the

associated with the sovereign allows the

that of the ibol

makes

history of the reign

and

found depict a game of

rot, a

bunch

possible for the

it

The

to identify the ni/im depicted.

/yee/,"

of walnuts, a

drum, an

human head,

anvil, a

human

have reigned during the

small

human

first

more romantic but disputed version

is

omnipotence over

that this figure

married and then freed. King Kot a-Ntshey

Shyaam a-Mbul a-Ngoong holds

have invented.

He was

in front of

also the founder of the

the emblematic character of the

Kuba

is

him

be

and an

who is believed

third of the nineteenth century, includes

figure, signifying the king's

to

figure, a flyswatter, a par-

a pirogue or leopard skin, a rooster,

adze (Cornet 1982, 73-74). The portrait of the nyim Miko mi-Mbul,
to

maboP

different

ibol

of a

Another

whom

the king

a slave,

is

an

his subjects.

seated in front of a drum. King

a

game

of

lyeel,

which he

is

said to

Bushoong dynasty. As we have

on the figuration

royal portrait rests

seen,

of an

allegorical object.

Other examples come

numerous

to

us from the

effigies of chiefs, wives,

Kongo and Chokwe. Kongo

and mother and

child.

Most

ornamentation on scepters, flyswatters, or canes. The chief

wearing a cap of woven and embroidered

and generally chewing on a

bitter root,

powers acquired during enthronement

criminal or

war captive

raffia fibers,

are

found

in the

always depicted

mpu, insignia of his rank,

munkwiza, symbolizing the supernatural

(figs. 41, 46)."-

supplicant or prisoner

often accompanies these representations. Female figures

are sculpted in the cane handles of chiefs, called mvwala

part of the regalia:

is

court art offers

Kongo

(fig. 42).

These canes are

tradition maintains that the nine canes with

which the

manikongo governed corresponded to the nine original clans of the kingdom. These
canes were used during

rites in

which the king reasserted

tories (Tresors d'Afrique 1995, 292).

That female figure

his control over his terri-

may

represent the founding

43> Female effigy.

(?).

gola, Cabinda,

Kongo

chieftaincy:

mpu

cap, bracelets, cowrie shell necklace

adorned with leopard's

teeth,

enkunde, 1354.47

same

women

meeting the

plastic criteria are found in the statuettes representing a mother and child,

called pfemba,

whose function remains obscure even today

(figs.

43-45).

glass.

An-

Height:

(1902). Figurine be-

longing to a category that includes vari-

ous

objects,

some

of

which have an

anthropomorphic appearance, incarnating the personalized powers from the

world of the dead, called miukisi

{nkisi in

the singular) in Kikongo. Pieces of mate-

with supernatural powers, used in

magical practices in which the minkisi

play a part, are introduced into the object.

a certain type of scarification, or a certain attitude. Figures of

(Vili).

44 cm. Leiden, Rijksmuseunn voor Volk-

rial

ancestor of the clan. The other female figures exhibit one or several attributes of the

Eighteenth to nine-

Wood and

teenth century

The treatment of the animal head

holding parts of a headdress in

mouth

is

its

very clearly inspired by a

European model, perhaps from the

sixteenth century.


CHAPTER TWO

52

Kongo

marked by

effigies are also

a realism that, in a

manner

observed in the statues of Kuba kings, seeks to transcribe certain

human person as it appears in reality:

details of the hands,

and contours

proper to the

roundness and suppleness of the members,

of the face.

that of Ile-Ife, the contours of cheeks

similar to that

traits

and

lips

As

Kuba

in

statuary

and the shape

and even more

in

of the nose reveal a very

particular attention to notations of physiognomy. That intention also appears in the

contours of certain masks and

order to
44.

Pfemba

Zaire,

effigy.

Wood and

Kongo (Yombe).

Tervueren,

glass.

Height: 29 cm.

Musee Royal de

ball as

make them more

it is,

making

is

true to

further underscored in the figuration of eyes: in

the sculptors transcribe the shape of the eye-

life,

imprisoned between the two eyelids, and bestow a gaze on the statue by

a hole to

mark

the place of the pupil. Other examples possess glass eyes,

I'Afrique

including a black pupil; the choice

Centrale, R.G. 24662.

late the brilliance of the

Chokwe
same

to the
in

Kongo

shown

flat

left

venerated as the hero

behind numerous

are

all

effigies of their chiefs,

and physique

who

chiefs

of the great

Chokwe

Chokwe

hand he holds

halts; in his left

number

sovereigns,

the staff

gun

(fig.

body

responding

that

Chokwe:

we

first,

find

those

chiefs." Except for portraits of

is

a mythical figure

to identify

them, since they

of conventional attitudes. Sculptures of Tshi-

and

lateral

wings curving backward

holding the insignia of the hunter: in his

from which protective charms are suspended during

he holds the animal horn into which certain powders with magical

characteristics are deposited

stone

the

but then, he

binda show him wearing the headdress with two

right

of the

among

do not allow the beholder

depicted in a limited

characteristic of

statuettes

introduced the art of hunting, and the inventor of pow-

and second, those

Chokwe

the

Lunda and then the Chokwe dynasty, Tshibinda Ilunga,

Tshibinda, recognizable by specific attributes

portraits of

mind

of glass, inscribed within a broad,

types of royal effigies are found

of the mythic founder of the

erful charms;

However, the eyes of Kongo

when made

taste for realism in the attitude

Two

bring to

area that does not follow the curve of the face.

sculptors have

art.

may

attempt to trans-

in the statue of the Seated Scribe or in the

portrait of Nefertiti.

are disproportionately large, and,

oblong, and perfectly

artists in their

eye by using a reflective material

practices of Egyptian sculptors, as

famous polychromatic

made by Kongo

(fig. 50).

In other portraits, the

horn

is

replaced by a

51) (Bastin 1988, 53-54). Certain sculptures of Tshibinda

show him

with his cartridge pouch, a calabash containing gunpowder, an ax, a knife, and a
protective amulet
45. Female effigy.
teenth century

and

glass.

(Vili).

(?).

Eighiteenth to nine-

Wood,

are represented with the

same kind

of headdress as Tshibinda,

137). Chiefs

though

less elabo-

rope, beads,

Angola, Cabinda, Kongo

Height: 44 cm. Leiden, Rijksmu-

seum voor Volkenkunde, 2668.2101

(1947). Nkisi statuette.

a tortoise shell attached to his belt (Bastin 1982,

rate.

Like the hero hunter, they are depicted nude, and their headdress

may be

the

only insignia recalling their rank. That headdress reproduces that of the cikungu

mask, a sacred symbol of the dynasty evoking the

chief's ancestors.

This

mask

is

FEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

53

never represented as such, except as suggested by the silhouette of the chiefs' headdresses.

The physical

attitudes depicted in that statuary vary, reproducing certain

behaviors relating to court body language. The statues of chiefs

ing, or seated

on

chair, inspired

a throne, in the traditional

sign of force

taci,

seated, the chief

makes

show them

in the

stand-

form of a folding

When standing, the chief extends his hands toward

by Western chairs.

his pubis or slightly in front of his belly.

gesture called

round form, or

Hands

and power

the gesture

in front of the chest

(figs.

may

47 and 48) (Bastin 1982,

represent a
112).

When

called mwoyo of clapping his hands; as dis-

penser of well-being and prosperity, he wishes these blessings on his subjects (fig. 52)
(Bastin 1982, 112).

A few portraits represent a chief preparing to take snuff both a

sign of welcome to a visitor and an invocation to the spirits

made before his subjects

(Bastin 1982, 133). Others are playing a lamellophone, called a sniizn

(fig. 93).

Certain

prestigious objects, such as scepters, also have representations of chiefs, either de-

picted full length, or portraying only the head

For the Chokwe,

this is

above

all

means

(figs. 47, 93, 96).

of representing the chief as the

one who

performs essential symbolic functions, manifested by gestures, on which the balance and harmony of the community depend, or as a mythic hero and founder of
social existence itself.

fixing in material

The statuary expresses the sacred character of sovereignty by

form gestures essential

to the

those depicted in the art of Benin, though

more

kingdom. These are comparable

limited in their expression.

portraits are portraits of gestures. This does not prevent a certain naturalism

many

taking hold, however: in

to

Chokwe
from

cases, the treatment of the ears, the curve of the

cheeks, and the shape of the nose reveal a meticulous observation of the physiog-

nomic

and

reality of the face.

feet,

That attention

which are generally

fingers, phalanges,

and

is

also directed to the shape of the

large, a trait specific to

nails are precisely shaped.

Chokwe statuary,

The

in

hands

which the

portraits of Tshibinda Ilunga

46. Funerary statuette.

century

(?)

Kongo. Height: 49 cm. Geneva, Musee

Barbier-Mueller,

show him with enormous hands and

rest of the

body. His musculature

sovereign's power. Feet

and hands

is

feet,

disproportionately large in relation to the

also sculpted in such a

way

are surprising for their very

as to evoke the

tory

BMG 1021-17. The his-

and function

gies are

still

of these funerary

unclear.

deceased

chief.

The headdress, miunga,

surmounted by four curved leopard's

teeth, the stole folded

with natural hair to serve as a beard. That organic and

introduced into the sculpture places

reality of flesh

and blood:

of appearance, but also

If

on

there

is

it

in a situation of near

resemblance,

rests

human

matter

adequation with the

not only on an equivalence

a sort of transfer of vitality, through the intermediary of

these fragments of living matter, the hair.

may

it

The exaggerated

express the hero's exceptional agility; that of his

hunting parties (Bastin 1988,

54).

size of Tshibinda's

feet, his

effi-

They may have

served as receptacles for the soul of the

advanced natural-

ism. In confirmation of that particular tendency, sculptors adorned the chins of certain portraits

Nineteenth

Soapstone. Zaire, Matadi,

hands

endurance during

over the shoulder,

and the necklace are the

thority in

insignia of au-

Kongo, mentioned since the

seventeenth century. Identified with a

nkisi,

the chief

wimkwizn

(as

chews on the

he

is

bitter root

depicted doing on

the handles of flyswatters previously

shown), which grants him supernatural

powers. The crossed position of the legs
also indicates that this

dedicated to a chief.

may be an

effigy

54

CHAPTER TWO

Chokwe

artisans gave

no

attention to the rendering of manufactured insignia or

regalia that attest to the sovereignty of their chiefs, except for headdresses, a sign of

recognition of royalty. This

is

very different from the art of Benin, where faces and

bodies conform to a single stereotypical model, while costumes and attributes are
depicted with an obsessive concern for

more in the physical particularities

fest itself

in their

detail.

morphology, as

if

that of the face where, in

realistic

many

treatment of the

to

and power, we

The same desire

monarch

recall, are the

They

memory

is

often replicated in

but the hands and

is

feet as well,

Among the Chokwe,

vested in his physical body, whose vi-

for plastic transformation as a function of this corporal

queen

by the Akan

are defined

model

guarantors of those of the kingdom.

the extraordinary being of the king or

cotta.

in Ile-lfe,

be a physical and mental extension of the head.

the exceptional character of the

tality

portrait of gestures as a por-

members

instances, an inclination to resemble a real

sometimes surfaces: not only the head, as

which seem

sovereignty seems to mani-

though they are standardized

of chiefs,

were as much a

the portrait

and hands. The

trait of feet

Chokwe

is

also

found

in

model of

Akan portraits in terra,

as true portraits executed to celebrate the

of important personages, including the king

and queen mother,

after their

death; a few of these portraits retain traces of paint. That custom goes back at least
to the seventeenth century,

we are to believe European testimony. During funeral

may have been incorporated into a larger whole that

if

ceremonies, these portraits

included figurations of servants and courtiers, erected near the gravesite

This

is

(fig. 54).

an old custom, as attested in the testimony of Pieter de Marees, dating from

He notes that painted clay portraits were set

"Gentlemen" who had served the king.^^ On such occasions,

1620, regarding the Fanti royal funeral.

on the graves of all the

the

common

people had the right only to decorated pottery, which might also

in-

clude heads, but whose shape differed radically from that reserved for courtiers.

47. Chokwe

scepter

surmounted by

snuffbox. Nineteenth century.

twisted iron rod. Angola,

Wood and

Chokwe,

style

of the country of origin. Height: 27.5 cm.

Brussels, private collection.

The

of these heads of the

Akan

in the

of

Ghana

flat

disks on

the

mouth

which the bridge

altars.

been uncovered next

body

that

was

to

also

people, which are found

among

statuettes of fecundity called akiinbn, take the

of the nose, the arch of the eyebrows,

are indicated schematically,

can also be part of

to a

wood

common

by small furrows

Some were conceived

as

in relief.

autonomous

the

form of

and sometimes

These clay heads

objects; others

have

remains during excavations, suggesting they were attached

modeled

in terra cotta. ^^

chief,

or mwanangana, seems to be seated on

a seat with a circular top, a

The prototypes

form

in

use

There
specific

is

no desire

in

Akan

model. In terms of

statuary to individualize the portrait in relation to a

style, the

oval of the face seems to be linked to schemata

before the arrival of chairs of European

inspiration.

He wears

responding

to his rank, called cipenya

the headdress cor-

mutwc. The top to the snuffbox

missing.

characteristic of a determinate region

produces that

and

artist:

the form of the eyes generally re-

of a coffee bean and suggests a gaze from half-closed

eyelids.

The

is

neck often displays a ringed conformation suggesting folds of

fat.

Beyond the

vari-


A FEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

one

ants, the only elements that allow

to individualize the portrait are the

ornaments of the headdress and the scarifications

lar

workmanship but

cast in gold, serve as

Ashanti or the Baule (Ivory Coast).

One

55

form and

53-61). Other heads, of simi-

(figs.

sword ornaments or masks among the

of these gold

masks was found

in 1874

by

the English, during the sack of Kumasi, in the treasury of the nsaiiteJiene Kofi Kakari
(fig. 61).

Akan

though they do not demonstrate as marked a tendency toward

portraits,

naturalism as that suggested by the

Chokwe

by the Yoruba

or

theless attest to a clear desire to transcribe a particular

this

model reproduces an

of the royal heads.

Akan shaped

model

faces of lle-Ife, noneof the

head and

face;

aesthetic ideal realized in the very physical conformation

According

to

custom, in

young children

the heads of

fact, for

several

of the royal house

order to enlarge the skull (Preston 1989-90,

71).

weeks

after birth, the

by massaging them,

in

Subsequently, certain cosmetics,

reserved for princes, completed the modification of their physiognomy. The folds of
fat

furrowing the neck, already mentioned with reference to the statuary of

constitute a
statuary.

princes

mark

and

of beauty

health.

As

such, they were reproduced in royal

That parallelism extends even further: not only are the heads and faces of

molded

in

way

such a

as to attain an ideal

form reproduced

the shine given to their skin through a mixture of gold dust

they use as a cosmetic,

is

also rendered through

Thus, the terra cotta used for this royal portrait

of the living sovereign did.
is

Whether

of the monarchy, incarnated

Chokwe

of royal

statuary,

is

this

is

butter,

in the portrait or in its

And we

model, the same desire

it

sun

his family (Preston 1989-90, 73).

it

were:

body itself at his birth, and then again after his death,

should emphasize that

women's work:

clay.

statuary in clay transcribes the exceptional character

lifetime, in his

it

may

not be by chance that in both cases

was women who massaged

was they who then modeled

which

similar to gold or the

morphology. The face and head of the king are molded twice as

once during his

in clay.

and shea

able to reflect light, just as the face

by the sovereign and

Akan

in the statuary;

mica dust introduced into the

manifested to express the luminosity and brilliance

Like

lle-Ife,

the skulls of newborns,

and

it

48.

portrait

that

is,

was reserved

until the use of

for the king

and

photography became common

a

the African

few great personages. The workmanship of

these portraits, as the preceding examples have shown, always conforms to models
in

which convention takes precedence over the transcription

of reality.

It is

more

important to African sculptors that the formal elements they have extracted from
their observation of nature

they create unique works.

adhere

If

to a consecrated

style of the

country of origin. Height: 35 cm. Brussels,

Until recently

Chief's effigy. Nineteenth century.

Wood. Angola, Chokwe,

the clay heads. ^*

and preexisting model than

the portrait exists in Africa,

it

that

exists within these limits:

private collection.

56

CHAPTER TWO

it is

less the

who

king or chief as individual

expressing, in an easily recognizable

to

is

traits

and comprehensible manner, the principal

characteristics of royalty inscribed in the king's

vigor

be represented than certain

body

stoutness, youth, muscular

and those closely associated with insignia, emblems, regalia. The porit

sculpted in

traits of chiefs

wood by

the court artists of the chieftaincies of the

eroon Grasslands do not deviate from the

rule,

though the

Cam-

style in place in that

region seems to allow the rendering of expressive physiognomies. Thus, there

statue of a seated king

from the chieftaincy of Bafoum, holding

enemy head, probably cut off with the

Ruth Tishman
his victory.

collection).

The

king's

saber he

is

is

hand an

in his left

brandishing in his right (Paul and

mouth seems

to

be open in a laugh celebrating

When one looks at a number of the faces of royal statues from the Grass-

lands, however,

it

appears that the motif of

lips visibly

uncovering the teeth

popular. Without proposing an extensive interpretation,

that this motif does not

is

very

might advance the notion

stem from an expressionistic transcription, but from the use

of a conventional sign expressing royal power. That standardization, which, as

we

have seen, makes use of various degrees of realism, tends to ignore the individual
features of the person. In the case of the naturalistic expressions previously noted,
that of the statuary of Ile-Ife for example, the physical

though imitating
particular person.

and many other

that, for these

reality in certain details,

itself,

king's face

and body,

as in ancient

Egypt

corresponds to forms that have been imposed. Recall

civilizations,

African kings, physical imperfection and infirmity were prohibited;

its

human

metonym
As

kingdom, was not

it:

seem obliged

be confined by the

to

eating, drinking, sneezing,

a result, the king's

plication, their representation,

full

for the

nature imposed on

getting old, dying.

an adult in

does not necessarily reproduce that of a

The representation of the

the king's body, as a

constraints

appearance of individuals,

body and

to glorify

face,

harming

and, by logical im-

an ideal vision of man, as

possession of his physical and spiritual faculties. In his body, the

sovereign concentrates the aesthetic aspirations of his people, and in this case, aesthetics closely associates
liance,

beauty with vigor,

and luminosity. Stoutness, youth, muscular

ent in an object, the king's

kingdom. That

and serene

is

what the

body

that

faces of the kings

vitality; the

is,

effigies of these

and queens

of a wrinkle; the tense musculature of

bodily

force, the

harmony

vigor,

and peace,

in his portrait

monarchs seem

of Ile-Ife,

Chokwe

of morphology, bril-

to tell us: the dignified

untouched by even the shadow

chiefs,

manifesting an excess of

calm impassivity of the Kuba m/im, residing

ness; the sparkle of metal in the

encrusted in the clay of

Akan

heads from

portraits.

Ile-Ife

When

qualities pres-

reflect the state of the

in a noble

plump-

and Benin; and the mica

flakes

an accident injures the person

who

A FEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

represents the kingdom, his portrait

we

are to believe

Kuba

brass, or copper,

which the
als.

and

)idop\ for

Hkely to

also, to a lesser extent, terra cotta

rust,

and very hard woods

(of

to serve as royal materi-

and bronze were polished with

that

aim

in

88).

The perfect symmetry

of these faces

perfection; a real or figural

and bodies

dissymmetry

also confirms the

in the sovereign's

serves the cause of hieratism.

The

court portrait, bears a very particular meaning:

of the parts

if

thus expressing the incorruptibility of the monarchy,

shine. In Benin objects of brass

harmony

brunt of the blow in turn,

example, are made), predisposed them

view (Ben-Amos 1995,

sible. Verticality

feel the

conceptions. The qualities of certain materials such as gold,

These metals do not

and they

is

57

it

need

morphology

for royal
is

impos-

frontal position, in the case of the

underscores the equilibrium and

and imposes on the beholder of the

king's effigy a privileged

position for viewing, a single point of view, that of the face-to-face encounter, simi-

confronting the visitor during an audience at the palace, even though, as

lar to that

often happens, the sovereign remains hidden.

shows

that the

law of frontality was

The history of Western sculpture

for a long time the only

one known, as if human

representation could be inscribed only within a relationship in which the beholder

facing the statue was, as

it

were, in a reflexive position. Note that portraits of African

kings and queens depict them without a gaze: the eye sockets are generally empty,

and when they are

more

the pupil

is

of the

and pupil

iris

not, as in the case of certain

heads from Benin or

a graphic motif than the expression of reality.

is

in

Kongo

art,

The representation

not a matter of course. In the realm of perception, the

iris

and

pupil "are essentially related to color" (Wittkower 1995); more perhaps than any
other part of the face, the pupil and

Western sculpture, the

lenic period,

when the

plastic
iris

iris

means

are unstable in their form. In the history of

to represent the eye

was depicted by a hollow

appeared during the Hel-

circle in the eyeball,

one or two small holes made in the pupil. During the Renaissance,

marked by

Italian sculptors,

perpetuating the medieval tradition, preferred to leave the eyeball empty and unpainted, since they judged
as sensitivity

it

"better lent itself to the expression of general ideas such

and compassion, which require

that the gaze be directed into space

rather than toward a point" (Wittkower 1995, 196-201).

The reasons

that

compelled

African sculptors to leave the eyeballs empty in most cases certainly had different
sources, linked
to

do with

to,

among other things, interpretations on the symbolic order having

that part of the

eye.^"^

Meeting another's gaze

is

not always without con-

sequence, a view expressed in attitudes of avoidance. Hence, in certain African societies, a

great-grandfather cannot look his great-grandson in the eye without the

risk of taking his

life.

Within such a context, the absence of a gaze observed

in a

49. Chief's effigy. Nineteenth century.

Wood with traces of verdigris in one of
the eye sockets, indicating that the eyes

were encrusted with

lenge,

Chokwe,

origin. Height: 35.5

de Etnologia.

brass. Angola, Ki-

style of the country of

cm. Lisbon,

Museu

58

CHAPTER TWO

Statuary that, in other respects, gives

some

and irreducible

of a gaze introduces a feeling of distance

Every king

who

is

identical in his

all

reigns succeed one another

mentation of the same values

difference

to the

one

To commit a particular event

will follow.

claims that

body

indications of an attention to the tran-

man is not insignificant.

scription of characteristics of the living

who

In fact, the absence

difference.

preceded him and

to the

one

memory, within

a context that

and resemble one another

in their imple-

to

prosperity, power, balance seems to introduce

where there should be only

Mention of the unique, even

repetition.

through the intermediary of specific details introduced into representation, occurs

Kuba and Edo

in

Among

portraits.

the Kuba, the

ibol that

adorns the

statue's

base does not seem adequate to differentiate every king, since several nyini chose

same

the

50.

Effigy of Tshibinda Ilunga. Nine-

Wood and

teenth century.
gola,

Chokwe,

fibers.

An-

style of the country

of origin. Height: 40 cm. Fort

(Texas), Kimbell Art

Worth

ibol. It

would seem

cific identities to portraits,

model.

it

was primarily

the oral tradition that attributed spe-

whose workmanship was

invariably linked to the

same

A few distinctive features have sometimes been introduced as if by larceny:

the ndop of King

Mbomboosh

stands out because of the inscription of three folds of

Museum.
fat

around

The case

his

neck and

a slight stoutness of the torso, reminiscent of his obesity.

of royal effigies in Benin,

where

certain oba can be identified

by the

attri-

butes they hold in their hands, again seems peculiar to that kingdom: early contact

with the Europeans allowed different

acquire a personal
that

power

oba, particularly in the sixteenth century, to

greater than that granted

them by

which

obn sought to inscribe their singularity

present in

some

of these kings' portraits,

it is

to

son

do, for example,

by molding the heads

is

some

that are fleeting

gola, Moxico,

Wood and

Chokwe,

fibers.

An-

pations.
is

country of origin. Height: 40 cm. Porto,

Universidade do Porto,

Museu do instiMendes Cor-

tuto de Antropologia "Dr.

rea," inv. 86.04.03.

Musee Dapper,

Copyright Archives

Paris.

and subject

to change,

through the gaze or the muscles of the

style of the

is

to

produce

in nature, as the

The desire

and

real per-

arrest in a single object the traits

unique living being. That approach seems foreign to an African

conception of representation. To seek to

teenth century.

the idea of resemblance

of children of royal birth.

sense the desire to circumscribe

and properties of

51. Effigy of Tshibinda Ilunga. Nine-

If

an image reproduce the physiognomy and physical characteristics of a

in

within

be understood as a resemblance

sought with an ideal type, which one also attempts

Akan

It is

portraits, in

by introducing particular symbols

within a representation that remained conventional.

that

tradition.

framework, no doubt, that one must consider a number of these

One must remember

that,

only an approach, an attempt

even

fix in

material form the parts of the person

such as the manifestation of internal

face, is

not

at the heart of

in the recent

Western

states

African preoccu-

tradition, the portrait

destined to be ever begun anew to grasp the

physical and psychological qualities of a living person in accordance with plastic

and

aesthetic criteria,

which are

in turn

very variable. The area where sculptors

accurately expressed a desire for resemblance

was

in the figuration of insignia

and

A FEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

59

emblems, signs produced, conceived, and mastered by men. These portraits thus

remind us

that, in the

human person was

African conception, the

was

primarily as a psychological individual, but

not understood

rather defined in the

first

place in

terms of his status in the social and symbolic order. The roles of insignia (demonstrated extensively
all

by the images

the portraits of African

the statuary of Ile-lfe

kingdom

of the old

of Benin), of headdresses (as

monarchs underscore), and of

scarifications (present in

and Benin and among the Akan and Kongo), appear more

important in defining the individuality of the person. The faces and bodies of kings

and queens observed

in

Akan

or

Chokwe

are both different from one another

the monarchy.

Men

portraits, the singular

secrated person.

The

in

effort is

made

to

person of these kings

effigy of the king

blems; the logical outcome

is that,

the signs alone. That possibility

is

is

in that of Ile-lfe

similar, as

if

and Benin,

the different versions

them, the idea of an irreducible

and blood, however, are

of flesh

monarchy, even while the

fines as the

and strangely

were being articulated

of a single idea

and

statuary,

is

called

upon

totality,

to signify that

reduce their diversity; through these

transfigured, transcended

by the con-

overdetermined by these signs, these em-

in certain cases, the effigy disappears in favor of

found in the

art of Benin, in

"emblematic portrait" (see above, note

5),

and

in

what Blackmun de-

Chokwe works

the headdress represents the chief. In the art of Benin or of the

Chokwe,

of art:

there

is

an

52.
to

ostentatious representation of the signs of power, either through the size given
(as in the

Chokwe headdress,

for

example) or in the profusion of details included in

the representation. In such cases, the portrait

Although
portraits,

it is

by

difficult,

even impossible,

statue of the Egyptian

invoked

ment

is

the spirit of the king

becomes

of his terra cotta portrait,

environment as

it

image is

his living double.

had
it

remain present

a reality in

The Kuba

itself,

human morphology

fixed at his death.

A comparable idea

ndop, completed during

Among the Akan,

is

the site

the place-

surrounded by figurines representing the people of

monarch's tomb

appeared in

time. In that case as well,

to the king

In ancient Egypt, the diorite

conceived as a double of the king, and the effigy

his effigy, the deceased

of

whom they were made.

pharaoh was considered

his court, in the vicinity of the

king's

to attribute a singular identity to these

in the function of African portraits.

the king's lifetime,

where

becomes an enumeration.

their very existence they constitute the material traces of a physical

continuation of the person for

is

them

attests to a desire to reconstitute the

reality. It is as

if,

to perpetuate after death

would seem

through the intermediary of

what he was during

his life-

that certain spiritual principles belonging

in the earthen figurine erected after his death.

Every

an indestructible presence; by definition, the reproduction

as an

image

(or object) establishes a relation of duplicity

Effigy of seated chief. Eighteenth

nineteenth century.

i,j.ass nails.

Wood,

hair,

and

Angola, Chokwe. Height:

^5 cm. Brussels, private collection.

r<^J

ass

^^
tr^^^

'ts^i

v\'

v*l3j

COTE D'iVOIRE

MAFIA

Fetiches des morts

(fnciiig

page)

53a Head.
cotta.

Eighteenth century. Terra

Ghana, Akan (probably Adansi).

Height: approx. 20 cm. Brussels, private collection (formerly

Rasmussen

collection).

(above)

54. Depository
terra cotta.
Paris,

of funerary effigies in

Old postcard. Ivory Coast.

Karen Petrossian

collection.

(left)

55. Heads. Seventeenth

century. Terra cotta.

Height: 18

cm

(left)

to eighteenth

Ghana, Akan.

and 16 cm

Paris, private collection.

(right).

62

CHAPTER TWO

between

it

and

its

model. The idea of the double

thropomorphic image or

body

that

object,

combines the largest number of human

The reader may have noted

that a

selves to the head; in addition, as

portraits, the

number

we have

traits:

that part of the

from

and an

face.

size.

That very particular

a certain intellectual projection invested in

about Yoruba, Edo, and

ori, like

his body,

had both

internal reality, inn. That internal head, ori inu,

be represented in the form of a cone (Drewal 1993,

with a tendency toward naturalism, the
of these conical heads. That internal
tience, the reflective qualities of the

likely to

head and

underscored, in the case of full-length

human body. We possess some information

reality, ode,

in the part of the

of these royal portraits confine them-

heads. The Yoruba maintained that a man's head,

an external

the

heads are sometimes of disproportionate

attention given to the head stems

Akan

thus inscribed within every an-

is

and may be even more present

addition to royal portraits

artists of Ile-Ife left

head

is

person (Drewal 1993,

Ile-Ife

behind representations

the seat of thought, character,

dwell in the "external" head, and thus to

physiognomies of portraits from

42). In

42).

and pa-

These qualities were

rise to the surface of the face.

reveal these

may

same

The

qualities, inherent in the

royal person. Various interpretations have been advanced regarding the function of

these heads from

lett,

Ile-Ife, in

particular those

made

during royal funerals these heads served

monarchy during

of metal. According to Frank Wil-

to

symbolize the continuity of the

the interregnum (Drewal 1993, 46).

provided by Henry

J.

The elements

Drewal seem more convincing. He

of interpretation

recalls that, in their funer-

ary practices, the Yoruba did not traditionally use the representation of deceased
sovereigns, at least not before the twentieth century (in

example, funeral mannequins have been used).

became gods,

orisha,

and

their

no wise tombs. The heads

crown with beaded

sort of

that

double

of Ile-Ife, in particular those

crown
century.

(Akan). Height: 27 cm. London,

seum

of

Mankind,

1933.12.2.1.

Mu-

52).

for

of metal,

were instead

they wore the king's regalia, such

head became a

for that of the sovereign, the seat of all the qualities, already cited,

During the enthronement ceremony of the new oha

prince; this

crown was

crown

to definitively

of coral beads,

in the

was

kingdom

of

set before the

make him an oha (Nevadomsky

1984b,

That head was destined subsequently to be cast in metal.

In fact, for the

tells

when

made

fringe (Drewal 1993, 48). In that case, the

Benin, a head in terra cotta, bearing the

Terra cotta. Ghana, Fomena, Adansi

Owo,

an adult man ought to possess, and moreover, was explicitly invested with such

a function.

56> Head. Probably nineteenth

in

remains were dispersed in certain places that were in

put to use during certain royal ceremonies,

as the

modern times

Upon their death, kings and queens

Edo

as well, the role of the head, uhumivu,

was

essential. Tradition

us that the custom of fabricating heads cast in metal comes from

Ile-Ife.

Among

A FEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

the Edo, the

head was the

to organize actions in

seat of thought, of judgment, of will, of character, of

and of speech.

listening, of the gaze,

In

it,

the capacity of each person

man and

which the
its

depended on

of his family

stood here in the sense of a spiritual principle).

health and prosperity

was formed

way that they brought prosperity to the person govern-

such a

ing them. The well-being of a

of the Head, in

63

Among the

his

Head

Edo, there

is

(under-

thus a cult

latter receives sacrificial offerings in gratitude for the

owner acquires because

of

it.

The head

of the family also

worships his Head on behalf of the other members of the group; and he takes care
of their

Heads

to assure that they

said of a person

on

man must concern

homage

to his

whom fortune has not smiled that he has a

through

himself with the cult of his Head; in addition, the oba must pay

rite,

an annual

Heads

of

whom he governs. Although every Edo worships his own Head, only

263-64 and 270-82).

^'^

and the

and thought, the heads

oba possess altars of the

Chiefs used heads of terra cotta or

The use of metal heads was reserved

oba,

at

the oba sends his priest to celebrate the

the great chiefs, the queen mother,

1973,

It is

"bad Head." Every

Head, on which the well-being of everyone depends,

ceremony. During the same

chiefs

maintain good relations with one another.

for the oba

of conquered chiefs

who had brass replicas made of them

and

Head (Bradbury

wood on their altars.

his mother.

As seat of judgment

were brought back as trophies

(fig. 37).

These heads

to the

may have been kept

57. Head. Seventeenth

to eighteenth

century. Terra cotta. Ghana, Twifo or

Wassa, Akan. Height: 24 cm. Geneva,

Musee

Barbier-Mueller,

BMG

58> Heads. Seventeenth

century. Terra cotta.

1009-6.

to eighteenth

Ghana

or Ivory

Coast, Akan. Height: 20.1 cm; Width:

21.1

cm

(left).

Tervueren,

Height: 18.7

cm

Musee Royal de

Centrale, R.G. 77.18.1

(right).

I'Afrique

and R.G.

88.17.1.

59. Head.

Seventeenth to eighteenth

century. Terra cotta. Ghana,

Akan

(prob-

ably Aowin). Height: 22 cm. Brussels,

private collection.

60.

Funerary

effigy.

tury. Terra cotta

with a vegetable

Nineteenth cen-

blackened and glazed

tar.

Ivory Coast, Krin-

jabo, Anyi. Height: 34.5

cm.

Paris,

Musee

National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie, A. 84. 7.1.

Royal

drummer wearing

the metal headdress reserved for notables.

The small protuberances

corners of his lips

may

at the

represent the krn,

or vital principle of the deceased (see

chapter

4).

A FEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE PORTRAIT

on the

altar of the ancestors of the

proliferation of

kingdom

of Benin (Ben- Amos 1995, 22),

commemorative metal heads increased the

oba's prestige

65

and the

and power

(fig. 80).^^

The brass heads of

that they all
all

seem

to

oba or

queen mothers resemble one another

over the five centuries of fabrication. Only the

such a degree

number

of

tify

them

at

rows of necklace beads

few elements of the headdress undergo transformation, allowing us

and

skills

to

have come from the same mold. The model barely changes

to iden-

chronologically. Since the "internal heads" of the oba are filled with the

and

qualities required of royalty, the "external

heads"

the portraits give

material form to the existence and nature of these qualities, through their regular,

harmonious, and unchanging

portraits of Ile-Ife or the

human features. The same observation is valid for the

Akan

portraits in ceramic.

The serenity

that

marks them,

the symmetrical regularity of their features, reflect the necessary peace of

their royal

models; in

and

gestures,

this sense, the

Akan learn from

children of the

and

to

mind

of

king ought to resemble his portrait. The royal

their earliest years to

master their

facial

expressions

suppress the singularities of their character in order to adhere

61. Head. Eighteenth

tury.

to nineteenth cen-

Gold, lost-wax casting. Ghana,

Akan. Height: 18 cm. London, Wallace

to this

model

of impassivity (Preston 1989-90, 76). For similar reasons having to

do

with the importance granted the "internal head," the heads, cast in brass, of enemy
chiefs killed at

in

Dahomey

war were shown the same deference. An eighteenth-century observer

described a similar custom there of keeping trophy heads.

He

relates

Collection. This

(1867-74).

It

may have

mummified head
gave

had on

of

this

matter with King Kpengla. The king, displaying the

an enemy king he had conquered,

said: "This is a

me so much trouble ... I am myself a warrior, and if had to fall into the hands
I

of the enemy,

cier 1962, 118).

would wish

to

be treated with the same decency

The trophy head

is

the portrait's

most

radical

longer raised, nor

the same.

is

that of representation.

The image and the

exemplify" (Mer-

and perhaps most

complete expression. The problem of resemblance or adequation

now

man who

to the

reality

it

model

is

no

invokes are

served as a sword

ornament, since the Ashanti had the

habit of adorning the blade with gold
figurines; the

the conversation he

head was part of the

treasury of the asantehcne Kofi Kakari

of the
battle.

heads

enemy chiefs

may represent those

killed

during the

W'

^f

u^'

CHAPTER THREE
History Told in images

^:^^

frican iconography includes

face or in the round,

an

where one or several

mode of expression,

action. In terms of this

to Egyptian,

few examples of images, whether on

a plane sur-

figures are depicted carrying out

there

is

nothing in Africa comparable

Mesopotamian, or Roman creations. The scenes found on brass plaques

from the kingdom of old Benin or

in the

hangings of the kingdom of

Dahomey

are

not so different from these Western forms in the intention they reveal, however. For
the

most

alistic,

part,

their

it is

composition that

and thus

less re-

they do not unfold across long frescoes where scenes are linked to one an-

other, a layout that

may be

specific to peoples familiar

tradition dictates that the figures,

world (with
in

differs: less descriptive,

all

to the

this area,

animal or the

human

degrees of transition possible from one to the other), be represented

an irreducible singularity.

ample,

whether they belong

with writing. In

When

there

is

group of

statuary for ex-

effigies, in

generally the result of a juxtaposition of particular units brought to-

it is

gether in one place, a place of worship most often, in an order established by a series
of ritual acts.
effigies take is

to

The

objects are arranged as a function of these acts.

not conceived in terms of a relationship with other

The form these

effigies, in

produce a scene with a narrative aim. African representations privilege

certain animals

and they grant

order

man and

a very particular importance to the living, upright

man. Like the sculptures of gods

in ancient

Egypt or those created by Giacometti,

they are fixed in the most radical verticality, and in a frontal, face-to-face relation,

whose
and

essential role in the royal portrait has already

been noted. The plant world

manufactured objects appear only rarely

in iconography, except in the

that of

form of abstract symbols having only

remote resemblance

to reality.

In the African context, "narrative" denotes a visual expression seeking to trans-

mit information about particular persons and events.^

ditional iconography, described above, such as the
its

What was banished from tra-

world of plants and

objects, finds

place here, not as mere ornamental decoration, but as a significant element within

the scene depicted.

It is

interesting to note that, within the sphere of influence of

these court arts, a popular art sometimes developed that used the

same

realist ref-

erence points. In addition to the Yoruba statuary of Nigeria and the banners of the
Fanti military companies of Ghana,
(previous pages)

as that of Djenne,

Detail of figure 75.

which

offers

we might cite

numerous

in this context

62. House porticos sculpted in wood in

high relief. Cameroon Grasslands, 1930.
Paris, photo library of the Musee de
THomme. The scenes depicted tell of
a victorious chief's return

68

from

battle.

of childbirth, figures presenting offerings,

which

man, armed with

(see p. 152).

such

There are scenes

and an astonishing representation

in

a knife held in his right hand, stands pressed against the

neck of a large animal of indeterminate species, while another

beast's belly,

art,

cases of a figuration of events involving

one or several characters using a rich body language

(facing page)

an older

both hands over

its

mouth.

man kneels under the

'-^..

[!

?t^^

fs^/^'

t
'^
'I
vj-1

li^

.v!V-

5s=:

*s*ii^''

"<vJ

CHAPTER THREE

70

two types of narrative

which follows

a slightly-

though both have the primary function of celebrating the

king's or

shall consider

different path,

power. The

chief's

art of the

kingdoms

figuration, each of

of Benin

and Dahomey

in particular,

aspect of the art created for the Ashanti aristocracy, reveal a desire for

images the monarchy

ration, the desire to translate into

moments

of court

Chokwe

by everyday or

part

commemo-

certain important

through figurations of the sovereign and members of his en-

life,

tourage. In contrast,

and

itself

and one

court

art, in

alluding to scenes inspired for the most

proposes a different interpretation of the royal

ritual life,

function.
63.

Bas-relief in painted clay

palace of Abomey. Benin,

see Historique. Photo

tongini

Guezo

and

by Giovanna An-

Tito Spini.

resting

from the

The

kings' palace of old Benin, before

its

destruction in 1897,

was probably com-

Abomey, Mu-

Throne of King

monument

parable to a veritable

brass plaques that covered

its

The copper and

raised to the sovereigns' glory.

walls celebrated in a repetitive

manner numerous

on the severed heads of

his enemies. Right, the royal recado.

motifs and scenes are reproduced in identical form on different plaques

and wars,

nies

victory,

power, and the divine nature of

ceremo-

royal occupants. Bas-

its

painted clay and hangings with appliqued motifs in the palaces of Abomey

reliefs in

(present-day Benin) had a comparable function, and there the military exploits of
the

Fon are described

in

more

remains the same, however:

commensurate with
in

two by the

of the arts

Arch

in

named above

Rome)

Bas-relief in painted clay

palace of Abomey. Benin,

see Historique. Photo

tongini

and Tito

cuts off the

A monument

Abomey, Mu-

by Giovanna An-

Spini.

head of

from the

memory"

war
is

of

One

recurrent motif

is

monuments with

When we

Assyrian, or

Roman

ible.

"Remembrance"

associated with

The palaces

aim

of the capital of old Benin

very essence,

is

renewed

kingdom

of future genera-

and those

value of remembrance and perpetuation

its

of keeping the

of

Abomey

of the monarchy,

in a cyclical

and continuous

of Benin over the five centuries

we

find the style varies

is

a constant preoccupation

among

these monarchies of west-

the Fon, the Edo, and the Akan and, in that sense, narrative represen-

seems

to

be the system of expression best adapted

certain occasions,

the kings

is

Column and

given the time elapsed. The image of royalty appears unified and indivis-

little,

tation

(Trajan's

and destiny "in the consciousness

consider the art of the

very

ern Africa

is

that of the warrior cut

of art "constructed with the precise

history (from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century),

its

power

That iconographic depiction has some relation to certain

of a particular action

which, on principle and in

manner.

The message

activity.

tions" (Riegl 1984, 35).

are

the Edo.

are given to understand that the king's

Egyptian,

work

A Fon wfarrior

"Nago" enemy.

among

in which a transcription of the idea of royalty

the figuration of
64.

we

his valor in war.

victor's saber.

than they are

detail

Fon custom

and the great events

his text while

moving around

to that aim.

Even today, on

dictates that court chroniclers, kpaliga, sing praises of

of the

kingdom,

five

times each day; the kpaliga recites

the walls of the palace, along a path fixed

by tradition.

HISTORY TOLD

Stopping

With

at certain places.

sites

now been

have

transformed into vacant

IHACES

71

lots.

he reincarnates both them and the walls that once stood there and

his litanies,

no longer recognizable (Antongini and Spini 1989, 24-25). Echoing the

that are

words

These

IN

of the kpnlign, bas-reliefs

emerge from the earthen walls of the palaces

of

Kings Guezo and Glele, evoking the great deeds of the Fon monarchy. The image
remains

to reflect the

words. In the same way, the Edo and the Ashanti manifest a

desire to celebrate that historical past.

riated,

Not only

are the walls of the palace histo-

but objects are as well: pectorals, pendants, rings, bracelets, hip ornaments,

seats, boxes,

and lamps. Courtiers

commemoration

lived in

remembrance

power and

of royal

in the

of history. This concern with celebration nonetheless transcended

the walls of the palace

and the proximity

of great

men, moving

into language, in the

form of proverbs, popular narratives, and songs.

"The blade does not pierce the elephant,/

home," claims

Fon war chant, reminding us

animal of King Glele (Mercier 1962,

declares: "All animals

have

211).

does not consume the king's

Fire

that the elephant

Another chant,

was

this

the emblematic

one a court chant,

But the ears of the elephant are larger than

ears, /

all

other ears." The image of the elephant recurs in other contexts, such as the orna-

mentation on calabashes, related to proverbs that express affection or love toward a

person. In that situation too, invincibility
the lover.

is

requisite

namely, the invincibility of

The animal motif might then evoke the following proverb: "When

phant passes,

all

the animals hear the noise of

its

steps. /

no one and

fear

all

ele-

the

65.

Bas-relief in painted clay fron\ the

palace of

tongini

world

will hear

The scenes
those

still

me"

that

(Preston Blier 1991, 101 n.

Abomey, were,

juxtaposed compositions of between

lowed

know whether

still

fifty

bas-reliefs

us to believe

kingdom

that,

are in the second case, organized into

and seventy centimeters per

the layout of the plaques in the

a precise order, a reading sequence

religious buildings during the

on the

or

comparable

to that

side. It is

im-

Edo kingdom

fol-

found

in the art of

European Middle Ages. Nor do the depictions found

from Abomey seem

to follow a particular order.

Everything leads

although the series of images refers to the universal history of the

as a whole, that

which always hark back

whole

is

understood as a

sum

of events

to the figure of a sovereign or the

added

emblem

together,

that signifies

him, two recurring motifs in iconography.

The

realist

and narrative

style, the

composition, and the format of the Edo

plaques led certain authors to infer a European influence. The oldest plaques, in
fact,
tal

date from the fifteenth century;^ as

of the

kingdom

in 1472, and,

it

happens, the Portuguese reached the capi-

during their

later visits,

attempted to spread the

by Giovanna An-

An "Amazon"
enemy she has just killed.

and Tito

transports the

adorned the walls of the palace of the kingdom of Benin, and

visible in

possible today to

13).

Abomey. Benin, Abomey, Mu-

see Historique. Photo

Spini.

72

CHAPTER THREE

Catholic

new

arrivals

trating the

European

The Edo became

princes.

certain of their features.

to

when

produce objects destined

for

familiar with the pictures illus-

we

Nothing can be proved

can say

is that,

in this matter regarding the

Edo

in the course of the sixteenth century,

used modes of expression with a perspectivist tendency, and that

sible to

ers

developed, called Bini-Portuguese,

books brought by missionaries and merchants, and may have repro-

brass plaques.-* All

artists

art

used the talents of Edo ivory carvers

the houses of

duced

Very quickly, a hybrid

faith.

it is

pos-

imagine that their model was European images. In addition, the ivory carv-

were

fully capable of

copying scenes, in particular hunting scenes, from pictures

brought by the Europeans onto objects destined

animal horns demonstrate

this.

Numerous examples of
may have been inspired by

for export.

But although Edo

artists

these images, they did not replicate their composition or style in court art works.
Artists in the service of the

peans and
art

their images,

works displaying

Kongo sovereign

also

had prolonged contact with Euro-

beginning in the fifteenth century, but they did not produce

related rules of expression. In that case, only sculpture

adapted from European canons,

in the relative realism of facial expressions

bodies and in certain motifs very clearly inspired by European iconography (fig.

Edo

Several types of representation are found on

uals

from the court or animals: big

single effigy of

man or

cats, fish, or birds.

and
43).

depict individ-

Each plaque contains only a

is

reminis-

A second mode of representation depicts the oba, great

in the service of the sovereign. A third, more complex

and individuals acting

mode evokes

particular

The background

moments

of these plaques

in the political or ceremonial life of

is

The position

of

and almost always

man

Edo

(figs.

67-69).^

society. All figures are depicted full length, stand-

frontally; this

is

very different from the Egyptian rule dic-

be depicted with his head in profile and his torso facing the be-

holder. In African iconography, a reclining

Eon made of

royalty.

human figures within the space of the plaque varies as a function

of the individual's status in

tating that

Edo

always adorned with carved motifs, the most

frequent being a form of "flower" with three or four "petals"

ing,

Some

animal, so that the juxtaposition of these plaques

cent of pictures in a catalog.

chiefs,

plaques.

was

their

man

is

dead man; representations the

enemies depict them on the ground, in the position of the van-

quished. In contrast, on

Edo plaques, men stand

to their full height, as a large

and

motionless crowd facing the beholder; on certain plaques, these figures of every size

invade the surface to the point of saturating the space.

of dense juxtaposition,

kingdom by depicting

Edo

artists

their great

It is

as

if,

through that

effect

sought to express the power and vitaHty of the

number

(figs.

72 and

73).

Sometimes the

artist

has

carved them kneeling, a sign of deference toward the king. Only the oba has the right

HISTORY TOLD

to the seated position,

uals

conceived symmetrically, even

is

plied

on a throne or horse

by

that type of division

(fig. 68).

The depiction

when the median axis

IMAGES

73

of these individ-

of the composition im-

slightly off center, as in the representation of

is

IN

an

Every image has a principal figure, either isolated in the center of the plaque

action.

or surrounded

by other

figures smaller in size.

Numerous plaques have two

identi-

cal figures.

The

central figure in the

Edo

oba or a great

chief,

image

is

such as the

main protagonist of the

the

ezonio,

scene, in general the

one of the two supreme commanders of

the kingdom. That principle of placing one figure, often of great height, in the center

image along

of the

position, since

Hand,

it is

a symmetrical axis appears to

found

be a fundamental model of com-

in other, three-dimensional media,

called ikebogo, as well as altars dedicated to the

pendants, and so forth. There

python

slithers (fig. 71).

equipped with

is

(fig. 70), bells,

door topped by a pyramid roof on which the body of a

On each

side of the door stand

to

two guards and two pages

be occupied by a void. The

figure of the python, however, provides the key to the interpretation: the

god

represents Olokun, the

oba

on

earth.

of waters, the counterpart in the aquatic

The Edo sometimes

another" (Ben-Amos 1995). The

tile

suggests that this

that occupied

by the

empty

the Edo,

it is

downward

image

The

oba

is

is

found again

center of

which

sits

in the

is

This model of an image

Fon hangings

of

Dahomey. Among

refers to the oba,

even

on

a strongly hierarchical society, at the

the oba, the true axis of the earthly world.

if it

is

silurids.

On

were preparing

to spin

them

him

either side of the king's

is

show him with

silurids'

which hold two leopards by the

(fig. 69).

body and

are perfectly symmetrical. This

directly.

one of them, the shape of the

in the air

legs

bodies
as

if

he

The arrangement of the arms and

plaque

and emblematic representation

sovereign's divine powers: a sort of double of Olokun,

sign of that god in his fish-shaped legs.^

tail,

their positioning in the space of the

a symbolic

The

that every figure located in the center

does not represent

only rarely depicted by himself. Certain images

replicates that of the sovereign's arms,

on

head of the rep-

closely associated with the principle of symmetrical organization, used

curved in the form of

legs

orientation given to the

man who surpasses all others.

consequence of that logic of representation

of the

world of the

python omwansomwan, "one man surpasses

call the

to express the idea of a sovereignty resting

summit and

python

central space, in the center of the palace door frame,

oba, the

organized around a center

to

a representation of the palace entryway. In the

The center of the image seems

fans.

queen mother

altars to the

one example of a plaque, however, that appears

is

propose a different solution. This

center, three steps lead to a

such as the

As an earthly

god

of the

of waters, he bears the

sovereign, he brandishes

two

66. Plaque from

the oba's palace. Six-

teenth to seventeenth century. Brass,

lost-wax casting. Nigeria,

kingdom

of

Benin, Edo. Height: 40 cm. London, British

Museum,

1898-1-15-47.

74

CHAPTER THREE

leopards, symbols of his

power

in this world.

The leopard motif

very often de-

is

picted in the court arts of these regions. The Ashanti have a tendency to represent
as well, as

an attribute of royal power; the

herbivore

More
left

often, figurations of the oba depict

and

These figures, as

right.

head

they shelter

That scene

(fig. 67).

is

rendered in three dimensions

other individuals, such as a

accompanied by

we have

an

also

him attended by two

seen, are

individuals,

on his

sometimes kneeling beside him

still

in use today in certain ceremonies

him from

the sun with their shields held above

his forearms, a gesture

at other times,

(fig. 68);

boxes called kuduo,

feline in the process of killing

(fig. 85).

and supporting

his

lids of certain objects,

adorned with a scene depicting a

are frequently

it

found on

altars

dedicated to queen mothers, but

This type of triad composition

(fig. 70).

is

used with

war chief flanked by his two musicians or a king's envoy

his associates. In the case of representations of the oba, the triad

produces a visual

effect

with great descriptive power. In the center stands the king.

as a function of the codification that dictates

the size of the figures be proportionate to the rank they hold in society two other

On

either side, slightly smaller

by dint

figures,

of the place they

triangular composition,

more

that,

occupy

whose summit

pertinent expression of royalty

used the same technique

tympana

when

in

in the image,
is

manage

the king's head

The

majestyl

to give

(fig. 68).

artists of the

weight to that

Could there be

Romanesque

era

they sought to celebrate the glory of Christ in the

of churches.*'

Among

the images conceived

by Edo

artists,

other than the oha, scenes in which they are, as

in this regard that the oha

rounded by

is

it

some depict scenes with

figures

were, captured in mid-action. Note

never depicted in that manner; seated or standing sur-

chiefs, pages, or warriors, his

forearms supported, or with regalia in his

hands, he seems destined never to depart from the hieratic attitude proper to him,

immobilized

in a codified gesture that

pict action, the

makes him immediately recognizable. To de-

Edo used other individuals from

and other

the royal entourage

scenes besides those in which the king appears in majesty. Thus, there are numerous
representations of musicians playing or of merchants sent by the oha, preparing to

exchange
of ritual
battle,

their

life,

while

merchandise with the Europeans.

reminding us that the palace was

still

others

A few rare scenes depict moments

at its center; others depict the

show hunting expeditions. The

figuration of

exists in statuary, in particular that dedicated to portraits of

Edo

in

movement also

Portuguese soldiers

handling their guns.

Of the
tifiable

battle scenes,

by

his

one

is

repeated numerous times:

necklace composed

it

depicts a

of leopard's fangs pointed

war

chief, iden-

toward the

sky, a bell

HISTORY TOLD

hanging from his neck, and the head of

a leopard

him during

adorning his costume. These three

war

attributes

were designed

nied, as

only right and proper, by his retinue, including horn players; his sword

is

is

unsheathed, and with his free

on horseback

(fig. 73).

across his cheeks,

is

to protect

hand he

left

The enemy

is

is

is

probably a

enemy
his

chief

body

and

The enemy

and

is

head

his

Edo warrior has

enemy chief.

his face turned

picted frontally, a position that in

rites:

in the

to ropes

cow

first,

is

is

in profile. Since the

(fig. 66).

is

he

portrayed in

Edo

it

chief.

were: the

shown with

enemy warrior

In this last example, the

In both cases, theatrical techniques are

artifice of a

toward the captured enemy

play of gazes:

chief,

who

is

de-

Edo art signifies strength. Two other scenes depict

being sacrificed

hanging from the branch of a

tree

(fig. 72);

in the second,

(fig. 76).

In the

are facing the beholder, except an assistant

profile;

chief

fact that

reserved for the

employed, especially in the second image, which uses the

the

The

and the Edo warrior

lower than his enemy

to the

enemy

scarifications cut

identical scene, but with the roles reversed as

in three-quarters profile

image gives preeminence

is

accompa-

is

or neck of an

face of the Edo.^

chief.

his horse are figured frontally

on horseback, the Edo

is

chief

by the

easily recognizable

three-quarters profile, since, quite logically, frontality

Another plaque shows an

arm

seizing the

which contrast with the smooth

seated on a horse indicates he

This

battles.

on the

right,

two

image,

first

figures cling

all

the figures

depicted in three-quarters

he seems to be holding the mouth and nose of the animal shut. The cow

seen from above,

its

is

four hooves spread apart and held by four assistants. In the

second image, acrobatic dancers move around ropes attached to the branches of a
tree, at the

take

top of which are perched two birds, their wings spread as

flight.^

The symmetrical organization

two dancers

on

are

of the

image

either side of the central tree trunk,

is

The gestures

of the

two

figures

whose upper branch

gripping and manipulating the ropes was

the spectacle

which seem
Hunting

is

of a fanciful

to irrupt
is

suddenly

also a recurring

we may deduce that the mode of

strictly codified, the

in a space frozen

hunter

is

(fig. 75).

parts;

seen in

its

The

by the symmetrical

sail

bow

order.

pulled back and

toward a group of birds perched

tree trunk divides the space of the

roots, three in

profile.*^

details of reality,

theme within the Edo iconographic corpus. One im-

pointed toward the sky, the arrow ready to

two equal

impression produced

and disorderly portrayal of the

age shows us a European wearing a morion on his head, his

the top of a tree

serves

more of the number

and the movements made by the ropes, however,

break the regularity of the composition. Although

by

preparing to

respected in this case: the

as a perch for the three birds placed at the top (note the use once
3).

if

number, are also drawn

at

image vertically into

in perfect detail.

The

IH

IHACES

75

76

CHAPTER THREE

Among

the representations

on the plaques

effort to express certain details as they are

I

few manifest a

just discussed, a

real

grasped by the experience of perception.

have described the figuration of movement; there

is

also

an

effort to transcribe

depth, through a perspectivist rendering in space of the objects that inhabit

it.

The

plaque depicting members of the court standing on either side of the palace entry-

way

approach followed by Edo

attests perfectly to the intellectual

express the presence of

effort to

Man

resentable world.

ture of the palace

man

artisans, in their

in a measurable, masterable,

and hence rep-

appears framed by the elements of real space, the architec-

(fig. 71).

Jean Laude has pointed out that desire to transcribe

details linked to the experience of depth, "in

which the elements located

dimensional space are staggered along a vertical axis" (Laude 1988,

though, in accordance with this principle, the figures are

approach

is

above

for the cow,

shown

is

and

frontally, at least for the four

in accordance

dimension

third

which

is

(fig. 72).

in a

The conjunction

cow

to death, also

lower figures, from

different

does not so

it

would have been

located

of these three systems transcribes the

manner obviously very

illusionist in its principles;

Even

with vertical staggering (the superposition of

different heights) for the figures that, in the real scene,

behind the animal

146).

the foreground, the

all in

clearly perceptible. Thus, the scene of putting the

described by Laude,

in a three-

from

much

classical perspective,

transcribe the

view an on-

looker might have of the real scene as the particular view of each of the actors in the
ritual.
it

Hence, the animal

has been put in to be

form

its

is

shown from above so as to bring out the strange position

killed, its legs

hide will take once

it is

spread apart, a position that anticipates the

tanned.

Although we lack information about the ceremony shown on

possible that the original position of the victim

important to the

have led him

artist to

all

spread

to

Another example obeying the same rules

is

around the musician"

(1988, 146).

of the guild of leopard hunters, their

its

meaning

that

body over

a plaque depicting a

his instruments, writes Laude, "are depicted

semicircle

had

from

that plaque,

was

it is

sufficiently

that large surface.

drummer

bird's eye view,

(fig. 78);

arranged in a

Another plaque shows two members

arms laden with arrows. Between them, two

captured leopards are represented lying on the ground, their mouths gagged and
their legs

bound

(fig. 74).'^^

Certain small details manifest a great concern for accu-

racy on the part of the sculptor: the leopards'

tails

ment of the ropes that hold them prisoner. Once

aspect of reality finds

cow

its

place.

are not identical, nor

is

the

move-

more, the disordered or unexpected

Although the animals are seen from above,

like the

in the ritual previously described, the hunters are presented frontally, not

mo-

The hunter on the

left,

tionless but captured in a

movement

slightly larger than the other,

seems

that suggests running.

to

be coming toward

us.

67. Plaque from

the oba's palace. Six-

teenth to seventeenth century. Brass,

lost-wax casting. Nigeria,

kingdom

of

Benin, Edo. Height: 42 cm. London, British

Museum,

1898-1-15-38.

The

obn, ac-

companied by two warriors holding up

their shields.

One of his

ries a box, ekpokin,

assistants car-

serving to transport

certain ceremonial gifts. This

may be

representation of the ritual called iguc,

during which the oba receives presents

from the oni of

to

him

in a

Ile-Ife,

box of this

function of igue

is

which are brought

type.

The

essential

to reinforce the

ers of the sovereign.

pow-

69.

Plaque from the

oba's palace. Six-

teenth century. Brass, lost-wax casting.

Nigeria,

kingdom

39.5 cm.

London,

of Benin, Edo. Height:

British

Museum,

1898-

1-15-30.

70.

68.

Plaque from the

oba's palace. Six-

teenth century. Brass, lost-wax casting.

Nigeria,

kingdom

of Benin, Edo. Height:

43 cm. London, British

15-44.

Museum,

1898-1-

Return of the oba Esigie from war

against the Igala.

Altar dedicated to a queen mother.

Seventeenth to eighteenth century.

Brass, lost-wax casting. Nigeria, king-

dom of Benin, Edo. Height: 34.3 cm.

New York, Metropolitan Museum of
Art, Gift of Mr.

1991.17.111.

and Mrs. Klaus G.

Perls,

HISTORY TOLD

The Edo image,

artists

an expression of depth, manifests the awareness

in integrating

have had of the existence of that quality of space, of

of the possibility of expressing

it

as an

autonomous

fact.

its

structuring role,

The image, however,

and

is still

conceived in terms of the dimensions of the object represented and not from the
point of view of an observer outside

on the plaque forms a singular

where a

rare instances

on which the

artist

figure

little

totality

Each figure

whose

not seen in

is

and

integrity

its entirety.

forelegs are visible

as possible, since the artist

is

seeking above

or object; and, in reality, every thing exists for

system of thought, to hide part of that

would be

to call into question the

sented. Finally, as

generally human displayed

is

respected. There are only

Such

is

the case for a plaque

chose to represent frontally the horse on which the

so that only the head

sits,

it.

The

(fig. 66).

enemy

chief

figures overlap as

all to

grasp the reality of the being

itself,

as a totality. Within such a

totality in favor of

an overall representation

very integrity of the object or creature repre-

we have seen, the dimensions of figures are calculated on the basis

of particular symbolic investments: the oba always has to be slightly larger than

those around him, and there

their distance.

the desire of

Another

Edo

is

factor

artists to

no diminution
is

of the size of figures as a function of

no doubt determining, however.

show human

It is

revealed in

figures in their integrity, independent of

the place they occupy in real space. In a rite such as that depicted in the scene of the

cow

sacrifice,

each participant occupies a particular place as a function of his posi-

tion in society

and the

role

he has to play in that particular

not the same as holding the animal's head.

rite.

Holding the back

When we examine the image,

left

hoof

we

see that the actors in the scene are not portrayed identically, but are differenti-

is

ated by their headdresses or the ornaments they are wearing. The representation of
a space in

which the figures are staggered along

to the Edo's desire to respect the

vertical axes not

only corresponds

symbolic integrity of persons by making them

perfectly visible, but also expresses a desire to represent the hierarchical principles

governing the relations

sion of roles.

The Edo

among

of old Benin attached so

of these values that, in other images,

same intention
and

to assign

and

the participants

to recall the rules of that divi-

much importance

where groups

to the expression

of figures are combined, the

each the exact place falling to him

is

manifest

(figs. 68, 70,

71).

The representation of movement, which,

frontality, also creates distortions,

three-quarters profile.

The

in the

Edo image, breaks

the rule of

by introducing body parts seen in profile or in

face-to-face relation

imposed on the observer

of these

images in most cases, with the oba standing in the center, symbolically encloses that
observer within the field of vision of the effigies represented. Conversely,

when the

IM

IMAGES

79

71. Plaque from the oba's palace. Six-

72a Plaque from

teenth to seventeenth century. Brass,

teenth to seventeenth century. Brass,

lost-wax casting. Nigeria,

kingdom

of

Benin, Edo. Height: 52 cm. London,

British

Museum,

73. Plaque from

Museum,

Museum,

British

the oba's palace. Six-

74. Plaque from

kingdom

Benin, Edo. Height: 47 cm. London,

1898-1-15-48.

kingdom

of

Benin, Edo. Height: 51 cm. London,

teenth to seventeenth century. Brass,

British

lost-wax casting. Nigeria,

1898-1-15-46.

lost-wax casting. Nigeria,

the oba's palace. Six-

of

1961.

AF

18.1.

the oba's palace. Six-

teenth century. Brass, lost-wax casting.

Nigeria,

kingdom

of Benin, Edo. Height:

43 cm. London, British

15-80.

Museum,

1898-1-

HISTORY TOLD

gaze and body make the gesture of turning away, a distance

and what

the beholder

found

imposed by any

by Edo

artists to transcribe the third

objectification of the relation to the

The carved backgrounds of the plaques, which form a

the third dimension

definitively relegated, are

is

introduced between

represented in the image. Traces of that distance can be

in the effort manifested

the distance
tive.

is

is

to the

world

is still

single plane to

sown with

god Olokun, which allude

leaves of the universe of the

dimension. But
rela-

which

"river leaves," the

symbolic and mystical

space of the god encompassing the earthly domain in which the oba reigns. The Edo

attempted to reduce the diversity of the things of the world by depicting only those
that

were part

of those

who

of the royal person.

him

represent

The function

priests, emissaries,

and of the universe.

plurality of matter

kingdom, and hence

for the world.

greater totality, an infinite

of the king's

It is

body

and warriors

is

to contain the

metonym

a symbolic place, a

The kingdom's

or of the bodies

existence, however,

is

for the

part of a

and immeasurable continuum, the symbolic and mystical

universe of the god. The figures on the plaques of old Benin are not supported by
anything: their feet float in the void, and they

depth of the
times, as

if

relief,

to

seem

to

emerge or

rise

up from

the

out of that background of "river leaves" that holds them. Some-

underscore further their rightful place within that universe of the god,

the figures

wear the same

know how

the ancient

on

"river leaf" motif

Edo viewed

their pagne.

these images.

The

difficult

It is

artistic

today to

choices they made,

however, suggest a few paths of interpretation and reveal a part of the intellectual
conception
ing space

at

work behind

been discussed

at length.

The mode they adopted

these figurations.

was shared by peoples

Some

of antiquity

for transcrib-

and by Egyptians, who have already

of the figurative traits used are also shared with

Byzantine art of the Middle Ages, which nonetheless stems from a very particular
tradition.

Byzantine

artists

sought

first to offer

the person contemplating the form

represented on the image an intellectual vision of the supersensible

of the divine.
is

However, the function of the gold background

not unrelated to that of the "river leaves" background of

case, space has a

homogenizing function: gold manifests the

world that is,

in Byzantine

Edo

mosaics

plaques. In each

light of the Christian

god, and river leaves symbolize the waters of another god, born on the banks of the

Gulf of Guinea.

The iconography of Benin provides only one scene referring to a precise historical
event;

on

described

a horse, his

holds a

it

in part in the previous chapter. In

it,

an oba

is

seated sidesaddle

dictates, by two assistants, one of whom

A bird with wings spread is perched at the top of the staff,

arms supported, as etiquette

staff in his

hand.

similar in every respect to those seen perched in the branches of the

already described.

One

small figure at lower

left

leads the horse

by

two plaques

a bridle

(fig. 68).

IH

IMAGES

81

75. Plaque from

the aba's palace. Six-

teenth to seventeenth century. Brass,

lost-wax casting. Nigeria,

kingdom of

76. Plaque from

the obn's palace. Six-

teenth century. Brass, lost-wax casting.

Nigeria,

kingdom

of Benin, Edo. Height:

Benin, Edo. Height; 45.7 cm. Berlin,

43 cm. Nigeria, Lagos, National

Museum

seum,

fiir

Volkerkunde.

77. Plaque from the

oba's palace. Six-

teenth to seventeenth century. Brass,

lost-wax casting. Nigeria,

kingdom of

Benin, Edo. Height: 52.1 cm.

Metropolitan

Museum of Art, Gift of

Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G.

Perls, 1991.17.18.

Two Portuguese against a

background.

New York,

"river leaf"

Mu-

48.36.40.

78. Plaque from

the oba's palace. Six-

teenth to seventeenth century. Brass,

lost-wax casting. Nigeria,

kingdom

Benin, Edo. Height: 51 cm. London,

British

Museum,

1913.12.11.1.

of

HISTORY TOLD

That

we

oba,

recall,

has been identified as Esigie, fifteenth king of Benin,

reigned from the early sixteenth century. Aided by his mother, Idia, Esigie
merciless
the

war against

the Igala people,

whose

territory

kingdom, on the opposite bank of the Niger. The

state of vassalage,

necessary for

its

and Benin was able

commercial

ata of

Amos

from the

on the way

his defeat.

The

to war,

oba

came

had the bird

on the

killed

spot,

Upon

itself.

waterway,

The scene repre-

The presence

across a bird, "the bird of prophecy,"

the sovereign dared to defy destiny

who

waged

of the bird

alludes to one episode of the event, from the legend already mentioned, in
Esigie,

83

Idah was reduced to a

1995, 35-37).

battlefield.

IHACES

to the northeast of

to secure control of that navigable

activities (Ben-

sents a victorious Esigie returning

extended

IN

and won the

which

who predicted

battle. In that

way,

his return, he ordered the royal

an idiophone depicting the bird, and required that

smiths to create an object

each of his chiefs strike the bird-shaped instrument during the ceremonies com-

memorating

that victory (Ezra 1992, 197-201).

has remained

in the royal chronicles

and

in

that idiophone, in fact, that

It is

memory

depicted on the image. Ever since then, the

Edo

is

of that victory over the Igala

oral tradition.

For the most part, Edo plaques display representations that seemingly have to do

with a history without precise chronology, depicting instead events in the cycles
organizing the ritual

life

of the court.

However, even images

particular details allowing one to anchor

bird in the previous case

and master the past with the aid

artists in this

It is

do not include

in chronological time

such as the

are effective means used by the Edo to preserve the

memory of the kingdom's history. It

place when and how the Edo of today
of court historians.

them

that

of

matters
describe

little
it;

is

no

the important thing

is

really took
to organize

images composed by artisans and with the help

important to underscore

memory work

whether the event

less

at this

point that the role of royal

important than that of court chroniclers. The

79.

Historiated tusk from an altar to

royal ancestors. Probably eighteenth century. Ivory. Nigeria,

per founders,

still

possess an iconographic knowledge indispensable for the pres-

ervation of the kingdom's traditions. Note that, in reality, two events are represented

on the plaque celebrating the return of the victorious oba

outcome of the
esty,

on

his horse as

if

on

followed, the creation of a

Robert

E.

Esigie:

battle, in the figuration of the oba seated facing the

Bradbury

a throne;

new

the

happy

and second, the commemorative decision

object

recalls in this

first,

beholder, in maj-

and

new

that

d'Afrique

d'Oceanie,

and

interpretation present

ample

many

difficulties"

He takes the exwith human figures

(Bradbury 1973, 251).

of a brass object called an ikebogo, cylindrical in shape,

et

From bottom

to top,

and the convex

(emblem

MNAN 62.7.1.

on the median axes

face:

an interlacing motif

of the guild of ivory carvers); a

palace officer wearing a cross (object of

European

origin); to his

left,

a Portuguese

grasps a copper shackle; an obn with legs

form of

ukhurhe, with
L'bcn,

silurids holds his rattle staff,

one hand and

with the other; to the

his

sword,

oba's left, a fig-

ure on horseback; then an obn in a costume

of coral beads,

supported on each side by

two nobles, and with two leopards facing

each other

at his feet.

Symbols evoking

royalty or a particular oba are present: the

positioned head
python, an elephant

leopard, silurids

and

tail

the obn
tury).

tute "potential sources of certain kinds of historical information" but that "dating

at base:

Musee National des Arts

to

head

to tail

trunk with a hand

rite.

regard that the brass art works of Benin consti-

of Benin,

13 cm. Paris,

in the

guild of igbesanimuan, sculptors in ivory and wood, and that of iguneronmwon, cop-

kingdom

Edo. Height: 156 cm. Diameter

the

Akenzua

I,

at the

end (emblem of

early eighteenth cen-

References to the aquatic world of

god Olokun are depicted with motifs

of the

python and

silurid.

The tusks were

washed and bleached with lemon

give

them the whiteness

of chalk.

juice to

84

CHAPTER THREE

and animals depicted

in relief along

reserved for the oba, his mother, or

At the time of

its

ii/e

entire circumference; this type of object

oba,

chiefs.

by Bradbury belonged

ezomo

his inquiry, the ikebogo described

Omoruyi, who had inherited the

office. It

measures forty centimeters

depicts the great deeds of another ezomo, Ehenua,

ancestor of the family. The surface

it is

a cylindrical object, but

is

whom Omoruyi

to the

in height

and

considered the

very different from that of the plaques because

obeys the same rules of figuration

it

was

and the ezomo, one of the two war

dimensions of

the figures, symmetrical composition, vertical staggering. At the top of this impos-

ing brass cylinder and in the center of the

sculpted in three dimensions,

I,

who

is

reigned in the eighteenth century.

player, a bearer of offerings, a "healer"

He

circle,

seated facing the beholder and

an oba, identified by the ezomo Omoruyi as Akenzua

He

is

surrounded by assistants

a horn

and by European soldiers, bodyguards.

a cow, a she-goat, and

holds the end of a rope, to which animals are attached

a ram. Facing

him stands

a leopard,

an emblem of

royalty.

The sovereign wears no

ceremonial costume, in what seems to be a representation of a

rite,

the aforementioned animals are to be sacrificed. Note that the

same iconography

depicting the king on his seat and surrounded by

musicians

is

members

of his

during which

guard and by

found among the Ashanti, in objects with a comparable cylindrical

shape, called kuduo

(fig. 84).

figures in high relief

Along the circumference

on the plaques, stand various

enua, located just below the king and of

is

figures, including the ezomo Eh-

greater size: the ikebogo

The ezomo, surrounded by bearers

cast in his honor.

by musicians,

much

in

war

of the cylinder, similar to the

of

was

in fact

emblems, by warriors, and

garb: in his left hand, he holds a rope to

which

five

human

heads are attached, while the warriors following him each hold a severed head bearing various scarifications and headdresses, thus revealing the heads' different geo-

graphical origins.

On

his

costume and attached

demonstrate that the ezomo

charms, which
is

is

acting under the protection of spirits

make him immune

to the

adorned with the heads of animals

ments present on
of the sovereign

this ikebogo

show

at a

of

sacrificed

making

tribute a
that in

by the

oba.^^

sacrificial

The iconographic

ele-

glance the power of a war chief in the service

he

is

power of the oba and

diversity of enemy trophy

represented under the oba, or

under the royal leopard and above the

represents the military

and powerful

enemy's arrows. The base of the cylinder

and the extent of that power, through the

heads. By the position he occupies

actly,

to his arms, different attributes

frieze of

that this

animal heads

more

we are told he

power is linked

to the necessity

offerings. As Bradbury notes, nothing allows us a priori to

meaning much more extensive than

which the sovereign prepares

this to these

a sacrifice

and

ex-

two juxtaposed

at-

scenes,

that depicting the victorious

HISTORY TOLD

military chief. All in

these scenes are fairly conventional in their expression.

all,

interpretation proposed

by the owner

stand more about

object

The

it.

is

of the object

said to have

himself, in gratitude for his aid in the conflict

a military victory.

meaning

firms that

on

of prophecy,"

necessary

been conceived

for

The

are to under-

Ehenua by

the oba

ikebogo, then,

on the

ikebogo.

It

episode of the "bird

has to do with the battle against

in the family's oral tradition.

The

80.

Altar to royal ancestors, dedicated

to the oba

battle

was

each time.

so terrible that

on the

the five heads depicted

sign,

Ehenua had

When he cut off the

fifth

to intervene five times, cutting off

one head

head, his sword slashed the victim's face; one of

object does in fact bear a gash.

which authenticates the nature

As

of the victory celebrated

scene depicted at the top can also be interpreted:

make

a sacrifice to his ancestors, to ask

them

it

a function of that

on the

ikebogo, the

represents the oba preparing to

to secure

ria,

not based solely on anecdote. In the

Ehenua's victory.

became

the bird

first case,

the

metonymic signs

of past deeds.

two motifs, the gash and the bird, are

Even though

their chronological value

ambiguous, these signs provide Edo memory with a

history essentially

grounded

remains

series of reference points for a

in military victories.

Other Edo objects possess the same value of historiography: there are sculpted

important chiefs such as the ezomo. These tusks are generally

inserted into containers,

which are nothing other than the brass heads

queen mothers discussed above

in

of

memory

(fig. 80).

when the altar

deceased queen mothers may also
of his father

Each oba must have a

of kings or

set of tusks sculpted

dedicated to the father

is

set up.

The

altars

include sculpted tusks. The iconography

carved in the ivory of these tusks represents the same figures as those found on the
plaques: '^ an oba with legs in the form of mudfish; an oba with arms supported by
the ezomo

and the

each hand; the

silurids, or

edayken;

iye oba,

an oba brandishing insignia of power, such as the

or

queen mother; animals symbolizing royalty

ebeu, in

leopards,

pythons; priests and dignitaries and the emblems of their duties and

powers; captives with their heads severed; and Europeans. As on the plaques, the

composition of the figures

posed along

it

is

organized around a median

and important

figures standing out

by

axis,

El-

Archives. Four heads of oba support historiated tusks. In the center of the altar,

on the earthen platform, stands another

small brass

altar,

where an

oba sits

on

his

one hand.

with figures super-

their greater size.

Each tusk

Two assistants lift

shields toward him. Behind the brass al-

idiophones called ukhurlie are lined

up against
with a
is

slit

the wall.

They are equipped

through which a small

stick

introduced, emitting a sort of rattling

sound when shaken. These

were used
bells

rattle staffs

to call the spirits.

The brass

arranged along the periphery of

the earthen platform have the

function.

elephant tusks arranged on the altars of royal ancestors within the palace, and altars
to the ancestors of

by

Washington, National

Museum of African Art, Eliot Elisofon

tar,

the

very attribute of the oba Esigie, and took on the value of a symbol of his victory and
the challenge he issued against destiny. These

(1888-97). Nige-

of Benin, Edo. Photo

iot Elisofon, 1970.

eben, in

is

Ovoranwen

kingdom

throne, holding the ceremonial sword,

Like the episode of the bird of prophecy, the episode of the gash on the enemy's

severed head

85

The ezomo Omoruyi questioned by Bradbury con-

and was commemorated

the rebel military chief

we

The

that chief.

for the scenes, relying, as in the case of the

a detail present

if

IMAGES

between him and the other supreme

Ehenua was victorious over

military chief, the h/nse.

commemorates

is

IN

same

86

CHAPTER THREE

by

replicates representations fixed

tradition,

such as that of the warrior oba Ozolua,

recognizable by his long coat of mail; each also celebrates the glorious past of the

kingdom,

which belongs

to the family of the current ezomo, repeats the

Ehenua over the

of the son of

and the sovereign's occult powers. One

institutions,

its

war

rebel

Ehenua

chief.

It is

though the motifs used,

their style,

of the victory of

believed to have been sculpted at the request

honor the memory of

to

theme

of these tusks,

his father

and the manner

are arranged allow one to date the tusks,"

it

in

(Blackmun 1991,

which the

58).

Even

different figures

does not seem that they depict precise

deeds. At most, dynastic insignia are inscribed on them, designating particular oha

and sometimes making

of the

kingdom

is

it

possible to identify the recipient of the tusk.

evoked through conventional

as the great kings of the sixteenth century

emblems.

portraits of a

The history

few sovereigns, such

Ozolua or his son Esigie and their

Many oha adopted the attributes of these great kings of legendary exploits.

Another

art also

favored the expression of the military activities of its sovereigns:

Eon kings from old Dahomey. Like those

that of the court of the

of Benin, the

mon-

Dahomey were warlike, and the sovereign was the supreme master of the
memory of his exploits is depicted in the few bas-

archies of

armies. Eor the most part, the

reliefs

from palaces

that

in the cut-out motifs

asols, caps,

have resisted time, modeled

in relief in

unbaked

and

clay,

appliqued onto hangings, banners, cushions, hammocks, par-

and the canvas

of tents erected for certain ceremonies. These are

all

polychromatic works. The production of fabrics adorned with appliqued motifs was
controlled

by the

king,

and

During royal ceremonies, the

Eon iconography
of the world,
fruits,

also

visitor

employs

in the case of old Benin: diverse animals, plants,

two modes of expression just

cited

bas-reliefs and

they can also be found in other media, such as recados (court

more

precise

events that
century.

figurative character of

manner than

marked

to take

in the

Edo

Eon

art

case, the

the history of the kingdom,

Even though

poses, the art of

seems

staffs),^^

jew-

or portable altars called asen.

The very detailed

it,

textiles.

domestic or royal objects, and battle scenes. Although these elements are

els, statuettes,

in a

witnessed a large-scale display of these

elites.

a wealth of elements to depict very different objects

more varied than

particularly represented in the

fabrics

use was reserved for him and the kingdom's

its

it

too

is

Dahomey, by

more

liberty

limited

by the

allowed

its

inventors to express,

complexity of the different great

which began

in the seventeenth

plastic conventions all court art

im-

the very variety of the representations observable in

and

to give

more place

to objects of the

world

that

do

not belong to the king's immediate environment. Unlike the art of old Benin, in

which only the Europeans, the Portuguese

in particular,

have

their place in

im-

HISTORY TOLD

ages

and even then,

god

the realm of the

it is

a highly symbolic place, since

of waters,

not belong to the culture of

its

Olokun

An

creators.

it.

analysis of the iconographic repertoire

(new

Similarly, objects

(Antongini and Spini 1989,

87

always associated with

tools, for

example) captured

brought by Europeans

As among

20).

the

became com-

wheel, the gun, the cannon, the wineskin, the boat, the sedan chair

mon motifs

IMAGES

Fon figuration integrates objects that do

reveals that the contributions of foreign artisans

during wars find their place in

it is

IN

the Edo, that integration into

court art of motifs describing the foreign world of Europeans

is

an expression of the

new temporal powers kings acquired through contact with European merchants, by
becoming masters of commercial transactions with them. The Dahomey dynasty
included a poet king. King Behanzin (1889-94), the

French sent into

1962, 212).
tantly.
is

The

exile,

and whose works are

still

Fon representations use two main

first

last great king,

known among

whom

the

people (Mercier

his

figurative systems, often concomi-

embraces allegory and in certain cases the rebus, while the second

related to a narrative

mode

of expression,

more developed than among

the Edo,

since the different stages of a single event can be depicted.

The

first

system

transcribes a

is

maxim

essentially

uttered

used

to represent royal

by the sovereign. At

crown prince presents himself before a gathering

nounce

maxim

he unleashed

words or

to

names. Each royal name

his accession to the throne, the

of

all

his people

and must pro-

expressing his ambitions, evoking the battles he has led, the force

accede to the throne, or any other remarkable deed in his

syllables of that

maxim

are selected to

"strong name," thereafter used as his usual

name

compose

life.

his first royal

(Mercier and

Lombard

A few

name

or

1959, 20-

Mercier 1962, 110-11). Each king possesses several strong names, and acquires

23;

additional ones as his reign continues and important events

come

to

visual expression of these strong names, whether graphic or sculpted,

mark
is

it.

The

one of the

reasons for the variety in the Fon iconographic repertoire: objects, animals, and
plants cited in the motto form the basis for the symbolic representation of the king
as both

emblem and

allegory, since each

motto articulates a thought, a watchword,

or a moral duty. Objects such as stones, thunder, the rainbow, a tinderbox,

and an

81 > Ring. Eighteenth to nineteenth century

(?).

Brass. Ijebu-Ode

(?)

(Nigeria),

Yoruba. Diameter: 18 cm. Geneva,

see Barbier-Mueller,

dozen rings

BMG

Mu-

1011-106.

of this type are

known to

us today, but their function remains un-

enemy can
names
Ages
58)

of

all

compose

a part of the

Fon kings can be compared

name. As both maxim and image, the strong

to the noble

names

his

son Glele (1858-89) and

now

from the palaces

of

King Guezo (1818-

displayed in Abomey, depict the strong

of these kings.

Let us take the example of the strong

their principal

in

all

depict macabre scenes

which vultures devour tortured and

decapitated bodies.

in Europe. Certain bas-reliefs, taken

and

mottoes used during the Middle

known. They

Some

of these rings

were fabricated by Edo

artists

and found

in the oba's palace. This

one

not of

workmanship and

is

Edo

the reclining figure

is

dressed in the manner of Yoruba chiefs.

names

of

Guezo and

Glele

and the origin of

emblems. The strong name "Guezo" was formed from the following

At his

feet rests a sphere,

and on each

side of his head are sculpted motifs in

the shape of leaves or shell valves.

88

CHAPTER THREE

motto written

ma

in Fon: ge de zo

si

gbe,

ers are the color of fire) can set the

One

are powerless against me."

which means "No cardinal (whose

brush ablaze,"

or, in

other words,

fire,

taking power,

that, in

being pulled out with a

Guezo brought

stick.

"When

the buffalo has

become

and nothing can approach him or stop him

refers to the force

the king

strong

and

name

"Glele,"

one could carry

terror as

and combativeness

who

his warriors,
it

its

is

cross

come

in."

One

fire/'

and

violence.

which is invoked

strong, he crosses the country,

which

comes from the following proverb:

teeth have

cooked over the

the buffalo,

and conquer enemy

Another

"It is

This motto refers to the fact

as he passes."

of the animal,

off a cultivated field."

soon as

jar

the country out of anarchy

The most common emblem of that king, however,

in another proverb:

feath-

emblems, constructed from the adage

of his

with a very resistant stick that the potter pulls out his
depicts a jar over a

tail

"my enemies

says: "I

am

The motto

gle

to that of

As

territories.

ma yon

le

the lion cub

emblems was

of his

in this case

compared

is

for the

or "no

ze,

who sows
and a

the lion,

number of mottoes articulated by Glele and songs composed to the glory of his reign
use metaphors with the central theme of that animal's strength and the terror he
(Mercier 1962, 22 and 28-31; Antongini and Spini 1989, 23-24). The

instills

de I'Homme

in Paris possesses a

wood

head of the

is

as a lion cub: the

The

rest of the

effigy

that of a lion,

body takes human form, with the

with a finely sculpted mane. The same

King Behanzin:
torso

is

this time, the

equipped with

allegorical,

sculpture the size of a

fins.

head

Let

is

its

torso

museum

depicting Glele

mouth open and

teeth bared.

and a part of the arms covered

holds a similar effigy representing

that of a shark,

me emphasize

man

Musee

emblem

of that king,

the properly emblematic,

conception of the royal portrait, which excludes

all

and the

and even

other forms of

representation.

The

king's strong

names make

the king. In the image, the king

is

with the objects and ideas put forth by the maxims he produces.

totally identified

If

the kings of old

Benin were hardly personalized in their representations, those of Dahomey are presented only in the form of allegories illustrating their strong names, and in the objects

reserved for their use, such as the regalia. In becoming visible through the play

of metaphor, each king of

Dahomey composed an

entire repertoire of

words and

motifs for himself, thus individualizing himself: the poetic creations of Behanzin,

already mentioned, also seem to be part of that logic. The kings themselves forged
the images

and phrases they wished

to transmit to their

descendants and to their

people, though within constraints proper to the Fon figurative system. Other pa-

rameters also come into play in the articulation of royal maxims and in the creation
of the corresponding iconography, having to

do with the revelations obtained

after

HISTORY TOLD

the destiny

made at the new king's accession to the throne. For the Fon,
of every human being is written in the 256 signs of the Fa cult. Each of

these signs

is

IN

IMAGES

89

divinatory consultations

king

associated with the maxims, in which the destiny of the consulting

Hence

read.

is

maxim evoking

the

1991). Part of these

Glele's motto,

"No one could

the lion have to be linked to his Fa sign (Preston Blier 1990

and

emblematic representations of kings can thus be interpreted as a

come

spected sovereign.

It

true: Glele, for

made by

The predictions represented

are

example, turned out to be a powerful and

re-

translation into images of predictions

those that have

carry off a cultivated field," and

Fa.

seems, however, that the king was free to create his strong

names based on other maxims besides those

the other hand, a large

number

associated with his divinatory sign.

of the objects celebrating Glele

and

his reign

On

were

conceived in plastic terms as a function of these divinatory maxims.

The motifs on the door

rule.

On the

time as his own, and in a very similar composition and

of different strong

The door

(fig. 82).
,

names and

is

one finds the figuration

references both to his father's reign

and

dog with

a set of eyes

hammer. The elephant and

we have

seen,

had

to his

own

an elephant, a horse, and a

,

and two weapons, a saber with rounded blade and a knife.

rectangle, the four frogs appear in the

seated

style,

that

same

at the

divided into two rectangles. The upper one has a frog adorning

each of the four corners, then three other animals

hornbill

obey

of Glele's tomb, ordered during his lifetime,

door of his father Guezo's tomb, which Glele had sculpted

same

on each side

of

position, along with

its

the horse both represent King Guezo.

elephant after a war against a "Nago"

chief,^^

whose

In the lower

an antelope, a

nose, a gun, a recado,

The

the buffalo as part of his coat of arms, chose the

^^

and

king,

who, as

emblem

was compared

size

a smith's

of the

to that of

the elephant. Given the legendary force of his adversary, the king of Porto-Novo

advised Guezo not to undertake that war. Guezo replied with

killed

than the others." After

Guezo

1926, plate 12).

The

all

"The

horse's bit cannot

go

whose very powerful beak can grasp any weight whatever,

other birds (Waterlot 1926, plate

representations of which

abound

17).

Glele

compared himself

in the art of his reign.

also belongs to the bestiary of the divinatory Fa cult, as

the hornbill sports

burden

it

emblem. The horse rep-

to the buffalo" (Waterlot

hornbill refers to a mythical being, alimtnn gbobo, a fabled bird

called "king of birds,"

and

the one

attributed the motif of the elephant to himself as an

resents another strong name:

"We have

we are hunting is no more

that event and the creation of this new strong name,

more than one elephant with our guns, and

terrible

this line:

on

was given

its

head, at the base of

to bear.''

The

its

beak,

The

do
is

to that animal,

figure of the -hornbill

frogs. The'fibrny

casque

described in the cult as a

hornbill, like the lion, belongs to the sovereign's

82.

Palace door. Nineteenth century.

Wood,

iron, paint. Benin, kingdom of

Dahomey. Abomey, Fon. 174 x 95 cm.
Paris,

Musee de I'Homme, M.H.

93.45.4.

CHAPTER THREE

90

Fa sign. Thus, Glele compared himself to the bird:

baggage of
country

is

life

on

"I

am

The

called the hornbill.

does not stay on the head of just anyone. The baggage of the whole

my head"

As

(Preston Blier 1991, 45).

for the frogs, they bring to

mind

another property of Glele's Fa sign and of his reign, which was calm and serene:
is

there in a cool [calm] place that the frog rests" (Preston Blier 1991, 46).

the knife,

and the gun

refer to the

of another king, Kpengla)

names

of

an ancestor of

of this door leaf

one of the strong

smith's

hammer

lion, Glele's

animal

(fig. 83).

indicative of the

is

also represent

The

perspicacity.

Guezo. The recado sports the head of a

The example

saber,

The eyes and nose may express the

Glele, Agbanlicoce.

and

'Tt

kingdom's military power. The dog (emblematic

and the antelope may

sovereign's clearsightedness

The

is

an emblem of

way Fon artisans composed their

images, with the help of these visual metaphors. They are juxtaposed with one another on a uniform background and are easily recognizable by the beholder,

who

can immediately identify each emblem and remember one or another of the corre-

sponding mottoes. Recall that these motifs of strong names can correspond
ferent mottoes,

elephant,

such

as:

though

emblem

all

are

of Guezo,

"The hunter who

complementary

fits

signifying that

Guezo did not

on

the

his

to dif-

terms of their meaning. Thus the

other mottoes besides that articulated previously,

killed the elephant could

enough

to take

in

believe there

never

was anyone

army (Mercier and Lombard

him

alone," an adage

in the

world powerful

lift

1959, 28).

If

we

look closely at

way the decoration on that door was conceived, we also perceive that Glele must

have taken an active role

the general composition

in its realization: his

is

emblems appear

exactly circumscribed twice,

in great

number and

by the four frogs above and

below.

The uniform and neutral character

motifs are inscribed

whether on

ent conception from that of the

of the

background on which these emblematic

fabrics, doors, or bas-reliefs

they choose to represent become images and

in

Edo plaques

Olokun and

his

the

83.

Recados. Eighteenth

century.

Benin,

Wood, copper, and forged

kingdom

Fon. Height

cm, 52 cm.

M.H.

and nineteenth

of

(left

Paris,

31.36.5,

iron.

Dahomey, Abomey,

to right): 45.5

31.36.11,

Edo plaques

occupy space. Recall

that

is

nothing

like that

among

the

the sculptures in high relief are part of the backrelief

its

to

carved with abstract designs evoking the god

which consists of a single wax

copper or brass takes
place while in Fon

when

liquid

works the motifs are always

trans-

destined to disappear

art

ferred. In the case of fabrics, they are cut out, then

the

wooden door

reliefs is
and Agadja.

is

ground

M.H.

31.36.10. Left to right: recados of

zin, Glele,

differ-

sewn onto another

surface;

on

cm, 45.5

Musee de I'Homme,

M.H.

background

come

ascendancy over the universe. There

Fon. In addition, in

manifests a

Edo regarding the way figures from the world which

Behan-

just described, they are fastened on.

achieved by adding

clay.

The modeling

of the bas-

These few indications about the techniques used

are of consequence in interpreting the images.

The figures

in

high

relief

on Edo

HISTORY TOLD

plaques are indissociable from the background, both from the material point of

as a result of the technique used and from the symbolic perspective: they
they were emerging from the aquatic universe that
are conceived and shaped as

view

if

is,

from the world

of

Olokun, which

the allegorical figures of

fluid

is

Fon iconography,

and

limitless

by

definition. Conversely,

a transcription of lapidary phrases pro-

posed by the king on certain occasions, are indissociable from spoken language.

As words

translated into images,

whose only

they refer to those instances of royal enunciation

in his singular person, as the center of space

and

referent

when

time.

is

the sovereign himself,

monarch

the

posits himself,

By "singular person" I do not

mean the sovereign's personality, but rather his role as the founding authority of the
monarchy, based on visual as well as

found affixed

linguistic signs. Iconic signs are

to every surface possible: palace walls, doors, fabrics,

and so

on. Similar to seals,

they stamp objects in the king's immediate surroundings; and, like the recados, they
are also charged with representing

him

in other places.

It is

that consists of fixing cut-out motifs onto another surface

notion.

If

we

are to believe the

Fon conception

clear that the technique

is

grounded

in a certain

of the image, each design refers to

the king's words, which are then fixed in different places of a world that, unlike the

Edo world,

is

a virgin land awaiting the imprint of

its

lawmaker and

creator.

Each emblem expresses not only the singularity of a particular king, but also
mottoes glorifying the power and force of the sovereign and his army, and certain

moral values. Take the example of the motif of a

jar

with a hole in

it,

carried

arms, with hands attempting to keep the water from pouring out. This
of union created

by King

dom

with a hole in

is

like a jar

is

surrounded by enemy kingdoms; the people

must watch the borders and plug up the

bard 1959,

30).^"^

'holes in the

" (Mercier

kingdom'

and Lom-

A number of these emblems also evoke the deeds, necessarily mili-

tary in nature, that

were the occasion

for their creation.

In addition to the emblematic representations just discussed, the

other figurative and narrative system, in which different

of the

symbol

upon his people to come together. "The king-

Glele, calling
it, it

is

by two

kingdom were

described. Royal

Fon used an-

war episodes in the history

emblems were generally associated with

these images, either because they were integrated into them, or because they were

juxtaposed onto them. In the case of bas-reliefs, these images depict small, isolated
scenes.
tive.

On

the hangings, a series of scenes reproduce certain

Commenting on

defines

them

the profusion of motifs found

as "true royal memoirs."

He reminds

on these

moments
fabrics,

us in this context

in a narra-

Paul Mercier
that,

with the

help of the same technique of cut-out and appliqued motifs, the Fon constructed

"maps on which

the information

Dahomey

spies

had obtained

is

reported before a

IN

IHACES

91

92

CHAPTER THREE

war expedition" (Mercier

The

1962, 206).

bas-reliefs in the palaces of

Guezo and

Glele provide a few examples of this type of representation, depicting the wars con-

ducted by the Fon against the "Nago" (Yoruba) in the eighteenth century, in an
effort to

shake

yoke of the king's rule of the

off the

city-state of

Heads and members severed from enemy bodies abound

Oyo on Dahomey.
Fon

in that iconography: a

warrior cutting off the leg of a "Nago" enemy; a Fon warrior decapitating a "Nago,"

whose body seems

to

be

falling

from

"Amazon," carrying on her shoulder

at her in a surprise attack (she

1926, plate 13).

Another

depicted on

It is

it.

war
of

(fig. 63).

As

body

the

body back

taking the

Fon warrior, or

"Nago" who had shot an arrow

of a

bas-relief alludes to the

(fig. 64);

to her king)

(fig.

65; Waterlot

same theme, though no scene

is

the figuration of Guezo's throne, resting on the four severed

heads of Mahi enemies

mey)

is

a sort of pedestal

(the

Mahi occupied

trophy. Recall the

a territory located to the north of

Daho-

head of the adversary was an important

in old Benin, the severed

words uttered by King Kpengla before the mummified head

one of his adversaries. Fon

made

art

great use of skulls,

which served

as

drum

ornaments, parasol ornaments, cane handles, drinking cups, and so on. The real
throne of King Guezo, moreover, rests on four skulls

(fig. 114).

These same scenes, but arranged into more complex compositions, are found on
certain hangings.

One of them, currently at the Musee Historique in Abomey, relates

the taking of Savi in 1727 by King Agadja (1708-32). Savi

coastal

kingdom

of Ouidah; after that expedition, the

trolled the cities along the coastline

The account

and could trade

of that event in images

depicting a European ship,

whose

(fig.

87)

stylized

is

was the capital of the small

kingdom

of

Dahomey

con-

directly with the Europeans.

organized around a central motif

form reproduces the appearance

an

of

eighteenth-century ship, with, on the deck, the threatening silhouette of a cannon. ^^

The boat

the second

is

emblem

dah and his conquest of coastal

reliefs in the

of

King Agadja and celebrates his victory over Oui-

territories.

This same

emblem was found in clay bas-

palace of Agadja, which has been destroyed; in the place of the cannon

stands a chair, with a Portuguese missionary brandishing a cross (Waterlot 1926,

plate

5).

Above

recall the

need

volves war.

On

the ship the sun,

for

moon, and

God's help in any

human

enterprise, in particular

is

profile, the

it

in-

do

severed head of the conquered

exhibited erect, in a pot or calabash, while the rest of his

on the ground. That macabre scene corresponds

expressive

when

may

the right side of the hanging certain deeds are evoked, having to

with the taking of Ouidah. Depicted in

king of Ouidah

stars are aligned; their presence

manner

at

lower

left,

in

which

to another,

Fon warrior

is

body

lies

portrayed in a very

extirpating

what seem

to

be guts from the abdomen of a dead enemy. Above the remains of the conquered

84.

Ritual receptacle, or kuduo. Nineteenth century

Ghana, Ashanti. Height: 29 cm.

chief

is

Paris,

represented sitting on his seat

(?).

Brass, lost-wax casting.

Musee de I'Homme, M.H. 65.17.1. The

and smoking a pipe, his body adorned

with jewels. Seven transverse horn players and one double bell player surround
him. Behind him stands a

another figure

is

woman holding some kind

two

spirals.

At his

to a recurrent

theme

in the

iconography of the ancient cultures of the

eastern Mediterranean, which then spread to Europe.

of scepter. Facing him,

seated, displaying an insignia ending in

85. Ritual receptacle, or kuduo. Nineteenth century (?). Brass, lostwax casting. Ghana, Ashanti. Height: 25 cm. Kilchberg, R. David and
D. David. The motif of the big cat bringing down an herbivore alludes

left,

the bearer of a saber with curved blade, afcnnlcnc, presents a severed head.

86>

Figurine (weight for weighing gold?).

Brass, lost- wax casting.

Ghana, Ashanti.

Height: 5 cm. Length: 9 cm. Paris,

Musee

National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie,

MNAN 63.4.45. Funerary scene. Two men

on

all

fours,

perhaps slaves, carry on

their

backs a cadaver placed on a mat and envel-

oped

in a shroud.

a piece of pottery

the other

not

flat.

known

Each of the bearers holds

on

his neck,

The meaning

one round,

of this scene

However, the position

to us.

is

of

the

two bearers and the shroud wrapping

the

body suggest

chief.

The

this is the funeral of a

fabric represented, typical of

western Africa,

is

composed

of strips

sewn

together and adorned with motifs in a

checkerboard pattern.

It

may be

either a

kente fabric, of Ashanti fabrication, or a Fulani blanket.

The Ashanti imported

from northern regions, and

textiles

their use

was

re-

served for the asantehene and great dignitaries.

Among other things,

cover the

drums

palanquins.

they were used to

of the chieftaincy

and

94

CHAPTER THREE

two Fon warriors, recognizable by

king,

ably preparing to execute an

enemy

their double-crossed bandoliers, are prob-

soldier they

have just captured. Above them, a

Fon warrior armed with a saber confronts an enemy equipped with a

tween the severed head of the king of Ouidah and
in size,

is

his body, a female figure, smaller

represented bending over a package she holds in her hands. The operation

this little figure is

This

performing represents the essential point of the story being

told.

whom the king gave in

a servant of Princess Nagueze, daughter of Agadja,

is

spear. Be-

marriage to the king of Ouidah, as a ruse. Unlike the Fon army, the Ouidah troops

were equipped with guns, through trade with the Europeans. Owing
riage,

Agadja conquered the kingdom of Ouidah by inventing

represented here: the servant, by wetting the

enemy

meaning,

left,

On

the opposite side of the

few scenes form a symmetrical counterpoint,

to the scene just described.

and

eat a stalk of

of these three scenes

sorghum; and

better

defended than his own. In

crocodile, he

a crocodile is

complement one another:

was obliged

fact, as

to seize

devouring a

the king,

throne, a buffalo

his saber,

and

fish.

The meanings

though possessing no
better

lord of the kingdom, like the

and destroy the property of others

survive. In the lower part of the hanging, the regalia

Agadja appear:

monkey is preparing to

enemy kingdom, which was

arms, succeeded in conquering the

vis-a-vis their

hunter, representing Agadja, uses an ax to

break up a termite nest, from which snakes are emerging; a

cut off

which is

gunpowder and cannon powder of the

troops, ensured victory for Agadja's warriors.

hanging, on the

mar-

to that

a stratagem,

fire-

armed and

monkey

or

in order to

and a few strong names

of

one of his recados adorned with Christian crosses, his

a leopard

emblematic animals of Fon royalty and a hyena

hunting antelopes, an allegorical image associated with the sovereign's Fa

sign.

the taking of Ouidah

success thanks to Agadja's ruse the royal emblems

In the representation of that scene relating a historic deed

and the circumstances

of

its

play exactly the role of seal mentioned above. ^ They

illustrates the history of the reign of

art,

such as the figures depicted "Egyptian

style," their faces in profile, their torsos frontally,

One

and

their legs in three-quarters

detail of that scene, the servant wetting the packet of

allows us to reconstitute the individual

which unfolds before our

eyes.

scene

one particular king, a scene expressed with the

help of the graphic means proper to Fon

profile.

attest to the fact that the

moments

The presence

powder,

in itself

in that episode of Agadja's rule,

of the boat motif also serves to confirm

the interpretation. Without the figure of the servant, the composition as a

whole

could represent a more general defense of the war power of the Fon monarchy, such
as that

found

in

Edo iconography. The

precision provided by the Fon artists in the

figuration of that particular event reveals a desire

their royal patron: they

wish not only

on

their part,

to express the history of

and on the part

of

each reign through a

HISTORY TOLD

conventional evocation of battles, which nothing in the image would allow us to

understand in historically specific terms, but also to prove in some way a certain

deeds by authenticating them through representation. In

effective character of the

so doing, the creators of that

hanging add a surplus of

reality,

giving us a story to

be read, that of a series of reigns that follow one another, in which the singularity of
the event

attempt can be found in Edo

art,

more advanced among

all

the Fon.

Fon

this

mode

individuality

more

of expression

seems

art grants a greater place to

those in his service, in that, in

constructs history.

or produced

it.

A similar

through the figuration of the bird or of the gash

marking the severed enemy head; but

king but

marked

identifiable in the particular facts that

is

assertively than his

Edo

aim and

its

The Fon sovereign seems

to

have been

men, not only the

its acts, it

produces and

have had the right

to express his

counterpart.

presented as indissociable from the monarch's

to

acts: the

Among the

Fon, history

is

king makes history. Or, to

borrow the words of Paul Mercier, "he transforms the world of men, by inscribing
his

name

Fon

in history" (Mercier 1962, 109).

artisans

have recently produced a

from which the figuration

of

monkey
snakes.

blem

1980, 38).

King Agadja now appear: the

eating millet,

The reference

same composition,

Only the depiction

of the strong

hyena pursuing antelopes, the

ship, the

and the hunter destroying the termite nest inhabited by

to the taking of

of the ship. There

version of that

of motifs expressing the circumstances of the taking of

Ouidah has been eliminated (Adams

names

new

is

Ouidah

is

entirely contained within the

no longer any narrative

told in images.

em-

And, along with

the account of the event, a certain rootedness in lived reality as constitutive of the
history of the

kingdom

also disappears. There

is

a return to the abstraction of

metaphor.

The concern on the part of Fon

preoccupation
is

at

work

artisans for explicit narratives reveals another

in their figurative systems.

The composition of

that

hanging

organized around a center, the motif of a ship of large dimensions, occupying half

the space.

The other

figures surround that motif along the periphery.

As we have

seen, the choice of centralization as an expression of the hierarchical system implied

within any monarchy was also

emblem

of the king

effect is the

is

In other hangings, however, the

is

simply

larger, so that the

1980, 37). This principle of composition leads the beholder

overdetermined by the interpretation of that motif, which allows

tions linking all the other scenes to

an overall meaning
referential

artists.

not in the center of the image, but

same (Adams

to a reading

made by Edo

is

rela-

become significant. There is no reading sequence:

given to the image by the royal emblem, which constitutes the

element needed

to construct its

meaning. Not only does the king make

history through his acts, he also gives history

its

meaning.

IN

IMAGES

95

96

CHAPTER THREE

To

fix

Fon used

the tradition of that history, the

mode

of expression similar to

the pictogram, understood not as a series of animated figures (there

in

Fon compositions

The hanging

of figures) but as a

just described

most important

for the

servant and the

body

and the

The use
sion,

action.^i

of the narrative

enemy king

composed

is

of

Fon

artists closely

The

this sense.

two

figures, the

and the death

of the narrative: betrayal

shows

intertwined the two

that follows.

very form of

that, in the

its

expres-

spoken language. This no doubt partly

art is linked to the structure of

why Dahomey artists did not choose to use many figurations of humans or

animals on the surface of their art works, whether canvas or

In terms of

seeks above

Edo

all to

art,

Thus, they did not

clay.

produce the large frescoes combining beasts and people familiar

art.

is

cut in two, the head erect in a receptacle

lying on the ground.

of pictographic expression also

Fon

explains

meaning

two major themes

motifs, the

linearity

has several pictograms understood in

of the

body

rest of the

no

group of figures reproducing an

to

us from classical

the reasons for this might be different, since

signify the symbolic

and

it is

an

art that

hierarchical relations structuring society,

with great concern for exactitude.

As
is

in the art of Benin, but

much more

obviously, in

reserved for men. Animals stand rigid on their

arms and

running

legs in motion,

after the

what occurs

royal power. Contrary to

tian or Assyrian art, the sovereign

in the hunt; recall that

Edo

artists

fact that

Edo iconography

and implies an

emblem

king's physical strength as a

metaphor

of the

acts, at

activities.

for his

Egyp-

war or

Fon and

power.

they are captured in motion inscribes the characters of Fon and

"after."

look at old Fon hangings,

produced on

since their

never shown performing violent

The

and hence

figure of the king,

or in a hieratic portrait,

particular king.

men move,

him, are the instruments of

to kill

in history.

tion of action, in effect, supposes that the instant fixed

of an

but

feet;

in other types of iconography, such as

in the unfolding of time,

fore"

movement

he was prudently kept away from such

do not use the

The very

is

enemy

art

Fon and Edo

we

see they

is

in

by the image

entails a "be-

whether appearing

some sense

all tell

Every representa-

in the

part of eternity.

autonomous narratives

form

When we

relating to a

king would never have deeds that were not part of his reign

a hanging; thus,

kingdom seems

to

if

we

re-

are to believe the images, the universal history

be understood more as a

sum of historical blocks indepen-

dent from one another, with art works differentiated and personalized by the sovereigns of

Dahomey.

As we have already
solely

on the depiction

ing

said about

is

images

seen, that figuration of the history of

of

war

feats. In

the art of Benin as in that of

works and days, again unlike other

attest to trade

Fon royalty

arts,

with the Europeans, the Portuguese

is

built

Dahomey, noth-

such as Egyptian. Edo

in particular,

but only by

87.
tifs,

Fabric hanging with appliqued

kingdom
nin,

mo-

dedicated to King Agadja. Benin,

of

Dahomey, Abomey, Fon. Be-

Abomey, Musee Historique. Photo

by Giovanna Antongini and Tito

Spini.

98

CHAPTER THREE

allusion.

of the

Wars represent the key temporal reference

points, engaging

kingdom and producing legendary transformations

tutions, or

The conquest

its territory.

of coastal cities

over the Yoruba suzerain of Oyo; the control of

new

kingdom within

its insti-

its

victory

expanses by the Edo, such as

and the encounter with Europeans are so many deeds

to contain the past of their

the forces

economy,

by Dahomey and

campaign against the peoples

the banks of the River Niger during their

Fon

in its

all

of the north;

Edo and

that allowed the

the

a diachronic perspective. In the

absence of a writing system, which might have relieved minds of the burden of

remembering, these deeds, especially among the Fon, were the foundation of
nography. Hence the Fon manifested an advanced awareness of a past

which they sought

events,

The

little

to depict in a logical

scenes adorning the chairs of

realist register

moments

made up

of

and chronological manner.

Chokwe great chiefs also borrow from the

and depict not only bloody

like the arts just discussed,

ico-

battles

of daily

and

and macabre

subjects, but, un-

ritual life as well. This is less a

morphological realism, however, such as that observed in the

Tshibinda

effigies of

Ilunga and his successors, than a realism of attitude and situation: a chief trans-

ported in his hammock, a

man feeding his ox, a man and woman coupling, an adul-

terous couple sniffed out

by the husband's dog,

circumcision, dances of initiation, a

grind.

husband waiting

At no point do the decorations of these

to the history of the chieftaincy

in

chairs,

and the wars

The events depicted on them concern

all

it

ceremony

a pipe smoker, the

for his

meal while

which can be

wives

extensive, allude

conducted against

Chokwe, both

his

its

neighbors.

as particular individuals

domestic scenes and as integral parts of a collectivity founded on specific

and

beliefs.

Thus, the sculpted Tnotifs of the chair, called a

mwanangana, a Chokwe

chief or lord of the earth,

events of a theater of daily

The

original

model

life (figs.

of

ngiinja,

rites

belonging to a

do not simply evoke the small

88 and 89).

for these objects has to

be sought in seventeenth-century

Portuguese chairs, whose seats and backs were lined with leather. The back was

sometimes even adorned with figurative scenes. This

ing: the

seat

Ashanti did the same with their

and more generally, of any

art

is

not the only case of borrow-

chiefs' seats (fig. 107).

work made

of

wood

The principle

of the

composed of pieces

brought together and assembled with a mortise-and-tenon construction was

for-

eign to the African conception, which privileged objects in one piece. The old throne
of the

Chokwe

chiefs took the

form of a small wooden

stool with

an hourglass

shape, called a "chair in the shape of an anvil." This suggests that the chair's seat

was

originally a smith's anvil, a highly symbolic object in Africa,

where metallurgy

played an important role in the economic and spiritual development of numerous

societies.

HISTORY TOLD

Each chair of the ugunja type formed a particular iconographic whole, though the
sculpted motifs found on them
the

same kind

the

Chokwe myth

Lunda

of scenes.

princess,

all

belong to the same repertoire and

slightly less

of origin.

It

common motif seems

to

who, against the advice

chieftaincy.

describe

be that referring to

depicts a female character representing Lweji, the

of her

two

The two brothers

on

are depicted

Luba

brothers, married the

hunter Tshibinda Ilunga. Following that marriage, her two brothers

Chokwe

all

left to

found the

either side of Lweji,

who

appears to be fighting with them and pushing them away, with both hands and both
legs extended.

The place

allows us to interpret
particular

example

is

it

this

motif occupies in the general composition of the chair

in that

manner; as we

found sculpted

in other places of the object

and encompasses

this crucial place at the top of the chair back,

the other scenes that

compose

of

all

to

be interpreted as a function of

shall see, that scene,

in the center

and top

found

this central

on the bars

theme. -^ This

and

in space

art.

of the chair; they are

the

is

of receiving the

riated parts,

body

Chokwe chiefs'

of their owner.

must be seen. The

market or passes through

chairs

The

chair,

chief does not

his village,

is

different places as a
it.

not limited to the utilitarian role

and more

particularly, all

move without his seat;

someone

of

The morphology of the

occupy

to

same system

function of the general orientation of the object and the meaning associated with
In fact, the function of the

in

such a scene invites a certain reading

the decoration

composed

in this

is

more general meaning. Sculpted

composition described previously in relation to Fon

chair allows the scenes to be

which

of the chair back,

if

its

histo-

he goes

to the

in his entourage carries

it

for him:

not the large ngunja chair, but a lighter piece of furniture, often a stool or small chair,

which

is

also

large chair
its

feet

adorned with sculpted motifs. The chief does not necessarily sit on his

(its

back

often

is

on an animal

skin,

made uncomfortable by

sometimes resting his back against the

amples confirm that particular use of the Chokwe

discover other royal seats put to the
the healer of his state,

the high reliefs), but

who was

same

chair.

may

sit at

Other ex-

chair; in the next chapter

we will

use. There are thus reports of a chief, also

seen one day caring for a sick young

woman in the

presence of his large ngunja chair. The chair seemed to be presiding over the session

and had been brought

in to

memory had been neglected,

(Kauenhoven-Janzen 1981,

remind the patient of the deceased ancestor whose

was

the cause of the illness

70). In the case of the ngunja chair,

whose decorations are

since that act of forgetting

always suggestive, one might think

it

was

as

much

the

symbolism of an

object per-

ceived as the seat of redoubtable supernatural powers as the display and reading of
the scenes sculpted

on

it

that

had

a therapeutic effect

The two ngunja chairs reproduced here

historiated.

Each of their backs contains

(figs.

on the

ill

woman.

88 and 89) are large and abundantly

five bars

with figurines

common to the two

IN

IMAGES

99

100

CHAPTER THREE

One

chairs.

of

them has sculpted uprights on

which represent four

tutelary ancestors

the lower part shaped like caryatids,

(fig. 88).-^

On

the upper bar

on the back

of the other chair are three figures wearing cone-shaped masks, called cikunza
(fig. 89).^^

On top of each of the two uprights of this second chair back, an old woman holds
a pot on her head. On the lower register, a woman is lamenting with a conventional
gesture, her

masked

two hands placed together on her head; she

in a sort of

hammock; then two women

ing antelope horns,

who

seem

are rejecting the advances of

are reaching their

to

scari-

women and two men, dressed

On the back bars, placed in the

heads facing down, flying over four women,

whom holds her child in her arms.

pour water from

two men wear-

hands toward the women's pubic

be walking hand in hand.

frontal position, are three bats, their

each of

framed by two other

are transporting a chief

Then, on the bottom bar, two

fications, called mikonda.

in jackets of sorts,

is

two men

figures of the cihongo type. Beneath them,

Beneath them, a

a calabash for her child; she

is

woman is preparing to
woman who is grind-

facing another

On the left side, a woman is rejecting the advances of two elderly men,
recognizable by their beards, who have each grabbed one of her breasts; three figing cassava.

ures advance on their hands and knees, one behind the other. This scene alludes to

an episode

mungonge, performed on adult men. During

in the initiation rite, called

a nocturnal episode, older

the novices.

On

men

play the role of the spirits of the dead to frighten

two birds are quenching

the right side,

and two dog-faced baboons are walking

on an

ox, followed

by

from them, one striking

man
a

slit

single

file.

their thirst or seeking

food

Behind them, a European stands

carrying a trunk; three musicians are seated across

drum, the two others playing a drum shaped

like

an

hourglass.

The uprights of the back of the

whom
the

first

chair

(fig.

88) depict

two

characters, one of

has his arms crossed over his chest, wearing the costume of another mask,

kalelwa?'^'

At the top of the chair back stand three drummers; the gesture

one in the middle

is

no doubt

ritual in

of the

nature. Beneath them, two seated drummers

are playing their instruments, shaped like hourglasses, while on the lower register

two dancers are seated facing them, wearing the cihongo mask. Beneath them, two

human figures, their arms raised, may represent stilt walkers, mbongo, who also play
a role during the initiation of adult males.
is

being transported.

On

On

the last bar a

the upper bar of the lower part,

we

man, probably

again find the scene in

which a woman, both arms extended, pushes aside two men, one
ing her pubic scarifications and the other her breast.

be held back by another human

figure.

The bar

One

of the

of

whom is touch-

two men seems

that follows has three seated

holding their children in their arms and a fourth figure

at

a chief,

to

mothers

one end. Beneath them, a

88.

Chief's ngunja chair.

skin.

Angola,

Wood and

ox

Chokwe and Badyok.

Height: 129 cm. Goteborg, Ethnografiska

Museet,

GEM 35.2.1. Brought back

in 1929.

89.

Chief's ngunja chair.

skin.

Angola,

mensions of

Wood and ox
Chokwe and Minungu. DiEuropean

Museu do Dundo, B

170.

chair.

Angola,

102

CHAPTER THREE

man is pointing his gun at the back of another. Behind

are two sUt drum players.
The iconography

of the

two

them, on the middle

chairs reproduced here repeats classical

register,

themes

for

type of object, including the principal and determining theme of initiation. The

this

masks standing

cikunza

at the

top of one of the two chair backs

(fig. 89),

very recog-

nizable by their head in the shape of antelope horns, represent the spirit of fecundity

and
the

of hunting, protector of

young boys or novices who have gone

called mukanda,

first initiation,

which includes the

rite of

into the

bush for

circumcision.

The two

women carrying containers on their heads, at the top of the uprights of the chair
back, may represent the old women responsible for cooking for the initiates. On the
lower bar, the cihongo masks represent male

The cihongo mask

which a grass
ticular
tion.

is

skirt hangs.

shape of that

On

the other hand,

by

it

it

which includes

it

chairs. This

was

mask

plays no role during

son received

from

initia-

the attributes of the lord of the

reserved, since only the chief or one of his

and dance. During dances he performed

his father, the chief's

a basket belt

perfectly transcribed the very par-

must be counted among

whose use

land, mwanangana, for

sons could wear

The Chokwe sculptors

on the two

skirt

symbolizing power and wealth.

spirits

a dance mask, the costume of

gifts that

in the villages controlled

represented a sort of tribute. The

men and women touching each other's sexual parts may attest to the
initiation, when young people, introduced into the adult world, are au-

scene showing

phase

after

thorized to marry. In the lower part of that chair, several scenes illustrate other
stages of adult

life,

such as procreation and the

moment

of the second initiation,

mungonge, reserved for adult men. The chief was necessarily an

man who had gone through

gonge, as an accomplished

mukanda, which allowed young boys to attain

virility;

two

the

drama

those of light and

Heusch

life

1988, 19-44).

initiates to

in

which the

(de

Heusch

forces of darkness

1982, chapter

The completion

5;

On

rites

in

which

play out a kind

and death struggle against

de Heusch 1987, 450-57; de

of the ritual cycle in

be part of the Council of Elders.

initiation rites: the

and the mungonge,

novices had to confront the aggressive spirits of the dead. Both

of cosmological

initiate at the miin-

the second

its

allowed the

totality

chair, the kalehva

masks

sculpted at the top of the uprights are also part of the initiation rites designed for

young boys:
scarce.

for

example, the cikunza see that novices get food

when

it

becomes

The cikunza and the kalehva are the benevolent spirits of the mukanda. The stilt

walkers, depicted on the second bar from the bottom, allude to the second initiation,
that of adult

men, when,

mungonge, carrying a

dawn. The reference

lit

just before

dawn, the mbongo enters the confines

of the

torch announcing the end of the ordeal and the coming of

to the chief's

powers

is

again expressed by the cihongo masks

and by the hourglass drums, whose use was once reserved

for him.

Prominently

HISTORY TOLD

on the two chairs

located

is

hammock. The motif

the motif of the chief carried in his

mask

is

frequently found on the backs of chiefs' chairs; as the

of the iimmniingnua,

it

recalls his responsibility for

of the cihougo

perity

and the scope of his powers, since the cihougo mask can cause

when

ity

it is

irritated.

The motif of the cikunza mask

circumcision, but also in relation to a cult linked to

As

in the

Chokwe

and pregnant or

examples of Fon

mask plays

wood,

figures

seems

to view,

spiritual

which they used

chairs,

to

is

we

seems

in the rites of

to

use motif compositions

especially as decorations for their art

When we

be reserved primarily for the evocation of the

life.

works

look at the distribution of the

notice that the back, the part of the chair

from daily

intervenes as

it

created a vast repertoire of abstract

power, while the lower part generally seems

sentation of scenes

other

Chokwe

leather, or metal (Bastin 1961).

on these

which

described previously, the design invented by

art

similar to pictograms. Moreover, the

in

in

it,

women.

sterile

artists for this royal piece of furniture

motifs, called yitoma,

illness or steril-

also appears very often, not

only in reference to the role the spirit depicted by the

protector of hunters

emblem

maintaining the kingdom's pros-

to

chief's

most exposed
temporal and

be dedicated

to the repre-

But the arrangement of one in relation to the

not without consequence for the interpretation of the whole, which portrays

the chief as the guarantor of the well-being

and

fertility of his

people, the person

who can maintain in harmonious balance the spiritual forces invoked during initiation rites. To convey this idea, the Chokwe invented motifs that express, in a codified

body language, moments

the unfolding

one

rite.

that play a central role within the various stages of

These moments are significant because they mark a

state to the next: the

appearance of the

stilt

shift

from

walkers, the line of crawling elders

representing the spirits of the dead, and the gestures of the cikunza or cihougo masks.

The representation

of such

the picture narrative of the

moments
Fon

of transformation

is

similar to that observed in

servant's ruse during the taking of Ouidah.

The chief

manifests himself in these scenes, not in majesty, as in the art of old Benin, or

through emblems, as in Dahomey, but as a figure integrated into

this

ordered and

regulated world, the world represented by the iconography of the chair, through
the cihougo
chief's

mask and

the motif of the

power, contains in symbolic

Although there are no references

their hierarchical

every

human

hammock. The ugunja

mode all

the signs that

is

of the

identity.

on the uguuja,

how the Chokwe conceive the way

constituted as a socialized individual participating in the

symbolic administration of the world. For that reason,

also to be regarded as

emblem

to a historical past in the decorations

sequence of ideas does indicate

being

chair,

ground Chokwe

monuments.

Chokwe

chiefs' chairs

ought

IN

IMAGES

103

CHAPTER FOUR
Insignia of Sovereignty

and Court Objects

AS

and mystical symbol of the unity

a political

of the

may be covered with insignia during ceremonials; the effect

African sovereign

is

body

of his people, the

sometimes spectacular, as attested

in the portraits of

Kuba

or Yoruba kings, to

such as the stool

among the Akan (discussed below) or the coral bead necklace among the Edo are
two examples

take only

always associated with noble

number

While ornaments and objects

(fig. 5).

titles, it is

of them. Their quantity

the king

who seems

to possess the greatest

might be commensurate with the desire

the notion that the monarchy possesses the king. According to a statement
sina, the

king

is

or perhaps, the

simply "the

man who

tween royalty and

its

man who occupies the monarchy"

which the

king's

value of these emblems constitutes an end in

and

and

itself.

it),

The

reveals

how the symbolic

insignia are the iconic mani-

refer only to themselves.

The

fact that royal insignia

works allowed an anthropomorphic form may

Among the Kuba and

lands, the only

(Vansina 1964, 111),

body provides only a provisional

support (since other kings' bodies will come to replace

are often the only

the

members

by Jan Van-

"occupies" the insignia. That relation of equivalence be-

insignia, for

festations of royal reality

to express

Chokwe, and
of the

in the chieftaincies of the

Cameroon Grass-

community who can be represented

and then only on

his first wife or mother,

attest to this.

are the chief

objects reserved for them. Insignia

with the king's head or body on them reinforce the royal presence by reproducing

it,

and

inscribe the sovereign in a relation of identity with his objects.

chiefs-head scepters are an example of this

As

if

to better

(figs.

demonstrate that condition of

signia of sovereignty are frequently diverted

might suggest. Hence, royal

signed to

(previous pages)

Detail of figure 118.

subjects.

nails, metal, fibers,

beads. Angola, Ben-

Ovimbundu. Height:

vueren,
trale,

The

owner

their existence

Kom,

Musee Royal de

61 cm. Ter-

I'Afrique Cen-

R.G. 79.1.144. Brought back in

their

form

his superiority over his

located in the Grasslands region, reis

the place

where

the jawbone and certain other bones of deceased kings are collected in a calabash;
is

then kept safe in a house designed for that purpose {Sieges

africains 1994).

pieces of furniture nonetheless take the form of a seat, though the

of their configuration consists in the sculpture of a standing

1950.

creation, the in-

appearance, are not necessarily de-

though they might accentuate

seats of the chieftaincy of

and

from the primary function

seats, despite their

rest,

Chokwe

96).

ceive the king's bodies, but only in the form of his bones: each seat

(above)

90. Cane handle. Wood, upholsterer's

guela,

let their

93 and

place of the chair back

(fig.

109),

whose

silhouette

is all

the

it

These

most striking part

human

figure in the

more imposing and

(facing page)

91.

Finials of linguist staffs.

covered in gold

Height

leaf.

(left to right):

Wood

Ghana, Ashanti.

the following:

"By

region of Cameroon. In

Kom,

these sculpted figures represent the great chiefs

and

the shadows, in the

mausoleums

of deceased chiefs; they witness dynastic rituals,

itself,

the forest can swallow the elephant."

106

covered with colored beads, consistent with the style of that

queen mothers of the dynasty. These representations resembling seats are kept in

153 cm. Kilchberg, R. David and

is

it is

150 cm, 168 cm,

D. David. The proverb expressed in the

central staff

remarkable in that

such as the washing of bones

at the

time of a chief's death,

when members

of the

^5=.

'm&

5*^"=^

;^

^^m-

iiiiMcSmi


108

CHAPTER FOUR

royal cult rub the bones of his predecessors with

oil.

They

also witness enthrone-

ments, at which time the regalia in which the

new

placed on the seat (Gebauer 1979,

also true for certain baskets, covered

90).

That

is

chief's

body

will be dressed are

with cowrie shells and beads: they belong to the regalia of Kuba kings and can also

be used by a few of their notables. These baskets are emblems in themselves and not
because of any object they might contain, as their function might suggest (Cornet

The same

1982, 305).

every one whose

These

memory

stools, in the

are above

fate is reserved for the stool that

to perpetuate

and no one

sits

example, never touches the bare ground; in public,

on

its

own seat,

Chokwe
As
site

chiefs

the

all

its

or

at least,

receives posthumously.

it. I

on them. The Golden

it is

Stool, for

always exhibited reclining

have already mentioned the various uses

of their chairs.
unity, the

person of the sovereign becomes the

the signs of that unity are brought together. Royal ceremonies,

for that reason

with

in a chair reserved for

make

symbol of the kingdom's

where

Akan chief

shape of the Golden Stool, emblem of the Ashanti confederacy,

receptacles of power,

all

want

the people

every

must be

spectacular, entail the exhibition of that

which

body object covered

emblems. Members of the court, wearing the insignia of

their

own

offices,

insignia that follow strict hierarchical rules of distribution, also participate in that

theater production.

whose pomp

As

the

emblems

varies in level

are deployed in these hours of royal festivities,

depending on the

and

participate intellectually, affectively,

tion. In

aesthetically in that shared art of celebra-

addition to their social and political role, the royal insignia and objects fab-

ricated for the use of

function,
in turn

society, all spectators are invited to

by

members

of the noble lineage demonstrate a deeply aesthetic

their quantity, their brilliance,

an emblem or value of power.

appeared dressed

in his regalia

and

their uniqueness.

Beauty becomes

When the ni/ini of the Kuba, Kot a-Mbeeky III,

the magnificence of his costume, indepen-

(fig. 5),

dent of the symbolic meaning attached to each of the pieces that compose

it

or to

each of the motifs adorning those pieces, placed the beholder, confronted with that
excess of splendor, in that zone of understanding where admiration can verge on

The same

fear.

is

of the odiuira, he

true for the asantehene,

moves about covered

when, on certain occasions such as the

in gold

feast

and preceded by numerous servants

bearing his emblems. The effect produced by that theatrical performance of royalty
is

no doubt attenuated today by the

of their political

92. Cane
guela,

handle. Wood. Angola, BenOvimbundu. Height: 132.6 cm.

Tervueren,

Musee Royal de

Centrale, R.G. 67.63.1856.

recently they
royal

body

power and

had over

loss

among

of their absolute

their subjects.

attracts curiosity: the

African sovereigns of a large share

power over

life

The excessive weight

and death, which even

of insignia covering the

unique body language of the sovereign on those

I'Afrique

occasions

is

determined not only by etiquette, but also by the physical constraints


INSIGNIA OF SOVEREIGNTY

AND COURT OBJECTS

93.

Scepter/snuffbox.

iron rod,

and

the weight of the headdress

ampleness of the

jewels, the

cloth,

Wood, twisted

and upholsterer's

nails. Zaire,

Shaba, Sandoa, Chokwe, Moxico

and so on

I09

style.

Angola. Height: 47 cm. Tervueren,

imposed by

certain costumes,

which transform the man

into a king, a being

who,

as

41233. Collected between 1913 and 1915.

we have seen, escapes normality.

This scepter belonged to a

The unity of the kingdom

which

is

Mu-

see Royal de I'Afrique Centrale, R.G.

on everyone's recognition of royal

rests

expressed, for example, in the proverbs and strong

authority,

names invented by Fon

sovereigns, and in the idea that the prosperity of the people depends on the king,

The

the dispenser of material as well as spiritual benefits.

proliferation of regalia

of Sandoa.

Wherever

official visit, a

Chokwe chief
made an

the chief

young boy preceded or

followed him carrying the object and

planted

it

in the

ground where the

stopped. The mwanangana

is

chief

represented

playing a lamellophone equipped with a

and other

insignia of office observable in certain monarchies

Many kingdoms

sovereign himself.

is

maintained by the

or chieftaincies possess treasuries, veritable

motif adorning the lower, "jigsaw" part,

reproduces the grating on the cages

accumulations of objects regularly exhibited before the public, recalling the sovereign's role as regulator

calabash serving as soundbox. The net

and master of the flow of wealth.

have already noted the

which the Chokwe used

in

Kuba

nyim.

The

chiefs' residences in the societies of

eroon also house great quantities of

belong

to the chief,

objects, considered

by the

western Cam-

entire population to

but also to everyone. Treasuries of chieftaincies generally

this

It is

possible that

motif alludes to the image of the

musician

chief.

in-

clude regalia and other objects, obtained either through trade with neighboring
chieftaincies, or

through payments of tribute, or

finally,

through confiscation during

wars. The composite character of these accumulations has been pointed out in the
case of Cameroon,

where the

circulation of objects belonging to the treasuries of the

between these

chieftaincy demonstrates the close relations

and display of

of the treasuries in the assertion

their

chieftaincies

and the

role

owners' power in relation to

one another. Every chief promoted, sometimes in an authoritarian manner, the presence
tige.'

at his

court of artisans or artists

The annual

feast of odwira in

whose

Kumasi,

talents

at

were

which

all

likely to increase his pres-

the chiefs

and vassals

of the

Ashanti were required to participate to show their allegiance, was also the occasion
for a great display of

wealth on the part of the nsantehene (Rattray 1927). The feast

of odwira, consisting of a ritual lasting several days

rification"

the word odwira means "pu-

in honor of the deceased Ashanti kings, concerned the whole of the

Ashanti people;

all

as houses, regalia,

corresponded

the nation's altars dedicated to their gods

and so on, were

to the

sented on altars and

In short, the

coming

of the first fruits

at the site

ceremony

where

of odwira

and

ancestors, as well

ritually cleansed of their impurities. This ritual

and the harvest

of the first

the remains of the deceased kings

marked

the

yams, pre-

were stored.

end of one cycle and augured the suc-

cess of the following one.

On

that occasion,

and

were melted down, only

1927, 126).
time:

first,

mark

to

to

The sovereign's

the change of cycle,

be recreated as

new

role as multiplier of

all

the royal gold ornaments

motifs and decorations (Rattray

wealth was doubly marked

by the exhibition of treasures and expenditures on luxuries

at that

called for

by

in

keep birds,

order to enjoy their song {Tresors

d'Afrique 1995, 325).

treasury of the

to

.,

CHAPTER FOUR

such an event; and second, by the

down, produced new

the harvest.

objects,

The creation

fact that part of that treasure in gold,

comparable

at a

symbolic level to the

of different forms required that artisans

court renovate their repertoire; each year

was marked by

once melted

new

and

fruits of

artists of the

the singularity of the gold

regalia.

king's accession to the throne

dicating that a different era

seems

have been accompanied by signs

to

We

was beginning.

have seen that the Fon king,

in-

at the

time of his enthronement, inaugurated his reign by creating mottoes, strong names,

which were transcribed

into iconography.

The sovereign

new

his installation led to the construction of a

gave each

added, concerning the capital

|Tff\

and the

ibol,

or

capital. In

motto characteristic of his reign;

street a

his reign, the

itself,

emblem, designed

to

adorn his

times the king himself participated, and

of the

Kuba did

the same:

passing through

to this motto, others

new name he

effigy, the ndop')

it,

he

would be

chose for himself,

(Vansina 1964). Some-

participates, in the invention or intro-

still

duction of new motifs, objects, and insignia. Certain Kuba kings, in addition to their
particular

their

ibol, left

descendants motifs that have since passed into iconography

name. The very rich repertoire of motifs used by the Kuba includes

and bear

their

a certain

number invented by kings preoccupied with fame, such

design called mikomingom, meaning

mi-Mbul

to

adorn one of his drums of

celebrated these kings, an allusion

tributed. That innovation,

existence of the

supplement

to

kingdom

an

the kingdom.
to

for the

of Mikobi," created

office

(Cornet 1982, 169). In the chants that

was always made

coming from

this

by the nyim Miko

to the

new element

unique individual on

rested, not only manifested a desire to

among

art that,

stemmed from the

ought

"drum

the Kuba,

as an interlaced

was already

they con-

whom

add

the very

a decorative

rich in that respect;

it

also

desire to contribute to the enrichment of everything representing

The multiplication and

proliferation of insignia

and

their decorations

be considered a process that reproduces on a smaller scale that prevailing

kingdom

as a whole, including the increase of wealth

and power. The

chief

memory of his name to posterity. When they were enthroned,

Ashanti chiefs invented a new decoration and design for their personal seat. The
meaning of that design, formulated into a motto, was then committed to memory
wished

to leave the

by the people. The

chiefs of the

sometimes creating

monarchs and

their

Flyswatter handle. Nineteenth cen-

as artists. Tradition mentions the talent of

tury.

Wood. Republic

of

Congo, Kongo

(Kunyi). Height: 12 cm. Brussels, private

collection.

of Babanki-Tingo,

exactly the

works themselves, thus augmenting

same

thing,

their reputation as

some

of them, such as

artist

from the end of the nineteenth century, or the chief

whose works

attained such prestige early in the twentieth cen-

Chief Garega, a great bead

S^.

Cameroon Grasslands did

tury that Njoya, the sultan of the

Bamum,

the region, acquired one of them. History

time the most powerful person in

at the
tells

us that Njoya sent a delegation to

IHSICNIA OF SOYEREICNTY AND COURT OBJECTS

Babanki, a four-day journey on foot from Fumban, the capital of the

possession of a ceremonial bed he had ordered.

work was none

discovered that the creator of the

Upon

its

Bamum, to take

arrival, the delegation

other than the chief himself (Per-

rois 1993a, 494; Perrois 1993b).

Crowns, headdresses, royal

staffs, seats,

composed

horns, and ornaments

ceremonial weapons, goblets, drinking

a set of objects that

and sometimes even the materials

king; the right to use the forms, ornaments,

characteristic of

them

fell

models may be found

hegemony. Hence,

The

to him.

elements of these

fact that certain distinctive

used by other people visually marks the royal

in objects

number

adorned and surrounded the

by the sovereign's entourage

of objects possessed

and members of the noble lineages are beholden

to stylistic

and

aesthetic qualities

proper to the royal insignia, and share part of their iconography. The monarchy
establishes

its

ubiquity through the proliferation of court objects; in that way,

directly shapes society

by organizing

has noted the complexity of

whose

it

into a strict hierarchical order. Jan Vansina

rule extended to other African monarchies.

is

sits at

the time, his

kingdom, and

still

them may be
Just as,

all

the chiefs included within the

and determining the

among

the Kuba, only the ni/im

and the

most important bird

their rank, sport feathers

from

Kuba

The logic organizing

social position of those

a reflection of the logic that orders the objects of the

feather of an eagle, the

on

emblems with

a scepter

reserved for the king's

others with the great dignitaries of his court.

the differentiation of insignia

insignia

drum of office,

bow are

of a certain type, a particular sword, costume, or

certain

Of course, supreme

anointed during his enthronement, the basket

covered with cowrie shells on which he

The king shares

in-

system of emblem distribution among the Kuba,

this

such as the kaolin with which he

use.

it

world

who wear

in general.

chiefs of the chieftaincy

in nature, other dignitaries,

different birds; the order prevailing

wear the

depending

among men

reproduces the order supposedly organizing the animal world. Each of these insignia,

Vansina

narrative

recalls,

bears a

name

sometimes associated with a motto or particular

alluding to certain deeds or certain aspects of the kingdom's history, so

that "the

whole ideology

of the

kingdom can be deduced from

these insignia (Vansina 1964, 107-111).

The distribution

the

meaning" of

of the insignia

roles they designate reveals the composition of power, according to

and

of the

which an equi-

librium between the supreme authority held by the king and that possessed by
the chiefs

The

and

dignitaries, representatives of the

circulation of these insignia does not

of the regions integrated into the

cies as well.

Thus

objects

and

community, has

end with members

kingdom;

it

to

be maintained.

of the court

and

chiefs

extends to vassal or allied chieftain-

styles travel far

from

their place of origin

and are

then liable to modify local creations. Out of gratitude for services rendered, the

III

CHAPTER FOUR

95.

Scepter.

End

Brass. Nigeria,

of eighteenth century.

kingdom

Height: 68 cm. Vienna,

Volkerkunde,

Museum fiir

Inv. 64724.

The

oba

is

de-

picted seated, holding a neolithic ax or

"thunder stone"

in his left

hand,

ling his supernatural powers,

might be a

Be-

neath him, a kneeling figure presents an

The

box containing kola nuts.

shaft of the scepter

is

orific

supreme

rewards.

It is

chief of the Ashanti confederacy,

because of

this that

decorated

thons, animals related to the world

god Olokun.

and

objects

of sending honregalia

from the

Ashanti

chairs, parasols, and ceremonial swords have been found in non-Akan

regions,

among the Nafana, whose

extended

territory

Rene A. Bravmann,

and the

to the north of

Ashanti lands.

was proportionate
taincy,

in his

study of the relations between a small Nafana chieftaincy

asantehene, demonstrates that the quantity of gifts distributed

and

to the political

that the diffusion of these insignia

of a certain

number
The

dissociated.

of rites

from Kumasi

and military loans provided by the Nafana

with several motifs representing py-

of the

had the habit

numerous court

recal-

and what

rattle staff in his right.

offering of a

asantehene,

of Benin, Edo.

among the Nafana led to the adoption

and ceremonies from which these

objects also brought with

chief-

them

objects could not be

terms allowing them to

linguistic

be designated and used, and the rules regarding their circulation within society

(Bravmann

1972).

The diffusion

of these prestigious objects

among non-Akan com-

munities was part of the policy of expansion and control of the territories practiced

by the

asantehene,

and introduced

than other groups, the Ashanti

traits of

Ashanti culture into them. Perhaps more

knew how

to use the

power

objects possess,

wher-

ever they happen to be found, to carry inscribed within them the function for which

they were conceived. In addition to their function, the Ashanti imposed rules of the
objects' use
to

on the peoples they wished

to dominate, rules that

tended progressively

transform their social and political institutions.

Among the most widespread insignia of high position were royal staffs and ceremonial weapons

primary

that the
staffs

i.e.,

to

also the fate

oba of Benin
(fig.

105),

spears, swords, axes, and throwing knives

utilitarian role of these

be deadly

of numerous
(fig.

is

weapons

its

the ceremonial

seats are

supposed

The workmanship

to protect the seats,

by the

asantehene's

and the

in the residence
altars that

to call a scepter,

weapon any

must

political

and symbolic.

In brandishing his royal

is

messengers

protective, per-

housing the royal

accompany them, and

147).

The royal

to

staff,

also be generally regarded as a

stick represents into a potentially

strument, as the manifestation of a power that

is

by the

enemy in two. How-

and defensive, hence

hold the power they receive from the gods (Cole and Ross 1977,

transformation of the

degree, of these

of the eben brandished

bearers to cut off heads or rend the

swords the Ashanti keep

which we are accustomed

90-105). Note

diverted in favor of their symbolic function; such

insignia.

ever, their original vocation, both aggressive

sists:

or, to a certain

103), or of the afenatene exhibited

does not allow

(figs.

dangerous

in-

not directly physical but rather

staff,

an "instrument to create

tance," the king or chief exhibits his irreducible difference

dis-

and the redoubtable au-

thority he incarnates (Canetti 1966, 225). In that sense, the attention given to the

ornamentation of these

staffs or

weapons seems

to

be proportionate to the extent

INSIGNIA OF SOVEREIGNTY AND COURT OBJECTS

and sacredness of
iting

its

this

power. In making the metal of his sword shine and in exhib-

blade, the sovereign recalls the military function of that object

pacity both to destroy

weapons

is

all rivals

and

to create order. Let

closely associated in African societies,

world, with a symbolics of metallurgy, in which

fire

us

and

recall that the

and

ca-

its

use of metal

certainly elsewhere in the

plays a role of foremost impor-

Akan

tance in the metaphors associated with them. The gold shining on the hilts of

ceremonial swords has the brilliance of the flame that allows the artisan to smelt

and forge them

and of the

into blades,

fire that

sidered to be the manifestation of the gods

thunder. Lightning

is

comes from the

when accompanied by

also often called "the knife of rain."

monial swords are some of the most important

great variety of forms

variety of functions

strictly hierarchical

In

of

The

regalia, after the royal stools.

to the equally great

attributed to them.

The use of ceremonial weapons and of royal

eign, since the monarchical

sound

the

Among the Ashanti, cere-

and ornaments found on them alludes

and meanings

sky, lightning, con-

staffs is

not reserved for the sover-

system requires that the right to insignia be shared, in a

manner

that dictates the type of insignia

used by each person.

becoming diffused throughout the kingdom, emblems, conceived as so many

manifestations of the sovereign's royal presence, are part of the extension in space
of royal power, as the Ashanti
that the king's
areas.

word

The powers

circulates

example

cited

above

attests. It is also

of the sword, shared with the royal staff, are not expressed solely

through the different practical uses that can be made of

it,

but also through

metaphorical meanings linked to these uses, meanings that

arch's authority.

through them

throughout the territory and reaches the most remote

As

a result, the staff

all attest to

all

the

mon-

the

and sword, or any other weapon, appear

as

the instruments best able to express the sovereign's orders in material form, since in
the very definition of

what they are

(that

is,

weapons) they include

in virtuality the

sentence that might be imposed should the order they express not be obeyed. Staffs

and weapons are materialized orders, laden with menace.

emblems,

Just as the circulation of

in signifying royal ubiquity, maintains the unity of the

multiplication disperses the

many

kingdom,

their

orders and imperatives throughout the entire

territory.

Different examples

When the oba

abound

to

shed light on

delegated the power of

life

this

he had one of his ceremonial swords, called an

presented in that

way

fundamental role of the

and death over

his

insignia.

own subjects to a chief,

ada, taken to that chief.

The sword,

to its recipient, materialized the oba's royal order: that

word

itself

in the

same manner with

was transformed

into

an

object.

their insignia.

is,

the

Ashanti and Fon sovereigns proceeded

A misunderstanding of the meaning of these

^W^i^-'-'j^'

-.r>i

^1
.>'^

'-

INSIGNIA OF SOVEREICNTY AND COURT OBJECTS

insignia could have grave consequences, as

by

illustrated

is

famous story about

the Ashanti. In 1881, an Ashanti sought refuge with the English,

the coast.

The next day,

and demanded

new embassy

ax as a symbol of aggression and as a threat. Despite the

and the advice of

to

coastal residents,

demand made by an Ashanti

precious that
in

it

prince, the golden ax

is

its

its

According

the sense of the object

form but

Stool,

to the

terms used

no one knows

so old that

must precede the Golden

any procession. Not only

function and

by the

delegation carrying the golden ax ought in prin-

ciple to lead to a declaration of hostilities.

by an Ashanti

who explained

sent

War was barely avoided, since the refusal

them, the Britons refused to back down.

of a

have

that the English

The English viewed the

the refugee return to Kumasi, the capital of the confederacy.

asantehene

equipped with one of

a delegation of the nsnntehene arrived,

the major regalia of the Ashanti, the golden ax,

who had settled on

supreme symbol

also the materials that

its

time

at the

origin,

and so

of Ashanti power,

compose

recall its

it

nature. Fragments of leopard skin surround the handle, held in

power possessed by

place by gold rings. The leopard skin gives the object the

the

animal, a sort of counterpart in the wild of the king. Gold, the substance and solar
color of Ashanti sovereignty, grants

blade gives

it

strength

(McLeod

it

the

power

1981, 106-7;

of royalty, while the iron of the

Appiah

1979, 65-66).

Thus, the insignia are the materialized words of the king. Within the framework
of societies without writing, that assertion takes

the role of

Edo high

reliefs

on a very

particular value. Recall

and the motifs appliqued on Fon hangings, which

we have

mentioned,

and other

objects, the

cord certain of the acts or events in the kingdom's history. As

through the display of these images on palace walls,

fabrics,

re-

sequence and greatness of the different reigns are expressed. Court chroniclers continue to sing of these reigns: their voices respond to the images,

between voice and image ensures the

ways had

to

accompany

integrity of the narrative, as

The word, since

the word.

it

vignettes

little

scription of strong names. That

trated proverb,

is

also

ornaments of swords,

among

the Ashanti

same royal word,

or

on

it

is

can also ap-

in

form of an

recados

(fig.

83)

illus-

an image sculpted in the

staffs,

called okyeame

large parasols that protect the chiefs.

found among the Fon on the crook of the

sols,

However,

circulating in the

top of linguist or messenger

(fig. 91),

the image al-

have described among the Fon, as a tran-

found among the Akan, inscribed

at the

if

alliance

bears the sovereign's order,

necessarily linked to the manipulation of the royal object.

pear in the form of the

and the

and on the

poma

It is

also

fabric of para-

hangings, and banners.

The

finials of

Ashanti linguist

sometimes shared by other

staffs (fig. 91)

objects,

display a very rich iconography,

such as weights for weighing gold. The role of

(facing page)

96. Top

of scepter with chief's head.

Wood. Angola-Zaire, Chokwe. Height:

44 cm. Brussels, private collection.

Copyright Archives Musee Dapper.

(below)

97.

Scepter.

Wood. Tanzania, Nyam-

wezi. Height: 46.4 cm. Tervueren,

Royal de I'Afrique Centrale, R.G.

79.1.656.

Musee

CHAPTER FOUR

linguist or messenger, okyeame, let us recall,

within the Ashanti confederacy. (The same

is

is

among

the

most important

undoubtedly true

transmitting the king's

words and orders

vassal or allied chieftaincies,

and even

interpreter: the success of political operations

on him, and he

is

enemy. The okyeame

Akan proverb.

is

the various

more than an

undertaken by the asantehene depends

the asantehene's key adviser. "There are

only bad messengers," says an

responsible for

is

among

into different regions,

to the

any kingdom.)

for

In addition to dealing with court matters, the okyeame in Ashanti

existing

no bad

All the bellicose

chiefs, there are

kingdoms

of western

Africa granted a very special place to these dignitaries who, equipped with their
insignia, bore the

heavy diplomatic responsibility of ensuring the success of royal

policy and maintaining peace. The asantehene always had twelve of these ministers
in his service, while the chiefs of lesser

and Ross

rank had between four and eight apiece (Cole

1977, 160). That indicates the importance

the king's or chief's word.

Among

even today of these bearers of

the Fanti, these interpreters

wives," since, like his wives, they were the only ones

and wake him up (Cole and Ross

The history
the

Fon

of the ornamentation of these linguist staffs

recados to

teenth century.

Wood.

and

their diffusion, as of

be discussed below, seems in part linked to the encounter between

On one hand, when the Europeans introduced themselves to the pop-

this.

generally,

amply endowed with emblems

and the Europeans. There are two

rea-

where they came ashore, they were them-

indicating their status: canes, weapons,

and

On the other hand, the use of the same vocabulary of objects possessing simi-

functions provided the Africans and the Europeans with objects at hand to pal-

liate

the deficiencies of communication,

made

delicate

by poor

linguistic

compre-

Zaire, Luba.

Height: 74 cm. Brussels, private collection.

night

sons for

lar
Nine-

at

and the Akan more

staffs.

part).

called "chief's

the Ashanti,

selves

(upper

were

could come in

1977, 160).

ulations inhabiting the coastal regions

98. Arrow holder

who

hension, by the absence of an African tradition of writing, and by the difficulties the

Europeans had traveling

relations

to the interior of the continent." Thus, the

development of

between the Europeans and the great kingdoms of western Africa

Ashanti, and

Dahomey

Benin,

may have favored the transmission of insignia, whose

fusion allowed kings to found their

power

visually

and symbolically,

dif-

particularly

through the intermediary of these emblems accompanying embassies, which be-

came very

active during that time.

The Europeans themselves never

ferent sovereigns without equipping themselves with flags, canes,

of prestige, the possession of

Malcolm D. McLeod

which legitimated

recalls several

Europeans and the Ashanti gave

their

own presence

visited the dif-

and other

staffs

in these places.

anecdotes illustrating the attention that both

to these

emblems, the exchange of which varied

in

proportion to the frequency of encounters between the two groups. Hence, in the

(left)

99. Handles

Wood,

of ceremonial canes, or kibnngo.

iron,

copper, brass, cowrie shell, crushed glass, fibers. Zaire, Luba.

Height:
151.1

151

(left)

cm

cm (height of human figures, 12 cm); (right)

human figure, 25.5 cm). Brussels, private

(height of

collection.

The cane on the

being held by the chief to

regalia (Neyt 1993, 124).

bitually include
to

left

was photographed

in

1916-18,

whom it belonged, adorned in his

These canes, veritable scepters, ha-

an iron rod

at their base,

which allows them

be planted in the ground. Luba statuary privileged the

male

figure,

seats, pipes,
rests, etc.

which

is

arrow holders, ceremonial canes and axes, head-

The

persistent feminine

theme

in

iconography must

be linked in part to the matrilinear organization of Luba

ety,

soci-

with each effigy representing the founder of one of the

dynasties.
regalia

The

kibango, or ceremonial swords,

and were passed on from generation

were part of the

to generation

within the royal lineage. The sovereign did not

that

fe-

found on numerous objects of prestige:

emblem, which was planted

in the

move without

ground during

cere-

monies. At war, a scepter planted vertically in the battlefield

signified victory.

Each of these scepters has two broad,

flat-

tened parts adorned with geometrical patterns, one on top

and one on the bottom, sculpted

in the

wood

of the shaft.

These patterns varied depending on the lineage. These

flat-

tened parts in the shape of diamonds, triangles, or hourglasses referred to the royal capital or center

(cf.

Tresors

d'Afrique 1995, 356-57).

(beloiv)

iOO. Canes. Wood, copper, iron (right); wood (left). South

Nguni (Zulu). Height: 140 cm. (left); 89.5 cm.

Africa, northern
(right).

South Africa, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Brenthurst

Collection of Southern African Art, JC-C-64

and JL-C-10.

CHAPTER FOUR

18

nineteenth century, one of the officers of a Dutch governor wrote: "The

yet

come back,

sent

has not

yesterday but have not yet had a reply" (McLeod 1981,

it

The Europeans fabricated canes,

and

staffs,

which

flags,

a sign of their submission. Certain of these canes

Akan turned

staff

that tradition to their

were adorned with

own account to

teenth century, the British created royal

staffs,

97).

different chiefs received as

decorate

figurines; the

tJieir staffs.

In the nine-

which they then handed over

to the

Ashanti chiefs and which served to designate their function during any dealings

with the colonial government. As a

101 Ceremonial sword, ndamalore.

Nineteenth century

coconut

beads.

shell,

wood or
Nigeria, Owo, Yo-

(?).

Ivory,

ruba. Length: 51 cm. London,

of

Mankind, +

certain occasions

great chiefs of
sents an

On

Sword

on

by the olowo and

the

Owo. The

figure repre-

Owo chief in ceremonial dress.

the left hip, he wears his

lore.

Museum

carried

897.

With the

own

is

perched on his

left.

The term udamalore means "sword

the well-born"

(cf.

mounted with

heraldic figures such as the lion rampant, can

Ross 1977,

331).

fig.

Even though the

be seen (Cole and

figurative character of the Ashanti linguist staffs or other ob-

such as swords of the afenatene type,

jects,

still

staffs, sur-

developed within a context

which

in

is

the result of a

European influence,

The Akan use

figurative art already existed.

it

of

funerary portraits in terra cotta, already observable at the very beginning of the

seventeenth century, and the tradition of weights for weighing gold

to a clear

tendency toward realism in Akan

art. It

(fig. 86), attest

would seem, however,

that a cer-

ndama-

right hand, he brandishes

a sword; a bird

even today some of these

result,

tain historical context of great diplomatic activity

encouraged the production of the

images on linguist staffs. These images changed nothing in the function of the staffs,

of

Ezra 1992, 282).

which were used well before the

their

meaning

had

to

bearer,

in

be accompanied by his insignia. The Akan linguist

who held them up, exhibiting the

The images depicted

manner

among

Europeans; they simply specified

accordance with the circumstances, in that every envoy of the king

even before articulating

in the

arrival of the

royal

staffs

word expressed by

preceded their

the sculpted

end

it.

at the

top of the

staffs,

parasols, or

sword

hilts

did not

differ,

which they were conceived, from those we have already studied

in

the Eon; they were closely associated with proverbs

transposition of them.

Some may

find

it

were, in

fact,

disconcerting that proverbs were so often

the pretext for creating images, but this fact only reveals the position held

form of discourse

in social

life,

not only

a visual

by

that

among the Akan and the Eon, but in African

cultures as a whole. In such societies, the proverb does not play the role simply of a

popular moral truth;

it is

closer to aphorism,

political, or intellectual principles calling for

Akan

world, where the linguist

perity of the kingdom, the

preting and assembling

102. Ceremonial

club.

Ovimbundu. Height:
ren,

Musee Royal de

R.G. 67.63.721'^"''^

Wood. Angola,

26.7 cm. Tervue-

of speaking well
to construct

is

language," confirm

knowledge

them

to articulate social,

commentary and

reflection. In the

recognized as essential for maintaining the prosof

numerous proverbs and

the art of inter-

are indissociable from the function of orator.

therefore based

on

that of

knowing how

"We speak to a wise man

the Akan (Ross 1982, 56).

an argument:

I'Afrique Centrale.

is

and allows one

to

The

art

manipulate proverbs

in proverbs

and not

in plain

103. Ceremonial weapons. Bottom

to

top: Eben sword. Eighteenth century.

Forged

iron, hilt

covered with a web-

bing of indeterminate

kingdom

fibers.

Nigeria,

of Benin, Edo. Height: 101 cm.

Royal ihvoon sword. Forged iron, wood,

incrustation of shells under the
Zaire, western Kasai,

hilt.

Bushoong (Kuba).

Height: 63 cm.

Royal ilwoon sword. Forged iron, wood,

copper, incrustation of shells under the
hilt.

Zaire, western Kasai,

Bushoong

(Kuba). Height: 67 cm.

Knife. Nineteenth century. Forged iron,

wood, and brass

nails. Zaire,

region of

Uele, Mangbetu. Height: 43 cm.

Brussels, private collection.
nails decoration

is

mark

The brass

of prestige.

I05. Ceremonial
with gold

sabers, afenatene.

leaf, affixed

Wooden hilts covered

with minuscule clamps, forged

Ghana-Ivory Coast, Akan. Height

(left to right):

iron.

128 cm,

121 cm, 103 cm. Kilchberg, R. David and D. David.

^-WSiiSW^^')

106.
leaf

Stool. Sculpted

wood

decorated with affixed silver

and embossed decorations. Ghana, Ashanti. 46 X

42.5 cm. Kilchberg, R.

David and D. David.

107. Akonkwmfi
brass.

chair.

Wood,

skin,

and

Ghana, Ashanti. 92 X 74 cm. Zu-

rich, Galerie

Walu.

I09i Royal
tury.

Wood,

thread.

seat.

Early twentieth cen-

glass beads, cowrie shells,

Cameroon, Bamum. Height:

175 cm. Vienna,

Museum

fiir

Volker-

kunde, 171.471. The beads that cover

this object

play the same role as the

brass nails of other regions. Sign of prosperity

and wealth, they give the royal

object the brilliance that distinguishes

it

I08> Back
Wood,

rest.

thread,

Early twentieth century

and brass

nails. Zaire,

Mangbetu. Height: 81 cm. Brussels,

vate collection.

The

chiefs'

back

pri-

rests

were adorned with brass elements.

from

common objects.

CHAPTER FOUR

122

The

knowledge

the staff

is

meaning

of the

message

recipient of the

image

cane, the

to

of the

image adorning the top of each

immediately seize

it.

word provides

110. Stool. Sixteenth century. Brass,

casting. Nigeria,

kingdom

lost-

of Benin,

when
rectly,

must accom-

In this context of the transmission of a discourse, the histo-

adorns the top of a parasol; in the former case,

it

it

the key to interpreting

riated part of the staff performs a completely different function

wax

meaning, since

at least a part of the

say that in this case of a "word" exhibited at the end of a

that takes the place of the

what accompanies

allows the

staff

chosen on the basis of the mission that the one bearing

One might even

plish.

be regarded as emblems for proper speaking. The

linguist staffs can thus

through the meaning

effects

it

it is

from

that

performed

liable to intervene di-

produces, in the exchanges and negotiations

Edo. Height: 34 cm. Nigeria, Lagos, National

Museum,

53.22.11.

The motif of

the silurids, fish belonging to the realm

of the

god

of waters, Olokun,

the symbols of

Edo

is

between the
either the

different parties. That property of the historiated staff did not escape

Akan

or the Fon.

one of
It is

royalty.

not possible to present the iconographic repertoire of these

describe only a few of

is

that of

her,

two birds

them by way

of prey,

perched on a sort of handle

position, in

from

which

a pot placed

of example.^

one of which
(fig. 91).

sits

Among

the

on the head

of an elephant.

ent situations evoked by the figures used.

91)

scenes

is

seen drinking

of a leopard, while an antelope looks at the scene; or

on the back

tion always refers to the

The Akan may use

The

is

figure placed in the

omnipotence of the king and the

sometimes occupy lower positions and thus change

the elephant bearing an antelope

on

its

in

that rule of

then applied to differ-

state.

dominant posi-

Although the

and the leopard are the most common emblems

for

it,

they

birds of prey, one of

them

royal person. This

an allusion

is

III. Stool.

back visually transcribes a proverb recalling

Ile-Ife,

land. Height: 53 cm.

ees of the British

Oluotorogho

Is-

London, The Trust-

Museum, 1896.n.22.L

This stool, given by the oni Adelekan

Olubushe

to the English in 1896, is

from

the religious material of an altar dedi-

cated to the god Oluorogbo. The form

of this seat

is

found

works of Ile-Ife,
per)

and

in

in a

few other

art

metal (zinc and cop-

in terra cotta.

on her eggs, the birds are

head of the

but

may

state.

to the eternal nature of dynastic continuity,

The scene depicted may not be

is

and her chicks alludes both

responsibility

toward

his subjects.

to the chief's

The Akan

ally translating the idea of unity either

which

always a chief

at

superposed composition,

refer indirectly to a single conception of royal superiority.

the chicken

two

also associated with the

assured whatever the circumstances. In other words, there

the
Twelfth to fifteenth century.

Quartz. Nigeria,

sitting

ele-

may

meaning. Hence, the motif of

the superiority of intelligence over brute force. In the case of the motif of the

is

will

Other representations adopt the same com-

superposition to express a single fundamental idea, which

(fig.

common

most

on her eggs while the other stands over

different elements are superposed: thus, a lion

a small antelope climbs

phant

staffs here.

The motif

dominant position and

of

to his

use other rules of composition, visu-

through a sculpted scene

or,

more

simply,

through a symbolic motif.

The

first

around

case

is

a scene in

which three men have a necklace depicting the rainbow

their necks. This scene depicts the role of the asmitehene as similar to the

II2> Caryatid stool.

Wood, Katanga,
Mu-

Luba. Height: 48.5 cm. Tervueren,

see Royal de

1'

Afrique Centrale, R.G.

17193.

113. Caryatid stool. Early twentieth century.

Wood.

Zaire, Luba. Height: 34 cm.

Brussels, private collection. Seats in

sculpted

wood

are reserved for kings

and mediums. They were brought out

only rarely and were considered the
receptacles of the royal spirit.

mony

of investiture

The

cere-

ended when the

sovereign sat on his seat to take an oath

and address

his people.

114. Presentation of the thrones of Fon

kings. Benin, palace of

Abomey.

Paris,

photo library of the Musee de I'Homme.

In the center, the

throne of Guezo.

CHAPTER FOUR

124

rainbow; he holds each of his subjects enclosed within the bounds of his power. The

same

reference, not only to the unity of the people, necessary for the kingdom's

stability,
jects,

but also to the indestructibility of the link that unites the king to his sub-

appears frequently in the motifs of the reef knot and the chain, which adorn

the shafts of linguist staffs

Among

(fig. 91).

chiefs' chairs of the asipim type, generally sculpted in the

on

certain stools. Other scenes with

power

"food" that

is

is

lis. Double royal goblet. Nineteenth

Wood.

Zaire,

one

Luba (Kalundwe).

Height: 11.5 cm. Brussels, private collec-

The function

tion.

phic goblets

is still

of these

largely

anthropomor-

rituals

when the future king

drink human blood from the

of enthronement,
to

skull of his predecessor.

It is

from human eyes within the royal

(fig. 91).

must not be underestimated

clings to a lion's

from

tales, in

tail.

make more

On

Two men

"Food

is

man who owns

and

recall that

same

not for the

it,

Certain compositions evoke the force of power, which

a young boy, symbol of naivete and inexperience,

other linguist staff

finials,

there are situations or figures

Finally, certain motifs

precise reference to the history of the state's foundation,

an immediately recognizable emblem of the

Ezumeja,

states,

found

seated face to face at the

for the

which the same principles are demonstrated.

one of the Ashanti

also

is

of the bars,

is

dog carrying

in its

state.

mouth

becoming

for

The emblem

a firebrand,

of

which

trea-

it

sury, replaced the skull during these

Tresors d'Afriqite 1995,

(cf.

hungry"

that very reason

possible

that these goblets, carefully kept safe

ceremonies

is

unknown.

They may have been used during

had

who

wood

more heterogeneous compositions

not to be shared.

table suggest the following proverb:

century.

the Ashanti, the reef knot

on

holds over the three stones of a kitchen hearth. According to legend,

who, leading the future people of Ezumeja with

a firebrand in

its

teeth,

it

was

dog

stopped and

354).

set

it

down on a hearth,

thus founding the

new

state.

A few rules of combination, linked to the function attributed to the figure

repre-

such as the superposition of a lion on a leopard to express the superiority

possible to interpret the image. In addiof one chieftaincy over another make
sented

it

tion, as is the case for the Fon, the

Ashanti allows them to create an

semy
tice to

also

116. Kiteya, or royal goblet. Wood. Zaire,

x 44 cm. Tervueren,

Musee Royal de

I'Afrique Centrale, R.G.

3861. This goblet

a similar

ously

manner

(fig. 115).

may have been used

spouses

in

to that described previ-

The cruciform headdress

354-55).

(cf.

whose poly-

have given do not do

jus-

and visual suppleness, adaptable

manner. The

state

It

which the

to the contexts within

serves the cause of the state in a particularly effec-

remains the primary reference point for any interpretation of

evoked by the images

these motifs, through the multiplicity of

model

corresponding to the proverbs. To depict

affairs of state, the

situations

Akan use

a language

both visual and verbal, grounded in the universally shared experiences provided

worn by the female effigy, called kaposhi,

was reserved for chiefs and certain of
their

of scenes or motifs,

them. This system of creating proverbs based on the same micronarrative has

interpreters are required to act.

Shaba, Luba. 28

number

seems unlimited. The general interpretations

a great verbal

tive

system of allegorical signification used by the

infinite

by daily

life.

In addition to the cane or staff, the

functions

Fon adapted another instrument

namely, the recado. Travelers wishing to reach

Dahomey, had

to wait in

Abomey,

Ouidah, the port of the kingdom,

to similar

the capital of

until the royal recado

Tresors d'Afriqite 1995,

arrived.

They then took

it

back

to the palace, the object serving as their

passport

INSIGNIA OF SOVEREIGNTY AND COURT OBJECTS

throughout their
veiled,

trip.

The royal

and was then uncovered

he listened

to these

Fon

the

Akan linguist staffs

recado

may

trace

its

of the farmer's hoe. In fact,

from

their left shoulder

composed
inserted

of a

king himself, was sent

where the envoy uttered

words, the recipient of the message had

Lombard

before the object (Mercier and

Just as

recado, a substitute for the

at the site

the message.

1959, 32-33).

origin to part of a

common

Fon sovereigns carry them

object, the

wooden handle

same way, suspended

in the

which occasionally serves

mark

weapon or a

as a

seat,

primary users consider

of the farmer's role: Its

all

end, into which the metal blade

and secured. The form of the blade differs according to use and

the external

staff,

The hoes used by peasants of western Africa are

wooden handle with one curved

agricultural tool,

As

to prostrate himself

are morphologically descended from the simple

(fig. 2).

125

is

region. That

can be considered

it

not a simple tool

but a true insignia of their function. The Fon adapted that tradition by sculpting the

curved end of the handle and adding metal or ivory ornaments to

seen, in the case of a royal recado, the

whole

it.

As we have

one of the king's

object transcribes

strong names.*

The function

of the recados

iconography of the recados

examples reproduced
recado

by the

is

in this

is

equivalent to that of the linguist

less varied

book

and

indicate

less vivid

(fig. 83). It is

stylized silhouette of the boat,

this

same king.

whose two anchors mirror

Glele's recado is also easily identifiable

out of the metal part. Finally, the recado of Behanzin,

French, takes a slightly different form: a

usual metal part. This

is

though the

staffs,

wooden

as the

easy to recognize Agadja's

raised masts of the small craft. That silhouette suggests the

by

staffs,

than that of the

the three

famous taking of Ouidah

by the

figure of the lion cut

who was

dethroned by the

part depicting a fish replaces the

the shark the king chose as his

emblem during

the conflict

with the French. The French had their boats lying anchored in Cotonou, on the other
side of the bar,

on

land; in a

and Behanzin decided

to

keep them from crossing the bar

war motto, he compared himself

to the shark,

to

come

who makes crossing the

bar dangerous.

117. Caryatid headrest. Nineteenth

century.

tion.

The general configuration

of these objects suggests a creature

equipped with

Wood.

Zaire,

Only the sovereigns and great dig-

nitaries possessed headrests.

a
Luba, headrests

neck and head with an eye on each

metal or ivory part

is

inserted.

side,

ending in a sort of muzzle into which the

A similar adaptation of hoe handles can be found in

other societies besides the Fon. Alexandre

in

which the metal part

is

Adande confirms

this,

describing a hoe

inserted into the back of the handle like a mane.

of the recado, contrary to that of the

Akan

staff,

Luba (Upemba).

Height: 16 cm. Brussels, private collec-

The body

thus reproduces that of a creature,

perhaps an animal, from whose mouth the royal allegory emerges. That image proposes a visual transcription of the essential function of the recado, equivalent to that

Among the

may have played

a role

of importance equal to that of the stool

among

the Akan. These objects were of-

ten buried with their owner, or in place

of his

body

in cases

could not be found.

where
It is

the cadaver

reported that

the Yeke, during a conflict that set

against the
tury,

Luba

burned

them

in the nineteenth cen-

their headrests

touching any other objects

d'Afrique 1995, 363).

without

{cf.

Tresors

CHAPTER FOUR

126

of linguist staffs, namely, to circulate the royal word.

word

in

motion which, as such,

coming from the "mouth"

royal

The

word always uttered

chief or king's

word becomes

kingdom

of

Dahomey, Fon.

Diameter: 14 cm. Paris, private collec-

The

tion.

lion,

weapons, whose use

The emblems

with the king, perhaps Glele, holds a

Other motifs

is

like a threat.

in the case of the recado or staff, the

metaphor of the king or

chief's

mouth

word dispensing jus-

in Africa (central Africa

axes, adzes, sabers, or swords in which the

of a figure sculpted in the handle

always reserved

for chiefs, frequently

(fig.

104).

perform the function

of royalty, in particular the regalia, are

symbolic investment. These include royal

staffs,

by

definition sites of strong

weapons, and

recados, as well as

allude to royal power, such as the vul-

seats,

and cannons.

tures

These

of insignia for messengers.

an emblem associated

man prisoner with its tail.

If,

word that sounds

and sometimes committing murder. Examples abound

blade emerges from the

ver. Benin,

weapon.

representative function, other objects of prestige

its

in particular) of these instruments

Sil-

mood,

in the imperative

transcribe perfectly that visual

II8> Bracelet. Nineteenth century.

recado also depicts the

of the creature sculpted in the handle. Recados express a

weapon disappears behind

tice,

The

represented by the allegorical part of the object

is

headdresses, costumes, adornments, or certain materials, such as gold

among the Akan or kaolin among the Kuba.

royal body. Others maintain

no

as substitutes for royalty, their importance

external

All these

emblems

is

even though,

equal to that of the other regalia. These

marks covering the royal body do not simply

who wears

around the

gravitate

relation of physical proximity to him,

powder

glorify the

them. Through the images sculpted on the

staffs

power

of the

man

used by the Akan or

the Fon, they visually represent different classes of beings or things as they are

manifested to

man in the

universe. Thus, they also inscribe the king at the center of

the system of symbolic relations that governs the world

The sovereign never

among them

sits

on the bare ground

the presence of the

power he

and makes

on which he

asmuch

as they prevent the royal

ground.

When

on

the

119. Combs. Nineteenth century. Zaire-

nails.

Left:

Wood and

Height: 16 cm. Right:

brass

Wood.

Height: 20 cm. Brussels, private collection.

The comb on the

the chief
for the

right depicts both

and the cihongo mask, reserved

mwanangana, or lord of the land.

on

is

likely to

leopard or bull

and may be considered

"seats," in-

direct contact with the

of the chief that "he

his skins," they are expressing the idea that the exercise of

136).

mentioned,

which

societies,

body from having any

Gourmantche (Burkina Faso) say

to a position, the seated position,

Angola, Chokwe.

sits,

intelligible.

for reasons already

carries within himself,

burn or dry out what he touches. In numerous African

skins are used as the support

it

power

is

is

seated

assimilated

a support, in this case the skins (Cartry 1987,

Other "seats" also receive the bodies of kings: mounds of earth, platforms, or

slaves.

Ancient documents

attest to this practice.

An

engraving from the seven-

teenth century shows the queen of a small state located in a region of present-day

Angola, seated on the back of a slave on

bassy (Cavazzi 1690).
tured

him

in

all

fours, as she receives a Portuguese

em-

A famous photo taken in 1908 of the Kuba king Kot a-Pe cap-

an identical posture, surrounded by members of his court.

INSICHIA OF SOVEREIGNTY AND COURT OBJECTS

The

attitude of royal sovereignty

the king or chief directs, judges,

When

foreigners.
that

is

the seated position.

and receives delegations

not the case, his "seat" follows

is

or

in that position that

own people and

of his

the king moves, he remains seated, in a

him. Akan

It is

or

litter

Chokwe

of

on horseback;

chiefs

if

do not move

without their stool bearer. The representative function of the supreme authority

proper

to the seated position is also

the sovereign seated cross-legged

found

in images.

on the royal platform. Fon kings use the image

their stools in visualizations of their strong

bas-reliefs of the palace seated either

on

him

would

as a seat

Grasslands show them

all

of

names. The oba of Benin appears in the

a stool or

up, he always leans on the two dignitaries,

port

The ndop of Kuba kings depict

on

a horse;

when he

is

standing

who accompany him and seem

do. Similarly, the effigies of chiefs

to sup-

from the Cameroon

seated on their seats, brandishing the insignia of their

power.

man uses another's legs." That reflection by Elias Canetti takes

on all its meaning when we consider African practices in which men and animals
are likely to become the master's "seats." "When someone was seated, it was be"When

seated, a

cause he had taken a place over the others, his subjects and slaves," continues Canetti.

"While he was seated, they had

The seated king or

chief

dominates his

that the seats are frequently placed

to

remain standing" (Canetti 1966, 413-14).

subjects.

on a platform. That position allows him

main completely motionless, an immobility

regalia covering his body,
bolic,

on the

seat.

a support

that

The

(fig. 7).

feet of the asantehene

all its

The seated

their feet joined

example, also have

feet for

signifies "to sit

it

when

down" but also

is

body designed

in time, unlike the standing

"to

fix

sit

left

can only be the royal "seat." In Africa,

king or chief

is

often

marked

it is

enthroned and receives the insignia of his

is

kali in

to fix oneself in a place,

sential place

down, he

leg forward

when

Gourma;

one's residence" (Cartry 1987, 136). Seated

down is

for

gods and men, pharaohs and digni-

they are seated, but their

located on his seat in the center of his kingdom,

the very sign of that center. To

sits

chiefs also rest

position, as Elias Canetti notes, accentuates the

they are standing. Michel Cartry notes the meaning of the term

his skins, the king

to re-

by the heavy

weight, real and sym-

and other great Ashanti

mobility. In Egyptian statuary, the bodies of

have

further accentuated

which presses down with

weight of the body and inscribes

taries,

is

Sometimes, other parts of the body, the

a right to a "seat."

on

He also dominates them visually, in

on

and becomes

and the quintes-

often on this seat that the

office.

Wherever the

chief

enclosed within an area that circumscribes his person. This area

in another

chiefs or their regalia

it

is

way: the great parasols the Akan or Fon hold over their

do not serve so much

to shelter

them from the sun

as to

draw

127

128

CHAPTER FOUR

around them the

invisible borders of that sacred space, in the center of

are seated or carried

ground by the
as

it

(figs.

7 and

were from the sky extending over

from excessive

formed by land and

sky. In fact,

may have an

it.

light

Akan

The shields raised by

parasol.

must be separated from the

leather of his sandals, so his head, always covered,

ate space, protected

by a

the chief

14). Just as

The

chief

which they

moves

must be "isolated"

in a sort of intermedi-

and from contact with the two expanses

chiefs never

dignitaries

move without being

on each side of the oba and

protected

his

mother

identical function.

The same

rules of attribution prevail for the seats as for other insignia of office.

Among the Bamum,

queen mother, the

for example, the king sits

on

a throne covered with beads; the

king's maternal uncle, his half-brothers

by

his mother,

and

his

advisers have the right to hippopotamus or buffalo skulls; his key aides to un-

sculpted logs; and

with royalty

all

Bamum

adorning the

all

to

Akan

seats,

but

at a greater

diversity.^

Akan

same general model, two

model was

(fig.

106); this

It is

the central,

more

An identical principle of distribution is applied

degree of complexity, which takes into account their

seats are objects all of a piece, all corresponding to the

parallel pieces of

also

human beings or animals associated

leopard, the human figure holding his

represent

the two-headed snake, the

chin in a sign of respect, and so on.^

number and

The motifs

others to the bare ground (Tardits 1980, 746).

royal seats

wood

adopted by the Fon

linked by a central vertical trunk

for their

own royal seats (fig.

elaborate part that allows one to identify the recipient of the

honorific seats. Each chieftaincy has a recognized motif,

and gives

its

name

seat as a function of the motif sculpted. Certain of the motifs of the central

were once reserved

I20> Crown. Gold, lost-wax casting,
and red

felt

of

European origin

114).

for the asantehene.

There are repeated references

to

to the

column

him

in this

context: the leopard, the elephant, the circular rainbow, or the porcupine, a

war

(inside).

Ivory Coast, Baule. Height: 8 cm; di-

ameter: 18 cm. Kilchberg, R. David and

D. David. Four bird motifs adorn the
periphery.

emblem. The

seats belonging to the asantehene

and the queen mother have plating of

gold or silver leaf with embossed decoration; certain chiefs also have the right to
these decorations in silver

leaf.

Akan seats do not deviate from the practice which, in that region, seems to dictate
that every object be associated with a proverb.
for the linguist staffs or for weights for

However, contrary

to

what occurs

weighing gold, the visual language used only

rarely resorts to a figurative expression, with the exception of the royal seats,

which the elephant and leopard appear. Cut

of the reef knot can be

found on the shaft of

on

into certain central parts, the motif

linguist staffs. All the other motifs be-

(facing page)

121. Necklace. Gold-plated copper alloy,

lost-wax casting, beads. Ghana, Ashanti.
75 X 27 cm. Kilchberg, R. David and
D. David.

long to a vocabulary of abstract signs, perhaps reminiscent of the adinkra motifs the

Ashanti print on fabrics for funerary use. Robert

proposed an Islamic influence

S.

Rattray and other authors have

for these patterns (Rattray 1927, 265).

That influence

/-

122. Royal crowns, or ade.

Fabric,

glass beads, thread. Nigeria, Yoruba.

Height

(left

fringe),

46

cm with
cm with fringe), 49 cm

to right): 42 cn\ (120

cm

(85

cm with fringe). Zurich, Galerie

Among the Yoruba, the use of
beaded objects is reserved for those who
(110

Walu.

represent gods or communicate with

them: kings, priests, diviners, and healers.

According

creation

to

custom,

it is

the

Oduduwa, dwelling in

ests of Ile-Ife,

who

first

god

of

the for-

wore the crown

with beaded fringe curtain and established

it

as the

supreme image

of roy-

He placed similar crowns on the

alty.

heads of his sixteen sons and sent them

to

found the different kingdoms of the

Yoruba world. Traditionally, one or several birds are

perched on the top of these

crowns. Other motifs are sometimes

found, such as chameleons, elephants,

and human

figures. Faces

with promi-

nent eyes appear on the sides of the

conical part.

The

fringe hides the face of

the king in public ceremonies so that any

face-to-face encounter will

be avoided.

Such encounters are thought

to

be dan-

gerous both for the king himself and for

the one
is

who looks at him. The same

idea

also expressed in the fringed head-

dress of the

mwami of Rwanda

The birds adorning the tops

(fig. 4).

of these

crowns are found on forged iron canes

used

for divining

and on brass sculp-

tures used in the cult of the earth.

figure of the bird
witchcraft.

The

was

fact that the king's

was topped with one

might bring

and

to

mind

his capacity to

The

also once linked to

head

or several birds

his clearsightedness

manipulate super-

natural powers for the benefit of his

people

(cf.

Thompson

of the eyes dispersed

ery of the

crown may

eign's gift of

second

1972).

The motif

around the periphrefer to the sover-

sight.

I23> Necklace. Beads and

thread. Nigeria,

(above)

Yoruba. Circumference: 175 cm; diameter of

124a Costume ornament. Early

medallions: 16 cm. Paris, Archives Leloup.

century. Ivory, coral

and

sixteenth

glass beads, traces

on the forehead of iron ornaments, bits of

encrusted stone or fruit (on pupils). Nigeria,

kingdom

of Benin, Edo. Height: 20.3 cm.

Stuttgart,

Linden Museum, 1954, F 50 565.

Unlike that of
in the brass

Ile-Ife,

the gaze

is

and ivory statuary

series of silurids,

emblems

expressed

of Benin.

of sovereignty,

forms the top of the headdress. The materials (ivory

and

coral) confirm that this is a

mask in the British

Museum, it represents a queen mother and
may have been used by her son during commemorative ceremonies. Worn by the oba
royal object. Like the

and dignitaries on the

left

hip, these

masks

camouflaged the pagne knot.

(left)

125a Pendants. Gold, lost-wax

casting. Ivory

Coast, Akan. Left to right, beginning upper

row: ram's head, 8.5 x 10 cm; face (Baule),

height: 6 cm; face (Baule), 7.5

10

7.5

cm; face

(Ebrie), 8.5

X 5 cm;
x

7.5

Kilchberg, R. David and D. David.

face,

cm.

CHAPTER FOUR

132

appears more obviously in the decorations fashioned by embossing the metal

fixed onto these seats. Nonetheless, the proverbs or aphorisms to

column and those

motifs of the central

able from the adages represented

circular chain

on the

seat of Chief

potency of his power

Prempeh

"wisdom

which both the

in gold or silver leaf refer are indistinguish-

linguist staffs

Kwaku Dua

to his subjects.

a reef knot or

II,

on

leaf

and weights. The motif

recalls that a chief

The motif of the

seat

of the

must display the

chosen by the asantehene

knot," signifies that this asantehene preferred to

govern by relying on perspicacity and moderation rather than brute force (Fraser
1972, 144).

Among
tigious

it

the Akan, the seat does not play merely a utilitarian role,

might

be.

Akan, whatever
stools,

It

also performs precise political

and

The

maintain a very particular relationship with their

their status,

which the Ashanti express by asserting

that "there are

no

secrets

between a

man and

his stool" (Fraser 1972, 143). That object plays a role in all the important

moments

of the individual's

walk; a stool

young bride
it

is

life.

A first stool is given to the child when he begins to

conferred on the young

is

receives one

girl

during the

rites of

puberty; and the

from her husband. As the individual's personal property,

can be used only by that person. All these provisions, moreover, are not confined

to the

Akan. What may be more particular

conceived as the

principle

mits a

is

little

site

where one

called siinsum

to

them

is

the fact that the personal seat

of the spiritual principles of

by the Ashanti. Each time he

sits

owner and

its

the chief represents. In that sense, the stool

tacle of the spiritual principle of

its

on

of this principle to the object. In this respect, the

doubly vested with siinsum: that of

the Ashanti, the

same term,

owner

the

trans-

chief's stool is

that of the founder of the lineage

must also be regarded both as the recep-

sunsum, which

all

dua, designates both the

designating the stool can also serve to

it,

user dwells. This

Akan

name

power

same lineage

the chiefs of the

transmit from one to the other, and as the receptacle of power

I26i Costume ornament. Sixteenth cen-

however pres-

spiritual functions.

power and
that

is

itself.

Thus,

the stool.

among

The term

not essentially political:

tury. Brass, lost-wax casting. Nigeria,

kingdom

of Benin, Edo. Height: 17 cm.

Zurich, Galerie Walu.

Same use

the guilds of court artisans in

as in

is
fig.

124.

seem

to

The leopard-head pendants

have been worn

part by military chiefs.

for the

most

The motif of

that

was reserved

for

on other parts of

men

of

war

(it is

found

each have

at their

head

a chief

who,

as such,

Akan chief's authority over a territory and over the people who inhabit it. In contrast,
chairs of

animal, conceived as the double of the

oba in the savage world of the forest,

Abomey

"master of a stool" (Mercier 1962, 203). The possession of a stool legitimates the

by Akan

European inspiration
chiefs

such as the

asipini or the akonkroinfi (fig. 107)

and dignitaries do not play any

role of this kind.

used

Each lineage also

possesses a stool in which the founder's spiritual principle of sunsum resides, and

their costume). This is

The function

Akan stool

easily explained: warriors, invested with

the founder thus protects

the redoubtable force of the king, are

may suggest that attributed to the head among the Edo; however, while the function

then able to carry out their work under

his protection.

is

comparable,

its

all

his living descendants.

representation differs. The altar to the

of the

Head which

the oba wor-

INSICNiA OF SOVEREIGNTY AND COURT OBJECTS

ships

is

a metal effigy depicting a part of the king's body.

whose form

is

The most important of the

Stool, sika dua

is

is

a seat, the

Golden

on a Friday," whose general shape

re-

the history of the Ashanti nation's foundation, the

who reigned

work

of Chief Osei Tutu,

288).

Following a war that liberated

kyira, a priest of this

in the early eighteenth

it

from the suzerainty

century (Rattray 1932,

of the

kingdom, called Anotchi, revealed the

kingdom

us that the object came

down from

of

Den-

stool to Osei Tutu.

with numerous consecrated objects, the origin of the Golden Stool

tells

their

Akan seats. The history of that stool, the receptacle of the siinsum

of the entire Ashanti people,

Myth

honor

conceived as a function of a corporeal use.

regalia in the Ashanti confederacy

or "golden stool born

kofi,

sembles that of the

also

however, these stools do not reproduce a corporeal element but

stools; in this case,

rather an object

The Akan

is

As

supernatural.

the sky one Friday, enveloped in a

black cloud rumbling with thunder, in the midst of dust. The stool did not touch the

ground but

set itself

on the knees of Osei Tutu. Anotchi decreed the

governing the use of the sacred stool and the prohibitions

on the Ashanti: the

stool could not be

and could not be destroyed or

stolen,

its

set of rules

ownership imposed

used as such, could not touch the ground,

without bringing about the destruction of the

Ashanti nation, whose power and prosperity were so to speak contained within that
object (Rattray 1923, 289).^

The Golden Stool cannot bear anything but the

the Ashanti nation;

on

it

recall

own

stool.

of the nation, only the chief, in

Golden

Stool, the

the other guarantor of the

down
power

whom royalty is incarnated as it were,

rare occasions: during the

summons

the

is

above

all

its

between

a fleeting conjunction

most sacred manifestation of royalty, and the person on whom

the mystic responsibility of representing

he

As

sit

through a simulated gesture the function the sacred object implies by

form, that of a support. But that occasion

the

sunsum of

certain great occasions, the asantehene pretends to

three times before using his

and prosperity
can

on

spiritual principle of

it falls.

The

stool

is

brought out only on

enthronement of the new asantehene;

most important

at

chiefs to deal with affairs of state;

moments when
and during the

odwira and adae ceremonies bringing together the Ashanti people. At such times, the

Golden Stool
with

lies

on

silver plating.

It is

special chair bears a

treat of the

on

its

own

enemy."

its

it

on

a particular chair

devoted to

it,

which

is

placed next to the stool on which the asantehene

name, hwedomtea; hwedom means "that which looks

covered

sits.

This

at the re-

On these solemn occasions, the presentation of the Golden Stool

throne posits

are attributed to

side

it

as the true chief of the Ashanti nation; as such, regalia

parasols, elephant skin shields, blanket, drum, lute as well

as a personal guard (Fraser 1972, 142). That exhibition of the

Golden

Stool,

133

(above)

127.

Belt pendant. Sixteenth to seven-

teenth century. Brass, lost-wax casting.

Nigeria,
13.5

kingdom

of Benin, Edo. Height:

Museum of Mankind,
Two Europeans face each

cm. London,

1897-12.17.4.
other,

one brandishing a fleur-de-lis

scepter at the other. In the center

leopard's face.

pendant

is

The iconography of this

links the leopard, the oba's

counterpart in the forest, to the Euro-

peans who, having come from the

sea,

evoke the universe of the god of waters

Olokun. The background of the pendant
is

adorned with small

circles represent-

ing the leopard's spots.

(right)

i28>

Belt pendant. Seventeenth to nine-

teenth century.

Copper

casting. Nigeria,

alloy,

kingdom

lost-wax

of Benin, Edo.

Height: 20.3 cm. Washington, National

Museum of African Art, Smithsonian

Institution, 1966.85.19.9.

European on

horseback. Heads of Europeans com-

pose the lower

frieze.

There are other

pendants known that reproduce the

same theme.

In Benin, the horse

an animal of prestige reserved

oba's use.

was

for the

(above)

129. Receptacle. Seventeenth century. Copper alloy, lost-wax casting. Nigeria,

kingdom

of Benin, Edo. Height: 32 cm. Kilchberg, R.

David and D. David. The National

Museum

of Lagos possesses a similar receptacle. This

one originally had

hinged cover. The han-

human beings held

dles depict snakes with

by
a

the waist in their mouths.

human

On each side is

figure with crossed legs.

(left)

130. Goblet with

lid.

teenth century. Ivory,

shell. Nigeria,

Seventeenth to eigh-

wood

or coconut

Owo, Yoruba.

Height: 21 cm.

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art,

1991.17.126ab.

openings

The cover

made

in the

through

visible

is

upper

part,

which

di-

vide the body of the goblet into four faces.

Appearing on the upper

one

register:

standing, while another, his head

his legs engulfed in the

man

down, has

enormous mouth

a snake; a chief with crossed bandoliers

his chest, holding in each

hand

the

tail

of

on

of a

crocodile (the crocodiles' jaws, at the chief's

feet,

are biting a fish, a symbolic motif wide-

spread in the southwest of Nigeria, where a

human or

animal face

is

wings and snake body);

olmvo, with legs

shaped

joined to bird's
finally,

the king, or

like silurids,

wear-

ing the two-feather headdress (identical to

that
fig.

worn today by
12)

each brandishing a

chiefs,

Edo iconography,

As

in

the

powers of the

to the

the olowo of

and surrounded, as

olowo,

watery world

(cf.

Owo

in Benin,

fish in

this

by two

one hand.

imagery depicts

who is also linked

Ezra 1992, 278-79).

136

CHAPTER FOUR

presented in a magistral manner, only underscores the depth of the mystery proper
to the object, a chair lying

on

its

without visible purpose. Every piece of furni-

side,

ture implicitly invokes, through the role

that legitimates

the absence

all

its

the

more striking. "In

objects that has not yet

looking at

to

For

its

it

to

develop

from Hegel.

it

or

body

mind is kept awake

the presence of objects, the

itself,

only inasmuch as something about these

It is

that very absence suggested

so profoundly from the

have pointed

of function

hand

to play, the

been revealed remains mysterious," writes Andre Breton

L'Amour fou, citing a line

Stool that differentiates

supposed

The exhibition of a seat without occupant can only make

function.

and prodded by the need

it is

out.

The brass head,

Edo

like

brass head,

any

in

by the Golden

whose

similarity

effigy, obliges the

person

adopt a dual relationship, that imposed by the face-to-face encounter.

part, the

empty

seat appeals to a third party. That difference in the relation

to the object reveals different intellectual attitudes. In the art of old Benin, the royal

effigy is

omnipresent in the image; in

that effigy, the head, into

among

Conversely,

an

quite logically, the

on which the well-being

Edo made

except, as with the Eon,

is

unknown

them. The sovereign

to

by an emblem, or

the weights for weighing gold.

He

is

in the

little

a part of

of the nation depends.

the Ashanti, the royal effigy never appears, not even,

ceramic statuary, which

in

altar,

fact,

is

it

seems,

not represented,

profane scenes observed on

symbolized only by objects such as the stool

which, by their function and form, allude to the reality of the royal person as a
singular person, without ever reproducing his appearance.

The Ashanti consider the Golden Stool

I3I. Powder box. Wood. Zaire, Sambi,

Kongo. Height: 17.9 cm. Tervueren, Musee Royal de I'Afrique Centrale, R.G.

43631.

be the "black stool" of Osei Tutu, the

to

founder of the Ashanti confederacy. Custom dictates

that,

upon

the death of the

chief of a lineage, or a fortiori of a regional chief or nsantehene, in cases

inauspicious event has tainted the chief's

those of

all

the chiefs

who

life,

his stool

preceded him in that

where no

must be conserved along with

office.^

Akan

honorific stools are

kept and become altars devoted to the cult of the ancestors of the lineage, unlike, for

example, stools of chiefs from the Cameroon Grasslands, which "die" with their

owner and disappear

fat

and egg

yolk,

into the grave.

becoming black

regularly "fed" libations of blood

dead man dwells

in this

Akan

stools are blackened

stools, called

which

it

apun dim by the Ashanti, which are

and other substances. The

spirit,

or sunsum, of the

blackened stool and watches over his descendants, so that

the black stool can be considered both an altar

to

with a mixture of

and the representation

of the ancestor

belonged. The black stools of the reigning Ashanti dynasty are

semicircle on

all

stored

in a building

devoted

chair turned

outward during public ceremonies. In the center stands the Golden

to

them, lying in a

Stool, the black stool of the asantehene Osei Tutu.

a platform, the base of the

INSIGNIA OF SOVEREIGNTY AND COURT OBJECTS

The strange
those dead

fate the

who

Akan

reserve for their chairs, as receptacles of the spirits of

form

modes

be handled.

itself dictates it

mentioned

some way

are destined to attain the status of ancestors, might in

already be inscribed within the

of use for

any

whatever and the way

seat

its

Two of the functions of the seated position already

that of requiring the weight of a body, and that of suspending or stop are expressed here. The position of these

ping time in the immobility of repose

reclining black stools suggests they are not reserved for

wish

down, but

to sit

anyone standing who might

rather for the spirit of a deceased man. Transformed

by the

needed

thick coating that envelops them, they manifest the everlasting quality

to

represent the permanence of power, and the "weight," not of a body, but of the

power attached

to the spirit of the deceased.

confused in that

These two functions are combined and

object.

among

Stools are not the only objects

the

Akan

destined to become the material

support of the spiritual principles of their owners. In the center of the upper piece
of

wood

motif,

of the black stools, that

which includes gold or

which the Ashanti sometimes

1981, 115).

It is

on other

also present

swords, metal boxes called

kiiduo,

made of gold

or "insignia of those

(fig.

surround the great Ashanti

on. These circles

made

are found in identical

sit,

and

121)

their necks,

chiefs.

The

the ritual function of "cleansing," that

other chiefs. The operation

human

water" (McLeod
ceremonial

of metal,

on which

form as pendants,

called akrafokonmu, "disks of the kra"

who wash the kra." During public appearances, young servants

wearing these disks around

vital force

silver plating, is a circular

atadee, "like a hole of

objects: chairs {asipim, akonkromfi),

and so

the owners of the chairs necessarily

finely crafted disks

an

call

is

with the kra of their masters held in them,

dignitaries responsible for these objects have

is,

of purifying the kra of the asantehene or of

carried out frequently to maintain the vigor of their

and the union with the supreme being Nyame, who dispenses

being. In reality, every

man

kra to

each

honors his kra every week, on the day of the

week he was born.

The

kra, vital principle of

human being;

divine origin, circulates in the blood of every living

every king and queen mother inherits kra from those

who

have pre-

ceded. After death, the kra leaves to reunite with the supreme divine entity called

Nyame. The sunsum,

a sort of double that constitutes the person as a unique, think-

ing being, dwells in the stool, even though, in the case of honorific seats, the kra

seems

to

be invoked as well.

number

of the regalia of the asantehene represent

that duality of spiritual principles constitutive of the

asantehene possesses in succession

akrafena, represent his vital

power,

two
kra,

sets of

human

person; hence, each

swords. The swords on the right,

while those on the

left,

bosomfena, represent

137

(above)

132. Box. Nineteenth century.

ver. Benin,

kingdom

Length: 23 cm.

of

Sil-

Dahomey, Fon.

Musee National des Arts

AF 13100. Em-

d'Afrique et d'Oceanie,

bossed motifs.
leon face

A rooster and a chame-

off; at their feet,

a snake.

(right)

I33> Box. Eighteenth

tury

(?).

kingdom
Berlin,

to nineteenth cen-

Wood and brass nails.

Nigeria,

of Benin, Edo. Height: 24.5 cm.

Museum

representing a

Volkerkunde. Box,

fiir

cow

or antelope, used

by

chiefs to offer the oba kola nuts during

the

otiie

ceremony. At that time, the king,

seated in front of his father's altar, receives their tributes.

(above)

134. Water
(?).

Wood.

pipe. Nineteenth century

Zaire, Shaba, Luba. Height:

61 cm. Tervueren,

Musee Royal de

I'Afrique Centrale. R.G. 73.73.12. Ele-

ments are missing from

this pipe,

namely, the clay bowl containing the

tobacco and the reed linking the bowl
to the pipe.

(left)

I35>

Pipe. Nineteenth to early twentieth

century.

Wood, metal

Zaire, western Kasai,

62 cm. Tervueren,

filament, brass.

Kuba. Length:

Musee Royal de
The

I'Afrique Centrale. R.G. 51.31.33.

bowl, shaped like a

treated in the

wine

goblets.

human

same manner

head,
as in

is

palm

I36>

Bracelets. Sixteenth century

Ivory. Nigeria,

(?).

Owo, Yoruba. Copenha-

gen, Nationalmuseet. Motifs of

human

figures with legs in the shape of fish or

snakes and symbols joining an animal

face to the

wings.

body

of a creature with bird's

IHSICHIA OF SOVEREIGNTY AND COURT OBJECTS

his

Other objects also play

siiiisiini.

come

principles might

to inhabit.

substance one of the king's spiritual

this role of a

When

141

set next to the black stools, the kuduo, a

small receptacle cast in metal with a ritual use, performs a similar function as support of the kra

Ashanti, in

(figs.

fact,

84 and

comes

the stool

universe of the objects possessed by each

85). In the
first in

order of importance, followed by the kra

kuduo, in which he "cleanses his soul," kraduare,

and which accompanies him

to the

grave (Delange 1965, 200). In the mausoleum housing the bones of each asantehene

were kuduo

filled

were placed

with gold powder, which were part of the

at the foot of the royal

were even

times, these seats

out a

rite

The kuduo

black stools and received offerings of food; some-

on metal boxes.

set

state treasury.

In the past, the asantehene carried

every week, during the ceremony called adae, perhaps linked to the puri-

mashed yams and

fication of his soul.

During

a kuduo before they

were eaten (Rattray 1923, 99-100).

that rite,

Although information concerning these kuduo

boiled eggs were placed on

sparse and does not permit us to

is

grasp their exact meaning at this time, they demonstrate the central place occupied

by these boxes and vases

in the ritual concerns of their

tenance of that intimate relationship with their

necting every

Akan

to his stool,

would

require a

owners regarding the main-

This relationship, and that con-

kra.

more

detailed study.

A brief men-

tion here, however, will allow us to recall that these relationships are often at the

heart of the owner's attachment to the object.

think in that manner, and

places.
tige

It

would even be

appearing in

mode

of use.

this

Such

The Akan are not the only ones who

numerous examples confirm

possible to advance the idea that

book include such relationships

objects attest to the profoundly

similar practices in other

numerous

objects of pres-

in their conception

human need

to give

and

their

an essential

function to our connection to objects that belong to us and through which our hu-

manity

is

expressed. The function of that connection

is

to

make

the objects substi-

tutes for ourselves.

Other objects

much more modest

in their

workmanship, and which are some-

times part of the regalia, might have served just as well as examples. In

effect,

the

things court art glorifies, such as stools, pendants, or kuduo within the Ashanti

and more broadly,

least

noteworthy

In a certain way,

the

Akan

world, also exist in other objects, which are not

at first sight:

and

in the

because of their divine ancestry

become once

it

in the

small forks of trees, bits of fabric, shards of pottery.

form of an amplified echo, what

these prestigious objects, reserved for the use of African kings

object can

is

revealed to us by

individuals unique

and for members of their court,

is

what every

no longer stands as an undefined and autonomous

but rather responds to the singular use

we

require of

it,

thing,

always there before us as a

137. Royal

bracelet. Sixteenth century.

Ivory, incrustation of brass. Nigeria,

kingdom
13.5 cm.

of Benin, Edo. Diameter:

London,

Museum of Mankind,

1910.5.13.2. Motif of the oba

the shape of silurids.

with legs in

142

CHAPTER FOUR

What

presence in the form of a riddle.

projection of the self onto the world can be

more complete than that which impels human beings to see fragments of themselves
contained or even dispersed in a stool, a small metal vase, in pendants, swords, and
in other things as well?

Such a peculiar connection explains

bear decorations, though, as

jects

regalia,

remain very simple

why

in part

these ob-

we have just said, certain of them, even among the

in their

workmanship, despite the importance of

their

function.

The attention and energy required

to

produce any

by the person who makes

it,

composes

decoration,
that

work, are

all

factors that,

it,

object,

and even more

or creates

it,

so, its

the time spent at

when added together, make up an important share of

When that object has no such decoration or when

the value of the finished object.

no particular care was devoted

cant.

It is

because the object

definition inexpressible

the

memory

stilled,

Akan

to finishing

it,

this lack in itself

signifi-

the materialized presence of elements that are

is

and immaterial

energy,

the pleasure of

by

workmanship,

of forms, technical expertise, the concentration another person has in-

even incorporated, into

it

that

it

also produces fascination in us.

see a stool as the substitute for royalty,

when

the support for the "soul" of a king, chief, or

When the

they see a pendant or a vase as

any human being, they are engaged

in a strange operation that consists of allowing the essential

ciples, kra or

can only be

because

vital

prin-

sunsum, to become symbolically fixed in an object marked by the im-

print of another, that of the person

fusion of one person with

who produced

what another

it.

What is
and

the fabrication process?

The very high

have generally accorded

to their artisans, the fact that these

in this regard of chiefs of the

status that kings

Cameroon Grasslands

cate objects themselves or at least to

make people

how

be.

well founded that question

may

there to say about that

the artisan or artist

has

left

behind

in

chiefs of black Africa

same sovereigns

think

sometimes wanted to

fabri-

believe they had, demonstrates

Might not the

on us by

attraction exerted

these objects also be linked to that feeling of a possible encounter with something
ineffable, as the presentation of the

Ashanti Golden Stool suggests?

in the case of royal objects, the profusion of decoration

their fabrication

do not stem only from the desire

lighting the virtuosity of artisans. There

"care" has been taken during

its

tacle of a king's soul, in that the

creation

person

is

and the

the

more

an object

likely to

become

by high-

in

which

the recep-

who fabricated it left that added, inestimable

value, that kernel of concentrated energy contained in every creation,

cludes the best of himself.

clear that,

to increase royal prestige

also the idea that

is all

It is

attention given to

which

in-

38i

Goblets. Nineteenth century. Zaire,

Kuba. Left

wood

to right:

Wood,

height: 16 cm;

encrusted with shell fragments,

height: 14 cm;

wood and

copper, height:

15 cm. Brussels, private collection.

wine

goblets.

Palm

139. Drinking horn. Nineteenth

to

twentieth century. Wild buffalo horn.

Zaire, western Kasai, Kuba. Height:

41 cm; width (at the base): 17 cm. Brussels,

private collection.

had the

Only warriors

right to use these horns to drink

palm wine,

since the

power and

sav-

agery of the buffalo were compared

their

140a

own

valor.

Box. Early twentieth century.

Wood.

Zaire,

Kuba. Height: 21 cm.

Brussels, private collection.

to

INSICNIA OF SOVEREICNTY AND COURT OBJECTS

The court
listic

objects presented here give

some

idea of the variety of plastic

expressions found in black Africa. They also

property the king possesses

is

similar,

show

though more

that

richly

and

most of the personal

adorned or of more pre-

cious materials, to that used by his subjects. That similarity reminds us that
distinguishes the sovereign from his people

is

kingdom and not

to the king as

and mystical function he must perform.

the palace does not differ in general from ordinary houses except in

number

of buildings constituting the palace

palace of the

Azande

chief

so the

complex

workmanship

that of the

jects,

the

work

same

will

objects used

is

size or the

recall the description of the

is

common

and

not fundamentally different

by the common people.

be more finished, while

question of degree: the difference

its

Just as

of boxes, seats, royal staffs,

other objects created for the king or his dignitaries

from

what

much the amount of wealth he

not so

possesses, since this belongs in principle to the

private individual, as the spiritual

sty-

In the case of royal ob-

objects will be rougher.

It is

expressed in the codification of the right to

certain materials, certain forms, or certain iconographic motifs. That property as a

whole amounts

to a

few essential objects staffs,

stools,

drinking goblets, boxes,

weapons

whose forms may then be combined in a multitude of variations. The

headrest

is

an extension of the

flyswatter, or placard

if

need

be.

stool, the staff

becomes

a scepter, effigy, snuffbox,

145

^3SlV

^^^'

^*;

!?3!^^3^.

<:*.<^-

-X'

t-^i

CHAPTER

FIVE

Elements of Archaeology and History

Kingdoms are frequently mentioned in the writings we possess for the periods
preceding the colonization of black Africa, works of Arabic or Islamized Africans, then

European

travelers, traders,

and missionaries. In reading

we sometimes have

the impression that the populations of

the continent were organized into a multitude of

Whether

Dap-

based on nearly a hundred publications of travel accounts

per's Description of Africa,

reported by others,

Olfert

kingdoms located

large or small, they interested travelers very early on,

side

and these

by

side.

travelers

gave descriptions of them that were often as enthusiastic as they were far-fetched.

As

political organizations

chants and
coasts,

Muslim

with a centralized power, these kingdoms attracted mer-

scholars to the western Sudan, then European traders to the

because their institutions offered a certain

exchanges,

stability favorable to

both commercial and ideological or religious.

The Europeans were fascinated by the African sovereigns and the spectacle
their court,

and seem

to

amazement they showed

of

have viewed these distant monarchies with the same

for courts in their

own

countries. But their accounts also

betray the ambivalent feelings lying behind them, a combination of admiration and
fear.

This

is

expressed in a passage taken from Olfert Dapper's book regarding the

king of Benin:
This prince appears in public once a year, on horseback, covered with his royal

ornaments, with an entourage of three or four hundred gentlemen composing

the infantry

and cavalry and

a troupe of musicians,

some ahead

of him, others

following behind. The procession takes place around the palace, never straying
far

of

from

it.

A few

tamed leopards are brought out

dwarves and deaf people, who serve

in chains,

and

good number

as the king's entertainment.

To conclude

the solemn ceremony, ten, twelve, or fifteen slaves are strangled or beheaded, in
the belief that these unfortunate victims will be going to another country

where

when
own slaves. On another day, all comers

they will be resuscitated, and where their condition will be better, and that

they have arrived there, each will find his

are

shown

the royal treasures,

which

consist of jasper, coral,

and other

rarities.

(Dapper 1686, 310-11)

Objectivity sometimes gives

way

to

extravagance and fantasy

describing the size of a kingdom, which,

it

when

it

comes

to

seems, has to equal or even rival Euro-

pean models. Certain seventeenth-century commentaries regarding the palace and

the habits of the sovereign, or

mwene mutnpa,

attest to this: the floor of the palace is said to

of

Mutapa (present-day Zimbabwe)

be "richly covered with gold laminae,

cut into shapes, with large ivory chandeliers hanging from silver chains, chairs
(previous pages)

Detail of figure 144.

148

adomed

in

gold

leaf.

[The king's dishes] are of porcelain, completely covered

141. Skull. Twelfth century. Bronze,

lost-wax casting. Nigeria, Igbo-Ukwu.

Length: 22 cm. Zurich, Galerie Walu.

Bronze

skull,

of a leopard.

probably reproducing that

The bronzes

are currently the oldest

Africa.

of

Igbo-Ukwu

known in black

ISO

CHAPTER

FIVE

and surrounded by gold branches

tator,

we might

their trading posts

new

ivory, copper,

hands

of

shape of coral." In defense of the commen'

note the extent of the renown the empire of Mutapa had acquired

in the sixteenth century

had found

in the

El

and

among Portuguese navigators. When the Portuguese set up

on the Zambezi

in the early sixteenth century, they

Dorado, even richer than the empire of Mali. In

slaves arrived at the coast

Arab and Swahili

profitable trafficking

from kingdoms

traffickers, trade in these

thought they

fact,

gold, iron,

in the interior; in the

goods accounted

for the highly

on the Indian Ocean.

On the territory of the old empire of Mutapa, more than a hundred ruins of stone
edifices stand today: the largest of these,

are the edifices of Great

famous

for the quality of their architecture,

Zimbabwe,^ whose original foundations may date from the

eleventh century. The structures of Great Zimbabwe, whose purpose has not yet

been elucidated, may have been the work of the ancestors of the present-day Shona.

We may

assume

that these structures are part of a

complex of buildings

that

must

have composed the capital of a powerful kingdom, Zimbabwe, whose existence

asserted
tal

by Arabic and Portuguese

sources. Archaeologists discovered a

Zimbabwe

piece of architecture in Great

one of the enclosing walls

dred and forty meters in circumference, nine meters high, and,

is

monumenis

two hun-

in places, five meters

and the material evidence of active, long-distance trade, essen-

wide

at the

tially

with the coast: beads from Malaysia dating from the eighth to tenth century,

base

earthenware imported from Persia dating from the thirteenth century, and Chinese
porcelain from the

Gold
of

Ming Dynasty

(fourteenth century) (Leiris

and Delange

1967, 70).

alluvial in origin from the kingdom of Zimbabwe, then from the empire

Mutapa, was exported through the port of Sofala (present-day Mozambique), and

marketed farther

to the north at the port of

Kilwa (Tanzania). The Chinese visited

the Swahili in the fifteenth century; they described houses of four or five storeys in

the port of Kilwa during that period

and mentioned export products such as

gold, yellow sandalwood, animal skins,

and

ivory.

slaves,

The Portuguese never reached

Zimbabwe.
The oldest kingdoms known

them beginning

to us, thanks to Arabic chroniclers

in the eighth century,

certain traditions,

Ghana was

called

were

called Tekrur

Wagadu,

who mention

and Ghana.^ According

term belonging

to the

to

language of

who are believed to have been the founders of that kingdom. The ruins
mentioned under the name "Kumbi" in the legends of Wagadu may
Kumbi-Saleh, in the heart of what is now desert country in southern Mauri-

the Soninke,

of the capital
lie

in

tania. In the eleventh century,

Ghana was deeply shaken by

the conquest of the

ELEMENTS OF ARCHAEOLOCY AMD HISTORY

Almoravids, that

is,

of Berbers organized into a

kingdom was

ing century, the

Soundiata Keita, as a vassal

integrated into the empire of Mali by

state.

The people

of the

word "Tukolor") were among

the origin of the

Muslim brotherhood. The

the

kingdom
first to

its

follow-

founder,

of Tekrur (this term

be Islamized, a

is

fact ex-

plained in part by the kingdom's geographical position on the Senegal River, in

constant contact with Berber populations.

The economy of Sudanese empires

on the exploitation of the gold deposits

located

day

on the upper Senegal,

city of Kayes,

Middle Ages rested

in the

in the area of

and on the upper Niger

most part

Sudan, in particular those

Bambouk, not

in the region of

for the

far

from the presentexchange

in the region of Boure: in

for

gold and slaves, the empires of Ghana, then Mali, and finally Songhai obtained

Saharan

Owing

salt,

to

copper, horses, and cloth in their commercial trade with the north.

caravan trade, the principal

cities of

these three empires

became

flourish-

ing commercial centers during the medieval era, indispensable crossroads for trade

between the Maghreb and the

forest

zones south of the area of Sudan. Ghanian gold

dazzled the geographer al-Bakri:

[The king] gives an audience to repair injustices, in a house with a cupola.

Around

that

house ten horses are arranged, caparisoned

the king stand ten pages bearing gold shields

and swords;

of the princes of his empire are lined up, with plaited hair
In front of the door to the cupola, guard dogs,

are adorned with gold

(Cuoq 1975,

and

in

who

gold cloth. Behind

to his right the sons

mixed with

gold.

almost never leave the king,

silver collars sporting bells

made

of the

same

metals.

100)

The same author, writing

in the eleventh century, explains that the king of

Ghana

could raise an army of two hundred thousand men, including forty thousand
chers

period.

An

identical description of the

provided by Ibn Battuta three centuries

and

ar-

more soldiers than were in the armies of the king of France during the same

silver quivers

and

spears,

pomp

of the court of the

later, in

emperor of Mali

is

about 1350: the squires possess gold

and "swords ornamented with gold"

1983, 328). Several Arabic authors give an account of the trip to

(Ibn Battuta

Mecca and Cairo

in

1324 by the mansa Moussa, emperor of Mali and descendant of Soundiata Keita;

Moussa handed out gold so generously

Cairo.
ies

that

he lowered the price of

it

in the city of

A story was told that a retinue of thousands slaves, soldiers, and

dignitar-

accompanied him on his tour. At the time, his reputation extended as

Portugal and the commercial

portolanos of the period.

cities of Italy,

A map

and

his effigy

in the Atlas Catalan

far as

appeared on the maps and

belonging to King Charles V,

152

CHAPTER FIVE

made by

cartographers from Majorca Island in 1375, depicts the emperor sitting on

wearing a crown similar

his throne,

to that of the sovereigns of the

holding a scepter in one hand and a gold disk in the other.

the mansa

He

Moussa

that the

empire of Mali attained

its

It

European world,

was under

the reign of

greatest territorial expanse.

converted to Islam, built mosques, and attracted numerous Muslim scholars to

his court: in the

Muslim world, Mali was considered

a true Islamic state at the time.

Songhai, the last of the great empires of western Sudan,

dom

in the

Arabic writings of the eleventh century, where

contemporary with Ghana.

Its capital,

is

mentioned as

it

appears to have been

Kawkaw, present-day Gao

a king-

in Mali,

main-

tained close commercial relations with the cities in the center of the Maghreb. At the
time, the

renown

of the

kingdom

of Songhai even reached the court of the caliph of

Baghdad. The golden age of the empire occurred

city of

Tombouctou became one

in the sixteenth century,

of the great centers of sub-Saharan

when the

Muslim culture.

During the same century, the Spanish pillaged Tombouctou during an expedition

mounted by

the sultan of

Morocco

in search of

Sudanese gold mines. Only a very

few sumptuous "gold ornaments" from that period have come down

ments
that a

that Arabic authors

number

of sites

tombs and

era, like the pillagers of

ered by

spoke of enthusiastically.
cities

It

would be easy

suppose

to

long visited by treasure seekers of every

Egyptian tombs in the Valley of Kings,

the picks of excavators. But

to us, orna-

left little to

be recov-

we should also recall that almost no archaeology

of African lands has as yet taken place.

To

this day,

only tumuli near Saint-Louis in

Senegal have provided gold jewelry, of Arabic-Berber inspiration, dating from the
sixteenth century

(Mauny

1952, 554).

On

the site of Djenne-Jeno (three kilometers

south of the present-day city of Djenne, Mali), where the important trading city of
the empire of Mali
ered: copper

and

and then

of Songhai stood,

terra cotta

numerous

objects

have been discov-

ornaments expressing the power and

pomp

of these

empires, using the recurrent motif of horsemen in harness. The gold route from the

southern regions of Bambouk and Boure passed through that

from Tombouctou and the Sahara was traded

for

city.

gold dust.^ At

The salt imported

its

apogee, between

750 and 1150, Djenne-Jeno and neighboring villages had about twenty thousand
inhabitants, a population greater than that of today.

Ghana, Mali, and Songhai were the gold lands

we do

not yet have the proof,

it is

in the

western Sudan. Although

possible to suppose that other

kingdoms

existed

before the eighth century in western Africa and elsewhere on the continent. Archaeological discoveries such as that of the statuary of

Nok

in Nigeria (region of

Bauchi-Benoue), attesting to a very developed art in terra cotta, are suggestive in

142.

Bracelets. Eighteenth to nineteenth

centuries

(?).

Brass, lost-wax casting.

Burkina Faso, Gan. Diameter: 10.7

(left);

9.8

lection.

cm

(right).

cm

Milan, private col-

The Gan may have

settled in

Burkina Faso in the fifteenth or sixteenth

century.

The

objects

shown here

(figs.

142 and 143) were used in the cults

linked to the monarchy.

I43 Animal
tury

(?).

figurines. Fifteenth cen-

Brass, lost-wax casting. Burkina

Faso, Gan. Left to right: 11.5

10

18 cm,

29 cm, 8.7 x 17.7 cm. Milan, pri-

vate collection.

154

CHAPTER

FIVE

Nok

this regard. Official estimates date

A.D. 200.

art to a

period extending from 900

b.c. to

Recent discoveries allow us to posit an even earlier date. (Nok works do

not appear in this book.) The ceramic statuary recently excavated seems to confirm certain of the propositions
portrait.

These are full-length

and elements

have advanced on the subject of the

effigies of richly

adorned

costume modeled with a

of their

art of the

figures, their bodies, hands,

clear concern for realism. Also in

Nigeria, on the site of the village of Igbo-Ukwu, in the territory of the present-day
Igbo, nearly eight

hundred works

in

bronze have been found, works of exceptional

craftsmanship, remarkable for the sophistication and finesse of their decoration

141, 144-46). For the

(figs.

On

one of these

sites,

moment, these

cluded a palace and sanctuaries. In one of the rooms of

cult objects; in another,

of a figure seated

him stood
was

one.

on a

which served
stool,

and

this palace lay dishes

as a funerary chamber,

were spread the bones

wearing a crown, breastplate, and

a cane with a leopard skull at the top, an insignia of

More than

known.

are the only pieces in that style

archaeologists have uncovered an urban complex that in-

if

some

ten thousand beads surrounded his bones,

Behind

bracelets.

power

ever there

of

them

be-

longing to the clothing that covered him. Remains of other persons on the roof of
the

chamber have been

(Eyo 1984,

22).

The

identified; they

quality of the objects that

his high status.
tenth,

were probably

sacrificed

during the funeral

identity of the deceased remains a riddle, but the

The date

accompany him and

for the art

works

as a

abundance and

the bones of sacrifice victims indicate

whole might be as early

as the ninth,

and eleventh centuries.

In the fifteenth century,

when

the Portuguese arrived

on the coast

of the Gulf of

Guinea, they established contact with the kingdom of Benin, whose considerable
prosperity

made

it

one of the Portuguese's principal partners, from both the diplo-

matic and the commercial point of view. Benin was

in the midst of expansion.

The

size

and urbanism

servers: the population of the capital of

mated

at eighty

at that

time a bellicose monarchy

of the capital struck the

Benin in the eighteenth century was

thousand. The king's palace

is

depicted by observers as

an assemblage of buildings that occupy as much space as the

which
ters

is

and beautiful

galleries,

most of them

Haarlem and

wood

as large as the

pillars set in copper,

Amsterdam
on which

stock ex-

their victo-

engraved, and which they are careful to keep very clean. Most of these

royal houses are covered with

corner

city of

enclosed by walls. There are several apartments for the prince's minis-

change. They are supported by

ries are

first

is

palm branches arranged

like

square boards; each

embellished with a small pyramid tower, with a copper bird perched

the point,

its

wings spread. (Dapper 1686, 307-8)

at

ob-

esti-

ELEMENTS OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY

The accuracy

of the description regarding the ornamentation of the roofs

firmed by certain brass plaques in high

and

relief

is

con-

have been found in

bas-relief that

the palace.

The wealth of the kingdom of Benin depended

tion at the crossroads of navigable waterways,

from which the River Niger and

salt,

smoked

fish

from the Niger

and iron

interior, brass

its

The Portuguese brought copper,

ported spices
to the

cowrie

and

slaves

shells,

kingdom rapidly became

territory, sea

were traded

from the
for other

kingdom, and ex-

to the

and ivory to Europe, and slaves

Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), where they were traded

trade with the

its

glass beads

and iron and small copper

and firearms

cloth,

variety of pepper called maniguette)

(a

On

tributary, the Benue, flow.

palm products, and

utensils,

geographical posi-

its

between the Atlantic and Lake Chad,

delta, cloth, leather, coral

commodities, using the coin of the realm

rods.

on

in part

for gold.

The slave

the primary element in Portuguese trans-

actions.

Duarte Pacheco Pereira, a Portuguese visiting Benin in about 1490, wrote

that the

kingdom was "usually at war with its neighbours and

whom we

[took]

many captives,

[bought] at twelve or fifteen brass bracelets each, or for copper bracelets,

which they prize[d] more" {Esmeraldo

Ben-Amos

de Situ Orbis, cited in

1995,

9).

In

the following centuries, the kingdom, with the help of firearms, increased the trade
in slaves

by leading

was rebaptized

raids

on

its

neighbors, to such a point that the coast of Benin

the "Slave Coast"

by the Dutch, French, and English, who followed

the Portuguese.
It

was

the English

who put an end to Benin's hegemony and independence. In the

nineteenth century, the

ward

kingdom represented an

the interior. Following an

ambush

set

obstacle to British expansion to-

by the

column, during which the British ambassador was

nitive expedition. In 1897, British troops

glish

brought back

the palace.

to their

Museums

treasury of the

Legend has

armies against an English

England organized a pu-

killed,

occupied the

capital.

At

that time, the En-

country a few thousand objects seized during the sack of

discovered the art of Benin,

kingdom
it

oba's

of Benin

at the

was then dispersed

time almost unknown. The

into

that in about the thirteenth century, the

European

Edo

(the

collections.

name of the people

of Benin), after a period of anarchy, appeared before the oni, or sovereign, of the

Yoruba
tal

city-state of Ile-Ife, located

of Benin.

They asked him

ing the state, the king from

Ife,

of the second Benin dynasty.

which played

prominent

to

about two hundred kilometers north of the capi-

send them a king

to

govern them. After reorganiz-

Oranyan, gave Benin a son,

Then Oranyan

left to

who become the first oba

found another

role in the region, economically

sixteenth to the eighteenth century.

The

city of Ile-Ife

was

and

city-state,

militarily,

the spiritual

Oyo,

from the

and mythical

155

CHAPTER

156

FIVE

center of the Yoruba world.

have

god

first

developed. The

It

first

was

is

said to have

of creation, Olorun. Certain elements of the

and of the
verse.

oba of Benin reveal the

The sovereign

the oni of

of

idi

Pontiff in the West.

indicated his consent by sending

and headdress

a cane

sends him a cross

When

Bronze with lead content, lost-wax

ing. Nigeria,

be by Igbo
ria,

cast-

Igbo-Ukwu, presumed

Isaiah. Length: 10.6

Lagos, National

Museum,

since he

is

compared the

is

oni's

power

worn around

his neck.

shell.

to that

the

o^^i

as legitimate sovereign,

and

scepter.

He

and he cannot really call

the court [of the king of

is at

silk curtains

also

Without these emblems,

behind which he

is

Ife],

seated,

considered sacred. (Mercier 1962, 59)

to

cm. Nige39.L13.

Works

in terra cotta or metal,

which

attest to the stylistic influence of Ile-Ife,

Animal, probably a leopard, and buc-

cinum

divining

was enthroned,

the king of Benin

of shining brass ... in lieu of cane

which

he never sees the prince, but only the

Receptacle. Ninth to tenth century.

Oyo

Yoruba and Edo uni-

justice, or the igba iwa, the

himself the king. All the time the ambassador

144.

city in the

alafin of

him

do not recognize him

the people

believed to

Oranyan, the sword of Oranyan (founder of the second

calabashes. In the sixteenth century, an observer

Supreme

enthronement of the

primacy of that

Benin dynasty), which allows him to dispense

of the

is

been the son of the Yoruba

Oyo cannot be vested before obtaining certain insignia from

such as the

Ife,

monarchy

there that the Yoruba

oni of Ile-Ife

been discovered

in places other than Ile-Ife,

but

still

in the

Yoruba world

have

for ex-

ample, in Owo.

On

the coast, beginning in the seventeenth century, the Europeans undertook

new commercial exchanges with

and Ouidah

small kingdoms

Porto-Novo, Dahomey, Alada,

that emerged to compete with the commercial trade controlled by the

oba. All these

kingdoms

dom

which was believed

of Tado,

founded by the Adja^ from the king-

are said to have been

to

have been created by a brother of the Yoruba

sovereign of the city-state of Oyo. Throughout the sixteenth century, the kingdom
of

Dahomey waged

relief, that

incessant

lating to the struggles

prosperous

through

its

war against Oyo. The war

adorn the facades of the palaces

Dahomey

in

allegories, figures in bas-

Abomey have

between Dahomey and Oyo.

to

do with events

In the nineteenth century, the

possessed a port, engaged in trade with the Europeans, and,

military conquests in the interior of lands in Yoruba country, broke

from the guardianship

re-

of Oyo.

The kingdom

away

actively participated in the slave trade,

which, as in the kingdom of Benin, led to a certain decadence due to the growing
military need for

men and

permanent

state of

war with

occasions, Benin faced civil wars. In

Dahomey, human

mon, demonstrating

human

contempt

for

life

that

its

neighbors.

sacrifice

On several

became more com-

had not existed previously.

In

ELEMENTS OF ARCHAEOLOCY AND HISTORY

hundreds

the early nineteenth century,

annual

feast,

The Edo

to

death during the great

while thousands of slaves went to the port of Ouidah every year.

(Benin),

civilization: their

Yoruba (Oyo,

and Adja kingdoms belong

Ile-Ife),

founders originated in the Yoruba world, and

the case, their traditions always evoked

world and mythical center of the

Hence Shango,

earth,

Ile-Ife,

where

whether of Dahomey,

into being. All these kings,

cestors.

men were put

of

157

the third king of Oyo,

when

to a single

was not

that

the spiritual center of the Yoruba

the gods
Ife,

was

and

first

also the

god

come

kings had

Oyo, or Benin, had gods

for an-

and

of thunder

fire.

After reaching western Sudan, the Europeans penetrated another gold-supplying

region, located at the heart of the forest zone in the hinterland of the coast

on the

Gulf of Guinea, the famous Gold Coast, west of the Yoruba world, where they encountered the

Akan peoples.

In passing through the

struck

by the profusion

seen, gold

was

Akan

coastal cities

of gold ornaments

so abundant there that

and

worn by

between two of them gold

little

their inhabitants.

and a

As embellishment, they put

certain kind of coral.

Around

arms, legs, and body, they wear a quantity of gold or coral as ornament.
also

wear very

silver, etc.

(Bosman

At

finely

made

ivory rings on their arms, and a few have

their neck, they

letters,

in the late seventeenth century,

curls in their hair. ...

fetishes

As we have

served as currency. In one of his

it

Willem Bosman, a Dutchman posted on the coast

wrote that the people "make

Europeans were

villages, the

have several gold necklaces and

all

them

their

They

in gold,

varieties of coral"

1705, 126).

In exchange for slaves, the

Europeans engaged

in intensive gold trade

with the

Akan. European dealers very quickly complained of the "malice" of the autochtho-

nous peoples,
ver with

it"

who were prompt

appears to be pure gold,

the mixture except
letters,

to adulterate the gold

by pouring gold onto these metals "on

or

Bosman

it

seems right

by digging with

to the touch,

a burin"

"by mixing copper and

all sides,

and one does not perceive

(Dapper 1686,

adds: "Most people in Europe think

we

sil-

so that the whole

301). In

another of his

are the masters of the gold

145.

Vase. Ninth to tenth century.

Bronze with lead content, lost-wax

ing. Nigeria,

as

that

we draw

you well know,

mines.

do not

sir,

out the gold ourselves, as the Spanish do in America. But,

that

is

mistaken, and

believe, moreover, that

we do

not even have access to these

any of us has seen them, since the Negroes,

holding them as something sacred, will always do everything they can to prevent

anyone besides them from approaching" (Bosman 1705, 89-90). The same situation
existed during the colonial period,

when

the administrators of

Anyi country

ex-

pressed regret that the inhabitants "jealously hid the product of their searches.

cast-

Isaiah.

Height: 32.3 cm. Nigeria, Lagos, National

mine and

Igbo-Ukwu, Igbo

Museum,

79. R. 4.

on a holder with
tion.

mesh

This vase

is

set

a perforated decora-

Both are covered in netting, whose

is

interlaced in a double knot. This

same knot

is

found

in

numerous decora-

tions of objects in Africa,

among the

Ashanti, for example. The creation of

that object

was

a very delicate operation:

the different parts

were

then joined through a

molten bronze.

cast separately,

final

addition of

158

CHAPTER

FIVE

deceiving one another about the yield of their mines" (Perrot 1982, 149). This com-

mentary suggests that the Anyi also sought

the

to hide the location of their lodes

from

new occupants.

Even today, on

certain public occasions, particularly during feasts in

which great

personages such as the asantehene of the Ashanti appear, dignitaries exhibit sumptuous solid gold art works: rings, bracelets, chains, torques, and necklaces, and em-

blems of

their office, generally

The display

of wealth

is

made up

of a piece of sculpted

this

year.

.^

reserved for the most important individuals. Baule notables

by organizing public exhibitions

demonstrate

ments every

wood with gold leaf

The powerful Ashanti confederacy came

of their treasuries of gold adorn-

into being during the first half of the

eighteenth century, at the initiative of Osei Tutu, chief of the city of Kumasi. In the

following century, the Ashanti attempted to control trade in the coastal ports, during

numerous campaigns conducted

against the British and their

neighbors,

The Ashanti expansionist enterprise met with more success

the Fanti in particular.

in the interior of the country and, in the end, Ashanti territory

thirds of present-day

own

encompassed two-

Ghana, the eastern part of the Ivory Coast, and the western

part of Togo. During these military campaigns, the English lost a few battles. In fact,
for half a century, the

head of

a colonial governor

adorned the great war drum of

Kumasi. But in 1874, twenty-two years before the Benin expedition, a British column
occupied Kumasi; as in Benin a

little later, it first

burned the palace and the

city

and

pillaged the royal treasury. Despite that event, the English did not definitively con-

quer the Ashanti until 1900, which demonstrates the military and structural force of
the confederacy.

had discovered Benin, the Portu-

In the late fifteenth century, shortly after they

guese came upon another kingdom, Kongo. The history of the encounter between
the Portuguese

and the kingdom

chored their ships

at the

mouth

of

Kongo

is

unique. In 1482, the Portuguese an-

of a large river,

which was none other than the

present-day Zaire. At the time, the kingdom of Kongo had already extended

its

suzerainty to other monarchies such as the Loango, north of the estuary. The Por-

tuguese proceeded in Kongo as they had done in Benin; they sought to build the

kingdom

into

an economic partner, even while maintaining

At the same time, they undertook a vast

Nkuwu

(unlike the oha of Benin,

under the name of Joao

(figs.

own

advantage.

effort to Christianize the population,

undertaking that had more success there than

Nzinga

their

it

an

did in Benin. In 1491, the manikongo,

who

refused to convert),

was baptized

147 and 149). In 1517, his son was ordained bishop of

ELEMENTS OF ARCHAEOLOGY AHD HISTORY

Mbanza Kongo, rebaptized San Salvador

the capital of the kingdom,

Angola), where stone churches and a cathedral were rapidly

way among

bishop in

Rome and a son of Alfonso

he taught

at the

I,

the Kongo: a

successor of Joao

(present-day

built.

among

Christianization, attempted with only relative success

took root in a more lasting

159

the

Edo

in Benin,

Kongo was even ordained

settled in Portugal,

I,

where

University of Coimbra.

Portuguese navigators took young people to Lisbon, sent by the nianikongo to

ceive an education in Europe.

An ambassador, Cacuta,

with asking that missionaries and artisans be sent

to

re-

traveled with them, charged

Kongo. Cacuta 's stay

in

Lisbon

took place under the best auspices: "Cacuta learned both Portuguese and religion
so well that he
a

was baptized with his entire retinue and left King Juan after receiving

thousand marks of friendship, taking with him

priests,

images, crosses, and other

church ornaments, which his Negroes received with transports of admiration and
pleasure, because of their novelty" (Dapper 1686, 356).

Alfonso

sought to make Catholicism the

the royal cult, in order to reinforce his personal authority.

wrote Portuguese

(his letters

and

state religion

to integrate

it

into

The new king read and

addressed to the king of Portugal are conserved in the

Lisbon archives); he reorganized court functions and the administration of the king-

dom on

the Portuguese model,

among

force

his

new

later

printed in European

grew and became

I,

titles

on those

in

following the proposal of King Manuel

and marquis appeared

texts.

of nobility patterned

in

Kongo, and

With the military support

their

names were

of the Portuguese,

Kongo

I,

I46. Vase
tury.

the sovereigns of

Kongo used

the

new

Lagos, National

religion to reinforce

power. But the age of relative prosperity inaugurated under the reign of AlI

did not

last;

missionaries engaged in intrigues at court and sought to inter-

vene in matters of succession. Conflicts and struggles

ity

shook the kingdom. The

supreme author-

for access to

real factor of destabilization of

Kongo, however, has

to

be sought in the slave trade, whose scope, beginning in the sixteenth century, only
increased.
to that

Thus began a long period

which emerged

Portuguese,

Kongo sank
cratic blood,

who

for the

of social

same reasons

and

in Benin.

fed the conflicts in the interior

into anarchy.

Kimpa

Vita

claimed herself sent by

It

political disorder,

and

Under

at the

comparable

the pressure of the

borders of the empire,

was within that context that a young

woman

of aristo-

Dona Beatrice was her Christian name in 1704 pro-

God and

Saint

Antony

to reestablish the

splendor of the

former Kongo and put an end to the misfortunes of her people. She taught a

new

Museum. Two effigies,

one male, the other female, adorn each

side of the cylinder.
ration

fonso

holder. Ninth to tenth cen-

Bronze, lost-wax casting. Nigeria,

Igbo-Ukwu. Height: 27.4 cm. Nigeria,

a veritable empire.

Following Alfonso
their

With Alfonso

allies.

of Portugal, dukes, counts,

and granted

composed

in their

mouths

A perforated deco-

of snakes holding frogs

links the

two

figures.

160

CHAPTER FIVE

religion, inspired

both by the Old Testament and by Kongo tradition, in which white

missionaries were accused of lying, the

kingdom was described

as the true

Holy

Land, and Christ was said to be originally of Kongo origin, a native of San Salvador.

Thousands of Kongo

rallied

sionaries, this black Joan of

behind her cause. Under pressure from Capuchin mis-

Arc was burned

mouth," as Bernardo de Gallo, one of her

Dona

marked

Beatrice

the

"with the

alive

The Portuguese's primary

interest in

Kongo was economic:

and glazed

make

dynamic

(smiths, masons,

on the Gold Coast, they reconverted

monks

for cloth,

and

redistrib-

and cop-

into gold destined for

Kongo

economically, to

with a view toward future expansion in Africa. Artisans

ally

and

of

exchange

raffia fabric, ivory,

the kings of Portugal decided to develop

Initially,

it

in

porcelain, controlled

uted by the manikongo's court, the Portuguese procured

Lisbon.

of Jesus in her

The episode

it.

end of the history of the Kongo kingdom.

iron knives, mirrors, Venetian beads,

per, which, especially

name

inquisitors, expressed

joiners), clerks, peasants,

two German

printers, priests,

and

(both Franciscan and Dominican) arrived in Kongo. But the devastating ef-

fects of the slave trade

on the internal balance of the kingdom and

areas, then the discovery of India, distracted the Portuguese.

administrative costs prevented

them from maintaining

its

High

surrounding
military

and

the order required for the

proper functioning of their commercial enterprises. Progressively, the Portuguese

reduced

their military protection, leaving the

neighboring peoples,

who were

tired of

empire open

to the reprisals of the

enduring the pressure of wars started by

the Kongo. In the nineteenth century, nothing remained of Christian

a

few

Peter

objects, in particular crucifixes

which were

still

and

statues of saints

Kongo except

Saint Antony and Saint

associated with certain beliefs inspired

by Catholicism, and

the stone tombs of Christian kings.

In addition to the empire of Kongo, central Africa

and Lunda empires. The Europeans entered

end

had two other

into contact with

them

states, the

Luba

quite late, at the

of the nineteenth century, as they penetrated into the interior of the continent.

David Livingstone passed through the center of Angola only

the expanse

and

political

and economic importance

of these states

Sudanese empires, both archaeological and

to those of the

for them. In contrast, the art that has

been

left

in 1850.

Even though

were comparable

historical data are lacking

us by the Luba reveals the refinement

of their courts.

The Luba probably came from the

east. In the sixteenth century, after crossing the

Kivu, they settled in Katanga, to the south of present-day Zaire, near the Lunda.

people of conquerors, the Luba extended their hegemony over the peasant societies
they invaded,

up

until the nineteenth century.

The

diversity of

"Luba" populations

ELEMENTS OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY

161

explains the stylistic variety of their art works. They had a king at the head of their

empire, comparable to those found in the great lakes kingdoms of Rwanda, Bunyoro, Buganda, Burundi or, farther to the south, Mutapa.

kingdoms the

cult of sacred fire,

which

Lunda7

power and

vitality of the sov-

monarchy, which they might have then transmit-

ereign; they also shared a kind of

ted to the

signified the

They shared with these

In about the seventeenth century, the

Lunda

in turn

formed an

immense empire.

members of the Lunda military aristocracy left Katanga and

In about 1600, certain

came
river,

present-day Angola. The

to the center of

new arrivals took the name of a small

Chokwe. They organized the autochthonous populations

and extended

their suzerainty to the subjects of other small

bundu, which had inherited Kongo

Lunda, entered into rivalry

institutions.

for the political

into chieftaincies

kingdoms, the Ovim-

The two empires, the Luba and the

and economic domination

of central

Africa.

Unlike the Luba, the Lunda have not passed any original art works
despite the economic

and military

force of their empire.

The Lunda

benefited from products from the coasts of both oceans. The

founded by a Lunda chief

Mwero (now
the interior.

led

of

Kazembe,

became the crossroads

a perilous

for

Lake

commercial routes

in

journey of thousands of kilometers, caravans

by Portuguese traders from Mozambique, and Arabic and Swahili merchants,

arrived there.

"Lunda"

art, in fact, exists

"Chokwe"

intermediary of

strate their prestige,

try,

kingdom

to us,

however,

in the early eighteenth century, to the south of

located in Zambia),

At the end of

down

court,

encouraged

where the Chokwe

only in the center of Angola, through the

creations; chiefs of
art

among

Lunda

origin, anxious to

the autochthonous artists in that coun-

were formed (Bastin 1988,

chieftaincies

58). In the last

quarter of the nineteenth century, Europeans reached the court of the

mwanangana,

Ndumba Tembo,

at the

demon-

Chokwe

source of the River Kwango. Travelers found

the king dressed in a black cloth jacket covering a checked cotton undergarment; he

was adorned with headbands made

in a

of small beads,

and was wearing

a brass

crown

form vaguely reminiscent of European crowns. This clothing and these orna-

ments demonstrate the importance of trade with the

him

in his garb,

made

of copper

that stay depicts

long nails, also

(fig.

150) (Capello

Chokwe, though they did not yet know

ucts that
objects

had reached

coasts.

A portrait made during

copper rings covering his fingers, which end in

their territory

and Ivens

1969, 176-77).

The

the whites, were already using import prod-

during the eighteenth century.

were seventeenth-century Western

chairs,

Among

these

which the Chokwe imitated and

from which they made royal chairs (Bastin 1988, 49-50).

I47>

Crucifix. Sixteenth to eighteenth

century. Brass. Zaire, Kongo. Height:

35 cm. Brussels, private collection.

162

CHAPTER

FIVE

The kinship

of these three peoples

reported in legend.

As

in the

Ilunga.

to the

same

Chokwe

epics.

The founder

lineage.

One of his brothers

manifested in their dynastic history, as

The three founders seem

of the

Lunda

of the

until that time, the

princess Lweji,

time for the west to found

was

to the

the founder of the

Lunda

a technical

states,

have

Lunda
knowl-

bow and arrow and metallurgy. Brothers

unhappy about her union with Tshibinda,

new

to

Luba empire was named Kalala

or sons, Tshibinda Ilunga,

monarchy. Both hunter and smith, he introduced

edge unknown by them

it is

Yoruba and Adja kingdoms, a single tradition runs

through the Luba, Lunda, and

belonged

is

left at

that

following the principles of sacred royalty

introduced into Lunda country by the Luba prince Tshibinda. The

Chokwe

chiefs

recognized these dissident brothers as their dynastic ancestors and claimed the

same mythical

ancestor, Tshibinda, great hunter

and possessor

of effective charms.

To celebrate the great deeds of Tshibinda Ilunga, Chokwe artisans represented him
abundantly in statuary.
In about 1860, the

Chokwe, driven by

illness

and hunger, undertook a migration;

following the course of the rivers, they went as far north as Zaire, and toward the

south of Angola. In the

first

Chokwe people and

of the

quarter of the twentieth century, that forced dispersion

the impoverishment of their

of the institutions of the chieftaincy

were emblems

arts that

Yet another

of

kingdom

it

it

It

emerged near the end

at its

plants

of the sixteenth century

chieftaincies,

the populations of the region. In the seventeenth cen-

kingdom underwent profound changes under

chieftaincies into a single

situated in the re-

head, chief of the dominant group of the Bu-

Shyaam a-Mbul a-Ngoong. He founded

ni/im,

was

Organized as a federation of eighteen

until today.

who once conquered

tury, the

and the progressive disappearance of the court

of central Africa, that of the Kuba,

has a nyim, or sacred king,

shoong,

led to the decline

(Bastin 1988, 66).

gion of Kasai in present-day Zaire.

and has survived

economy

the aegis of an innovative

the present dynasty

and unified the

kingdom. He stimulated agriculture by introducing new

corn, tobacco, beans, and cassava created a capital city which attracted

important traders, formed a royal guard and army, and

succession. In the eighteenth century, the

finally, instituted rules of

Kuba empire was

a state with a varied

economy, based on flourishing commercial trade, both internal and

kingdom reached

the height of

its

power between 1870 and

the principal suppliers of ivory in their trade with Angola.

1890.

external.

The

The Kuba became

Among the imports ob-

who, having become the property

tained in exchange were a great

number

of the important persons of the

kingdom, increased the fortune and prestige of the

latter

through the

fruits of their labor.

of slaves

148. Funeral
ter Pieter

of the king of Benin, af-

de Marees. Engraving, 1620.

"Wahrhaftige und Eigentliche Abbildun-

gen" (part

6).

Frankfurt-am-Main:

Petits

Voyages.

R G V M E N T V M

lit.

Editi Rcgii, dc quo cap.5. fccuiidi

libri

agi[ur,cxccutio.

'

'

Hriflianamfldemamplixut Don iAlfonfus [ongiRex,

(^'UiiforiamcontrafralremPangiprsfccIam, nlrgio-

ntm Chrijltanam

"vna cum rege legiiimo cpprimerc (k-

tagentem,adiptiti, conuocaiU omniim

rcgm pro:eribiit

wmngit^'utjingulifii ditionu idoU conqiiirani, (^ imra

conjiII

Mum

tempiu adlocumdefignmtum

gent thus propoftta pan a.

defcrri curent , capilali negli-

Vnde magnaJludio intra men[is fpaciiim :n v-

nurn locum congefta omnia , eju/tin toto regno reperiebantur diuerfarum tetrarumtj^ formarum idola,regio i:ijfu in
aneret redaHapintj.

I49. Abjuration
by Theodore de

of the king of

Kongo,

Bry. Engraving, 1598.

Paris, Bibliotheque

Nationale de France.

164

CHAPTER

FIVE

This brief overview of the history of the former kingdoms of the African conti-

nent gives only a very incomplete sense of a history that was as rich and eventful as
that of

European monarchies. Some kingdoms, which

have not been mentioned

the

at

all:

the coastal

kingdoms

also

had

Haussa kingdoms of Kano, Gobir, Zaria, Katsina, and so on

all);

Kanem-Bornu

the empire of

Saharan

trails

in the region of

leading back to the

Lake Chad,

Maghreb and Egypt

hour of

glory,

Temne, and

Serer;

their

of Wolof,

(there

were seven in

at the

crossroads of

(early on,

it

was

a major

supplier of slaves and, at the time of the colonial partition in 1900, had already

Bambara kingdom

existed for twelve centuries); the

the remnants of the great empires of Mali

which appeared

which was

came

built

on

and Songhai; and the Nupe kingdom,

in the sixteenth century within the confines of the

the nineteenth century, with the

other states

of Segou,

push toward

Muslim

into being, such as the empires of

Yoruba world. In

by the

revival led

Fulani,

Macina and Sokoto, which cov-

ered the northern half of present-day Nigeria and the northwest of Cameroon, en-

compassing the Haussa kingdoms.

Many

of these

shook the

kingdoms and empires disappeared during the upheavals

societies of the African continent over the centuries. In contrast,

those confronted with the rise of colonialism are

often relied

on

still

in place, since the

existing state structures to establish their

ereigns, however,

met

own

that

some

of

new arrivals

power. African sov-

different fates at the beginning of colonization.

Some, such as

Mwanga and Kabarega,

kings of Buganda and Bunyoro, respectively, the asantehene Kwaku Dua Prempeh,
and the oba Ovorramwen, were sent into exile. Those who were able to hold on to
Behanzin, king of Dahomey, were deposed; others, such as

their thrones

while

could hardly do more than perform a ritual and religious function,

all political

come back

to

authority

was denied them. The

Kumasi and resume

his duties, but

asantehene

had the good luck

under English domination. Other

kings disappeared in the turmoil that followed the creation of

that

was

the case for sovereigns of

kingdoms

the king of Bunyoro,

African

states;

framework

of a constitutional

and three other sovereigns of Uganda, including

were removed from

they were definitively sent into

new

in the interlacustrine region of eastern

Africa. After being restored to their office within the

monarchy, the king of Buganda

to

exile. In

office, the

Rwanda,

monarchy was abolished, and

the Tutsi

monarchy was

also sup-

pressed a few years after independence, following a popular uprising. Others survive within the borders of the
ISO. The nnuanangana Ndumba Tembo,
in Capello

and Ivens

1969, 176.

the site of strong symbolic

oba of the Edo, the

new

nations,

and the person

of the king

and mystical investment. The asantehene

still

in

remains

Ghana, the

Yoruba oni of Nigeria, the king of Abomey, the sultans of the

ELEMENTS OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY

empire of Sokoto
in

in Nigeria

and Cameroon, the mogho

nnaha, king of

Ouagadougou

Burkina Faso, the nyim of the Kuba in Zaire, whose court has managed to pre-

serve part of
life

its

pomp from

of their countries.

earlier times, all play a significant role in the political

We might add that black Africa still has two monarchies, both

located in the south of the continent

and Swaziland.

and founded

in the nineteenth century,

Lesotho

165

Map

of EmpireSr

and

Cities

The periods

for the

KingdomSr

foundation of the king-

doms shown on the map are approximate. In

many cases, dates indicated for their decUne
as independent states refer to the beginning

of colonization.
relies

on data

Most

in

of this information

The Cambridge History of

Africa.

Borders indicated on the

spond

to the

tories of

maximum

map

corre-

extension of

terri-

each of these states during their

Tekrur. Mentioned in Arabic sources in the

eleventh century.

Wolof. Founded in about the thirteenth

century.

dom in

Became an independent king-

the middle of the fourteenth

centviry.

Yoruba.

Ile-Ife:

tenth century. Apogee, thir-

teenth to fourteenth century. Oyo:

of the city-state of

existence.

Below are

few chronological indications

concerning kingdoms or empires cited in

the text.

Apo-

gee in the sixteenth century; destruction

Oyo

in the early nine-

teenth century.

Central Africa
Chokwe. Early sixteenth

(?) to

end

of nine-

teenth century.

Western Africa

Kongo. Fourteenth

Ashanti. Early eighteenth to end of nine-

Apogee

teenth century.

to eighteenth century.

in the sixteenth century.

Kuba. Sixteenth century

Benin. Thirteenth to end of nineteenth

to late nineteenth

century.
century.

Dahomey. Early seventeenth

to

end

Loango. Vassal of Kongo until the sixteenth

century. Apogee in the seventeenth and

of

nineteenth century.

Ghana (Wagadu). Probably emerged

eighteenth century.

dur-

ing the second half of the first millennium. The name "Ghana" appears in
Arabic sources in about 830 (al-Bakri).
Eighth to early thirteenth century. Apogee in the eleventh century.
Haussa (Kano, Gobir, Zaria, and Katsina
were the first states founded). Eleventh
to eighteenth century.

the sixteenth century.

Apogee

in

the fourteenth century.

Mossi. End of fourteenth to end of nineteenth century.

Ouidah. Seventeenth
Segou. Seventeenth

to eighteenth century.

to

end of nineteenth

century.

Songhai. Contemporary with Ghana. Mentioned by Arabic sources in 872 (al-Yaqubi).

Apogee

in the sixteenth century.

Decline at the end of the sixteenth

century.

166

Apogee in the eighteenth century.

Mangbetu. Nineteenth century.
Ovimbundu. Seventeenth century. Apogee
between the end of the eighteenth and
the end of the nineteenth century.
Eastern and Soutiiern Africa
Ankole. Fifteenth century to 1966.
Buganda. Fifteenth century to 1966.
Bunyoro. Fifteenth century to 1966.
Mutapa. Fifteenth century to end of eigh-

Kanem-Bornu. Kingdom of Kanem mentioned by Arabic sources in 872. Eleventh to nineteenth century. Apogee in
Mali. Ninth to sixteenth century.

Luba. Fifteenth to late nineteenth century.

Lunda. Sixteenth to late nineteenth century.

teenth century.

Nguni

(Zulu). Eighteenth to nineteenth

century.

Rwanda. Seventeenth century to 1961.

Zimbabwe. Eleventh to fifteenth century.
Apogee between the thirteenth and the
fourteenth century.

167

Hap

of Ethnic

1.

Akan

2.

Ashanti (Akan) (Ghana)

3.

Azande (Zaire-Central

(Ivory

Croups Cited

Coast-Ghana)

African Republic)

4.

Bambara

5.

(Mali)

6.

Bamileke (Cameroon)
Bamum (Cameroon)

7.

Chokwe

8.

Edo

(Angola-Zaire)

(Nigeria)

9.

Fanti (Ghana)

10.

Fon (Benin)

If.

Gan

12.

Gourmantche (Burkina Faso)

(Burkina Faso)

13.

Igala (Nigeria)

14.

Jukun (Nigeria)

15.

Kongo (Congo-

g^mb.
guinea bissa

Angola-Zaire)
16.

Kotoko (Cameroon-Chad)

17.

Kotokoli (Togo)

18.

Kuba

(Zaire)

19.

Luba

(Zaire)

20. Lunda (Angola-Zaire)

21.

22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.

Mahi (Benin)
Mangbetu (Zaire)
Mossi (Burkina Faso)
Moundang (Chad-Cameroon)
Nafana (Ivory Coast-Ghana)

Nupe

(Nigeria)

Nyakyusa (Tanzania)

28. Nyamwezi (Tanzania)

29. Ovimbundu (Angola)

30. Rukuba

(Nigeria)

31.

Sapi (Sierra Leone)

32.
33.
34.
35.
36.

Shilluk (Sudan)

Shona (Zimbabwe)
Swazi (Swaziland)
Tukolor (Senegal)

Tswana (South

Africa)

Tutsi (Rwanda-Burundi)
38. Vai (Liberia)
39. Wolof (Senegal)
40. Yoruba (Nigeria-Benin)
41. Zulu (Tsonga -northern Nguni)

37.

(South Africa)

168

WAZILANO

SOTHO

Notes

Introduction
1. The term "Sapi" designates the people of the former Temne monarchy of Sape, whose
territory extended into what is today Sierra Leone. For the Edo, see chapter 1, note 3.

Chapter One
1. The term "Sudan" designates the entire intertropical region beyond the lands of the
Saharan desert, from Senegal to Sudan proper and to a part of Egypt; it includes Guinea,
Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon.
2. My use of the term "chieftaincy" will follow that in current use in texts dealing with the
societies cited in this book. Tradition dictates that when, within a single ethnic group, a society is splintered into autonomous political groups with a centralized authority, these are
called chieftaincies. They may sometimes recognize the higher authority of a king. This explains the fact that certain kingdoms can encompass several chieftaincies, each maintaining a
certain autonomy in relation to the central power.
3. Note that the term "Benin" comes from bini, and is taken from the name the Portuguese
gave to the residents of the kingdom and to the kingdom itself. Bini is from Ik Ibinu or
"country of clashes," an expression the Edo used to designate the kingdom. The inhabitants
of Benin use the term "Edo" to refer to themselves, their language, and the capital of the
kingdom.
4. Two palaces were conserved after the restoration, that of King Glele and that of King
Guezo, both of whom reigned in the nineteenth century. The Musee Historique d'Abomey

was

on the site.
Page numbers refer to the original French edition.

established

5.

Chapter Two
Leo Frobenius, a German anthropologist (1873-1938), was one of the first discoverers of
Ile-Ife, and brought back examples of it to the Berlin museum (figs. 28 and 29).
2. Numerous examples in terra cotta are currently known to us. In contrast, there are fewer
than thirty heads in brass and copper (Drewal 1993, 44).
3. In reference to this sculpture, Henry J. Drewal reminds us that, in Ile-Ife, deformed
individuals were given the responsibility of serving the gods and could also be offered to
1.

the art of

them. Their infirmity attested to the intervention of the god Obatala-Orishanla, protector of

persons whose abnormal physical form confirmed

(Drewal 1993, 46).
4. These axes were used for ritual purposes in western Africa and no doubt on the entire
continent. Called "thunder stones," they were supposed to have been left on the earth by
thunder, which in many African societies was thought to be the manifestation of a god. The
fact that the oba is represented with such objects in hand demonstrates the extent of his power.
5. In an article published on this subject, Barbara W. Blackmun (1990) inventories three
types of portraits in the art of Benin: the "conventional" portrait, in which the king is depicted
with his attributes; the portrait in which the oba appears as one of the protagonists in a historical situation known by all; and the "emblematic" portrait, in which a single sign condenses a certain number of allusions to a particular oba and makes attitudes and ideas explicit.
That thesis seems far from satisfactory: on one hand, the "conventional" portrait is founded
on the use of emblematic motifs; on the other, the "emblematic" portrait as it is defined in
Blackmun's analysis is reduced to a mere symbol, without any figuration of the monarch. It
would be difficult to speak of a "portrait" in such a case.
6. For a detailed description of ndop statues, see Cornet 1982.
7. Kuba sculptors still make miop, which are then put up for sale.
8. Mabol is the plural form of ibol.
9. This game is also widespread in western Africa, where it is called cviiri or aivele.

dwarves, hunchbacks, albinos, and

all

their nature as extraordinary creatures

169

170

NOTES TO PACES 51-73

That root was used during the ordeals designed to test persons accused of witchcraft.
if the chief indicated someone with his munkwiza, the latter would soon die.
11. There are also full-length portraits of the chief's wife in her personal kitchen. The sculptures in question here belong to the most elaborate Chokwe style, which Marie-Louise Bastin
calls the "style of the country of origin," the region of Moxico or Muzamba in Angola.
12. "All his Gentlemen that served him, have every one of them their Pictures made of
10.

It is

said that

Clay, after the

grave, one

life,

by the

and

fairely painted,

which are

set

and placed orderly round about his

and as well stuff as if

other; so that their Kings Sepulchers are like houses,

lived" (quoted in Cole and Ross 1977, 119).

The finest of these heads in terra cotta date from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The oldest ones known to us may have been fabricated in the early seventeenth century. The tradition of the portrait in terra cotta does not seem to have been practiced by the
Ashanti; conversely, it was widespread among the Akan in the south of Ghana, among the
Fanti, and even among the lake populations of the Ivory Coast. Even though the production
of them declined toward the beginning of this century, the practice of making a ceramic portrait of the deceased sovereign, destined to be exhibited at his funeral, has not been completely abandoned by the Akan in the south of Ghana. Among the Aowin, where there are a

they

still

13.

number of statuette sites, they are still the object of a cult in certain places (Coronel
Some of these heads are reminiscent of those found on the lids of more common funerary pottery, in a style similar to that of the Akuaba dolls.
large

1979).

14. George N. Preston also recalls that the royal portraits are not sculpted in wood, unlike
numerous other Akan art works. One of the reasons for this might be the symbolic conformity
between the two rites, which are, moreover, closely related, that celebrating birth and that

celebrating the departure of the royal soul for his ancestors.

du regard," published in Jourput forward an interpretation of the Bwaba of Burkina

Faso, who consider the pupil a well filled with water leading to the world of the dead.
16. The cult of the Head is indissociable from two other cults regarding the human person
and its fate: that of the Hand and that of ehi, a term that can be translated as "destiny." The cult
of the Hand, associated with the right arm, has to do with prowess, strength, and personal initiative. When someone judges that he has realized his own destiny in a fruitful manner, he can
15.

discuss that problematic in an article entitled "L'envers

nal des Africanistes

(Coquet 1994). In

it, I

an altar of the Hand (Bradbury 1973, 251-70).

According to another version by Joseph Nevadomsky, these sculptures of heads were
placed on the war altar, aro-okua (cf. Ben-Amos 1995). Some of these sculptures may also represent the heads of sacrificial victims (Paula Ben- Amos, cited in Schaefer 1983, 71).
erect

17.

Chapter Three
borrow this definition from Robert E. Bradbury, who uses it
kingdom of Benin (Bradbury 1973, 251).
2. The casting of the last plaque probably dates from the end of
1. 1

in reference to the art of

the

the seventeenth century,

the beginning of the kingdom's decline.

3.

As Jean Laude has pointed

4.

This motif

is

out, in the

pages he devotes

to that art

(Laude 1988, 143-49).

called ehe-ame, "river leaf." There are three types of ornamental motifs for

background of the plaques. Symbols of the god of waters Olokun, they recall that the
power of the oba comes from this god, whose reign over the aquatic world is the counterpart
of the Edo sovereign's reign over the earthly world. Beginning in the sixteenth century, the
Edo associated the Portuguese with the realm of Olokun, because they came from the sea;
figurations of Portuguese were then integrated into this ornamental background (Ben- Amos
1995). For chronological and historical interpretations of the different styles of these plaques
and the scenes found on them, see Ben-Amos 1995 and Ezra 1992.
5. The Edo have advanced a different interpretation, which does not contradict the first.
the

NOTES TO PACES 74-96

concerning these legs in the shape of a

oba Ohen,

who

his people

and was

fish.

They

are said to represent the crippled legs of the

He

reportedly concealed his handicap from

because of his deformity. Note that this motif evokes that of ancient
European amulets in which "sirens" held one of their curved fishtails in each hand.
6. The use of the number 3, symbolically associated with the masculine in western Africa,
also underscores the oba's power.
7.

from

reigned in the fifteenth century.

killed

The Edo, however, bore

scarifications

on the

face

and body

that distinguished

them

their neighbors.

may be

two dancers had to give the illusion

The dance of amufi took place during a ceremony, called isiokuo, in
honor of Ogun, god of war and iron. The oba and chiefs attended the ceremony, all dressed in
their military attire. The whirling and pirouettes of the acrobats in the tree may be a depiction
of battles (Ben-Amos 1995, 117).
9. This scene clearly has a symbolic meaning, but I do not possess all the elements of it. On
another plaque, Europeans are depicted capturing leopards. The animals and human figures
are arranged in a manner reminiscent of Western playing cards, with a vegetal motif. The
leopard, the counterpart in the wild of the oba in the human world, and the long-beaked bird
with spread wings (perhaps an ibis), belong to the bestiary very frequently represented as
8.

The

tree

a cotton plant; during rituals, the

of flying into the tree.

maintaining a relation with the monarchy.

10.

The Edo consider the leopard to be equal in the wild spaces of brush and forest to the
human world. Only the king can put it to death. The captured leopards were des-

oba in the

tined to be sacrificed during royal ceremonies, or to be tamed. In the latter case, they then

took part in the parades the oba led through his city (Ben- Amos 1995, 15), an ancient custom
that contemporaries of Olfert Dapper were able to observe and that Dapper himself described
in his Description of Africa. See p. 148 below.
11.

12.

For a more detailed description, see Bradbury 1973, 254-61.

may simply have animals or abstract motifs as decorations.

Other tusks

was undertaken by Blackmun (1983; 1991).

The Portuguese term recado, meaning "messenger," designates a wooden crook, originally probably a simple hoe handle, which represents the king. Beginning with King Guezo,
the end of the handle was sculpted to depict the king's strong names. In Fon, that object is
13.

This task

14.

called a makpo

(fig. 83).

The saber reproduced on the upper part of the door leaf is similar in form to certain
sacrificial sabers, such as those kept by the king's executioner, or migaa (Palau Marti 1967,
15.

283-84).
16.

The Fon use the term Nago

to designate the

Yoruba people as a whole,

who live east of

the kingdom.

Musee d'Abomey of a hornbill holding an object, perhaps a

Edo idiophones also depict the bird of prophecy of the oba Esigie
holding a small spherical object in its beak. Even though it is not the same bird, the iconographic theme is similar and would merit study. In each case, this little object the bird holds
17.

There

piece of

is

a statuette in the

fruit, in its

beak.

might allude to destiny.

18. 1 have considered only royal emblems up to this point. Dignitaries, military regiments,
and even villages used the same system of heraldry.
19. I borrow in part the description from Lombard and Mercier 1959, 37.
20. The fabrication of the hanging does not date from that event, but is much more recent.
It may be a reproduction from the 1950s of a nineteenth-century hanging.
21. 1 borrow the definition proposed by Andre Leroi-Gourhan regarding paleolithic art,
which I believe can also be applied to Fon art. He contrasts the pictogram to the "pictographical sequence" or the "linearized assemblage of pictograms translating successive moments
of an operative sequence" (Leroi-Gourhan 1992, 261).

171

172

NOTES TO PACES 99-161

22.

On this question, see the analysis in Kauenhoven-Janzen 1981.

1 draw from the different descriptions provided in Bastin 1961, 347; Bastin 1982; Bastin
and Kauenhoven-Janzen 1981. For a complete view of the chair reproduced in figure 89,

23.

1992;

see Bastin 1961.

24.

"C"

is

pronounced "ch."
1 do not possess

25. Unfortunately,

a detailed description of this other chair.

Chapter Four
1.

2.

On this matter, see Perrois 1993b.

On the history of these staffs, see Cole and Ross 1977, 160-62; McLeod 1981, 95-100.
am relying on examples cited in Ross 1982 and Cole and Ross 1977, 162.

3. 1

There are other types of recados besides those reserved for the king or his messengers;
of the royal family also have a right to them. One also finds military recados with
distinctive emblems for various regiments; religious recados with priests' insignia for the cult
of Hebiosso, god of thunder; and recados that anyone can fabricate for personal use, to display
on certain festive occasions. Among the Fon, ceremonial sabers can also be adorned with
similar motifs. For Fon legends concerning the origin of these objects and the stages of their
4.

members

fabrication, see

Adande

1962.

5.

On this matter, see Geary

6.

Rattray (1927) inventoried about thirty types of these in the 1920s.

7.

The context within which Rattray was obliged

1981.

to

remind people of the function and

nature of the Golden Stool was particularly tragic. The Golden Stool had been profaned in

Prempeh I was sent into exile by the English. The sacred stool was
and from potential pretenders, and was then found buried the same
year by road workers, who stripped it of its ornaments and its gold plating. Upon the return
of Prempeh I, the stool had to be reconstituted from a wooden shell of the original stool,
which had somehow been saved; that shell was incorporated into the new stool. See also Cole
and Ross 1977, 138.
8. Other individuals had the right to have their stools conserved: queen mothers, war
chiefs, and sometimes certain persons within the lineage who led an exemplary life.
1920, after the asantehene

hidden from the

British

Chapter Five
1.

86

The text dates from 1648 and was written by Vincent Le Blanc, cited in Randies 1975,
Dapper reprints the description in his writings.
In the Shona language, "Zimbabwe" means "great stone house."
The present-day republic of Ghana took its name from this ancient kingdom in an allu-

n. 24.
2.
3.

sion to
4.

its

past splendor.

ninety-kilogram block of

salt

was worth 454 grams

of gold dust during medieval

times {The Cambridge History of Africa 1978, 3:488).

5. The principal ethnic groups of the Adja, located between the Yoruba and the Akan, are

Fon and the Ewe, whose languages are linguistically similar. The Fon were the founders
kingdom of Dahomey.
6. Ghana remains an important producer of gold, the third largest on the African continent, and fourth in the world.
7. This cult of sacred fire is found even on the Atlantic coast. It is attested to in the kingdom
of Loango, where the king's authority was signified by a fire that was to be put out only upon
the

of the

his death.

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4, 38, 39, 44, 58, 90, 92, 93, 97,

and D. David, Zurich: 7

Museum for Ife Antiquities, Ife: 30, 32

Museum fiar Volkerkunde, Berlin: 28, 36, 133
Museum fur Volkerkunde, Vienna: 8, 9, 109
Museum of Mankind, London: 17, 40, 56,
101, 127, 137

Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen: 136

National

Museum,

Lagos: 110, 145, 146

Delaplanche, M., Paris: 83

Passoa, J./Arquivo Nacional de Fotografia,

Dubois, H., Brussels: 33, 47, 51, 52 (detail

pp. 28-29), 53, 96, 99, 103, 119, 138, 139,

Phototheque du Musee de I'Homme,

Elisofon,

Fagg, W.:

E.: 5,

P. -A.,

Glawischnig,
Grishaaver,
Hatala,

Paris:

Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden:

80

12, 13

Ferrazzini,

Lisbon: 49.
21, 82, 88, 89, 114

140, 147

S.,

B.,

Geneva: 57
Vienna: 95

Leiden: 45

B., Paris: 20, 23, 34, 37, 55, 60, 79, 81,

82, 83, 84, 86, 104, 118 (detail pp. 104-5),

123, 132, 142, 143, 147

Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa:

100
Kante, G.: 14

178

of Art,

102, 112, 116, 131, 134

Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris:

Museum, London:

Museum

130

vueren:

Beyeler, Zurich: 141

David,

Metropolitan
70, 77,

Easier Mission, Basel: 11, 15

British

R, Washington D.C.: 128

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas: 50

Lamote, C.: 10
Linden Museum, Stuttgart: 124

35,43
Rodger, G./ Magnum Photos: 3
Schneebeli, H., London: 16, 27
Schneider-Schiitz, W., Berlin: 29

Varbanov,

R.,

Uitikon: 85, 91, 105, 106, 107,

120, 121, 122, 125, 126, 129

Wallace Collection, London: 61

Werner Forman Archives, London:

19, 22,

25, 26, 75 (detail pp. 66-67), 76, 144 (detail

pp. 146-47), 146

Index

Page references

to figures

appear in

convention, 55-56. See also idealization;

italics.

schematization

cow

sacrifice,

75-76, 79, 80

absolute monarchy, 6

Adande, Alexandre, 125

Agadja, King, 92, 94-95,

Akan

Akenzua

Dahomey,

97, 125

54-59, 132-33, 141

art,

II,

25,

daily

Dapper,

49

15, 18, 68, 70, 86,

depiction

life,

of,

Olfert, 19, 27, 148, 154

al-Bakri, 151

disks, 137

Alfonso

divine kingship, 20-22, 32

I,

159

Anotchi, 133

divine origin, 4

Apelles, 34

Djenne-Jeno, 152

archaeology, 152, 154

double, portrait

artisans, x, 110-11, 142

Drewal, Henry

Ashanti, 10, 70, 132-33, 136-37, 141, 158

attributes, 44,

46-47. See

also

emblems;

91-98, 156-57

98-100, 103

as, 59, 62,

J.,

65

62

dua, 132

insignia;

dual power,

5, 7, 9,

dwarves, 41,

regalia

24-25

43, 169

B
Edo

baskets, 108
bas-reliefs, 70-71,

Ehenua, 86

battle scenes, 74

Beatrice,

Dona (Kimpa

Vita),

159-60

emblematic

kingdom

of, 32,

42-47,

portrait, 59, 169

emblems, 111-12, 126

Behanzin, King, 87-88, 125, 164

Benin, former

42-47, 68-84, 90-91, 96

art, 32,

Egypt, 33-34

86-89, 92

70,

155-57

empire, 6

22-24, 62, 110, 155-56

bird of prophecy, 49, 81-82, 171

enthronement,

black stools, 136-37, 141

Esigie, King, 47, 49, 78, 83-84, 171

Blackmun, Barbara W., 59

Europeans: colonization by, 155-60, 164; contact

rites of,

body, royal, 20-22, 56, 81, 106-9, 126

with, 116, 118, 160; depiction

Bosman, Willem, 157

influence

boxes, 141

of, 116;

of, 148, 150;

Bradbury, Robert

E.,

83-84

trade with,

events, figuration of,

brass plaques, 68-85, 73, 77, 78, 80, 82

exclusivity of use,

British, 155, 158

Ezumeja, 124

Byzantine

art,

feet,

cannibalism, 23

23-24

centrality, principle of, 73-74, 79

Chokwe, 98-103,

101

chieftaincy, 6, 169

Chokwe art,

vii,

111-12

54

fire,

cult of, 172

Eon

art, 71,

Frazer,

86-87, 90-91, 96

James

G., 20,

21-22

Frobenius, Leo, 35, 44, 46

frontality, 57, 68, 75, 79

51-54, 59, 70, 98-103, 101, 161-62

Christianization,
cities,

157-58, 161

6-7

federations,

chairs,

vii, 96,

68-69

81

Canetti, Elias, 127

cattle, 7,

of, 47, 49, 82, 87;

reaction to African societies

158-60

funeral portraits, 53, 54, 64

funerary

sites, 61,

170

14

clothing, 18-19. See also regalia

colonization, 155-60, 164

Garega, Chief, 110

commemoration,

gargoyle, 41, 41

44,

70-71, 83

composition, 68, 75-76, 79, 95-96

gaze, 57-58

179

180

INDEX

genealogists, royal, 4

53-54

gesture,

language of court, 19

Ghana, 150-51

Laude, Jean, 76

Glele, King, 71, 87-91, 89, 90, 125

lineages, 5

gold, 10, 141, 151, 157-58

linguist staffs, 106,

Gold Coast, 157

Livingstone, David, 160

golden

115-26

Louis XIV, King, 19-20, 43

ax, 115

government. See power, royal

Luba empire, 160-62

Lunda empire, 160-62

Great Zimbabwe,

Lweji, 162

Golden

Stool, 108, 133, 136, 172

Guezo, King,

71,

2,

150

87-90

guilds, viii

Mali, 151-52

Manuel, King, 159

habits of king, 19-20

Marees, Pieter de, 54

marriage

hand, 53-54, 170

hangings (Dahomey),
head,

ix,

Head,

42, 55, 58,

68, 86, 91-98,

King, 58

McLeod, Malcolm

62-63, 65

messenger

cult of, 63, 132, 170

history, depiction of, 83-87,

23

rites,

Mbomboosh,

97

94-98

metonym,

D., 116

115-26

staffs, 106,

21, 56, 81

Miko mi-Mbul,

48, 51

military feats, 74, 86, 92

milk ceremony, 23-24

Ibn Battuta, 151

idealization, 39-40,
Idia,

Queen,

55-56

molding

2,

ix,

83-85

Moussa, 151

Ile-Ife,

35-40, 155-57

movement, depiction

incest,

23-24

Muslims,

individuahty, 32, 58-59

Mutapa,

initiation rites, 102

Mwanga,

insignia,

viii,

55, 58

70

mother. See queen mother

Igbo-Ukwu, 154
ikebogo,

of heads,

monument,

46, 49

59, 106-14. See also attributes;

X,

of, 74, 76, 79, 81,

96

148, 150

164

em-

blems; regalia

narrative, 68-75, 91

miop, 48, 50-51, 59

Joao

1,

Nigeria, 152, 154

158

Njapndunke, Queen, 25-27, 26

Njoya, Sultan, 110-11

Kabarega, 164

Nok

Kala Ilunga, 162

Nzinga a Nkuwu, 158

Kimpa

154

art, 152,

Vita (Dona Beatrice), 159-

Kongo,51-52,

72,

158-60

Kot a-Mbeeky

III,

King, 13, 108

objects,

power

of, 112,

141-42

Kot a-Ntshey, King, 51

odwirin, feast of, 109-110

Kot a-Pe, King, 126

Olokun,

kra, 60, 137,

141

44, 46, 73, 81, 82, 134, 170

Oranyan, 42

Kraku Dua Prempeh, 164

originality, xi

Kuba, 50-51, 162

ornament,

Kumasi,

14,

x,

43-47. See

also

emblems;

regalia

kiiduo, 141

158

Kwaku Dua,

Chief, 132

OseiTutu,Chief, 133, 136

Quidah, taking

of, 92,

94-95, 125

insignia;

INDEX

Ovoranwen, 49-50
Ovorramwen, 164

Shyaam a-Mbul a-Ngoong,

Oyo, 156-57

simplicity, vii

Ozolua, 86

singularity of king, 22-23,

seated position, 73, 127-28, 137

48, 51, 162

58-59

slaves, 12, 159

society, structure of,

Duarte Pacheco, 155

Pereira,

4-5

Songhai, 151-52

palace complexes, 14-18, 17, 18

Soundiata Keita, 151

permanence, 4

spiritual

perspective, 32-33, 72, 76, 79

staffs, royal,

plaques, brass, 68-85, 73, 77-78, 80, 82

status, representation of, 72-75, 79, 84

Pliny, 34

stools (Akan), 108, 132-33, 136, 141. See also seats

Akan,

portrait:

54, 57-59; in Benin,

Chokwe, 51-54,

33-34; emblematic, 59, 169; of

Kongo, 51-52; Kuba,

50;

lle-Ife,

Egyptian,

35-41;

queen mother,

24;

and

56-57

royal person, 30,

succession, system

of,

Sudan, 151, 154, 169

siinsum, 132-38

supernatural powers, 20-21, 50

Portuguese: African trade with, 96, 150; colonization by, 158; depiction of, 47, 49, 82;

112-16

strong name, 87-90

43-47;

59; definition of, 33;

power, 103, 145

and Edo

swords, ceremonial, 112-13

symmetry,

57, 73

plaques, 71-72; in Kongo, 72, 158-60; use of

African artisans by, x

power, royal,

vii, x,

5-11, 113

Tadda man,

35, 36,

41-42

Tekrur, 150-51
three,

queen mother,

7,

24-27, 47, 49

number, 171
79

totality,

trade, vii, 96, 157-58, 161

109-10

treasuries,

Rattray, Robert

realism,

xi,

recado, 90,

S.,

128

30-43,

52, 76

124-26, 171-72

receptacles, 141

tributes,

10-11

trophy heads, 65
Tshibinda Ilunga, 52-53,
tusks, elephant, 83, 85,

58, 99, 162

85-86

recitation, 70

reef knot, 124, 132

regalia, viii,

regicide,
relics,

47

21-22

rituals,

Versailles,

19-20,43

vertical staggering, 76, 79

verticality, 57,

68

22-24

"river leaf" motif, 81, 170

Roman portrait, 34

war, depiction

royal name, 87-90

war

rules of behavior, 19-21

wealth,

of, 74,

vii,

11-12, 110, 145, 158

weapons, ceremonial,

word,

Sapi, 169

writing systems,

2,

schematization, 30, 39-40, 43, 54-55

98-108, 101, 120-21, 126-33, 141

112, 119, 126

royal, 91, 113-14, 122, 126, 132

Savi, taking of, 92, 94

seats,

3,92

chants, 71

Yoruba world, 157

181

JUN

1 2000

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

3 9999 03797 394 6

^0

iOf^fnCD

TUr

nr.

P'-'SUC

LiSftAfi'

Boston Public Library

Hi
The Date Due Card in the
pocket inon or before which

dicates the date

this

book should be returned to

the

Library.

^ock^^^

not remove cards from this

of the role of realism in these beautiful

objects represents a significant

advance

in theories of African art.

Richly illustrated and wonderfully

detailed, Coquet's influential
offers

tion

volume

both a splendid visual presenta-

and an authoritative analysis of

African royal

art.

Coquet

MichElE

and member

is

an anthropologist

of the Systemes

de pensee

en Afrique noire section of the Centre

National de

la

Recherche Scientifique.

She has published widely on systems of

visual representation in West Africa,

including a previous book.

Textiles

africains.

Jane Marie Todd has translated major

French works, including

Mona Ozouf 's

Women's Words and Jean Starobinski's

both

Largesse,

published

by

the

University of Chicago Press.

PHD40407 Yoruba bronze head.

Mankind, London /Bridgeman Art

Jacket image:

Museum
Library,

of

London /New

York.

:^^^^^^

ore than a

magmhcent album,

acquainted with an ancient

human

this

book

is

civilization.

The

and goldsmithing but

also

better

art of these neglected African

"'"Mms enables Michele Coquet to touch not only on dance,

_Fulpture, music,

become

a rare chance to

on the African

textiles,

embroidery,

spirit/'

ecrivain

and passionate book emphasizes the learned court

"[This] beautiful

Dahomey, and the Kongo.

A very interesting and

unusual approach

art of Benin,

to the art of

the continent that has been too easily situated 'outside of history'''

he Figaro
"One perceives

different aspects.

fore

its

many

and

there-

the full breadth of African art to the extent one discovers

Court

art is

one of the

least

known

of these aspects,

we should not be ashamed of our ignorance of the fact that, as in the West and

the Far East, rulers in Africa favored an art that glorified their reigns: this

Michele Coquet

... is the first to

be published in French on

book by

this subject."

French Vogue

The University of Chicago Press

www.press.uchicago.edu

ISBN D-EEb-iLS75-S|

90000
9 l780226'h

15757