Art of the Yoruba people.
The Yoruba are one of the
largest African ethnic groups south of the Sahara Desert. They are, in fact,
not a single group, but rather a collection of diverse people bound together by
a common language, history, and culture.
Yoruba mythology holds
that all Yoruba people descended from a hero called Odua or Oduduwa. Today
there are over fifty individuals who claim kingship as descendants of Odua.
During the four centuries of the slave trade, Yoruba territory was known as the
Slave Coast. Uncounted numbers of Yoruba were abducted and carried to the
Americas.
Portuguese explorers
"discovered" (We SUAVE types know, they didn’t discover it, right?)
the Yoruba cities and kingdoms in the fifteenth century, but cities such as Ife
and Benin, among others, had been standing at their present sites for at least
five hundred years before the European arrival. Archeological evidence
indicates that a technologically and artistically advanced, proto-Yoruba (Nok),
were living somewhat north of the Niger in the first millennium B.C., and they
were then already working with iron.
Let’s begin by examining
the artwork of the Nok people:
Nok Civilization: 500 BCE
to 200
Male Head. Unidentified Nok
culture artist,
Found in north central
Nigeria off the edge of the Jos plateau.
The Nok produced the
oldest known examples of terracotta sculpture in Africa, south of the Sahara.
The created lifelike terra cotta sculptures, probably portraits of
religious and political leaders.
Most of the Nok sculpture
found consists of what appear to be portrait heads and bodies fragmented by
damage and age. The recovered portions of the baked clay bodies that have
survived show that they were sculpted in standing, sitting, and genuflecting
postures.
Nok head fragments were
once part of entire bodies. The remaining “heads” are the most well known
examples of Nok art.
Each Nok head is unique,
but certain stylistic traits are found throughout the known sculpture.
Triangular eyes and perforated pupils, noses, mouths, and ears combine to
depict men and women with bold, abstracted features. Nok sculptures have
elaborately detailed hairstyles and jewelry that adorn many of the figures.
Portrait head
Nok culture, Jos Plateau,
Northern Nigeria
Terra cotta 13-1/2"
(34 cm) high 4th century B.C
Portrait
head 2
Nok
culture, Jos Plateau, Northern Nigeria
Terra
cotta 13-1/2" (34 cm) high 4th century B.C
Nok 5
9" (22.9cm) high x
5.75" (14.6cm) wide
Interestingly enough, the
Nok were not restricted to idealized health and beauty. Some sculptural figures
appear to depict subjects suffering from ailments such as elephantiasis and
facial paralysis. These "diseased" figures may have been intended to
protect against illness but, we don’t know for sure, their meaning and the
significance of Nok sculpture in general are still unknown.
I'm pretty sure that
image up there is a "diseased" figure, but I can't prove it. The work
of the Nok, like much of the sculpture of Africa, has weathered and suffered
from age since it was made and since it was discovered.
Want to know more
about discovery? Of course you do or you wouldn't have read this far...
So here’s more.
ARCHEOLOGY
The Nok of Nigeria
Volume 64 Number 4, July/August 2011
by Roger Atwood
Enough for this day. More
Yoruba to follow. Thanks for reading!
