Frank Willett

Ife and its Archaeology

No general account of the archaeology of Ife has ever been published, although the demand for such an account has been increasing with the growing interest in the art of Ife.1 This paper attempts to fill the gap by providing a survey of the investigations which have been conducted there. The reader is also referred to a paper by William Fagg and the present author2 which attempts to summarize the reliable factual knowledge about Ancient Ife, inferring from the archaeological finds evidence of the materials which have not survived. So far as possible repetition here of material contained in that paper is avoided. Moreover, since the archaeologist who works on ethnohistoric problems has other means of investigation than the pick and shovel, this paper will refer to ethnographic accounts as well as to excavations. According to Yoruba3 tradition Ife is the centre of the world. It was here4 that the children of the High God came down a chain from heaven with a five-toed chicken and a bowl of sand, which the chicken scattered across the primordial ocean to make the land. A little of the ocean was left to become the sacred pool illustrated by Frobenius,5 but during the last five or six years the pool has silted up and has already been built over. The senior of these descendants from heaven was Oduduwa or Odua, who is regarded as the first ruler (with the title Oni) of Ife. In due course he presented his sixteen sons with beadwork crowns, and sent them out to found kingdoms of their own. Their descendants still wear beaded crowns and enjoy a special status among Yoruba kings (or obas) although in fact most obas now wear such crowns. The pagan Yoruba accept such stories as historical fact, and there may well be a historical basis for some of them. The more sophisticated however, Christian, Muslim or Western style neo-pagan, have other ideas. 1 An excellent pamphlet An Introduction to the Art of Ife with a text by Kenneth Murray and seventeen photographs by Bernard Fagg, is available from the Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, 4, Millbank, London, S.W.I, price Is., postage extra. This pamphlet is recommended as a source of illustrations of the major antiquities discovered before I957. A larger range of photographs of the bronzes will be found in Leon Underwoods Bronzes of West Africa (London, 1949). 2 W. B. Fagg and F. Willett (I960). 3 The Yoruba number about four or five million people, and are a group of related tribes organized into city states each with its own king. They occupy almost all of the Western Region of Nigeria and a substantial area of the adjacent parts of the Northern Region and of Dahomey where they are known as the Nago. Although they speak dialects of one language, and share many legends and gods, their culture is not uniform. 4 The precise spot on More Street is now marked by a public latrine and an incinerator. 5 (1913), i, facing p. 22; Hambly (1935), gives an account of the pool, 466.

The Arts of the Edo-Speaking Peoples outside Benin City

T he principal papers in this issue of African Arts were originally presented in Chicago at a panel on the Arts of the Edo-speaking Peoples on February 2nd, 1976, during the annual conference of the College Art Association of America. The panels origins, however, go back to November 1st, 1974, when Paula Ben-Amos, Perkins Foss and I lunched together during the annual conference of the African Studies Association, also held in Chicago. Paula had already laid the foundations for the panel and for its publication in African Arts. We discussed the desirability of bringing together those who had worked in the area of the Edo-speaking peoples for a mutual exchange of ideas, and perhaps to take some steps towards a new synthesis. Most of the people whose work was mentioned were young, in most cases still working for their doctorates. As it happened no one was free to take the initiative to obtain the funds to bring these people together. When I was invited to organize a panel for the College Art Association, it seemed most sensible to use this as the opportunity we were seeking.

African Art: An Introduction

The development of the study of African art towards a history of African art African architecture looking at African sculpture understanding African sculpture contemporary African art.