Lot Essay
Oyo, the most northerly of the Yoruba kingdoms and the one which was called by Johnson (1921) "Yoruba Proper", was the most dreaded military power in the region in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its alafin (king) is believed to be descended from Shango, the third alafin and the Thunder God of the Yoruba, to whom references are to be found in this magnificent pair of brass roof pillars from the palace at the former capital, Old Oyo.
Oyo asserted its power over its Yoruba neighbours through its use of cavalry (further south the ravages of the tsetse fly makes horse breeding impossible), and pushed southwards through the savannah country on the borders with Dahomey (now the Republic of Benin) eventually to establish a series of trade routes with the ports of Ouidah, Ardra and, later, Badagri. (Expansion along the coast further east was arrested by the influence of Benin city, who had established the port of Lagos.) Evidence of Oyo's links with Dahomey are to be seen in the stool upon which the female figure is seated: it is the taller Akan-style seat adapted by the Fon from their western neighbours. When, in 1724, Dahomey agreed to pay tribute to the alafin and continued to do so until Gezo's (of Dahomey) victory of 1827. During the second half of the eighteenth century Oyo was one of the most powerful and wealthy kingdoms in Africa.
The last great alafin, Abiodun, established a chain of small towns along the trade route through the Egbado, installing his own sons as vassal rulers: his commerce was mainly in the hands of the royal wives and eunuchs. Abiodum had strengthened the kingship vis-a-vis the Oyo mesi (elders) who, on his death, chose "a man whose disposition was judged to be more amenable to pressure from his various bodies of councillors" (Morton-Williams, 1967, p.42). Awole made a number of misguided appointments which eventually led to the destruction of the city in the mid 1830's.
To abbreviate Peter Morton-Williams' (1995, p.) quote from Johnson (1921, p.259) "Shitta...the Emir of Ilorin sent Jimba... to ransack the palace at Oyo...and among the other things removed were the 100 brass posts in the long corridor of the palace erected by King AGANJU". Jimba was the closest military leader and guard of Shi'ta, the second Emir of Ilorin, and whilst it was widely held that the brass pillars were melted down for munitions in the wars between Ilorin and various Yoruba polities, Prof. Stefan Reichmuth has informed Peter Morton-Williams that the descendents of Jimba claim to still hold opo ide (brass pillar(s)), but that he has not been granted permission to examine them.
Morton-Williams describes the coiffure of the seated female figure. It "is done in the style peculiar to certain devotees in the cult of Shango, the Yoruba Thunder-god and the legendary third Alaafin to reign at Old Oyo, whose mythical traits were central to the Yoruba construction of the character of their kingship. In New Oyo in the 1950's, the hair of Iyowu, Elegun Shango for the King's Shango temple of Koso, used to be dressed in the same style for important rites, although for the rest of the time he wore it in flat braids. The hair in this sculpture is rimmed by a rounded band, which looks as if it might include beads; in the instance of Elegun Iyowu, his was banded with a rope of charms, to protect his head, when in the state of trance, it became ridden (gun) by Shango. The hair of her infant, too, seems to have plaits indicating it was born as the gift of the god to the mother". He goes on to note that the rivets to the base section of the pillar are cast as human heads where the motif of the hair style is repeated. He deduces that the connection between the female figure and the vessel upon her head is a visual expression of linkage rather than portrayed from life, and that the whole composition is an image of the relationship of worshipper ( whether man or woman) in the status of wife to the divine Shango.
Stools of the Akan form may have reached Oyo along the Trade routes to the westward or to the Atlantic coast, or as booty after the defeat of an Ashanti army by one from Oyo in 1764 and then to have been in vogue for a few years in the alafin's palace.
When he describes the horseman, Morton-Williams remarks that the emphasis given to the bit and the bridle show us that the smiths who fashioned them were also practised makers of those for the famous Oyo cavalry; the bit is of the form known to have been used by them. The carefully represented stirrups, too, resemble those he has seen in New Oyo and said by their owner to have been brought by a forebear from the old capital. He goes on to speculate that the horseman may also be connected with Shango, a play on the notion of the apotheosized king riding his possessed devotees as a warrior rides his horse. Finally he hypothesises a date in the eighteenth century, possibly between 1750 and 1780, when the posts were probably cast.
The similarities and differences of these magnificent pillars with castings from elsewhere in the Yoruba sphere of influence are fascinating. Facial features are on the whole ignored and treated in a cursory fashion, whilst the accroutrements are elaborately detailed. The female figure, with the delicate curve of the upraised arms and the large feet spilling over the base demonstrate a combination of strength and subtlety not found further south: these traits are repeated in the exceptionally-long legs of the horse and the sturdy aspect of the rider.
In compiling this report we have quoted extensively from the works of Peter Morton-Williams (1960), (1964), (1965), (1967) and (1969)
Oyo asserted its power over its Yoruba neighbours through its use of cavalry (further south the ravages of the tsetse fly makes horse breeding impossible), and pushed southwards through the savannah country on the borders with Dahomey (now the Republic of Benin) eventually to establish a series of trade routes with the ports of Ouidah, Ardra and, later, Badagri. (Expansion along the coast further east was arrested by the influence of Benin city, who had established the port of Lagos.) Evidence of Oyo's links with Dahomey are to be seen in the stool upon which the female figure is seated: it is the taller Akan-style seat adapted by the Fon from their western neighbours. When, in 1724, Dahomey agreed to pay tribute to the alafin and continued to do so until Gezo's (of Dahomey) victory of 1827. During the second half of the eighteenth century Oyo was one of the most powerful and wealthy kingdoms in Africa.
The last great alafin, Abiodun, established a chain of small towns along the trade route through the Egbado, installing his own sons as vassal rulers: his commerce was mainly in the hands of the royal wives and eunuchs. Abiodum had strengthened the kingship vis-a-vis the Oyo mesi (elders) who, on his death, chose "a man whose disposition was judged to be more amenable to pressure from his various bodies of councillors" (Morton-Williams, 1967, p.42). Awole made a number of misguided appointments which eventually led to the destruction of the city in the mid 1830's.
To abbreviate Peter Morton-Williams' (1995, p.) quote from Johnson (1921, p.259) "Shitta...the Emir of Ilorin sent Jimba... to ransack the palace at Oyo...and among the other things removed were the 100 brass posts in the long corridor of the palace erected by King AGANJU". Jimba was the closest military leader and guard of Shi'ta, the second Emir of Ilorin, and whilst it was widely held that the brass pillars were melted down for munitions in the wars between Ilorin and various Yoruba polities, Prof. Stefan Reichmuth has informed Peter Morton-Williams that the descendents of Jimba claim to still hold opo ide (brass pillar(s)), but that he has not been granted permission to examine them.
Morton-Williams describes the coiffure of the seated female figure. It "is done in the style peculiar to certain devotees in the cult of Shango, the Yoruba Thunder-god and the legendary third Alaafin to reign at Old Oyo, whose mythical traits were central to the Yoruba construction of the character of their kingship. In New Oyo in the 1950's, the hair of Iyowu, Elegun Shango for the King's Shango temple of Koso, used to be dressed in the same style for important rites, although for the rest of the time he wore it in flat braids. The hair in this sculpture is rimmed by a rounded band, which looks as if it might include beads; in the instance of Elegun Iyowu, his was banded with a rope of charms, to protect his head, when in the state of trance, it became ridden (gun) by Shango. The hair of her infant, too, seems to have plaits indicating it was born as the gift of the god to the mother". He goes on to note that the rivets to the base section of the pillar are cast as human heads where the motif of the hair style is repeated. He deduces that the connection between the female figure and the vessel upon her head is a visual expression of linkage rather than portrayed from life, and that the whole composition is an image of the relationship of worshipper ( whether man or woman) in the status of wife to the divine Shango.
Stools of the Akan form may have reached Oyo along the Trade routes to the westward or to the Atlantic coast, or as booty after the defeat of an Ashanti army by one from Oyo in 1764 and then to have been in vogue for a few years in the alafin's palace.
When he describes the horseman, Morton-Williams remarks that the emphasis given to the bit and the bridle show us that the smiths who fashioned them were also practised makers of those for the famous Oyo cavalry; the bit is of the form known to have been used by them. The carefully represented stirrups, too, resemble those he has seen in New Oyo and said by their owner to have been brought by a forebear from the old capital. He goes on to speculate that the horseman may also be connected with Shango, a play on the notion of the apotheosized king riding his possessed devotees as a warrior rides his horse. Finally he hypothesises a date in the eighteenth century, possibly between 1750 and 1780, when the posts were probably cast.
The similarities and differences of these magnificent pillars with castings from elsewhere in the Yoruba sphere of influence are fascinating. Facial features are on the whole ignored and treated in a cursory fashion, whilst the accroutrements are elaborately detailed. The female figure, with the delicate curve of the upraised arms and the large feet spilling over the base demonstrate a combination of strength and subtlety not found further south: these traits are repeated in the exceptionally-long legs of the horse and the sturdy aspect of the rider.
In compiling this report we have quoted extensively from the works of Peter Morton-Williams (1960), (1964), (1965), (1967) and (1969)