The recording of human history and achievements is conveyed in various forms. Among the forms are cultural artifacts and artworks which portray the cultural and biological evolution of humans through thousands of generations and centuries. The Sculptures from the Kingdom of Ife tell of the West African country’s history and are also a symbol of pan-Africanism and regional unity.
During the construction of a house in 1938 at a compound in the Ife area in Nigeria, construction workers accidentally stumbled on eighteen artworks. The collection, which is today known as the Sculptures from the Kingdom of Ife, consisted of one upper half of a brass figure, sixteen brass and copper heads, and a brass head called the Ife Head shown in the image in the appendix. Ife is one of the early civilizations and a cosmopolitan situated in the olden days West Africa, present-day Nigeria. The prehistoric city is associated with the ancient Yoruba Kingdom, whose history dates back to 500BC (Khan Academy, n.d.). The religious and former royal center of the Yoruba people was a commercial center that played an influential role in the ancient time trade, connecting local and long-distance trade networks.
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The little-known city played a significant role in the origin of African art. It brought forth very talented artists who developed naturalistic artworks from clay, stone, brass, and copper, unmatched by any African artists of their time (Khan Academy, n.d.). According to Yoruba traditional tales, Ife is not just the origin of civilization. It is where life and all creation began, and the Yoruba treat it as a central part of spirituality (Khan Academy, n.d.). To date, Ife is home to several shrines and spiritual groves that are regularly used by worshipers to perform rituals to gods.
The human Sculptures from the Kingdom of Ife, which were made between the 14th century and early 15th century (The British Museum, n.d.), portray a wide cross-section of the Ife society. The stand-alone brass head was made from an alloy described by the British Museum as “heavily-leaded brass” using the lost wax technique . The 35 centimeters high and 12.50 centimeters long sculpture weighs 5.10 kilograms and is highly refined and aesthetically appealing. The head, which is slightly smaller than the normal head-size, has a complexly constructed headdress, insinuating a crown. The main tubular section is wrapped around in three layers and consists of a projecting arc, with red feathers at the edges. The lower part of the tubular section has a row of red-painted rose like decorations. The middle part consists of beads in the form of vertically running rectangles, while the upper part also consists of rectangular but vertical beads.
According to the British Museum (n.d.), the identity and the function of the collection are unknown yet. However, the brass head has an elaborate beaded headdress, presumably a crown, suggesting its association with an Ooni, a ruler of the Ife Kingdom. According to the Yoruba myths, Ooni is a descendant of the gods and a sacred ruler who commands reverence among the Yoruba speaking Nigerians even today. Besides, the Nigerian nationals treat the Ife artworks as an iconic identity of pan-Africanism and a symbol of national and regional unity.
Even though their identification is still uncertain, this collection of sculptures from West Africa exclusively enlightens human history. The Sculptures from the Kingdom are a great achievement of African arts and culture. They bespeak the civilization of ancient times and play a central role in the national and regional unity of the Nigerian and West African people. I consider the objects to be works of craft, not art. The consideration is informed that these sculptures are physical objects created by the use of hands and brain to denote a specific thing, the human body, which is typical of crat work.
References
The British Museum. (n.d.). Sculpture. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1939-34-1
Khan Academy (n.d.). Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa . https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-africa/west-africa/nigeria/a/kingdom-of-ife-sculptures-from-west-africa
