|
The Yoruba people, numbering over eighteen
million, are one of the best known and most
artistically prolific tribes of Sub-Saharan Africa.
They are centered in southwestern Nigeria, with
a significant population extending into the
neighboring Republic of Benin. In addition, many
people in both North and South America claim
Yoruban ancestry, a result of the Atlantic slave
trade. Although Yoruban peoples have long
referred to themselves by specific group names
based on the towns they inhabit, they are all
united by the Yoruba language, a common
mythology, and related artistic styles, suggesting
there is a common identity linking all the people.
Historically, the Yoruba lived in politically
centralized city-states, the most famous of
which are Ife (the mythological nexus of
creation), Owo, and Oyo (from which the name
Yoruba was derived by missionaries). Yoruba art
is now designated by the name of the geographic
locale a particular group inhabited. Some
individual artists and workshops have also been
identified. The Yoruba are famed for their
beadwork, which was used to decorate attributes
of kings, including foot rests, crowns, and
cloaks. Other major art forms include textiles,
figurative implements used by herbalists and
diviners, small figures carved to honor deceased
twins (called ibeji dolls), cast copper-alloy ritual
objects, as well as decorative stools and veranda
posts that would have belonged to the king.
Stools lift the body off the ground. If you are an
important person, you do not sit on the ground;
you sit on a stool. The stool signifies that the
person seated on it should receive respect.
Stools that use carved figures to hold up the seat
reflect back to the days when important people
used human slaves as seats. In Africa, the stool
more than any other item is the penultimate
symbol of authority. One need only think of the
significance of the throne to the great monarchs
of the West to find a similar comparison. Quite
simply, the leader rules over the people as he or
she is physically and symbolically lifted above
the masses seated upon the ground. Thus the
basis of power is the stool.To the Yoruba people,
stools were an important attribute of kings and
important chiefs, who defined their power by the
display of prestige objects during important
ceremonies. Stools were among the most
important of these objects.
This magnificent stool is a masterpiece of Yoruba
wood carving. The overall form of the work
retains that shape of the tree trunk from which it
was cut. Despite the fact that is has been
somewhat hollowed out inside, it remains strong
and sturdy. An elaborate processional frieze of
multiple figures has been carved in relief along
the body of the stool. Perhaps the most
impressive figure is a naked woman who stands
with bent knees and her arms held behind her
head. A snake is wrapped around her waist, the
neck of which is held by a crocodile that flanks
the woman. Most likely, this woman represents
one of the Yourba goddesses. Other figures
represented include a musician blowing on an
ivory horn who wears a bag slung over his back
that has been engraved with a grid motif
indicating that it is a beaded diviner’s bag.
Another figure carries a drum hanging from his
neck, suggesting he is a musician, while a female
figure in front of him waves a Shango staff as
she dances. More animals are also depicted,
including a bird and another coiled snake.
Considering the iconography of this stool, it is
possible that it once belonged to a high priest of
the Shango cult.
- (X.0601)
|
