.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This figure features in Kifaru, a Saga of Safari, Russell Aitken's acclaimed documentary film on Africa made in 1949.
The motif of the mounted warrior sculpted in wood and more rarely in ivory is placed in several different settings by the Yoruba: in temples or shrines of a number of gods (orisha); in the palaces of kings and the great houses of high-ranking chiefs (noblemen); and in the superstructure of some masks, notably the epa masks of the Ekiti-Yoruba. In temples and palaces it may take the form of free standing figures or be incorporated into columns supporting roofs; or, in smaller-scale figures, as supports or superstructures for lidded wooden bowls.
It may portray an individual great man either in his actual role as leading warrior or as emblematic of his power and achievements. In a religious setting it may represent a male orisha in one of his manifestations: but it may be a metaphorical representation of the relationship of orisha to worshipper or to the public at large. (For instance, the horseman in the setting of a shango temple may represent the god as mighty destroyer and also divine horseman who 'rides' the heads of his entranced priests and priestesses.)
The living cavalry warrior of the Yoruba people was specific to the kingdom and empire of Oyo - a city sacked circa 1835. Its armies were led by mounted war chiefs supported by archers (Clapperton wrote that 'the Eyeos [sc. Oyo] have the best bowmen in Africa').
This figure takes the form of an Oyo-Yoruba cavalryman, and the prominent pigtail suggests that he enjoyed the rank of esho, noblemen of the highest military grade. It may indeed be a representation of the Alafin (King) of Oyo's commander-in-chief ("the esho of the eshos") of whom the Yoruba Samuel Johnson wrote a century ago in his The History of the Yorubas. This supremo's office was created about the end of the seventeenth century when the might of Oyo was growing and winning it prominence in the Atlantic trade. (Oyo horsemen were able to range sounthwards to the coast because the West African coastal forest is interrupted by an extension of savanna to the sea through what are now the Republics of Benin and Togo.) The Kakanfo, in Johnson's words, on "taking office, he is first to shave his head completely, and 201 incisions are made on his occiput, with 201 lancets and specially prepared ingredients from 201 viols are rubbed into the cuts, one for each. This is supposed to render him fearless and courageous ... the hair on the inoculated part is allowed to grow long, and when plaited forms a ... pigtail". It is said that pigtails became a sort of badge for the esho. Johnson adds that the Kakanfo in war "carry no weapon but a baton known as the 'King's invincible staff'". Because the right arm of this figure is lost, it cannot be known if it was holding that baton or, like other pigtailed horsemen, a lance or javelin. The emphatic, greatly exaggerated, carving of the pigtail draws attention to his rank, besides helping the aesthetic balance of the composition and materially strengthening it. The beard was affected by warriors, supposedly copied from northern Muslim peoples. It is seen on other carvings.
Stylistically, the figure seems not to be a product of Oyo itself but of a sculptor further to the south-west, which would account for its having been collected in the Benin Republic (former Dahomey). In the eighteenth century Oyo established a trading route to the coast at Ouidah, running through a chain of vassal kingdoms and guarded by its armies. Increasingly in the course of the eighteenth century Oyo had to deploy its army to contain the rising power of the kingdom of Dahomey, its capital at Abomey, with its own ambitions to seize the seaports and control the trade. Despite Abomey's disciplined army with its growing skill in musketry, all went well for Oyo until the end of the century, when its own power was lessened by internal factions and invaders from across the R.Niger. Oyo rerouted the southern half of its trade eastwards to the port of Badagri, and according to Johnson, stationed two successive Kakanfo at Jabata (a.k.a.Djabata) in the south of its vassal kingdom of Shabe (a.k.a. Savè), north of Ketu and only 100km. N.E. of Abomey. In 1821 the Kakanfo's threat to Abomey and capability to defend Oyo territory ended in his rout by the Dahomey army, and by 1830 Shabe had been razed and the cavalry no more to be seen.
This figure may have been made to glorify a particular esho, or for the palace of a vassal, or for a temple/shrine. The last seems more probable. It could have been in honour of a specifically Oyo divinity: Shango, a deified king of Oyo as well as divine Thunderer; or Oranyan, the earliest Yoruba king, founder of a militarist nation and worshipped for success at the outset of any military enterprise, and worshipped by all esho; or a more ancient divinity said to originate from Ife, Alajogun, Lord of War. A further possibility is that it was the top piece of a composite carving embracing a large wooden bowl used in the service of Orumila, the divinity animating the Ifa oracle, in which case the bowl would have been used to contain the sacred palm nuts and small ivory markers used by the diviners. Some weight is given to this last possibility by the unusual placing of the horse's hooves. In other equestrian figures the horse stands four square; here they are on a small base that has been detached from something else. The pigtail might have served as a handle.
The style appears to derive from the Ketu area. The equipment: harness, reins, saddle, stirrups, is standard Oyo, as is also the costume of short tunic and knee-breeches: the fine ornament on the sheath to the broad sword could well represent a brass band. The triangular ears and lenticular eyes are a particular trait of the Ketu/Ohori/Ifonyin area now generally termed Anago. However we are unable to find a parallel to this master's inventive use of triangles to define spaces as well as solids. The face is a composition of triangular forms, down to the detail of the keeled eyelids, as are the spaces enclosed by the falling pigtail and the clustered legs - even the horse's eyes are lenticular. The horse is treated more sympathetically than usual in Yoruba art, having a greater horizontal dimension. Thus the composition of this majestic figure on his steed achieves an elegance beyond that usually associated with the art of the Yoruba. It certainly pre-dates the middle of the nineteenth century.
Professor Peter Morton-Williams
The motif of the mounted warrior sculpted in wood and more rarely in ivory is placed in several different settings by the Yoruba: in temples or shrines of a number of gods (orisha); in the palaces of kings and the great houses of high-ranking chiefs (noblemen); and in the superstructure of some masks, notably the epa masks of the Ekiti-Yoruba. In temples and palaces it may take the form of free standing figures or be incorporated into columns supporting roofs; or, in smaller-scale figures, as supports or superstructures for lidded wooden bowls.
It may portray an individual great man either in his actual role as leading warrior or as emblematic of his power and achievements. In a religious setting it may represent a male orisha in one of his manifestations: but it may be a metaphorical representation of the relationship of orisha to worshipper or to the public at large. (For instance, the horseman in the setting of a shango temple may represent the god as mighty destroyer and also divine horseman who 'rides' the heads of his entranced priests and priestesses.)
The living cavalry warrior of the Yoruba people was specific to the kingdom and empire of Oyo - a city sacked circa 1835. Its armies were led by mounted war chiefs supported by archers (Clapperton wrote that 'the Eyeos [sc. Oyo] have the best bowmen in Africa').
This figure takes the form of an Oyo-Yoruba cavalryman, and the prominent pigtail suggests that he enjoyed the rank of esho, noblemen of the highest military grade. It may indeed be a representation of the Alafin (King) of Oyo's commander-in-chief ("the esho of the eshos") of whom the Yoruba Samuel Johnson wrote a century ago in his The History of the Yorubas. This supremo's office was created about the end of the seventeenth century when the might of Oyo was growing and winning it prominence in the Atlantic trade. (Oyo horsemen were able to range sounthwards to the coast because the West African coastal forest is interrupted by an extension of savanna to the sea through what are now the Republics of Benin and Togo.) The Kakanfo, in Johnson's words, on "taking office, he is first to shave his head completely, and 201 incisions are made on his occiput, with 201 lancets and specially prepared ingredients from 201 viols are rubbed into the cuts, one for each. This is supposed to render him fearless and courageous ... the hair on the inoculated part is allowed to grow long, and when plaited forms a ... pigtail". It is said that pigtails became a sort of badge for the esho. Johnson adds that the Kakanfo in war "carry no weapon but a baton known as the 'King's invincible staff'". Because the right arm of this figure is lost, it cannot be known if it was holding that baton or, like other pigtailed horsemen, a lance or javelin. The emphatic, greatly exaggerated, carving of the pigtail draws attention to his rank, besides helping the aesthetic balance of the composition and materially strengthening it. The beard was affected by warriors, supposedly copied from northern Muslim peoples. It is seen on other carvings.
Stylistically, the figure seems not to be a product of Oyo itself but of a sculptor further to the south-west, which would account for its having been collected in the Benin Republic (former Dahomey). In the eighteenth century Oyo established a trading route to the coast at Ouidah, running through a chain of vassal kingdoms and guarded by its armies. Increasingly in the course of the eighteenth century Oyo had to deploy its army to contain the rising power of the kingdom of Dahomey, its capital at Abomey, with its own ambitions to seize the seaports and control the trade. Despite Abomey's disciplined army with its growing skill in musketry, all went well for Oyo until the end of the century, when its own power was lessened by internal factions and invaders from across the R.Niger. Oyo rerouted the southern half of its trade eastwards to the port of Badagri, and according to Johnson, stationed two successive Kakanfo at Jabata (a.k.a.Djabata) in the south of its vassal kingdom of Shabe (a.k.a. Savè), north of Ketu and only 100km. N.E. of Abomey. In 1821 the Kakanfo's threat to Abomey and capability to defend Oyo territory ended in his rout by the Dahomey army, and by 1830 Shabe had been razed and the cavalry no more to be seen.
This figure may have been made to glorify a particular esho, or for the palace of a vassal, or for a temple/shrine. The last seems more probable. It could have been in honour of a specifically Oyo divinity: Shango, a deified king of Oyo as well as divine Thunderer; or Oranyan, the earliest Yoruba king, founder of a militarist nation and worshipped for success at the outset of any military enterprise, and worshipped by all esho; or a more ancient divinity said to originate from Ife, Alajogun, Lord of War. A further possibility is that it was the top piece of a composite carving embracing a large wooden bowl used in the service of Orumila, the divinity animating the Ifa oracle, in which case the bowl would have been used to contain the sacred palm nuts and small ivory markers used by the diviners. Some weight is given to this last possibility by the unusual placing of the horse's hooves. In other equestrian figures the horse stands four square; here they are on a small base that has been detached from something else. The pigtail might have served as a handle.
The style appears to derive from the Ketu area. The equipment: harness, reins, saddle, stirrups, is standard Oyo, as is also the costume of short tunic and knee-breeches: the fine ornament on the sheath to the broad sword could well represent a brass band. The triangular ears and lenticular eyes are a particular trait of the Ketu/Ohori/Ifonyin area now generally termed Anago. However we are unable to find a parallel to this master's inventive use of triangles to define spaces as well as solids. The face is a composition of triangular forms, down to the detail of the keeled eyelids, as are the spaces enclosed by the falling pigtail and the clustered legs - even the horse's eyes are lenticular. The horse is treated more sympathetically than usual in Yoruba art, having a greater horizontal dimension. Thus the composition of this majestic figure on his steed achieves an elegance beyond that usually associated with the art of the Yoruba. It certainly pre-dates the middle of the nineteenth century.
Professor Peter Morton-Williams