"Heroes": Principles of African Greatness Part 4—Our Ancestors Lived Free

In the stillness of this grove, it is hoped, the ancestors’ voices can ring clear. Shrines, groves, or other sacred locations in which communing with the spirits of ancestors is enhanced are part of the cultural and religious traditions that many of the artists  artists in this section share. 

The aim of this space, both within the Heroes gallery and here in the text as well, is similar—to provide a metaphorical “ancestral grove” (in this case, centered on the ambiguous image of Bvu Kwam’s portrait of King Bay Akiy) in which to focus our mental image on the principles that the featured artists and heroes illustrate for us.

Reenacting an origin story.

This type of mask is worn during the Odudua ceremony, which protects the oba (king) and commemorates the founding of the Benin kingdom. Named for the creator deity the Benin kingdom shares with Yoruba religion, this mask danced an origin story about the Benin kingdom’s founding...

...and about the centrality of the royal house to that history. Benin has been ruled by the Eweka dynasty since at least the late 13th century.

One of the through-lines of political history in the kingdom is the need for obas to frame, reenact, and often performatively embody that history, through art commissions and ritual performances, such as the Odudua ceremony. A mask such as this, then, worked on both levels, serving as it did to perform, and thus renew, the kingdom’s royal history.

Great accomplishments merit monuments that outlast us. 

In this case, the raised ornamentation on the face depicts scarification, while the protruding knobs further back on the head suggest a traditional hairdo of the late 19th century. This was likely the work of an accomplished female Akan artist.

Now I have seen that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king . . . Is it true that the bravery of the Asante is no more? I cannot believe it. It cannot be!

I must say this—if you, the men of Asante, will not go forward, then we will. We, the women, will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We will fight the white men. We will fight until the last of us fall in the battlefields.
—Yaa Asantewaa, March 1900

(Enhanced photo.)

· The queen mother of Ejisu, Yaa Asantewaa, became regent of Ejisu, a chiefdom of the Asante Empire, when the British exiled her son, its ruler, and the asantehene (king), Prempeh I, in 1896. 

 · In a foolish act of hubris in 1900, the British governor demanded the Golden Stool—the spiritual and symbolic heart of the Asante nation—which had been hidden since the exile. With the backing of the remaining Asante leaders, Yaa Asantewaa took up arms and became the leader of the Asante fighting force.


Enhanced photo.

Hail, the conquering Hero! 

These two works are power—in all of its complicated nuances—personified. The mask, which might have accompanied or stood in for a royal presence in performance, grips the viewer with deep, yellow eyes. 

The eyes of this mask are covered with silk taken from spider egg sacs or the lining of the nest of the ground-dwelling tarantula. Ground spiders are used by specialists in divination practices in the Cameroon Grassfields region as a way of gaining access to divine knowledge.

This mask may, however, merely serve as a herald for the true power of its respective kingdom, embodied here by the animated yet ambiguous figure at the center of Heroes’ ancestral grove. 

This masterpiece has a particularly emotional expression that may be associated with the personal style of Bvu Kwam, an early 19th-century master sculptor working in the Grassfields region. According to one field informant, the figure is of King Bay Akiy, the fourth ruler of the Isu kingdom, who reigned in the late 18th century.

Depicted returning from victory over the Nshe, a neighboring group, he is seated on a dangerous animal, probably a leopard, and holds a weapon... 

...and a human head. This pose relates to a regional tradition of representing personal achievement, though the identity of the head itself is uncertain. The head could belong to a defeated enemy, or it could be the revered skull of a local ancestor.

                 The openness of that final, central symbol remains part of a larger set of unresolved questions that revolve around this incredible figure. Yet, even as he stands now, this image of King Bay Akiy, with two potential readings, may speak to some of the central ambivalences of power—namely, that to hold authority successfully over life and death requires the capacity for considerable piety and reflection as well.

In the human realm, it started with him. 

An Igbo community’s founding ancestor, this was one of a large number of monumental figures kept in the men’s meetinghouse to guard private areas from intrusion. It likely was part of a group that included the founding ancestor’s wife and other members of the village, such as warriors and hunters.

Beside its monumental size, its most striking feature is the broad, bold use of color that reinforces the strength of the carving. Typically, such figures are sculpted by Igbo men and painted by women. This figure could be said to embody and honor the generative, creative capacity of a revered predecessor.

Such ritual spaces, and the devotional practices that preserved, activated, and renewed them, were historically essential for the religious and social integrity of an Igbo community.

Those eyes see all—through generations past, present, and future. 

Through the byeri religious rite, Fang peoples once both honored their families’ ancestors and asked for their help. Community members memorialized ancestors’ names and recited their deeds in byeri practice, while their physical relics were stored in a bark wood box guarded by an attached, carved wooden head or figure.

This head—with its prominent forehead, open relentless gaze, small mouth, and older style hairdo or wig—was not an individual portrait but an idealized representation. Its characteristic shine results from frequent rubbing with tree oil. This mobile guardian stood for the continued presence of ancestral memories among a people forced to migrate throughout the 19th century.

Eyes wide open, both to guard against threats but also, perhaps, to see and think into the future, such figures are open to new possibilities—indeed, they were themselves born from the necessity of invention.

Belonging to the land.

This unusual Ogoni mask, which appears to blend human and animal features, may in fact be a statement about the rootedness of Ogoni peoples to the land itself. Ogoni peoples are perhaps the oldest settlers of the Eastern Niger Delta. 

Forms of Ogoni face masks range from human with a movable jaw to a horned antelope to this, the rarest kind of all—a blend of human and horned creature. Historically, masks were worn in ritual performances for funerals and when yams were planted and harvested.  More recently, they appear at Christmas and New Year celebrations and to welcome important visitors.

She can push farther, bound higher, see deeper than us.

This powerful and potent female figure may represent an Urhobo edjo, or spirit—one manifestation of singular and collective forces that exist throughout the world. A Urhobo community may have several different kinds of edjos, although one may be recognized as the town’s primary spirit. Wood sculptures are the physical manifestations of these spirits. A single shrine building (oguan redjo) may contain a dozen carved edjo figures presided over by an elaborate hierarchy of titled priests and priestesses.

This figure is a vision of solidity and strength. She stands and faces forward...

...arms held rigid at her sides...

...and feet planted firmly on her base. 

Her chest swells with potential energy. 

She likely depicts the wife of the community’s warrior-founder. To that end, she is a portrait of accomplishment. She conveys the authority of having supported the founding of her community, of nurturing intellectual, creative, or even athletic achievement—indeed, of being perhaps capable of rather extraordinary feats at an earlier phase of her own life.