the arts of africa - Dallas Museum of Art

Roslyn Adele Walker is Senior Curator of the Arts of Africa, the Americas, 

and the Pacific and the Margaret McDermott Curator of African Art at the 

Dallas Museum of Art. 

Distributed by Yale University Press for the Dallas Museum of Art 

222 color illustrations 

Front cover: Janus reliquary guardian figure (front view), attributed to Semangoy of Zokolunga, 

Gabon, Franceville area, Kota peoples, Obama group. Late 19th or early 20th century, brass, 

copper, iron, wood, and fiber. Dallas Museum of Art, Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art 

Fund, Inc. 

Back cover: Janus reliquary guardian figure (rear view) 

Jacket design by Jeff Wincapaw 

ISBN 978-0-300-13895-5 

printed in china 

Walker 

the arts 

of africa 

at the 

dallas 

museum 

of art 

Dallas Museum of Art | Yale University Press 

The Arts of Africa 

at the dallas museum of art 

The Arts of Africa 


Roslyn Adele Walker 

This beautifully illustrated book showcases 110 objects from the Dallas Museum 

of Art’s world-renowned African collection. In contrast to Western “art for art’s 

sake,” tradition-based African art served as an agent of religion, social stability, or 

social control. Chosen for their visual appeal, compelling histories, and cultural 

significance, the works of art in this volume are presented under the themes of 

leadership and status, the cycle of life, decorative arts, and influences (imported 

and exported). Also included are many fascinating photographs that show the 

context in which these objects were originally used.

the arts of africa

the arts of africa 


Roslyn Adele Walker 

Dallas Museum of Art 

Yale University Press, New Haven and London

9 

13 

29 

contents 

Director’s Foreword and Acknowledgments Bonnie Pitman 

African Art at the DMA: A Brief History 

African Art in Context 

Chapter 1 

Icons and Symbols 

of Leadership and Status 

Chapter 2 

African Art in the Cycle of Life 

39 219 

101 

121 

139 

179 

Part One: Art to Aid Conception and Birth 

Part Two: Art for Coming of Age 

Part Three: Art for Security and Well-Being 

Part Four: Art for the Afterlife 

Chapter 3 

African Decorative Arts 

261 

298 

300 

308 

316 

320 

Chapter 4 

African Art and the Influences 

of Foreign Trade 

Map 

Peoples of Africa 

Abbreviated References and Selected Bibliography 

Index 

Illustration and Copyright Credits

director’s foreword and acknowledgments 

The publication of this catalogue coincides with the fortieth anniversary 

of the founding of the Dallas Museum of Art’s collection of African art. The 

establishment of the African collection helped to determine the nature 

of our encyclopedic holdings—the Museum has works of art from many 

cultures and time periods—and the African collection is one of its jewels. 

Inaugurated in 1969, our world-renowned African art collection, with 

its great strengths in Congo sculpture and textiles and its wide range of 

media and forms, now numbers almost two thousand works and forms a 

vital part of the Museum’s entire collection in telling the story of art from 

around the world. 

A catalogue of this nature has long been the ambition of the Museum’s 

friends and family. The Arts of Africa is our first publication devoted solely 

to this collection, taken both as a whole and with emphasis on many of its 

most dazzling treasures. It is also the first in a series of catalogues that will 

document the important riches housed in our Museum. 

I am especially grateful to Margaret McDermott and, in memoriam, to 

Eugene McDermott, to whom this book is warmly dedicated. Their initial 

gift of the Clark and Frances Stillman Collection of Congo Sculpture constitutes 

the foundation on which the DMA’s African art collection has been 

built. The African Art Acquisition Endowment Fund that Mrs. McDermott 

established in 1997 has furthered the development of one of the most outstanding 

African art collections in the world, and her endowment in 1999 

of the permanent position of a curator for African Art secured the future of 

scholarship on the collection and ensured its continuing growth. Through 

their almost half-century of philanthropy and outstanding leadership 

in the ongoing development of this stunning collection, their generous 

financial and moral support, and their passion for the arts of Africa, the 

McDermott family has enabled the Dallas Museum of Art to influence the 

cultural life of its visitors by broadening their horizons through the experience 

of the art of diverse cultures. 

A project of this magnitude is achieved through the contributions of a 

multitude of people. I would like to thank all of the past and current trustees 

and donors, whose guidance has nurtured the Museum’s collecting 

vision, and to thank my predecessors and their staffs, who have cultivated 

the programs and contributed to the growth of the collection. I sincerely 

thank all of the generous donors of works of art and funds that have 

enabled the Museum’s African collection to attain both depth and quality 

throughout the years: The African Collection Fund, The Art Museum 

League Travel Fund, The Bezalel Foundation, Inc., Alta Brenner, The 

Alfred and Juanita Bromberg Collection, Joel Cooner, Drs. Nicole and John 

Dintenfass, The Dozier Foundation, The Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Fund, 

The Foundation for the Arts Collection, The Friends of African and African- 

American Art, Rita Gaples, The General Acquisition Fund, The Cecil and Ida 

Green Foundation, Henry H. Hawley III, Mr. and Mrs. S. Roger Horchow, Mr. 

and Mrs. James H. W. Jacks, Dr. Penn Jackson, The Junior Associates, The 

9

10 director’s foreword and acknowledgments director’s foreword and acknowledgments 11 

Levy Memorial Fund, The Lot for a Little Fund, John Lunsford, Linda and 

Stanley Marcus, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., The 

Eugene McDermott Foundation, Alma L. McKinney, Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. 

Meadows and the Meadows Foundation Incorporated, Edward H. Merrin, 

David T. Owsley, The Alvin and Lucy Owsley Foundation, Pace Primitive 

Gallery, New York, George and Sidney Perutz, The Professional Members 

League, Dr. Hebe Redden and Dr. Kenneth Redden, Gustave and Franyo 

Schindler, Victoria Scott, Elsa von Seggern, Mr. and Mrs. George A. Shutt, 

Mr. and Mrs. Lee M. Singleterry, The Textile Purchase Fund, Denni Davis 

Washburn and Marie Scott Miegel, Carolyn C. and Dan C. Williams, Lester 

Wunderman, and several anonymous donors. 

Gratefully, I acknowledge the connoisseurship and specialized knowledge 

of the scholars and collectors who have had a particular influence on 

the growth and development of the African art collection: Ramona Austin, 

Michael Kan, John Lunsford, Dr. Christopher Roy, Gustave and Franyo 

Schindler, Clark and Frances Stillman, and Susan Mullin Vogel. We also 

extend our thanks to the curators, academicians, and other specialists, 

who provided advice and answers to the author’s questions about specific 

objects in the Dallas collections: Professor Rowland Abiodun, Amherst College; 

Professor Barbara Blackmun (retired), San Diego Mesa College; Professor 

Elisabeth Cameron, University of California, Santa Cruz; Dr. Theodore 

Celenko, Curator (retired), Indianapolis Museum of Art; Professor 

Herbert M. Cole (retired), University of California, Santa Barbara; Profes- 

sor William Dewey, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Profes sorToyin 

Falola, University of Texas, Austin; Marc Leo Felix, independent scholar, 

Brussels; Dr. Till Förster, University of Basel; Dr. Christraud Geary, Curator, 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; David Gelbard, the Gelbard Photographic 

Archives of African Expressive Culture; Professor Paula Gershick, Indiana 

University, Bloomington; Dr. Burkhard Gottshalk, Germany; Professor 

William A. Hart, University of Ulster-Coleraine, Northern Ireland; Professor 

Christian Kordt Højberg, University of Copen hagen; Dr. Sidney Kasfir, 

Emory University, Atlanta; Dr. Frederick Lamp, Curator, Yale University 

Art Gallery; Professor Babatunde Lawal, Virginia Commonwealth University, 

Richmond; Dr. Andrea Nicolls, Curator (retired), National Museum of 

African Art, Smithsonian Institution; Professor Simon Ottenberg (retired), 

University of Washington, Seattle; Dr. Diane Pelrine, Associate Director and 

Curator, Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington; Professor John 

Pemberton III (retired), Amherst College; Dr. Louis Perrois, ethnographer 

and art historian, Honorary Director of Research, Institut de Recherche pour 

le Développement, Marseilles; Dr. Constantine Petridis, Curator, Cleveland 

Museum of Art; Professor Ruth Phillips, Carle ton University, Ottawa; 

Dr. Mary Nooter Roberts, Deputy Director and Curator, Fowler Museum 

of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles; Dr. William 

Siegmann, Curator (retired), Brooklyn Museum of Art; Dr. Robert Soppelsa, 

Senior Curator, Art in Embassies Office, U.S. Department of State; F. Amy 

Staples, Chief Archivist, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National 

Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution; Professor Zöe Strother, 

Columbia University; Louis de Strycker, independent scholar; Dr. Barbara 

Thompson, Curator, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, 

Stanford University; Professor Robert Farris Thompson, Yale University; 

Lucien Viola, Galerie Rê, Morocco; and, in memoriam, William B. Fagg, Keeper, 

African Ethnology, the British Museum, London; Joseph-Aurélien Cornet, 

Director, Institut des Musées nationaux du Zaire; and Dr. Hans Witte, independent 

scholar and specialist in Yoruba art. 

I offer profound thanks to Dr. Roslyn Adele Walker, Senior Curator, the 

Arts of Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific and The Margaret McDermott 

Curator of African Art, for her leadership role as author of this publication. 

Roz joined the DMA staff in 2003. Immediately, she enthusiastically 

undertook to further the growth of the collection, carefully directing the 

development of future holdings. For this publication she selected the 

objects featured, amassed a vast store of research notes, references, and 

bibliographic material, wrote all of the texts herein, and guided the publication 

to its successful completion. For her dedication, expertise, and many 

contributions to the enrichment of the DMA’s African collection, I offer my 

most sincere appreciation. 

A publication of this size, scale, and ambition requires the dedicated 

expertise of a team of people to bring it to fruition. I would like particularly 

to recognize Tamara Wootton-Bonner, Director of Exhibitions and Publications, 

for her contributions in directing the planning for the publications 

focused on our collection and for her work on this catalogue. Eric Zeidler, 

Publications Coordinator, and Jessica Beasley, Curatorial Administrative 

Assistant in the Ancient and Non-Western Art division, deserve special 

acknowledgment for their efforts on behalf of this project—both worked 

tirelessly to compile information and assist with every detail related to 

the publication. Brad Flowers, the lead photographer for this publication, 

worked meticulously with object after object to recreate the unique 

texture and complexity of each one on the printed page. Giselle Castro- 

Brightenburg, the Manager of the Imaging Department, supervised the 

shooting and sorting of all the photography and worked with Roz Walker, 

Eric Zeidler, and Marquand Books to coordinate the selection of images. It 

is with deep gratitude that Roz Walker and I acknowledge the contributions 

of the DMA staff and other colleagues who have also helped in some way 

to bring this publication to its realization, making particular mention of 

Shannon Karol, Anna Lessenger, and Lauren Hughes, McDermott Graduate 

Curatorial Interns; Carol Robbins, The Ellen and Harry S. Parker III Curator 

of the Arts of the Americas and the Pacific; Mary Leonard and Jacqueline 

Allen, Mayer Library and DMA Archives; Jeff Zilm of the Imaging Department; 

Queta Moore Watson of the Marketing Department; Gabriela Truly, 

John Dennis, and Vince Jones of the Collections Department; Sidney Perutz 

and Sandra Youngblood, DMA docents; Natalie H. Lee, independent art historian; 

the editors Migs Grove and Frances Bowles; the proofreader Sharon 

Rose Vonasch; Ed Marquand, Marie Weiler, and Jeff Wincapaw of Marquand 

Books; Patricia Fidler and Carmel M. Lyons of Yale University Press; and 

John Lunsford, who was the inaugural curator of the African art collection 

and, before he retired, its keeper for twenty years (1969–1989). 

For many years the Dallas Museum of Art has collected, exhibited, and 

championed the arts of Africa. This catalogue, published on the fortieth 

anniversary of its establishment, is the first permanent record devoted 

solely to this important and internationally acclaimed collection. On behalf 

of the donors, trustees, scholars, staff, and most especially the McDermott 

family, I am delighted to share these treasures with you on this momentous 

occasion. We hope that this volume will bring pleasure and enlightenment 

to its readers and encourage a deeper understanding of the beauty 

and importance of all of the arts of Africa. 

Bonnie Pitman 

The Eugene McDermott Director

AfRicAn ARt At the DMA: 

A bRief histoRy 

fig 1 Installation from the 1961 exhibition, The Sculpture 

of Negro Africa. 

Part One: 1969–1989 

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) has long championed the inclusion of 

African art in the discourse of the world’s art. Before acquiring its first 

African object in 1969, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (DMFA, as the 

Museum was known then) hosted and organized a number of exhibitions 

that introduced the public to this non-Western visual expression. Among 

these exhibitions were African, Oceanic and Pacific Primitive Artifacts (1954), The 

Sculpture of Negro Africa (1961), and The Arts of Man: A Selection of World Art from 

Ancient to Modern Times (1962). The Sculpture of Negro Africa included a diverse 

selection of sculptures from twenty-seven ethnic groups that were made of 

ivory, forged iron, cast copper alloy (bronze), terracotta, and wood between 

the sixteenth and twentieth centuries (fig. 1). The exhibition, organized by 

the Art Center in La Jolla, California, and arranged by the Stolper Galleries of 

Primitive Arts in New York and Los Angeles, showcased sculptures from the 

Stolper collection and works from a group of private collectors that included 

William Moore of Los Angeles and Jay C. Leff of Uniontown, Pennsylvania. 

Paul S. Wingert, the leading American authority on African art at the time 

and a professor of art history at Columbia University, authored an informative 

introductory essay for this groundbreaking exhibition.1 

As this exhibition toured the West Coast and its Texas venues of Dallas 

and San Antonio, the Museum was in the throes of organizing The Arts of 

Man, which featured more than eight hundred objects from the world’s 

major civilizations. The twenty carved wood masks and figures, gold and 

copper alloy (bronze) castings, and carved ivory sculptures of ancient Egypt 

and sub-Saharan Africa included in the exhibition were borrowed from 

the Museum of Primitive Art, the Heeramaneck Collection, the Carlebach 

Gallery of New York City, and Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Marcus of Dallas. 

The works of art selected for The Arts of Man exhibition reinforced a fact 

established in The Sculpture of Negro Africa—significant works of African art 

existed before the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, when most 

13

14 african art at the dma: a brief history african art at the dma: a brief history 15 

extant examples were made, and in materials other than wood. A reporter 

reviewing the exhibition for the Dallas Times Herald noted, “some of the societies 

we think of as primitive or aboriginal produced art of great technical 

skill and highly sophisticated design.”2 He must have had in mind a casting 

that in the catalog is identified as a sixteenth-century statue of a Benin 

“king” from Nigeria (fig. 2). 

The Arts of Man, undoubtedly the most ambitious exhibition the Museum 

had undertaken up to that point, was the brainchild of Mrs. Eugene 

(Margaret) McDermott, president of the Dallas Art Association from 1962 

to 1964.3 According to John Lunsford, then the curator of collections, 

Mrs. McDermott “simply came in and in her sweet way said [to Lunsford 

and the director Jerry Bywaters] ‘I think we ought to do a history of art . . . 

I mean a history of all art, everywhere.’ ”4 Several months later her ambi- 

tious idea came to fruition in that extraordinary exhibition, which was 

the Museum’s most significant accomplishment in its fifty-year history 

and garnered national attention. It would also expand popular notions 

about “art.” 

Art of the Congo followed in 1968 and left a lasting impression. Organized 

by the Walker Art Center, a museum of modern and contemporary art in 

Minneapolis, the more than one hundred sculpted masks, figures, furniture, 

and personal objects (e.g., elaborately decorated hair combs and 

tobacco pipes) made in the Congo (which had recently gained independence 

from Belgium) were selected from the vast holdings of the Royal 

Museum for Central Africa (Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika / Musée 

Royal de l’Afrique Centrale) in Tervuren, a suburb of Brussels. The exhibition 

catalogue included an essay written by Clark Stillman, a connoisseur 

of African art, who with his wife Frances had amassed one of the most outstanding 

private collections of Congo art in the world.5 

In the meantime, Eugene and Margaret McDermott had met Clark 

and Frances Stillman in 1966. They were introduced by Ida and Jerry 

Rubin, friends and fellow supporters of the Massachusetts Institute of 

Technology, who were also friends and neighbors of the Stillmans. The 

McDermotts went to New York to visit them and their African art collection, 

which Margaret McDermott described as “just so splendid.”6 Her 

admiration for African art evolved, through study and collecting, to reflect 

the acumen of a seasoned connoisseur. The McDermotts and Stillmans 

became lifelong friends. 

When the Stillmans began downsizing their possessions, the McDermotts 

offered to purchase their collection of African sculptures, which had been 

assembled over a period of almost forty years. The offer was accepted, and 

the McDermotts acquired the collection, but not to keep. Instead, they 

donated a large portion of it (224 objects) to the Museum in 1969.7 They 

also provided funds to renovate a gallery in which to display the objects 

(fig. 3, opposite). In addition to filling a gap in the Museum’s encyclopedic 

collection, the McDermotts’ donation of African art “could present the 

extraordinary cultural heritage of Dallas’s African-American citizens.”8 Their 

motivation may not have been public knowledge, but an African American 

reporter at the Dallas Morning News noted: 

African Art is as strange to Negro students as it is to whites or any other 

race, because it historically has been pretty much unknown to them. 

Now, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts has a collection of Congo sculpture 

fig 2 (left) This “Standing King, 16th-century Benin 

bronze from Nigeria” lent by Carlebach Gallery, New 

York, was part of the dmfa’s 1962 exhibition, The Arts 

of Man. Current scholarship identifies the figure as an 

Ewua official who awakened the king daily and may 

date from the 18th century. 

fig 3 The Stillman Collection, installed in the dmfa’s 

Congo Gallery, 1972. 

on permanent display that is not only relevant to their search for black 

identity, but fits well into the pattern of broadening their knowledge of 

African history and development of race pride.9 

This extraordinary gift was, as Lunsford describes it, a “watershed event 

[which] . . . set for [the McDermotts] a new level of committed interest that 

would grow by geometric progressions over the ensuing years.”10 It was 

also a watershed event for the Museum, as the Clark and Frances Stillman 

Collection of Congo Sculpture was “esteemed all over the world and . . . 

its final museum resting place has long been a matter of excited competition 

and interest.”11 With the acquisition of the Stillman Collection, the 

Museum now numbered among the institutions with significant collections 

of African art. 

The Stillmans began collecting African art in the early 1930s in Brussels, 

where Clark Stillman was a cultural attaché at the American Embassy. In 

those days, one could find genuine objects—and sometimes major treasures 

like the Boma figure (fig. 4, overleaf)—at the Sunday flea market and 

art dealers’ shops.12 The couple was mentored by Frans M. Olbrechts (1899– 

1958), a Belgian anthropologist and author of Les Arts plastiques du Congo belge 

(1959) who eventually became the head of the Royal Museum for Central 

Africa in Tervuren (the source of the Art of the Congo exhibition).13 Under 

Olbrechts’ guidance, the Stillmans became connoisseurs of Congo art and 

knowledgeable about the original context in which the objects functioned. 

The collectors patronized the Belgian art dealers Jeanne Walschot (1896– 

1977 [Kanyok water pipe]), who had inherited a vast collection of old African 

objects from relatives who had been well-placed colonial bureaucrats in the 

Belgian Congo;14 Gustave De Hondt (also spelled Dehondt, d. 1952 [Luba 

male figure standing on animal and Mbala female with child]), who was in 

charge of the Belgian Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair of 1939 and also 

had colonialist family connections;15 and Raoul Blondiau (Chokwe chief’s 

chair). Blondiau was a connoisseur of African art whose collection was 

the foundation for the Blondiau-Theatre Arts Collection of Primitive Art 

that was exhibited in New York and Chicago in 1927, nearly a decade before 

the epoch-making African Negro Art exhibition at the Museum of Modern 

Art (1935).16 

The collection, presented to the public in 1969, was named the Clark 

and Frances Stillman Collection of Congo Sculpture to honor the previous 

owners and to reflect the geographic origin of the objects. Lunsford 

organized the inaugural exhibition, which was enthusiastically received by 

the art critics and public alike. African Art and the Modern Tradition, an exhibition 

mounted in an adjoining gallery, revealed the relationship between 

traditional African art and twentieth-century art through the use of original 

works, photographs, texts, and quotations from the early European 

modernists. 

Inspired by the collecting activity at the Museum, several Dallas collectors 

became enthusiasts and began to acquire African works for their own 

collections. They patronized both established art dealers and “runners,” as 

itinerant art dealers from Africa were called. In 1972, African Art from Dallas 

Collections showcased over three hundred diverse works of art grouped under 

the themes of Metal: Adornment, Amulets, and Power; Figures: Spirits to 

Man to Spirit; Instruments of Magic: Status and Control; and Masks and 

Dance: Transformation, Discipline, Theater. Those identified as lending to


fig 4 Standing Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 

Boma, 19th–20th century. Wood and fiber. The Clark and 

Frances Stillman Collection of Congo Sculpture, gift of 

Eugene and Margaret McDermott, 1969.S.6. 

the exhibition included Bernard Brister, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred L. Bromberg, 

Mr. and Mrs. Otis Dozier, Steve Farr, Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Fogelson, Mr. and Mrs. 

Walter Foxworth, Donald W. Greaves, Mr. and Mrs. James A. Ledbetter, Mr. 

and Mrs. Stanley Marcus, Mr. and Mrs. Richard K. Marks, Madelon Mosier, 

Mr. and Mrs. Raymond D. Nasher, Mr. and Mrs. George Perutz, Judith 

Robinson, Linda Robinson, and Mr. and Mrs. Dan C. Williams.17 Several of 

these lenders later donated their treasures to the Museum. 

The Museum continued to bring traveling exhibitions of African art to 

Dallas. African Art of the Dogon: The Lester Wunderman Collection (1974) was organized 

by Michael Kan, the curator of African art at the Brooklyn Museum 

and the DMA’s first Eugene McDermott Visiting Curator (1986). Kan maintained 

ties with the Museum, serving as a consultant on new acquisitions. 

Primitive Art Masterworks (1975) afforded Dallas citizenry an opportunity 

to view the African, Oceanic, and ancient American art collections of the 

Museum of Primitive Art (MPA), which co-organized the exhibition with 

the American Federation of Arts, New York. 

The Museum’s African art collection reached another milestone in 1974 

when its holdings grew to include the important and well-known collection 

of Gustave and Franyo Schindler of New York City. Presided over by the 

then-director Harry S. Parker III, the acquisition was made possible by the 

Eugene McDermott Foundation in honor of Eugene McDermott, who had 

died in 1973. At the time Margaret McDermott said, 

My husband possessed a genuine joy in giving. His interest and the 

majority of his giving were directed toward education. The arts, he felt, 

were an integral part of education—vital for individuals and communities. 

So he would have approved, I know, of our gift of the Schindler 

Collection of African Art to the museum. Besides adding to its growing 

collection of art, he would have derived pleasure from supporting 

the museum’s fine staff while making a gift to Dallas—a city which had 

been so good to him and for which he had an enduring affection.18 

Named The Gustave and Franyo Schindler Collection of African Sculpture, 

the assemblage of fifty works extended the stylistic and geographical reach 

of the Dallas holdings with objects from West Africa (Mali, Upper Volta 

[now Burkina Faso], Guinea, Liberia, the Ivory Coast [Côte d’Ivoire], Ghana, 

and Nigeria). The Museum’s Central African holdings were augmented 

by objects from Gabon and Congo (Brazzaville) as well as Zaire (now the 

Democratic Republic of the Congo). In contrast to most of the small-scale 

objects and focus on figurative sculpture in the Stillman Collection, the 

Schindler Collection offered large-scale statuary and masks. The acquisition 

of the Schindler Collection established the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts 

as the leading repository of African art in the Southwest. 

Gustave and Franyo Schindler first encountered African art in the late 

1940s in Germany at a display of German Expressionist paintings coupled 

with African sculptures. Franyo Schindler was a painter who had a special 

eye for the African forms and “was fascinated by the mysticism connected 

with them.”19 Because few American art museums displayed or collected 

African art, the Schindlers developed their connoisseurship by studying 

African works at the British Museum in London, the Musée de l’Homme in 

Paris, and the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren. As they began 

to build their collection, the Schindlers primarily patronized art dealers 

in New York City. They did not try to collect all the sculpture-producing


cultures or seek only rare objects, but were attracted to objects that displayed 

“. . . a certain simplicity and purity of conception, and the presence 

in a piece of the dignity and the almost religious force which makes one 

feel that it had actually served in the ceremonial rites for which it was created.”20 

Indeed, the result of their efforts was a collection of rare finds, 

among which are a centuries-old pre-Dogon standing female figure from 

Mali, an elegant Senufo rhythm pounder from Côte d’Ivoire, a colossal 

Baga D’mba headdress from Guinea, an Igbo standing female figure from 

Nigeria, and a Hemba ancestor figure and Zande yanda figure, both of which 

are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

The acquisition of the Schindler Collection prompted Parker to declare, 

“The extraordinarily high quality of these pieces combined with the 

Stillman Collection of Congo Art moves us into the top ranks of African art 

collections in the country.”21 The collection was installed in the renovated 

West Wing in galleries adjacent to the Ancient American and Pacific art on 

one side and the classical collection on the other. 

Both the Stillmans and the Schindlers continued to be involved in the 

Museum’s collection building efforts until they died. In 1971, for example, 

The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., acquired a group of 

nine masks from Clark Stillman, and in 1978, following the death of his wife, 

the McDermott Art Fund acquired fourteen more sculptures from their collection. 

In 1980, Stillman donated the couple’s extensive collection of books 

about Congo art and culture to the Museum’s Mildred R. and Frederick M. 

Mayer Library. Most of the books, like the rare works of art in the Stillman 

Collection of Congo Sculpture, are collectors’ items today. For their part, 

between 1976 and 1987 the Schindlers donated several more sculptures to 

the Museum, including a Bobo mask from Burkina Faso, a Mumuye standing 

figure from Nigeria, and an Ovimbundu pipe from Angola. A Dogon 

door lock was a joint donation with the Bezalel Foundation. 

The African art collection continued to grow in depth and quality with 

generous financial assistance from the McDermott Fund and donations of 

art from local and out-of-state supporters. In 1975 the Museum acquired 

an Igbo headdress from Nigeria—rarely encountered in public or private 

collections—through The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., 

and the generous contributions of Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. Meadows, the 

Meadows Foundation Incorporated, and Stanley and Billie Marcus. Lester 

Wunderman, a New York art collector whose passion was the art of the 

Dogon peoples, donated a nommo statue. The acquisition of a male effigy 

vessel by Voania Muba, a Woyo potter from Congo, and an effigy bell from 

the Lower Niger River area of Nigeria resulted from the generosity of Mr. 

and Mrs. Eugene McDermott. With these additions, the African art collection 

offered a wider range of materials, works by named artists (which 

countered the notion that traditional African art is anonymous), and art 

that reached back in time. 

Dallas was one of three venues for the 1978 exhibition The Arts of Ghana, 

which was organized by Herbert M. Cole and Doran H. Ross for the Museum 

of Cultural History at the University of California, Los Angeles. The exhibition 

presented an array of object types, from popular kente cloth and akua’ba 

figures that had become part of American fashion and popular culture 

to the visual arts of lesser-known cultures such as the Lobi, Nafana, and 

Moba. Nearly twenty years later, a Vagala mask displayed in this exhibition 

entered the Museum’s collection as a gift from John Lunsford. 

Gallery space designed by Barney Delabano, 

Fair Park, 1979. 

The 1970s closed with the purchase of a rare terracotta ritual bowl by a 

Yoruba or Edo (Bini) artist from Nigeria. Gifts included a large-scale Igbo 

standing female shrine figure from Mr. and Mrs. Lee M. Singleterry and 

a Songye male figure from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a 

Yoruba ivory tapper carved in the form of a kneeling female figure from 

Nigeria that were donated by the Art Museum League Travel Fund. The 

Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., acquired the fourteen 

aforementioned sculptures from the Clark and Frances Stillman Collection, 

including a Bwa standing male figure from Burkina Faso, a Pende cup with 

back-to-back standing male and female figures, a Luba headrest with a 

female caryatid, a Lulua standing figure with an extraordinarily long neck, 

and an elegant Zande figurative harp from the Democratic Republic of the 

Congo. The Schindlers donated the Bobo Nwenka mask from Burkina Faso 

that still bears traces of the original pigment. 

Despite the two-story wing that was added to the building in 1965, the 

museum was bursting at the seams. Dallas voters agreed on Novem ber 6, 

1979, that a new and larger building was in order. This new building was to 

be designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes and built downtown in what has 

become the Arts District. While the new building was under construction, 

exhibitions and collection building continued in the existing facility. In 

addition to the Schindlers’ largesse, there were gifts from the local art collector 

Henry W. Hawley III, who donated an Asante akua’ba fertility figure, an 

Asante hair comb (both from Ghana), and, from Côte d’Ivoire, a Baule ointment 

box with an anthropomorphic head. A monumental arugba caryatid 

vessel that was later attributed to the Yoruba sculptor Akobi Ogun Fakeye 

and a Senufo footed drum decorated with relief figures were donated by 

Stanley and Linda Marcus, also of Dallas, to the Foundation for the Arts. 

The Foundation for the Arts was established in 1964 as a holding agency for 

the collection formerly held by the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts 

(which had merged with the DMFA in 1963), with the power to solicit funds 

and acquire art objects to be placed at the disposal of the Museum. 

The new museum building, which was renamed the Dallas Museum of Art, 

was opened to the public in 1984. The Director Harry S. Parker III explained 

the reason for the name change, saying, “This title better describes this 

inclusive collection which ranges from painting and sculpture to textiles 

and photographs, African masks and pre-Columbian pottery.”22 In celebration 

of opening the new building, the longtime supporters Gustave and 

Franyo Schindler donated a monumental Dogon “ark,” and Stanley and 

Linda Marcus donated over one hundred fertility figures from around the 

world and covering a time span from 5,000 BC to the mid-twentieth century. 

Twenty-two of the figures originated in African countries, among them 

Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

An Igbo ikenga seated male shrine figure and an elaborately decorated, 

lidded bowl by the renowned Yoruba sculptor Arowogun (Areogun) of Osi- 

Ilorin were donated by Carolyn C. and Dan C. Williams of Dallas. 

Although growing, the DMA’s African art collection essentially still consisted 

of sculpture. This situation changed in 1984 when Carol Robbins, 

then the curator of textiles, acquired four woven raffia cloths from Zaire 

(now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) with funds from The Eugene 

and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., and an anonymous donor. Three of 

the textiles, which are between fifteen and twenty feet long and decorated 

with appliqué, were originally worn by Kuba women as wrapper-style skirts


on ceremonial occasions. The fourth and smallest panel is decorated with 

cut-pile embroidery, a technique for which the Shoowa, a Kuba subgroup, 

have long been famous. In addition to providing two-dimensional art 

forms, the textiles provided much needed examples of women’s art in the 

collection. In 1985, the estate of Robert Plant Armstrong—a professor at 

the University of Texas at Dallas, an avid art collector, and the author of 

many articles and books on African art—donated a Teke mantle from the 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, then Zaire. 

Between 1985 and 1989, the Dallas Museum of Art hosted three major 

traveling exhibitions focused on African art. The Museum of Modern Art’s 

“Primitivism” in 20th-Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern explored 

the impact of so-called tribal African, Oceanic, American Indian, and Eskimo 

art on the art of such European modernists as Picasso, Brancusi, Modigliani, 

Klee, Giacometti, and others. Dallas was one of three venues and the only 

one west of the Mississippi River. While the Dallas Museum of Art did not 

lend to this exhibition, a Baule sculpture in the exhibition became part of 

the Dallas collection several years later. It should be noted that the Eugene 

McDermott Foundation supported publication of the exhibition catalogue. 

The singular focus of Ancestral Arts of Gabon, which was organized by the 

Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva, Switzerland, nicely complemented 

the Museum’s sculptures from that country. Art /Artifact, organized by the 

Center for African Art, New York, explored the changing methods of exhibiting 

and interpreting African art in Western museums with objects from 

the collections of the Buffalo Museum of Science, the Hampton University 

Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History. 

In 1989 the Museum’s adjunct curator of African American Art, Alvia 

Wardlaw, organized the traveling exhibition Black Art—Ancestral Legacy: The 

African Impulse in African American Art. Works from the collection featured 

in the exhibition included the Fang four-faced helmet mask and the Lega 

figure with four heads from the Gustave and Franyo Schindler Collection 

of African Sculpture that inspired and influenced African American artists. 

Following its Dallas debut, the exhibition traveled to the High Museum of 

Art, Atlanta, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Virginia Museum of Fine 

Arts, Richmond. 

In his preface to the Black Art—Ancestral Legacy catalogue, the then-director 

Richard Brettell wrote 

The Dallas Museum of Art had the wisdom and foresight to purchase 

two internationally significant private collections of African art as early 

as 1969 and 1974. Indeed, the Stillman and the Schindler Collections 

represent the core of a collection of African sculpture that rivals that of 

the Metropolitan Museum of New York and is among the greatest collections 

of African art in any American art museum.23 

By 1989 the collection of African objects amounted to 350 and was destined 

to continue growing in both depth and quality. 

Part Two: 1990–Present 

The 1990s began with an extraordinary gift of approximately one thousand 

loose and strung African trade beads from the Dozier Foundation. The 

Museum became the repository of one of the largest public collections of 

such objects (fig. 5). The donation was inspired by comments that the art 

historian Susan Mullin Vogel had made to Velma Davis Dozier during a visit 

fig 5 A selection of African trade beads collected by 

Velma Davis Dozier, including drawn-glass chevron 

beads made in Europe, marbled beads made in Europe, 

mille fiore beads made in Venice, 17th-century glass 

beads from the Netherlands, seed beads, cowrie shells, 

and metal beads made in Africa. Dallas Museum of Art, 

gift of The Dozier Foundation. 

in 1988. Vogel, one of several renowned African art specialists called upon to 

help guide the African art collection, suggested enlivening the African gallery 

with colorful African trade beads. The assistant curator Carol Robbins 

knew that Velma Dozier had amassed an outstanding collection of beads 

and her husband Otis had bought masks and figures from itinerant African 

art dealers. In addition to displaying a wide array of colors, textures, and 

shapes, trade beads reflect Africa’s contact with the outside world (Asia and 

Europe). Beads adorned both sculpture and human beings. In some societies, 

they signified an affiliation with a particular religious practice, but 

because of their value as imported objects, they generally indicated individual 

or group prestige and prosperity. The Otis and Velma Davis Dozier 

Fund established in 1988 also enabled the Museum to purchase, among 

other objects, a classic Ndebele woman’s beaded cape from South Africa 

in 1991. 

In 1991 the Museum acquired 258 Coptic Christian crosses. Ranging in size 

from a few inches to over two feet tall, the crosses made of carved wood 

and cast metal alloys date from about the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. 

This important collection was assembled between 1964 and 1967 in 

Ethiopia by the professors Hebe and Kenneth Redden. Because Ethiopia did 

not have a law governing the exportation of cultural property at the time, it 

was legal to collect cultural objects. At the behest of Emperor Haile Selassie, 

Kenneth Redden—a member of a legal team from the U.S. Department of 

State that established the first law school in Ethiopia—drafted Ethiopia’s 

first Antiquities Protection Law. Redden was allowed to keep the crosses


he had collected as a token of the emperor’s appreciation and with the 

understanding that the crosses would “ultimately be placed in an educational 

setting, where scholars and the public could learn from them about 

Ethiopian culture.”24 The collection was subsequently exhibited at the 

Grand Palais in Paris (1966), the Musée Dynamique à Dakar, Senegal, during 

the first World Festival of Negro Arts (1967), and at the University of Virginia 

(1972). Originally donated to St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, the collection 

of crosses was permanently moved to the Dallas Museum of Art so 

that it could be accessible to a broader public. In addition, the Museum had 

“remarkable African holdings” and was willing to share the collection with 

the African American Museum. Presented to the public in 1992–1993 in an 

exhibition organized by Anne Bromberg, The Cecil and Ida Green Curator of 

Ancient and South Asian Art, the crosses have since been displayed selectively 

in installations such as “Afterlife,” a long-term multicultural exhibition 

on the theme of death and the hereafter. 

In 1992 the Museum hired the art historian and African art specialist 

Christopher D. Roy as an adjunct curator to research and organize a temporary 

exhibition of the African art collection (figs. 6 and 7). In this role, he 

advised Jay Gates, the Museum’s director, to acquire types of African art 

(such as royal art or textiles) especially from West African cultures to create 

a balanced collection. Broadening the collection in this way would also 

demonstrate that African societies are not monolithic but differ in terms 

of sociopolitical and religious structures and associated art forms.25 

Roy’s advice was duly acted upon and in 1992 two examples of prestige 

headwear were acquired: a Yaka chief’s beaded bihorn headdress donated 

by Linda and Stanley Marcus and an Ekonda chief’s tiered basketry hat 

(botolo) donated by the Friends of African and African-American Art. In 

1993 the Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Fund supported the purchase of 

an important Guro gye helmet mask from Côte d’Ivoire. That same year, 

Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art, an exhibition organized by the Center 

for African Art, New York, and Eternal Egypt: Objects of Daily Life, People, 

and Religion, the second phase of a three-part exhibition of Egyptian and 

Nubian artifacts on long-term loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 

were the featured exhibitions focused on Africa. 

Ramona Austin, an art historian and veteran art museum curator, was 

hired in 1994 to fill the new fulltime position as curator of African art, 

which was endowed as The Margaret McDermott Curator of African Art in 

1999.26 During her tenure, Austin added over one hundred objects to the 

fig 6 West African objects at the dma, 1992. 

fig 7 Central African objects at the dma, 1992. 

fig 8 Third Floor African Art galleries, West African 

objects, installed by Ramona Austin in 1996. 

fig 9 Third Floor African Art galleries, Central African 

objects, installed by Ramona Austin in 1996. 

collection and oversaw the reinstallation of the collection into its designated 

space on the third floor of the Museum. This space became available 

when the Nancy and Jake L. Hamon Building was completed in 1993, providing 

140,000 additional square feet. The African, Asian, and Pacific collections 

were installed in adjoining galleries. The completely refurbished 

galleries, opened with great fanfare in 1996, showcased approximately 125 

objects from the collection arranged according to geographic style regions 

(figs. 8 and 9). Diane Pelrine, an authority on African art and a curator at 

Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, writing for African Arts, pronounced 

the exhibition “an excellent introduction to sub-Saharan Africa’s 

sculptural traditions.”27 

Several African objects were generously acquired for the Museum in 

1994 by the Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., including 

an ancient (200 BC–AD 200) terracotta male figure from Sokoto in 

northwestern Nigeria and a group of royal objects from the Owo-Yoruba 

and Benin kingdoms in Nigeria—a finely carved ivory equestrian figure, 

a copper alloy casting of a chief of Udo, and an elaborately carved ivory 

waist pendant plaque. These prestigious works of art were complemented 

by a richly carved and pigmented ivory side-blown horn from the Mende 

peoples of Sierra Leone and a seated male figure from the Baule peoples of 

Côte d’Ivoire. 

An nkisi nkondi (power figure) from the Yombe peoples of the Democratic 

Republic of the Congo acquired in 1996 for the Foundation for the Arts 

Collection by the Eugene McDermott Foundation is outstanding—as 

much for its formal qualities as its grand dimensions. Bristling with handwrought 

and imported iron nails and wearing a finely woven raffia wrapper, 

the figure is one of several extant figures from the same workshop that were 

brought out of Africa between 1910 and 1913. Well traveled, this impressive 

sculpture has been shown in several major European and American 

exhibitions. 

Although African masks are the most popular African art forms, the collection 

could boast but a few. During her tenure Austin acquired several, 

including a fierce Senufo komo helmet mask28 that had been on display in 

the Animals in African Art: From the Familiar to the Marvelous exhibition, which 

traveled to the Museum in 1997. David T. Owsley, a long-time supporter of 

the Museum’s Ancient and South Asian art collections and owner of the 

mask, generously donated it to the Museum. General acquisition funds 

financed the purchase of a massive and colorful Abua obukele headdress that


was also on display in Animals in African Art, and the Eugene and Margaret 

McDermott Art Fund, Inc., was used to acquire an Igbo polychrome igri face 

mask for the Museum. A Mukenga bead- and cowrie-covered helmet mask, 

given in honor of Peter Hanszen Lynch and Cristina Martha Frances Lynch, 

and a very fine old Makonde helmet mask, donated by the Cecil and Ida 

Green Foundation in 1999, rounded out the Museum’s collection of masks 

during this acquisition phase. 

In 1997 the Junior Associates, a membership group, donated funds to 

acquire three prestige hats from the Grasslands region of Cameroon, and a 

royal Kuba beaded mpaan hat from the Democratic Republic of the Congo 

was donated by Alma L. McKinney in honor of Frederic A. Luyties III. In 2000 

Mr. and Mrs. James H. W. Jacks donated a Dogon granary door with a sun 

lizard motif, and a bequest from Juanita K. Bromberg gave the Museum a 

group of Akan miniature cast-brass figures and counterweights from the 

Alfred and Juanita Bromberg Collection. 

In 2003 John R. Lane, The Eugene McDermott Director (1999–2008), and 

Bonnie Pitman, the Deputy Director, hired the author of this volume to 

join the DMA staff. An art historian, seasoned art museum curator, and 

former director of the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian 

Institution, I joined the Museum as Senior Curator, the Arts of Africa, the 

Americas, and the Pacific and The Margaret McDermott Curator of African 

Art. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of the Eugene and Margaret 

McDermott Art Fund, Inc., my first acquisition for the collection was an 

olumeye, or kneeling female figure with a bowl, by the renowned Yoruba 

court artist Olowe of Ise (c. 1875–c. 1938). Introduced to the public in the 

focused exhibition Variations on a Theme: Three Olumeye by Olowe of Ise in 

2005, the bowl was presented with two others that Olowe carved and compared 

with a fine but conventional olumeye carved by Agbonbiofe of Effon- 

Alaiye, a contemporary of Olowe’s. It is my assertion that Olowe reinvented 

the form of the olumeye as he did other sculptures. The exhibition was supported 

with funds provided by the Dallas Museum of Art League.29 

With “highest quality” always a criterion, there has been a conscious 

effort to obtain works of art that reveal the diversity of forms, styles, techniques, 

and materials found in African art and to represent more of the 

major art-producing peoples, especially from West Africa. Since 2004 several 

important works of art from Nigeria have helped to close the disparity 

between the West African and Central African holdings. Among the works 

of art that have been acquired since 2004 are an elaborately beaded ile ori 

(“house of the head”), a beaded ibori (the symbol of an individual’s “inner 

head”), and a circa-eighteenth-century cast copper alloy ring depicting a 

gruesome scene of human sacrifice in high relief. The solid form, which 

weighs about seven pounds, is believed to have been used in kingship 

rituals. All the objects are from the Yoruba culture in Nigeria and were 

purchased with funds from the African Collection Fund. This fund derives 

from the endowed African Art Acquisition Fund that was established in 

1988. Additional recent acquisitions of Yoruba art include a pair of cast 

copper alloy and iron tongs, donated by George and Sidney Perutz in 

2005, that date from the mid-twentieth century and were used in Oshugbo 

society rituals. A cast copper alloy altar stand dating from the late eighteenth 

or early nineteenth century was financed by the African Collection 

Fund. 

Ramona Austin, The Margaret McDermott Associate 

Curator of African Art; Margaret McDermott and Nancy 

Hamon, Benefactor Trustees; and Ann Barbier-Mueller 

and Cristina Barboglio Lynch; 1998. 

By 2008 the collection housed fifty-one masks and three complete masquerade 

costumes. Additions in 2005 and 2006 included a Budja abstract 

bird-form headdress from the Democratic Republic of the Congo that 

was worn in a performance in 1986 to honor the king of Belgium during 

a visit to the country; a pristine Deangle face mask from the Dan peoples 

of Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire that complements a venerable old Dan mask 

from the Schindler Collection; and a well-worn Sande society helmet mask 

from the Mende of Sierra Leone. In 2007 the Museum acquired an unusual 

blackened Pende forehead mask that, as indicated by its facial details, represents 

a “hyper male.” It complements a classic Pende face mask that was 

donated by the Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., in 1971. 

Other recently acquired masks include a large-scale, multifigured Yoruba 

Epa headdress and an Ijo water spirit headdress that the dancer wears horizontally 

on his head. The images carved on the mask face the sky rather 

than the human audience standing on the ground. The Museum has plans 

to mount a special exhibition in 2010 to showcase its noteworthy collection 

of masks. 

The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., supported two 

major acquisitions in 2005: a cast bronze single-figure plaque that was 

made by a master brasscaster in the Benin kingdom in the sixteenth or 

seventeenth century and a large-scale brass- and copper-clad reliquary 

guardian figure, with back-to-back faces, from the Kota peoples of Gabon. 

Margaret McDermott had seen the plaque in the 1960s when she visited 

Edward A. Bragaline, a well-known collector of modern art, to view a painting 

by Picasso. The plaque was put on the market following the owner’s 

demise in the late 1990s but the Museum was not in a position to purchase 

it. Several years later, however, the plaque was again available and this time 

the acquisition was possible. It complements the group of bronze and ivory 

sculptures that was acquired in 1994. The extraordinarily large Kota Janusfaced 

reliquary guardian figure, which once belonged to a clan rather than 

a family, complements a similar and smaller single-faced guardian figure 

from the Schindler Collection. 

Textiles now have a greater presence in the African art collection with 

the addition of classic, and sometimes rare, examples from throughout 

the continent. The collection includes cloths from Morocco, Algeria, and 

Tunisia in northern Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon in


West Africa, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. 

The cloths, some of which were used as garments, were selected in collaboration 

with Carol Robbins, the Ellen and Harry S. Parker III Curator of 

the Arts of the Americas and the Pacific, and generously supported by The 

Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., The Textile Fund, and proceeds 

from the African Art Acquisitions Endowment. 

Since 1969, the Dallas Museum of Art’s collection of African art has grown 

from one that focused primarily on sculpture to one that reflects the wide 

range of the visual arts of Africa’s ancient and traditional cultures. Ancient 

works like the pre-Christian era Sokoto bust exquisitely demonstrate 

Africa’s long history of civilization and creativity. The Museum’s collection 

reflects the diversity of Africa’s societies that range from highly stratified, 

as exemplified by the royal arts of Yoruba and Benin kingdoms, to those 

of the village-based Igbo and Lega. Yet, there is room to grow and gaps to 

fill. For example, there are few works made of gold and iron in the collection; 

East African and women’s art are critically underrepresented. As the 

Museum looks to the future, we seek to forge bonds with museums in 

Africa to display their protected artifacts on long-term loan and to share 

our resources to further their staff development. 

By continuing to build on the foundation of the Schindler and Stillman 

Collections, the African art collection and associated programs will contribute 

to the realization of the Museum’s mission as adopted in 2002: 

The Dallas Museum of Art collects, preserves, presents, and interprets 

works of art from diverse cultures and many centuries, including that 

of our own time. We champion the power of art, embracing our responsibility 

to engage and educate our community, to contribute to cultural 

knowledge, and to advance creative endeavor. 

Notes 

1. Wingert 1960 

2. “The Arts of Man,” Dallas Times Herald Sunday 

Magazine, October 7, 1962, p. 13; Kosinski 2003: 

no. 94 

3. The Dallas Art Association was established 

in 1903 to support the visual arts with a goal 

to create a permanent institution, the Dallas 

Museum of Fine Arts. A brief history of the 

Dallas Museum of Art is found on the museum’s 

website, www.DallasMuseumofArt.org. 

4. Lee and Lee, in Kosinski 2003: no. 17 

5. Stillman, in Walker Art Center 1967: 11–12 

6. Margaret McDermott to Bonnie Pitman and the 

author, personal communication, May 1, 2009 

7. The other half of the Stillman collection went to 

the Museum of Primitive Art (from 1966 to 1972); the 

Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection in that museum 

was transferred to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 

New York, in 1978. 

8. Lunsford, in Kosinski 2003: no. 28 

9. Julia Scott Reed, “The Open Line: African Art Put 

on Exhibit,” Dallas Morning News, January 21, 1970, 

p. 22A 

10. Lunsford, in Kosinski 2003: no. 28; Lunsford 1972: 

12–19, 88 

11. “A Prestigious Collection,” Dallas Morning News, 

November 1, 1969, p. 2 

12. John Neville, “Art and Artists: Congo Expert Talks 

of His Collection,” Dallas Morning News, October 28, 

1969, p. 5; Stillman and Stillman, in Dallas Museum 

of Fine Arts 1969: 5–7 

13. Olbrechts, who greatly influenced the study of 

African art, was one of the first scholars to identify 

the hand of an individual traditional African artist 

on purely stylistic grounds. For his biography, see 

Petridis 2001. 

14. Wastiau, in Shelton 2001: 237–38 

15. Louis de Strycker, personal communication, 

June 28, 2006 

16. New Art Circle 1927 

17. Dallas Museum of Fine Arts 1972 

18. Janet Kutner, “Scene in Art: McDermott Gift 

Boosts Museum,” Dallas Morning News, September 29, 

1974, p. C1 

19. Schindler, in Dallas Museum of Fine Arts 1975: 7 

20. Ibid. 

21. Kutner, “Scene in Art” 

22. “Report of the President and Director,” Dallas 

Museum of Fine Arts Annual Report 1981–1982, [1] 

23. Brettell, in Dallas Museum of Art 1989: 8 

24. Louise Cantwell to Anne Bromberg, personal 

communication, August 14, 1992 

25. Christopher D. Roy to Jay Gates, personal communication, 

September 12, 1993 

26. The Margaret McDermott Curator of African Art 

Endowment Fund was established by the Andrew W. 

Mellon Foundation in 1995 with additional gifts by 

Irvin Levy, Caren and Vin Prothro, and Deedie Rose. 

In 1999 Mrs. Eugene McDermott made an additional 

gift to name the endowment. Income is used to 

support the salary of a curator of African art to 

supervise the African collection. 

27. Pelrine 1998: 76–77 

28. This mask was previously identified as kponyungo. 

29. Walker 2005

AfRicAn ARt in context 

fig 10 Figure of a young man from a funerary 

relief, Greek, Attic, c. 330 bc. Marble. Gift of 

Mr. and Mrs. Cecil H. Green, 1966.26. 

fig 11 Studio of Pere Espalargucs, Altarpiece Section: 

Angels and Gabriel, second half of the 15th century. 

Tempera on panel. Gift of Leicester Busch Faust and 

Audrey Faust Wallace in memory of Anna Busch Faust 

and Edward A. Faust, 1939.1.1. 

Tradition-based African art is often characterized as “art for life’s sake” or 

“art as a matter of life and death” in contrast to “art for art’s sake”—an 

inherited nineteenth-century Western notion that art is “self-sufficient and 

requires no social or religious justification.”1 Traditional African art served 

a purpose (and does still in some cultures) as an agent of religion, social 

stability, and social control. Art that has a purpose is not unique to African 

or other non-Western cultures but occurs in Western ones as well. Among 

the works of art at the Dallas Museum of Art, a Greek statue of a young man 

from the fourth century BC and a Spanish altarpiece from the late fifteenth 

century exemplify this notion. The Greek statue memorialized a male who 

died in the prime of life and was part of a sculptural program in an architectural 

shrine (fig. 10). The altarpiece was a devotional object. It was originally 

installed in a church behind and above the altar on which Christian 

religious rituals were performed (fig. 11). 

The works of art in the African gallery, arranged according to geographic 

and cultural regions, reveal the extraordinary diversity of sub-Saharan 

cultures and visual traditions. In this setting, viewers can focus solely 

on the form of an object and experience it aesthetically and emotionally. 

But, like the Greek statue and Spanish altarpiece, African works of 

art were not meant to be viewed in a museum. Rather, they were placed 

in shrines and on personal or communal altars, carried in public processions, 

and worn as regalia or in a masquerade. This publication complements 

the museum installation by exploring one hundred and ten objects 

in the collection that have both outstanding formal qualities and compelling 

stories. The objects are grouped under the themes of leadership 

and status, the cycle of life, decorative arts, and influences into and out 

of Africa.2 Where possible, contextual photographs are provided. Images 

of many objects from the African art collection, including 

new acquisitions, can be viewed online at www 

.DallasMuseumofArt.org, with associated texts and technical 

data (provenance and exhibition and publication 

history) available for further research.3 But first, let us 

place the DMA’s African art collection in the context of 

African art history and offer some remarks about traditional 

African art and artists. 

The oldest extant African art, including that of ancient 

Egypt,4 dates from the eighth millennium BC, while that 

of sub-Saharan Africa, the area from which most objects 

in the DMA originated, dates from the first millennium 

BC. The oldest of these objects include stylized human 

and animal terracotta figures from the Nok civilization 

in central Nigeria5 (fig. 12), a wooden vessel with chipcarved 

decoration from Njoro, Kenya6 (fig. 13), a group of 

seven terracotta heads from Lydenburg in South Africa’s 

29

30 african art in context african art in context 31 

Mpumalanga province7 (fig. 14), and a carved wood animal head from a site 

east of the Cuanza River in the Liavela area of central Angola8 (fig. 15). 

The oldest works of art in the DMA’s collections are a terracotta male 

figure from the modern state of Sokoto in northwestern Nigeria that dates 

from between 200 BC and AD 200 and a standing female figure, from a pre- 

Dogon culture in Mali, that is conservatively dated from the eleventh to 

thirteenth century.9 These are followed by cast copper alloy figures and a 

carved ivory waist pendant from the Benin kingdom that date from the 

sixteenth to eighteenth century. All are made of du rable materials or, in 

the case of the pre-Dogon figure, survived owing to a combination of a 

durable material (hardwood) and the dry climate of the western Sudan. 

As with most African art collections, the majority of the works at the DMA 

were made of wood or other organic materials during the late nineteenth 

to mid-twentieth century. Had they remained in Africa these objects would 

have been destroyed by the moist climate and wood-eating insects inhabiting 

the rain forests. The prevailing opinion maintains most extant wooden 

sculptures are replacements; that is, they were in use for not more than a 

generation or two before they were brought out of Africa. It was customary 

to replace ritual objects with new ones. 

The history of African art, like the history of Africa itself, remains a work 

in progress. The reconstruction of Africa’s art history, especially south of 

the Sahara where conventional systems of inscription are absent,10 depends 

upon indigenous oral traditions and early European and Arabic documents 

from travelers, missionaries, merchants, and colonial officers. Sources of 

information also include linguistics, archaeology, and scientific dating 

fig 12 The Nok head discovered in the Jos plateau of 

central Nigeria was created sometime between 500 bc 

and ad 200. © Werner Forman / corbis. 

fig 13 Dr. Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey and Mary Leakey 

found this carbonized wooden vessel, probably a drinking 

cup, at the Njoro River Cave in Kenya in 1938. The carved 

vessel is decorated with diamond shapes and dates to no 

later than 850 bc. 

fig 14 This terracotta head, dating to around ad 500 is 

the largest and most complete of a group of seven heads 

found at a site in Lydenburg, South Africa. The small 

animal that sits atop the head may represent a lion. 

fig 15 Zoomorphic head, Central Angola, 8th–9th century, 

wood. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium. 

© Royal Museum for Central Africa, pre.0.0.14796; photo: 

R. Asselberghs. 

methods such as radiocarbon dating analysis for organic materials and 

thermoluminescence tests on fired clay objects. X-ray procedures, including 

computed axial tomography (CT or CAT scan) and magnetic resonance 

imaging (MRI), are also being used for this purpose.11 

African artists also create with stone, gold, silver, and iron. Materials 

found in the local environment—leather, animal hair and skin, cotton, palm 

and other fibers, feathers, shells, seeds, and beads—were used to make 

objects or to embellish them. New materials and techniques introduced 

through foreign trade were incorporated into the design and adornment of 

indigenous objects. Materials such as cowrie shells from the Indian Ocean 

and mirrors, glass beads, brass upholstery tacks, buttons, silk, cotton, 

synthetic textiles, and enamel paint from Europe and Asia enhanced the 

appearance of locally made objects, thereby increasing their prestige value 

and efficacy. 

Individuals, not groups, make art in traditional African societies. Artists 

are specialists who make art that is culturally appropriate for their gender. 

Traditionally, men work in wood, ivory, stone, and metal, including casting 

copper alloys and forging iron. Men who make objects for ritual use may be 

initiated into a cult or association to learn its secrets. Women weave baskets 

and make pottery wares for domestic and ritual use and model figurative 

objects out of clay or other pliable materials. They also decorate the 

exterior of their homes and shrines.12 The roles of males and females in art 

making, as in other spheres of African social life, are often complementary. 

Among the Kuba, for ex ample, men weave the raffia mats or panels that 

women decorate with appliqué, cut-pile, and embroidery. Products made 

by both men and women working in the same medium, such as weaving or 

beadworking, are destined for use in different contexts. 

African art is not anonymous. Traditional artists’ names do not appear 

with their works in museum installations and exhibition catalogues 

because we do not know them. The earliest collectors failed—usually for 

reasons of prevailing cultural and racial biases or the methods of the discipline 

(e.g., ethnologists study groups not individuals)—to ask, “Who 

made this?” There were, as recently as 1960, only a few ethnographers 

who inquired about the creators of the objects they collected in the field. 

These individuals include Frans Olbrechts, Hans and Ulrike Himmelheber,


P. J. L. Vandenhoute, Philip Allison, Father Kevin Carroll, William R. Bascom, 

and William Fagg.13 Since then, Warren d’Azevedo, Robert Farris Thompson, 

Jean Borgatti, Susan Mullin Vogel, Eberhard and Barbara Fischer, and the 

author have published works on individual artists.14 

Talented artists became famous and were known well beyond their communities. 

Having said that, there are instances where an artist’s name had 

been forgotten or it was intentionally suppressed in favor of greater glory 

to the object itself.15 In the absence of an interview with the artist, scholars 

obtain biographical information from the indigenous oral literature 

(among the Yoruba, for example, this is the person’s oriki or praise song), 

written accounts by Europeans who encountered the artist, and photographs 

or written descriptions of the artist’s work in situ. Several named, 

tradition-based African artists represented in the Dallas Museum of Art permanent 

collections include the Mende artist Manowulo of Bo Town area, 

Baoma chiefdom, Sierra Leone; the Yoruba artists Olowe of Ise, Arowogun 

(Areogun) of Osi-Ilorin, Akobi Ogun Fakeye of Ila Orangun, and Oshamuko 

of Osi from Nigeria; and the Kota sculptor Semangoy from Gabon. 

Studies of traditional African artists indicate, among other things, that 

sculptors of wood—who may also be blacksmiths—learned their craft by 

apprenticing with a master sculptor to perfect their skills. An apprenticeship 

could last for more than fifteen years. Training entailed learning the 

established stylistic canon and its vocabulary. A Dan sculptor, for example, 

was expected to polish the surface of the mask he carved; a Mende sculptor, 

to depict the attributes of feminine beauty in the carved sowei (helmet 

mask). While conformity to the canon was essential—because to not conform 

could adversely affect a mask or figure’s efficacy or repel the spirit 

that was to embody it—innovation within the parameters of the canon was 

allowed. Thus, it is possible to distinguish the personal styles of Olowe of 

Ise, Arowogun (Areogun) of Osi-Ilorin, and other Yoruba artists. 

Apprentices learning to carve wood had to learn how to select wood 

according to the type and purpose of the commissioned object. For ex - 

ample, a mask or figure that was to be used in a healing ritual had to be 

carved from wood with specific medicinal qualities. They learned to pay 

respect to the vital forces believed to reside in trees and in carving tools 

to prevent accidents and harm to themselves. They were taught to carve 

with a variety of adzes, axelike tools with the blade set at an angle to the 

haft, and knives and to use a sandpaper-textured leaf to smooth the surface 

(fig. 16). Artists carving green wood learned how to prevent the dried 

product from cracking. They learned how to carve the entire object from 

the solid.16 Color had meaning and had to be applied appropriately. Before 

the advent of European paints, traditional artists made their pigments and 

sealants from plants and minerals found in the local environment. 

Finally, appreciating African art requires a perceptual adjustment away 

from the western aesthetic of measuring the human form against the yardstick 

of classical Greek statuary, in favor of a different cultural lens. The 

proportions of the classical Greco-Roman figure (see fig. 10)—with the head 

being one-seventh of the standing figure—typify the Western ideal. The 

head-to-body ratio of most African figures is usually one to three or one to 

four. To the uninitiated eye, the head is out of proportion to the rest of the 

body. From a personal perspective, the African artist emphasizes that which 

is important—the head, because it is the site of the major sensory organs 

and an individual’s essential nature and destiny; sexual organs, because 

fig 16 The traditional carving implements of the Yoruba 

artist Hasan Makinde, Abeokuta, Nigeria, 1972. 

fig 17 Michael G. Owen Jr., Leadbelly, 1943. Black serpentine. 

Mr. and Mrs. Tom Gooch Fund Purchase Prize, 

Twelfth Annual Texas Painting and Sculpture, 1950–1951, 

1950.91. 

they are essential for reproduction; and the navel and breasts, because they 

provide nourishment. Hands and feet are sometimes accentuated because 

they are active and provide stability. 

Ideal beauty and the height of virility or fertility (ephebism) rather than 

“the warts and all” realism are depicted regardless of the age or anatomy 

of the male or female sitter who may have served as a model for the spirit 

that is embodied by a mask or figure. The human form may be highly stylized, 

as exemplified by the minimalist Boma standing figure (see fig. 4), 

or naturalistic, like the Luba female figure (see p. 137). Almost invariably, 

the facial expression on African sculptures is calm. Consider, for ex ample, 

the American sculptor Michael G. Owen’s portrait of Huddie “Leadbelly” 

Ledbetter (1888–1946) that depicts the sixty-one-year-old musician’s plump 

face with deep creases (fig. 17). If Leadbelly had been a Hemba sculptor’s subject, 

his portrait might have looked like the Dallas ancestor figure (p. 213). 

An elder’s beard is the only indication of age on the otherwise unlined, 

youthful face of a physically fit male. Exceptions to portraying ideal beauty 

are masks and figures that represent diseases and malevolent spirits. The


classical sculptures from ancient Ife, Tada, and Owo, Nigeria (all of which 

are dated between the twelfth and fifteenth century), which are realized 

in a naturalistic style, are exceptions to this general rule. In compositions 

that include more than one individual, artists use “social perspective” to 

identify the most important person in a group. That personage is depicted 

larger than others and is placed at the center of the composition. 

These facts and observations can serve as a rudimentary frame, or context, 

for the study and appreciation of African art. Although the objects pictured 

and discussed in this book share many cultural points of reference, 

each also, of course, stands on its own and transcends time and space. 

According to the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria, Oduduwa the Supreme Being 

created the world at Ile-Ife, an ancient town that is their spiritual capital. 

Consequently, visitors, regardless of their national origin, receive a hearty 

“Welcome home.” Other African traditions make the same claim. Perhaps 

they knew all along what archeological investigations have revealed—that 

Africa is the cradle of humankind. This book thus serves to acquaint us 

with the visual arts of our ultimate motherland, Africa, which has made a 

great contribution to the world’s cultural heritage. 

Notes 

1. Roy 1984; Elsen 1972: 18–38 

2. The format for this collection catalogue was 

inspired by African Art in the Cycle of Life, a publication 

and an inaugural exhibition written and 

curated by the author and Roy Sieber (1923–2001) 

for the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian 

Institution, in 1987. 

3. A project is under way to provide the technical 

data for all Museum objects online. 

4. Ancient Egypt is recognized as an African civilization 

that shares cultural traits, such as the practice 

of divine kingship, ancestor worship, and circumcision, 

with sub-Saharan cultures. Part of the Ancient 

Mediterranean Civilizations collection, the DMA’s 

ancient Egyptian art is currently located in a gallery 

adjacent to the sub-Saharan African gallery. 

5. Grunne 1998; Fagg 1990 

6. Leakey and Leakey 1950 

7. Davison, in T. Phillips 1995: 194–95; Maggs and 

Davison 1981: 28–33, 88 

8. Maret, in T. Phillips 1995: 240; Van Noten 1972: 

133–36 

9. The wood from the figure was tested in the Physics 

and Atmospheric Sciences Department, University 

of Arizona, in 1998. The radiocarbon age is 

825≠40 years before present (“before 1950 AD”) and 

the calibrated age range is AD 1063–1269. 

10. Visonà et al. 2007; T. Phillips 1995; Turner 1996: 

vol. 1, 213–440; Vansina 1984; Kreamer et al. 2007 

11. For further reading, see Tull 1998: 30–38; Ghysels 

2003: 116–31; and Rasmussen 2008: 19–32 

12. Herreman 2003; Barley 1994; Sieber 1972; Sieber 

1980; Carey, in Sciama 1998: 83–93 

13. As he guided Clark and Frances Stillman in 

building their collection of central African sculpture, 

Frans Olbrechts identified the distinctive hand of an 

anonymous artist and named him the Buli Master. 

See Olbrechts 1946; Petridis 2001; and Vogel 1980: 

133–42. For information about other ethnographers 

who inquired about the artists, see Vandenhoute 

1948; Carroll 1967: 70–123 (pp. 71–72 and 79–89 for 

information specific to Arowogun [Areogun] of 

Osi-Ilorin); Bascom, in D’Azevedo 1973: 62–78; 

Allison 1944: 49–50 (focus on Olowe of Ise). 

14. D’Azevedo 1973: 282–340; Thompson, in Biebuyck 

1969: 120–81; Fischer and Himmelheber 1984; Fischer 

et al. 1993 (focus on the Guro sculptor Boti from Côte 

d’Ivoire, who was interviewed and documented in 

1975); Borgatti 1979; Vogel 1999: 49–55; Pemberton in 

Abiodun, Drewal, and Pemberton 1994: 100–101; 

Walker 1998 

15. Vogel 1999: 40–55, 93–94 

16. Willett 1978: 28–33, 96 (focus on the Yoruba 

sculptor Lamidi Olonade Fakeye)

chapter 1 

icons and symbols of leadership and status 

Governance in pre-colonial sub-Saharan societies was either centralized or 

decentralized. Centralized societies, such as the Yoruba and Edo in West 

Africa and the Chokwe and Kuba in Central Africa, were ruled by kings and 

chiefs who presided over complex political structures. These paramount 

rulers were considered political leaders as well as religious personages 

endowed with extraordinary powers and authority. As living representatives 

of the creator-god, they were responsible for the well-being and welfare 

of their peoples. Leadership in decentralized societies, like those of the 

Lega of Central Africa, was vested in an association or council of elders. 

The authority of those in positions of leadership—whether held by a paramount 

king or an association of elders—was reflected in their surroundings, 

their attire, and the ornamentation of their personal possessions and 

symbols of office. Art was used to identify and glorify their elevated status. 

It was more elaborate, more complex, monumental. It was made of durable 

materials, such as hardwood, ivory, and metal. It was decorated with rare 

or imported materials, such as cowrie shells, glass, and porcelain. Often, it 

was labor intensive, requiring many hours of craftsmanship. These attributes 

confirmed one’s political position or status in society and help scholars 

determine an object’s purpose and, perhaps, its owner. 

39

40 1 : icons and symbols of leadership and status 

1 

Male figure 

Nigeria, Sokoto State 

c. 200 bc to ad 200 

Terracotta 

19¼ × 9 × 8 in. (48.90 × 22.86 × 20.32 cm) 

The Eugene and Margaret McDermott 

Art Fund, Inc., 1994.195.McD 

This sculpture depicts a political ruler, a religious leader, or a person of 

high social rank. Although his precise identity is not known, his features 

offer some clues. His beard is a timeless and conventional masculine 

symbol of advanced age and wisdom; the incised lines around his neck 

probably represent a coiled necklace with pendants or rings of fat; and 

the staff, scepter, weapon, or adze slung over his shoulder is a symbol of 

power and leadership. 

The Museum’s hollow figure is stylistically similar to terracotta sculptures 

that have been unearthed in Sokoto State in the northwestern corner 

of Nigeria. A carefully modeled hairstyle and elaborate beard frame his 

face; heavy, down-turned eyelids conceal his pierced eyes; incised lines 

form eyelashes; and his mouth is opened slightly. Textured patterns 

under his eyes further emphasize them. These features combine to give 

the figure a severe expression. His disproportionately large navel, indicative 

of a herniated navel, is common in the sculptures of sub-Saharan 

cultures. 

Dating Sokoto sculpture is problematic. Unlike the terracottas dating 

from 500 to 200 BC excavated in Nok, a village near the confluence of 

the Niger and Benue rivers, the Sokoto figures have not, until recently, 

been documented in situ. The few examples that have been analyzed by 

thermo luminescence yield dates as early as 200 BC to AD 200.1 This male 

bust is the oldest work of art from sub-Saharan Africa in the Museum’s 

permanent collection.


2 

Standing female figure 

Mali, pre-Dogon culture, Djennenke / Soninke 

11th to 13th century 

Wood and oil 

383/* × 65/! 6 × 611/! 6 in. (94.47 × 16.03 × 17.03 cm) 

The Gustave and Franyo Schindler Collection of 

African Sculpture, gift of the McDermott Foundation 

in honor of Eugene McDermott, 1974.SC.1 

The durable hardwood used to carve this figure indicates the tall, slender 

female was someone of importance or status. Sculpted with naturalistic 

proportions and raised dot scarification on her temples, she is elaborately 

clothed in an apron rather than nude, adorned with beaded necklaces, and 

posed standing rather than kneeling as a supplicant. She carries neither a 

pestle nor a water jug, conventional symbols of a woman’s domestic role. 

Instead, her hands appear to frame her rounded abdomen, perhaps an 

indication of pregnancy. These attributes suggest the figure represents a 

female ancestor who in life was responsible for protecting her lineage.2 

Radiocarbon dating analysis has dated the sculpture, attributed to 

the Djennenke, a pre-Dogon people of Mali, to between the eleventh and 

thirteenth century AD.3 Its history is related to the glorious Wagadu (also 

called Ghana), Mali, and Songhai (also called Gao) empires, which flourished 

from the eighth to the sixteenth century AD and declined because 

of drought or conquest. “Pagan” villagers, choosing to preserve their cultural 

traditions and resist conversion to Islam, migrated south (toward 

present-day Senegal) and east (toward present-day Mali) to escape equestrian 

invaders from the north. 

Peoples known today as the Dogon, and who probably had multiple 

origins, settled on the nearly inaccessible Bandiagara cliffs, safe from 

Muslim invasions. Some came from the Inland Niger Delta region, once 

an area of highly developed commercial centers, and settled in Jenne (also 

called Jenne-Jeno or Old Jenne), where large terracotta sculptures dating 

from the thirteenth to sixteenth century were unearthed in the midtwentieth 

century. Depicting mounted warriors and maternity figures 

among other subjects, the terracottas are distinguished by distinctive 

bulging eyes, ovoid heads, dotlike scarification at the temples, elaborate 

dress, and naturalistic proportions. Similar figures carved from wood have 

been discovered in caves on the Bandiagara plateau, some ninety miles 

from the Inland Niger Delta. Because the terracotta and wooden figures 

are similar in form, scarification, dress, and adornment and have comparable 

dates, a connection likely exists between the two. The wooden 

sculptures are attributed to either the Djennenke peoples or the Kagoro 

clan of the Soninke.4 

This statue is the oldest wooden sculpture in the collection from south 

of the Sahara. Its lustrous surface, the result of innumerable anointments 

with oil, continues to exude oil, suggesting it may have remained in use 

until the mid-twentieth century.


3 

Plaque with single figure 

Nigeria, Benin kingdom court style, 

Benin City, Edo peoples 


Copper alloy (brass or bronze) 

18 × 14½ × 3 in. (45.72 × 36.83 × 7.62 cm) 



fig 18 A bronze plaque cast in Benin depicts an entrance 

to the royal palace. In this bronze repre sentation, plaques 

are depicted around doorways and affixed to columns that 

support the palace. State Museums, Ethnological Museum, 

Berlin. 

This plaque of a high-ranking warrior chief is one of three works of art 

owned by the Dallas Museum of Art from the powerful Benin kingdom. 

Located inland from the Niger River Delta in present-day Nigeria, the 

African kingdom was founded in the tenth century and reached its height 

during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

Benin art, made to glorify the reigning and ancestral kings (oba), served 

as both a sign of status and record of court life. Many seventeenth-century 

visitors described seeing plaques engraved with pictures on their travels. 

One Dutch account, published in 1668 by Olfert Dapper (fig. 19), referred 

to the plaques in a description of the palace complex: 

The king’s court is square . . . and is certainly as large as the town 

of Haarlem, and entirely surrounded by a special wall, like that 

which encircles the town. It is divided into many palaces, houses, 

and apartments of the courtiers, and comprises beautiful and long 

square galleries, about as large as the Exchange at Amsterdam, but 

one larger than another, resting on wooden pillars, from top to 

bottom covered with cast copper, on which are engraved the pictures 

of their war exploits and battles, and are kept very clean.5 

A casting in Berlin provides further evidence of the plaques (fig. 18). 

Accounts of the plaques’ existence all but disappeared in the eighteenth 

and nineteenth centuries, only to resurface in 1897 following the British 

Punitive Expedition. 

The warrior chief on the Dallas plaque is dressed in formal military 

attire—consisting of a shirt and a layered, leopard skin wrapper or kilt—an 

elaborate hat decorated with horsehair, a coral beaded choker, a leopard 

tooth necklace, and a bell for signaling his position on the battlefield. He 

carries a knife under his left arm and a sword in his right hand. The foliate 

background is thought to represent healing river leaves, and the rosettes 

cast in relief are thought to symbolize an Edo belief that the sun made a 

daily voyage from the sky into the sea and back again—the source of Benin 

wealth transported in the ships. 

Edo metalsmiths were casting brass before the late fifteenth century 

when the Portuguese, the first European visitors to the area, arrived bringing 

copper, a material valued by the Bini. The Portuguese explorer Duarte 

Pacheco Pereira noted in the 1490s that the Kingdom of Beny [sic] “is about 

eighty leagues long and forty wide; it is usually at war with its neighbors 

and takes captives, whom we buy at twelve or fifteen brass bracelets each, 

or for copper bracelets, which they prize more.”6 The brasscasters’ guild 

melted down the copper bracelets and over time cast plaques, equestrian 

figures and other statuary, portrait heads of rulers, pitchers in the form of 

leopards, boxes, and game boards. 

The demise of the powerful and glorious Benin kingdom came in 1897 

following the British Punitive Expedition, a war waged in retaliation for


the massacre of British soldiers in 1896, and the exile of the reigning king 

Oloranmwen. The Edo throne was restored in 1914, but without its former 

power. (Today, Oba Erediauwa reigns as a member of one of the oldest 

extant dynasties in the world.) 

The British government took Benin’s royal treasures as war booty, 

reserving some of the castings and carvings for the British Museum’s collection 

and selling some to defray the cost of the war and provide compensation 

for survivors of the fallen soldiers. The Dallas plaque is marked 

with the British Museum’s inventory number 98.1-15.100. It originally bore 

the number 298 in white, which was the Foreign Office number and dates 

from the plaque’s arrival in England in 1898. The plaque was one of several 

works the British Museum sold periodically, from 1950 to 1970, to raise 

funds to establish a national museum in Lagos. 

fig 19 The City of Benin. Engraving, 1668. 

The oba is shown in the foreground on horseback 

surrounded by dancers, dwarves, and animals. 

His palace is in the background.


4 

Waist pendant 


Benin City, Edo peoples 

18th century 

Ivory 

8 × 4¾ × 2½ in. (20.32 × 12.07 × 6.35 cm) 



The central figure on this rare carved ivory pendant is distinguished by 

his placement, his slightly larger size and the large bead at the center of 

his chest. He is the hereditary king, or oba, of Benin and wears the bead 

of kingship—an imported red coral, jasper, or agate bead. This bead, a significant 

emblem of his rank, and the textured bars on the figure’s helmet 

and collar represent the oba’s netted red coral and agate garment. Panels 

on either side of his tunic are shaped like mudfish with filaments hanging 

from their mouths. Around his waist, three pendants with heads of 

Portuguese soldiers or officials demonstrate how the pendant was worn. 

(Fig. 20 shows an oba wearing the symbols of office.) The oba, legs adorned 

with coral beads, stands on a human head with mudfish issuing from its 

nostrils. Two high priests, Osa and Osuan, each wearing a waist pendant 

depicting crocodiles and standing on a frog, flank the oba. These priests, 

as well as other court officials or sons of the oba, traditionally support the 

oba during his coronation and ceremonies of importance.7 This grouping 

of the triad recalls an eyewitness account of Oba Overami’s appearance 

when he surrendered to the British on August 5, 1897: “He was supported 

in the usual way by chosen men holding him up by each arm.”8 

The pendant’s rich and complex iconography can be interpreted from 

Edo oral tradition, recorded history in European sources, and kingship 

practice that endures today. The gesture of support, for example, is not 

meant to suggest the king is infirm, but symbolizes the delicate balance 

that must be maintained between the oba’s authority and the Edo 

peoples’ willingness to submit to his authority. The mudfish and the frogs 

are associated with the realm of Olokun, the god of wealth and all waters 

(streams, rivers, seas, oceans, and the divine) and a source of the oba’s 

supernatural powers. The initial source of Benin’s great wealth came from 

the sea: the first group of Portuguese explorers and traders must have 

seemed to emerge from Olokun’s realm. 

An ancient belief asserts the oba’s legs were so heavily charged that 

damp soil would lose fertility if touched by his feet. Thus, the oba’s power 

is also manifested in his legs and feet, which are sometimes depicted as 

mudfish in art. Mudfish are liminal creatures that can survive on land as 

well as in water. While some varieties are benign and considered a delicacy, 

and therefore symbolize feasting and prosperity, others are dangerous 

and can electrocute their adversaries. Benin artists do not differentiate 

the various types of mudfish in visual art. Frogs are considered mysterious 

creatures because they seem to change species from tadpole to frog. 

These creatures present a paradox like the oba, who commands and must 

keep two worlds, that of the sea and the land, in harmony. 

The Emobo ceremony, an extant kingship ritual that commemorates 

the establishment of Benin as the capital of the kingdom, requires an oba 

to wear waist pendants.9 According to oral tradition, Esigie, a sixteenthcentury 

prince and founder of the present dynasty, competed with his


half-brother Arhuanran, who ruled the province of Udo and was heir 

apparent to the throne. After the death of their father, Esigie challenged 

Arhuanran’s ascent. He succeeded with the help of Edo chiefs, Portuguese 

allies, and most importantly, his mother Idia. Defeated, Arhuanran cursed 

the bead of kingship. Oba Esigie subsequently went insane when he wore 

the bead. The story, however, has a happy ending: Idia used her incredible 

spiritual powers to break the curse and thereby restore her son’s sanity. 

Today he is considered one of Benin’s most successful rulers. The Emobo 

ceremony also expels negative spirits from the capital city. According to 

some accounts, those negative spirits have been sent to Udo. 

This rare ivory pendant is one of five that were taken by Private William 

Kelland of the British Royal Marines as souvenirs of the British Punitive 

Expedition in 1897.10 The other pendant plaques are in the collections of 

the Buffalo Museum of Science, the Nigerian National Museum, Lagos, 

and the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. 

fig 20 The full regalia of Oba Akenzua II (1933–1978) 

includes several carved ivory plaques worn at his 

waist. Benin, Nigeria, 1964.


5 

Figure of a town chief 

(iyase) 


Udo Village, Edo peoples 

16th century 

Copper alloy 

19¼ × 6 × 5 in. (48.90 × 15.24 × 12.7 cm) 



In the sixteenth century, following the death of his father Oba Ozolua, 

Prince Esigie of Benin City challenged his half-brother Prince Arhuanran, 

“a man of giant stature” and ruler of Udo, over the leadership of the Benin 

kingdom and its center.11 Esigie defeated Arhuanran in the fierce battle of 

Okuo-Ukpoba or Battle of Blood to become the oba of the kingdom and its 

capital Benin City. Since then, the Oba of Benin has appointed town chiefs 

(iyase) to rule Udo.12 This figure represents the Iyase of Udo. 

The Oba of Benin determined the iyase’s prerogatives and regalia, establishing 

the oba’s power and authority over Edo and non-Edo vassals.13 The 

iyase wears a helmet, a necklace of leopard teeth around the lower edge of 

the high-beaded collar (odigba) that identifies titleholders, a single band 

of beads across his naked and scarified torso, a wrapper or kilt made of 

pangolin skin, and a belt decorated with serpentine pendants. A mask 

depicting a leopard head is attached to the belt at his hip. 

In Benin, headwear is an important indicator of identity and status and 

distinguishes Benin town chiefs from other vassals. The helmet, shaped 

like an inverted tulip and surmounted by a spool-shaped minia ture replica 

of a special type of container, is decorated with vertical bands of slithering 

snakes and beads cast in relief. Real containers (ekpokin) held sacrificial 

offerings, ceremonial gifts for the Oba of Benin, or an herbalist’s secret 

materials and implements used to heal soldiers on the battlefield.14 

Leopard imagery occurs frequently in Benin art. Admired for its ef- 

fectiveness as a predator, its handsome markings, and its qualities of 

restraint and moderation, the leopard is an appropriate symbol for the 

oba. Although the leopard is seen as the Lord of the Forest and the oba, 

the Lord of the Town, they were not equals. The oba, by his exclusive right 

to have leopards slain as sacrificial offerings, had ultimate power over the 

leopard. He kept tamed leopards in the palace and paraded with them 

during annual processions. Some bronze plaques show the oba twirling 

leopards by their tails. War chiefs wore cast bronze leopard masks on their 

left hips to signify that, as the oba’s representatives, they were authorized 

to take human life, a divinely sanctioned and exclusive power of the king. 

Leopard head masks and teeth also protected their wearers from danger. 

War captains and town chiefs have worn wrappers or kilts made of 

pangolin skins since the sixteenth century. Because the pangolin, an 

anteater-like animal with scaly skin, has the ability to curl up and become 

invulnerable when in danger, it is an appropriate metaphor for the traditional 

tensions that exist between the Oba of Benin and the town chiefs 

and some vassals (i.e., men who were self-made rather than heirs to political 

power). Thus, the expression “the pangolin is the only animal the leopard 

cannot kill” is apropos.15 

Serpents, regarded as liminal creatures, are at home both in the water 

and on land. In Benin art they represent Olokun, the god of all waters and 

wealth, and serve as the messenger between the realm of the waters and


the land—that is, Olokun and the Oba of Benin. In addition to their appearance 

on chiefly regalia, cast bronze pythons (see fig. 18) were hung from 

the gables of the palace roof for protection and as links between the sky 

and the earth. 

This figure is one of several sculptures—memorial heads, figures of 

Portuguese soldiers, and standing male figures like this one—that are 

believed to have been cast in Udo during the sixteenth century.16 Edo 

oral traditions regarding their origin vary. According to one tradition, 

Benin brasscasters were forced to reside and work in Udo during the war 

between Esigie and Arhuanran while another asserts that the brasscasters 

temporarily resided in Udo during their annual visit from Ile-Ife, the 

ancient capital of the Yoruba kingdom and center of casting brass since 

the twelfth century.17 In these oral traditions the brass casters are members 

of the royal guild at Benin. The distinctly provincial character of the 

Udo sculptures suggests that their makers were not royal guild members 

from Benin. Their style may be explained by yet another oral tradition: 

after defeating Arhuanran, Esigie allowed his half-brother to rule 

at Udo where the institutions parallel to those at the capital, including a 

brasscasters guild, were established. A peculiar feature of these castings, 

including the Dallas figure, is an unexplained opening in their backs (see 

rear view, opposite). The Dallas figure is also missing a ceremonial sword 

(eben) from its right hand.18


6 

Ring depicting ritual 

sacrifice 

Nigeria, Yoruba peoples 

c. 18th century 

Cast copper alloy 

2¾ × 9 in. diam. (6.99 × 22.86 cm) 

African Art Collection Fund, 2005.14 

When a new king of a Yoruba satellite kingdom was installed, the paramount 

Yoruba king, the Oni of Ife, had to be assured that all the prescribed 

kingship rituals had been performed and that he had the new ruler’s allegiance. 

Some scholars think the transfer of rule in these instances was 

officially recorded on a wreathlike ring.19 Eleven cast copper alloy rings, 

including the Dallas Museum of Art example, were unearthed at Ife and 

depict with realistic detail a scene with two or more bound and decapitated 

human bodies lying on their stomachs with their severed, and sometimes 

gagged, heads nearby. Each ring shows a human figure dressed in 

full regalia, at least one vulture pecking at a head or body, a crocodile and/ 

or tortoise and a hairpinlike form on the outer edge. All of the rings demonstrate 

a sophisticated artistry and complete mastery of the lost-wax 

casting technique. 

The figures depicted in the horrific scene on the rings can be identified 

and interpreted by referencing Yoruba oral traditions, religious beliefs, and 

kingship rituals. The bound and decapitated bodies are sacrificial victims. 

In the distant past, the Yoruba practiced human sacrifice during occasions 

of grave importance to the entire community such as the installation of 

a new king or the outbreak of a pandemic disease. “It was better to sacrifice 

one life for the good of the community than for all to perish” asserts 

Yoruba religious belief.20 Vultures, scavenger birds that feed on dead 

things, are positive images in Yoruba art because they are believed to be 

divine messengers. Their presence indicates the deities (orisha) accepted 

the sacrificial offering. The precise function of the upright vessel, which is 

found on only two of the rings, is uncertain. Ajapa, the cunning tortoise 

who tried to prevent death from entering the world, is placed above the 

crowned figure on the side of the ring (see detail, p. 58). Tortoises were 

sacrificed to Ogun, the god of iron, who protected anyone working with 

metal, including sculptors, hunters, and executioners. 

The predominant figure placed parallel to the surface of the ring is 

meant to be viewed as a live, standing figure. He wears a conical crown 

and a long wrapper with a textured pattern and is adorned with chest 

baldrics, armlets, wristlets, and anklets. The scarification of opposed 

crescents on the figure’s forehead is a pattern found on Oshugbo society 

emblems from the ancient Yoruba kingdom of Ijebu. The pinlike forms, a 

simplified rendering of an edan—a cast brass male and female pair joined 

by a chain—near the crowned figure’s elbow are also symbols of Oshugbo. 

The society of male and female elders responsible for the selection, installation, 

and burial of kings was also known as Ogboni. The conical forms 

above the crossed baldrics may be either feminine breasts or masculine 

pectorals. The right hand holds a staff or scepter. The larger left one rests 

just above the waist. A dimpled seedpod rests between the figure’s feet. 

Who does this figure represent? The conical crown, elaborate dress, and


adornments suggest a person of high rank. The forehead scarification 

suggests it is a male or female member of Oshugbo, or the king’s female 

representative to this society. 

Scholars interpret a scene of ritual sacrifice and acceptance of the sacrificial 

offering, Oshugbo emblems, and an aristocratic personage as a 

record of a very important event—such as the rituals performed during 

the installation of a new king. The ring would have been sent to the Oni of 

Ife as proof that the prescribed rituals had been accomplished. 

The Dallas Museum of Art’s ring was probably made at Ijebu, as indicated 

by the emblems on the principal figure’s forehead. Dating is problematic, 

but it has been suggested that all of the rings in the corpus were 

made after the twelfth century AD because the type of crown depicted on 

this figure is not found in any works from Ife’s Classical period, when the 

cast bronze heads were made.


7 

Royal crown (ade) 


Late 19th to early 20th century 

Glass beads, cloth, basketry, and fiber 

34½ × 9 in. diam. (87.63 × 22.86 cm) 

Gift of David T. Owsley via the Alvin and 

Lucy Owsley Foundation, 2008.39.A–B 

fig 21 Oba William Adetona Ayeni wears the Yoruba 

beaded crown with beaded veil, Orangun-Ila, Ila-Orangun, 

Nigeria, 1977. 

A beaded crown with frontal faces, birds, and a beaded fringe veil is a 

Yoruba king’s most important regalia. It is simultaneously a symbol of 

the king’s semi-divine status and the mythic origins of Yoruba royalty. 

According to oral tradition, Oduduwa was the founder and first king 

(oba) of the Yoruba peoples. He wore the first crown, which was created 

by Olokun, the god of the sea and inventor and “owner” of the beads. 

When Oduduwa became old, he sent his sixteen sons out into the world 

to found their own kingdoms. Only those rulers who can trace their ancestry 

to Oduduwa are privileged to wear the beaded crown.21 

A beaded crown is typically conical in form and decorated with frontal 

faces, interlaces, zigzags, and one or more birds at the apex of the crown 

and, optionally, along the sides. Each of these motifs is symbolic of Yoruba 

divine kingship. The faces might represent Oduduwa, Olokun, or the father 

of the oba’s lineage. The white face of the Dallas crown makes this association 

more apparent because white refers to the afterlife. The interlace pattern 

that appears above the face is associated with royalty and symbolizes 

eternity. The pattern of interlocking curves is never- ending like the oba’s 

lineage. The bird or birds perched on the pinnacle of the crown symbolizes 

the oba’s access to the sacred. The royal bird (okin) represents communication 

with the gods through flight; they connect the sky and earth. The 

beaded veil, which conceals the oba’s face, allows him to act on behalf of 

the gods and ancestors whose symbolic forms decorate the crown (fig. 21). 

Essentially a mask, the crown allows the ruler’s subjects to focus on only 

the headdress and the beliefs it represents. 

Beaded crowns are made by highly skilled artists from the major 

beadworking centers of Effon-Alaiye, Ile-Ife, Oyo, Ilesha, Abeokuta, and 

Iperu-Remo. The crown begins as a conical framework of palm ribs covered 

with four layers of white cloth glued together with cornstarch. The 

three- dimensional forms and raised surfaces, such as the faces on this 

crown, are built up with additional cloth and cornstarch. Strands of tiny 

European beads are sewn onto the cloth in the desired patterns. The earliest 

crowns were decorated with African red jasper. Today, the beads are 

usually plastic. Older examples like this one incorporate glass beads, 

which are desirable because they are translucent and allow the colorful 

patterns to become infused with light, adding to the depth of the overall 

design.


8 

Symbol of the inner head 

(ibori) 



Glass beads, cowrie shells, and leather 

6½ × 3¼ in. diam. (16.51 × 8.26 cm) 

African Collection Fund, 2005.102 

9 

House of the head (ile ori) 



Leather, cowrie shells, glass beads, 

cloth, and metal 

21 × 12 in. diam. (53.34 × 30.48 cm) 


Most African sculptures of human figures seem all wrong to Western eyes 

accustomed to the proportions of classical Greek statuary. The head, for 

instance, is out of proportion to the rest of the body. Ere ibeji, or twin figures, 

exemplify the Yoruba concept of how body parts relate to one another: the 

head (ori) being one-third to one-fourth of a standing figure in contrast to 

the head being one-seventh of a Greek standing figure. Yoruba artists, like 

artists in many other African cultures, emphasize that which is important 

in a composition. The Yoruba believe the ori, the site of the major sensory 

organs and the brain, is the seat of one’s essential nature and destiny.22 

For this reason the head must be treated as a spiritual entity, like a divinity. 

Thus, an “oversized” head makes perfect sense. 

According to the Yoruba version of the Creation, humans are created 

by the deities Obatala, who models the body in clay, and Olorun, who 

blows vital force into it. The head, however, is made by Ajala, a potter who 

does not always make perfect heads. An individual can counteract Ajala’s 

incompetence by making periodic sacrifices to his or her ibori, a physical 

symbol of one’s essential nature and spiritual life (sometimes referred to 

as the “inner head”). The ibori, which is housed in ile ori or “house of the 

head,” also serves as a container as it is packed with “ingredients associated 

with one’s ancestors, gods, and the restrictions or taboos (ewo) one 

must abide by.”23 

The importance of one’s destiny motivates an individual to invest in 

the largest and most elaborately decorated ibori and ile ori possible. The 

owner of the Dallas ibori and ile ori was undoubtedly a person of means. 

Imported European glass seed beads and Maldive Islands cowrie shells 

were expensive to obtain and were valued as currency before the introduction 

of coins and paper money. The imagery on and shape of the ile ori also 

reveal information about its original owner, who was probably a Yoruba 

king. Bird imagery commonly appears on royal crowns and refers to the 

procreative powers of women who assure continuity of the lineage. Its 

shape also replicates the cone-shaped royal crown. 

Upon the death of the owner, both the ibori and ile ori are usually dismantled 

and the beads and cowries are scattered on the deceased’s grave 

or spent by the survivors. 

CAT. 8 

CAT. 9


10 

Four-faced half figure 

(Sakimatwematwe) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lega peoples 

Late 19th to mid-20th century 

Wood and kaolin 

125/* × 59/! 6 × 55/* in. (32.07 × 14.12 × 14.13 cm) 

The Gustave and Franyo Schindler Collection 

of African Sculpture, gift of the McDermott 

Foundation in honor of Eugene McDermott, 

1974.SC.49 

In contrast to the Edo peoples, the Lega do not have a centralized political 

system. Instead, leadership and governance are vested in Bwami, a 

graded association open to both men and women that teaches values of 

moderation, nonviolence, kinship, respect, constraint and moral as well 

as physical beauty. It was also the major channel for prestige and the sole 

motivation for the visual arts.24 

Not all members reach the highest grades of Bwami. The few that do 

become the moral and philosophical elite and are entitled to possess particular 

emblems appropriate to their status. These emblems, which are 

accumulated over time, include carved wood or ivory sculptures that illustrate 

proverbs or aphorisms about moral perfection.25 

The multiheaded figure known as Sakimatwematwe, or “many heads,” 

illustrates the proverb “Sakimatwematwe has seen an elephant on the 

other side of the large river” and teaches Bwami members to be openminded, 

wise, and fair. This meaning applies to any multiheaded figure. 

The Museum’s example has a meaningful form that stops not at the 

base of the neck but becomes a stool with legs bending outward at an 

angle. Among the Lega, only high-ranking individuals possess stools in 

the Bwami society. Explanations of such figures demonstrate the complex 

teachings of the Bwami society and the layered meanings of its 

sculptures. 

The aphorism refers to the cylindrical base of the seat and base. The 

seat and base are referred to here as two opposing heads, a theme 

frequently represented on anthropomorphic figurines. Many-Heads 

is a symbol of the wisdom, perspicacity, and equitableness of the 

kindi (one of the highest grades in Bwami). Everybody can achieve 

status and self expression through Bwami: “Every chair has an open 

space; every mulega [member of the Lega] is [a potential] wabume 

[one who has virility and manhood, poise and character, and status; 

one who is fully human].” The statement, “The chair was very bad; 

bukenga leaves have made me shine around the eyes,” bears on the 

beautiful gloss obtained by sanding the chair with lubenga leaves 

and by oiling it. The reference is to a man whose goodness or whose 

kanyamwa wife (both represented by the lubenga leaf) have brought 

him fame. An uninitiated person is in darkness; bwami brings light 

and gives greatness (shine) to people. The typical bend in the legs of 

the chair is reminiscent of death: “The branch of the nkungu tree: the 

bending is the reason why it dies.” The aphorism refers not merely 

to knees bent by old age, but to the use of a bent branch of the tree 

to tear off the head of the decomposing corpse.26


11 

Mask (lukwakongo) 



Wood, raffia, and pigment 

67/* × 5¼ × 2¼ in. (17.46 × 13.33 × 5.72 cm) 

The Clark and Frances Stillman Collection of 

Congo Sculpture, The Eugene and Margaret 

McDermott Art Fund, Inc., 1971.6.McD 

fig 22 Lega masks are displayed on a special fence 

surrounding a large wooden mask during the lutumbo 

lwa kindi rite. Democratic Republic of the Congo, c. 1952. 

The small, bearded lukwakongo mask is the insignia of the Bwami subgroup 

yananio, the last grade before reaching the pinnacle in the association. 

Representing the ideal Lega man, it is not only an object of transformation 

or concealment like a conventional face mask. It may be worn on other 

parts of the body, simply held in one’s hands or displayed on the ground, 

a mat, or a fence (fig. 22). Lukwakongo literally means “death gathers in,” 

a reference to the portrayal and importance of the ancestors.27 As Bwami 

members successfully complete a level or grade, they participate in the 

lutumbo lwa kindi rite, receiving grade-related masks that had belonged to 

other members who had reached the same grade. Before the presentation, 

the mask is placed on an ancestral grave to express continuity of Bwami 

leadership from the past to the present.


12 

Crown 

Côte d’Ivoire, Baule peoples 

c. 1920 

Wood, gold leaf, and textile 

5¾ × 9¼ × 7¾ in. (14.61 × 23.50 × 19.69 cm) 

African Art Collection Fund, 2007.34.3 

fig 23 Kyaman chiefs and notables, Anna village, 

Côte d’Ivoire, 1972. 

The Baule are essentially an egalitarian people who live in independent 

villages and vest authority in the “notables.” These dignitaries lead a cluster 

of villages and distinguish themselves with fine handwoven cloth and 

gold regalia, including crowns, jewelry, handheld objects, flywhisks, and 

footwear (fig. 23). The regalia may be made of pure gold or wood covered 

with gold leaf. Crowns take the form of a pillbox or narrow headband. 

The notables’ crowns are made of imported velvet and decorated with 

small figurative or geometric wooden plaques covered with gold leaf. The 

rectangular plaques may represent the gold beads found on prestige necklaces. 

Called srala (bamboo door), the shape replicates the bamboo screen 

that is hung at the entrance to a bedroom in traditional village houses. 

As a screen “sees” both inside and outside the bedroom, a notable must 

know all that is happening within his village and beyond.28 An animal 

carved in full relief typically sits atop a crown. This pillbox crown is topped 

with an elephant, a fitting metaphor for political leadership.


13a 

Elephant mask (mbap mteng) 

Cameroon, Bamileke peoples 

1920–1930 

Palm leaf fiber textile, cotton textile, glass beads, 

and palm leaf ribs 

58 × 26 × 6½ in. (147.32 × 66.04 × 16.51 cm) 

Textile Purchase Fund, 1991.54.1 

13b 

Hat for elephant mask 

Cameroon, Bamileke peoples 

Mid-20th century 

Basketry, wood, feathers, and cotton textile 

9¾ × 32 in. diam. (24.77 × 81.28 cm) 

Textile Purchase Fund, 1991.54.2 

fig 24 Members of the elephant society, wearing beaded 

elephant masks and feathered headdresses, pose for a 

French missionary photographer in the market place of 

Bandjoun, Cameroon, 1930. 

The Bamileke peoples believe the king (fon) is the representative of the 

Supreme Being and the ancestors and has supernatural as well as religious 

and political powers. The fon, however, does not control human behavior. 

Secret associations acting on behalf of the king establish and enforce 

social order. One such association is the Kuosi (or Kwosi), which began 

as a warrior’s or regulatory society and evolved into one composed of 

wealthy titled men. Kuosi members serve not only as the fon’s emissaries, 

but as the protectors of kingship and as such remind the fon that he is not 

above reproach. 

Wearing a beaded cloth mask with elephantine features, Kuosi members 

perform the elephant dance (tso) in public on ritual occasions, major 

festivals, and funerals. Sometimes the fon appears as one of the masked 

dancers (fig. 24). The Kuosi masquerade has been described as “the most 

spectacular and prestigious Bamileke ritual performance.”29 

The beaded mask (mbap mteng) is worn with an indigo-dyed cloth (ndop) 

decorated with colobus monkey fur and a leopard pelt and may be worn 

with a headdress of red feathers from the tail of an African gray parrot. 

Long panels hanging down the front and the back of the tight-fitting 

hood represent the elephant’s trunk. Stiff, large circular ears are attached 

to either side of the hood and flap when the dancer moves. The facial features, 

which are humanlike, are made of padded cloth so they project from 

the cloth background. 

CAT. 13A


Royal symbols lavishly beaded on the mbap mteng include an iron 

double-gong, a frog (symbol of fertility), a spider (emblem of the earth 

into which the ancestors are interred), a toad, lizard, crocodile, and serpent. 

These depictions, which may be naturalistic, schematic, or abstract, 

may all appear in the same composition. One theory for this occurrence 

is that the naturalistic designs are reduced until they become triangles, 

which are further transformed into the lozenges, circles, and squares.30 

While all mbap mteng conform to the basic form described, the arrangement 

of the beaded icons varies from mask to mask. The Dallas Museum 

of Art’s mask is distinguished by dissimilar patterns on the ears and by 

the lavish application of beads, including the reddish tubular ones at the 

back of the hood. The earliest masks, which date from the nineteenth 

century, are characterized by a conservative use of beads (mostly black, 

blue, and white) that were imported in limited quantities from Venice 

and Czechoslovakia. Because beads were used as currency—and therefore 

a symbol of wealth—the mbap mteng also means “a thing of money.” 

Imported beads were more plentiful and more colorful after World War I. 

Beads of various colors distinguish the Museum’s mask, suggesting a date 

of between 1920 and 1930 for its creation.31 

The gray parrot’s red tail feathers are as precious and significant as 

the expensive imported beads. Gray parrots produce few tail feathers; to 

have a headdress made of so many feathers is impressive. Rarity aside, 

the selection of this bird probably has much to do with its superior intelligence, 

which is an attribute of great leaders. On a practical note, the 

feather headdress is collapsible. 

CAT. 13B


14 

Tiered hat with brass 

discs (botolo) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ekonda peoples 

20th century 

Coiled basketry (palm splints and fiber) and 

brass discs 

25 × 10 × 9¾ in. (63.50 × 25.40 × 24.77 cm) 

Gift of the Friends of African and African-American 

Art, 1992.511 

fig 25 An Ekonda chief (nkumu) wears the botolo 

with metal discs as a symbol of his authority, Isangi, 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, c. 1950. © Royal 

Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium, 

EP 0.0.2949; photograph: C. Lamote. 

Village chiefs (nkumu) among the Ekonda and neighboring groups in the 

Democratic Republic of the Congo wear a tiered hat (botolo) as an insignia 

of office and an association with the powers of the ancestors, important 

ritual functions, and divination.32 The botolo is a coiled basketry hat composed 

of several horizontal brims that increase in size from top to bottom. 

Made of raffia fibers and often colored with camwood powder mixed with 

oil, it is adorned with brass or copper disks. Copper, brass, and iron were 

used as currency in the Belgian Congo in the nineteenth to early twentieth 

centuries. The presence of metal disks on botolo signifies wealth and 

prestige. 

A chief who is the first in his line must buy the botolo; if he is descended 

from a chief, he inherits his predecessor’s “crown.”33 In addition to wearing 

a botolo, Ekonda chiefs carry a wavy-edged scepter (fig. 25).


15 

Prestige hat (kalyeem) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kuba peoples 

Early 20th century 

Raffia, glass beads, cowrie shells, 

conus shells, cotton textile, and brass 

11 × 8¼ × 9 in. (27.94 × 20.96 × 22.86 cm) 

General Acquisition Fund, 1997.88 

16 

Bead-embroidered 

prestige hat (mpaan) 


20th century 

Palm leaf fiber textile, cotton textile, 

cowrie shells, and glass beads 

17¼ × 10¾ × 8½ in. (43.82 × 27.31 × 21.59 cm) 

Gift of Alma L. McKinney in honor of 

Frederic A. Luyties III, 1992.21 

The Kuba kingdom, founded in the early seventeenth century in the central 

part of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo, is made up 

of several different ethnicities that pay tribute to a king (nyim). The first 

nyim was the legendary Shyaam-a-Mbul Ngwoong, from the Bushoong 

subgroup, who is said to have introduced the administrative and political 

structures that continue today. Hats and headdresses are the most visible 

expression of one’s standing within the intricate Kuba system of leadership 

and titleholding.34 

Male and female titleholders wear prestige hats and headdresses on 

ceremonial occasions and at funerals.35 The most senior male titleholders 

wear the kalyeem, a cone-shaped hat elaborately decorated with beads 

and cowrie shells (fig. 26). Two or more beaded panels hang from a small 

inverted cone on top of the hat. The Dallas kalyeem is distinguished by the 

addition of conus shells and brass bells. The hat supports innumerable 

strands of white beads with cowrie pendants, and the chevron-patterned 

panels, which ascend and flow from the sides of the central form, are 

edged with cowries. 

Senior female titleholders wear the mpaan, which combines the conical 

shape of the kalyeem with a rigid semicircular half-crown shape. The mpaan 

is decorated with beads and cowrie shells and may be further embellished 

with feathers. A beaded stem projects from the crown of the Dallas mpaan, 

and the lateral forehead band is extended by three-dimensional cowrie- 

and bead-embroidered rectangles. 

Used as part of one’s funeral display, these symbols of status were 

not inherited by family members but usually buried, along with other 

emblems, with the deceased. 

fig 26 A Northern Kete man wears the kalyeem hat to 

demonstrate his prestige and elite status as a titleholder. 

The characteristic beaded flaps of the kalyeem cascade 

from the very top of the hat and are edged in red beads. 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, c. 1982. 

CAT. 15 

CAT. 16


17 

Hat with nut shells 

(mukuba) 


20th century 

Coiled basketry, elephant tail, grass beads, cowrie 

shells, buttons, and nuts 

22 × 7¾ × 13 in. (55.88 × 19.69 × 33.02 cm) 

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. George A. Shutt, The Levy 

Memorial Fund, and the Lot for a Little Fund, 1992.510 

18 

Hat in the form of a wig 

(sawamazembe) 


20th century 

Coiled basketry, felted wool, plied palm fiber, halved 

seeds, shells, buttons (glass and plastic), palm splints, 

and palm fiber 

19 × 10 × 7 in. (48.26 × 25.4 × 17.78 cm) 

The Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Fund, 1992.509 

CAT. 17 

Hats and headdresses reveal a member’s rank within the Bwami society. 

The conical shaped hat decorated with shells and a beaded elephant tail 

projecting from its top is called mukuba. It signifies membership at the 

highest level of the kindi grade. Kindi members identify with elephants, 

which although nonviolent (a Bwami principle of perfection), can be 

destructive if disturbed. 

The wig-form hat (sawamazembe), decorated with a large imported scallop 

or seashell and imported buttons, is worn by members of lutumbo 

lwa kindi, the supreme grade in the Bwami society. The hat replicates a 

woman’s hairstyle, a reminder of the interdependence of the kindi initiate 

and his wife. In the past, the shell was polished to symbolize the crescent 

moon and attract attention to the superior status of the wearer.36 

CAT. 18


19 

Chair with head on back 

and figures on rungs 

Angola and Democratic Republic of the Congo, 

Chokwe peoples 


Wood and hide 

22 7/! 6 × 95/* × 17 in. (56.99 × 24.45 × 43.18 cm) 

The Clark and Frances Stillman Collection of Congo 

Sculpture, gift of Eugene and Margaret McDermott, 

1969.S.10 

While their subjects sat on the ground, African rulers sat elevated on 

stools or chairs. In societies where all were entitled to such furniture, the 

highest-ranking political and religious officials owned seats that were 

larger and more elaborate. European chairs, introduced to West Africa by 

Portuguese merchants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were 

appropriated as symbols of power and authority. 

African peoples drew inspiration for their chairs (thrones) from the 

European model—with its backrest and four legs connected by stretchers 

—but did not slavishly copy it; instead, they adapted it to local tastes and 

needs. The position of the backrest, for example, is rarely upright; instead, 

it is set at an oblique angle. Moreover, the decoration on the backrest and 

stretchers is figurative and refers to indigenous daily life, history, mythology, 

or religion. 

Chokwe chiefs in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo 

first encountered the European chair in the seventeenth century. In addition 

to the full-sized thrones, Chokwe chiefs had smaller versions that 

traveled with them on visits to their villages or to the market. The Dallas 

chair is a fine example of a traveling throne. The textured backrest is decorated 

with the head of an ancestral chief wearing an elaborate hairstyle 

or headdress and a pair of horns, which represent the animal horns that 

were filled with supernatural substances to protect the ruler. The scenes 

on the stretchers refer to daily life: travel by boat; a couple copulating; and 

ancestors displaying the characteristic gestures of arms folded across their 

chests or hands resting on their knees (see detail, below). The seated or 

crouched figure on the back stretcher represents a Cihongo masquerader 

wearing an elaborate headdress, wooden mask, and raffia skirt. Cihongo 

is the male ancestor who symbolizes chiefly wealth, power, and justice. In 

the distant past, the chief or his sons wore a similar mask when they went 

to collect tribute (food, cloth, beads, and livestock) from their subjects.37


20 

Stool supported by 

kneeling female figure 

(kipona) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Luba peoples 


Wood, beads, and metal 

16 7/! 6 × 11 9/! 6 × 109/! 6 in. (41.75 × 29.37 × 26.83 cm) 


Congo Sculpture, gift of Eugene and Margaret 

McDermott, 1969.S.105 

fig 27 Russûna and a Wife. Engraving, 1887. 

Russûna, a Luba chief, sits on a carved wooden stool in 

the form of a caryatid and rests his feet on his wife’s lap. 

Royal regalia of the Luba peoples include bow stands, spears, cups, staffs, 

and thrones. The throne, carved in the form of a caryatid stool called a 

kipona, is the king’s most important symbol of his status. It is tangible 

proof that he is a descendant of Mbidi Kiluwe, the legendary seventeenthcentury 

ruler who founded the kingdom. In fact, when the king sat on his 

caryatid throne, his feet did not touch the ground, but rested on his wife’s 

lap (fig. 27). The kipona is also a receptacle for the king’s spirit. Perhaps 

because they are so important, kipona are not always on public view, but 

covered with a white cloth and guarded by a palace official at a site well 

away from the village.38 

The caryatid stool in the Dallas Museum of Art collection depicts a 

female with a high forehead, heavy lidded eyes, and a serene facial expression. 

Posed kneeling, she supports the seat with her head and hands. Her 

torso and thighs are decorated with symmetrical patterns carved in relief. 

The back of her head reveals a cross-form hairstyle carved in high relief. 

Although the Luba are a patrilineal society, most items of Luba regalia 

created from the eighteenth to the twentieth century depict females rather 

than males. An explanation may lie in the fact that the female image represents 

more than the aesthetic ideal. Feminine imagery reminds one that 

women have played important roles in Luba history by wielding power 

behind the scenes as counselors, title holders, priestesses, spirit mediums, 

ambassadors, and symbolic kings. Of course, from the male perspective, 

women also have that mysterious ability to bear children. 

Their support is both literal and spiritual. According to Verney Lovett 

Cameron, a British traveler who accompanied Sir Richard Burton to Central 

Africa in 1882, a woman was placed on her hands and knees upon a chief’s 

death and made to support the dead king and his treasury.39 Another 

report asserts that women were spirit mediums (mwadi). The mwadi, possessed 

by the dead king’s spirit, lived a celibate life that was dedicated to 

perpetuating the king’s memory.40


21 

Ceremonial adze with 

head and torso 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pende peoples 


Wood and metal 

16 × 3 1/! 6 × 11 7/* in. (40.64 × 7.78 × 30.16 cm) 




Staffs, weapons, and tools serve as chiefly insignia. On ceremonial occasions, 

a Pende chief carried an adze over his shoulder. It was not an ordinary 

tool used to sculpt wood but an ornate version of the conventional 

model.41 

This adze exemplifies the type. At the top of the handle there is a 

sculpted human head adorned with imported European brass tacks. Its 

face displays raised scarification marks on each cheek. Both the hairstyle, 

or skullcap as some authors refer to it, and scarification marks are found 

on Pende masks with visual references to both leadership and hunting— 

an important activity, especially if the chief killed a leopard or crocodile. 

A very long iron blade has been hammered into the head’s mouth. At 

the back on the handle, a female bust carved in full relief is positioned 

upside down (see detail, below). When viewed in profile, the small skulllike 

head appears to be an exaggerated depiction of the head at the top of 

the adze.


22 

Side-blown horn 

Sierra Leone, Mende peoples 


Ivory 

23¾ × 2¼ × 3¾ in. (60.33 × 5.72 × 9.53 cm) 


Art Fund, Inc. 1994.198.McD 

fig 28 Carved from wood, this standing female figure is a 

decorative element in an early 19th-century Temne harp. 

Musical instruments, when not sounding the call to war, were important 

objects that announced a ruler’s arrival and entertained him or her with 

pleasing sounds. This richly hued ivory horn was made for a Mende paramount 

chief of Sierra Leone. It may predate British colonization and the 

introduction of staffs with a silver knob bearing the British coat of arms. 

The imagery carved on this horn is intriguing. Near the top of the 

instrument a nude female stands on a platform between two wheel-like 

forms and holds her breasts (see detail, p. 89). Below and in opposition 

to the female figure lies a lizard in low relief. On the back of the horn is a 

bird carved in full relief, a raised square amulet (opposite the lizard) and a 

loop for a fiber or leather carrying cord. Concentric circles, half circles, and 

multiple bands are incised on the horn or carved in relief. 

The meaning of the figures and patterns on this instrument is not 

fully understood. What can be cited are the contexts in which the imagery 

occurs in the art of the Mende, Sherbro, Sapi, and Temne peoples. The 

wheel form, for example, is found on the top of a gbini, a mask associated 

with the power of the Mende paramount chief (fig. 29), and resembles 

the shape of the paramount chief’s crown.42 This motif is also found on a 

Renaissance-period ivory saltcellar, one of the so-called Afro-Portuguese 

ivories that were exported to Europe and destined for the tables of the 

nobility (fig. 30).43 The standing female figure corresponds to one that is 

attached to a harp of Temne origin illustrated without commentary in a 

missionary publication from the early nineteenth century (fig. 28).44 The 

rectangular shapes appear as decoration on the Mende sowei helmet masks 

of the Sande society that initiates girls into womanhood. They represent 

amulets that are sometimes covered with silver, gold, or leather and contain 

Islamic inscriptions believed to have spiritual power. Finally, depending 

upon when the patterns were introduced, they may have been inspired 

by the British orb, a symbol of royal power. Further study is required to 

interpret the meaning of the imagery on this horn.


fig 29 The “wheel” motif that appears on the gbini mask symbolizes a 

Mende paramount chief’s supreme power. Mattru Kolanima, Tikonko 

Chiefdom, Siera Leone, 1974. 

fig 30 Ivory saltcellar with “wheel” motif, c. 16th century. 

Collection of Alain de Monbrison.


23 

Kneeling female figure 

with bowl (olumeye) 

Olowe of Ise, c. 1875–1938 

Nigeria, Ekiti region, Effon-Alaiye, Yoruba peoples 

c. 1910–c. 1918 

Wood, pigment, and paint 

19½ × 10¼ × 14½ in. (49.53 × 26.04 × 36.83 cm) 



fig 31 A conventional olumeye (kneeling figure with 

bowl) carved by Agonbiofe of Effon-Alaiye (died 1945), 

early 20th century. Collection of John and Jane Pemberton. 

The Yoruba have traditionally offered kola nuts to guests in a domestic 

hospitality ritual or to the deities in the context of religious worship. 

While gourd containers served these purposes for most people, honored 

visitors to the palace or other prestigious residences were served from 

elaborately decorated wooden bowls. The containers are called olumeye in 

reference to the kneeling female figure holding the bowl. The word means 

“she who brings honor,” and the figure celebrates Yoruba aesthetic ideals 

of feminine beauty. 

Olumeye sculptures are numerous because all Yoruba sculptors knew 

how to carve them. Sculptors of most of the extant olumeye carved the 

lidded bowl in the form of a cock (fig. 31), an animal that is usually sacrificed 

to the deities (orisha) and offered to guests in a spicy soup. The 

Dallas olumeye seems to be an innovation because the lidded bowl is just 

that—made prominent only by giving it a dome-shaped lid and elevating 

it on the upraised hands of female figures kneeling along the edge 

of the base. The sculpture is boldly decorated with zigzags, diamonds, 

rectangles, and other geometric designs. The lid, which was carved separately, 

is decorated with a group of birds carved in high relief pecking at a 

mound of feed. The sculpture is painted. But, the artist’s masterstroke is 

the freestanding bearded head he carved within the “cage” formed by the 

kneeling figures around the base. The head can be moved about the cage 

but it cannot be removed, indicating that it was carved from within the 

cage (see detail, p. 93). 

Olowe was indeed an innovator. No other Yoruba artists of his time 

carved sculptures in exceedingly high relief, created the illusion of movement 

in his figures, and painted them. He seems to have re visited his own 

creations with the outcome of more complex versions of the theme. This 

olumeye, for example, is one of three that he is known to have carved. The 

smallest and least complex of the group, the Museum’s olumeye may be 

the first one he carved.45 

Unlike most works of art by African tradition-based artists, the creator 

of this olumeye is known by name: Olowe of Ise. In fact, African artists were 

not anonymous but were known to their patrons and the people living in 

their communities. Their names may not have been collected for various 

reasons, but a major one is that early ethnographers and collectors failed 

to ask, “Who made this?”46 

Olowe of Ise was born around 1875 and died in about 1938. He was born 

in Effon-Alaiye, an important royal town and center of Yoruba visual art in 

the nineteenth century. Olowe grew up to become an artist in the court of 

the Arinjale of Ise for whom he carved veranda posts, doors, drums, toys, 

and whatever was required for use in the official, religious, and domestic 

activities at the palace. He was occasionally lent to other Yoruba kings and 

families who could afford to hire him to beautify their surroundings and 

to religious specialists for shrine sculptures and masks.


In 1924, a door that Olowe had carved for the palace of the Ogoga of 

Ikere was included in the British Empire Exhibition in England. The 

British Museum officials were so impressed with the door that they 

arranged to acquire it for the British Museum. Works by Olowe had already 

reached England earlier in the century. (Many sculptures by Olowe have 

been acquired since 1925 by museums and private collectors in Europe, 

America, and Australia.)47 The Dallas olumeye was brought to England by 

Edwin Holland, a telegraphist who was employed by the British Colonial 

government in Lagos.48 How Holland obtained the olumeye is not known, 

but one can imagine him visiting the royal owner of the sculpture and 

expressing his admiration of it. The king could have given the bowl to 

Holland. After all, Olowe was still alive in 1919 and could carve another 

one. That is what happened in 1925 when he replaced the door that had 

remained in England after the British Empire Exhibition.


24 

Prestige pipe bowl 

Cameroon, Bamum peoples 

20th century 

Terracotta 

15½ × 9 × 9 in. (39.37 × 22.86 × 22.86 cm) 

Gift of The Cecil and Ida Green Foundation, 

1999.60 

fig 32 The Queen Mother of Bamum, with many attendents, 

Foumban, Cameroon, c. 1907–1912. An attendant 

of the Queen Mother to the far left in the photo displays 

a ceremonial pipe. 

The introduction of tobacco to sub-Saharan Africa in the seventeenth 

century inspired the creation of new prestige objects and leadership 

rituals. There are numerous depictions of tobacco usage in Africa, from 

a seventeenth-century Yoruba divination tray49 to nineteenth-century 

statues of Chokwe kings holding tobacco mortars that were used on ceremonial 

occasions.50 

In the highly stratified Bamum society, both men and women smoked 

tobacco in pipes befitting their social status. The largest and most elaborately 

decorated pipes were made by male court potters for the king (fon) 

and smoked on important ceremonial occasions “as a visual attribute of 

royal might.”51 Other potters, who included women, were brought to the 

Bamum court to make pipes and vessels for the palace. A pipe bowl from 

the Dallas Museum of Art collection exemplifies their work. The pipe bowl 

is modeled in the form of the head of a man with puffed cheeks and wearing 

an openwork headdress. Although the puffed cheeks can be found on 

Bamum masks, they probably serve to give the heavy pipe bowls stability. 

The headdress is inspired by a woven cotton cap over a netlike support 

fashioned from cane. The opening at the bottom of the pipe regulated the 

air supply. Pipe stems made of brass or carved wood were also decorated, 

often with colorful beadwork. An early nineteenth-century photograph 

of the queen mother and her attendants shows a complete pipe that was 

decorated with a flag (fig. 32). 

Since antiquity and throughout the vast continent, the visual arts have 

glorified and supported leadership. Whether authority was invested in a 

king, chief, or the elders in an association or council, those in supreme 

leadership positions were distinguished by a range of aesthetic emblems 

whose form, material, and ornamentation were the exclusive prerogatives 

of their rank.


1 : icons and symbols of leadership and status 97 

Notes 

1. T. Phillips 1995: 531 

2. Leloup 2005: 172 

3. A wood sample from the sculpture was tested in 

1988 at the Physics and Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory 

at the University of Arizona, Tucson; see also 

p. 35, note 3, for additional information. 

4. Leloup 2000: 8; Leloup 1994: 111–28; Grunne 2001a: 

35–54; Grunne 2001b: 75–88 

5. Olfert Dapper (1668) quoted, in Roth [1903] 1972: 

160 

6. Ben-Amos 1995: 9 

7. Blackmun 1983: 64 

8. Roth [1903] 1972: xiii 

9. Blackmun 2000: 3–4 

10. Christie’s 1992: lot 247 

11. Egharevba 1968: 26 

12. Roese and Bondarenko 2003: 100–1003; Blackmun, 

in Plankensteiner 2007: 445–46 

13. Blackmun, in Ben-Amos and Rubin 1983: 62 

14. Ibid. 

15. Ben-Amos 1995: 98 

16. Blackmun, in Plankensteiner 2007: 446 

17. Ben-Amos 1995: 34 

18. A complete figure is reproduced in Eyo 1990: 120; 

and in Blackmun, in Plankensteiner 2007: 445 

19. Vogel 1983: 350; Willett, in T. Phillips 1995: 428 

The corpus includes one in the National Museum, 

Lagos, that is not mentioned in Vogel’s article. 

20. Awolalu 1979: 168 

21. Thompson 1970: 8–17; Drewal and Mason 1998: 

201–205 

22. Drewal and Pemberton with Abiodun 1989: 26–33; 

Lawal 2002: 80–89 

23. Drewal and Pemberton with Abiodun 1989: 26–32 

24. Biebuyck 1973: 66–71 

25. Rubin 1993: 16–18 

26. Biebuyck 1973: 186–87 

27. Ibid., [213], plates 60–62; Cameron 2001: 180 

28. Garrard, in Barbier 1993, vol. 2: 163 

29. Notue, in Mack 2000: 112 

30. Northern 1984: 53 

31. Geary 2000: 5 

32. Biebuyck and Abbeele 1984: 96 

33. Brown 1944: 431–47 

Brown describes chieftainship among the Tumba, 

who also have a chief (nkumu) who wears a similar 

hat called a montolo. Writing in the 1940s, Brown notes 

that the ceremonies connected with the nkumu were 

rapidly disappearing under the influence of European 

occupation and control. 

34. Shamashang, in Mack 2000: 137 

35. Darish and Binkley 1995: 168 

36. Cameron 2001: 75–76 

37. Bastin 1982: 86–89 

38. Roberts and Roberts 1996: 154 

39. Cameron 1877: 333 


41. Sousberghe 1958: 135–37 

42. R. Phillips 1995: 75 

43. Bassani and Fagg 1988: 231, fig. 52 

44. Flickinger 1885: facing p. 32 

45. Walker 2005 

46. Allison 1944: 49–50 

47. Walker 1998 

This book includes the artist’s biography reconstructed 

from various European and African sources, 

a catalogue raisonné of the artist’s works, and an 

extensive bibliography. 

48. Kloman and Elliott 2004: 120–23 

49. Sieber and Walker 1987: 73 

50. Wastiau 2006: 18, 120 

51. Geary 1983: 108

chapter 2 

african art in the cycle of life 

Part one: art to aid concePtion and Birth 

“Children are better than riches,” declares an African proverb. Children 

obviously represent continuity from one generation to the next, but they 

are crucial for other reasons. Most importantly, they fulfill the biological 

roles of males and females, demonstrating their sexual identity, virility, 

and fertility. Children are also the “social security” system for their elderly 

parents: they care for them and ensure they receive a proper burial, which 

is necessary to successfully transition to the afterlife and possibly achieve 

ancestor status or be reincarnated as a child. Those who do not procreate 

are considered most unfortunate. 

To assure conception and the successful delivery of healthy infants, 

women have sought spiritual intervention. Ritual objects were used 

throughout sub-Saharan Africa by diviners to identify the cause of and cure 

for infertility and by legendary midwives or healers to petition the deities. 

Some ritual objects may be repurposed. Akua’ma, for example, may become 

educational aids to teach childcare. 

The sculptures discussed in this chapter are not the only ones associated 

with fertility. Because African art has a multivalent nature, an object 

may have multiple significances. Fang and Kota reliquary guardian figures 

protect the venerated relics of ancestors who are empowered to bless their 

descendants with children, and a Bobo Nwenka mask appears not only 

at funerals but also at agricultural festivals to encourage the fertility of 

human beings as well as the land. 

Children are a material blessing from the Supreme Being through his 

various deities. The blessing may be achieved easily and naturally. If 

supernatural aid is needed to successfully achieve one’s biological destiny, 

aesthetic objects are required for effective communication with the spirit 

world. Spirits, like human beings, are attracted to beautiful things. 

101

102 2 : african art in the cycle of life 

25 

Equestrian figure 

Côte d’Ivoire, Senufo peoples 


Wood and pigment 

12 5/* × 2 7/* × 8¾ in. (32.07 × 7.30 × 22.23 cm) 




one : art to aid conception and birth 

The Senufo peoples consult diviners (sando), who invoke nature spirits, 

to determine the cause of and remedy for an illness or misfortune. These 

ambiguous nature spirits (madebele)—believed to live in the forest (or 

“bush” as it is commonly called), fields, and streams surrounding Senufo 

villages—both cause and cure misfortune. 

A barren woman, for example, would seek a diviner’s advice to learn the 

cause of her infertility. After casting assorted symbolic items (miniature 

sculptures and natural objects) before a group of display figures representing 

the nature spirits and a pair of sculpted male and female primordial 

twins, the diviner interprets the spirits’ messages, which are expressed 

in the positional relationships among the cast pieces. A small cowrie 

inserted into a larger one, for instance, is a symbol of pregnancy issues.1 

Originally part of a sando’s group of display figures, the Dallas carved 

equestrian figure depicts a madebele on his steed. Madebele are believed to 

possess some human traits, such as appreciating the visual and performing 

arts. They are therefore attracted to music, dance, and sculptures that 

are tana, that is “beautiful,” connoting luxury.2 

An equestrian sculpture would be especially attractive to the madebele 

because it expresses aggressive masculinity, mobility to travel about 

(especially at night), status, and wealth. Although horses could survive 

in the local environment, they were uncommon. Originally imported 

from North Africa, they came to be connected with invasions of foreign 

mounted warriors during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

It is understandable then that horses became associated with authority, 

wealth, and power. A client would have confidence in a diviner who 

owned such an equestrian figure, because only very successful diviners 

could afford to acquire them. 

Mounted horsemen are typically depicted wearing a conical, magicimbued 

warrior’s or hunter’s hat and holding a spear in one hand. The 

sculptor of this equestrian figure, on his own or under the direction of a 

diviner who dreamt it, emphasized the horseman’s aggressive power by 

giving him both a warrior’s and a hunter’s hat and by baring his teeth. The 

figure’s arched back creates the illusion of forward movement while his 

fanlike hands, which hold neither a spear nor reins, signify control of his 

horse—a static figure with its head lowered—with his strong limbs and 

spiritual powers.


26 

Seated male figure 


1875–1900 

Wood 

23¾ × 4½ × 5 in. (60.33 × 11.43 × 12.70 cm) 

The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., 

1994.200.McD 


Among the Baule peoples of central Côte d’Ivoire, barren women consult 

male or female diviners (komien), who become possessed by a nature spirit 

(asie usu) or by an Mbra (deity) during the divining ritual. To welcome the 

spirits and, thus, encourage them to speak, diviners beautify shrine rooms 

with decorations and sculptures.3 In contrast to Senufo practice, Baule 

clients may not look at these figures, which are usually concealed under 

white cloths. Yet, seen or not, the presence of the sculptures acknowledges 

the special relationship between the diviner and the gods and spirits. 

Because carving styles for spirit figures—whether they represent nature 

spirits or spirit spouses—are similar, it is difficult to ascertain a sculpture’s 

original function unless it has been seen in situ. This male figure is presumed 

to have been owned by a Baule diviner because of its seated pose 

and gesture. Divination display figures typically depict a male, seated on 

a stool, holding his long three-braided beard with his left hand and pressing 

his abdomen with his right. Despite his muscular buttocks and youthful 

calves, the sitter is a wise and elderly man, as indicated by his beard. 

Regardless of his or her age, a subject in African art is generally portrayed 

in the prime of life. The sculpture’s carefully groomed hair, scarification 

marks that denote he has been initiated into adult society, short fingernails 

and toenails, and contemplative expression indicate he also represents 

a civilized Baule man. The figure was once clothed, as indicated by 

the lighter color of the wood in the area of his loins. 

The stool—a concave seat atop a stepped base—is a style that is used 

in southeastern Côte d’Ivoire and southern Ghana. This type of stool normally 

has two legs projecting from a center post or four legs that project 

symmetrically from the center of the stool.4 As if to lessen the visual confusion 

of too many pairs of legs, the sculptor eliminated one pair, replacing 

them with the figure’s legs. When viewed in profile, the figure’s legs 

appear to echo the shape of the stool’s back legs, creating a lozenge. Just 

as the frontal view of the figure offers a balanced asymmetry, the profile 

is equally symmetrical. 

This sculpture was acquired circa 1930 by Isaac Païlès (1895–1978), a 

Russian painter working in Paris.5 It is believed to be one of the earliest 

Baule sculptures brought to Europe after Côte d’Ivoire was vanquished by 

the French in 1910. Features such as the hole carved between the buttocks 

and stool to hold a loincloth (now missing) in place, the mouth shaped 

in a figure eight, the symbols of civilization, the style of the stool, the 

polished surface, and the expert craftsmanship attest to Baule skill and 

artistry of the distant past.


27 

Ifa divination tray 

(opon Ifa ) 

Nigeria, Effon-Alaiye, Yoruba peoples 

Early to mid-20th century 

Wood 

18¼ diam. × 1½ in. (46.36 × 3.81 cm) 


28 

Ifa divination tapper 

(iro Ifa ) 

Nigeria, Owo, Yoruba peoples 


Ivory 

7 7/* × 1½ × 2 in. (20 × 3.81 × 5.08 cm) 

The Art Museum League Travel Fund, 1978.40 


In the absence of medical therapies, Yoruba women who fail to conceive 

consult a male diviner-priest (babalawo). Translated as “father of secrets” or 

“father of ancient wisdom,” the babalawo performs the Ifa ritual to explain 

and reverse a woman’s misfortune. Ifa, considered the most important and 

most reliable system of divination, enables supplicants to understand the 

will of the Supreme Being Olodumare (also known as Olorun or Creator 

God). Olodumare empowered Orunmila, the god of divination, to speak 

for the numerous Yoruba deities (orisha) through the divining ritual. 

During a consultation, numerical patterns, obtained by passing sixteen 

palm nuts from hand to hand, are recorded on a divination tray. Each pattern 

corresponds to a sacred verse, of which there are 256, that contains 

both the prediction and the required sacrifice. The babalawo interprets 

these patterns. A diviner’s equipment, carved by artists, includes a divination 

tray (opon Ifa), a tapper (iro Ifa), cups (agere Ifa) to hold the palm nuts, 

and a storage container for the sacred paraphernalia (opon igede). 

Yoruba sculptors typically carve the opon Ifa in the shape of a square, 

rectangle, or circle. The center of the tray is always depressed to accommodate 

pulverized wood or yam flour on which the diviner marks a deity’s 

message in symbolic strokes.6 Geometric patterns or figures drawn from 

Yoruba mythology or daily life decorate the raised border. The hole bored 

into the top of this tray originally carried an “eraser” made of a cord 

of fifty cowrie shells that the diviner used to clear the tray during the 

divining ritual.7 

Among the images on the raised border is that of the deity Eshu. 

Although only Orunmila knows God’s will, it is Eshu—the divine messenger 

and guardian of the divining process—who carries the client’s sacrifices 

to the deities and other spirits.8 He is placated with an offering at 

the beginning of the ritual and begged not to garble messages as that 

may cause catastrophe in the end. Eshu’s image may appear once or, as 

exemplified by the elaborately carved Dallas tray, at each of the four cardinal 

points. He is depicted as a face and as a full-length figure wearing 

his trademark long-tailed cap and brandishing a club. Where only Eshu’s 

face is depicted, he is wearing a half-shaved hairstyle with hornlike forms 

projecting from his head. The hairstyle and horns are symbolic. According 

to an oral tradition, because of his deep affection for Orunmila, Eshu interrupted 

having his head shaved so he could come to the aid of his friend. 

The horns symbolize Eshu’s great generative powers. In addition to the 

four images of Eshu on the raised border of the tray, the sculptor carved a 

complex program of symbolic scenes depicting Yoruba royalty, religious 

rituals, and scenes from Orunmila’s life. 

Such a skillfully carved and elaborately decorated opon Ifa must have 

been owned by a very successful babalawo from the town of Effon-Alaiye, 

as suggested by the style of carving. Effon-Alaiye was an important center 

of Yoruba art toward the end of the nineteenth century and the alleged 

CAT. 27



birthplace of Olowe of Ise, the renowned court sculptor (see chapter 1). 

The Dallas tray resembles one in the collection of the Fowler Museum at 

UCLA9 and another in a private collection in the United States.10 These 

three trays may be the work of the same sculptor. 

At the beginning of a ritual the diviner taps the edge or the center of 

the divination tray with an iro Ifa, or “tapper,” to attract the attention of 

Orunmila, Eshu, and other deities, family ancestors, and ancestral diviners. 

Ordinary tappers are carved of wood, while those belonging to very 

successful diviners are made of expensive and prestigious materials 

such as copper alloy or ivory, like this one. The king (oba) held exclusive 

rights to own ivory, and only those who had his permission had access to 

this precious material. The conelike shape of the tapper clearly indicates 

that it was carved from the tip of an elephant tusk. In Yoruba thought, 

the cone is an ideogram for life force (ashe), which animates everything 

in the universe. It is therefore an appropriate form for an object that is 

used to invoke and celebrate all the spiritual forces present at a divination 

ritual.11 

Ifa tappers invariably depict a female figure posed in the kneeling position 

wearing only waistbeads and modestly covering her genitalia with 

a decorated fan. The kneeling position is that of the supplicant, but in 

Yoruba tradition it also refers to an individual’s existence before being 

born on Earth, when one knelt during the ritual of choosing his or her 

head (ori), the seat of one’s destiny. There is also the profound belief that 

women are more effective than men in honoring, soothing, and cooling 

the gods so they will favor mankind.12 

CAT. 28


29 

Shango dance wand 

(oshe Shango) 

Master of the Owu Shrine, c. 1850–1925 

Nigeria, Igbomina area, Yoruba peoples 


Wood, pigment, and metal 

17 × 63/* × 3 in. (43.18 × 16.19 × 7.62 cm) 



Shango—the Yoruba god of thunder, giver of children, and “patron saint” 

of twins—once lived among men as a brilliant but capricious military general 

who became the fourth king (alafin) of the ancient Oyo Yoruba empire. 

He had a volatile temper, and when he ranted, fire issued from his mouth. 

Fascinated by magic, Shango created lightning and practically burned 

down the capital, inadvertently killing numerous subjects, his own children, 

and most of his wives. Shango subsequently committed suicide. 

Shortly after his death, Oyo experienced horrific thunderstorms that were 

believed to be a sign of Shango’s wrath and vengeance. Consequently, 

Shango was deified as an orisha and a priesthood was established to worship 

him. 

Among the objects used to honor Shango is the oshe Shango, or dance 

wand. It is carried by Shango priests and devotees during public worship 

activities and enshrined on the deity’s altar. The basic form of the oshe 

Shango is a shaft with a double club or axe projecting underneath or from 

the head of the sole or central figure in the composition. The axe blades 

are shaped like thunderstones or Neolithic celts, which Shango’s devotees 

believe are thunderbolts Shango hurls toward those that offend or 

displease him. This ritual object was originally carved from the àyàn tree 

on which Shango committed suicide.13 Oshe Shango range from nonfigurative 

sculptures with shafts ending in undecorated double axes to complex 

figu rative configurations with unique interpretations of the double axe. 

The stylistic diversity found in the designs of oshe Shango can be attributed 

to the wide dispersion of Shango worship, unlimited iconography 

(the only restriction is that the deity may not be portrayed), and the creative 

prerogative of the artist or patron. 

The priestesses or female supplicants often depicted on oshe Shango 

represent Shango’s benevolence as he bestows the blessing of children 

upon his faithful worshippers and protects children, especially twins 

(ibeji). The supplicant depicted on this oshe Shango is pregnant. Posed in a 

conventional kneeling position, she holds her protruding abdomen with 

both hands. Her openwork hairstyle with four braids meeting at the top 

recalls the shape of an ile ori or “house of the head” (see p. 62). She is further 

adorned with vertical scarification marks on her cheeks and jaws and 

a labret in her lower lip. Her oblong, pendant breasts echo the shape of 

her thighs. 

While the figure’s pose is conventional, the placement of the double 

axe at the bottom of the shaft is rare. Only two other wands with this 

configuration have been published: the Museum Rietberg in Zurich has 

an oshe Shango that was collected in the Igbomina area and brought to 

Switzerland by the Basel Mission before 1820,14 and the other resides in 

a private collection in London.15 In contrast to conventional oshe Shango 

that are held at the shaft, the heads of these wands serve as the handles, 

resulting in their flattened facial features and smooth surfaces. 

111 

The exquisite Dallas oshe Shango is attributed to the Master of the 

Owu Shrine by Deborah Stokes Hammer, who with Jeffrey Hammer 

studied thousands of Yoruba sculptures in the British Museum and the 

National Museum in Lagos, and more than two thousand photographs 

in the Kenneth C. Murray Archives at the museum in Lagos.16 They named 

him the Master of the Owu Shrine after an unusual oshe Shango that had 

been documented in situ in the Igbomina town of Owu. Several objects, 

including twin figures and bowl carriers, share similar or identical traits 

with the Dallas oshe Shango. They include: an elongated head with a swollen 

cranium that joins a conical shape extending below the eyes; a head 

set at an angle on the neck; prominent elongated ears that extend the 

jawline; rounded elongated shoulders that flow into bent arms cut away 

from the torso; hands that have splayed fingers; buttocks that are flattened 

underneath and jut out sharply above the soles of the feet; and the 

lower body conceived as a triangle that is cut deeply to separate the thighs 

from the legs. William Fagg (1914–1992), the curator of African art at the 

British Museum and a noted authority on Yoruba art, speculated that the 

Master of the Owu Shrine lived from about 1850 to about 1925.17


30 

Caryatid vessel 

(arugba Shango) 

Akobi Ogun Fakeye (c. 1870–1946) 

Nigeria, Ila Orangun, Yoruba peoples 

Late 19th century to c. 1940 


41¾ × 17 × 17½ in. (106.05 × 43.18 × 44.45 cm) 

Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of 

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Marcus, 1981.138.A–B FA 

fig 33 Two ile ori, visible in the background, and 

an arugba Shango, the large figure holding a bowl, 

are displayed in this Shango shrine, Idofin, Igbana, 

Nigeria, 1961. 


Shango priests store the deity’s thunderbolts (Neolithic celts or axe heads), 

kola nuts, food offerings, oshe Shango, and other ritual paraphernalia in a 

calabash bowl that is placed on an upturned mortar. In the Igbomina and 

Ekiti areas, Shango shrines are adorned with large sculpted arugba, or bowl 

carriers, as exemplified by the Dallas arugba Shango that depicts a seated 

female holding a lidded bowl above her head (fig. 33). 

The central figure in a caryatid vessel is always a female, depicted either 

kneeling or seated on a mortar, holding a large lidded bowl above her head 

with both hands. She represents a devotee who has petitioned Shango for 

the blessing of a child. That her prayer was answered is indicated by the 

figure’s swollen abdomen and/or by one of the smaller figures carved at 

either side. The smaller figures on this sculpture are holding ritual objects. 

The one on her left carries an oshe Shango in one hand and a stockfish in 

the other, while the figure on her right clasps a bowl. The faces carved in 

relief on the lid and bowl held by the central figure refer to a ritual practice 

in which a devotee touches his or her forehead with a kola nut and then 

repeats this action on the sculpted faces. The face carved on the lid looks 

toward the viewer; the face on the bowl is placed upside down to look 

toward the sky world. The faces are darkened with blue paint, traditionally 

natural indigo pigment, in reference to the ori inu, or the seat of one’s 

destiny in one’s “inner head.” The bowl itself is thought to be a metaphor 

for the womb, which Shango can fill with a new life if the devotee is faithful 

to him.18 

This arugba Shango was carved by Akobi Ogun Fakeye (c. 1870–1946), 

whose name means “the first born of Ogun,” the Yoruba god of iron and 

the patron saint of woodcarvers. Akobi Ogun was the son of a sculptor but 

chose not to carve. According to his son Lamidi Olonade Fakeye (b. 1925), 

an internationally known sculptor whose work is installed at the Kennedy 

Center in Washington, D.C., Akobi Ogun contracted smallpox when he was 

about twenty years old. Ifa divination revealed that Akobi Ogun’s destiny 

was to follow the “family work of woodcarving” and because he had denied 

his destiny, he was punished with smallpox. After making sacrificial food 

offerings to Ogun, Akobi Ogun entered into an apprenticeship with a 

master sculptor named Tayewo who lived in the town Ila Orangun. Three 

years later, Akobi Ogun established his own atelier.19 Akobi Ogun Fakeye 

carved at least two other arugba Shango, one of which is in a German private 

collection20 and the other in a British private collection.21


31 

Seated female figure 

with child (pfemba) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lower Congo 

region, Kongo peoples, Yombe group 


Wood, glass or mica, and stain 

15 × 4 9/! 6 × 4 3/! 6 in. (38.1 × 11.59 × 10.64 cm) 



1969.S.21 


The Dallas pfemba, as such maternity figures are called, is the epitome of 

feminine beauty, composure, and intense concentration. Her upswept miterlike 

hairstyle or hat, which was worn by both men and women, frames 

her face with its carefully composed expression. Her imported glass eyes 

“see” beyond this world. Beautifying features include filed teeth and scarification 

patterns on her neck, back, and shoulders. In real life, raised scars 

are made by rubbing a medicinal substance into superficial cuts in the 

skin so they heal as smooth, shiny scars with definite shapes. This was 

done to make women physically more attractive and to heighten sexual 

pleasure. The kitanda string the pfemba wears above her breasts signifies 

poise and order. 

Yombe sculptures are generally rendered in a seminaturalistic style 

with great care given to depicting cultural details. Yombe maternity figures 

are conventionally posed cross-legged seated on a plinth with an 

infant lying on her lap. They are believed to have been used in the rituals 

of a women’s fertility cult established by a distinguished midwife on the 

Loango coast.22 

Camwood paste originally coated the Dallas pfemba. Its reddish color 

signified transitional conditions, such as being born or passing into 

the afterlife. The pfemba leans forward, indicating that she is strong but 

flexible like a palm tree and is able to see through glass-covered eyes or 

“through water to the spirit world.”23 The figure depicts a female chief, a 

midwife, or a healer who will accomplish whatever is required of her. 

Whether the infant on this pfemba sculpture is dead or alive is controversial. 

Some infants are shown nursing or with flexed legs, a clear indication 

of vitality, while others lie still on their mothers’ laps with their 

stiff legs outstretched. The mother’s right hand on the Dallas sculpture 

covers the child’s legs, making it impossible to determine the infant’s 

condition.24


32 


with child 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, 

Kwilu area, Mbala peoples 


Wood 

101/* × 5 × 41/* in. (25.72 × 12.70 × 10.48 cm) 



1969.S.149 


Power and authority in Mbala society rests in the female line.25 Their fertility 

sculptures depict a seated or standing female carrying a child on her 

left hip, nursing an infant with her left breast, or holding a child with her 

left hand to reinforce the idea that “left” and “left hand” are synonymous 

with femininity. Such maternity figures are usually paired with male figures 

that are portrayed playing a drum. 

This maternity figure holds her child, who isn’t touching her, on her 

left side. Although the mother and child are looking out at the viewer 

rather than at each other, they are physically and emotionally connected. 

The sculptor exaggerated the mother’s embrace by carving her arms in an 

expressionistic rather than naturalistic manner. Her shoulders are minimized 

and slope downward to the left side. She holds the infant’s feet 

with her right hand while she wraps her left arm around its torso. Her left 

hand slanted upward completes this circle of protection. 

Drummer and maternity figures were commonly owned by chiefs or 

major lineages as part of the royal treasure, but their meaning and the 

context(s) in which they were used are not certain. Called pindi, they 

were invoked to provide supernatural aid in times of war, periods of poor 

harvests or lack of game, epidemics, or natural disasters. The chief was 

a diviner and a ritual specialist who was expected to successfully mediate 

between his ancestral spirits and the fertility of his subjects and their 

environment. Because virility was an important criterion for his position, 

mother-and-child figures may symbolize a clan chief’s numerous wives 

and children as well as a woman’s essential role as child bearer.26 

The tradition of figurative sculpture went into decline in the 1920s and 

finally ceased to exist in the face of European influence before the middle 

of the twentieth century. Nonfigurative regalia for chiefs were, however, 

retained.


33 

Doll (akua’ba) 

Ghana, Asante peoples 

20th century 

Wood, glass beads, and fiber 

11¼ × 5 7/! 6 × 17/* in. (28.58 × 13.81 × 4.76 cm) 

Gift of Henry H. Hawley III, 1981.173 

fig 34 An Asante woman has tucked an akua’ba into her 

wrapper, just as an infant might be carried, in hopes that 

she will have an equally beautiful child. Ghana, 1972. 


Akua’ma (sing. akua’ba) statues are icons of Asante art. Familiar to 

American women who wear miniature replicas as brooches and deco rate 

their homes with full-scale figures, akua’ma helped barren Asante women 

become fertile and ensured a safe delivery of a healthy infant. The Asante 

sculpture got its name from Akua who, according to oral tradition, was 

barren but desperately wanted children. She consulted a priest who 

advised her to commission a sculptor to carve an akua’ba, or “Akua’s child.” 

She was instructed to treat the little sculpture as if it were a real child. 

She secured it to her back with her wrapper (fig. 34), nursed it, put it to 

bed, and adorned it. She eventually became pregnant and had a successful 

birth. Following her example, barren women carried an akua’ba in the 

hope they too would conceive. After a successful birth, women either give 

their sculpted surrogate to a daughter to play with or return it to a priest 

to enshrine.27 

This Dallas akua’ba is a classic example. The female figure has a very 

large round head and high, flattened forehead like those of royal children. 

Its neck is very long and ringed to suggest the creased flesh of a chubby 

baby. The figure is painted with lustrous black pigment and decorated 

with colorful beaded necklaces and earrings. All of these features visually 

express notions of feminine beauty among the Asante peoples. 

Akua’ma rarely depict male infants because inheritance in the matrilineal 

society of the Asante passes from mother to daughter. It is, therefore, 

desirable to give birth to a girl.28


Notes 

1. Glaze 1981: 61–72 

2. Ibid., 63, 72 

3. Vogel 1997: 221–39 

4. Robert Soppelsa, personal communication, 

May 10, 2005 

5. Musée de l’Homme 1967: n.p., cat. no. 56; Lehuard 

1981: 7 

6. See Bascom 1969 and Epega and Neimark 1995 for 

descriptions of the Ifa ritual 

7. Hans Witte, personal communication, August 19, 

2005 

8. Drewal and Pemberton with Abiodun 1989: 15 

9. Thompson 1976: chap. 5, fig. 15 

10. Fagg and Pemberton 1982: 114, plate 31 

11. Drewal, in Ross 1992: 192 

12. Abiodun, in Drewal and Pemberton with Abiodun 

1989: 111–12 

13. Ojo 1966: 172 

14. Abiodun, Drewal, and Pemberton 1991: 88, fig. 101 

15. Jones 1988: 25, cat. no. 414 

16. Deborah Stokes, personal communication, 

August 29, 2006; Hammer and Hammer 1986: 70 

17. Hammer and Hammer 1986: 70 

18. Compare Drewal and Pemberton with Abiodun 

1989: p. 155, fig. 169, and pp. 162–63, fig. 170, for an 

arugba Shango carved by Arowogun (Areogun) of 

Osi-Ilorin. 

19. Haight and Fakeye 1987: 38 

20. Abiodun, Drewal, and Pemberton 1991: 27, fig. 34 

21. Jones 1988: 25, cat. no. 414 

22. MacGaffey, in Verswijver et al. 1996: 146, cat. no. 15 

23. Thompson 2005: 87 

24. Lehuard 1989: vol. 2, 576, fig. K5–2–2–2 

The caption indicates that the infant is dead. 

25. Biebuyck 1985: 168 

26. I. de Pierpont, quoted in Bourgeois 1988: 22 

27. Cole and Ross 1977: 103–107; McLeod 1981: 162–65 

28. McLeod 1981: 164 



Part two: art for coming of age 

Coming-of-age is an event in the life cycle that is formally acknowledged 

and celebrated throughout the world. In America coming-of-age rites take 

various forms according to ethnic or socio-religious patterns. Jewish girls 

and boys, for example, undergo religious training and learn the responsibilities 

of adulthood at age twelve and thirteen, respectively. In Latin 

American communities, teenage girls celebrate their fifteenth birthday 

with a quinceanera, and American girls of European and African descent 

may celebrate their entry into adult society with a debut. In recent years, 

many African American churches and youth-oriented organizations have 

prepared boys and girls for adulthood in formal programs patterned after 

traditional African rituals. Preparation for adulthood in the United States 

as in Africa may take years, months, or days depending on the established 

norms and expectations of the community. Similarly, the culminating 

activity may be a celebratory event that requires the initiates to wear special 

attire and perhaps demonstrate their new knowledge or skills before 

an audience. 

In sub-Saharan Africa, before the introduction of “formal” education 

in Muslim or Western-style schools, boys and girls were educated in a 

secluded “bush school,” or forest encampment, located some distance 

from the village or town.1 The curriculum included discipline, the traditions 

of the people and etiquette, professional training needed for genderappropriate 

occupations (e.g., farming, hunting, or war; home economics, 

pottery making, or weaving), sexual responsibility, and the obligations of 

marriage and family life. At this time, youth were also initiated into the 

prevailing religion. The youths learned to sing and dance, skills required for 

socializing and for participation in religious activities. Secrets pertaining to 

masking and secret societies that had been withheld from them were now 

revealed. For boys and girls, attending the bush school meant separation 

from their parents (mothers, especially for the boys), and bonding with 

their age mates. In many societies, sexual identity was confirmed by circumcision 

(boys) or excision (girls), and proof of courage was tested by various 

physical ordeals. Among some peoples, coming-of-age rituals included 

modifying an individual’s face and/or body for the purpose of identity with 

the group or family, as marks of civilization, and for beautification. 

An array of sculpted masks, figures, and other aesthetic objects that have a 

role in coming-of-age rituals or manifest the outcome of this rite of passage 

are presented on the following pages. Many, like the Bobo Nwenka mask, 

appear in more than one context—for example, at planting and harvest celebrations 

and the funerals of community elders. Such events benefit the 

whole community. But it is only males to whom the secrets of masking and 

mask making are revealed among the Bobo, Dan, and Makonde peoples. 

Art for girls’ coming-of-age rituals includes a helmet mask from the Mende 

peoples—one of the rare societies in which masking is a woman’s right— 

and female statues as tangible symbols of feminine beauty and the lessons 

of coming of age. 

121


34 

Nwenka mask 

Burkina Faso and Mali, Bobo peoples 

20th century 


46¼ × 13½ × 123/! 6 in. (117.48 × 34.29 × 30.96 cm) 

Gift of Gustave and Franyo Schindler, 1979.35.A–B 

two : art for coming of age 

Bobo boys and young men were not considered adults until they had 

been initiated into the worship of Dwo, the Creator God’s representative, 

and learned the secret of masking. They learned about the relationship 

between Dwo and the Nwenka and other masks that appear on the occasions 

of harvest rites, male initiation rituals, and funerals. 

The Nwenka mask is one of the oldest and most sacred wooden masks 

that perform at Bobo masquerades. Tradition claims it dates from the time 

of creation when Wuro, the Creator God, molded the world from moist 

clay and made creatures to inhabit it. The first humans he created were the 

blacksmith and his wife. When Wuro eventually retreated from the perfect 

world he had created, he left his three sons behind to help mankind 

maintain the balance between the opposing forces in the world. His most 

important son is Dwo, the mask, which Wuro fashioned out of leaves. This 

mask is the major spiritual being through which man can communicate 

with the Creator God. Wuro gave this mask to the blacksmith who carved 

other masks to manifest Dwo’s many aspects. Each mask has a name, is 

worn by an elder who is concealed by a fiber costume, and has special 

choreography and musical accompaniment.2 

Nwenka embodies the spirit of Dwo and ultimately Wuro’s spirit. The 

Nwenka masked dance imitates Wuro creating the world. According to an 

eyewitness account of a performance, the dancer 

plants his feet firmly and twists his torso and neck, grasping the 

small handle that protrudes from the chin of the mask or a band of 

fiber that is knotted inside the chin. The wooden head of the mask 

rotates two or three revolutions, then returns in such a way that the 

mask may leave the performer’s head and is only kept from flying 

across the performance area by the tight grip on it.3 

Bobo blacksmith-sculptors carve Nwenke masks (sing. Nwenka) in the 

form of a demi-helmet with an elongated trapezoidal human face featuring 

a prominent forehead, circular eyes, a long, narrow nose, and narrow 

chin. Nwenke masks are typically surmounted by a frontal plank decorated 

with openwork geometric patterns. There may be additional elements 

such as a bird’s head, beak, or an anthropomorphic figure carved on 

the helmet. These masks were traditionally painted red, white, and black 

and are worn with a costume of thick fibers.4 

The Dallas Nwenka mask is an excellent example of the type. The bird 

embodied in the frontal plank form and the traces of red, white, and blue 

pigment are original. The frontal plank is decorated with opposing columns 

of alternating solid and cutout triangles on either side of the long 

neck of a hornbill bird head that was carved separately in full relief. The 

openwork triangle motif is repeated on the sagittal crest running from 

the brow line to the back of the mask. Under each eye is a raised diagonal 

bar to represent the facial scarification worn by Bobo men. The mouth is 

a solid tubular form.


35 

Face mask 

Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Liberia, Dan peoples 

Before 1940 

Wood, fiber, and pigment 

11½ × 6¼ × 3 in. (29.21 × 15.88 × 7.62 cm) 



This lustrous black face mask probably played a role in Dan boys’ initiation 

rites. It is a support for a du (vital force) spirit, which is materialized in 

a mask considered to be a spirit medium. When du decides it wants to 

participate in human society and help mankind, it appears to men in 

dreams and dictates the requirements for a mask to make it tangible. 

Subsequently the dreamer, who will wear and perform the masquerade, 

commissions a sculptor (glen ye meh; the spelling is only approximate; 

the phonetic symbol ε, denoted by the Greek epsilon, as in mε, provides a 

closer indication of the pronunciation) to carve a mask out of wood. There 

are at least eleven major spirit masks with human or animal features that 

are realized in a naturalistic or stylized manner. Each mask has a name 

and its own paraphernalia, costume, and headdress as well as unique 

behavior, choreography, and musical accompaniment. Masks have human 

or animal features that may be representational or stylized. Other masks 

are a fantastic combination of both. 

The small, oval face and narrow eyes of the Dallas mask suggest 

femininity in contrast to masks with heavy, overhanging brows, jutting 

angles, and mustaches that are considered masculine. This mask probably 

represents Deangle, a smiling and attractive female spirit that neither 

sings nor dances but walks and gestures gracefully. It serves as a mediator 

between the village and the boys’ circumcision/initiation camp from 

which it emerges to collect food for the boys and report the news from the 

camp to the village and vice versa.5


36 

Face mask (igri) 

Nigeria, Igbo peoples, Ada group 


Wood, pigment, and raffia 

17¾ × 5 × 5½ in. (45.09 × 12.70 × 13.97 cm) 


1998.83.McD 

fig 35 An igri mask is performed during an Afikpo njenji 

parade. In addition to the carved and painted mask, the 

participant wears an elaborate headdress of leaves and a 

woven halter across his chest. Nigeria, 1960. 


Among the Ada and related Igbo subgroups, the njenji masquerade is an 

annual event that ushers in the festival season. It is held on the first day 

of a four-day event that moves from village to village and is arranged by 

an age-grade comprised of males in their late twenties who demonstrate 

their organizational skills and ability to obtain the cooperation of others 

as a test of manhood. The initiates are also obligated to prepare a feast for 

village men older than themselves. Depending on the village, the parade 

and feast are held on the day before the initiation is to be completed or as 

the first project of the newly initiated men.6 

The njenji masquerade, which is performed by males, represents historical 

and present-day characters including, among others, pubescent 

girls and married women, male and female couples, scholars, Christians, 

Muslims, and slaves. Traditionally, indigenous characters walk at the front 

of the parade carrying machetes and shields, while those wearing Islamic 

dress or Western clothing carrying modern accessories, such as briefcases, 

bring up the rear. The modern costumes and behavior of the maskers present 

a satirical commentary on changes that occurred in Igboland under 

British rule. The masquerade also stresses male adulthood. 

Igri masks represent vigorous and exuberant young men who clear the 

parade route and protect the maskers that follow them, especially those 

wearing the traditional costumes of married women and beautiful pubescent 

girls like the standing female figure (p. 135). The Dallas mask exemplifies 

a type that is distinguished by a tall, rectangular forehead rising up 

from a long facial plane and is decorated with incised and painted geometric 

patterns. Missing from the mask are bundles of raffia that were 

laid horizontally one above the other and bound together at the top of 

the mask, which is further adorned with leaves, plaited palm fronds, and 

porcupine quills (fig. 35). To complete the outfit, a masker wears a woven 

halter over his bare chest, a feline animal skin on his back and around his 

upper arm, a short raffia skirt, ankle rattles, and one or more rows of plastic 

beads around his neck and hips. His accessories include a wrestling bell, a 

machete in its sheath, and a special shield made of sticks and raffia. 

In order to impersonate females properly, male maskers rely on their 

sisters, wives, mothers, or girlfriends to lend them the essential waistbeads 

or cloth for wrappers, shoes, purses, and the like. They also have to 

obtain the women’s cooperation in preparing food for a feast in honor of 

the older men of the village. Despite their feminine appearance the female 

characters carry canes or sticks in their right hands—symbolic of masculine 

eldership—to remind the audience that the maskers are mature males.


37 

Helmet mask 

(muti wa lipiko) 

Mozambique and Tanzania, Makonde peoples 

Before 1914 

Wood, beeswax, human hair, and pigment 

10 × 7 × 10 in. (25.40 × 17.78 × 25.40 cm) 

Gift of the Cecil and Ida Green Foundation, 1999.64 


This helmet mask appeared in the men’s lipiko, a public masquerade that 

was still being staged in the 1990s to celebrate the reentry of Makonde 

males and females into the community after they completed the comingof-age 

rituals in their respective bush schools.7 

Boys and girls were initiated into adulthood according to African convention, 

which includes three stages: separation from the community and 

one’s mother, preparation for adult life, and reentry into the community 

as an adult. In the seclusion of the forest encampment, boys learned discipline 

and the rules of accepted social behavior and developed skills to support 

their future families (e.g., farming, hunting, fishing). They learned the 

songs and dances they would have to perform and gained understanding 

of their sexuality and the obligations of marriage and family life. Before 

completing this stage, both boys and girls were subjected to surgical procedures, 

circumcision for males and excision for females, and had their 

faces and/or bodies decorated with scarification patterns. Their teeth were 

chipped into points. These were painful tests to prove one’s manhood or 

to become more attractive.8 

During the second stage, boys also learned about death and the secret 

of masking. They had been taught to believe that the humanlike beings 

(the masks) came from the world of the dead. Now, in a frightful rite, they 

came in close contact with the mask, which was dramatically removed 

from the wearer. The boys discovered it was made of wood and to drive 

home this fact, a sculptor carved one in their presence. They also learned 

how to wear the muti wa lipiko (head of the lipiko) to allow air to circulate 

through the neck end of the mask so as not to suffocate, to attach the 

cloth to the mask so it draped over the shoulders, and to wear the bodyconcealing 

costume and tutulike overskirt. The mystery of masking was 

not revealed to the girls and uninitiated males because masking was a 

form of social control. The final stage was a public masquerade in honor 

of the new adults. 

Makonde sculptors faithfully depicted the filed teeth and facial scarification 

of the villagers on the masks. The Dallas mask probably represents 

a male, as indicated by the absence of a lip plug. It is reputed to 

have entered a German collection before 1914. The application of smoked 

beeswax to create the scarification patterns reflects a Makonde practice 

that was current in the early part of the twen tieth century.9


38 

Helmet mask (sowei) 

Manowulo, active c. 1935–1960 

Sierra Leone, Bo Town area, Baoma chiefdom, 

Mende peoples 

1940–1960 


14¼ × 8½ × 9 in. (36.20 × 21.59 × 22.86 cm) 



The women’s Sande society traditionally initiated Mende girls into 

woman hood by preparing them for marriage and family life and participation 

in religious rituals and teaching them the songs and dances 

they would have to perform. Similar to the boys’ coming-of-age rites and 

ordeals, girls were excised. When they were deemed to be ready, the highranking 

teacher and leader (ndoli jowei) of the Sande society introduced 

them to the community as adult women (fig. 36). On this occasion, each 

ndoli jowei wore a voluminous raffia fiber costume and a wooden helmet 

mask that embodied sowei, the female water spirit which is the guardian 

deity of the Sande society. The masquerade presented “the idealized 

image of female perfection and power and also personifies the corporate 

interest and prestige of the female portion of the Mende community.”10 

Usually, African women do not wear masks. Men wear the masks and 

men carve them. The Mende model of women wearing masks is a rare 

exception that is shared with peoples in southern Sierra Leone and western 

Liberia who are bound by the multiethnic men’s Poro association of 

which Sande (also known as Bundu) is the counterpart. 

The Dallas Sande society helmet mask is a venerable example of a mask 

that has changed very little since it was first described in an eighteenthcentury 

travel book.11 Wherever they are found, Sande society masks are 

always in the form of a helmet that fits closely over the wearer’s head, and 

they depict a female wearing an elaborate hairstyle. The slits cut through 

the downcast eyes in a diamond-shaped face allow visibility. The eyes may 

also be placed along the edge of the mask. The small mouth can be closed 

or slightly open. The wide rings around the neck and holes along the edge 

are for attaching the raffia costume. 

Each of these elements is significant. The elaborate hairstyle, for 

ex ample, is carefully detailed and reflects current fashion. Downcast eyes 

are associated with modesty and the nonhuman essence of the spirit that 

inhabits the mask. The wide rings on the neck are usually interpreted as 

rings of fat and signify fertility. Another interpretation is that the rings are 

the “recognition of the natural and desirable pattern of biological growth 

in adolescent girls in preparation for childbearing that entails the increase 

in body fat—a pattern that is also well documented in Western medicine.”12 

The mouth is closed or slightly open to signify silence and inner spiritual 

concentration. The lustrous black pigment or paint staining the mask is a 

reference to the river-dwelling spirit that inhabits the mask. Black, in the 

Mende language, means “wet” or “wetness.” 

Animal horns and an amulet carved in relief adorn this mask. Some 

masks display these objects as attachments that may be covered with gold 

or silver. Such horns in real life were stuffed with protective medicines. 

A long time ago, wealthy Mende women also wore pendant necklaces 

with silver-encased amulets containing Islamic inscriptions. The amulets 

were made by Muslim mori, or holy men, and expensive to obtain. Their



attachment to or depiction on Sande society masks protected the dancer 

from malevolent forces while she performed. It was also an unmistakable 

sign of wealth. 

This mask is attributed to Manowulo, a Mende sculptor who was 

active from about 1935 until 1960 in the Baoma chiefdom located north 

of Jaiama-Bongor near the town of Bo. Many masks carved by Manowulo 

and his apprentices were still in use in the 1970s when the anthropologist 

Ruth B. Phillips conducted field research on Sande society masks among 

the Sewa-Mende. The sculptor’s trademark style features a wide diamond 

shape, the upper half of which is framed by an inverted V or U and the 

lower half by a sharply angled jawline. The jawline of some of his masks 

is delineated by a border of parallel grooves into which the small mouth 

is placed at the point of the chin. Manowulo carved the ears at the lateral 

points of the facial diamond and gave them a C-shaped ridge with a 

raised round dot at the center of the opening. The eyes are long horizontal 

slits, and the nose is a long form that is slightly flared at the nostrils. He 

typically carved fine details of braids or other designs on the head. The 

hairstyle on this mask is obscured by the patina, but it is typical of what 

Mende women wore during the mid-twentieth century.13 

fig 36 Female members of the Sande, or Bundu, association dance in wooden 

masks that are crafted by men. The Sande masquerade provides an uncommon 

opportunity for women to perform masks. Bumpe, Sierra Leone, 1976.


39 


Nigeria, Igbo peoples 

Late 19th to 20th century 

Wood, pigment, metal, fiber, and beads 

367/* × 8¾ × 8½ in. (93.66 × 22.22 × 21.59 cm) 




1974.SC.29 

fig 37 The moulded hairstyle with center crest worn 

by the Igbo women of Nigeria in the early 20th century 

is reflected in their sculptural representations of nubile 

females. 


Among the Igbo peoples of north central Igboland, pubescent girls 

(agbogho) prepared for womanhood through a process called nkpu, which 

translates as “fattening confinement.” While overeating and maintaining 

the weight gained by not working or exercising for six months or longer 

(depending upon the family’s economic situation), girls spent their time 

learning how to be beautiful, both physically and morally. In addition 

to the obligatory excision, their bodies were decorated with delicately 

painted uli patterns and mbudu or ebubu scarification. Select village women 

taught the girls how to be virtuous and dutiful wives, housekeepers, and 

nurturing mothers. At the appointed time, the initiates reentered village 

life ready for marriage and family life. The event was celebrated with a 

promenade around the village at which time the initiated women were 

honored with gifts of cowries, which were used as currency before the 

introduction of coins and paper money. 

An early twentieth-century description of Igbo girls after they had 

experienced the nkpu (fig. 37) could apply to the Dallas figure. 

They wear no clothes whatever. Their bodies are smeared all over 

with Vermilion red and they are decorated with ropes of tightly 

twisted cloth or threaded cowrie shells. One or more tiny brass bells 

are fastened to the cloth or cowrie-shell waistband. Rings of brass 

adorn the legs, graduated in size from the ankles to just above the 

knees. The coiffure is a very elaborate affair and requires unlimited 

patience and skill to arrange in the correct style. In the center the 

hair is worked up with a mixture of clay, powdered charcoal and 

palm-oil until it becomes a sticky mass. It is then moulded into a 

shape resembling the central crest of a Roman helmet. The center 

comes well over the middle of the forehead, and it extends backwards 

into the nape of the neck. Below the main erection and on 

either side delicate patterns are traced with tiny plaits of hair curled 

into small coils and then plastered down flatly to the head. Finally 

the high center has its sides embellished with mother of pearl or 

bits of brass; the pieces (about the size of shillings) being sewn in 

with hair.14 

These freestanding figures usually have an elongated neck and many are 

depicted holding imported umbrellas and mirrors. 

The “Vermilion red” color on the statue was obtained from the inner 

bark of the camwood tree and used as a cosmetic among the Igbo and 

other sub-Saharan peoples. It was also believed to have healing properties. 

G. T. Basden, an Anglican missionary, mentions that one of the girls’ 

tasks during the nkpu confinement was preparing the camwood dye with 

which they would eventually stain their bodies. They probably learned to 

make the vegetable dye used for painting uli patterns and how to paint the 

curvilinear patterns with the thinnest sliver of wood. Uli was exclusively 

135 

a women’s art until the twentieth century. These sculptures, like the initiated 

women they portray, are the image of ideal beauty. In traditional Igbo 

culture, “beauty” was not only about physical appearance but also about 

displaying moral conduct.15 

Men’s age-grade associations commissioned sculptors to carve freestanding 

figures for display at public, secular festivals held during the dry 

season. They were considered prestige objects and emblems of the associations 

that owned them. During the festival, members paraded them 

around the village—much like the nkpu girls they portray and honor—and 

when they performed, the statue was a stationary display.


40 




Wood, leather, beads, and fiber 

13 × 25/* × 3¼ in. (33.02 × 6.67 × 8.26 cm) 

The Clark and Frances Stillman Collection of African 


1969.S.96 


Luba girls learn that a woman is not born beautiful but becomes so as a 

result of modifications to her face and body. This process begins at puberty, 

as part of the coming-of-age rituals (butanda) that transform girls into physically 

beautiful, sexually attractive, and, therefore, highly eligible women 

who can fulfill their destiny as wives and mothers. Their teeth are filed, 

their hair is arranged into elegant hairstyles, and their bodies are decorated 

with beaded jewelry. In addition to having their labia extended, their 

bodies are decorated with strategically placed scarification patterns. 

Achieving such modifications and enhancements is not without pain, 

but in Luba thought the pain thus suffered makes the woman strong. This 

is especially important if she is destined to serve as the receptacle for a 

spirit, possibly that of a deceased king.16 The gesture of holding the breasts 

with one’s hands signifies a woman’s responsibility to guard the secrets of 

royal power or other important knowledge tucked in her breasts.17 

The Dallas standing female figure elegantly visualizes Luba concepts 

of feminine beauty, maturity, and civilization. The figure is elaborately 

decorated with scarification (ntapo). The named patterns are inspired by 

things in nature and include: milalo, the horizontal, parallel lines below 

the navel on the lower abdomen; lunenyenye, or “star,” the large welt 

below the breasts; kisanji, or music, the clustered marks on either side of 

the navel; and the round protuberances above each buttock, called meso a 

tete or grasshopper eyes.18 Another Luba criterion of physical beauty and 

sexual attractiveness on the sculpture is its glossy surface. Before retiring 

at night, a Luba woman heightened her attractiveness by applying oil to 

her scarified skin “so it will gleam in the dim lamplight of her bedroom 

chamber.”19 A nineteenth-century practice was to oil the sculpture. Nearly 

a century after its departure from Africa, the Dallas figure still exudes oil. 

The figure once surmounted a carved wooden staff (luswaga) that 

served as a judicial emblem among the Luba peoples of the Democratic 

Republic of the Congo.20 The missing shaft ended in a metal rod that was 

planted in the ground during rituals. The figure is clearly an object of 

great spiritual significance because it carries a leather-covered “charge” 

inserted into the top of the figure’s head. The charge contains potent, 

supernatural medicine.


Notes 

1. Mbiti 1970: 121–22 

2. Roy, in Koloss 2002: 204 

3. Roy 1987: 338–39 

4. Ibid., 318–34 

5. Fischer and Himmelheber 1984: 11–12, 22–33 

6. Ottenberg 1975: 147–69 

7. Kingdon 1999: [4–8]; Wembah-Rashid 1971: 38–44 

8. Kingdon 1999: [12–16]; Schneider 1973: 26–31; 92 

9. Fagg 1968: 268 

10. R. Phillips 1995: 81 

11. Matthews [1788] 1966, quoted in R. Phillips 1995: 

16–18 

12. R. Phillips 1995: 116; Boone 1986: 100 

13. Ibid., 171, fig. 8.21 ab and 8.22 ab; Ruth Phillips, 

personal communication, July 8, 2006 

14. Basden [1921] 1966: 73–74 

A photograph of nkpu girls is found facing page 240. 

15. Cole and Aniakor 1984: 107–108, 121 


17. Ibid., 111–12 

18. Roberts 2000: 6; Roberts and Roberts 1996: 102, 

107, 111–12 


20. Louis de Strycker, personal communication, 

January 26, 2004 



Part three: art for security and well-Being 

Traditional African art addresses an essential human concern, that of wellbeing 

or the state of feeling content. Feeling secure in a peaceful and orderly 

environment, being mentally and physically healthy, having a family of 

one’s own, prospering in one’s occupation, and dying in old age of natural 

causes contribute to this sense of well-being and contentment. In the belief 

that there are influential supernatural forces in all things—living and dead, 

animate and inanimate—that can be appeased or contacted and petitioned 

for blessings, humans have invented various objects to serve as mediums 

of communication and as tangible symbols of the invisible. 

Artworks used to ensure communal and individual security and wellbeing 

include masks, religious objects, medicine vials, and power figures. 

Masks of the Baga and Yoruba peoples portray celebrated deities and culture 

heroes, while other masks imbued with powers to punish evildoers 

enforced the law. Bronze bells and shrine figures were used in the context 

of religious worship. Medicine was contained in specially crafted vessels 

and in solid figures representing intangible spiritual forces that protected 

the community, promoted good fortune, or ensured success in trading 

and hunting. Power figures were charged with magical materials as well 

as supernatural forces to heal, seek out wrongdoers, or enforce a contractual 

agreement and required the services of a ritual specialist to activate 

them. This section also includes a drum that, in this context, contributes 

to women’s mental health. 

The multivalent nature of most African art allows these objects to express 

the theme of security and well-being. Other objects could as well—for example, 

the divination objects that are used to ascertain the cause and cure 

of infertility or to avert or reverse other misfortune; or the Nwenka mask 

that represents the Creator God and the Egungun masquerade costume that 

makes a family ancestor visible, both of which can be petitioned for blessings. 

In all cases, artists have created objects that conform to the canon but 

are unique and, as such, attract the attention of spiritual entities. 

139


41 

Headdress (D’mba) 

Guinea, Baga peoples 


Wood 

49¼ × 161/* × 2711/! 6 in. (125.10 × 40.96 × 70.33 cm) 




1974.SC.18 

three : art for security and well-being 

This colossal headdress represents D’mba, the universal mother, symbol 

of mature femininity. She is indeed a fertility object, but one that is also 

concerned with the prosperity and well-being of the entire community. 

She is a welcome sight at all stages of the agricultural and human cycles 

of development. Dressed in a voluminous palm fiber skirt that reaches 

the ground and a dark cloth tied so as to expose her prominent breasts, 

which are flat as a result of nursing many children, D’mba appears at 

planting and harvesting festivals, marriages, births, funerals, and ancestral 

commemorations. 

D’mba masquerades, which were suppressed by Muslim leaders in 

the 1950s, have been experiencing a resurgence in some villages since the 

1980s. Their revival has, as recently witnessed by Frederick Lamp, given 

women the strength to bear children and nurture them to adulthood, 

encouraged the ancestors to participate in the continuance of community 

well-being, induced the rain to fall, and driven young men to feats of 

cooperative excellence in agriculture.1 

In performance, the Dallas D’mba headdress would have been adorned 

with separately carved ear ornaments and polished with oil to achieve 

the glow of vitality. The raised patterns represent scarification; on some 

headdresses these patterns are enhanced with the insertion of shiny brass 

tacks. It was carried by a strong young man who wore it on top of his head 

with a ring of cloth or fibers to cushion the weight. The four legs of the 

mask were attached at the bottom to a hoop encircling his chest and 

back. Two holes between the breasts allowed the dancer to see outside 

the mask.


42 

Epa headdress 

Attributed to Oshamuko of Osi Village 

(d. circa 1950) or his workshop 

Nigeria, northern Ekiti region, Yoruba peoples 



47½ × 17 × 13 in. (120.65 × 43.18 × 33.02 cm) 

African Collection Fund, 2007.41.1 


Annual festivals held throughout Yorubaland incorporate masquerades 

that celebrate the values and social roles upon which the well-being of the 

towns depend.2 The festival, called Epa (or Elefon) in Ekiti towns, is characterized 

by the appearance of large-scale wooden headdresses. The animals 

and humans carved on the superstructure of the headdress represent 

real or mythical ancestors who provide the foundation and continuity of 

Yoruba society. When more than one mask performs, the masks appear 

in a prescribed order. Oloko, who introduced farming and hunting, is the 

first mask to perform. He is followed by a warrior who carries a spear and a 

gun to defend the land and people; he may have been a founder or ruler of 

a town. Olosanyin, the priest of Osanyin and the god of herbal medicine, 

appears next. He has special knowledge of psychology and the ability to 

identify and use curative plants. Olosanyin is followed by a woman who is 

honored for her procreative powers or as the leader of the townswomen. 

The last to appear is a male ruler astride a horse. 

Epa headdresses, which are carved from a single block of wood, can 

be quite tall and heavy. Each headdress consists of a pot-shaped helmet 

capped with a superstructure. The helmet portion features a stylized 

human face that fits over the head of the dancer, who looks through the 

mouth opening for visibility. The superstructure depicts a specific social 

role such as farmer, warrior, priest, mother, or king as indicated above. The 

size of the subject, which is always centered, dominates the composition 

in accordance with the Yoruba rules of social perspective. The costume, 

which is not meant to conceal the wearer’s body, consists of strips of cloth 

or fresh palm fronds suspended from the base of the headdress. 

The Dallas mask is attributed to Oshamuko of Osi village. Apprenticed 

to the master artist Arowogun (Areogun) of Osi-Ilorin (p. 276), Oshamuko 

produced his mature works from about 1920 to about 1950. The headdress 

portrays the bearded priest Olosanyin. In his right hand he grasps 

a wrought iron staff (opa orere) decorated with bird imagery; in his left, a 

chevron-patterned antelope horn supported by an attendant. Such horns 

were filled with powerful medicines used to cure physical or mental illnesses. 

The priest’s extraordinarily long hair is styled into a single braid 

and decorated with medicine gourd containers. The end of the braid rests 

on the heads of two musicians who play their instruments to herald the 

priest’s powers (see detail, left). In addition to demonstrating technical 

skill and insight into his subject, Oshamuko also shows great imagination 

(imoju-mora) in rendering the priest’s clothing as a dynamic form.3 Over 

each hip of the priest’s pants the sculptor carved knotted ends that he 

extended across the shoulders of two attendants to touch the medicine 

gourds each holds.


43 

Bell in the form of 

a head 

Nigeria, Lower Niger Bronze Industry, 

Forcados River style 



55/* × 27/* in. diam. (14.29 × 7.30 cm) 

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene McDermott, 1976.3 


Although the precise purpose of bells shaped like heads is unknown, it 

is reasonable to assume, based on the traditional use of bells and gongs 

among the peoples of southern Nigeria, that the Dallas example was used 

to call ancestors and divinities to worship. 

Rendered in a naturalistic style, the face has humanlike eyes, broad 

nose, mouth, and ears. The relief imagery of horns rising from behind 

the ears, serpents issuing from the nostrils, and a knot at the bridge of 

the nose are, however, unnatural. These symbolic motifs are found in the 

visual arts of the Yoruba and Benin kingdoms and Lower Niger cultures. 

Horns, for example, symbolize the extraordinary power that emanates 

from the head of a deity and, as such, appear on multiple depictions of 

Eshu, the god of uncertainty and chaos, and on Yoruba Ifa divination trays 

(see p. 107). Snakes are associated with the worship of Oshun, the deity 

who rules the ocean and other bodies of water, and are depicted in artworks 

from the ancient Yoruba kingdom at Ile-Ife and especially in the art 

of the Benin kingdom. Knots represent the power ful, magical medicine 

that is usually found on warrior gear worn by figures on Benin and Lower 

Niger Bronze Industry sculptures. Taken together, the imagery evokes 

supernatural and physical powers.4 

Cast using the lost-wax process, this bell is similar to others attributed 

to the style of the “Lower Niger Bronze Industry,” a designation coined by 

William Fagg in 1959 as a catchall attribution for a hoard of bronze castings 

excavated around 1909 on the Forcados River in the western Niger Delta 

southwest of Benin City.5 The castings are diverse in terms of formal qualities, 

iconography, and technical sophistication and do not fit within the 

canons of copper alloy casting in the major centers (i.e., the Yoruba and 

Benin kingdoms and at Igbo Ukwu). Similar mysterious castings, none of 

which has been precisely dated, have since been found in numerous locations 

in southern Nigeria and have been attributed likewise. 

That the bells are made of a durable material, are technically sophisticated, 

and depict complex imagery suggest they were made for leaders 

or persons of high sociopolitical rank, perhaps kings or chiefs on whose 

behalf they were used on the occasion of the transfer of power or as part 

of the royal regalia.


44 

Seated female shrine 

figure 

Nigeria, Benue State, Igede peoples 



27½ × 6¾ × 9¼ in. (69.85 × 17.15 × 23.50 cm) 



Carved in a naturalistic style, this female figure sits on a round stool with 

her hands resting on her knees. She stares intently at the viewer, her 

mouth open as if she were speaking. The scarification decorating her face 

and body may signify her affiliation with a particular family or lineage, or 

successful initiation into a possession cult called Anjenu. 

The Igede peoples believe disease, infertility, and disorder are caused 

by the anjenu, nature spirits that reside in fast-flowing rivers and streams 

or massive anthills. When the spirits invade a village, the Igede erect a 

shrine to appease them and furnish it with vessels of sacred water, a magical 

substance (eka), and sacrificial food. Clay lions or leopards representing 

strong and powerful wild animals along with specially carved wooden 

figures said to portray devotees of Anjenu also populate the shrine. The 

Igede believe combining sculpture with singing honors the spirits more 

effectively than simply performing the ritual with sacred water.6 

Although this enshrined figure was probably viewed from the front, 

it was conceived as a three-dimensional form. Viewed from the front, the 

figure’s torso appears to be an elongated cylinder; from the side, the form 

slopes to a point just beyond her breasts and her feet. The figure’s generous 

buttocks rest solidly on a cylindrical stool. Clearly, it was meant to be 

viewed from all angles. Traces of pigment remain on the figure. When the 

sculpture was in use, her coiffure and body were regularly refreshed with 

applications of white kaolin clay and ochre, respectively.


45 

Vessel (itinate) 

Nigeria, Lower Gongola River Valley, 

Cham or Mwona peoples 


Terracotta 

16 × 5 × 5 in. (40.64 × 12.70 × 12.70 cm) 


1999.58 


Embellished vessels (itinate) were traditionally used in divination and 

healing rituals among diverse peoples in the Lower Gongola River Valley 

in northeast Nigeria. The stylistically similar healing vessels of the Cham 

and Mwona peoples feature a bulbous base surmounted by either a figure 

with an open mouth or a nonrepresentational form. The surface of the 

upper portion usually has a rough, often jagged, texture. 

The highly stylized female figure on this vessel has an elabo rate hairstyle 

or headdress tapering into a hornlike form, an apelike brow, eyes, 

and an elongated snoutlike mouth with notched lips. Its “collar” and 

the band encircling the place where the upper and lower portions meet 

are similarly notched.7 When J. N. Hare, an official of the British Colonial 

Administrative Service in Nigeria, formed a collection of these vessels in 

the late 1950s, the practice of making them was dying out and only the 

elderly knew how to use them.8 

Individuals concerned about infertility or giving birth to a healthy baby, 

tending to a sick animal, or threatened by forces beyond their control conferred 

with the village diviner, a man of great authority. The diviner consulted 

either a male or female terracotta figure, according to the patient’s 

gender, for advice. Upon receiving an answer, the diviner sent the patient 

to a male potter to commission a specific vessel. The potter had to be 

highly skilled and familiar with the different kinds of vessels in order to 

ensure the prescription would work. Before a vessel could be used, the 

diviner activated it with incantations, pouring a libation, and in some 

cases, filling the vessel with water from a particular pool that was believed 

to have magical powers.9 The patient then took the vessel home where it 

was kept until his or her malady was cured. After the vessel had served its 

purpose, the owner discarded it at a safe distance from the village. 

Hare notes that these vessels were also used during important festivals 

at which time they were filled with locally brewed guinea corn beer 

in thanks to all of the benign powers operating within the household.10 

Unfortunately, the precise function of the Dallas vessel is not known.


46 

Ritual container in form 

of standing male figure 

Angola, Chokwe peoples 

19th century 

Wood, metal, and leather 

141/* × 41/* × 311/! 6 in. (35.88 × 10.48 × 9.37 cm) 



1969.S.8.A–B 


The Chokwe believed their chief or “owner of the land” (mwanangana) 

was God’s representative on earth, the intermediary between the world 

of humans and the world of ancestral and nature spirits. The chief ultimately 

ensured his people’s well-being by keeping the balance between 

these realms. In order to do so, he required the spiritual support of his 

ancestors, which he activated with special, potent medicines. 

This standing male figure has a hollow torso—revealed by removing its 

head—and once held the medicine used by an ancestral chief to activate 

supernatural powers. The right hand of this figure was accidentally broken 

and replaced by a blade, suggesting the regenerative abilities of the chief 

and his ancestors.11


47 

Standing male figure 

(mbulenga) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lulua peoples 


Wood and camwood patination 

7½ × 13/* × 1½ in. (19.05 × 3.49 × 3.81 cm) 



1969.S.131 


Small sculpted figures holding a vessel in one hand are called mbulenga, 

which means “for beauty, for good luck” in the Lulua language, and were 

believed to protect infants. The figure’s reddish brown patina is the result 

of being coated with ngula (red powder from the camwood tree mixed with 

water). Its power comes from the contents of the vessel, which included 

the hair of a female albino (considered a blessing by the Lulua), the bark 

of a sacred tree (mutshi muabi), and the red feathers from the tail of a 

gray parrot. 

The sculptor carved this figure in a naturalistic style, carefully depicting 

details of the hairstyle, clothing, ornamentation, and scarification 

that were in fashion. Having one’s body decorated with scarification made 

an individual bwimpe—that is, beautiful, not only physically but morally 

as well. Scarification is produced by making cuts in the skin, which must 

heal properly to leave smooth and shiny raised scars. An individual whose 

skin did not heal properly was not considered to be a beautiful and moral 

person. To give themselves a healthy glow, individuals applied a mixture 

of red earth, oil, and kaolin to their bodies.12


48 

Male figure standing 

on an animal 


Eastern Luba-related peoples 


Wood 

93/* × 25/* × 51/! 6 in. (23.81 × 6.67 × 12.86 cm) 

The Clark and Frances Stillman Collection 

of Congo Sculpture, gift of Eugene and 

Margaret McDermott, 1969.S.99 


The precise meaning of this figure is unclear. It was enshrined and maintained 

by hunters who believed the hunting spirit Luwe would ensure a 

successful hunt, thereby providing meat for the community. The figure 

standing on the animal may allude to Mbidi Kiluwe in the guise of the 

hunting spirit as he rides the lead animal of a herd toward the hunter’s 

blind or pit trap. 

In the Luba epic, Mbidi Kiluwe is the culture hero, a foreign hunter and 

warrior from the east who introduced sacred kingship to the indigenous 

population that became the Luba. Among peoples conquered by the Luba 

or who otherwise came under Luba influence, Mbidi Kiluwe is depicted 

riding on the back of a buffalo, an elephant, or antelope.13


49 


(mbem) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yanzi peoples 



91/! 6 × 213/! 6 × 25/* in. (23.02 × 7.14 × 6.67 cm) 





The Yanzi employ a variety of sculpted figures in rituals to assure their 

well-being. A series of figures called mbem were used in specific situations 

to protect against disease, reverse infertility that could ironically 

be caused by an mbem, or identify wrongdoers.14 Some mbem were used 

to reinforce the authority of the head of an extended family or cause a 

woman to become sterile if she lied about an adulterous relationship 

under oath before an mbem. Grandmothers, in addition to chiefs and male 

heads of extended families, were entitled to own mbem to reinforce their 

authority over the women in their families.15 

Mbem figures are carved in the form of male, female, or androgynous 

humans with minimal physiognomic details. The hands and feet of this 

diminutive female figure, for example, are rendered as faceted geometric 

forms. Diagonal striations incised on her face replicate the facial scarification 

that was in fashion when the statue was carved. Although the figure 

is posed frontally (see facing), it is fully three- dimensional in its conception 

(see rear view, below). The profile, for example, displays echoing and 

complementary angles: the upward thrust of her hairstyle is in opposition 

to the V-shaped ears that oppose the larger V-shaped arms and shoulders. 

And, her legs are flexed at the knees offering more angles. The figure’s 

red color, the result of applications of camwood paste, indicates that a 

ritual specialist consecrated the mbem. When it was in use, the mbem was 

probably dressed in a raffia cloth, adorned with a necklace, and smelled 

of tobacco smoke.


50 

Figure (nazeze-type 

of yanda) 


Northeastern region, Zande peoples 


Wood, metal, coins, and beads 

6½ × 23/* × 21/* in. (16.51 × 6.03 × 5.40 cm) 




1974.SC.50 


Anthropomorphic figures like this one are known as yandas after the 

protective spirits that the Zande peoples believe guard their communities.16 

Yanda figures belonged to the highest-ranking members of the Mani 

society, a secret association open to both men and women. Membership 

in Mani ensured one’s general well-being, including fertility, successful 

hunting and fishing, protection against disease and sorcery, and the 

resolution of family or legal problems. According to some scholars, the 

Mani association was organized initially to counter act the authority of 

the royal elite lead by the Vurungura clan and later the Belgian colonial 

government.17 

Yanda figures are usually referred to as female because of their asso ciation 

with fertility even though their sex is most often un defined. Made of 

wood, clay, or soft stone, nazeze-type yandas are carved in an abstract style 

with a minimum of physiognomic details. The wood used for the sculpture 

was chosen for its medicinal properties.18 Magical substances could 

also be placed in the yanda’s recessed navel, which was covered. 

Concealed in special containers, yandas were activated during a ritual 

in which they were anointed with libele, a plant mixture. Petitioners 

continued to anoint the yandas as they disclosed their problems to the 

figures, which were then returned to their receptacles. After a problem 

was resolved, the petitioner offered the yanda gifts of beads, metal rings, 

and coins, similar to the adornments on the Dallas figure. Over time the 

surface of the figure became so thick with encrustation that the carving 

beneath was obscured. It could be said that the sculptures were more the 

product of ritual process than aesthetic choice made by the sculptor.


51 

Standing power figure 

(nkisi nkondi) 


Chiloango River region, Yombe peoples 


Wood, iron, raffia, ceramic, pigment, 

kaolin, red camwood, resin, dirt, leaves, 

animal skin, and cowrie shell 

43¾ × 15½ × 11 in. (111.13 × 39.37 × 27.94 cm) 

Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of the 

McDermott Foundation, 1996.184.FA 

fig 38 An x-ray of the nkisi nkondi reveals deep inset eyes 

and metal pins used to attach the beard to the face. 


All minkisi (sing. nkisi) are containers for magical substances, or 

“medicines,” that empower them to protect the community or an individual 

against negative forces. They can, however, also cause mis fortune, 

illness, and death. The containers come in a variety of forms, including 

cloth bundles, snail shells, clay pots, or sculpted wood figures in animal or 

human form. The latter type of nkisi is called a power figure. The empowering 

medicines (bilongo), which were made of vege tal, animal, and mineral 

elements including dirt from ancestral graves, may be placed atop the 

nkisi’s head, in its belly (mooyo or life), on its back, or in any natural orifice 

and sealed in place with resin. Each nkisi figure has a special name, a 

specific pose, a particular function, and a ritual to activate it. The Dallas 

nkisi belongs to a class of minkisi called nkondi (pl. minkondi). The term is 

translated as “hunter” of wrongdoers in matters of civil law; the hunter is 

simultaneously chief, doctor, priest, and judge.19 The sculpted wood form 

of the nkisi nkondi is studded with nails or blades that indicate how often 

the nkisi had been used. 

This type of nkisi nkondi is intimidating: it stares at the viewer with 

teeth bared and stands with feet apart on separate blocks that symbolize 

the worlds of the living and the dead. With its arms akimbo (pakalala, 

hands on hips), it assumes an aggressive posture called vonganana or “to 

come on strong.” When oaths were sworn and bonds were sealed before 

the nkisi nkondi, a ritual specialist-cum-healer/diviner (nganga) hammered 

a nail, screw, or blade into its body. This activated the spirit and medicines 

contained within to ensure that those who swore an oath would honor it 

on pain of death. The white lines under the sculpture’s eyes refer to the 

eyes of those the nkisi will smite.20 

This power figure is one of several large-scale sculptures brought 

to Europe between 1880 and 1910 (and now in public collections) that 

originated in a single workshop on the Chiloango River, which flows 

along the border of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo and 

Cabinda.21 The minkisi minkondi in this corpus were carved from a single 

piece of wood22 (fig. 38) and are characterized by the realistic modeling of 

the body with its massive shoulders, an akimbo pose that replaced the 

conventional threatening pose of one hand raised brandishing a knife, 

an ornate chief’s hat, a knotted or plain fiber skirt, staring eyes, a heavy 

resinous beard (a sign of seniority, wisdom, and related powers), a large 

cowrie shell covering the abdominal cavity containing medicine, knotted 

armlets squeezing the muscles just above the elbows, and feet placed on 

separate rectangular blocks. Most sculptures retain traces of the reddish 

pigment, made from pulverized camwood, that symbolizes the mediation 

between the living and the dead. The highly skilled and imaginative 

sculptors created a style for the nkisi nkondi that ensured it would fulfill 

another one of its functions—to astonish.


52 

Seated male power 

figure (nkisi) 


Kongo peoples, Yombe group 


Wood, glass, mirror, and fiber 

91/! 6 × 4 × 311/! 6 in. (23.02 × 10.16 × 9.37 cm) 





This nkisi power figure of a man touches his face in a contemplative 

gesture and leans forward with his legs arranged in the fu-mani position, 

a sign of caring, competence, and responsibility. The sculptor has carefully 

and realistically depicted the nkisi’s prestigious knotted pineapple 

skullcap (mpu) and the jewelry he wears on his wrists and upper arms. 

The figure probably represents a chief, but perhaps a healer and/or diviner 

as well. 

The medicine that empowers this nkisi is hidden in the cylindrical container 

projecting from his torso. The imported mirror sealing the cavity 

enables him to see which supernatural forces are active, and the glass eyes 

allow him to “see through water to the wisdom of the other world”23 in 

order to solve the owner’s pathological or spiritual problem.


53 

Standing female power 

figure (nkishi) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Songye peoples 


Wood, skin, cord, and metal 

18½ × 45/! 6 × 413/! 6 in. (46.99 × 10.95 × 12.22 cm) 



1969.S.174 

54 

Standing male power 

figure (nkishi) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Songye peoples 


Wood and metal 

75/! 

6 

× 25/! 

6 

× 211/! 

6 

in. (18.57 × 5.87 × 6.83 cm) 



1969.S.181 


Mankishi (sing. nkishi), containers for potent medicines that protect 

families or individuals against sorcery, malevolent spirits, and diseases 

are said to be more important to the Songye peoples than are ancestor figures, 

which serve as vessels for the spirits of their ancestors. Songye mankishi 

are made in a variety of sizes according to their use, either personal or 

communal, and are figurative and nonfigurative. Figurative mankishi are 

carved by sculptors and activated by a ritual specialist (nganga) who places 

potent medicine in an animal horn inserted into the nkishi’s head, into a 

pouch worn by the figure, or directly into the nkishi’s head or abdomen. 

They were named and their reason for existence defined. 

This rare female nkishi (cat. 53) carries a pouch containing medicine 

around her waist. It is similar to one in the Barbier-Mueller Collection and 

probably originated in the same workshop of the northern Belande.24 

This small male nkishi (cat. 54) studded with brass tacks may have 

protected an individual against smallpox.25 Clearly, the figure has been 

deactivated as evidenced by the hole atop his head that once held a small 

animal horn filled with potent medicines and the empty abdominal cavity 

that would have been packed with similar substances and sealed. 

CAT. 53



CAT. 54


55 

Helmet mask (komo) 

Mali and Côte d’Ivoire, Senufo peoples 


Wood, glass, animal horns, fiber, and mirrors 

17 × 27 in. (43.18 × 68.58 cm) 

Gift of David T. Owsley, 1997.24 


This mask, according to an exhibition catalogue, “gives fear a face.”26 

Despite the presence of a small elegant female figure (see detail, below), 

the mask discourages one from getting too close. The sharp animal 

horns and tusks of various sizes pointing in all directions, the prominent 

zigzag teeth, and the overall encrusted surface give the mask a menacing 

appearance. The projecting glass eyes and reflective mirrors also add to 

its visual power. 

This mask originated among Senufo peoples living in close proximity 

to the Bamana, who use helmet masks with horrific animal imagery. 

Among the Bamana, such encrusted masks with long, horizontal muzzles 

are worn by high-ranking members of the male-only Komo association 

that is traditionally responsible for maintaining social, spiritual, and economic 

harmony in Bamana communities. A society of blacksmiths, its 

high-ranking members (komotiga) practice divination and are empowered 

to function as judges.27 The wooden komo mask is covered with all manner 

of animal and vege table materials that make it powerful. 

Senufo’s kponyungo helmet masks are owned by the most senior members 

of the male-only Poro society that functions as a system of government, 

education, and economic control. Like the Bamana’s Komo, Poro 

has a spiritual function to serve as a medium for contact with the realm 

of deities and ancestors. Its associated helmet masks present a daggerlike 

image of concentrated aggression through animal imagery, including a 

long horizontal muzzle with bared teeth, antelope horns, warthog tusks, 

and fully realized chameleons and birds. The surface of the kponyungo 

is painted rather than encrusted with sacrificial material. Instead of a 

human figure crowning the mask, there is a cup to hold potent magical 

ingredients.28 

The Dallas komo mask combines traits of both Senufo and Bamana 

helmet masks29 and derives its power from the accumulated sacrificial 

offerings that created the crusty surface instead of from the magical ingredients 

in a cup. The imported mirrors and base from a wine glass that form 

the eyes confirm the piece as a contemporary object.


56 

Helmet mask (gye) 

Côte d’Ivoire, Guro peoples 


Wood, paint, and sheet metal 

10 × 13½ × 32 in. (24.34 × 34.29 × 81.28 cm) 



Yu masks, which are supposed to have been invented in antiquity and are 

owned by the oldest families in northern Guro communities, are highly 

revered and the recipients of sacrificial offerings. The most power ful yu 

mask is gye, considered the highest judicial authority. They can judge disputes, 

negotiate peace treaties, and make momentous decisions on behalf 

of the community. They appear in public when the community celebrates 

an important event or at the funeral cele brations of honored family members. 

The exceptionally large Dallas gye mask is an excellent example of 

the type. 

Gye are thought to be creatures that in ancient times belonged to the 

beasts of the forest and mountains. According to legend, a Guro hunter 

brought the creatures into the village to receive offerings—perhaps to 

ensure a successful hunt and appease the spirits of the animals that 

were killed. Eventually these apparently friendly beings were immortalized 

in sculpted wooden masks and costumes, dance steps, and musical 

accompaniment. 

Talented, athletic dancers perform the gye masquerade wearing a massive 

knotted fiber costume that is used to extinguish the burning coals on 

which they dance.30 The masks, which have both human and animal features, 

typically display the hairline of humans and the muzzle and horns 

of a bush cow or other large animal. 

This mask was repaired with sheet metal at some time during its 

decades of use.


57 

Helmet mask (kifwebe) 

and costume 


Songye or Luba peoples 


Wood, paint, fiber, cane, and gut 

135/* × 8¾ × 7½ in. (34.61 × 22.23 × 19.05 cm) 




58 

Helmet mask (kifwebe) 


Tempe-Songye peoples 


Wood and paint 

23¾ × 13½ × 11½ in. (60.33 × 34.29 × 29.21 cm) 


Sculpture, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott 



In the absence of precise field data, attribution and context can be 

difficult if not impossible to ascertain. These two helmet masks from the 

Democratic Republic of the Congo exemplify such a situation. 

The striated masks of the Songye peoples are known as bifwebe (sing. 

kifwebe) and have sagittal crests that extend from the top of the head to 

the tip of the nose. The female mask is white with a low sagittal crest 

(cat. 57) and is stylistically similar to the polychrome masks of the Luba 

peoples, the Songye’s neighbors to the north with whom they share a 

common origin. Male bifwebe of the Tempe-Songye peoples (cat. 58) have 

a raised crest or lateral projection and are often attributed to the Tetela 

peoples who do not have a masking tradition.31 Bifwebe, which have rarely 

been documented in situ, function within the context of the Bwadi Bwa 

Kifwebe, a men’s secret association that assures the well-being and continuity 

of its communities by enforcing societal laws and appealing to 

benevolent spirits. 

Although their forms, patterns, colors, and behaviors are inspired by 

and derived from human beings and animals, bifwebe are supports for 

supernatural beings. All Songye bifwebe, whether male or female, are worn 

by men. Gender is indicated by the height of the sagittal crest. A low sagittal 

crest designates a mask is female. The sagittal crest of a male kifwebe, 

on the other hand, can reach dramatic heights (fig. 39). The height of the 

crest is directly related to the strength of the mask’s character: the larger 

the crest, the greater the mask’s mystical knowledge and magical power. 

The male mask’s crest and overall size also indicate achievement levels 

within the secret society; for example, the progression from youth to 

elder. In contrast to the male mask whose eyes and mouth are protuberant, 

feminine eyes and mouths are carved in low relief. 

The striations on both male and female masks, which are a unique 

stylistic trait of all Songye masks, are derived from the markings and patterns 

of wild and dangerous animals, such as the zebra or striped antelope, 

crocodile, lion, porcupine, and snake. Bifwebe may be painted black, white, 

and red. The colors of black and white, however, refer to gender. Black is 

associated with masculinity. On male bifwebe, black signifies malevolence, 

aggression, violence, and evil magic, which are reinforced in the masked 

dancer’s aggressive and energetic performance. It is intentionally frightening. 

Female masks are predominantly white, if they are painted at all. 

Whiteness connotes purity, health, fertility, procreation and nursing, joy, 

wisdom, and beauty as well as moonlight, cassava flour, and sperm. The 

female kifwebe dancer’s performance is graceful and gentle.32 

The contexts in which bifwebe appear are according to gender. 

Aggressive male masks supervise road and fieldwork and participate in 

policing activities during crises, initiations of male youths into adulthood, 

and preparations for warfare. Gentle female masks participate in 

lunar, funerary, and investiture rites that encourage benevolent spirits to 

CAT. 57


fig 39 The height of this kifwebe mask’s comb is 

indicative of the male gender. Democratic Republic 

of the Congo. 


bestow fertility, the dead to enter the afterlife, and the peaceful transference 

of leadership. Both male and female masks are worn by male dancers 

who wear raffia costumes and are accompanied by singers and dancers.33 

The kifwebe with the lateral crest was originally adorned with feathers, as 

suggested by the perforations and a photograph of a related mask, taken 

during a lunar activity in 1924.34 

CAT. 58


59 

Drum 

Côte d’Ivoire, Senufo peoples 

20th century 

Wood and hide 

411/* × 18½ in. diam. (104.46 × 46.99 cm) 

Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of 

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Marcus, 1981.139.FA 

fig 40 Senufo women dancing around drums, near Korhogo, 

Côte d’Ivoire, 1971. 


The Senufo used tall drums supported on four bent legs not only as 

musical instruments (fig. 40) but also as a means of communication, 

much like a public address system. Drums, for example, were played 

when young men prepared the fields for planting. This laborious work was 

turned into a hoeing contest in which drums set the rhythm by which the 

men swung their hoes. Later, the drums accompanied the songs praising 

the champion cultivator. Drums were played at boys’ and girls’ initiations, 

to announce the death of important elders, and at funerals. Elaborately 

carved drums were considered prestige objects that only the best sculptors 

were commissioned to carve. 

Four-legged drums, like the Dallas example, also contributed to Senufo 

women’s mental health. Although women’s role in society complemented 

that of men and the mystique of procreation gave them power, Senufo 

women did not have equal rights. Women belonging to the Tyekpa 

women’s society dealt with gender conflicts and frustration by singing 

in a secret language that only they understood. Accompanied by drums 

and favoring call-and-response patterns, they raised their voices in song, 

daring to insult their men’s physical attributes or bad behavior.35 

The motifs carved in low relief on the cylindrical chamber are not 

merely decoration. They symbolize important cultural concepts. The 

horned face, for example (seen in profile), represents the carved face 

masks that junior members of the Poro society wear at funerary masquerades. 

Animal imagery includes a serpent being attacked by two long-billed 

birds, perhaps cranes or herons, and may refer to the potentially dangerous 

competing powers in the universe. The U-shaped form probably represents 

a python, which is both a symbol for the world and the primary 

insignia of the female Sandogo society diviners, who are able to ascertain 

the cause of threatening circumstances through the divining ritual. The 

crocodile, or giant lizard, and quadrupeds (i.e., wild animals) are symbols 

of threatening or destructive forces. The fetters, or forged iron manacles, 

symbolize the suffering Senufo ancestors endured during the Sudanese 

wars (Islamic jihads) of the nineteenth century and because of the forced 

labor the French imposed during the colonial period. A tortoise (not visible) 

is a divine messenger. It is also a symbol for water and, in recognition 

of its longevity and endurance, for health. The scalloped collar beneath 

the raised band encircling the drum may be purely decorative, but the 

inverted shapes at the bottom of the drum represent small animal horns 

that contained potent medicine.


Notes 

1. Lamp, in Turner 1996: vol. 3, 47; Lamp 2004: 222–25 

2. Drewal and Pemberton with Abiodun 1989: 

189–206 

3. Carroll 1967: 26 

Compare to the Olosanyin priest depicted on the 

lidded bowl (p. 277) by Arowogun (Areogun) of 

Osi-Ilorin (c. 1880–1950). Father Kevin Carroll lived 

in Ekiti for several years and documented all the 

major sculptors, including Arowogun. He photographed 

this mask in the 1950s and published it in 

1967. John Pemberton suggests, in a letter to Carlo 

Bello of Pace Galleries, New York City (February 21, 

2006), that if Carroll had known the sculptor he 

would have noted it. The unknown master may have 

predated the known or living sculptors in Ekiti or 

he may have lived in a village or town unknown to 

Carroll. The author, in comparing the headdress to 

an Epa mask that William Fagg identified as the work 

of Oshamuko, attributes it to Oshamuko of Osi or 

his atelier; see Vogel 1981: 122–23. 

4. Lorenz, in Brincard 1982: 52–60; see also Peek, in 

Anderson and Peek 2002: 39–50 

5. Fagg 1963: 39–40; Fagg 1968: n.p., cat. no. 153 

6. Kasfir 1982: 45–51, 91–92; Sidney Kasfir, personal 

communication, November 4, 2005; Nicholls 1984: 

70–76, 92 

Igede serves as a cultural corridor between Ogoja 

and Idomaland. The Igede peoples of Nigeria’s Benue 

State are located both culturally and geographically 

in the shatter zone north of the middle Cross River 

bordering on the tropical forest. The Idoma peoples 

live to the northwest. The Anjenu possession cult is 

common to both groups. 

7. See Berzok 2005: 133, fig. 79, for a similar vessel 

8. Hare 1983: 8 

Longuda peoples call their ritual vessels kwanda lowa; 

they are used in a similar fashion and are made by 

women. Writing in the late 1970s, Jonathan Slye 

noted that the Mwona made healing vessels; Slye 

1977: 23. 

9. Berns, in Roy 2000: 53–76 

10. Hare 1983: 9 

11. Jordan 1998: 31, cat. no. 2 

12. Timmermans 1966: 17–18 

13. Roberts and Roberts 1996: 17–20, 216–18, 

cat. no. 93 

14. Felix 1987: 196–97 


15. Biebuyck 1985: 126–27 

16. Cornet 1971: 305–308; Mack, in Verswijver et al. 

1995: 270, 387, cat. no. 240; Blier 1998: 37 

17. Evans-Prichard 1937: 513 

18. Ghent 1994: pp. 26 and 50, cat. no. 67 

19. Thompson 1978: 206–21; Lehuard 1997: 22–23 

20. MacGaffey, in MacGaffey and Harris 1993: 44 

21. Bassani 1977: 36–40; Bassani 1998: 102–104 

This count includes seven nail figures that Bas sani 

identified in 1997 and an additional five identified in 

1998. There are twenty figures according to LaGamma 

2008: 40. 

22. Like the Detroit nkisi nkondi (see note 19, above, 

citing Thompson 1978), the Dallas figure was carved 

from Canarium schweinfurthii. We acknowledge the 

assistance of Alton Bowman, who facilitated the 

analysis of the Dallas sculpture in July 2008. X-rays of 

the figure reveal that the cavity is filled with matter. 

23. Thompson 2005: 84–85 

24. Neyt 2004: 308–309, plate 20 

25. Smet 1999: 23 

26. Roberts 1995: 95, cat. no. 94 

27. McNaughton 1979; McNaughton, in Colleyn 2003: 

175–83 

28. Glaze 1981: 257 and 259; Boyer, Girard, and Rivière 

1997: 24, plate 4 

29. Till Förester, personal communication, March 

2008 

30. Fischer 2008: 142–57 

The Dallas gye mask is reproduced in fig. 126, 

page 147. It was formerly in the collection of Loed 

van Bussel; Roy 1993: 78. 

31. Heusch 1995: 176–194 

De Heusch asserts that the Tetela do not have a 

masking tradition. 

32. Hersak, in Turner 1996: vol. 29, 68–72 

33. Hersak, in Verswijver et al. 1996: 176–77, cat. no. 85; 

Hersak, in Heusch 1995: 165–66 

34. The photograph was taken by Major John Noble 

White and is housed at the Eliot Elisofon Photographic 

Archives, National Museum of African Art, 

Smithsonian Institution, Washington. 

35. Glaze 1993: 124; Weeks [1914] 1969: 105–106; 

McGuire 1980: 54–56, 88 


Part four: art for the afterlife 

The themes of death and the afterlife are universal in the visual arts. Found 

worldwide throughout time, depictions are diverse: from the tomb decorations 

of dynastic Egypt to the grave steles of ancient Greece, the reliquaries 

of the Christian tradition, and the crockery and other items arranged on the 

graves of African Americans in the southern United States. 

Throughout Africa, in traditional societies and among many cosmopolitan 

inhabitants, the belief is held that death is but a transition to another 

stage in the cycle of life. The Yoruba proverb “Earth is a marketplace we 

visit; heaven [or the afterlife], home” underscores this notion. The dead 

may be reborn. Yoruba names for newborns—Babatunde, “the father has 

come again,” and Yetunde, “the mother has come again”—echo the belief 

that an ancestor has returned to earth. 

Contented ancestors willingly intercede with the deities and other spiritual 

entities on behalf of their survivors. To ensure the departed can rest 

rather than cause mischief and misfortune, families must properly carry 

out the funeral rites. Before burial, the deceased’s debts must be paid and 

a funeral celebration befitting his or her station in life must be held. Family 

members must serve refreshments (which may be for a whole village or for 

a whole street in a town) during the all-night “wake-keeping” and funeral, 

dress the dead in special clothing, decorate the room in which the corpse 

will lie in state, and hire a band. In the past, the exigencies of a tropical 

climate dictated immediate interment.1 Nowadays the surviving family 

may, in the absence of Western-style funeral homes, have to cover the cost 

of storing the corpse in the air-conditioned mortuary of a hospital as well 

as finance a masquerade and videotape the funerary events for relatives 

unable to attend. The importance of this financial obligation cannot be 

underestimated. An individual unable to obtain a bank loan to start a business 

may well immediately receive a loan to pay for the funeral of a family 

elder. Moreover, because a commemorative event on the anniversary of the 

death is expected, the financial obligations continue. 

Traditional art is used extensively during the funerary rituals. Finely 

crafted divination objects ascertain the cause of death, elaborate objects 

made of rare and expensive materials are buried with the deceased or decorate 

the grave, locally woven or imported textiles wrap the body or dress 

the deceased’s family, and sculpted figures and masks are present during 

the funeral celebration and subsequent commemorative events. Relics 

associated with the dead are preserved in special containers guarded by 

sculpted figures, and other figures that memorialize the departed and serve 

as vessels for their spirits and a medium through which to communicate 

with them are placed on domestic shrines, in special memorial houses, or 

in cemeteries. The promise and expectation of their ancestors’ continued 

interest and support compel families to commission art that is both appropriate 

and beautiful so the ancestor will be attracted to them. 

179


60 

Relief of a procession 

of offering bearers 

from the tomb of 

Ny-Ank-Nesut 

Egypt, Saqqara 

2575–2134 bc, Old Kingdom, late 5th to 6th Dynasty 

Painted limestone 

17½ × 66¾ × 3½ in. (44.45 × 169.55 × 8.89 cm) 

Munger Fund, 1965.28.M 

four : art for the afterlife 

Ancient Egyptians believed in the divine immortality of their pharaohs 

who were mummified and buried in tombs, such as the Great Pyramid at 

Giza, which was built during the Old Kingdom, to await resurrection into 

the afterlife. The burial chambers were lavishly decorated and furnished 

with essential items the royals would need upon their resurrection. 

This carved and painted limestone relief originally decorated a wall in 

the tomb of Ny-Ank-Nesut, who is believed to have been an important 

court official, possibly a high priest of Ra (Re). The artist conformed to 

the classic Egyptian convention for depicting the human form by combining 

the frontal and profile views of the eight male servants wearing short 

kilts. The offerings they carry for the departed include loaves of bread, 

cakes, geese, papyrus leaves, bowls of lotus flowers, a hedgehog in a cage, 

vessels of beer, and other things that would magically come to life upon 

Ny-Ank-Nesut’s resurrection.2


61 

Head and upper torso 

of Seti I 

Egypt 

1303–1200 bc, New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty 

Granite 

15 × 11¾ × 73/* in. (38.10 × 29.85 × 18.73 cm) 

Purchased in honor of Betty Marcus with the Art 

Museum League Fund, the Melba Davis Whatley 

Fund, and the General Acquisition Fund, 1984.50 


Thousands of years ago, the ancient Egyptians built magnificent temples 

for the deities they worshipped and monumental pyramids for the mummified 

remains of their rulers, who were believed to be both mortal and 

divine and endowed with great magical as well as spiritual powers. 

The woven, striped headdress (royal nemes) and false beard, both divine 

attributes of the gods, indicate the sculpture is of a pharaoh. In fact, his 

identity—Seti I—is inscribed on the nemes and the elliptical cartouche at 

the rear of the bust. He appears to be youthful (although he was older at 

the time he was portrayed), handsome, and virile, and his facial expression 

is calm.3 One of the greatest Egyptian pharaohs, Seti was a successful 

military leader and a great patron of the arts. He waged wars against the 

Hittites, Phoenicians, Syrians, and Libyans, which resulted in his extending 

the boundaries of Egypt into other parts of North Africa and the Near 

East. Seti I restored neglected temples and shrines, and among his buildings 

is a temple at Abydos to honor the deity Osiris and his own magnificent 

tomb in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes.


62 

Coffin of Horankh 

Egypt, Thebes c. 700 bc, Late Period, 25th Dynasty 

Wood, gesso, paint, obsidian, calcite, and bronze 

76¾ × 19 × 15 in. (195.00 × 48.26 × 38.10 cm) 

Cecil and Ida Green Acquisition Fund, 1994.184 


Ancient Egyptian coffins housed an individual’s physical remains and ka 

(vital force or soul) during the journey to the afterlife. The decorations on 

the inside and outside of the coffins guaranteed the deceased’s survival. 

Such decorations included food and drink, servants, a pair of eyes to see 

the rising sun, spells, and other items that reflected religious beliefs and 

social practices. 

Anthropoid coffins, introduced during the 12th Dynasty (1985–1795 bc), 

replicate the form of a human body wrapped in a linen shroud and served 

as substitutes for the corpses in case the remains were lost or destroyed. 

The Dallas coffin was made for Horankh as indicated by the name inscribed 

on the base. Although the sculpted head is rendered in a naturalistic 

manner, the colors and beard are symbolic: the green face and plaited, 

upturned beard are attributes of Osiris, Lord of the Underworld and god of 

the resurrection. Horankh’s dedication to Osiris is evident in the invocation 

to the deity inscribed on the base of the statue.4 

Horankh lived during the 25th Dynasty (747–656 bc), which is also 

known as the Kushite or Nubian Dynasty. Nubia was located along the 

Nile River between Aswan in southern Egypt and Khartoum in northern 

Sudan. There the ancient Nubians developed powerful, independent 

kingdoms beginning around 3100 bc and competed with Egypt for the 

use of the Nile River as a commercial highway and for the acquisition 

of land. While Egypt dominated Nubia on more than one occasion, the 

Nubians took advantage of a divided Egypt in 747 bc and ruled it for one 

hundred years.5 

This outer coffin, with its lack of ornate decoration, is reminiscent of 

coffins from the Middle Kingdom (2055–1650 bc) and illustrates how the 

Nubians borrowed from the classic models of earlier dynasties (fig. 41). 

fig 41 The nesting coffins of Tutankhamun, 18th Dynasty, 

fit neatly inside one another.


63 

Rhythm pounder 

Southeastern Mali, Sikasso district, Senufo peoples 


Wood, cowrie shells, and red abrus seeds 

363/* × 8¼ × 6 in. (92.39 × 20.96 × 15.24 cm) 

The Gustave and Franyo Schindler Collection of African 

Sculpture, gift of the McDermott Foundation in honor 

of Eugene McDermott, 1974.SC.15 

fig 42 Peers of the deceased striking rhythm pounders 

against the ground lead the way to the cemetery. 

Tyelikaha, Côte d’Ivoire, 1986. 


Art makes a dramatic appearance at the funerals of important elders 

of Poro, an age-graded society that teaches boys their social, political, 

and spiritual roles as adult males. Masquerade costumes with fiber or 

wooden headpieces and carved wooden figures depicting a male and a 

female appear during funeral celebrations. Small figures are displayed 

on the ground or near the corpse, which is wrapped in layers of splendid, 

locally woven cloths. These cloths are gifts of condolence from the villagers. 

Large figures carved from a durable hardwood and standing on thick 

pedestals are used as pestles or pounders in a final ritual. 

During the funeral, the large figures are placed on either side of the 

corpse, which lies in state on a carved wooden bier or on mats cover ing 

the ground. At the appointed time, a member of the occupational group to 

which the deceased belonged performs a ritual that initiates the deceased 

into the society of ancestral spirits. At the conclusion of the ritual, young 

initiates carry the corpse to the cemetery on their shoulders while elder 

Poro members, each carrying a figure by its arms, neck, or shoulders, lead 

the way. The figures are swung from side to side and periodically struck 

against the ground in time with the music of the funeral orchestra; hence, 

the popular name “rhythm pounder” (fig. 42). This action induces the 

ancestral spirits to continue to participate in the funeral rites. At a certain 

point in the ceremony, the procession stops and a pair of rhythm pounders 

is placed on top of the corpse. Afterward, the procession continues to 

the cemetery located at the edge of the village. Following the interment, 

the rhythm pounders are returned to the Poro sacred grove where they 

remain until their next appearance.6 

The Dallas figure, which is a superb example of a rhythm pounder, 

depicts a slender woman with incised marks on her chest and traces of 

decoration around her navel. Clusters of snail shells, cowrie shells, and 

red abrus seeds originally adorned her coiffure, upper arms, and abdomen.7 

Although she appears youthful, as is customary for traditional 

portraiture, the figure represents an ideal adult female who was initiated 

into the Sandogo society (the women’s equivalent of the men’s Poro), was 

married, and bore several children.


64 

Mask (Mukenga) 



Raffia, wood, cowrie shells, beads, parrot feathers, 

and goat hair 

33½ × 22 × 26 in. (85.09 × 55.88 × 66.04 cm) 

Gift in honor of Peter Hanszen Lynch and 

Cristina Martha Frances Lynch, 1998.11 


Among the Kuba peoples, as among most traditional African societies, the 

scale and duration of a funeral—from short and simple to days long and 

complex—is commensurate with the prominence of the deceased person 

during life. Masks with elephantine features appear at funerals of elders 

who were high-ranking members of a men’s secret initiation society 

(fig. 43). The masquerader performs a dance in honor of the deceased who, 

although not a Bushoong—the group from which the Kuba king (nyim) 

was chosen—belonged to a particular aristocratic clan. 

The mask is part of the Mukenga or elephant costume that personifies 

a high-ranking member of a secret society. The conical projection extending 

upward and over the front of the mask represents an elephant’s trunk, 

and the small beaded panels at either side are its tusks. The product of 

labor-intensive craftsmanship, the mask is lavishly adorned with valuable 

cowrie shells, imported beads arranged in complex patterns, and the red 

tail feathers of an African gray parrot. All these elements are symbols of 

wealth, title, and elite status. In Kuba society, ownership and control of 

elephant ivory rests with the king.8 

The white cowrie shells, which were used as currency before coins and 

paper money were introduced, evoke death and signify mourning and 

the ancestors’ dry bones. Unlike most masks that cover the entire head, 

Mukenga Muykeem does not have eyeholes. Sighted attendants accompany 

the dancer wearing the “blind mask” as he performs ancient steps with 

pride, gravity, and dignity. 

fig 43 The lavishly adorned elephant mask appears at 

funeral rituals for deceased members of the prestigious 

Mukenga society. Bushoong Village, Democratic Republic 

of the Congo, 1981.


65 

Egungun costume 

Nigeria, Oyo or Ogbomoso area, Yoruba peoples 

1920–1950 

Cotton, silk, and wool fabric, metal, leather, 

mirrors, cotton, and wood 

66 × 71 × 15 in. (167.64 × 182.88 × 38.10 cm) 

Textile Purchase Fund, 1995.35 


An announcement in the Daily Times, a Nigerian newspaper distributed 

throughout the country, summoned the sons and daughters of the city 

of Abeokuta home for an Egungun festival in June 1970. The author of this 

volume attended the celebration, which lasted for several days. Dancing, 

drumming, and singing as well as feasting with family and friends contributed 

to a most festive atmosphere. Numerous public masquerades 

featured costumes made entirely of textiles; others highlighted carved 

wooden masks or headdresses in the form of human heads, animals, or 

combinations of both. Some events, such as worship activities and the 

appearance of masks bearing powerful, potentially lethal medicines, were 

not public. 

The Egungun masquerade annually calls the spirits of the ancestors 

and the recently departed back from the realm of the dead to visit their 

descendants and survivors. The ancestors, represented by masks always 

worn by male dancers, grant their survivors’ petitions for protection from 

harm, the gift of children and all good things that contribute to the family’s 

well-being, and they settle disputes over inheritance or other problems 

that have surfaced since their last visit.9 

This colorful Egungun costume is composed of layers of Nigerian and 

European textiles that have been cut into panels and bound with contrasting 

fabrics and colors. The costume completely concealed the dancer and 

was probably accessorized with gloves and footwear, possibly to match 

the textiles used.10 There are panels of cotton velveteen, silk, wool, and 

cotton damask with a variety of figurative and geometric motifs, all expensive 

imports fit for a king or other high-ranking members of society. At its 

core is the initial layer that covers the dancer from head to toe. A rectangular 

mesh panel near the top of the costume allows for visibility. Each year 

family members add another layer of cloth, always continuing the symmetrical 

format, to refurbish the costume before the festival. The costume 

is adorned with mirrors, buttons, and metal coinlike forms. Despite its 

great size, the masker twirls around this way and that causing the layers 

to fly outward during the dance. 

The year this costume was created is not known precisely. Theoretically, 

one can ascertain how long a costume has been in use by counting the 

layers of cloth and consulting European trade catalogues to obtain the 

date particular fabrics arrived in Nigeria. This costume may offer an 

intriguing clue to its age, or at least contributes to the study of Yoruba 

commemorative cloths, which are used for the installation of a king or for 

other important public or private events. One panel made of pure cotton 

cloth carries a repeat pattern of a medallion motif. The upside-down 

image in the medallion is that of a white-wigged European male, who is 

identified as “Lawyer Wells Palmer” and to whom someone was grateful, 

as indicated by the word adupe (thank you) that is printed opposite his 

name (see detail, p. 193).



A judgment of the British Court issued in March 1931 identifies 

Wells Palmer as counsel for the appellant who was His Royal Highness 

Eshugbayi Eleko, the king (oba) of Lagos from 1900 until 1925 when he was 

deposed.11 According to a genealogy of the obas of Lagos, Eshugbayi Eleko 

regained the throne in 1931 but served only one year before he died.12 In 

the absence of other cloths that thank other members of the king’s legal 

team, one can assume Palmer was the most deserving of recognition. The 

mystery remains to be solved.


66 

Standing female and 

male figures (ere ibeji) 

Nigeria, Oyo region, Yoruba peoples 

20th century 

Wood, camwood powder, indigo, glass beads, 

and fiber 

Male: 131/* × 4¼ × 3½ in. (33.34 × 11.43 × 8.89 cm) 

Female: 13¼ × 41/* × 3½ in. (33.66 × 10.48 × 8.89 cm) 

Gift of the Dozier Foundation, 1990.274.1, 1990.274.2 

fig 44 A shrine for deceased ibeji (twins) over several 

generations of a family. Imosan, the Ibeju area of Nigeria, 

1982. 


Among the Yoruba, who consider twins (ibeji) special, even sacred, the 

frequency of giving birth to twins is exceptionally high. Multiple births 

were seen as unnatural in the distant past and resulted in the practice of 

twin infanticide. For reasons not precisely understood, the Yoruba radically 

changed their attitude toward twins. An oral tradition associates 

twins with Shango, the thunder god and legendary Alafin (king) of Oyo 

who, in the days of twin infanticide, could not bear to destroy his own 

newborn twins. Instead, he banished them and their mother to a remote 

part of the kingdom where they remained and were regarded as dead. In 

time, the spirits of twins were venerated like those of the deities (orisha). 

In the event one or both twins die, an Ifa diviner (babalawo) may advise 

the parents to commission a sculpture called an ere ibeji, or image of the 

twins. The figure, posed frontally and standing with its hands placed at 

its sides, is an idealized portrait of the dead twin as well as a receptacle for 

its spirit.13 The mother of the twins symbolically cares for the twin figure 

as she does the living child. She feeds, clothes, washes, and adorns it and 

puts it to bed and serenades it with songs of praise. Ere ibeji are placed on 

domestic altars or kept in a basket in the mother’s room and periodically 

venerated in formal rituals (fig. 44). On market days, a mother tucks the 

ere ibeji in her wrapper and takes the surviving twin shopping. The vendors 

will give her extra food and adornments for the living twin and the ere ibeji. 

These attentions are believed to appease and encourage the spirit of the 

dead twin to remain in the spirit world instead of returning to earth to 

claim the surviving twin or cause misfortune that would affect the entire 

community. Indeed, to disrespect an ere ibeji could invoke the wrath of 

Shango, the twins’ patron saint. 

These ere ibeji follow the African principle of idealized portraiture and 

depict male and female twins as fully developed adults in the prime of life. 

Ere ibeji never portray sexually undeveloped children. The figures’ upswept 

hairstyle indicates they were carved in a style associated with the Ibuke 

area of the Oyo region. Traces of indigo in the hair and cosmetic camwood 

powder may suggest the twins were gifts of Shango. The figures’ eyes have 

been pierced to “open” them, and the vertical scarification on their forehead 

and cheeks identify their lineage. They are adorned with imported 

glass beads, which in the past were valued as currency. 

A nineteenth-century British explorer traveling in the Oyo region may 

have been the first to describe the diminutive sculptures carried by mothers 

who had lost a twin.14 Some indigenous religious practices are still 

observed, albeit without the traditional ritual objects, among the populations 

of present-day Nigeria, which is divided almost evenly between 

Christians and Muslims. Today, the photographer instead of the sculptor 

has become the maker of ere ibeji, which appear in the form of double 

photographs.15


67 

Standing male ancestor 

figure (ekpu) 

Nigeria, Cross River region, Oron peoples 

Late 19th century 

Wood 

23½ × 45/! 6 × 43/* in. (59.69 × 10.95 × 11.11 cm) 


African Art, gift of the McDermott Foundation 



Standing male ancestor figures dating from the mid- to late nineteenth 

century are among the oldest extant sculptures from Nigeria. Called ekpu, 

the figures contain the spirit of departed ancestors who were petitioned 

for the well-being of the community. Following the death of an elder 

and before his ceremonial burial (which could occur well after the actual 

burial), the family commissioned a sculptor to carve a figure that reflected 

the deceased’s importance and wealth. The figures were kept in the men’s 

meetinghouse (obio), out of the view of women and children. There animal 

sacrifices were made to the ekpu at the beginning of the planting season 

and at harvest time. In addition to being a means of communicating with 

the ancestral spirits, ekpu figures provided a visual record of a lineage’s 

history. 

Ekpu figures are conventionally posed frontally on short legs beneath 

a bulbous onion-shaped abdomen and portrayed wearing a distinctive 

cone-shaped hat or coiffure, a symbol of the ekpu or ancestors. They hold 

objects in each hand that may represent their status as elder lineage officers. 

Scarification marks at the center of the brows and along the sides of 

the faces and a narrow beard along the jawline that is styled into a plait 

at the chin also signify elder status. Some ekpu hold palm-wine drinking 

horns; the Dallas figure holds a pair of cylindrical staffs. 

The size of an ekpu figure and the elaborateness of the carving reflect 

the importance and wealth of the ancestor who is portrayed. A childless 

or junior member of a family, for example, would not be represented by a 

figure but by a plain stick. The modest size of the Dallas figure suggests it 

represents a family member rather than a lineage ancestor. Women were 

represented by a pot.16


68 

Reliquary guardian 

figure 

Gabon, Ntem region, Mvaï group, Fang peoples 

1800–1860 

Wood 

21¼ × 5¼ × 5¾ in. (53.98 × 13.33 × 14.61 cm) 


2000.3.McD 

fig 45 The flexed-knee position and stem of sculptured 

guardian figures allow them to be set atop bark boxes 

containing sacred relics. Southern Cameroon, c. 1913. 


In the belief that skulls and certain bones of great men retained their 

supernatural powers after death, the Fang, Kota, Sango, and Tsogo peoples 

venerated and preserved such remains. “Great men” included the 

founder of the lineage and successive lineages, clan or family heads, and 

extraordinary women who were believed to have supernatural abilities 

or who bore numerous healthy children. The relics, along with precious 

beads, potent substances with magical properties (medicine), and other 

spiritually charged objects were kept in containers made of bark or woven 

plant fibers. A post projecting from a carved guardian figure fastened it to 

the lid of the bark reliquary box (fig. 45), which was kept in special shelters 

or repositories. The sculpted guardians protected the relics from malicious 

humans and evil spirits and served as a point of contact between the 

ancestral relics and designated family members. 

This reliquary guardian is attributed to a master sculptor who lived on 

the upper Ntem River in northern Gabon and was active between about 

1800 and 1860.17 The sculptor’s style is distinguished by the figure’s short, 

muscular body with raised pectorals above a barrel-shaped abdomen, 

arms held close to its sides, and hands joined at the base of the chest.18 

Deep incised lines delineate the fingers, lattice scarification on a band that 

terminates just above the enormous navel adorns the abdomen, and vertical 

incised lines travel the length of the back. The figure, with rounded 

thighs and thick calves, is carved in a seated position. Its massive head 

has a high, rounded forehead, arched brows above squinting eyes pierced 

with metal, and a pouting mouth with exposed teeth. Its hair is styled 

into three large triangular plaits and a “duck tail” that replicate a man’s 

nlo-o-ngo hairstyle, which was still fashionable in the twentieth century. 

A headband with pompoms covers its ears. Feathers affixed to the headdress 

by metallic chains, earrings, iron or copper necklaces and bracelets, 

and glass beads originally adorned the figure.19 The feet have broken off. 

Reliquary guardian figures were also used as puppets in a ritual called 

mélan, a rite of appeasement. During the course of their initiation into 

adulthood, boys learned about the history of their people, which is marked 

by migrations and the need for portable objects, including the reliquaries. 

The practice of making reliquaries for ancestor worship ceased in the early 

twentieth century when the French colonial government banned the reliquaries 

and their priests.


69 

Janus reliquary 

guardian figure 

Attributed to Semangoy of Zokolunga 

Gabon, Franceville area, Kota peoples, 

Obama group 

Late 19th or early 20th century 

Brass, copper, iron, wood, and fiber 

2413/! 6 × 1911/! 6 × 5 in. (63.02 × 50.00 × 12.70 cm) 

Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., 

2005.36.McD 

fig 46 Ancestral skulls are removed from the reliquary 

and arranged before the sculptured guardian figure. 


The Kota and related peoples preserved the relics of honored ancestral 

leaders in baskets guarded by reliquary figures (fig. 46). Affixed to the 

baskets, the figures were carved from a single piece of wood and covered 

in metal.20 

In contrast to the figurative reliquary guardians of other African cultures, 

the Kota guardians appear abstract. A large ovoid head with minimal 

facial features rests on a lozenge shape that represents the arms of a 

truncated body. The forms projecting from the top and sides of the face 

correspond to men’s elaborate hairstyles or headwear, and some figures 

have iron accents and ear ornaments. Size may indicate function. Large, 

Janus-faced figures are thought to have guarded the relics belonging to an 

extensive lineage group, while smaller ones guarded those of families. It 

is unknown whether one side represents a female and the other a male. 

Similar to other double-faced reliquary guardian figures, each face on 

the Dallas guardian is unique in its conception. The face on one side is 

concave and clad in copper with bands of brass crossing the center. Its 

coffee-bean-shaped eyes protrude, its mouth is open to reveal teeth, and 

the crescent-shaped crest is decorated with crosshatching and bosses. The 

other face, clad in brass with a copper band placed across the eyes from 

temple to temple, is convex beneath a prominent forehead. Iron screws 

that pierce the eyes to form irises, parallel vertical iron bars under the eyes 

that may represent scarification, and a piece of red cloth inserted into its 

mouth are among its other features. 

The materials chosen to make the reliquary guardian figure may 

have been practical as well as symbolic. For example, the Kota may have 

thought the reflective quality of copper and brass could repel harmful spirits. 

While both iron and copper were available in limited quantities locally, 

copper was obtained solely through trade with Europe. The decorative 

knoblike motifs may reference the foreign source of the brass, which was 

also used in the creation of multisized basins called “Neptune’s caldrons” 

and wire.21 Thus, expensive materials projected the image of wealth and 

served as a repellent. 

The Dallas reliquary guardian figure is attributed to Semangoy, a 

Wumbu group artisan from Zokolunga, a small village near Moanda. He 

decorated one side of the crescent with a characteristic mark: an incised 

miniature crescent bisected by a line with a boss at each end.22


70 

Reliquary guardian 

figure (mbumba bwiti) 

Gabon, Sango peoples 


Wood, brass, and bone 

113/* × 3½ × 3N in. (28.89 × 8.89 × 8.30 cm) 




1974.SC.36 


The Sango peoples practiced a funerary tradition similar to that of their 

neighbors, the Kota. Sango reliquaries, which were also protected by 

sculpted wood guardian figures covered with metal, were associated with 

individuals rather than lineages and were expected to ensure safe and productive 

travel and trade.23 Kept in a special room in quarters belonging 

to the head of a family, they were present on occasions such as the end 

of mourning or at rituals concerning healing, hunting, or the search for 

evildoers.24 

Reliquary guardian figures of this type typically have extremely stylized 

human heads with a high forehead. The arched brows, nose, and 

horizontal patterns represent scarification and are formed with metal; the 

staring eyes are made of bone. The ears are conceived as cylinders that 

project from the sides of the face. The Dallas figure is distinguished by 

a pair of barlike forms that extend downward beneath the ears as if to 

echo the shape of the “shoulders” of the lozenge-shaped body. The base of 

the figure would have been thrust into a reliquary made of beaten bark in 

which were preserved the ancestor’s bones as well as magical ingredients 

such as shells, forest fruits, and various charms or amulets.25


71 

Half figure of a man 

Gabon, Tsogo peoples 



203/* × 8 1/* × 5¾ in. (51.75 × 20.64 × 14.61 cm) 




1974.SC.37 


The Tsogo used half figures similar to this one as reliquary guardians and 

as ritual objects. In the former context, they were placed in the reli quary; 

in the latter, they were placed on the floor of a temple during “dramatic 

nocturnal rituals.”26 The Dallas half figure has an oval head, pronounced 

eyebrows, a long wedge-shaped nose, and open mouth. Its hands, typically 

placed at either side of the body, are above the navel. Distinguishing 

features include prominent ears, traces of white pigment (probably kaolin) 

on the body, and metal-covered eyes. Some half figures display a vertical 

strip of metal on the forehead as a means to empower the figure to repel 

evil spirits. Placing reflective metal in the eyes of the figure rather than on 

its forehead may be the artist’s innovation or it may be a convention that 

allows the vigilant sentry to see beyond this world.27


72 

Kneeling female figure 

with bowl and child 

Democratic Republic of the Congo and 

Angola, Mayombe region, Kongo peoples, 

Yombe group 


Wood, pigment, and glass 

21½ × 10 × 97/! 6 in. (54.61 × 25.40 × 23.97 cm) 




fig 47 Bitumba (images) have been placed at the front 

of a memorial house in Boma, Lower Congo, 1908. 

© Royal Museum for Central Africa; Tervuren, Belgium, 

EPH 5833; photograph: H. Deleval. 


Among the Yombe, carved wooden human figures portray individual 

ancestors who may have founded a lineage or otherwise made important 

contributions to their families and their communities. Enshrined in 

small memorial houses in cemeteries, these idealized sculptures guard 

the dead, including their own remains, and provide a means of contact 

with the ancestor and other spirits in the realm of the dead (mpemba). 

This kneeling female figure and child (pfemba) represents an important 

woman. She has a high, miterlike coiffure or headdress and wears five 

bracelets, which exceed the number worn by ordinary Yombe women, on 

her left wrist. Her filed teeth, visible through parted lips, indicate she was 

properly initiated into womanhood, and the painted marks may represent 

scarification. The white kaolin covering her body has the ashen quality of 

the dead, but it also refers to purity and moral correctness, both important 

Yombe values. She probably represents a clan founder. 

The figure leans slightly forward and kneels in an attitude of respect 

while balancing a male child on her left foot. Her left hand supports the 

child’s back as her right one rests of top of a bowl-shaped pot containing 

potent medicine that can cure illness or resolve social conflicts. Her palm 

is open in a gesture of generosity. Her glass-covered eyes afford her access 

to the worlds of the living and the dead.28 Taken together, the attributes 

of this figure—its coloring, posture, and gesture—and the presence of the 

child and the medicine indicate this woman’s contribution was that of 

a “spiritually imbued mother,” who was a great healer and protector of 

children.29 Many published accounts of sculptures of this kind depict the 

child with his arms across his chest as exemplified by figures in the collections 

of the Yale University Art Gallery and the National Museum of 

African Art, Smithsonian Institution.30 The child in the Dallas figure clings 

to his mother’s leg in the same way as that in an early twentieth-century 

photograph of a memorial enclosure (fig. 47).


73 

Kneeling male figure 

Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola, 

Mayombe region, Kongo peoples, Yombe group 


Wood, porcelain, and white pigment 

12½ × 4¾ × 4¾ in. (31.75 × 12.07 × 12.07 cm) 





The precise context in which this kneeling male figure was used is not 

clearly understood, but it can be assumed that it was associated with 

ancestor veneration. The knotted pineapple-fiber skullcap (mpu) the figure 

wears identifies him as a chief or other person of elevated rank in Yombe 

society. He kneels on one knee in an attitude of respect while clapping 

his hands in honor of the one who is addressed or petitioned. His face 

is animated: he appears as if he is talking with the viewer at whom, or 

perhaps through whom, he stares with porcelain-covered eyes. Imported 

porcelain, like pieces of mirror, was rare and allows him to see to the other 

world. Enshrined in a memorial house in the cemetery, the figure—which 

contains the spirit of an illustrious ancestor—receives his descendants 

who appeal to him for protection, advice or answers, and good fortune. 

A medium between the world of the living and the world of the dead, the 

figure respectfully kneels before those spirits and deities who will aid his 

descendants.31


74 

Seated male figure 

(ntadi) 


Matadi region, Kongo peoples, Mboma group 


Steatite 

17 × 8 × 5 in. (43.18 × 20.32 × 12.7 cm) 

Gift of the Cecil and Ida Green Foundation, 1999.57 


Mintadi (sing. ntadi) funerary figures were carved in soft gray steatite 

(soapstone) as well as wood and placed on graves or in memorial houses 

in Mboma cemeteries, where survivors could consult them. This figure 

portrays a chief. He wears the insignia of office—a knotted pineapple-fiber 

headdress (mpu) crowned with leopard claws—and is posed in a parallellegs 

position (fu-mani) with one arm leaning on his knee and supporting 

his head while the other hand rests on his hip. This gesture, called kyaadi, 

expresses sadness as well as caring and competence32 and is the position 

in which Mboma chiefs were buried.33 This ntadi is further distinguished by 

a hairstyle that encircles the ears. A similarly posed figure in the collection 

of the Institut des Musées Nationaux du Zaire has the same hairstyle.34


75 

Standing male ancestor 

figure (singiti) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Hemba peoples, 

Niombo group 


Wood, beads, and hide 

30¼ × 913/! 6 × 9 in. (76.84 × 24.92 × 22.86 cm) 





The Hemba peoples memorialized distinguished ancestors (e.g., chiefs, 

warriors, and heads of lineages) in sculpted wooden figures (singiti) that 

served as vessels for their spirits. A visual genealogical record, the figures 

were cared for by a designated member of the lineage, who arranged 

them in the order in which they lived. The caretaker periodically honored 

the singiti with animal sacrifices; in return, the ancestors protected their 

descendants. 

Although the singiti figures portray individual ancestors, their likenesses 

are universal. Each rendering is of a bearded male standing erect 

on a circular base with shoulders square, arms held close to the body, and 

hands resting on either side of a protuberant abdomen, which with its 

prominent navel, signifies family and continuity. With eyes closed, the 

ancestor figures display a calm, impassive expression that characterized 

polite social interaction in Hemba society. The crossed lobes of the cruciform 

hairstyle are arranged over a square of woven raffia35 and evoke the 

four cardinal points (directions) of the universe as well as the crossroads 

where the realms of the living and the dead intersect.36 

This singiti is adorned with a necklace of expensive imported blue glass 

beads that served as currency before coins and paper money were introduced. 

His loins were probably covered with a woven plant-fiber cloth that 

was draped over the strip of leather that remains.37


Notes 

1. Traditional mortuary practices in sub-Saharan 

Africa are varied and include preservation of the 

remains without embalming or refrigeration. See 

Ray 2000: 97–106, and Mbiti 1970 for discussions 

about death and eschatology in sub-Saharan Africa. 

2. Bromberg and Kilinski 1996: 17–19 

3. Ibid., 20–23; see also Borgatta and Brilliant 1990: 

29–73 and 105–25, for discussion and examples of 

portraiture in ancient Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa 

4. Bromberg and Kilinski 1996: 24–25 

5. See O’Connor 1993 for a reevaluation of Nubia 

vis-à-vis Egypt 

6. Förster 2005: 54–67; Glaze, in Barbier 1993: vol. 2, 22 

7. Early pictures of the Dallas rhythm pounder are 

reproduced in Goldwater 1964: fig. 87 and 87a. The 

figure was lavishly adorned with clusters of snail 

shells in the sagittal hairstyle, at the nape of the 

neck, in the center of the chest, around each elbow, 

and around the torso. Only the cowrie shell eyes 

remain intact. 

8. Binkley, in Ross 1992: 284–86 

9. For descriptions of contemporary Egungun masquerades, 

see Thompson 1973: 219–26; Houlberg 

1978: 56–61, 99; Drewal 1978: 18–19, 97–98; and Lawal 

2008: 76–81 

10. See Greenfield 2005: 1–8 and 18, for a comparison 

with an Egungun costume from Ibadan, Nigeria, in 

the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection, University 

of Wisconsin 

11. International Centre for Nigerian Law (ICFNL), 

“Eshugbayi Eleko vs the Officer Administering the 

Government of Nigeria, No. 2,” www.nigeria-law.org/ 

Eshugbayi%20Eleko%20v.%20The%20Officer% 

20administering%20the%20Government%200f% 

20Nigeria%20No%202.htm (accessed July 7, 2009) 

12. Lagos Now ‘n’ Then!, “Genealogy of the Obas of 

Lagos,” www.enownow.com/Lagos%20now%20then/ 

then_lagos_kings.htm (accessed May 28, 2006) 

13. Chemeche 2003; see also Fakeye, in Chemeche 

2003: 26–29, on the process as described by a thirdgeneration 

Yoruba sculptor 

14. Thompson 1976: chap. 13, pp. 1–5 


15. Houlberg 1973: 20–27, 91–92 

16. Murray 1947: 310–14; Nicklin, in Gathercole and 

Lowenthal 1990: 291–301 

17. Perrois, in Grunne 2001: 121–39 and 137, cat. no. 34; 

idem, in Christie’s 2003: 46–48 

18. Other examples are found in the collections 

of the Léonce Pierre Guerre Collection, Marseille, 

France, and the Seattle Art Museum. See also 

LaGamma 2007: 164–70. 

19. See the photograph reproduced in Perrois, in 

Grunne 2001: 123, as fig 14 

20. Compare similar figures in Perrois 1985: 193, 

cat. no. 13; idem, in Herreman 2005: 102, cat. no. 69; 

LaGamma 2007: 252–53, cat. no. 78 

21. Siroto 1968: 86 

22. Dapper Museum 1986: 44, 69, and 81, fig. 6–9 

23. Siroto 1995: 41, cat no. 34 

24. Perrois, in Herreman 2005: 103, cat. no. 70 

25. Ibid. 

26. Siroto 1995: 41, cat no. 34; Perrois 1979: 214–36 

27. Compare with examples in Siroto 1995: 41, cat. 

no. 34; Robbins and Nooter 1989: 350, cat. no. 907 

28. Thompson and Cornet 1981: 145 

29. Thompson 2005: 86–87 

30. Ibid., 86, fig. 9; National Museum of African Art 

1999: vol. 1, 118–19, cat. no. 80 

31. Robert F. Thompson, personal communication, 

April 23, 2008 

32. Thompson 2005: 84–85; Thompson and Cornet 

1981: 235–36, cat. nos. 40, 42–44 

33. Neyt 1981: 80 

34. See the seated stone figure in chief’s headdress 

(fig. 109) in Thompson and Cornet 1981: 235, cat. 

no. 42 

35. Neyt, in Verswijver et al. 1996: 185 

36. Visonà et al. 2007: 408, fig. 12, 13 

37. Compare to a Hemba figure from the Walt Disney– 

Tishman African Art Collection; Kreamer 2007: 143, 

cat. no. 40

chapter 3 

african decorative arts 

African Textiles and Decorative Arts in 1972 and African Furniture and Household 

Objects in 1980, exhibitions curated by Roy Sieber,1 brought attention to 

objects for the house and human body and demonstrated that the parameters 

of traditional African visual arts are not limited to masks, figures, 

and objects used in religious and prestige and/or leadership rituals and 

ceremonies. Although these personal objects can be quite modest in form 

and material, the professional sculptors and “artisans” who made them 

applied the same creativity, skill, and craftsmanship to their design and 

decoration as did the sculptors and metalsmiths who created objects for 

the court or shrine. 

African “decorative arts” encompass a broad range of objects, including 

architectural elements such as granary doors, door locks, tent posts, headrests 

(African “pillows”), containers for cosmetics and ointments, drinking 

vessels, musical instruments, clothing, and jewelry. Mundane but hardly 

ordinary, these objects reflect their owners’ “decided taste for the beautiful,” 

to quote William H. Sheppard, an African American missionary, who 

observed that the “natives of Africa . . . decorate everything.”2 The artworks 

also demonstrate the owners’ ability to compensate the best sculptors 

and artisans to create items to enhance the appearance of their homes and 

adorn their bodies. 

The decoration on utilitarian objects such as ritual objects is sometimes 

meaningful rather than simply appealing to the eye. The animals depicted 

on the Baule door, for example, refer to a proverb about human relations. 

Similarly, the highly stylized triangular patterns that represent pangolin 

scales on the Luba headrest are also found on royal emblems and objects 

used in religious rituals. Some decoration is practical. The appliqué on Kuba 

skirts originally served as patches to cover holes produced by pounding the 

woven raffia into supple cloth. The carved ivory miniature masks worn by 

Pende men and women are replicas of the masks that appear during healing 

rites and the mukuanda masquerades. Rather than “protective objects,” 

the mask pendants are considered adornment. 

Many of the objects presented in this chapter belong to the past and have 

been replaced by modern European devices and objects. Having said that, 

notice the metal keyhole on the Baule door, which clearly indicates that 

it was used after the lock and key were introduced. Textiles are still produced 

today in many parts of Africa. Cloth woven in this traditional manner 

is used for garments of “national dress,” which are worn during political 

events and on important occasions such as family weddings, naming ceremonies, 

and funerals. The Museum’s collection includes traditional clothing 

from the northern, western, central, and southern regions of Africa. 

As this chapter demonstrates, it is human nature to want to live in pleasing 

surroundings and to express and enhance one’s sense of style and 

beauty. 

219

220 3 : african decorative arts 

76 

Fragment of a granary 

door or shutter 

Mali, Dogon peoples 


Wood 

26 × 17 × 25/* in. (66.04 × 43.18 × 6.67 cm) 

Gift of Mr. James H. W. Jacks and Mrs. James H. W. 

Jacks in honor and memory of C. Vincent Prothro 

and Mrs. Margaret Bennett Cullum, 2000.396 

fig 48 The door of a Dogon granary is decorated with the 

sun lizard motif and secured with a carved wooden lock. 

Before 1968. 

Dogon blacksmiths also served as sculptors carving wooden doors for 

houses, granaries, and shrines and decorating them with symbolic motifs 

drawn from Dogon mythology and religious beliefs, including depictions 

of primordial ancestors (nommo) and animals, especially the lizard. 

This weathered hardwood fragment is from a door or a shutter for a 

free-standing granary made of puddled earth and topped with a thatchcovered 

roof. It is missing the posts that acted as hinges and were 

inserted into matching holes bored into the granary’s doorframe. Doors 

of such structures were secured with a bolt lock that was affixed to the 

door’s proper right side (fig. 48), or sealed with mud and pulled open 

with a knotted cord.3 The dimensions of this fragment and the hole just 

beneath the lizard’s elbow suggest the Dallas example was a shutter of 

the former type. 

This door is decorated with a pair of lizards carved in low relief. The 

motif gives life to the Dogon belief that humans are bisexual, like the primordial 

ancestral couple in their creation myth. In Dogon culture, gender 

is settled at the time of circumcision, which is part of a youth’s comingof-age 

rites. The shape of the sun lizard is likened to the male and female 

genitals and, as such, is a sexual symbol.4


77 

Door lock (anuan) 

Mali, Dogon peoples 


Wood and iron 

15¼ × 153/* × 21/* in. (38.71 × 39.10 × 5.40 cm) 

Gift of the Bezalel Foundation, Inc., and Gustave 

and Franyo Schindler, 1981.14.A–B 

The Dogon peoples used wooden bolt locks (ta koguru) to secure the doors 

to houses, interior rooms, granaries, and some shrines. This type of lock 

was introduced to sub-Saharan Africa with the spread of Islam from the 

Near East and North Africa. The Bamana and Dogon peoples in Mali especially 

made them into works of art. 

The lock consists of three separate pieces: the vertical beam (ta koro); the 

crossbeam (ta dagu) that slides into a cut-out rectangle in the back of the 

vertical beam, which is furnished with metal prongs; and a toothbrush- like 

key (ta i) that slides into a hollowed out part of the crossbeam (fig. 49). The 

key is outfitted with metal prongs that match those in the vertical beam. A 

hole bored into the doorframe opposite the mounted lock accommodates 

the rounded or tapered end of the horizontal beam. When the horizontal 

beam is pushed into this hole, the metal prongs of the vertical beam fall 

into the matching holes of the horizontal beam. To unlock the door, the 

dangling prongs of the vertical beam are pushed upward.5 

Dogon, who were not converted to Islam, decorated their bolt locks 

with animal or human figures and geometric patterns inspired by Dogon 

religious beliefs. The figures, carved in styles ranging from representational 

to abstract, are either an integral part of the device or extend the 

vertical beam as in the Dallas example. The two figures carved on top of 

this lock depict the primordial couple (nommo) in an abstract manner. 

The nommo in Dogon mythology are the offspring of Amma (God) and the 

Earth. They were born bisexual and their bodies were jointless. Because 

the male element dominated in one and the female in the other, the original 

nommo were able to procreate and give birth to the four pairs of original 

ancestors of humankind.6 

Geometric patterns carved in low relief on the vertical beam include 

zigzag lines and a square containing a cross. According to Dogon mythology 

and interpretations of other works of art displaying this motif, zigzag 

lines arranged horizontally represent the course along which an ark carrying 

civilization traveled from the sky to the earth. The cross within the 

square may symbolize the cardinal points in space.7 

The Dogon have used Western-style padlocks since the twentieth 

century to secure their doors. Where sculptors are still available to carve 

wooden locks, the locks are either devoid of carved decoration or are 

deco rated with a carved lozenge that represents the head of a lizard or the 

Islamic symbol of the crescent moon.8 

fig 49a (top) This drawing illustrates the mechanism of 

a Dogon door lock (front view). 

fig 49b (bottom) Drawing to show mechanism of Dogon 

door lock (rear view).


78 

Door 



Wood, metal, and fiber 

56¼ × 205/* × 15/* in. (142.88 × 52.39 × 4.13 cm) 




1974.SC.25 

Baule sculptors carved doors that may have been seen by passersby or 

that may have been seen by family members only. Whether entrances to 

houses or to interior rooms, the doors were decorated with secular imagery. 

The motif of a big fish devouring a smaller fish—a commentary on 

protecting rather than preying on one’s own—adorned a number of doors 

and may have been carved by the same sculptor or atelier.9 The Dallas door 

displays this motif. 

The big fish, which dominates the composition, is enlivened by the 

varied texture of its skin and scales and the placement of the smaller fish 

to one side of its head, as if it were being shaken from side to side. The 

two rectangular forms at either side of the larger fish probably represent 

mirror frames.10 Integral posts, instead of metal hinges, at the top and 

bottom of one side of the door were inserted in holes bored into the doorway. 

The bottom post from the Dallas door is missing. A cord to open and 

close the door once occupied the hole at the center of the fish. It was eventually 

replaced by a European-style, metal-covered keyhole. 

Because sacred sculptures were rarely viewed by the public, Baule 

sculptors used utilitarian objects, such as doors, heddle pulleys for looms, 

and ointment jars rather than sacred sculptures, to advertise their abilities 

and attract commissions.11


79 

Tent posts (ehel) 

Niger, Tuareg peoples 

20th century 

Wood 

49¼ × 7 in. (125.1 × 17.78 cm) 

Gift of Drs. Nicole and John Dintenfass, 

1999.6.1, 1999.6.2 

The Tuareg are a seminomadic people of Amazigh origin (also known as 

Berbers) who dwell in tents (ehen) that can, along with their furnishings 

and possessions, be disassembled, packed, and carried to their next destination. 

Continuing desertification of the Sahel has caused the Tuareg to 

move southward from Algeria into Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger as well as 

the northern regions of Ghana, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Benin. 

Tuareg tents are made of arched wooden frames covered with goatskins 

or straw mats. Upright poles are used to build the tent, to support 

the tent wall mats, and to hang leather bags and clothing. Tall tent poles 

(ehel) like this pair secure reed wall mats around the bed for privacy or for 

protection from the elements.12 Each pole is carved from a single piece of 

wood. Intricately carved geometric patterns create a symmetrical design 

that is surmounted by a semicircular panel topped with a finial, which 

may be a solid or an openwork geometric shape. Shorter poles were used 

as cushion supports.


80 

Headrest 



Wood 

65/* × 415/! 6 × 3¼ in. (16.83 × 12.54 × 8.26 cm) 



1969.S.109 

81 

Headrest supported by 

standing female figure 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lulua peoples 


Wood 

7 × 4¼ × 37/! 

6 

in. (17.8 × 10.78 × 8.73 cm) 


Sculpture, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art 

Fund, Inc., 1978.48.McD 

82 

Headrest in form of 

storage box with carved 

heads 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zande peoples 


Wood, fiber, bark, and metal 

9 × 153/* × 313/! 

6 

in. (22.86 × 39.05 × 9.68 cm) 



1969.S.212.A–B 

African “pillows,” in contrast to the soft, stuffed Western pillow, are 

traditionally carved out of wood, a hard material such as ivory or stone 

or, although rare, fired clay.13 The basic form of two platforms separated 

by a vertical post is consistent throughout Africa from Egypt to South 

Africa, and throughout time, from antiquity to the present. Still used, this 

“pillow” is called a headrest because of the way it is used. While reclining 

on one’s back or side, an individual places the upper platform at the back 

of the head. Alternatively, the platform can be placed under one ear and 

along the chin to support the head (fig. 50).14 In addition to protecting 

elaborate hairstyles, headrests provide a good night’s sleep because the 

pressure of the headrest slightly numbs the nerves in the head resulting 

in a tranquilizing effect.15 

Headrests sculpted by Luba, Lulua, and Zande artists demonstrate 

some of the different ways vertical posts may be decorated. Although 

Luba headrests typically incorporate a human figure, this Luba headrest 

(cat. 80) is a study of geometrical shapes. The vertical post is carved in the 

form of a lidded convex vessel—not a skeuomorph, but a hollow form— 

surmounted by a pair of opposing V shapes that cross at the center. The 

supports and ends of the upper platform are decorated with the nkaka pattern; 

that is, the scales of the pangolin (scaly anteater) that protect the 

animal from harm. Another rendering of the animal skin is depicted on 

the lower platform. The nkaka pattern is found on many important Luba 

royal emblems and objects used for rites that invoke spiritual aid.16 

The vertical post of the Lulua headrest (cat. 81) is usually carved in 

the form of a standing female figure whose face and body are elaborately 

decorated with low-relief scarification. The female caryatid stands firmly 

on oversized feet and supports the platform on her head. Her hands are 

placed at the sides of her body as if to draw attention to her protuberant 

navel. This headrest may have been carved by the same sculptor who 

created a headrest in the collection of the University of Pennsylvania 

Museum that was collected before 1924 in the former Belgian Congo.17 

This rare Zande headrest (cat. 82), which is decorated with two human 

heads and contrasting colors, was used for sleeping (or resting) as well 

as for storing the valuables belonging to a member of the Zande aristocracy.18 

This headrest-box is one of only four extant examples. Of the 

others, one is in the collection of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in 

Tervuren, Belgium,19 and two were formerly in private collections in Los 

Angeles and New York City.20 

In addition to supporting the head while one is asleep, preserving hairstyles, 

and providing storage, African headrests have other purposes. For 

example, a personal headrest belonging to a Luba notable could be buried 

instead of the deceased if the corpse was irretrievable.21 

CAT. 80


CAT. 81 CAT. 82 

fig 50 A Wanoe, Shona, man of southern Zimbabwe 

demonstrates how one sleeps on a wooden headrest; 

1928. The Luba of southeastern Congo use a similar 

type of headrest.


83 

Comb (duafe) 

Ghana, Asante 


Wood 

9¼ × 37/* × 5/! 6 in. (23.50 × 9.84 × 0.79 cm) 

Gift of Henry H. Hawley III, 1981.174 

84 

Comb with seated figure 


Chokwe or Lwena peoples 


Wood 

65/* × 25/! 

6 

× 1½ in. (16.83 × 5.87 × 3.81 cm) 



1969.S.142 

Artists use great skill and imagination when fashioning African combs in 

materials such as wood, bone, or ivory. The spines, or handles, are decorated 

with carved motifs and precious metals, including locally mined 

gold and imported brass. The earliest extant African combs were found 

in ancient Egyptian tombs and are thousands of years old. Several combs 

excavated at Dawu in Ghana date to the seventeenth century, which also 

corresponds to the earliest European accounts of African combs. Most 

wooden combs that have survived tropical climate conditions date from 

the nineteenth century.22 

While both men and women use combs, women’s combs are usually 

the most elaborately decorated. This is especially true among the Asante 

peoples. Although an Asante woman may commission a sculptor to carve 

combs for her, she usually receives them as gifts from family, male admirers, 

or her husband to mark important events in her life such as coming 

of age, getting married, or giving birth. The carved decorations on Asante 

combs refer to Asante proverbs or other traditional sayings, a few of which 

can be identified on the Asante comb (cat. 83) . 

The spine is divided into two parts consisting of a rectangle with openwork 

motifs surmounted by a medallion with openwork motifs. Reading 

upward from the lower part of the rectangle, there is an incised drawing 

of a ceremonial state sword with a dumbbell-shaped hilt and curved blade 

that is associated with the proverb “No one challenges a lion unarmed,” 

which means one should be prepared. The stool flanked by a pair of knots 

at the center of the comb has great significance. The Golden Stool is the 

most important religious and political symbol of the Asante nation. 

According to Asante oral tradition, the Golden Stool descended from the 

heavens to land gently on the knees of Osei Tutu, the founder and first 

king of the Asante empire. This stool is the repository for the entire Asante 

nation. A personal stool is the repository of an individual’s soul in life and 

after death. Its significance is embodied in the Asante saying “There are 

no secrets between a man and his stool.”23 The two square knots are a 

symbol of intelligence and refer to the proverb “Only a wise man can untie 

a wisdom knot.”24 The hairstyle with upright plaits on the female bust in 

the medallion has been documented on a Fante woman photographed in 

the early twentieth century.25 The crosses projecting from either side of 

the comb are Christian symbols. This comb is as carefully detailed on the 

back as it is on the front. 

Combs were emblems of status among the Chokwe peoples. Those 

made of wood or ivory with spines decorated with carved figures and 

abstract patterns were more valuable than unadorned wooden combs or 

those made from cane or wires. Like Asante and Fante combs, elaborately 

decorated Chokwe combs were heirlooms handed down through the 

generations in the belief that the spirit of the original owner inhabited 

the object. 

CAT. 83


The Chokwe comb (cat. 84 and see detail, below) is decorated with a 

figure, of undetermined sex, seated with its elbows resting on its knees.26 

Although the comb may have originated among either the Chokwe or 

Lwena peoples, the hairstyle is similar to those on Lwena face masks representing 

females.27 

CAT. 84


85 

Ointment pot with 

effigy cover 



Wood 

9¼ × 415/! 6 in. diam. (23.50 × 12.54 cm) 

Gift of Henry H. Hawley III, 1981.175.A–B 

86 

Pigment box with 

peaked corners 



Wood 

43/* × 71/* × 7¾ in. (11.11 × 18.10 × 19.69 cm) 



1969.S.66.A–B 

African women in traditional societies enhanced their natural beauty with 

scarification and cosmetic preparations. For example, they applied black 

kohl to their eyes, painted their faces and bodies with a reddish powder 

or paste, and moisturized their skin with shea butter. These and other 

cosmetic substances required containers for mixing and storage. Natural 

objects such as gourds and shells were available to all, but those who 

could afford to stored their cosmetics in pots, boxes, and bowls artfully 

carved by sculptors. 

Lidded containers, like the ointment pot illustrated on this page 

(cat. 85), were used to store shea butter, a traditional lubricant that has 

been a staple ingredient in Western brand-name moisturizers since the 

late twentieth century. Sculptors typically carved the lid in the form of a 

female head with carefully detailed hairstyle and facial features. This figure’s 

elaborate hairstyle, downcast eyes, scarification marks, and long neck 

reflect Baule ideals of feminine beauty and comportment. The bowl of the 

container resembles a type of water vessel Baule women once made. 

Religious sculpture in traditional Baule society was kept hidden. To 

advertise their skill and creativity, specialist artists and workshops produced 

utilitarian objects—such as loom heddle pulleys, doors, chairs, and 

ointment pots—in quantity, decorated them with the masks and figures 

found in religious art, and sold them publicly. The similarity in form and 

decoration in this ointment pot and three other published examples suggests 

they came from the same workshop.28 

Kuba sculptors carved boxes in a variety of shapes—square, round, 

oval, semilunar—to store twool (or tool). This reddish powder, made from 

the inner bark of a hardwood tree (Baphia and Pterocarpus families), was 

mixed with vegetable oil to create a pigment the Kuba used to dye raffia 

cloth and to paint their faces and bodies. 

The Kuba decorated their wooden boxes extensively with incised and 

low-relief motifs that have names that were probably symbolic. The entire 

surface of the Dallas box (cat. 86) is covered with geometric and figurative 

motifs. The faceted lid transcends simple geometry with its peaked corners. 

Each corner is filled with a circle surrounding the sun (phila or itang, 

a scallop-edged circle), a raised vessel-like form that may be the most 

abstract rendering of a design known as Mutu Chembe (head of God), 

and cowrie shells on a ground of vertical lines. Multiple lines of chevrons 

(mbish angil) dominate the center of the slanted sides of the lid and 

heart shapes, which complement the hearts on the center of the lid, wrap 

around the corners. The heart motif along with traces of basket weave and 

interlace patterns also appears on the box’s well-worn bottom.29 

CAT. 85 

CAT. 86


87 

Cup in form of head 




57/* × 37/! 6 × 313/! 6 in. (14.92 × 8.73 × 9.68 cm) 



1969.S.161 

88 

Cup with handle in form 

of a hand (mbwoong ntey) 



Wood 

513/! 

6 

× 3¾ × 45/! 

6 

in. (14.76 × 9.53 × 10.95 cm) 



1969.S.44 

89 

Cup in form of male 

figure 



Wood 

6 × 315/! 

6 

× 37/* in. (15.24 × 10 × 9.84 cm) 



1969.S.162 

90 

Cup in form of female 

figure 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Wongo peoples 


Wood 

87/! 

6 

× 53/* × 43/! 

6 

in. (21.43 × 13.65 × 10.64 cm) 



1969.S.49 

On ceremonial occasions, such as funeral celebrations, men and women 

in many parts of Africa consumed a low-alcohol beverage made from the 

raffia palm. Men would also drink palm wine in the evenings when they 

gathered in their retreats to discuss the affairs of the community. African 

sculptors carved special, elaborately decorated wooden drinking cups that 

expressed an owner’s status. 

The Pende cups depict female and male figures (cat. 87 and 89). They 

are distinguished by their facial features, which replicate those on carved 

wooden village masks (mbuyu). Both faces display the characteristic prominent 

eyebrows above downcast eyes in a triangular face. The eyebrows on 

the standing male figure are exaggerated by the multiple lines above the 

brow, and the lips form an inverted V that identifies the “hyper male” in 

the Pende visual vocabulary.30 The female’s smooth, high round forehead, 

lowered eyelids, and upturned lips express feminine modesty. 

Kuba drinking vessels (cat. 88) were carved out of wood or animal horn 

and decorated with geometric and figurative motifs derived from body 

scarification and textile designs. Some motifs reflected the status of the 

owner as a member of an association. Cups with handles carved in the 

form of a severed hand, for example, were owned by warriors. This refers 

to a time when Kuba warriors cut off an enemy’s hand as proof of their 

victory. This act admitted warriors to an elite organization and conferred 

the right to display its emblem.31 A nineteenth-century visitor observed 

that when Kuba men traveled or visited friends, they carried their personal 

cups with them, tied to the waist.32 

The Wongo cup (cat. 90) portrays a standing female figure with arms 

akimbo, her face and torso decorated with raised scarification patterns. 

The lateral triangles formed by her bent arms echo the inverted triangle 

of her torso. Instead of being carved on a platform, she stands firm and 

perfectly balanced on her two feet. This cup, and two other examples— 

one of a standing female, the other, a seated female with outstretched 

legs—collected early in the twentieth century, are evidence of masterful 

innovation. They raise the question, however, For whom were they made: 

local client, missionaries, or foreign visitors?33 

CAT. 87 

CAT. 88


CAT. 89 

CAT. 90


91 

Ceremonial rice bowl 

Liberia, Grebo peoples 


Wood 

9 × 193/* in. (22.86 × 49.21 cm) 

General Acquisition Fund, 1974.6 

Thanksgiving and other holiday feasts are occasions to adorn the dinner 

table with the hostess’s best serving dishes and platters. Before the introduction 

of enamel wares, housewives among the Dan, We, Grebo, and 

neighboring peoples in Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire displayed their large, 

highly prized wooden bowls before filling them with rice.34 

Wooden serving bowls typically have a flat, narrow foot and straight or 

slightly flared walls. The outer wall of this bowl is decorated with incised 

diagonal lines arranged in separate or double rows that alternate with 

smooth, plain areas. The designs are symmetrical but differ from one side 

of the bowl to the other. When in use, the bowls were highly polished.


92 

Harp with human 

head (kundi) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zande peoples 


Wood, leather, metal, and glass beads 

11 × 41/* × 1611/! 6 in. (27.90 × 10.48 × 42.39 cm) 


Congo Sculpture, The Eugene and Margaret 

McDermott Art Fund, Inc., 1978.54.McD 

fig 51 Itinerant Zande troubadors accom panied themselves 

on decorated harps. Illustration made before 1891 

by J. Boden. 

Nineteenth-century Zande kings owned five-stringed harps that were 

played at the king’s pleasure by royal harpists residing in the palace 

(fig. 51). According to an Italian visitor of the day, itinerant singers took 

their harps to war, and those who owned figurative harps treasured them 

as precious possessions.35 

The arched neck of the Dallas harp ends in a sculpted head with eyes 

made of precious imported blue beads. It has been suggested that the 

head alludes to the ancestors whose voices sound through the harp.36 The 

shape of the head is echoed in the lozenge-shaped sounding box covered 

with leather and decorated with geometric designs. Figurative pegs fitted 

into the arched neck tuned the strings stretched between the pegs and the 

sounding box. Both the tuning pegs and the strings are missing.


93 

Woman’s marriage or 

ceremonial veil 

Morocco, central Anti-Atlas mountain range, 

Amazigh (Berbers), Ida ou Nadif or Ida ou 

Zeddoute peoples 

1900–1930 

Wool and natural dyes, including henna 

60 × 52½ in. (152.40 × 133.35 cm) 


fig 52 A ceremonial veil. Anti-Atlas Mountains, Morocco. 

Women among the Ida ou Nadif and Ida ou Zeddoute peoples of North 

Africa wear dye-decorated headcloths on special occasions (fig. 52).37 The 

rectangular or roughly U-shaped patterns, created by tying the cloth and 

dyeing it with henna, appear in tan, reddish brown, and bluish black on a 

natural ground. Patterns called mirrors are believed to protect the wearer 

against the evil eye. The cloth is draped so that the dramatic pattern cascades 

down the wearer’s back.38


94 

Overskirt with wavy 

edge (ntshakakot) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kuba peoples, 

Bushoong group 


Palm leaf fiber (raffia), cotton, wool, and 

vegetal fiber 

30½ × 85½ × 2½ in. (77.47 × 217.17 × 6.35 cm) 


fig 53 Although this drawing was made in the late nineteenth 

or early twentieth century, the Kuba women have 

continued to wear appliquéd raffia wrappers into the 

present era. 

Bushoong women wear a special overskirt made of appliquéd woven raffia 

cloth. Wrapped around the waist and worn with cowrie- embroidered belts 

over a longer ceremonial skirt, the overskirt (which can measure more 

than five yards or four and a half meters long) has a cut-pile raffia border 

edged with an encased flexible reed (fig. 53). It is important to note that 

cowrie shells and woven raffia cloth were used as currency before the 

introduction of coins and paper money. Once an indicator of status and 

rank, the skirts, which were produced in stages by male weavers and 

female embroiderers, were expensive to obtain and were owned only by 

aristocratic women, who wore them on special occasions (fig. 54). 

This cloth is appliquéd with patches made of imported cotton ticking, 

which was used in Western countries to cover mattresses.39 The imported 

cloth’s blue-and-white pattern was probably deemed attractive and appropriate 

because Kuba beadwork designs were formed with blue and white 

beads. An early visitor to Kuba country noted the patches were both for 

ornament and to cover holes,40 some of which were created when the raffia 

cloth was pounded to make it supple. The patches were named according 

to their shapes. For example, the L or comma shape is called shina mboa, 

meaning “the tail of a dog,” and a circle is idingadinga.41 

fig 54 Kuba women wearing appliquéd raffia wrappers dance during 

the Itul ceremony. Bushoong Village, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 

c. 1971.


95 

Cape (linaga) 

South Africa, Limpopo Province, Ndebele peoples 


Glass beads, cotton yarn, and goatskin 

42½ × 57½ in. (107.95 × 146.05 cm) 


fig 55 This traditional linaga is embellished with beads 

of red, green, orange, blue, and pink. The curved shape of 

the cape is a result of the way that the skins have been 

stitched together. Limpopo Province, South Africa, 

1976–1982. 

Ndebele women wear curved goatskin capes adorned with a wide rectangular 

strip of beadwork on ceremonial occasions (fig. 55). The Dallas linaga 

is an example of an old-style beadwork that is characterized by a predominantly 

white background and a row of open squares near the bottom of 

the cape. The abstract designs are made with red, green, orange, and blue 

beads. The beads were attached one bead at a time and reinforced by pulling 

the thread through each bead three times.42


96 

Man’s robe (dandogo) 

Cameroon, Gandura region, Hausa peoples 

20th century 

Cotton and dye 

107 × 50 in. (271.78 × 127 cm) 


fig 56 A Yoruba man in Abeokuta, Nigeria, 

wears a robe of ikat cloth, 1963. This type of 

robe was traditionally worn by horsemen who 

lived in the more northern areas of Nigeria. 

As evidenced by this photograph, however, the 

prevalence of this garment has moved south. 

Elaborately embroidered and voluminous men’s robes made of handwoven 

strips of cotton are distributed widely throughout Cameroon and 

Nigeria. This type of robe derives from the Hausa dandogo or “riding robe,” 

so called because of the vertical slitlike openings that allowed the wearer 

to hold the reins in his hands.43 Embroidered with Islamic patterns, it was 

introduced to the area with the southerly spread of Islam from northern 

Nigeria in the nineteenth century.44 While not all who encountered Islam 

converted to the religion, many people adopted the robe. In the southern 

areas where the environment could not support horses, the robe was 

modified to include pockets, as in the example shown in fig. 56. 

Making this type of robe requires the skills of spinners, dyers, weavers, 

tailors, and embroiderers. It is intentionally large so the man wearing it 

appears larger than normal, thereby projecting an image of prosperity and 

power. Now designated the national dress of Nigerian men, it is worn on 

formal occasions, traditional ceremonies (such as weddings, baby- naming 

events, milestone birthdays), and funeral celebrations. The dandogo has 

also become a symbol of African identity and pride within Africa and the 

African diaspora. 

Collected in a Hausa enclave in the Gandura region of Cameroon, the 

Dallas riding robe is similar to one from northern Nigeria in the Venice 

and Alastair Lamb Collection.45 The wide sleeves of both are lined with 

red and white strip cloth, which in the Dallas cloth is made of cotton. The 

Dallas garment is distinguished by pinstriped strips that flank a dramatic 

red, white, and blue warp stripe (see detail, below). The blue and white 

“bleeding” effect is achieved by tying and dyeing the yarns before they 

were woven. This dyeing technique, known as ikat, has not been practiced 

by Hausa dyers since the 1970s.


97 

Pendant mask 

(gikhokho) 



Ivory 

17/* × 1¼ × 7/* in. (4.76 × 3.18 × 2.22 cm) 




Pende men and women wear miniature replicas of the masks (sing. 

gikhokho, pl. ikhokho) used in village masquerades and healing rituals. 

Those carved from elephant ivory and hippopotamus bone—the preferred 

material being ivory—are worn as jewelry and considered prime aesthetic 

objects that enhance their owner’s sense of beauty and style (ginango). 

Pendant mask replicas are suspended from cords or strings of beads and 

worn around the neck.46 

Close contact with the owner’s sweaty and red camwood-covered skin 

discolored this mask to an undesirable quality. To maintain the natural 

color of the ivory, owners wash their pendant masks as a part of their daily 

toilet. Because it was scrubbed with fine sand, the once sharply carved 

facial features of this mask have almost disappeared.


Notes 

1. Sieber 1972; Sieber 1980 

2. Hultgren and Zeidler 1993: 6 

3. Compare with examples from the Metropolitan 

Museum of Art, New York, in Ezra 1988: 92–93 

4. Imperato 1978: 57 

5. Ibid., 54 

6. Griaule 1965 

7. Calame-Griaule, in Bilot et al. 2003: 58–59; Ezra 

1988: 92–93 

8. Imperato 1978: 57 

9. Vogel 1997: 278; J. Vogel, in Herreman 2005: 51, 

cat. 30; similar doors are found in Tishman 1966: n.p., 

cat. no. 42; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the 

Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest 

of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (acc. no. 1979.205.120) 

10. Homberger 1999: 276, cat. no. 75 

11. Vogel 1997: 278 

12. Seligman and Loughran 2006: 93; Thomas Seligman, 

personal communication, September 13, 2006 

13. Headrests made of hard materials are also used 

among East Asian and Oceanic/Pacific peoples; see 

Dewey 1993: 148–79 (Asia), 180–95 (Oceania). 

14. Ibid., 16–17; Sieber 1980: 107–108. For another 

selection of headrests, see Sieber and Herreman 

2000: 32–97. 

15. Eugene Burt, quoted in Dewey 1993: 17 

16. Roberts and Roberts 1996: 184–92; for example, 

the nkaka pattern is found on diviners’ beaded 

headdresses. 

17. Wardwell 1986: 112; this headrest (acc. no. AF 5154) 

is attributed to the Pende peoples. 

18. Cornet 1971: 330 

19. Sieber and Walker 1987: 112, cat. no. 63 

20. Sotheby’s 1991: lot 94; Sotheby’s 2006: lot 114 

21. Nooter 1984: 62–63 

22. Cole and Ross 1977: 48–51 

23. Fraser 1972: 140–44 

24. Cole and Ross 1977: 140–44 

25. Photograph reproduced in Sieber and Herreman 

2000: 12, as fig. 4 

26. It is similar to one in the Corice and Armand P. 

Arman Collection; reproduced in Sieber and Herreman 

2000: 139, cat. no. 133. 

27. Ibid., 140, cat. no. 136 

28. Vogel 1997: 283–84; Boyer, Girard, and Rivière 

1997: 108, plate 110 

29. Torday and Joyce 1910: plate 26, no. 18 

Torday attributes an oil vessel with the heart-shaped 

motif to the Mbala. 

30. Strother 1998: 114–15 

31. Cornet 1971: 143 

32. Hultgren and Zeidler 1993: 73 

33. Mack, in T. Phillips 1995: 271, cat. no. 4.42; 

Robbins and Nooter 1989: 431, fig. 1111 

The Wongo cup on which the standing female is 

depicted part of the permanent collection of the 

Buffalo Museum of Science. 

34. Fischer and Himmelheber 1984: 135 

35. Casati 1891 

36. Maquet 1956: 50 

37. Paydar and Grammet 2002: 269, 273 

38. Picton and Mack 1989: 48 

39. Trowell 1960: n.p., plate 24 

A similar appliqué cloth at the Royal Museum for 

Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium, has patches 

of imported prints with a floral motif. 

40. Hultgren and Zeidler 1993 

The Presbyterian missionary William H. Sheppard, 

an African American, and his party were the first 

foreigners to enter the Bushoong royal court in 1890. 

The paramount king of the Kuba peoples came from 

the Bushoong group. During the twenty years Sheppard 

lived among the Kuba, he amassed a col lection 

of objects that was deposited at Hampton Institute, 

now Hampton University, Virginia; Darish, in T. Phillips 

1995: 276, cat. no. 4.48b. Another early example 

collected by Emil Torday on the Torday Congo Expedition, 

1907 to 1909, was deposited at the British 

Museum. 

41. Picton and Mack 1989: 175–76; Darish, in Weiner 

and Schneider 1989: 117–40 

42. Knight and Priebatsch 1983: 8 

43. Compare with examples from northern Cameroon 

and northern Nigeria: Zerbini 2002: cat. no. 310, 

and Eicher 1976: pl. 19, respectively 

44. Clarke 2005: 8–12; Bravmann 1983: 86–101 

45. Lamb 1975: 39 

The Lamb cloth is made from native Nigerian silk 

yarns obtained from the Anaphe infracta moth. 

46. Strother, in T. Phillips 1995: 262, cat. no. 4.32

chapter 4 

african art and the influences 

of foreign trade 

Arabs and Europeans came to Africa in search of trade, to spread their culture 

and the teachings of their religions, and to extend their territory and politi‑ 

cal power. Their experiences were recorded and provide useful, sometimes 

invaluable, information. Muslim travelers, historians, and geographers in 

the tenth century described what they found in Bilad al‑Sudan, “the land 

of the blacks,” which they reached by trade routes across the Sahara Desert. 

The Portuguese, whose mission was to divert the gold trade from the Arab 

monopoly and find a direct route to the source of the highly desirable Asian 

spices, were the first Europeans to explore Africa. Beginning in 1434, they 

traveled southward on the Atlantic Ocean until they rounded the Cape of 

Good Hope and reached East Africa. On successive voyages they stopped 

at Cape Verde (1444), the Gold Coast (modern Ghana, 1471), the Benin king‑ 

dom (in modern Nigeria, c. 1476), the mouth of the Congo (1483), and the 

Cape of Good Hope (in modern South Africa, 1488). They were followed 

by the Castilians and Flemish in the mid‑fifteenth century; the French, 

English, and Dutch in the sixteenth century; and the Danes, Swedes, and 

Brandenburgers in the seventeenth century.1 Some early European travel‑ 

ers’ accounts are referenced in discussions of the African works of art in the 

Museum’s collection, especially those from the Benin kingdom. 

African trade goods—pepper, ivory, animal hides, wax, amber, indigo, tex‑ 

tiles, gold, and slaves—were exchanged for European horses, silk, copper 

and brass, clothing, beads, tobacco, alcohol, and firearms. Slaves for the 

overseas trade, which the Portuguese initiated in 1441 with twelve cap‑ 

tives, became the major export by the nineteenth century. After slavery 

was abolished around 1850, legitimate trade was established, and palm oil 

and other raw materials were exchanged for factory‑made textiles (“trade 

cloth”), utensils, beads, doors, paint, and weapons. Trading with Africans 

was not enough. Europeans, who desired to own and control the sources 

of Africa’s wealth, colonized the regions in which they had been trading 

partners. By 1914, the continent was owned by Belgium, France, Germany, 

Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Only Ethiopia remained an inde‑ 

pendent nation. 

Africans recorded their experiences, actual or received, orally and in the 

visual arts. They sculpted figures and masks that depicted European slave 

traders, missionaries, soldiers, clerks, and men, women, and children in 

various mediums for use in traditional African contexts and for the export 

trade.2 Adoption of Christianity provided an outlet for creativity as demon‑ 

strated in the variety of Ethiopian crucifixes. An ivory waist pendant from 

the Benin kingdom references the sea on which the Portuguese, the ini‑ 

tial source of Benin’s wealth, traveled. Trade with Portugal also resulted in 

having more copper to make “bronze” sculptures for ancestral altars, items 

of royal regalia, and architecture. Although a few sculptures, such as the 

lidded bowl by Arowogun (Aerogun) of Osi‑Ilorin and the figurative vessel 

by Voania Muba, depict foreigners and their belongings (horses, bicycles 

or motorcycles, articles of clothing, weapons), most of the holdings in the 

261

262 4 : african art and the influences of foreign trade 

fig 57 Dorothea Tanning, Pincushion to Serve as Fetish, 

1979. Black velvet, wood, metal, paint, and copper. Collection 

of Deedie and Rusty Rose and the Dallas Museum of 

Art, 2005.27. 

Museum’s collection display Africans’ use of imported materials and objects 

including glass beads, cowrie shells, mirrors, porcelain, various types of 

trade cloth, copper and brass, and even wine glasses. The Muslim/Islamic 

presence is referenced in horse‑and‑rider and turbaned figures. Muslim 

influences are also evident in the geometrical patterns in beadwork and 

embroidery, the leather amulets depicted on a Mende sowei helmet mask, 

a Yoruba bead‑embroidered ile ori, and a Hausa man’s robe from Cameroon.3 

Olowe of Ise (c. 1875–c. 1938), the famous Yoruba sculptor to kings, used 

imported European paints as well as local pigments to color the sculptures 

he carved out of wood. 

This chapter is about not only what Africans received from foreigners and 

how they used and applied the ideas, beliefs, and materials in their own 

lives, but also Africa’s contributions to the cultural heritage of mankind. 

For example, around the turn of the twentieth century, African sculpture 

was instrumental in shifting “modern art from styles based on visual per‑ 

ception to those based on the artist’s particular view of the world.”4 Derain, 

Vlaminck, Picasso, Modigliani, Païlès (who once owned a Baule seated 

figure now in the Museum’s collection), and others may not have known 

about the cultures in which the African masks and figures originated or 

their significance, but they felt the power of their forms. The influence of 

African sculpture on Western artists has continued, as evidenced by such 

works as Pincushion to Serve as Fetish (1979) by Dorothea Tanning (fig. 57) and 

Fetish #2 (1988) by Renée Stout (fig. 58), a work that was inspired by Kongo 

minkisi (power figures). 

The art of the African weaver has undoubtedly made an impact on 

American popular culture, fashion, and furnishings. Two textiles, one from 

Ghana and the other from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the 

Museum’s collection exemplify this assertion. African designs and patterns 

are reproduced wholesale or stylized but are rarely identified as such by the 

manufacturers. That omission is corrected here. 

fig 58 Renée Stout, Fetish #2, 1988. Mixed media 

(plaster body cast). Dallas Museum of Art, Metropolitan 

Life Foundation Purchase, 1989.27.


98 

Processional cross 

Ethiopia 

Probably 18th to 20th century 


11¾ × 8¼ in. (29.85 × 20.96 cm) 

Gift of Dr. Hebe Redden and Dr. Kenneth Redden, 

1991.352.43 

99 

Standing figure of a 

religious 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kongo peoples 

Late 19th century to c. 1930 

Wood 

14½ × 3 × 35/* in. (36.83 × 7.62 × 9.21 cm) 

African Collection Fund, 2008.38.2 

Christianity has an extensive history in Africa. It was first introduced 

in the fourth century to the ancient and prosperous Axumite kingdom 

in present‑day Ethiopia. The Axumites traded far and wide, exporting 

incense, ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoiseshell, apes, and slaves through 

the port of Adulis on the Red Sea and importing goods and ideas from 

Syria, Egypt, and other lands. St. Mark (or Frumentius), a Syrian from 

Alexandria, Egypt, is usually credited with introducing Coptic Christianity 

to the Axumite king Ezana, who established the Ethiopian Orthodox 

Church. During the period between the late twelfth and early thirteenth 

centuries, King Lalibela desired to build a new Jerusalem. The churches in 

the capital of Lalibela were cut out of rock and are the largest monumental 

structures in Africa.5 

Portuguese navigators in the late fifteenth century took Roman 

Catholic priests on their exploratory voyages to coastal West, Central, 

and East Africa. Initial efforts to convert the king (oba) of the Benin king‑ 

dom failed but mutually beneficial commercial trade—the trafficking of 

European luxury goods, firearms, and brass in exchange for salt, pepper, 

and slaves—was established. During the early sixteenth century the 

reigning Edo king also refused to be baptized, but he allowed his son to 

do so and to learn Portuguese, thereby enhancing diplomatic relations. 

Missionary efforts had ceased by 1540, probably as a result of unprofitable 

commercial transactions, and were not attempted again until the seven‑ 

teenth century. 

The first Christian state in sub‑Saharan Africa was the Kongo kingdom 

in present‑day northern Angola. João I and his nobles were baptized in 

1491,6 and hundreds of Kongo subjects and Portuguese carpenters built 

a Catholic church. By the time João died in 1509, he had lost interest in 

Christianity. His son and successor Afonso I Mvemba Nzinga (reigned 

1506–1543) was a devout Christian, however, and re‑founded the Kongo 

kingdom with Christianity as its state religion.7 Although Afonso thought 

the Portuguese partners were not adhering to Kongo laws governing the 

slave trade, he sent his son Henrique Kinu a Mvemba to Portugal to be 

educated. Henrique eventually became a bishop. 

The Dutch seized Portuguese trading establishments in the early sev‑ 

enteenth century and supplanted the Portuguese in the Atlantic slave 

trade. The Dutch were followed by the Danes, and they by the British. Each 

reintroduced European Christianity to Africa as part of their commercial 

and colonial agendas. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, 

repatriated Christian slaves helped spread the Word. When European 

powers divided sub‑Saharan Africa among themselves and created colo‑ 

nies in the late nineteenth century, conversion to the Christian religion 

availed one of Western education and with access to the requisite skills 

for survival in a changed world. 

CAT. 98


fig 59 Priests of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church carry 

large brass crosses hung with colorful cloths during 

the Timkat (Epiphany) festival. Lalibela, Ethiopia, 1999. 

© Dave Bartruff / corbis. 

Representing the crucified Christ, crosses are the most important 

symbol of Christianity. Artists made them in different sizes for use in 

different contexts. For example, large elaborately decorated crosses are 

mounted on poles that raise them above the heads of the worshippers 

in processions during feast days (fig. 59). During worship, processional 

crosses are used to bless the congregation, baptismal water, sacra‑ 

ments, and the four corners of the church. They are commonly made of 

copper alloys and cast by the lost‑wax process (cire perdue), which makes 

each one unique. Processional crosses made of iron and silver are more 

uncommon.8 

The Dallas Museum of Art’s collection of over two hundred examples 

also includes handheld crosses made of wood or metal and small metal 

pendants for necklaces. Kenneth Redden, a founder of Ethiopia’s first law 

school in the late 1960s, assembled the collection. Haile Selassie, emperor 

of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, allowed Redden to export the crosses on the 

condition that they be displayed publicly.9 

Tradition‑based artists in West and Central Africa also found new 

patronage in the Christian church.10 In addition to crucifixes and other 

devotional objects, they carved figures of religious. The Dallas figure 

posed in prayer may depict a monk or a nun wearing a pith helmet or a 

veil. Because both men and women wore habits that concealed their 

bodies from head to toe, gender identification is difficult. The observant 

artist carefully depicted the knotted leather or fiber belt with ends that 

terminate in a cross, the folds of the garment, and the shoes. 

CAT. 99


100 

Horse‑and‑rider figure 

(elesin Shango) 

Nigeria, Owo, Yoruba peoples 


Ivory 

6½ × 1¾ × 2¼ in. (16.51 × 4.45 × 5.72 cm) 

The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, 

Inc., 1994.197.McD 

This exquisite sculpture depicts one of the most important imports: Equus 

caballus, the domestic horse. Introduced circa 1640–1532 BC to ancient 

Egypt by western Asian conquerors, horses were initially used to draw 

chariots in military campaigns.11 Subsequently, horses were introduced 

to western Sudan (northern region of West Africa) via the Sahara Desert in 

about AD 1000 by Muslim Arab and Amazigh (also known as Berber) trad‑ 

ers. Mounted armies enabled the medieval Sudanese kingdoms of Ghana, 

Mali, and Songhai to be established and flourish. Despite the inhospi‑ 

table, humid climate and deadly tsetse flies, it appears that horses—or the 

knowledge of horses—reached as far as the southern area of present‑day 

Nigeria. The evidence is a tenth‑century AD bronze hilt cast in the form of 

a horse and rider that was excavated from a royal burial chamber in Igbo‑ 

Ukwu village. This sculpture predates the horses Portuguese mariners and 

merchants brought to coastal West Africa in the mid‑ to late fifteenth cen‑ 

tury.12 During the centuries that followed, northern traders and invaders 

continued to supply horses while successive European voyagers brought 

new breeds to sub‑Saharan Africa. 

Horses bearing foreign goods were welcome, but horses carrying war‑ 

riors on their backs were “fearful bearers of power”13 that facilitated con‑ 

quests of other peoples and territorial expansion. Equine speed, physical 

strength, ability to elevate their riders above even the tallest standing 

person, and the cost to acquire, sustain, and replace them made horses, 

and by association their owners, symbols of power and prestige. In 

African art, horse‑and‑rider imagery generally connotes prestige, wealth, 

and power. 

Among the Yoruba, carved wood elesin (literally “horse owner”), horse‑ 

and‑rider figures, serve as supports for divination bowls, as superstruc‑ 

tures on staffs and Epa masks, and as freestanding figures on altars 

dedicated to various deities (e.g., Shango, the god of thunder and light‑ 

ning; Ogun, the god of iron; Erinle, the hunter; Orisha‑oko, god of the 

farm; or Eshu, the divine messenger/ trickster).14 Carved ivory horse‑and‑ 

rider figures like this one are prized because elephant ivory was reserved 

for the king (oba) and the hunter who killed the animal. Such objects are 

found among the divining paraphernalia owned by highly successful Ifa 

diviners and by rulers who install the figures on private or communal 

altars in shrines dedicated to Shango (the deified fourth king of the old 

Oyo kingdom in northern Yorubaland, who is believed to have reigned 

in the seventeenth century, and who was a brilliant military general and 

a master horseman). According to his praise poem (oriki), Shango had a 

stable of ten thousand horses!15 

Religious rituals and indigenous oral traditions, which include oriki 

and owe (proverbs), can be used to interpret the meaning of equestrian 

figures for Shango shrines. During worship activities, for example, favored 

devotees are “ridden” or “mounted” by Shango; hence, horse‑and‑rider


imagery symbolizes the state of being possessed. In an oriki about the 

deity, the horse symbolizes lightning that Shango learned to attract using 

a powerful charm: 

Fire in the eye, fire in the mouth, 

fire on the roof 

You ride fire like a horse.16 

The concept that the power of words is equal to the strength and 

speed of a horse is expressed in the adage “Proverbs are the horses of 

communication.”17 

This elesin Shango was carved in the Owo kingdom located in the tropi‑ 

cal forest region and famous for the fine ivory carvings that were made 

from the sixteenth to eighteenth century. It would have been difficult 

to sustain horses in Owo, so this rendering may not be based on actual 

experience, but on oral descriptions or the carved altarpieces that trav‑ 

eled with Shango worship. The unknown sculptor carefully and skillfully 

depicted the details of the rider’s costume and the horse’s tack as he cre‑ 

ated a highly stylized and esoteric image. The rider is taller than the horse, 

which could indicate that the artist had no firsthand experience of horses. 

The horse depicted could be one of the small breeds, but it is more likely 

that the artist was emphasizing the importance of the rider, Shango. The 

single‑reined, bitless bridle and the absence of saddle and stirrups prob‑ 

ably reflects early West African horsemanship before the introduction of 

saddles.18 Equestrian figures carved during the nineteenth century or later 

portray the rider seated on a saddle and his feet in stirrups. 

The rider’s tailed cap is decorated with a geometric pattern that is per‑ 

forated, probably for inlaid pieces like those used to form his pupils. His 

bulging eyes follow stylistic conventions of Yoruba art and contain char‑ 

acteristics, such as the notched lids that may represent eyelashes, associ‑ 

ated with Owo artistry. The lines, carved in relief and extending from his 

temple to his mouth, may represent a scarification pattern, albeit one that 

is found among the Ijebu‑Ode Yoruba to the south.19 The clientele of Owo 

ivory carvers extended far beyond the artisans’ hometown. In another 

interpretation, the rider has a gag to echo the curved bridle on the horse.20 

If the rider is indeed Shango, as either king or deity, however, he would 

not stand to be gagged.


101 

Four‑faced helmet 

mask (ñgontang) 

Gabon, Ogooué River and Woleu-Ntem Province, 

Fang peoples, Betsi or Ntumu group 

1920–1940 


1015/! 6 × 815/! 6 × 89/! 6 in. (27.78 × 22.70 × 21.75 cm) 




1974.SC.33 

fig 60 Representing Europeans, ñgontang masks were 

originally used in the context of ancestor worship and 

social control. By the 1960s they were principally for 

entertainment. Gabon. 

The Betsi and Ntumu call this type of helmet mask ñgontang, a term that 

is a contraction of nlo ñgon ntañga, which means “face of the daughter of 

the white man.” When the Betsi and Ntumu peoples first encountered 

the Europeans, they believed the Europeans were spirits returned from 

the world of the dead. Introduced in the 1920s, the mask has multiple 

faces with eyes that see everything, and it was a ritual object that fought 

against malevolent forces such as witchcraft.21 Eventually the traditional 

beliefs were abandoned and the masks were used for entertainment pur‑ 

poses (fig. 60). It is thought the ñgontang replaced the ngil mask, which 

policed the Fang communities and was banned by the French colonial 

government. 

The faces on the ñgontang are not identical (see the two‑dimensional 

rollout photograph, pp. 274–75). They have different measurements, ana‑ 

tomical details, and scarification. The Dallas mask has two large and two 

small faces. The larger faces have brows formed with perforations and a 

black line drawn from the forehead to the tip of the nose. The mouths on 

these faces differ—one is upturned in a smile while the other is pursed. 

The male dancer who wore the mask looked through a pair of horizontal 

openings carved in the bottom of the mask under one of the faces.


102 

Bowl with lid (opon igede) 

Attributed to Arowogun (Areogun) of Osi-Ilorin 

(c. 1880–1954) 


1920–1940 

Wood and patination 

20¾ × 179/! 6 in. diam. (52.71 × 44.61 cm) 

Gift of Carolyn C. and Dan C. Williams, 1984.57.A–B 

This sculpture is attributed to Arowogun, a celebrated master sculptor 

who was a contemporary of Olowe of Ise (see pp. 90–93). Born around 1880 

in the village of Osi in the Ekiti area of northern Yorubaland, Arowogun 

was known by his praise name Arowogun, which refers to his occupation 

and is a short form of Areogun‑yanna—“one who gets money with the 

tools of Ogun and spends it liberally.” Ogun is the patron saint of those 

who use iron tools, including blacksmiths, carvers, hunters, soldiers, and 

in today’s world, truck drivers and all who use machinery. Arowogun did 

not come from an artistic family but was allowed to pursue carving. He 

was apprenticed to Bamgbose of Osi (known for multifigured Epa masks, 

oloju foforo face masks, figurative house posts, and palace doors) for six‑ 

teen years and to Fasan of Isare for some years before he was qualified to 

be his own master with apprentices. Toward the end of his life, Arowogun 

carved Christian themes for the Roman Catholic Church in Oye‑Ekiti.22 He 

was about seventy‑five years old when he died in 1954. 

Foreign people and objects are depicted on this elaborately decorated 

lidded bowl that was used to store ritual paraphernalia. Carved in relief 

on the lid are a turbaned Muslim chief riding a horse and holding in one 

hand a rope tied around a captive and in the other, a weapon; a uniformed 

soldier displaying an imported firearm; and a British district officer wear‑ 

ing a pith helmet and riding a motorcycle. Muslim traders from the north 

and Portuguese merchants introduced horses to sub‑Saharan Africa many 

centuries ago. In the context of this container, the Muslim horseman may 

symbolize the slave raids that occurred during the nineteenth century. 

The bowl, which has three compartments, also bears indigenous ref‑ 

erences. For example, a priest of the healing deity Osanyin is portrayed 

on the lid. In one hand he holds a staff surmounted by a bird and in the 

other a medicine horn; he is flanked by attendants or clients. A standing 

male figure on the bowl represents either a priest or a devotee of Shango, 

the god of thunder and lightning. He carries a dance staff (oshe Shango) 

in one hand and a gourd rattle (shekere) in the other. Other figures include 

musicians playing a pressure drum and a flute and a soldier brandishing 

bladed weapons. The visual references to the presence of North African 

Muslims and Europeans on the lid indicate the Yoruba’s changed world, 

but those on the bowl suggest that indigenous religion and customs 

still prevailed.


103 

Torque 


18th century 

Cast bronze 

10½ × 10 × 3½ in. (26.67 × 25.40 × 8.89 cm) 


1999.63 

Heavy castings like this one were used as currency in West Africa prior to 

the introduction of coinage. Also worn by women in certain ritual dances, 

torques are considered “stored wealth” because they are composed of the 

metal from numerous manillas (open bracelets that served as another 

form of pre‑coinage currency). Individuals took their amassed manillas to 

blacksmiths to be melted down and recast into the much larger torques. 

Manillas, which were introduced by foreign merchants, circulated in West 

Africa from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century. Royal brasscast‑ 

ers in the Benin kingdom in present‑day Nigeria melted down manillas 

obtained from the Portuguese and recast them as plaques (for example, 

see fig. 18, p. 44).23 

The ideal form is said to be a near perfect circle with the two pointed 

finials meeting, as displayed in the Dallas torque.


104 

Hat with hornlike projections 

(misango mayaka) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yaka or Suku peoples 

20th century 

Coiled basketry, glass beads, palm splints, and palm fiber 

7¼ × 22 × 14 in. (18.40 × 55.88 × 35.56 cm) 

Gift of Linda and Stanley Marcus, 1992.20 

fig 61 Hats covered with expensive, imported beads 

project the wealth and status of Yaka and Pende chiefs. 

Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

This hat was originally part of the regalia worn by a Yaka or a Suku regional 

chief (mfumu misala) or overlord, who is the second highest‑ranking politi‑ 

cal leader (fig. 61).24 The form and materials of Yaka and Suku beaded hats 

resulted from the complex political relationships that existed between 

the ancient Lunda empire and the peoples they conquered (upon whom 

they imposed their political structures and leadership symbols) and from 

contact with Europe. 

Around 1940 Yaka chiefs began wearing a beaded pillbox‑style hat they 

purchased from their eastern neighbors, the Pende, who were also Lunda 

conquests. Chiefly regalia among the Pende included beaded hats—one 

with an avian finial and knoblike forms projecting from its sides and one 

with two hornlike appendages—that were borrowed from the Lunda.25 The 

Yaka and Suku both appropriated the latter hat. Museum collections and 

field documentation record masks adorned with animal horns among the 

chiefly insignia of the Yaka in 1910. Buffalo (mpakasa; Syncerus caffer) are the 

largest African bovine; their horns in particular symbolized their strength 

and bulk. 

To personalize the borrowed hat, the Yaka incorporated an important 

element from their indigenous leadership regalia—a pompom of white 

feathers that ordinarily surmounted a miniature cone‑shaped basketry 

hat (tsala). The colors of the feathers on the misango mayaka varied to 

indicate the wearer’s rank—for example, that of a paramount, regional, 

or other chief. The colored glass beads used to decorate the hats prob‑ 

ably came from Czechoslovakia, which has been exporting beads to Africa 

since the early twentieth century when the bead trade was associated with 

the latex industry in the former Belgian Congo.26


105 

Pipe in the form of a 

seated female figure 

Angola, Ovimbundu peoples 

1900–1950 

Wood, stain, metal, and beads 

83/! 6 × 25/! 6 × 33/! 6 in. (20.70 × 5.88 × 8.10 cm) 

Gift of Gustave and Franyo Schindler, 1980.44.A–B 

106 

Water pipe in the form 

of a seated female figure 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kanyok peoples 


Wood, hide, plant fiber, and glass beads 

151/* × 53/* × 41/! 

6 

in. (38.42 × 13.65 × 10.32 cm) 



1969.S.18 

The Portuguese introduced tobacco (Nicotiana tobacum and Nicotiana 

rustica) to West Africa in the seventeenth century after they discovered 

it in the Americas.27 Tobacco usage in sub‑Saharan Africa is recorded on 

an elaborately decorated Ifa divination tray that originally belonged to a 

Yoruba king of Adra, in present‑day Benin, and was taken to Ulm, Germany, 

before 1659. Among the motifs is a standing male figure smoking a long‑ 

stemmed pipe that was probably made of terracotta and is an example of 

the earliest type of pipe that has been excavated.28 Other explorers and 

merchants, including the Dutch and Arabs, reintroduced tobacco at differ‑ 

ent times and at various points along the west and east coasts from which 

it spread to the interior of the continent. 

Access to tobacco, whether in the form of leaves or snuff, was a preroga‑ 

tive of African rulers. Chokwe sculptures, for example, portray rulers hold‑ 

ing snuff containers, other tobacco paraphernalia, and beautifully carved 

containers for storing the substance; for an extraordinarily large terracotta 

pipe belonging to a Bamum ruler, see p. 95. Because imported tobacco was 

too expensive for ordinary people to obtain, they resorted to substitutes. 

According to a late nineteenth‑century visitor, it was not unusual to see 

the Chokwe smoke lighted charcoal in place of tobacco.29 

Tobacco usage inspired artists to create pipes for their patrons, who 

may have been African or European. These two pipes are excellent ex‑ 

amples of this type of object. The Ovimbundu pipe (cat. 105) in the form 

of a seated female figure is carved in the characteristic light colored wood 

used by sculptors. Her head was constructed separately and serves as a 

cover for the pipe bowl. The details of the figure’s coiffure, facial scarifica‑ 

tion, and hands are pyro‑engraved. The stem, which is missing, fitted into 

the hole in the figure’s abdomen.30 

The rare Kanyok water pipe (cat. 106), of which only three are known, 

is carved in the form of a seated woman with a swollen abdomen, which 

serves as the water chamber in which the smoke is cooled before being in‑ 

haled. The large covered hole at the center originally held the pipe stem.31 

Water pipes were used by bilumb women who were possessed by ancestral 

spirits and functioned as diviners. They sat on the chief’s stool while per‑ 

forming the divining ritual.32 

CAT. 105

CAT. 106


107 

Male figure effigy 

vessel 

Voania Muba (died 1928) 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Woyo peoples 


Ceramic 

191/* × 8¼ in. diam. (48.58 × 20.96 cm) 

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene McDermott, 1975.75 

108 

Palm wine vessel 


Mangbetu peoples 


Terracotta 

25 × 8 in. diam. (63.50 × 20.32 cm) 

Gift of The Junior Associates, 1995.20 

African artists have supplied the European expatriate and export mar‑ 

kets with merchandise for at least five centuries. Such artistic production 

began in the fifteenth century on Africa’s west coast, where Portuguese 

explorers and seamen first encountered Africans. Europeans’ curiosity 

about the voyagers’ exotic souvenirs from Africa may have encouraged 

trade. Whatever the catalyst, in the late fifteenth and the sixteenth cen‑ 

tury, Portuguese merchants commissioned Sapi and Bini (Edo) ivory 

carvers in present‑day Sierra Leone and present‑day Nigeria, respectively, 

to produce objects to sell in Europe. These objects included elaborately 

decorated ivory spoons, shoehorns, saltcellars, hunting horns, and other 

objects that found homes in the curiosity cabinets and on the banquet 

tables of the European nobility.33 

During the late nineteenth century, when the European presence 

was constant, a Woyo potter named Voania (Voanya) Muba made figura‑ 

tive vessels exclusively for the European market. Voania was the chief of 

Muba, a village on the Atlantic Coast and a three‑day walk from the towns 

of Boma and Banana.34 He became a potter although he lived in a village 

where pottery had not previously been made. 

Men in Muba carved wooden lids with high‑relief figures to cover the 

bowls imported from pottery‑making villages. Although the Muba villag‑ 

ers believed Voania had lieya liambu, or talent, and was self‑taught because 

he never left the village to become an apprentice, Voania probably learned 

how to model clay and make pots from men (who customarily worked in 

isolation) in a pottery‑making village. Whatever the source of his knowl‑ 

edge, Voania created his own formula for the clay body and perfected his 

skills. Voania’s only assistant was a nephew who neither helped to mix the 

materials or to form the vessels. He served instead as the middleman in 

selling Voania’s vessels. 

Voania’s pottery typically depicts Europeans alone, as a couple, as 

eques trians, or as a family group standing or sitting on top of a globular 

vessel. He occasionally portrayed an African male or a female figure. Some 

pots have only a human head for decoration. The hollow vessels have an 

opening, usually in the head of a figure. The figures’ hats sometimes have 

two parts—the hat with an opening and a lid to cover it. None of Voania’s 

vessels ever functioned as pitchers. 

The Dallas vessel depicts a seated European male wearing a hat and 

jacket with carefully detailed buttons and buttonholes. There is an open‑ 

ing in the top of the hat. The figure holds a flask for liquor in one hand 

and a drinking cup or glass in the other. During the nineteenth century, 

Europeans imported alcoholic beverages that became African symbols of 

prestige; their consumption was a privilege of rulers, who were the first to 

be introduced to the foreign imports.35 

The Woyo use proverbs to offer a compliment, appeal to principle, or 

settle an argument. Carved pot lids that visually illustrate proverbs can 

CAT. 107


silently convey messages when covering bowls containing food. Voania’s 

vessels, on which the imagery on pot lids was not duplicated, were clearly 

not intended for this kind of communication nor were they sold to Muba 

villagers. They were meant for European customers, who probably found 

them amusing. Still the one and only male potter from Muba village, 

Voania died in 1928. 

During the late nineteenth century, European explorers penetrated 

far inland to Mangbetu country in the northeastern part of the former 

Belgian Congo (the present‑day Democratic Republic of the Congo). The 

Mangbetu vessel depicts a woman with an elongated head (the result of 

binding the forehead at infancy) wearing a classic, fanlike coiffure that 

identifies her as royal (fig. 62). European taste for figurative art encour‑ 

aged Mangbetu sculptors to create objects in this style.36 The figure’s hair‑ 

style, which in real life required an armature to stand upright, serves as 

the spout of the vessel. 

This particular type of Mangbetu vessel, of which only a few are 

known,37 is unusual because it is double‑chambered and is buff colored 

instead of black. In Mangbetu society, male artists made terracotta “head” 

vessels as well as vessels of carved wood and cast or forged metal. Women 

traditionally made nonfigurative pottery strictly for domestic purposes. 

In addition to European influence on artistic production, interethnic mar‑ 

riages between peoples who observed gender‑specific rules in making pot‑ 

tery may have also resulted in men and women working together to make 

these vessels. 

fig 62 The flaring hairstyle Mangbetu women wore 

during the 19th and early 20th centuries is reproduced 

on palm wine vessels. Democratic Republic of the 

Congo, 1929–1937. 

CAT. 108


109 

Cut‑pile and embroidered 

raffia textile 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kuba peoples, 

Shoowa group 


Raffia with natural dyes 

19¾ × 18½ in. (50.17 × 46.99 cm) 

Anonymous gift in honor of Professor Roy Sieber, 

2007.50.6 

fig 63 Pablo Picasso, Bust, 1907–1908. Oil on canvas. 

Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, 

gift of Joshua L. Logan, Loula D. Lasker, Ruth and Nathan 

Cummings Art Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. 

Marcus, Sarah Dorsey Hudson, Mrs. Alfred L. Bromberg, 

Henry Jacobus, and an anonymous donor, by exchange, 

1987.399.FA. 

This study for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon shows the beginnings 

of the influence of African masks in Picasso’s work. 

African visual arts have undoubtedly inspired Western artists and textile, 

furniture, household, and fashion designers to create works of art and con‑ 

sumer products. Numerous instances come to mind: Picasso’s Bust (1907– 

1908; fig. 63) borrows elements from a Baga D’mba mask (see p. 141),38 

Cosima von Bonin’s RoRschachtest #4 (2006; fig. 64) incorporates a kikoi 

cloth worn by East African coastal peoples,39 Pierre‑Emile Legrain’s art 

deco seating replicates ceremonial chairs and stools of the Ngbombe, Fon, 

and Chokwe peoples,40 and Norma Kamali’s and Emmanuel Ungaro’s day 

and evening wear of the 1970s and 2000s, respectively, integrates bologon 

textile designs of the Dogon peoples (Mali). 

Kuba textiles, exemplified by this cut‑pile panel, have long captured 

the imagination of a host of designers since at least the early twenti‑ 

eth century. For example, Kuba textiles included in a 1923 African art 

exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum (then called the Brooklyn Institute 

Museum) inspired textile designs for women’s dresses sold by Bonwit 

Teller and Company.41 The dresses were displayed in the store’s window 

and a duplicate set was installed at the museum (fig. 65). The cloths— 

which the Kuba and related groups traditionally used as currency, ele‑ 

ments of ceremonial dress, and shrouds for the dead—reappeared in 

the European and American art markets in the 1960s during the clashes 

between various African peoples in the then Congo. This was also the 

period of Black Is Beautiful in the United States, and the cloth became 

one of the symbols of Black Pride. Fashionable again and again, stylized 

Kuba textile designs have been reproduced on stationery and house‑ 

hold linens and furnishing, such as those manufactured by Canon in the 

1960s, Martex in the 1970s, Tufenkian carpets, and Ralph Lauren’s elabo‑ 

rate African Collection in the 1990s and 2000s.


fig 64 Cosima von Bonin, rorschachtest #4, 2006. 

Cotton and linen. Dallas Museum of Art, dma/amfar 

Benefit Auction Fund, 2007.56. 

This work of art makes use of an African textile as its 

ground cloth. 

4 : african art and the influences of foreign trade 

fig 65 A Bonwit Teller advertisement for fashions 

inspired by Kuba cut-pile cloth and Bushoong raffia 

cloth textile designs. “Women’s Wear” section of the 

New York Times, April 14, 1923. 

“Kasai velvets,” as Kuba cut‑pile and embroidered textiles were known 

when first introduced to foreign markets at the turn of the twentieth cen‑ 

tury, are so described because they feel like velvet. The men wove the plain 

raffia panels and women, during their pregnancies, embroidered them. 

Gifted embroiderers specialized in this laborious and time‑consuming 

needlework. 

The shapes were filled in by threading the [iron] needle under one 

strand of the weave and pulling the fiber through until only about 

2 mm were left on the far side of the stitch. The fiber was then cut 

off at the same height on the near side, and when this stitching had 

been repeated closely over the whole area, the result was a smooth, 

unknotted, brushlike surface resembling a pile velvet. The work 

was so finely done that the embroidery fibers did not appear on the 

wrong side.42 

293 

The geometric motifs on the surface of the plain‑weave mat were out‑ 

lined or filled by various means to create different textures. For example, 

a single row or multiple rows of black or colored stem stitching outlined 

the form, and sometimes the pile was left as loops rather than being cut. 

Kuba textiles have retained their cultural importance and are still being 

made for local use as well as for sale abroad.


110 

Textile (kente) 

Ghana, Bonwire town, Asante peoples 

c. 1925 

Silk and dye 

125½ × 67 in. (318.77 × 170.18 cm) 


fig 66 Kente-patterned tippet worn by Reverend Elzie 

Odum Jr., senior pastor of St. Paul United Methodist 

Church, in the Arts District, Dallas, Texas, 2008. 

Strip‑woven kente from Ghana is undoubtedly the best‑known African 

textile in the world. Adopted by Americans, especially African Americans, 

kente gained worldwide attention in 1957 when Kwame Nkrumah, then 

president of Ghana, the first independent country in sub‑Saharan Africa, 

wore it for his official portraits and during an official visit to the United 

States. Kente cloth subsequently became a symbol of pan‑African iden‑ 

tity and a symbol of Black Pride. A half century later, handwoven kente 

remains a successful export product that is used as is or to make Western‑ 

style clothing and accessories. African Americans wear kente to celebrate 

their African ancestry; Americans wear it as a sign of solidarity.43 It is not 

unusual for African American clergymen to wear a tippet made entirely 

of or simply decorated with handwoven or printed kente (fig. 66). At com‑ 

mencement exercises, high school and college students wear colorful 

kente strips that display the initials or insignia of their school or social 

organization with their cap and gown. Factory‑printed cloths are used for 

everything from domestic linens to haute couture; for example, a woman’s 

suit with peplum design by the late Patrick Kelly was also derived from a 

Ghanaian model.44 

Kente has probably been woven in Ghana since at least the sixteenth 

century, when cotton yarns dyed with natural indigo were used. Silk kente 

dates from about the eighteenth century, as indicated by the first pub‑ 

lished account by a Danish envoy to the court of King Opoku Ware I. The 

envoy reported that the African “artists” unraveled imported taffeta cloth 

to obtain the silk threads, which they wove into cloth.45 

Among the Asante, kente is a prestigious cloth that has traditionally 

been worn by kings and chiefs. The king, who reserves certain kente designs 

for himself, can grant the privilege to others. Kings wear kente made of 

silk, rayon, or cotton on state occasions, are transported to the events in 

kente‑covered palanquins, and shielded from the sun under giant umbrel‑ 

las decorated with kente accents. Asante kings are traditionally buried in 

this presti gious cloth.


Notes 

1. For more information about African history and 

exploration, see Fage with Tordoff 2002; Oliver and 

Oliver 1965; Levenson 2007 

2. National Museum of African Art 1982; Lips 1966 

3. Bravmann 1983: 86–101 

4. Myers 2006; NDiaye 1995; Robbins, in Robbins and 

Nooter 1989: 23–34 

5. Grierson 1993: 8; Mark, in T. Phillips 1996: 17–18 

6. Pigafetta [1881] 1970, 70–78 

7. MacGaffey 2000: 214 

8. Moore, in Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen 1973: 

67–90 

9. Louise Cantwell to Anne Bromberg, personal 

communication, August 14, 1992 

10. Lips 1966: 164–88; see Carroll 1966: 137–53, for the 

most noteworthy examples of African Christian 

art found among the Yoruba of Nigeria and various 

peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo 

(the former Belgian Congo); Lehmann 1966; National 

Museum of African Art 1982 

11. Quirke and Spencer 1992: 21 

12. Shaw 1977: 56–58, fig. 4–11; 92 

13. Cole 1989: 126 

14. Lawal 1970: 124 

15. Thomas Jefferson Bowen, quoted in Lawal 

1970:116 n. 375 

16. Ulli Beier, quoted in Abiodun, in Pemberton 2000: 

187; Beier 1970 

17. Abiodun, in Pemberton 2000: 182–92 

18. Law, in Pezzoli 1995: 179–80 

19. Joubert, in Musée des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie 

1997: 259, fig. 89 

20. Okediji 2000: 16 

21. Perrois 2006: 45–46, 134, plate 56 

22. Carroll 1967: 55–57 

23. National Museum of African Art 2000: 8; T. Phillips 

1995: 428; Eyo 1979: 61–63 

24. Biebuyck and Abbeele 1984: 72–73 

25. Bourgeois 1982: 30 

26. Ibid. 

27. Laufer, in Laufer, Hambly, and Linton 1930: 16–38 

28. This divination tray is reproduced in Sieber and 

Walker 1987: 73, cat. no. 30 

29. Walker 1991: 21–23 

30. Comparable examples of both types of pipes are 

reproduced in Jordan 1998: 180, cat. no. 139, and 

Petridis 2001: 178, cat. no. 85 

31. Smet 1999: 114–21 describes design of water pipes: 

“Real water pipes are employed for smoking tobacco 

and hemp in many parts of Central and Southern 

Africa. Basically, these pipes consist of a large con‑ 

tainer holding water or some other liquid, a bowl 

with a stem dropping into the liquid, and a stem 

from the large chamber from which the smoker 

draws the smoke. One of the main reasons for using 

such pipes is that the process of bubbling the smoke 

through the liquid makes it cooler and less harsh. 

This latter effect is particularly useful when there 

has not been enough time to remove the harshness 

of tobacco by sun‑drying.” 

See Cache, Paudrat, and Stéphan 1988: 450, and 

Petridis 2001: n.p., cat. no. 83, for two anthropomor‑ 

phic water pipes by different sculptors in the collec‑ 

tions of, respectively, the British Museum and the 

Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium. 

32. Petridis 2001: n.p., cat. no. 83 

33. Plass 1963: 38–41; Bassani and Fagg 1988 provide 

a survey of the first works of art to reach Europe 

34. Volavka 1977: 61–62 

35. See Smet 1999: 107, for a similar vessel 

36. Schildkrout and Keim 1990: 109–12, 247 

37. See Olderogge and Forman 1969: 19 and 155, for 

similar figural terracotta vessels in the Tartu Museum 

in Estonia; they were collected in the 1920s and 1930s 

by I. P. and D. P. Solomentsevs. 

38. Rubin 1984: vol. 1, 277 

39. Museum of Contemporary Art 2007 

40. National Museum of African Art 1998 

41. New York Times, “Women’s Wear” section, April 14, 

1923 

42. Trowell 1960: 30–31 

43. For example, the former New Jersey Governor 

Christie Todd Whitman wore kente cloth at an 

inaugural event at the Newark Museum of Art; 

photograph in Ross 1998: 247. 

44. Ibid., 150–289 

45. Ludvig Rømer, quoted in ibid., 151; see also 

Rømer [1706] 1965

GAMBIA 

GUINEA- 

BISSAU 

WESTERN 

SAHARA 

SENEGAL 

3 

SIERRA 

LEONE 

MAURITANIA 

GUINEA 

35 

LIBERIA 

peoples of africa 

CÔTE 

D'IVOIRE 

12 19 

41 

7 

18 

1 

4 

MOROCCO 

13 

MALI 

14 

ALGERIA 

NIGER 

BURKINA FASO 

Sokoto 

20 

8 

BENIN 

NIGERIA 

37 10 

GHANA 

2 

TOGO 

51 

15 

45 

Lower Niger 

22 

23 

5 

6 

CAMEROON 

TUNISIA 

LIBYA EGYPT 

CHAD 

CENTRAL AFRICAN 

REPUBLIC 

NAMIBIA 

298 

ANGOLA 

BOTSWANA 

SOUTH AFRICA 

ZAMBIA 

SUDAN 

52 

32 

17 

EQUATORIAL GUINEA 

16 

26 

CONGO 

GABON 

RWANDA 

44 

40 

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC 28 

OF THE CONGO 

33 27 

49 

47 

34 46 

9 48 

50 

24 29 

39 

42 

25 

43 

30 21 

11 

38 

ZIMBABWE 

36 

UGANDA UGANDA 

BURUNDI 

MALAWI 

TANZANIA 

SWAZILAND 

LESOTHO 

ETHIOPIA 

KENYA 

31 

MOZAMBIQUE 

ERITREA 

DJIBOUTI 

SOMALIA 

MADAGASCAR 

PeoPles located on the MaP 

1 Amazigh (Berbers) Morocco 

2 Asante Ghana 

3 Baga Guinea 

4 Bamana Mali 

5 Bamileke Cameroon 

6 Bamum Cameroon 

7 Baule Côte d’Ivoire 

8 Bobo Burkina Faso 

9 Boma Democratic Republic of the Congo 

10 Cham / Mwona Nigeria 

11 Chokwe Angola and Democratic 

Republic of the Congo 

12 Dan Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire 

13 Djennenke / Soninke Mali 

14 Dogon Mali 

15 Edo Nigeria 

16 Ekonda Democratic Republic of the Congo 

17 Fang Gabon and Cameroon 

18 Grebo Liberia 

19 Guro Côte d’Ivoire 

20 Hausa Nigeria 

21 Hemba Democratic Republic of the Congo 

22 Igbo Nigeria 

23 Igede Nigeria 

24 Kanyok Democratic Republic of the Congo 

25 Kongo Democratic Republic of the Congo, 

26 Kota Gabon 

Republic of the Congo, and Angola 

27 Kuba Democratic Republic of the Congo 

28 Lega Democratic Republic of the Congo 

29 Luba Democratic Republic of the Congo 

30 Lulua Democratic Republic of the Congo 

31 Makonde Mozambique and Tanzania 

32 Mangbetu Democratic Republic of the Congo 

33 Mbala Democratic Republic of the Congo 

34 Mboma Democratic Republic of the Congo 

35 Mende Sierra Leone 

36 Ndebele South Africa and Zimbabwe 

37 Oron Nigeria 

38 Ovimbundu Angola 

39 Pende Democratic Republic of the Congo 

40 Sango Gabon 

41 Senufo Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and Mali 

42 Songye Democratic Republic of the Congo 

43 Suku Democratic Republic of the Congo 

44 Tsogo Gabon 

45 Tuareg Algeria, Libya, Mali, Burkina Faso, 

and Niger 

46 Wongo Democratic Republic of the Congo 

47 Woyo Democratic Republic of the Congo 

48 Yaka Democratic Republic of the Congo 

49 Yanzi Democratic Republic of the Congo 

50 Yombe Democratic Republic of the Congo 

and Republic of Congo 

51 Yoruba Nigeria and Republic of Benin 

52 Zande Democratic Republic of the Congo, 

Central African Republic, and Sudan 

299

300 PeoPles of africa 

PeoPles of africa 301 

Amazigh (Berbers) 1 

Amazigh peoples (Imazighen, “the free people”; also known as 

Berbers), who live in North and West Africa (see Tuareg), comprise 

between 40 and 60 percent of Morocco’s population of thirty-one 

million. The Ida ou Nadif and the Ida ou Zeddoute live around 

Igherm village in the central region of the Anti-Atlas mountain 

range, which extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Sahara, and 

speak the Chleuh dialect. They use henna to decorate cloth woven 

from lamb’s wool for women’s ceremonial garments. Cat. 93 

Asante 2 

The south-central forest of Ghana is home to the Twi-speaking 

Asante peoples, who number about two million. Their expansive 

territory has three distinct regions, each organized into a kingdom. 

An agrarian peoples, the Asante make art that varies widely 

in both subject and form. Asante art—whether religious, political, 

or pertaining to daily life—is infused with symbolic meaning that 

derives from the human or natural world. Cat. 33, 83, 110 

Baga 3 

The Baga peoples, who reside in villages along the coast of Guinea 

and now number a hundred thousand, were once divided into 

small villages. Each village was governed by a council of elders, 

who derived their powers from specialized knowledge only they 

possessed and their interactions with spiritual beings. The religious 

regalia and ritual objects used by elders in ceremonies and 

male initiation rites were central to Baga artistic traditions, which 

persisted for several hundred years. A variety of religious and 

sociopolitical disturbances in the 1950s, however, have gradually 

caused the Baga culture, and thus artistic production, to disappear 

in most areas. Cat. 41 

Bamana 4 

The Bamana peoples are the largest ethnic group in the Republic of 

Mali with a population of about 2.5 million. Primarily farmers, the 

Mande-speaking peoples of the Niger savannah strongly resisted 

Islam and were known as bambara, or pagans, by the Muslim invaders. 

Bamana artists work in mud-dyed cloth, wood, iron, bronze, 

and brass to make ritual objects, masks, and tools. Cat. 55 

Bamileke 5 

The nearly seven hundred thousand Bantu-speaking Bamileke 

peoples live within the Cameroon Grasslands, a mountainous 

region in western Cameroon made up of many different kingdoms. 

Although the Bamileke peoples share artistic traditions with their 

Bamum and Kom neighbors, they produce works with distinct 

characteristics. Much of the art created by the Bamileke is for the 

king or ruler. Royal portraits and stools carved in wood are sometimes 

covered with beads, a prestige medium limited to royal use. 

The Bamileke also create commemorative figural sculptures and 

zoomorphic masks for use in ceremonies. Cat. 13 

Bamum 6 

The Cameroon Grasslands is also home to the Bamum peoples, 

their capital at Foumban in the Northwest Province of Cameroon. 

The one hundred thousand Benue-Congo-speaking Bamum are 

farmers and herders who live in villages presided over by hereditary 

headmen. They are among the few African peoples to have 

developed their own system of writing, which is largely ideographic 

or pictographic. Bamum sculptors emphasize depth and 

roundness in their wooden masks and other objects. Cat. 24 

Baule 7 

In the savannah between the Bandama and N’zi rivers (the “Baule 

V”) in central Côte d’Ivoire, the Baule peoples raise crops and animals 

to sell at markets run by the village women. Today, the Baule 

number 1.5 million. Their villages are ruled by notables, some of 

whom are descended from those who left Ghana in the eighteenth 

century. Baule artists work in wood and brass to create anthropomorphic 

masks and figures related to the afterlife. Although the 

practice has waned since the 1960s, the Baule also carve wooden 

doors. Some Baule art is stylistically similar to that of their 

neighbors, the southern Mande, the Malinke, and the Senufo. 

Cat. 12, 26, 78, 85 

Bobo 8 

The Mande-speaking Bobo peoples are a group of clans in Burkina 

Faso and Mali. They are farmers who live in compact and autonomous 

villages. The Bobo use natural materials such as leaves, 

wood, and fiber to create masks that are typically angular in shape 

and used in various ritual contexts. Nearly eight hundred thousand 

people make up the Bobo ethnic group. Cat. 34 

Boma 9 

The Bantu-speaking Boma peoples (also called Buma) live in the 

central savannah region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

Their small hunting and farming society, numbering about 

twenty-five thousand, is organized into chiefdoms. Boma artists 

carve angular wooden figures that provide protection against 

adverse forces in the universe. Fig. 4, p. 17 

Cham / Mwona 10 

The Adamawa-speaking Cham peoples of northeastern Nigeria, 

of which there are about fifteen thousand, inhabit the southern 

region of the Gongola River Valley. Agriculture and small-scale 

herding as well as hunting sustain the Cham. Best known for the 

terracotta vessels that are used to invoke spirits in divination and 

healing rituals, Cham artists also work in iron and brass, decorate 

gourds, and create architectural decoration. Cat. 45 

Chokwe 11 

The Chokwe peoples have lived as hunters, farmers, and pastoralists 

between the Kwango and Kasai rivers in northeastern Angola 

for nearly four hundred years. By the twentieth century, they 

expanded their territory into the present-day Democratic Republic 

of the Congo and the northwestern part of Zambia. Chokwe culture 

peaked in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, during 

which time luxurious art was produced for the courts of chiefs. 

Figures, stools, thrones, and ceremonial objects were carved out 

of wood, especially for the leadership. 

Although artistic production declined during the twentieth 

century in the wake of famine, war, and disease, Chokwe cultural 

traditions have persevered. Today the Chokwe number nearly one 

million. Cat. 19, 46, 84 

Dan 12 

The Dan peoples are part of the Mande linguistic group and live in 

northeast Liberia and the neighboring areas of Côte d’Ivoire and 

Guinea. Farmers and warriors, the Dan, who number about five 

hundred thousand, have no central authority; rather, they live in 

independent villages made up of different clans grouped around 

a chief. Secret societies are important to the organization of Dan 

society, especially the Poro society, which is common to all ethnic 

groups of the region. Masks are perhaps the most important works 

of art created by the Dan. Artists also carve figural sculpture and 

spoons and make pottery. Cat. 35 

Djennenke / Soninke 13 

Djennenke and Soninke are cultural designations for ancient and 

rare wooden statues collected in the region of the Bandiagara 

Escarpment in Mali. Figures that have been subjected to scientific 

analysis are dated as early as the eleventh century AD. The wooden 

sculptures, some of which have an oily patina, represent human 

figures detailed with scarification, jewelry, and clothing. Cat. 2 

Dogon 14 

Dogon farmers in the rocky plateau and plains of Bandiagara in 

Mali established their villages under vertical cliff faces to protect 

themselves from invasion. The Gur-speaking Dogon peoples 

migrated to this area in the fifteenth century to escape the Mande, 

and they developed an architectural style to fit their defensive 

geography. The cult of ancestors is important to the Dogon, who 

craft various sculptures and instruments for these ceremonies and 

other initiation rites. Figural sculptures are carved in a stylized 

manner as are the wide variety of masks also made by the Dogon 

peoples, whose present population is nearly two hundred and fifty 

thousand. Cat. 76, 77 

Edo 15 

Benin City in present-day southern Nigeria was the capital of the 

Benin kingdom, which was established around AD 900 and flourished 

until the end of the seventeenth century. The name of its 

capital city has caused some to refer to the kingdom and the art 

produced there as Benin. The people of this kingdom, however, 

called their land, language, and themselves Edo. Portuguese 

explorers arrived in the Benin kingdom at the end of the fifteenth 

century to find a vast kingdom ruled by a divine king. Copper alloy 

(brass or bronze) and ivory were the prestigious materials for art 

commissioned by the king for his regalia, palace, and shrines. The 

city-state was destroyed during the British Punitive Expedition 

of 1897. Today there are approximately one million Edo people. 

Cat. 3–5 

Ekonda 16 

The Ekonda, who number approximately three hundred thousand, 

are a group of Mongo-speaking peoples who live in the northwestern 

part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An account of 

the Ekonda written in 1944 describes the by-then defunct practice 

for choosing the ritual chief who embodied Ekonda political 

authority. According to the report, a group of village elders selected 

a wealthy outsider who paid the village in exchange for the title of 

chief. Following his installation, the chief was responsible for divination, 

ceremonial activities, and acted as a spiritual mediator. He 

had the exclusive right to wear the tiered fiber hat decorated with 

brass plates. Cat. 14 

Fang 17 

The forested area that extends from Cameroon to Gabon includes 

Equatorial Guinea and was home to the Fang peoples whose culture 

thrived in the nineteenth century. Fang villages and communities 

were organized around families and clans with common ancestors. 

Indeed, the cult of ancestors was central to Fang religion, 

and artists made reliquary figures to guard the bones and skulls 

of deceased relatives. Fang artists also carved wooden masks. As a 

migratory group, the Fang continually absorbed the cultural and 

artistic traditions of the peoples with whom they came in contact. 

European influence in the 1910s and 1920s resulted in a decline in 

the interest in the cult of ancestors, which was eventually replaced 

by Western religion, thereby causing Fang artistic production to 

die away. Today this ethnic group numbers two hundred thousand. 

Cat. 68, 101 

Grebo 18 

In the tropical rain forests of southeastern Liberia, the Grebo 

peoples make their living through agriculture, fishing, hunting, 

and gathering. Rice is the principal crop, but cotton, okra, millet, 

and sorghum are also grown. The Grebo are ruled by a chief, who 

lives in absolute isolation. Grebo villages consist of cone cylinder 

huts grouped in family compounds around a central plaza. Today 

there are approximately three hundred thousand Grebo. Cat. 91 

Guro 19 

Originally known as the Kweni, the Guro are a group of Mandespeaking 

agricultural peoples who live in central Côte d’Ivoire. The 

two hundred thousand Guro live in independent villages with no



central authority, but form alliances for the purpose of war. The 

direct descendant of the village founder, known as the “master 

of the earth,” controls the distribution of agricultural lands. Guro 

art is produced by specialists and often takes the form of wooden 

animal masks that are valued as sacred objects. The Guro received 

their present appellation in the early twentieth century when they 

were aggressively colonized by the French. Cat. 56 

Hausa 20 

With a total population of over twenty-two million, the Hausa live 

primarily in northwestern Nigeria and throughout West Africa, 

including Niger, Cameroon, and Ghana. Hausa artists create work 

in a variety of media, including leather, metal, ceramics, and fiber, 

in which African and Islamic characteristics are often combined. 

Hausa men both weave and embroider the voluminous prestige 

gowns that have become the masculine national dress in Nigeria. 

Cat. 96 

Hemba 21 

Previously considered part of the Luba peoples, the Bantu-speaking 

Hemba create art that is somewhat similar in style to that of the 

Luba, but represents a culture that is independent from the Luba. 

Today, the eighty thousand Hemba are farmers and hunters in the 

eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they 

live in large clans of families with a common ancestor. The cult of 

ancestors plays an important role in the Hemba’s matriarchal society, 

and most art is produced for this cult. Sculptors carve wooden 

ancestor figures and masks for ceremonies dedicated to the cult. 

Cat. 75 

Igbo 22 

The Igbo peoples of Nigeria believe that every piece of art has value, 

and they are known for the masks and sculpted figures of wood 

associated with shrine architecture. Although the earliest extant 

works of Igbo art date to the tenth century, most extant Igbo art 

was made in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Igbo, 

who number between seventeen and twenty million, are primarily 

farmers. They are not ruled by a chief or king, but rather by a council 

of elders whose power is balanced by secret socie ties. The Ada 

of Afikpo are a subgroup of Igbo which lives near the Cross River. 

Cat. 36, 39 

Igede 23 

In the Benue State of central Nigeria, the Igede peoples live in 

farming villages of cone-cylinder huts. The Igede speak a language 

of the Kwa subfamily that is distinct from that of their northern 

neighbors, the Idoma, with whom the Igede are associated. The 

Igede are farmers, who also raise small herds of livestock, and 

traders. The funeral is perhaps the most important event of the 

life cycle for the Igede; consequently, much art is produced for 

funerary use and for the cult of ancestors. Today the Igede number 

around three hundred thousand people. Cat. 44 

Kanyok 24 

The Kanyok are agricultural peoples who live in the Democratic 

Republic of the Congo, along the eastern side of the Luba kingdom 

with which they were associated politically. The population 

amounts to about ninety thousand, and they produce a variety of 

artworks including decorated prestige items and narrative sculptures. 

Sculptors carved wooden stools, water pipes, staffs, and 

ritual containers for the king and other titleholders. Older Kanyok 

art forms were very angular, but their carvings have evolved to be 

more rounded and portraitlike in appearance. Cat. 106 

Kongo 25 

The Kongo are a group of related Bantu-speaking peoples— 

which includes the Yombe, Woyo, Boma, and Mboma—who live 

in the adjacent areas of the Republic of Congo, Angola, and the 

Democratic Republic of the Congo. They are known for their carved 

wood power figures that invoke the spirits. The Kongo also create 

stone and ceramic funerary art, wooden masks, and regalia. An alliance 

with the Portuguese enabled the Kongo peoples to prosper 

and gain immense political power in the fifteenth century. During 

this time the king and many of the Kongo peoples converted to 

Christianity. Slavery and war eventually led to the demise of 

the Kongo kingdom in the eighteenth century. Today the Kongo 

number over five million people. Cat. 99 

Kota 26 

Before settling in northeastern Gabon and the bordering areas 

of the Congo, the Kota peoples—forced by the Fang peoples— 

migrated across Africa for years. Kota society comprises several 

smaller groups that are governed by village chiefs. Kota religion, 

like that of the Fang, is based on the cult of the ancestors, whose 

power is thought to reside within their skulls and bones. Reliquary 

figures, the most common objects of Kota artwork, guard these 

bodily relics. The Kota also created masks and sculptures, many of 

which were destroyed in the twentieth century by Christian missionaries. 

Today, the Kota peoples number around one hundred 

and twenty-five thousand. Cat. 69 

Kuba 27 

The Kuba kingdom of the Democratic Republic of the Congo 

probably began to develop in the sixteenth century, when people 

migrated from the north to settle between the Sankuru, Kasai, 

and Lulua rivers. The kingdom peaked in the mid-nineteenth century 

as the trade center for ivory, exported textiles, and other art. 

Although the Kuba kingdom comprises many ethnic groups, each 

one with its own leader, the king over all of Kuba is a member of 

the Bushoong group. 

The two hundred thousand Kuba sustain themselves today as 

farmers and fishermen. Art objects created by the Kuba demonstrate 

a preference for geometric patterns. Kuba works include 

vegetal fiber textiles, wooden figures, and masks, often used to 

demonstrate prestige and leadership. 

Cat. 15, 16, 64, 86, 88, 94, 109 

Lega 28 

The Lega, a Bantu-speaking cluster of farmers who also pan for 

gold, inhabit the east-central area of the Democratic Republic of 

the Congo. The Lega, who now number around four hundred thousand, 

immigrated to this area from Uganda in the seventeenth 

century. Instead of a centralized government, the Lega have the 

Bwami, an age-graded association in which leadership is vested. 

Lega artists work ivory, wood, and bone to create masks and figures 

that symbolize moral principles. Cat. 10, 11, 17, 18 

Luba 29 

Founded in 1585 by King Kongolo, the Luba kingdom of the 

present-day southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, 

peaked in the seventeenth century when it controlled a federation 

of kingdoms. Luba art is made for the cult of ancestors, secret 

societies, and the king’s court. The frequent depiction of women 

in Luba art, particularly on prestige objects, attests to the iconic 

status of women in this matriarchal society. The empire began to 

collapse in the 1860s as a result of raids, slave traders, and Belgian 

consolidation. Today the Luba number over four million people. 

Cat. 20, 40, 48, 80 

Lulua 30 

In the eighteenth century, a group of farmers and hunters of Luba 

origin, known as the Lulua peoples, migrated from West Africa 

to the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The 

three hundred thousand Lulua live in independent villages ruled 

by a local chief in conjunction with a council of elders. The Lulua 

are known for crafting masks that are performed during initiation 

rites. Their culture underwent extreme changes in the late nineteenth 

century when the Lulua king prohibited the tradition of 

drinking palm wine, encouraged ritualized smoking of hemp, and 

burned all cult images. Cat. 47, 81 

Makonde 31 

There are two groups of Bantu-speaking peoples called Makonde, 

totaling about two million people. One group lives in northern 

Mozambique, the other in southeastern Tanzania. Before the 

Portuguese colonized the Makonde in the early twentieth century, 

the most important artistic works they created were carved 

wooden ancestor figures and masks. Tanzanian Makonde artists 

create facial and body masks, while the Makonde of Mozambique 

carve wooden helmet masks for boys’ initiation rituals. These 

helmet masks are usually decorated with hair, wax facial scarifications, 

and pointed teeth. Makonde artists also make decorative 

objects such as pipes, combs, canes, and bark boxes. Cat. 37 

Mangbetu 32 

The Mangbetu settled in the northeastern part of the Democratic 

Republic of the Congo in the nineteenth century and remained 

a political force until slave traders from North Africa arrived in 

the region in 1880. Many Mangbetu artworks are decorated with 

realistic-looking human heads with similar elongated heads and 

flared hairstyles. Although Mangbetu art is made primarily for 

the ruling class, artists also create prestige objects, such as knives 

with ivory handles, harps with figural motifs, and trumpets. Today 

the Mangbetu peoples number about five hundred thousand. 

Cat. 108 

Mbala 33 

Related to the Pende peoples, the Mbala have been present in the 

Democratic Republic of the Congo since the seventeenth century. 

The two hundred thousand Mbala are agriculturalists who live in 

villages ruled by chiefs. They weave baskets, carve figures in wood, 

and, if rarely, produce masks. A red pigment (tukula) is used to 

color sculpted figures in a variety of forms. Cat. 32 

Mboma 34 

The Mboma, of which there are about thirty thousand, one of the 

Kongo-related groups, live in the area of Boma-Matadi on the Zaire 

River. They subsist on farming, hunting, fishing, and trading. In 

addition to wood, the Mboma used soft steatite to carve funerary 

figures distinguished by various attitudes—e.g., head-on-hand, 

cross-legged. Cat. 74 

Mende 35 

The Mende are rice farmers who migrated to Sierra Leone from various 

African territories in the sixteenth century and number about 

two million today. Within Mende chiefdoms, boys and girls are 

initiated into secret societies and remain members for life. These 

secret societies, Poro for males and Sande for females, serve as 

educational institutions that impart and preserve Mende morals 

and customs. Artworks, especially wooden masks, are created for 

initiation and healing ceremonies. The masquerade for the Sande 

society provides a rare instance of African women as maskers. 

Cat. 22, 38 

Ndebele 36 

The Ndebele, a Nguni-speaking peoples, are divided into two 

groups: those who live in Zimbabwe, called the North Sotho; and 

those who live in the Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces in 

South Africa. Ndebele women of South Africa create beadwork that 

decorates clothing and items related to initiation, weddings, and 

healing rites. They are also renowned for the murals they paint on 

the walls of their houses. The Ndebele number nearly three hundred 

and thirty thousand today. Cat. 95 

Oron 37 

According to some scholars, the Oron are related to the Ibibio; the 

Oron insist they are not. Estimated to number over one hundred 

thousand, the Oron peoples live on the west bank of the Cross 

River in southeastern Nigeria. Village elders rule their Oron communities 

while the Ekpe socie ties (secret associations of which 

only the men are members and charged with maintaining social



and political control) enforce the rules of the village and control 

the distribution of wealth. The Oron peoples create ancestor figures, 

many of which were destroyed or stolen in the 1970s during 

the Biafran War. Cat. 67 

Ovimbundu 38 

High on the Benguela Plateau of Angola live the approximately 

4.6 million Ovimbundu peoples. They farm and raise livestock. 

Although Ovimbundu art was inspired by Chokwe forms, contact 

with Europeans probably informed the naturalism evident in some 

Ovimbundu works. Depictions of Ovimbundu women are characterized 

by their braided hairstyles. Other artworks, predominantly 

statuary, may have been enacted in ritual settings. Today, there are 

more than two million Ovimbundu peoples. Cat. 105 

Pende 39 

The Bantu-speaking Pende peoples of the Democratic Republic 

of the Congo were at one time overwhelmed by the Chokwe, but 

regained their independence with the rise of colonialism in the 

twentieth century. Pende art, which varies by region, shows stylistic 

similarities with the Chokwe and the Luba. Chiefs use carved 

objects, such as stools and staffs, as symbols of their power, and 

wooden or fiber masks are made for initiation and healing ceremonies 

as well as for masquerades that entertain and reinforce 

social norms. Although carved figures are rare, Pende artists 

carve ivory pendants in the form of miniature masks. The Pende 

peoples number five hundred thousand and sustain their villages 

through agriculture, selling the harvests at markets run by women. 

Cat. 21, 87, 89, 97 

Sango 40 

The Sango live in the regions of northern Lastourville and 

Kulamoutou, along the course of the Sebe River in Gabon. The 

total population is estimated to number about fifty-four thousand 

people. Like the Kota, they make reliquary guardian figures 

that are decorated with brass. Sango figures are, however, carved 

with smaller, more ovular heads and lack the elaborate hairstyles 

of Kota figures. Cat. 70 

Senufo 41 

The Senufo peoples, who now number three million, have inhabited 

areas of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire since the fifteenth 

century. Senufo villages are organized according to family 

lineage and age and are governed by a council of elders. All men 

belong to the Poro society in which they learn their social, political, 

and spiritual roles. Similarly, women belong to the Sandogo 

society. Senufo art includes wooden sculpture and masks for initiation 

and funeral ceremonies as well as dye-decorated textiles 

and pottery. Cat. 25, 55, 59, 63 

Songye 42 

Thirty-five individual chiefdoms make up the Songye territory 

west of the Lualaba River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

The Songye are historically related to their Bantu-speaking neighbors, 

the Hemba and Luba peoples, though their society and artistic 

styles are unique. The one million Songye peoples, who farm 

and hunt, are renowned for their visual arts, especially expressive 

masks for the kifwebe secret society. Cat. 53, 54, 57, 58 

Suku 43 

The Suku peoples, of which there are about eighty thousand, have 

had a complex history in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

With the Yaka, they invaded the Kongo kingdom and, years later, 

were themselves overtaken by the Yaka. Suku society is matrilineal 

and ruled by regional chiefs. Most Suku art is created as regalia 

for these chiefs. The Suku also craft power figures, masks, and 

wooden sculpture for ritual and everyday use. Cat. 104 

Tsogo 44 

The Tsogo are a small ethnic group originally located in the area of 

the Upper Ngoume River in Gabon and numbering about thirtyseven 

thousand. They are neighbors of the Sango with whom they 

share a tradition of ancestor worship and the production of carved 

wood figures that guarded ancestral relics preserved in baskets or 

bundles. Cat. 71 

Tuareg 45 

Numbering over one million, the Tuareg are seminomadic pastoralists 

who inhabit the Sahara Desert, southern Algeria, southwestern 

Libya, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. They are grouped 

into politically autonomous federations that, on occasion, join 

together for purposes of trade and defense. Continuing droughts 

since the 1980s have caused some Tuareg to become sedentary 

agriculturalists and city dwellers. They are renowned for carved 

wood household furnishings, metal and leatherwork, and jewelry 

with simple shapes and decoration that combines linear and geometric 

motifs. Cat. 79 

Wongo 46 

The Wongo are a small ethnic group of about ten thousand who 

live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where they are neighbors 

of the Pende and Kuba peoples. They subsist on farming and 

fishing. Their art includes raffia weaving and woodcarving, the 

styles of which resemble that of their neighbors. Cat. 90 

Woyo 47 

One of five groups that originally made up the Kongo kingdom, the 

Woyo (residing in the western part of the present-day Democratic 

Republic of the Congo and Cabinda, with a population total of 

about twelve thousand) are considered a cultural subgroup of the 

Kongo. Woyo power figures and other statuary resemble those of 

other Kongo groups, but their polychrome masks, pot lids with 

figures carved in relief, and figurative ceramic vessels by Voania 

Muba are unique. Cat. 107 

Yaka 48 

The Wamba River that flows along the southwest area of the 

Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Angola is home 

to one million Yaka. The Bantu-speaking Yaka migrated to this 

region in the sixteenth century. Their highly structured hunting 

and farming society is ruled by a chief of Lunda origin. Like the 

Suku, the Yaka believe their chiefs are superhuman and create 

royal regalia for their use. Yaka artists craft masks for initiation 

ceremonies, statuettes, and prestige objects. Although the Yaka 

have been influenced by the Suku, Kongo, Holo, and Teke peoples, 

their art can be identified by its distinctive features, such as the 

upturned nose and the pigments applied to the surface of carved 

wooden objects. Cat. 104 

Yanzi 49 

The Yanzi, a trading community in the Democratic Republic of the 

Congo, are organized by a caste system. The Yanzi peoples have a 

tradition of exchanging artistic styles and borrowing forms from 

neighboring cultures. However influenced by their neighbors the 

Yanzi may be, their figures are recognizable by their elongated 

and angular forms. Today, the Yanzi peoples number around forty 

thousand. Cat. 49 

Yombe 50 

Two hundred thousand Yombe peoples live in the mountainous 

forests and savannahs of western Republic of Congo and 

the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their society is based on 

a matrilineal line of inherited power and ruled by male chiefs. 

The Yombe subsist by farming, hunting, and raising animals. The 

Yombe create animal masks for ceremonial traditions related to 

their agricultural and herding pursuits. Perhaps best known for 

their “power figures,” which hold ritual medicines and are embellished 

with mirrors and nails, the Yombe also forge iron, carve 

wooden masks, and weave raffia. Cat. 31, 51, 52, 72, 73 

Yoruba 51 

One of the largest ethnic groups in Africa, now numbering approximately 

twenty-five million, the Yoruba, comprised of several different 

groups that speak the Yoruba language, trace their origins 

to the city of Ife in present-day Nigeria, where according to their 

story of the Creation, the world began. Today, most Yoruba people 

are farmers who live in Nigeria and the neighboring areas of the 

Republic of Benin and Togo. 

The Yoruba believe in an extensive pantheon of deities, deified 

kings, ancestors, and nature spirits. They create masks, divination 

trays, and brass and terracotta sculptures, which are frequently 

dedicated to the spirits and ancestors. Besides sculptural works 

and masks, the Yoruba make a variety of beaded objects and woven 

textiles. Cat. 6–9, 23, 27–30, 42, 65, 66, 100–103 

Zande 52 

During the eighteenth century the Zande peoples began to emerge 

from groups of people who were moving from the west toward 

the forests of central Africa. Today, the Zande inhabit an area that 

spans the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African 

Republic, and southern Sudan. Although Zande art is very similar 

to that of the neighboring Mangebetu peoples, it is not intended 

for royal use. Rather, Zande artists create musical instruments and 

carved statues for secret societies. The Central Sudanic-speaking 

Zande number about one million. Cat. 50, 82, 92



cultures or sites 

Egypt, ancient 

Located in the northeastern corner of modern Africa and along the 

Nile River, ancient Egypt was bounded by the Mediterranean to 

the north, the First Nile Cataract to the south, and desert to the 

east and west. The ancient Egyptian kingdoms (Old, Middle, and 

New) prevailed for three and a half thousand years, from c. 3000 BC 

to AD 395 (from the First Dynasty to the Ptolemaic period), as evidenced 

by the extant monuments and treasures as well as hieroglyphic 

texts. Ancient Egyptian art was essentially religious and 

made for tombs and temples. Cat. 60–62 

Ethiopia 

As early as the first century AD, the East African country of Ethiopia 

was part of a prosperous trade network from the Horn of Africa 

(modern Ethiopia, Djibuti, and Somalia) to Egypt, South Arabia, 

Persia, India, and Ceylon. There arose the kingdom of Axum— 

consisting of Sabean and indigenous African Cushite cultures—in 

the regions of present-day Tigray and Eritrea. It thrived from the 

fourth to seventh century AD. Along with trade came new reli- 

gions. Judaism was introduced first and, by the fourth century AD, 

Egyptians in Alexandria were practicing Christianity. During the 

seventh century, Islam rose, conquered, and prevailed along the 

Red Sea, depriving Axum of its control over trade and religion. Yet 

Christianity survived, especially in Highland Ethiopia, where it is 

practiced today. Cat. 98 

Lower Niger 

The term Lower Niger is a geographic designation assigned to works 

of art that have been attributed to ancient Nigeria, but are stylistically 

divergent from works that have been confirmed as having an 

ancient Nigerian origin. Cat. 43 

Sokoto 

Sokoto is the name of both a state and its capital, as well as the 

designation for terracotta sculptures that have been found in the 

region since the late twentieth century. Characterized by a heavy 

brow, delicate features, and lack of ornate accessories, the Sokoto 

terracottas seem severe in comparison with those discovered at 

Nok, a village located near the confluence of the Niger and Benue 

rivers. Separated by a vast distance, the Nok and Sokoto cultures 

date from about the same time, between about the fifth century BC 

and the third century AD, but a relationship between the two 

remains to be established. Cat. 1

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Praeger, 1960. 

Tull 1998 

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index 

Notes: Page references in italics denote 

illustrations; page references in boldface 

italics denote principal illustrations of 

catalogued objects. 

Abbreviations used here: 

DMA: Dallas Museum of Art 

DMFA: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts 

DRC: Democratic Republic of the Congo 

Abua (Nigeria), headdress, 23–24 

Ada (Igbo, Nigeria), 126, 302 

adze, Pende ceremonial, 84–85 

Afonso I Mvemba Nzinga, 264 

African American Museum, Dallas, Tex., 22 

African Art Acquisition Fund, DMA, 24 

African Art Acquisitions Endowment, DMA, 

26 

African Collection Fund, DMA, 24 

afterlife, art for the, 179–213 

Agbonbiofe of Effon-Alaiye, 24, 90, 90 

Ajala (Yoruba deity), 62 

Akan (Nigeria), miniature brass figures, 24 

Alafin of Oyo (legendary king), 194 

alafin (king), 110, 194 

Alfred and Juanita K. Bromberg Collection, 

Dallas, Tex., 24 

Allison, Philip, 32 

altar, Yoruba copper, 24 

altarpiece, Spanish 15th-cent., 29, 29 

Amazigh (Berber), 226, 268, 300 

marriage or ceremonial veil, 246–47 

American Federation of Arts, New York, 17 

American Museum of Natural History, New 

York, 20 

Amma (Dogon: God), 222 

ancestors 

ceremonies for, 144, 150 

as channeled by diviners, 282 

Dogon primordial (nommo), 18, 220, 222 

importance of, 66, 179 

infants as reincarnations of, 179 

masquerading and, 139, 142, 190 

sculptures of. See figure 

symbols of, 176 

worship of, 198, 208, 272 

animals 

head (Cuanza River, Angola), 29–30, 31 

symbolism of, 68, 78, 176, 219 

anonymity, as issue in African art. See 

artists 

Arabs, influence of, 261, 282 

see also Islam; Muslim 

Areogun. See Arowogun 

Arhuanran, prince of Benin, 50, 52, 54 

“ark,” Dogon, 19 

Armstrong, Robert Plant, 20 

Arowogun (Areogun) of Osi-Ilorin (c. 1880– 

1954), 19, 32, 35 n.13, 

142, 178 n.3, 261, 276–77 

art, African 

Christianity and, 232, 233, 261, 264–66, 276, 

302 

dating, 13–14, 29–31, 31, 35 n.9, 42 

decorative, 219–57 

European art and, 261–62, 262, 263, 290, 290 

uses of, 29, 39, 42, 94, 101, 121, 139, 179, 219 

see also sculpture 

Art Center, La Jolla, Calif., 13 

Art Museum League Travel Fund, DMA, 19 

artists, African 

anonymity of, as issue, 18, 27 n.13, 31–32, 

90, 178 n.3 

apprenticeship for, 32, 276 

Asante (Ghana), 118, 300 

comb, 19, 232–33 

doll, 18, 19, 101, 118–19 

kente, 18, 28 (det.), 294–95, 296 n.43 

Austin, Ramona, 22–23, 25 

Axum kingdom, Christianity in, 21–22, 264, 

306 

Azevedo, Warren d’, 32 

Baga (Guinea), 300 

D’mba headdress, 18, 140–41 

masks, 139 

Bamana (Mali), 168, 222, 300 

Bamgbose of Osi (Yoruba sculptor), 276 

Bamileke (Cameroon), 300 

elephant mask and hat, 70–73 

Bamum (Cameroon), 300 

prestige pipe, 94–95, 282 

Barbier-Mueller, Ann, 25 

Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva, 20, 164 

Barnes, Edward Larrabee, 19 

Bascom, William R., 32 

Basden, G. T., 134 

basketwork, 22, 60, 74–75, 78–79, 280, 281 

Bassani, Ezio, 178 n.21 

Baule (Côte d’Ivoire), 68, 300 

crown, 68–69 

door, 219, 224–25 

ointment pot, 19, 236, 236 

seated figure, 20, 23, 104–105, 262 

Belande (DRC), 164 

bell, Lower Niger Bronze Industry, 18, 139, 

144–45 

Benin kingdom (Nigeria), 14, 25, 144, 264, 

278, 301 

figure of chief, 23, 52–55 

plaque, bronze, single-figure, 2 (det.), 25, 

44–46, 45, 54 

four-figure, 44, 44, 278 

waist pendant, 23, 30, 38 (det.), 48–51, 49, 

261 

see also Edo 

Berber. See Amazigh; Tuareg 

Bezalel Foundation, 18 

Bini (Edo), Nigeria, 19, 286 

Blondiau, Raoul, 15 

Bobo (Burkina Faso and Mali), 121, 122, 300 

Nwenka mask, 18, 19, 101, 121, 122–23, 139 

Boma (DRC), 300, 302 

standing figure, 15, 16, 33 

Bonin, Cosima von, RORSCHACHTEST #4 (2006), 

290, 292 

Bonwit Teller and Co., New York, 290, 293 

Borgatti, Jean, 32 

Boti (Côte d’Ivoire), 35 n.14 

bowl 

Grebo ceremonial rice, 242, 243 

Yoruba lidded (opon igede), 19, 178 n.3, 261, 

276–77 

Yoruba offering (olumeye) 

by Agbonbiofe, 24, 90, 90 

by Olowe, 24, 90–93 (det.), 91 

Yoruba (or Edo) terracotta ritual, 19 

bowl carrier (arugba Shango), 19, 112–13 

box, Kuba pigment, 236, 237 

see also headrest; pot, ointment 

Bragaline, Edward A., 25 

Brancusi, Constantin, 20 

Brettel, Richard, 20 

Brister, Bernard, 17 

British Colonial Administrative Service, 

Nigeria, 148 

British Empire Exhibition, 92 

British Museum, London, 17, 46, 92, 111, 

256 n.40 

British Punitive Expedition, 44, 46, 50, 305 

Bromberg, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred L., 17 

Bromberg, Anne, 22 

Bromberg, Juanita K., 24 

Brooklyn Institute Museum, New York, 290 

Brooklyn Museum, New York, 17 

Budja (DRC), bird-form headdress, 25 

Buffalo Museum of Science, 20, 50, 256 n.33 

Buli Master, 35 n.13 

Bundu. See Sande society 

Burton, Sir Richard, 82 

Burundi, tambour drummers, 6 

Bushoong (Kuba, DRC), 76, 188, 248, 248, 

256 n.40, 303 

Bussel, Loed van, 178 n.30 

buttons, as decoration, 4–5, 78, 79, 190–93 

Bwa (Burkina Faso), standing male figure, 

19 

Bwadi Bwa Kifwebe (Luba, Songye, and 

Tempe-Songye society), 172 

Bwami (Lega society), 64, 66, 78, 303 

Bywaters, Jerry, 14 

Cameron, Verney Lovett, 82 

Cameroon Grasslands, 24, 300 

see also Bamileke; Bamum 

camwood powder, 74, 114, 134, 156, 160, 194, 

236, 254 

cape, Ndebele linaga, 250–51 

Carlebach Gallery, New York, 13, 15 

Carroll, Father Kevin, 32, 178 n.3 

Cecil and Ida Green Foundation, DMA, 24 

Center for African Art, New York, 20, 22 

chair, 290 

Chokwe traveling throne as, 80–81 

see also stool 

Cham/Mwona (Nigeria), 301 

divination vessel, 148–49 

children, 101, 110, 152–53, 179, 190 

Chokwe (Angola, DRC, and Zambia), 15, 39, 

94, 150, 282, 301, 304 

comb, 232, 234–35 

ritual container, 150–51 

Christianity, 306 

and African art, 232, 233, 261, 264–66, 276, 

302 

Coptic, 21–22, 264 

City of Benin (engraving, 1668), 47 

Clark and Frances Stillman Collection of 

Congo Sculpture, 15, 15, 

17, 18, 19, 20 

clothing, 219 

Kuba overskirt (ntshakakot), 7, 219, 248, 

248, 249, 256 n.39 

Ndbele cape (linaga), 21, 250, 250, 251 

Nigerian national dress (dandogo), 219, 

252–53, 302 

see also textiles 

coffin, ancient Egyptian, 184–85 

Cole, Herbert M., 18 

316 

colonialism, 261 

Belgian, 14, 15, 158, 280, 304 

British, 44, 46, 50, 148, 192, 264 

French, 104, 176, 198, 272, 302 

Portuguese, 303 

color, symbolism of, 32, 130, 172 

comb 

Asante (duafe), 19, 232, 233 

Chokwe/Lena, 232, 234–35 

coming of age, ritual and, 121–37, 176, 220 

conception and birth, art for, 101–119 

costume, masquerade, 170, 174, 175, 186, 188 

Yoruba, 142 

Egungun, 4–5 (det.), 139, 190–93 (det.), 

191 

cross, Ethiopian processional, 7, 21–22, 

264–66, 265 

crown 

Baule, 68–69 

Yoruba royal (ade), 60, 60–61 

cup 

divination (agere Ifa), 106 

Kuba handled, 238–39 

Pende figural, 19, 238–40 

Wongo figural, 238, 241, 256 n.33 

see also vessel 

Dallas Arts Association, 14, 27 n.1 

Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, 19 

Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), 18, 19 

Dallas Museum of Art League, 24 

Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (DMFA), 13, 19, 

27 n.3 

see also exhibitions 

Dan (Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Liberia), 32, 

301 

ceremonial bowls, 242 

masks, 25, 121, 124–25 

sculptors ( glen ye meh), 124 

dance, 6, 70, 70, 122, 170, 174, 176, 188, 188, 

272, 272, 278 

dance wand (Yoruba oshe Shango), 110–11, 

276 

Dapper, Olfert, 44 

Dawu, Ghana, combs excavated at, 232 

death. See afterlife; funeral 

Delabano, Barney, 18 

Derain, André, 262 

divination 

Cham or Mwona, 148 

container for paraphernalia. See bowl, 

Yoruba lidded 

display figures for, 102, 104, 106–109, 139, 

268 

Mbala, 116 

Senufo, 102, 176, 186 

tray, 94, 282 

Yoruba (opon Ifa), 106–108, 107, 144 

vessel for, 148–49 

diviner, 104, 106, 160, 168, 194, 282 

Djennenke/Soninke (Mali), 30, 42, 301 

female figure, 18, 30, 35 n.9, 42–43 

D’mba (Baga headdress), 140–41, 290 

Dogon, Mali, 42, 301 

“ark,” 19 

door, 24, 219, 220–21, 257 (det.) 

door lock, 18, 219, 220, 222–23 

nommo figure, 18 

textiles, 290 

see also pre-Dogon 

doll (Asante akua’ba), 18, 19, 101, 118, 118–19 

door, 219 

Baule, 224, 225 

Dogon granary, 24, 220–21, 257 (det.) 

Yoruba, by Olowe, 92 

door lock 

Dogon (anuan), 18, 219, 220–23 

Dogon bolt (ta koguru), 222 

mechanism of, 222 

Dozier, Otis, 16, 21 

Dozier, Velma Davis, 17, 20–21 

Dozier Foundation, 20 

drum 

Burundi tambour, 6 

Senufo, 19, 139, 176, 176–77 

Yoruba, 276 

Dutch, influence of, in Africa, 264, 282 

Dwo (Bobo deity), 122 

dye. See camwood; henna; ikat 

Edo, Nigeria, 19, 39, 44–46, 301 

see also Benin kingdom; Bini 

education, sub-Saharan traditional, 121 

Egypt, ancient, 35 n.4, 268, 306 

bust of pharaoh, Seti I, 182–83 

coffin, 184–85 

combs found in, 232 

limestone relief, 180, 180–81 

Ekonda (DRC), 301 

hat, as regalia, 74–75 

Ekpe society, 304 

Elefon. See Epa 

Eleko, HRH Eshugbayi, 192 

elephant 

mask (Bamileke), 6, 70, 71 

mask (Kuba), 188, 189 

as symbol, 68, 78 

elephant tail, as decoration, 78, 78 

Emobo ceremony, 48, 50 

Epa (Elephon), Yoruba festival, 142 

Erinle (Yoruba hunter deity), 268 

Eshu (Yoruba deity), 106, 108, 144, 268 

Esigie, prince of Benin, 48, 52, 54 

Espalargucs, studio of Pere, Altarpiece 

Section: Angels and Gabriel 

(15th. cent.), 29, 29 

Ethiopia, 261, 306 

processional crosses, 7, 21–22, 264–66, 265 

The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art 

Fund, Inc., 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26 

Eugene McDermott Foundation, Dallas, 17, 

20, 23 

Europeans 

influence of, on African art, 261, 304 

as spirits of the dead, 272 

as subject matter for African artists, 261, 

272–76, 286, 287 

Ewua, Nigeria, standing figure, 14, 14 

exhibitions of African art, 13–24 passim, 

35 n.2, 219, 290 

Ezana, king of Axum, 264 

Fagg, William, 32, 111, 144, 178 n.3 

Fakeye, Akobi Ogun, of Ila Orangun, 19, 32, 

112–13 

Fakeye, Lamidi Olonade, 35 n.16, 112 

Fang (Cameroon and Gabon), 198, 301, 302 

four-faced helmet mask, 20, 272–75, 273 

ngil mask of, 272 

reliquary figures, 8 (det.), 101, 198–99 

Farr, Steve, 17 

Fasan of Isare (Yoruba sculptor), 276 

feathers, as decoration, 174, 178 n.34, 188–89, 

198, 280 

fertility, 101, 140, 148, 158 

figure 

Akan miniature cast-brass, 24 

Dogon nommo, 18 

equestrian, 23, 102–103, 260 (det.), 262, 

268–70 

female 

on Cham/Mwona divination vessel, 148, 

149 

Djennenke/Soninke, 18, 30, 35 n.9, 42–43 

Igbo 

initiation, 18, 134–35 

shrine, 19 

Igede seated shrine, 146–47 

Luba initiation, 33, 136–37 

Lulua caryatid for headrest, 228, 230 

Mbala fertility (pindi), 15, 116–17 

Songye power (nkishi), 164–65 

as symbolic, 121 

Yanzi ritual (mbem), 156–57 

Yombe, pfemba, 100 (det.), 114–15 

ancestral (pfemba), 206–207 

see also rhythm pounder 

female and male, Yoruba twin (ere ibeji), 

62, 194–95 

guardian, 198–99 

Kongo, of a religious, 266–67 

Lega four-faced half (Sakimatwematwe), 20, 

64–65 

male 

Baule seated, 20, 23, 104–105, 262 

Benin kingdom, chief (iyase), 23, 52–55 

Boma standing, 15, 16, 33 

Bwa standing, 19 

Chokwe ritual container as, 150–51 

Ewua, Nigeria, 14, 14 

Fang reliquary guardian, 8 (det.), 198–99 

Hemba ancestor (singiti), 18, 33, 212–13 

Ibibio ancestor (ekpu), 196–97 

Igbo shrine (ikenga), 19 

Kota Janus reliquary guardian, 25, 

200–101 

Luba shrine, 15, 154–55 

Lulua protective (mbulenga), 19, 152–53 

Mbala drumming (pindi), 116 

Mboma seated funerary (ntadi), 210–11 

Sango reliquary guardian (mbumba 

bwiti), 202–203 

Senufo equestrian, 102–103 

Sokoto, 23, 25, 26, 40–41 

Songye power (nkishi), 164, 166–67 

Tsogo reliquary guardian, 204–205 

Yombe 

kneeling ancestor, 208–209 

power (nkisi), 23, 160–63, 178 n.21 

Yoruba horse-and-rider (elesin Shango), 

23, 260 (det.), 268–71 

maternity, 114, 115 

miniature fertility, 19 

Mumuye standing, 18 

power, 23, 139, 160–67 

reliquary, 8 (det.), 101, 179, 198–99, 201–205 

shrine, 15, 19, 112, 139, 146–47, 154–55, 194, 

268 

Zande nazeze-type (yanda), 18, 158–59 

Fischer, Eberhard and Barbara, 32 

Fogelson, Mr. and Mrs. E. E., 17 

Foundation for the Arts, DMA, 19, 23 

Fowler Museum, University of California at 

Los Angeles, 108 

Foxworth, Mr. and Mrs. Walter, 17 

Friends of African and African-American 

Art, DMA, 22 

funeral, 76, 179, 180–81, 186, 188, 196, 214 n.1, 

228 

Gao empire. See Songhai empire 

Gates, Jay, 22 

Ghana empire. See Wagadu empire 

Giacometti, Alberto, 20 

Golden Stool (Asante symbol), 232 

Greaves, Donald W., 17 

Grebo (Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia), 302 

ceremonial bowls, 242–43 

Greece, figure from funerary relief 

(c. 330 BC), 29, 29 

index 317 

Guerre, Léonce Pierre, Collection, Marseille, 

214 n.18 

Guro (Côte d’Ivoire), 302 

helmet mask, 22, 170–71, 178 n.30 

Gustave and Franyo Schindler Collection of 

African Sculpture, 17, 20, 25 

Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia, 21–22, 

266 

Hammer, Deborah Stokes, 111 

Hammer, Jeffrey, 111 

Hamon, Nancy, 25 

Hampton University, Virginia, collection 

of African art at, 20, 256 n.40 

Hare, J. N., 148 

harp, Zande (kundi), 19, 218 (det.), 244–45 

hat 

for Bamileke elephant mask, 6, 70–73, 

97 (det.) 

Cameroon Grasslands, 24 

Ekonda tiered (botolo), 22, 74–75 

Kuba prestige (kalyeem; mpaan), 76–77 

Lega regalia (mukuba; sawamazembe), 78–79 

Pende regalia, 280 

Yaka/Suku regalia (misango mayaki), 22, 

280–81 

see also headdress; skullcap 

Hausa (Cameroon, Ghana, and Niger), 302 

man’s robe, 252–53, 262 

Hawley, Henry W. III, 19 

head, Yoruba “inner” 

house of (ile ori), 24, 62–63, 110, 112, 262, 

307 (det.) 

ibori, as symbolic soul, 24, 62, 62 

ori, 108 

headdress, 18 

Baga D’mba, 18, 140–41 

Bamileke feathered, 70–73, 97 (det.) 

Benin iyase, 52 

Budja bird-form, 25 

Cham/Mwona divination figure, 148, 149 

Egyptian royal (nemes), 182, 183 

Igbo masquerade, 18, 126, 126 

Ijo water-spirit, 25 

Luba diviner’s beaded, 256 n.16 

Yombe ancestor figure, 206, 207 

Yoruba Epa, 25, 142–43, 178 n.3, 268, 276 

see also hat; mask 

headrest (African “pillow”), 219, 256 n.13 

Luba, 19, 219, 228–29 

Lulua, 228, 230 

Pende, 228, 256 n.17 

Shona (Wanoe), 231 

Zande, with storage box, 228, 231 

Heeramaneck Collection, New York, 13 

Hemba (DRC), 302, 304 

male ancestor figure, 18, 33, 212–13 

henna, as textile dye, 246, 247 

Henrique Kinu a Mvemba (Kongo prince), 

264 

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 20 

Himmelheber, Hans and Ulrike, 31 

Holland, Edwin, 92 

Holo (DRC), 305 

Hondt, Gustave de (d. 1952), 15 

Horankh (25th Dynasty Egyptian), coffin of, 

184, 185 

horn 

animal, 130, 131, 144, 168, 169, 170, 171, 238, 

280 

and ritual medicine, 142, 164, 176, 276 

Mende side-blown, 23, 86–89 (det.), 87 

horses, in West Africa, 102, 268, 276 

Ibibio (Nigeria), 304 

iconography 

Bamileke elephant mask, 72 

Baule ointment pot, 236 

Benin kingdom, 48, 144 

Luba, 82 

Yoruba, 56–59, 106, 144 

Ida ou Nadif, 246, 300 

Ida ou Zeddoute, 246, 300 

Idoma (Nigeria), 178 n.6, 302 

Ifa ritual, 106, 144, 194 

Ife, Nigeria, 34, 58, 305 

Igbo (Nigeria), 144, 302 

figure 

female initiation, 18, 134–35 

female shrine, 19 

male shrine (ikenga), 19 

headdress, 18 

mask (igri), 24, 126–27 

Igede (Nigeria), 146, 178 n.6, 302 

shrine figure, 146–47 

Ijebu kingdom (Yoruba), 56 

Ijo (Nigeria), water-spirit headdress, 25 

ikat (dyeing technique), 252, 252 

Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 34, 54, 60, 144 

infanticide, 194 

infertility, 102, 104, 108 

ritual objects to alleviate, 101, 139, 156 

initiation. See coming of age 

installations, DMA, 13, 15, 18–19, 22, 23 

Institute des Musées Nationaux du Zaire, 

210 

instruments, musical, 219, 276, 305 

see also drum; harp; horn 

Islam 

and African art, 262, 268, 270, 302 

spread of, 42, 222, 252, 261, 268, 300, 306 

ivory 

Afro-Portuguese, 86, 88, 286 

Kuba kingdom and, 303 

sculpture of, 23, 48–51, 86, 106, 108, 109, 

228, 232, 254, 268–71 

as status symbol, 188, 232, 268 

Jacks, Mr. and Mrs. James H. W., 24 

Jenne (Jenne-Jeno; Old Jenne), 42 

jewelry, 219 

João I, king of the Kongo kingdom, 264 

Junior Associates, DMA, 24 

Kagoro clan (Soninke), 42 

Kamali, Norma, 290 

Kan, Michael, 17 

Kanyok (DRC), 302 

water pipe, 15, 282, 284 (det.), 285 

Kelland, Private William, 50 

Kelly, Patrick, 294 

kente. See textiles 

kingship, 39, 48, 56, 60, 154, 282, 303 

Klee, Paul, 20 

Kom, Cameroon, 300 

Komo association (Bamana), 168 

Kongo (DRC), 302, 305 

figure of a religious, 266–67 

see also Mboma; Yombe 

Kongo kingdom, 264, 302, 304, 305 

Kongolo, king of the Luba, 303 

Kota (Gabon and Congo), 302, 304 

reliquary figures, 25, 101, 198, 200–201 

Kuba (DRC), 31, 39, 188, 303, 305 

ceremonial cup, 238–39 

funeral mask, 24, 188–89 

Itul ceremony, 7, 248 

king, 188, 256 n.40 

overskirt, 7, 19–20, 219, 248–49, 256 n.40 

pigment box, 236–37 

prestige hat, 76–77 

textiles, 290, 293, 293 

cut-pile embroidered raffia, 19–20, 

290–91, 297 (det.) 

see also Bushoong 

Kuosi (Kwosi) (Bamileke society), 70 

Kweni. See Guro 

Kwosi. See Kuosi

318 index index 319 

LaGamma, Alisa, 178 n.21 

Lalibela, king of the Axum, 264 

Lamb, Venice and Alastair, Collection, 

United Kingdom, 252, 

256 n.45 

Lamp, Frederick, 140 

Lane, John R., 24 

Leakey, Dr. Louis, and Mary, 31 

Ledbetter, Huddie “Leadbelly,” 33, 33 

Ledbetter, Mr. and Mrs. James, 17 

Leff, Jay C., 13 

Lega (DRC), 39, 64, 78, 303 

four-faced half figure, 20, 64–65 

hat, as regalia, 78–79 

mask, insignia, 66–67 

ritual among, 66, 66, 78 

Legrain, Pierre-Emile, 290 

Lobi, Ghana, 18 

lock. See door lock 

Lower Niger Bronze Industry, bell, 18, 

144–45 

Luba (DRC), 302, 303, 304 

figure 

female initiation, 33, 136–37 

male, shrine, 15, 154–55 

headdress, 256 n.16 

headrest, 19, 228–29 

masks, 12 (det.), 172–75, 215 (det.) 

stool, 82–83 

Lulua (DRC), 303 

headrest, 228, 230 

protective figure, 19, 152–53 

Lunda empire, 280, 305 

Lunsford, John, 14, 15, 18 

Luwe (Eastern Luba hunting spirit), 154 

Luyties, Frederic A., III, 24 

Lwena (DRC and Angola), comb, 232, 234–35 

Lydenburg, South Africa, terracotta heads, 

29, 31 

Lynch, Cristina, 24, 25 

Lynch, Peter Hanszen, 24 

Makonde (Mozambique and Tanzania), 121, 

128, 303 

helmet mask, 24, 128–29 

Mali empire, 42, 268, 286 

Malinke (West Africa), 300 

Mande (West Africa), 300 

Mangbetu (DRC), 303, 305 

vessel, palm wine, 286, 288–89, 296 n.37 

Mani society (Zande), 158 

manilla (bracelet as currency), 278 

Manowulo (Mende sculptor, act. 1935–1960), 

25, 32, 121, 130–33, 262 

mantle, Teke, 20 

map, of Africa, 298–99 

Marcus, Billie, 13, 17, 18 

Marcus, Linda, 19, 22 

Marcus, Stanley, 13, 17, 18, 19, 22 

Margaret McDermott Curator of African Art 

Endowment Fund, DMA, 27 n.26 

Marks, Mr. and Mrs. Richard K., 17 

mask, 25, 139, 170 

Bamileke elephant (mbap mteng), 6, 70–72, 

71 

Bamum, 94 

Bobo Nwenka, 18, 19, 101, 121, 122–23, 139 

Chokwe Cihongo, 80 

crown as, 60–61 

Dan face, 25, 124–25 

Fang four-faced helmet (ñgontang), 20, 

272–75, 273 

Fang ngil, 272 

Guro helmet 

gye, 22, 170–71, 178 n.30 

yu, 170 

Igbo face (igri), 24, 126–27 

Kuba Mukenga Muykeem, 24, 188–89 

Lega insignia (lukwakongo), 66–67 

Lwena, 234, 234 

Makonde helmet (muti wa lipiko), 24, 

128–29 

Mende 

gbini, 86, 88 

helmet (sowei), 25, 32, 130–33, 131, 262 

Pende 

miniature pendant (gikhokho), 219, 

254–55 

village (mbuyu), 238 

Senufo helmet (komo), 23, 27 n.28, 168–69 

Songye/Luba helmet (kifwebe), 172–74, 173, 

215 (det.) 

Tempe-Songye helmet (kifwebe), 12 (det.), 

172, 172 (det.), 174, 174, 175 

Vagala, 18 

Yaka horned, 280 

Yoruba Epa, 142–43, 178 n.3 

see also headdress 

Master of the Owu Shrine (c. 1850–c. 1925), 

110–11, 111 

Mbala (DRC), 303 

figures (pindi), 15, 116–17 

oil vessel, 256 n.29 

Mbidi Kiluwe (17th-cent. Luba ruler), 82, 154, 

155 

Mboma (Angola and DRC), 302, 303 

seated funerary figure (ntadi), 210–11 

Mbra (Baule deity), 104 

McDermott, Eugene, 14, 17, 18 

McDermott, Margaret (Mrs. Eugene 

McDermott), 14, 17, 18, 25, 25, 27 n.26 

McDermott Fund. See Eugene and Margaret 

McDermott Art Fund, Inc. 

McKinney, Alma L., 24 

Meadows, Mr. and Mrs. Algur H., 18 

Meadows Foundation Inc., Dallas, 18 

medicine, ritual, 130, 136, 139, 142, 150, 152, 

158, 160–64 passim, 176, 198, 206, 

276 

men 

art objects made by, 31 

clothing for, 252 

masquerade and, 121, 122, 124, 126, 128, 

130, 172, 174, 272 

Mende (Sierra Leone), 32, 130, 132–33, 303 

gbini mask, 86, 88 

helmet mask, by Manowulo, 25, 32, 121, 

130–33, 131, 262 

side-blown horn, 23, 86–89 (det.), 87 

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 

27 n.7, 256n n.3, 9 

Milwaukee Art Museum, 20 

Moba, Ghana, 18 

Modigliani, Amedeo, 20, 262 

Moore, William, 13 

Mosier, Madelon, 17 

Muba, Voania (Voanya; d. 1928), 18, 261, 

286–88, 305 

Mukenga society (Kuba), 188 

Mumuye, Nigeria, standing figure, 18 

Murray, Kenneth C., Archives, Lagos, 

Nigeria, 111 

Musée de l’Homme, Paris, 17 

Musée Dynamique à Dakar, Senegal, 22 

Museum of Cultural History, University of 

California at Los Angeles, 18 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 22 

Museum of Modern Art, New York, 15, 20, 

219 

Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 13, 17, 

27 n.7 

Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 110 

music. See instruments, musical 

Muslim 

holy men (mori), 130 

horsemen, 42, 102, 268, 276 

jihads, 176 

Mwona (Nigeria), 178 n.8 

divination vessel, 148–49 

see also Cham/Mwona 

Nafana, Ghana, 18 

Nasher, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond D., 17 

National Museum of African Art, 

Smithsonian Institution, 

Washington, D.C., 35 n.2, 206, 

214 n.37 

National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 

50 

Ndebele, South Africa, 304 

cape (linaga), 21, 250–51 

New York World’s Fair (1939), 15 

Niger, Lower, 306 

see also Lower Niger Bronze Industry 

Nigeria 

ancient. See Niger, Lower 

horses in, 268 

national dress in, 252–53, 256 n.45, 302 

see also Benin kingdom 

Nigerian National Museum, Lagos, 50, 111 

Njoro, Kenya, vessel (c. 850 BC), 29, 31 

Nkrumah, Kwame, 294 

Nok (Nigeria), sculpture from, 29, 30, 40, 306 

North Sotho (Ndebele), Zimbabwe, 304 

Ntumu (Fang, Gabon), 272 

Nubia, ancient, 184 

Ny-Ank-Nesut (Egyptian official), 

decoration from tomb of, 180, 

180–81 

Oba Akenzua II (1933–1978), 48, 51 

Oba Eleko, 192 

Oba Erediauwa, 46 

Oba Esigie, 50 

Oba Overami, 48 

Oba Ozolua, 52 

Oba William Adetona Ayeni, 60 

oba (king), 42, 46, 47, 48, 52, 54, 60, 108, 192, 

264, 268 

Obatala (Yoruba deity), 62 

Oduduwa, the Supreme Being (Yoruba), 34, 

60 

Odum, Rev. Elzie, Jr., 294 

offerings 

containers for, 19, 24, 90–93 (det.), 112–13 

Egyptian funerary, 180, 180–81 

for masks, 170 

for yanda figures, 158 

Ogboni society (Yoruba), 56 

Ogoga of Ikere, 92 

Ogun (Yoruba deity), 56, 268, 276 

oil, use of, on wooden sculptures, 42, 76, 136 

Olbrechts, Frans (1899–1958), 15, 27 n.13, 31, 

35 n.13 

Old Jenne. See Jenne 

Olodumare or Olorun (Yoruba Creator God), 

62, 106 

Oloko (Yoruba ancestor figure), 142 

Olokun (Benin kingdom and Yoruba deity), 

52, 54, 60 

Olorun. See Olodumare 

Olosanyin (Yoruba ancestor priest), 142, 

178 n.3 

Olowe of Ise (c. 1875–c. 1938), 24, 32, 90–93, 

106, 262, 276 

Oni of Ife (Yoruba king), 56 

Opoku Ware I, king, Ghana, 294 

Orisha-oko (Yoruba deity), 268 

Oron (Nigeria), 304 

ancestor figures, 196–97 

Orunmila (Yoruba deity), 106, 108 

Osanyin (Yoruba deity), 142, 276 

Osei Tutu, first Asante king, 232 

Oshamuko of Osi (act. c. 1920–c. 1950), 32, 

142–43 

Oshugbo society (Yoruba), 24, 58 

Oshun (Benin and Yoruba deity), 144 

Osiris (Egyptian deity), 182, 184 

Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Fund, 20, 22 

Ovimbundu, Angola, 304 

figural pipe, 18, 282–83 

Owen, Michael G., Leadbelly (1943), 33, 33 

Owo kingdom, Nigeria, 34, 270 

Owsley, David T., 23 

Oyo (king), 110 

Oyo, Nigeria, 60 

Oyo Yoruba empire, 110, 194, 268 

Païlès, Isaac, 104, 262 

Palmer, Wells, 190, 192 

pangolin 

imagery of, 52, 219 

pattern (nkaka) derived from, 228, 229, 

256 n.16 

Parker, Harry S. III, 17, 18, 19 

parrot, African gray, feathers of, 70, 72, 73, 97 

(det.), 152, 188, 188, 189 

Pelrine, Diane, 23 

Pemberton, John, 178 n.3 

pendant, ivory waist (Benin kingdom), 23, 

30, 38 (det.), 48–51, 49, 261 

Pende (DRC), 219, 280, 303, 304, 305 

ceremonial adze, 84–85 

ceremonial palm-wine cups, 19, 238–40 

headrest, 256 n.17 

masks, 25 

miniature pendant, 254–55 

village, 238 

Pereira, Duarte Pacheco, 44 

Perutz, Mr. and Mrs. George, 17, 24 

Phillips, Ruth B., 132 

Picasso, Pablo, 20, 25, 262 

Bust (1907–1908), 290, 290 

pillow. See headrest 

pipe 

Bamum prestige, 94–95, 282 

Kanyok water, 15, 282, 284 (det.), 285 

Ovimbundu figural, 18, 282–83 

water, described, 296 n.31 

Pitman, Bonnie, 24 

plaque, bronze 

four-figure, 44, 44, 278 

single-figure, 2 (det.), 44–46, 45, 54 

Poro (secret society), 130, 168, 176, 186, 301, 

303, 304 

Portugal 

influence of, 44, 261, 264, 278, 282, 301, 302 

ivories commissioned by, 86, 88, 286 

pot, ointment, Baule, 19, 236, 236 

praise poem, Yoruba (oriki), 32, 268, 270 

pre-Dogon culture, Mali, 18, 30, 42 

Redden, Hebe, 21 

Redden, Kenneth, 21–22, 266 

regalia, 68–69, 74–75, 78–79, 84–86, 88, 136, 

144, 280, 280 

relics, customs pertaining to, 101, 179, 198, 

198, 200, 200, 202 

relief 

Benin bronze, 44–46 

Egyptian funerary, 180, 180–81 

Greek funerary, 29, 29 

rhythm pounder (Senufo), 18, 186–87, 214 n.7 

ring, Yoruba ritual sacrifice, 24, 56–59 (det.), 

57 

Robbins, Carol, 19, 21, 26 

robe, Hausa man’s (dandogo), 252–53, 262 

Robinson, Judith, 17 

Robinson, Linda, 17 

Rose, Deedie, 27 n.26 

Ross, Doran H., 18 

Roy, Christopher D., 22 

Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, 

Belgium, 14, 15, 17, 228, 256 n.39 

Rubin, Ida and Jerry, 14 

Sabean culture, 306 

saltcellar, Portuguese ivory, 86, 88 

Sande (Bundu) society (Mende), 86, 130, 

132–33, 303 

Sandogo (Senufo society of women 

diviners), 176, 186, 304 

Sango (Gabon), 198, 304 

reliquary guardian figure, 200–203 

Sapi (Sierra Leone), as ivory carvers, 86, 286 

Schindler, Gustave and Franyo, 17–18, 19 

sculptor(s) 

advertising by, 224, 236 

Dan glen ye meh, 124 

of reliquary figures (Ntem River, Gabon, 

act. c. 1800–1860), 198, 214 n.18 

see also Arowogun; Buli Master; 

Manowulo; Master of the Owu 

Shrine; Muba; Olowe; Oshamuko; 

Semangoy 

sculpture 

conventions of African, 32–33, 62, 104, 194 

imoju-mora (imagination) in, 142 

as influence on European art, 262 

naturalism in, 34, 124, 304 

see also art; figure; mask 

Seattle Art Museum, 214 n.18 

Semangoy of Zokolunga, reliquary figure 

by, 32, 200–201 

Senufo (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and 

Mali), 300, 304 

divination among, 102, 176 

drum, 19, 139, 176, 176–77 

equestrian figure, 102–103 

mask, helmet, 23, 27 n.28, 168–69 

rhythm pounder, 18, 186–87, 214 n.7 

Seti I, Egyptian pharaoh, bust of, 182–83 

Sewa-Mende. See Mende 

Shango (Yoruba deity), 110, 112, 194, 268, 

269, 270, 271, 276 

Sheppard, William H., 219, 256 n.40 

Sherbro (Sierra Leone), 86 

Shona (Wanoe), Zimbabwe, headrest, 231 

Shoowa (Kuba, DRC), 20 

shrine, as memorial, 179, 194, 206, 206, 208, 

210 

see also figure, shrine 

Shyaam-a-Mbul Ngwoong (Kuba king), 76 

Sieber, Roy (1923–2001), 35 n.2, 219 

silk, 256 n.45, 294, 295 

Singleterry, Mr. and Mrs. Lee M., 19 

skullcap, pineapple fiber (mpu), 162, 163, 208, 

209, 210, 211 

slave trade, 261, 264, 302 

Slye, Jonathan, 178 n.8 

snake, imagery of, 44, 52, 54, 144, 176 

Sokoto culture, Nigeria, 30, 306 

male figure, 23, 26, 40–41 

Songhai (Gao) empire, 42, 268 

Songye (DRC), 19, 304 

masks, 172–75, 178 n.34 

power figures, 164–67, 178n n.21, 22 

Songye-Tempe (DRC), masks, 12 (det.), 

172–73 

Soninke. See Djennenke 

Sotho. See North Sotho 

St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Tex., 22 

staff, Yoruba ritual (opa orere), 142, 143 

status, art as symbol of, 39, 94, 232, 238 

Stillman, Clark, 14, 15, 18, 27 n.6, 35 n.13 

Stillman, Frances, 14, 15, 35 n.13 

Stillman Collection. See Clark and Frances 

Stillman Collection of Congo 

Sculpture 

Stolper Galleries of Primitive Art, New York 

and Los Angeles, 13 

stool 

Asante symbolism of, 232 

Baule, 104 

Kanyok chief’s, for divination, 282 

Luba throne (kipona), 82–83 

as regalia figure, 64, 82, 82, 232 

for shrine figure, 146, 147 

see also chair; Golden Stool 

Stout, Renée, Fetish #2 (1988), 262, 263 

Suku, DRC, 304, 305 

regalia hat, 280–81 

sword hilt (10th-cent. bronze), 268 

Tada, Nigeria, sculpture from, 34 

Tanning, Dorothea, Pincushion to Serve as 

Fetish (1979), 262, 262 

tapper, Yoruba divination (iro Ifa), 19, 106, 

108, 109 

Tayewo (Yoruba master sculptor), 112 

Teke (DRC), 20, 305 

Temne (Sierra Leone), harp, 86 

Tempe. See Songye-Tempe 

tent, Tuareg (ehen), 226 

tent post, Tuareg (ehel), 219, 226–27 

Tetela (DRC), 172, 178 n.31 

Textile Fund, The , DMA, 26 

textiles, 219, 252, 262 

Asante kente, 25–26, 28 (det.), 294–95, 

296 n.43 

as currency, 248, 290 

Dogon bologon, 290 

East African kikoi, 290 

European, for masquerade costume, 

190–93 

Kuba cut-pile and embroidered raffia, 

19–20, 290–93, 291, 297 (det.) 

see also clothing; mantle; veil 

Thompson, Robert Farris, 32 

throne. See chair 

tobacco, use of, in Africa, 94, 282, 296 n.31 

tomb, Egyptian, 180, 180–81, 182 

tongs, Yoruba Oshugbo ritual, 24 

tools, for sculpture, 32, 32 

torque (Yoruba), 278–79 

trade beads, 20–21, 21 

tray, Yoruba divination (opon Ifa), 106–108, 

107, 144 

Tsogo (Gabon), 198, 304 

reliquary guardian figure, 204–205 

Tuareg, 304 

tent posts, 219, 226–27 

Tutankhamun, nesting coffin of, 184 

twins (Yoruba: ibeji), 110 

figures of (ere ibeji), 194–95 

patron saint of, 110, 194 

sculpture of primordial, as ritual objects, 

102 

Tyekpa (Senufo women’s society), 176 

Udo (Benin, Nigeria), 50, 52 

Ungaro, Emmanuel, 290 

University of Arizona, 35 n.9, 96 n.3 

University of Pennsylvania Museum, 228 

University of Virginia, 22 

Vagala (Ghana), mask, 18 

Vandenhoute, P. J. L., 32 

veil, Amazigh (Berber), marriage/ 

ceremonial, 246, 246, 247 

vessel 

Baule water, 236 

Cham/Mwona divination (itinate), 148–49 

drinking, 219 

Longuda ritual (kwandalowa), 178 n.8 

Mangbetu palm wine, 286, 288, 289, 

296 n.37 

Mwona healing, 178 n.8 

Njoro, Kenya, 29, 31 

Woyo effigy, 18, 261, 286–87 

see also bowl; bowl carrier; cup 

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 

20 

Vlaminck, Maurice de, 262 

Vogel, Susan Mullin, 20–21, 32 

Vurungura clan, Zande, 158 

Wagadu (Ghana) empire, 42, 268 

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 14 

Walschot, Jeanne (1896–1977), 15 

wand. See dance wand 

Wanoe. See Shona 

Wardlaw, Alvia, 20 

We (Côte d’Ivoire), ceremonial bowls, 242 

weaving. See textiles 

319 

well-being, art to promote, 139–76 

wheel, form of, as imagery, 86–89 

Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Dan, 17, 19 

Wingert, Paul S., 13 

women 

ancestor figures of, 196, 206, 207 

art objects made by, 20, 31, 94 

authority figures for, 156 

clothing for, 20, 246–51 

combs for, 232 

dances of, 176 

divination and, 108, 176, 186, 282 

initiation for, 128, 130, 134–36 

as makers of ritual vessels, 178 n.8 

masquerade and, 121, 126, 130–33, 172, 174, 

303 

matrilineal society and, 116, 118, 302, 304, 

305 

mental health of, 139, 176 

regalia for, 76, 77 

status of, in Luba society, 303 

as symbol, 82 

Wongo (DRC), 305 

ceremonial cup, 238, 241, 256 n.33 

wood, for sculpture, 30, 32, 42, 64, 178 n.22 

oiled, 42, 136, 140 

World Festival of Negro Arts (Dakar, 

Senegal, 1967), 22 

Woyo (Angola, DRC, Republic of the 

Congo), 302, 305 

effigy vessel, 18, 261, 286–88, 287, 305 

writing, Bamum, 300 

Wunderman, Lester, 18 

Wuro (Bobo Creator God), 122 

x-ray, of Yombe power figure, 160, 178 n.22 

Yaka (DRC), 304, 305 

mask, horned, 280 

regalia hat, 22, 280–81 

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 

Conn., 206 

Yanzi (DRC), 305 

ritual figure, 156–57 

Yombe (DRC and Republic of the Congo), 

206, 302, 305 

ancestor figure 

kneeling, 208–209 

maternal, 206–207 

headdress, ancestor figure, 206, 207 

pfemba, fertility cult, 100 (det.), 114–15 

power figures, 23, 160–63, 178 n.21 

Yoruba (Nigeria), 39, 60, 62, 179, 282, 305 

ancient kingdom of, 54, 144 

bowl 

lidded, by Arowogun, 19, 178 n.3, 261, 

276–77 

offering 

by Agbonbiofe, 24, 90, 90 

by Olowe, 24, 90–93 (det.), 91 

terracotta ritual, 19 

copper altar, 24 

crown, 60–61 

dance wand, 110–11, 276 

divination tapper, 19, 106, 108–109 

divination trays, 94, 106–108, 107, 144 

door, by Olowe, 92 

Egungun festival costume, 4–5 (det.), 139, 

190–93 (det.), 191 

Epa headdress, 25, 142–43, 178 n.3 

festivals, 142, 190 

figures 

horse-and-rider, 23, 260 (det.), 268–70, 

269 

twin, 194–95 

head, “inner,” as symbolic soul, 24, 62, 62 

house for, 24, 62–63, 110, 112, 262, 307 

(det.) 

masks, 139 

Epa, 142, 143, 178 n.3 

Oloko, 142 

Olosanyin, 142–43 

ring, ritual sacrifice, 24, 56–59 (det.), 57 

staff, ritual, 142, 143 

tongs, ritual, 24 

torque, 278, 279 

Zande (Central African Republic, DRC, and 

Sudan), 305 

harp, 19, 218 (det.), 244–45 

headrest-box, 228, 231 

nazeze-type figure, 18, 158–59

illustration and coPYriGht 

credits 

All photography, unless otherwise noted below, is © 2009 Dallas 

Museum of Art. 

Fig. 2: Carlebach Gallery, New York; fig. 13: © National Museums of 

Kenya; fig. 14: © Museum of South Africa / University of Cape Town; 

fig. 16: Photograph: Roslyn Adele Walker; fig. 17: © Estate of Michael G. 

Owen Jr.; fig. 18: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz / Art Resource, 

NY. Photograph: Dietrich Graf, Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche 

Museen zu Berlin; fig. 19: Courtesy of William Fagaly and the New 

Orleans Museum of Art; fig. 20: Werner Forman Archive; fig. 21: Photograph: 

John Pemberton III; fig. 22: Dr. Daniel P. Biebuyck; fig. 23: Photograph: 

Eliot Elisofon, EEPA EECL 1546. Eliot Elisofon Photographic 

Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 

Washington, D.C.; fig. 24: © Photo sCALA, Florence / Musée du Quai 

Branly. Photograph: Frank Christol; fig. 26: Photograph: David A. Binkley; 

fig. 27: Verney Lovett Cameron, Across Africa, Harper, New York, 

1877; fig. 28: D. K. Flickinger, History of the Origin, Development and Condition 

of Missions among the Sherbro and Mendi Tribes in Western Africa, United 

Brethren Publishing House, Dayton, Ohio, 1885; fig. 29: Photograph: 

Henrietta Cosentino; fig. 30: Photograph: courtesy of Alain de Monbrison 

/ Monbrison Archive; fig. 31: Photograph: Stephen Petergorsky, 

courtesy of John Pemberton III; fig. 32: Archives mission 21: Basel Mission, 

E-30.31.043. Photograph: Eugen Schwarz; fig. 33: © National Commission 

for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria. Photograph: Philip A. 

Allison; fig. 34: © Herbert M. Cole; fig. 35: © Simon Ottenberg and The 

University of Washington Press; fig. 36: Photograph: Lydia Puccinelli, 

1976. Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African 

Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; fig. 37: The Secret 

Museum of Mankind,Manhattan House, New York, 1935; fig. 38: X-ray: 

courtesy of Claire M. Barry, Chief Conservator, Kimbell Art Museum, 

Fort Worth, Texas; fig. 39: © abm-Archives Barbier-Mueller; fig. 40: 

Photograph: Eliot Elisofon, 1971, EEPA EEng 02271. Eliot Elisofon Photographic 

Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian 

Institution, Washington, D.C.; fig. 41: Christine El Mahdy, Mummies, 

Myth and Magic,Thames & Hudson Ltd., London, 1989. Drawing: Philip 

Winton; fig. 42: Photograph: Till Förster; fig. 43: Photograph: David A. 

Binkley; fig. 44: Photograph: John Pemberton III; fig. 45: Karl Zimmerman, 

Die Grenzgebiete Kameruns im Sudem und im Osten, Mitteilungen aus 

den Deutschen Schutzgebieten, 9a and 9b, Berlin, 1914. Photograph: 

Hans Gehne; fig. 46: Charles Stéphen-Chauvet, L’Art funeraire au Gabon, 

Immaculée, Castres, France, 1933; fig. 48: © Michel Huet / HOA-QUi / 

Eyedea; fig. 49: © Russell Sublette; fig. 50: © Froebenius-Institut; 

fig. 51: Gaetano Casati, Ten Years in Equatoria and the Return with Emin 

Pasha, transl. J. Randolph Clay and I. Walter Savage Landor, F. Warne, 

London, 1891; fig. 52: © Lucien Viola; fig. 53: Emil Torday and T. A. Joyce, 

Notes ethnographiques sur les peuples communément appelés Bakuba, ainsi que 

sur les peuplades apparentées, Les Bushongo; aquarelles par Norman H. Hardy, 

Ministry of the Colonies, Brussels, 1910; fig. 54: Photograph: Joseph 

Cornet; fig. 55: © Natalie Knight Productions, CC.; fig. 56: Photograph: 

David Radmore; fig. 57: © 1979 Dorothea Tanning / Artists Rights Society 

(ARs), New York / ADAgP, Paris; fig. 58: © Renée Stout, Washington, 

D.C.; fig. 60: © Archives du Musée Gabon; fig. 61: © Gelbard Photographic 

Archives of African Expressive Culture; fig. 62: Photograph: 

Casimir Zagourski, EEPA Zagourski Collection, 1987-241055, National 

Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; 

fig. 63: © Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARs), New 

York; fig. 64: © Cosima von Bonin; fig. 66: Photograph: Brad Flowers; 

pp. 98–99: Bruno de Hogues / Stone / Getty Images 

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Dallas Museum of Art 

www.DallasMuseumofArt.org 

Bonnie Pitman, The Eugene McDermott Director 

Roslyn A. Walker, Senior Curator, The Arts of Africa, the Americas, 

and the Pacific / The Margaret McDermott Curator of African Art 

Tamara Wootton-Bonner, Director of Exhibitions and Publications 

Eric Zeidler, Publications Coordinator 

Jessica Beasley, Curatorial Administrative Assistant, Ancient and 

Non-Western Art 

Giselle Castro-Brightenburg, Manager, Imaging Department 

Brad Flowers, Photographer 

Distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven and London 

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 

Dallas Museum of Art. 

The arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art / Roslyn Adele 

Walker. 

p. cm. 

Includes bibliographical references and index. 

isBn 978-0-300-13895-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 

1. Art, African —Catalogs. 2. Art—Texas—Dallas—Catalogs. 

3. Dallas Museum of Art—Catalogs. I. Walker, Roslyn A. II. Title. 

n7380.5.D36 2009 

709.6'0747642812 dc22 2009029308 

Front cover: Janus reliquary guardian figure, front view, cat. 69, p. 201; 

back cover: Janus reliquary guardian figure, rear view, cat. 69, p. 201; 

frontispiece: Plaque with single figure, detail of cat. 3, p. 45; pages 4–5: 

Egungun costume, detail of cat. 65, p. 191; page 6: Members of the elephant 

society, fig. 24, p. 70; Tambour drummers, Burundi, pp. 98–99; 

page 7: Kuba women dancing, fig. 54, p. 248; Priests of the Ethiopian 

Orthodox Church carrying brass crosses, fig. 59, p. 266; page 8: Reliquary 

guardian figure, detail of cat. 68, p. 199; page 12: Helmet mask 

(kifwebe), detail of cat. 58, p. 175; page 28: Textile (kente), detail of 

cat. 110, p. 295; page 38: Waist pendant, detail of cat. 4, p. 49; page 97: 

Hat for elephant mask, detail of cat 13b, p. 73; page 100: Seated female 

figure with child (pfemba), detail of cat. 31, p. 115; page 215: Helmet 

mask, detail of cat. 57, p. 173; page 218: Harp with human head (kunde), 

detail of cat. 92, p. 245; page 257: Fragment of a granary door or shutter, 

detail of cat. 76, p. 221; page 260: Horse-and-rider figure (elesin Shango), 

detail of cat. 100, p. 269; page 297: Cut-pile and embroidered raffia textile, 

detail of cat. 109, p. 291; page 307: House of the head (ile ori), detail 

of cat. 9, p. 63 

Principal photography by Brad Flowers 

Designed by Jeff Wincapaw 

Edited by Migs Grove and Frances Bowles 

Proofread by Sharon Rose Vonasch 

Map by Jeremy Linden 

Typeset by Marie Weiler in Enigma 2 and Fedra Sans 

Color management by iocolor, Seattle 

Produced by Marquand Books, Inc., Seattle www.marquand.com 

Printed and bound in China by Artron Color Printing Co., Ltd.

the arts of africa - Dallas Museum of Art

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