Head and Tales: Adornments from Africa - African art, various artists, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

African Arts, Winter, 2001 by Sunanda K. Sanyal

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts December 9, 1999-October 1, 2001

Though at first glance this exhibition appeared to be yet another assembly of objects from Africa, a closer scrutiny revealed a series of innovative curatorial and installation strategies that contributed to its uniqueness. Curator Monni Adams found a way to display a diverse array of images from Harvard's large African collection. Focusing on the physical as well as conceptual significance of the human head in various African cultures, she offered a glimpse of the endless variety of images produced in a range of contexts associated with the head.

Adams classified the exhibits into three broad themes, two of which she divided into subthemes. "Importance of the Head Motif" stood on its own as the most crucial of the three categories. It included such disparate objects as a Chokwe notable's chair, a ceremonial flywhisk from the Cameroon Grassfields, a Yoruba Ifa divination bowl, and a Luba caryatid stool, all of them showing prominent human images, if not precise representations of the head. Exhibition designer and coordinator Samuel Tager produced an unusual case to house these selections. Shaped like a Greek cross, the over-life-size case dominated the middle of the gallery, displaying the items in an asymmetrical manner, on several tiers. While the asymmetry echoed the apparent incongruity of the forms and functions of the objects, the viewer's experience of the case from all sides reinforced their kinship based on the crucial role of the head. The smallest work in the group, the colorful flywhisk from the Bamum kingdom, testified to the richness of the Harvard collection. The handle of this intricately beaded object had a bowing figure of a retainer expressing his loyalty to the Fon (king).

"Outer Appearance of the Head" was another broad rubric, but it encompassed two bubthemes, "Alterations of the Head" and "Additions to the Head." While the first group had a variety of masks and carved figures from west and central Africa demonstrating numerous coiffures, face paintings, and scarification patterns, the other subtheme included an equally diverse corpus of both official and personal head-coverings, and an assortment of hair ornaments such as combs and hairpins.

"Alterations" underscored transformations of identity as the head undergoes numerous changes. A highly stylized Ambo fertility doll from the Angola-Namibia border and a spectacular Ngady aMwaash mask of the Kuba reinforced Adams's goal of using the head as a central concept to address diverse issues. For instance, the abstract Ambo head, marked by its prolific hair, is a reminder of individual fertility rituals of newlywed women, whereas the colorfully checkered, pensive mask of the primordial woman Mweel represents a collective assertion of a worldview through an enactment of the Kuba myth of creation. Also exhibited were two Oro Efe masks with intricate superstructures, displayed in the same vitrine as references to the annual Gelede masquerade that pays homage to the supernatural powers of women to ensure the fertility and well-being of a Yoruba community. The one from Abeokuta, despite its aged surface with worn paint, was the more striking of these two masks, revealing remarkable artistry in its elaborate openwork superstructure of several interlocked acrobats. The superstructure not only alludes to the importance of ori inu (the inner, spiritual head) and ori ode (the outer, physical head) in the Yoruba worldview, but it also shows the idiosyncrasies of imagery preferred by a specific community.

Under "Additions to the Head," a dazzling feathered martial headgear from southern Cameroon coexisted with a woven cap from the regalia of the Kongo king, and an English beaver hat of an Edo leader shared the same case with a spotted fur hat from northeast Liberia. Adams occasionally juxtaposed headdresses with masks. A feminine Dan mask, for example, wore a conical headdress in the shape of a decorated basketry fishing-trap, a device actually used by Dan women. This particular combination significantly enhanced the visual impact of the mask, adding elegance to its serene expression.

The final category was "Reflective Topics," which was divided into two smaller themes, "Alterations of the Inner Head" and "Boundaries of the Head." The first group expanded the idea of the head to include various means by which the inner head (one's mind and actions) are affected, such as through divination, initiation, music, food, and medicine. Occasionally without any visible connections with the head, the items in this group most effectively communicated the conceptual aspect of the exhibition's primary theme. For instance, a Chokwe divination basket on a gourd base containing fifty-four items used by the diviner did not have any head motif. On the other hand, among the ones showing the head were a large, expertly carved Dan ladle, a double-headed Lele palm-wine cup, and a Zande ivory harp shaped with python skin.