This attractive and well-used carving of a woman
represents one of Africa’s most enduring and
charming sculptural traditions. She was made by
a diviner of the Yoruba group, at the request of a
mother mourning the death of one of her twins.
The notion is based around the concept of
bargaining with spirits, to save the life of the
remaining twin and also to ensure that the dead
individual not be forgotten. It is an unusual
rendering, with deliberate interpretation of
proportions, including large hands, short legs
and exceptionally ample hips. The arms are
slender and elongated, the breasts those of a
mature woman with a decided downward slope.
The neck is columnar, with a slim, laterally-
compressed head with a high, crested coiffure (a
central crest with five supporting “flanges” on
either side). The eyes are incised and relief
almond-shaped, the nose short and wide, the
lips a pair of parallel relief lines. Each cheek is
decorated with three vertical scars, and there
appears to be further scarring on the chin. The
surface is unpainted but is exceptionally glossy
through handling and the application of
libations. She is adorned with a bead necklace,
two strings of beads around her waist, and two
further strings around her left ankle.
The Yoruba peoples of Nigeria have what is
probably the longest extant artistic tradition in
Africa. The nation state is comprised of
numerous subsections that were joined
historically by the rise and collapse of the Ife
(12th to 15th centuries) and Benin (13th to 19th
centuries) polities. Each of the sub-kingdoms –
including Oyo, Ijebu and smaller units towards
the west – had their heyday, and are loosely
united through language and culture, although
they still retain a measure of independence in
terms of their artistic traditions.
The Yoruba are sedentary, agriculturist and
hierarchical, and are ruled by hereditary kings
known as Obas. Access to the supernatural world
is supervised by a very complex arrangement of
priests and spiritual intermediaries, who straddle
the cosmological border between the tangible
realm of the living (aye) and the invisible realm
of the spirits and the hereafter (orun). The
creator of the world is Olodumare – the source of
all ase (life force) – and his spiritual minions
include all manner of spirits, gods and ancestors
who can be appealed to or appeased through
human intermediaries. Most Yoruban artistic
heritage is designed to thwart evil spirits, and to
placate or honour those that bring good fortune
to the populace.
Yoruba populations have the world’s highest
prevalence of twinning (45/1000 live births –
compared to 8/1000 in the US), and this fact has
been woven into their mythology, culture and art.
Twins are promulgated by Shango, and are
regarded as auspicious. However, the mortality
rate of twins is very high. According to Yoruba
convention, twins share a single soul. If one
should die, the spirits may take away the second
twin as well. To avoid this, the babalawo (diviner)
carves a figure of the same sex as the deceased
child: this figure is known as an ere ibeji. The
mother must wash, dress, feed and anoint the
wooden figure as if it were alive.
The appearance of the figures depends entirely
upon the skill of the carver, as only the sex of
the individual is specifically determined. They are
always depicted as the adults they would have
become, rather than the infants they were when
they died. The specific social history of the area,
and its contacts with other areas or cultures,
does determine the final appearance of the
figures. For example, the hair of some
individuals is rubbed with indigo dye, and the
bodies with red camwood powder; specific styles
and details such as scarifications betray the
origin of most examples. Most ibeji are naked,
but socially-elevated families often wish to
manifest their wealth through dressing the figure
in ornate clothing or jewellery such as trade
beads. This piece thus commemorates the dead
daughter of a wealthy and grieving family.
This is a beautiful yet poignant piece of African
art.
