Bowl with lid (opon igede)

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 sixteen 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 wearing 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 references. 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.

The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, cat. 102, pp. 276-277.

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NOTES:

22. Carroll, Kevin. Yoruba Religious Carvings: Pagan and Christian Sculpture in Nigeria and Dahomey. New York: Praeger, 1967. pp. 56-57.