Faith and Creativity: Lantern Mosques and Sacred Narratives

In 1896 a newspaper report described a lantern in the form of a mosque. A century later lanterns depicting mosques continued to be popular. This one from Calabar Town was built for the 1997 lantern parade.

Quite early in the history of the tradition builders started to create lanterns that incorporated figures (called 'effigies') of animals and humans.  This enabled a wide variety of scenes, some based on religious themes, to be depicted. Here a Muslim warrior fights and cuts off the leg of an unbeliever.

Much of the religious imagery that developed drew directly on Islamic tradition and was inspired by coloured prints that were imported from centres such as Cairo and which were often copied by local painters.

This old, discoloured painting (which belonged to Vimto Lantern Club) is based directly on a religious print and depicts a mounted warrior (fighting an unbeliever) followed by a servant who is leading a camel on which is seated a female figure (probably the warrior's wife). 

This lantern scene was copied in exact detail by Vimto Lantern Club in 1997 using as a guide the old painting that one of its members owned.

Carpenters built a strong timber frame on an iron chassis to form the base of the lantern which had to carry the weight of a significant number of structures, figures and human puppeteers.

The skeletons of the figures were made from the customary materials of palm pith tied with wire and strengthened in places with roughly hewn poles known as fence sticks. The skeletons were later clothed and richly decorated.

The different figures incorporated a certain degree of articulation (using, for example, old car seat springs to join different parts of each skeleton together). The figures' moving parts were attached to strings which club members operated on the night of the parade.

Al buraq is the creature said to have carried the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and up into the heavens and back by night. In 1997 Babylon Lantern Club's lantern depicted both al buraq and a small mosque.

Al buraq is widely portrayed as having a winged horse-like body with a woman's head and face and a peacock-like tail. Paintings of al buraq (based on Islamic prints) could still be found in the 1990s in the homes of some elderly Freetown residents.

This lantern depicted the well-known story of Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac. It features Isaac lying on an altar in front of Abraham who holds a knife. Above, an angel carrying a ram is drawn across the top of the lantern using a series of wires.

This story is well-known among Muslims and Christians alike and tells how Solomon resolved a dispute between two women each claiming to be the mother of the same child. This 1997 lantern depicted King Solomon (seated on the right) giving judgement.