This remarkable creature was made by the Dakakari people. It is beautifully and sensitively sculpted, and unlike many cruder examples of this culture’s artistic offrenda. It is a rounded, humped base that evidently represents the apex of a large ceramic vessel. The legs are long and curved, arching around under the animal’s body. The animal’s underside is flat, and the arched back and vertical chest give it the general form of a triangle. The surface of the clay is so dense that it appears to have been burnished. The flanks and the midline of the chest are further decorated with ridges of hatched clay. The tail is very short, and the neck is continuous with the profile of the back. The head is very short, with reduced ears set very far back. The snout is reduced, with large nostrils, tiny eyes and an open mouth. In zoological terms it is not at all accurate. However, the distinctive shape indicates that it is intended to portray a hyena.
The Dakakiri people of NW Nigeria are a little-studied group that is primarily known for their unusual funerary traditions. The standard practice was to bury individuals with a range of plain pottery for their use in the afterlife. However, it is the burials of the higher status individuals from the tribe – including their chiefs and their retinue – that give rise to the production of the Dakakiri’s major contribution to the corpus of African art history. Prestige individuals are buried in stone-lined shaft tombs; the sealed tops of these tombs are ringed around with stone walls to create a small enclosure.
Skilled potters are then commissioned to create sculptural vessels, with plain, spherical bases that are buried into the underlying soil, and with anthropomorphic or zoomorphic superstructures that commemorate the deceased. The deceased are venerated annually by pouring libations of maize flour or beer over the pots. The trade was usually kept within families; experience was all-important – the most prestigious potters were often post-menopausal women. Every person who dies in an elite family has another piece – or pieces – dedicated to them and placed within the superstructure over time, these collections can build up considerably, marking the development of the family throughout generations.
The significance of this particular representation is uncertain, and cannot be accurately identified without context. However, the nature of such items generally revolves around plays on words or names, mythological characters, or even just an affectionate gesture towards the dead. This is a rare and important piece of African art.
