Carved Ogboni figures from Abeokuta, Nigeria: Adugbologe who shines like the new moon. There is no place where he is not known on this earth

Indeed, the relationship between Ogboni and the Adugbologe workshop is deep, going back to the founder himself. In the nineteenth century Ojerinde Adugbologe established an Ogboni chapter in his own compound in Abeokuta, and as of 1973 an Ogboni meeting house still stood there, and presumably does today (Wolff 1985:112). (17) What is more, he held the highest Ogboni title, that of Oluwo. One could reasonably expect that Ojerinde himself would have carved for Ogboni. In fact, Ojerinde's grandson Ayoola once recalled a large woodcarving his grandfather had made for their compound's Ogboni meeting house (Norma Wolff, personal communication, 2001). Furthermore, given their longstanding relationship, it is not surprising that the Adugbologe workshop would continue to undertake commissions for Ogboni after Ojerinde's death, to which the present sculptures attest. A stool made by Alani, the great-grandson of Ojerinde, demonstrates that the motif of the standing Ogboni dignitary was still current in 1972, even if this particular example was made as a "cash-carving"; that is, it was not commissioned by an Ogboni member for private use (Wolff 1985:163).

Some of the works can be associated with a specific Ogboni office. For example, one figure holds in its outstretched left hand a small rectangular placard upon which is written "OLUWO," a reference to the highest Ogboni title (Fig. 1). This term is also inscribed across the front side of a rectangular box in the National Museum of African Art; the box has a miniature version of the Ogboni official and attendants surmounting its lid (Fig. 11). Lawal explains, "The need to identify the referent--a phenomenon that began during the colonial period--gave rise to the tradition of inscribing specific titles on the image or on a plaque held by it" (personal communication, April 5, 2001). Indeed. But why?

Missionaries in Abeokuta

To address this question, we need to look into the history of Abeokuta itself. The city was settled about 1830 by numbers of Egba, Egbado, and Owu peoples who had fled the collapsing Oyo empire. The massive rock outcroppings of Abeokuta offered these refugees a defensible position. Abeokuta then developed as a conglomeration of townships, each one settled by one or another of its constituent ethnic groups. It is ironic that in spite of its militarily advantageous location, Abeokuta witnessed profound struggle nearly from its inception. Yet this unrest came not from the expected military foe, but from an adversary of another sort altogether--one that was even courted by many of the city's own residents. In order to ensure British support against a powerful Dahomey in the mid-nineteenth century, "an overwhelmingly strong" party in Abeokuta decided to bring in missionaries, whose ostensibly civilizing efforts were supported by the British government (Ayandele 1967:9). They arrived for good by 1846: first the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) and Wesleyans, then French Catholics of the Societe des Missions Africains (S.M.A.) in 1888, and by 1900, representatives of the American Southern Baptists Convention (Ayandele 1967:48; Ayandele 1968:xxiii). From the beginning, missionaries took an active role in the political life of Abeokuta and even participated in successfully defending it from a Dahomean attack in 1851 (Biobaku 1957:44-45).