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

Christopher Slogar

Among the Yoruba peoples of southwestern Nigeria, the Ogboni society (called Osugbo in Ijebu (2)) is an important institution that fulfills a number of political, judicial, and spiritual functions. Before the era of colonialism, this council of respected elders exercised tremendous power and influence in its various roles involving the selection and removal of kings, judicial hearings, and punishment of offenders who violated the sanctity of the Earth (Ile).

The Ogboni society is not often associated with the use of figurative wood sculpture, but the cast brass images (edan and Onile) commissioned by its members are well known (Fig. 2). While these nearly ubiquitous Ogboni brasscastings have been the subject of intensive study, (3) woodcarvings commissioned by Ogboni members have not received much attention from researchers.

Richard Burton may have been the first to mention an Ogboni woodcarving in print. In Abeokuta and the Cameroons Mountains, he described the door of an Ogboni meeting house: "The panels are adorned with iron [ironwood?] altorelievos of ultra-Egyptian form; snakes, hawk-headed figures, and armed horsemen in full front, riding what are intended to be horses in profile; the whole coloured red, black, and yellow" (Burton 1863:253). Carved doors with similar iconography exist today. (4) J. R. O. Ojo's study of drums and bullroarers (1973), along with the occasional entries on drums and doors in exhibition catalogues and other texts, some of which are mentioned below, are the primary sources for Ogboni bas-relief work. As yet, however, there is no available study of Ogboni figurative carving in the round, perhaps because so few examples have been published.

But a survey of the literature, along with my inquiries to scholars who have specialized in the study of Ogboni art as well as the overall artistic production of Abeokuta, indicates the existence of a much more substantial tradition of carved Ogboni figures than their rare appearance in published sources suggests. In 1960 Peter Morton-Williams illustrated a woodcarving depicting "Eru-Ogboni (the slave of Ogboni) devouring a deceiver," which he had collected in Oyo for the Nigerian Museum, Lagos (Morton-Williams 1960: pl. IIc). While in Abeokuta in 1964, Timothy Chappel noted that a "large number" of carvings by Sokan Akinyode (of the Esubiyi family workshop in Abeokuta) decorated the Ogboni council chamber adjoining the royal palace of the Alake (king) of Ake (Chappel 1972:299). At least one carving of an Ogboni figural group attributed to Sokan can be found today in the National Museum, Lagos (Fig. 3). Robert Farris Thompson published a figurative Ogboni-related housepost that was collected before 1925 and is now at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at UCLA (Fig. 4). Henry Drewal illustrated a standing figure in an Ijebu style, depicting an Osugbo member and perhaps carved by Thomas Ona Odulate (Drewal 1980:68). Elsewhere Drewal mentioned certain "large-scale male and female Ogboni wood sculptures" that were photographed by William Fagg in Ila-Orangun (Drewal 1989:161-62). (5) In a letter, Hans Witte provided me with snapshots of two carvings, clearly in the style of Abeokuta, from the study collection of the University of Ibadan. One is a human figure, kneeling on the left knee and with clenched fists making the Ogboni gesture of greeting: the left fist over the right with thumbs concealed (Fig. 5a, b). The other example depicts a standing male Ogboni official holding a staff in his right hand (Fig. 6).

Chappel recently informed me that there are some tiered figural groups, which probably came from Ogboni houses, in the National Museum, Lagos (personal communication, 2001). During a brief visit to this museum in July 2002, I was able to photograph one such group from Abeokuta (Fig. 7a, b) (6) and another single figure detached from its base (Fig. 8). These objects are part of a small corpus of polychrome Ogboni carvings to be examined here. They are related to two others published by Witte (1998: figs. 3, 8) and the abovementioned unpublished (and unpainted) figure he photographed in Ibadan. This group also includes a variant that appeared in a 1971 catalogue of an exhibition of African art held at Syracuse University--although the carving at that time was not associated with Ogboni (Fig. 1)--as well as a nearly identical carving at the Art Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park (see Nitecki 1971: no. 633). It was my study of this latter figure (Fig. 9), begun in 1998, that led to the present article.

Attempts to find published information about these Abeokuta figures were unsuccessful, though one very noteworthy exception is discussed below. Much more help came from my personal contacts with scholars who have specialized knowledge of Ogboni art or who actually conducted research in Abeokuta, which I have not. This essay is the result, and it attempts to throw some useful light on a small group of overlooked works, all of which originated in the same family workshop in Abeokuta. (7)

That corpus of Ogboni woodcarvings shares a common iconography involving a central standing figure that represents a titled Ogboni society member and smaller attendants (Fig. 10). The main figure, whose red skin radiates power, holds in his right hand a staff of office topped with a human head. He wears a wrapper (often striped), a sash over the right shoulder, and a distinctive wide-brimmed hat of a type commonly worn by missionaries during the mid-nineteenth century (see Chappel 1981:43). (8) Additions in the form of birds and feathers may decorate the hat. Two strands of tubular beads, each featuring a larger triangular pendant bead (which might represent an Islamic leather charm), encircle the figure's neck, while smaller beaded bracelets adorn the wrists. The little attendants often wear European-style outfits, and in one iteration offer kola nuts (Fig. 9). In a manner generally uncharacteristic of Yoruba carving, the central figure in some examples displays a left arm that is noticeably out of scale and pegged into the shoulder socket at a right angle to the body, thereby giving the impression that the figure is waving an enthusiastic greeting. The University of Maryland group is all the more unusual for the way the attendants are attached: they occupy their own crescentic bases, each fitting against the curved sides of the main figure's base, with the resultant nailed join masked by a thick layer of black substance, perhaps bitumen-based. Furthermore, the attendants evidence a second artistic hand, and this, combined with their unorthodox method of attachment, leads me to believe that they were added sometime after the main figure was completed. However, with Abeokuta carvings such a feature is not unheard of, as Frank Willett described a similar kind of adding-on of minor attendant figures by a second artist to a work by Oniyide of the Adugbologe workshop, in this case a headdress carved for the Egungun society (Willett 1991: fig. 164). (9)

Miniature versions of this figural group can be found on wooden boxes made for storing the brass edan pair of images (Figs. 11-13). Yet it should be noted that the basic composition is not limited to Ogboni-related works, as can be seen in various depictions of the Alake of Abeokuta, such as one in the Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal (Witte 1998:35), or the two-tiered palace sculpture now in the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva (see Drewal & Mason 1998:69, figs. 72a-b). However, in those related compositions, the left arm is of the same scale as the right. Thus, except for the Lagos example in Figure 7, which maintains the expected proportional scale, one wonders if the imbalance visible in the other Ogboni figures and carried to the extreme in Figure 8 is not a wholly intentional sign of Ogboni's known preference for left-handedness. (10)

The Adugbologe Family Workshop

The distinctive style of these carvings tells us that they are products of the Adugbologe family workshop in Itoko township, Abeokuta. (11) The workshop was founded by a man named Ojerinde--popularly called Adugbologe--who died just prior to the onset of World War I (Wolff 1985:112). It seems that Ojerinde was born in the Egbado town of Aibo, where he would have trained to be a woodcarver under his father, Egunjobi (Wolff 1985:108). As the Oyo empire crumbled, the Egbado peoples, who were allied with Oyo, grew vulnerable. In the early 1850s, while a Dahomean army advanced on Aibo, Ojerinde among many others fled to Abeokuta (Chappel 1972:297). There he began a carving tradition that has been maintained into the present day by his descendants and other lineage members, the most well known of whom include his son Oniyide (ca. 1875-1949) and grandsons Makinde (d. 1950) and Ayoola (or Ayo; d. 1980). Following Ojerinde Adugbologe's death around 1914, his descendants continued to associate their work with his name, so that the term "Adugbologe" has evolved into a brand name of sorts that is now used to identify most any product of the workshop's numerous artists (Chappel 1981:40). This practice developed out of respect for the founder and his esteemed reputation as well as the patronage that reputation continued to attract even long after Ojerinde's passing. (12) As proof of the artist's lasting fame, Norma Wolff, while working in Abeokuta in 1973, recorded the names of thirty carvers who considered themselves the "children of Adugbologe" (Wolff 1985:125, 148). The quotation at the beginning of this article, from Ojerinde's praise poem--"There is no place where he is not known on this earth"--underscores the great level of respect he has achieved.

Since Ojerinde's time, the Adugbologe workshop has become renowned for producing ibeji images, headdresses for the Egungun masquerade, and large-scale compositions with multiple figures, such as the Barbier-Mueller example mentioned previously. (13) Because of the great number of surviving works, this workshop style is amply documented, and the products of the Adugbologe Compound can be identified by the characteristic sharply incised nostrils, wide mouths, large spherical heads, wide lenticular eyes, and short legs. These stylistic traits also help to distinguish the work of the Adugbologe carvers from that of the other major carving center in Abeokuta, the Esubiyi family workshop, represented in Figure 3. (14) It is noteworthy that several of the large-scale Ogboni figural groups illustrated here (Figs. 1, 7-10) appear to be the work of one hand, that of Oniyide, Ojerinde's prolific son (Witte 1998:44 and personal communication, May 27, 2001). (15) This point will be revisited below.

Although they infrequently show up in publication, carved Ogboni images are not unknown among specialists who have studied the art of Abeokuta. Babatunde Lawal, for example, informed me that has seen such works in Abeokuta and the surrounding areas, commenting that they are "generic representations of highly placed, senior members of the Ogboni/Osugbo society, such as the Oluwo (head), Apena (secretary) and other title holders.... These Ogboni figures may be encountered as emblems of power and prestige either in front of the house of a titled member or in his reception porch or chamber" (personal communication, April 5, 2001). (16)

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).

As might be expected, local (i.e., non-Christian) institutions quickly became a source of worry for the missionaries. Uneasy about the power wielded by Ogboni in particular, the C.M.S. conducted a formal inquiry into its affairs. After considering the various governmental and religious functions served by the association in Abeokuta, the C.M.S. issued a response in 1861, which in part read:

   That whilst there is a wide difference
   of opinion amongst those
   equally well informed respecting
   the connexion of the Ogboni system
   with idolatry, yet as all agree
   that it is inconsistent with the principles
   of the Christian religion and
   must fall when those principles
   prevail in the country; it is necessary
   that the Native Christian
   Church should maintain its high
   position of witnessing for the truth
   by a broad separation from this
   and all other questionable "country
   fashions." (18)

Another C.M.S. document is rather more blunt about it; the writer declares that Ogboni "must be exterminated by the gospel." (19) Despite such vociferous outcries, Ogboni was not exterminated, and two quite different versions of it would later come to be--the Aboriginal Ogboni Fraternity (based on traditional Ogboni) and the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity (created in 1914 and heavily influenced by Christian ideology and European Masonic traditions). (20) Ironically, some European missionaries, including the Reverend Henry Townsend, realized that they would have no power in Abeokuta unless they joined Ogboni themselves, and so they did (Ayandele 1967:270; Lawal 1995:39-40).

Hans Witte maintains that the carved Ogboni figural groups might best be understood in the context of Abeokuta's vibrant political scene (personal communication, June 4, 2001):

   ... from 1850 onward Abeokuta
   was a fast growing city that harbored
   several kings, several Ogboni
   lodges and quite a number of war
   chiefs, locked together in an ever-shifting
   power balance. There must
   have been an enormous demand
   for prestige symbols as we can see
   in the number of scepters, ceremonial
   pokers, walking sticks and
   staffs of office from Abeokuta that
   are left.... In such an environment
   the Ogboni lodge, [which brought
   together] the social elite, must have
   been an ideal center for political
   maneuvering and intrigue [and
   was therefore] much more than a
   place for religious reflection.

These are important points, for in 1904 the British government appointed a central authority in the Alake of Ake to rule over the diverse groups in Abeokuta--a move that significantly curtailed the traditional powers of Ogboni to select, advise, and, when necessary, depose kings (Wolff 1985:100, citing Ajisafe 1964:215). Until then, the society's influence on the politics of Abeokuta was great, as indicated by Burton: "The power of the Ogboni is unlimited ..." (1863:248). Twenty-five years later, the Reverend Baudin, a Catholic missionary who visited Western Yorubaland, would concur. "Among the Egbas," he noted, "the Ogboni are more powerful than the king" (Baudin 1885:63).

But such power would not last. The years between 1889 and 1945 were a critical period, characterized by the historian A. I. Asiwaju as a time when, due to colonialism, "... cults of political significance, such as Ogboni and Oro, were deprived of their political functions" (Asiwaju 1976:212).

Sydow's Visit

In 1943, very near the end of the period examined by Asiwaju, Eckart von Sydow's account of his 1939 visit to Abeokuta was published posthumously. (21) It includes some very interesting photographic illustrations. In one of them (Fig. 14), we see four Ogboni members in their distinctive attire, as depicted in the carvings. (22) Another (Fig. 15) is a portrait of a carver identified as "Adugbologe," who is most likely Oniyide, because the founder had long since died by the time Sydow made it to Abeokuta. A third image captures the interior courtyard of an Ogboni lodge--apparently that of the Adugbologe compound--with about a dozen members in view (Fig. 16). Behind them, just under the corrugated tin roof, stand two massive wooden sculptures. The one on the right, blurry and partially obscured, is an image of a mother and child. This motif is widely encountered throughout Yoruba art and is also seen in the Ogboni brass castings, in which case it recalls the nurturing role of Earth as mother to all, the source of fertility. (23) On the left side of this photograph is a clearer image of, a two-tiered figural group whose upper tier prominently displays a titled Ogboni member wearing the familiar wide-brimmed hat, striped wrapper, and sash. He holds a figural staff in his right hand and a small rectangular plaque in his left that presumably carries an inscription but is indistinct as published. Two attendants stand at the ready beside him, while another lies prostrate at his feet. The lower tier of the work is partially obscured in the reproduced photograph, but Sydow mentions that it includes four figures, two of which display the Ogboni hand gesture of left fist over right. (24) Sydow also states that one "Chief Adilah" told him that the main figure was "das Bild unseres letzten Oluwo," or "the image of our last Oluwo" (Sydow 1943:30). (25) Sydow goes on to mention a second Oluwo figure ("garishly painted") as well as a box crowned by an Oluwo with attendants and further decorated with interlace patterns and representations of edan Ogboni, which recalls the carved wooden boxes noted above. The larger figural group Sydow illustrated is remarkably similar to the polychrome example now in the National Museum, Lagos (Fig. 7). Its lower tier prominently displays a row of four kneeling figures; the outer two occupy movable panels attached with hinges. A small female figure, which looks to be a painted ibeji image, is positioned at the rear, facing outward.

Sydow's photograph of the Ogboni courtyard provides important contextual information for the placement of the carved images. That a figure of a mother and child was positioned adjacent to the figure of the Oluwo was surely a deliberate choice, and it clearly reflects a wider prevalence of the theme of the male-female couple in Ogboni art and thought. In fact, in Lagos (National Museum, Lagos, no. 1953.3.1) there is a companion object to the one in Figure 7 that I was not able to photograph or examine closely, but which depicts a female figure as the main subject of the upper tier. Thus, it is very likely that some Yoruba female figures now described simply as "shrine figures"--perhaps because their iconography may not display obvious Ogboni attributes as they are currently understood--are in fact the female components of what was originally a pair, or an even larger program, of images made for Ogboni houses. Drewal's comment concerning the male-female theme as it relates to the brass Ogboni images may be equally appropriate to the wooden ones as well: "A single figure always implies a second ..." (Drewal 1989:162).

The Missionary's Hat

As mentioned previously, the present corpus of large-scale Ogboni groups appears to be the work of one Adugbologe workshop carver, Oniyide. The stylistic uniformity shared by these carvings might be explained by specific historical events. In 1918 the Ogboni houses of Abeokuta were destroyed as a result of the so-called Adubi Rising (or Egba Rising) because they were considered by the colonial Native Administration to be loathsome "hotbeds of sedition" (Biobaku 1956:262). (26) About six hundred local chiefs were also arrested at the time, which gives some idea of the scale of the action (Ajisafe 1964:204). When things finally calmed down and the meeting houses were being rebuilt, new images would have been needed. By then Ojerinde had died, leaving, presumably, his son Oniyide to carry out the most important commissions; the replacement of Ogboni images would certainly have qualified as such. That the extant carvings are so similar is an indication that they were all carried out by Oniyide within a relatively short time, conceivably during such reconstructive efforts.

Although use of the missionary's hat was not limited to Abeokuta, there seem to be no cognates of these carved Ogboni figures in other Yoruba areas, although Ogboni symbols such as the brass edan are used throughout Yorubaland and share many iconographic elements regardless of the various regional styles in which they are made. The closest comparisons might be the large terracotta pair of male and female Osugbo images from Ijebu, now split between the Disney-Tishman collection, Los Angeles, and the Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal (see Drewal, Pemberton III & Abiodun 1989: figs. 147-48). Why were carvings of Ogboni officials relatively prominent in Abeokuta yet so rare elsewhere? Unfortunately, there is yet no definitive answer to this question, and until more work has been done only tentative suggestions can be put forward.

Timothy Chappel demonstrated that the Abeokuta sculpture he attributed to Ojerinde, with its elaborate carving including the representation of a missionary (Fig. 17), could reflect contemporary events (see Chappel 1981). Therefore, whether the inspiration for such an object was the artist's own or his patron's, the final product was not at all bound to some timeless "convention," a misguided notion still haunting studies of African art. It could be that these prominent and more or less public displays of office utilized by Abeokuta's Ogboni elite were commissioned in response to power struggles that resulted from new ideological systems (Christianity), including new forms of government (colonialism). In other words, perhaps the carving of these images was in part motivated by current events, and the images signified the standing power of Ogboni while metaphorically opposing any institution that threatened its status. In adopting the missionary's distinctive hat, was the Ogboni society steeling itself against Christian encroachment by assuming such a recognizable symbol of power? Considering that the British installation of the Alake in 1904 significantly lessened their political influence in Abeokuta, did Ogboni then employ such figures in an attempt to maintain power as a response to that action? It is interesting to note here that the Ogboni officials in Figures 10 and 11 wear a hat decorated with the image of a European crown.

With the inclusion of the identifying text to the figural group, as seen in Figures 1 and 11 (and probably 16 too), it becomes clear that certain Ogboni Oluwo titleholders wanted no confusion whatsoever among viewers concerning who, exactly, the image represented. Perhaps this should be qualified as literate viewers--those who were either European missionaries and colonial officials, or Africans trained by them--some of whom, no doubt, were considered threatening by members of indigenous institutions such as Ogboni.

Thus, there might be more to the characterization of these large, semipublic carvings as status symbols or power objects. These labels, while certainly appropriate, are at the same time incomplete. They do not tell us how the objects functioned in any specific historical context or how their significance may have changed over time. Consider that by the time Sydow's book was published in 1943, Abeokuta had endured nearly a century's worth of immense social, political, and religious conflict. It seems highly unlikely that the artists and patrons of Abeokuta would not have been affected by the events around them. That so many of the carvings of titled Ogboni members have come from Abeokuta leads me to believe that they arose out of conditions specific to that town rather than being manifestations of a more widespread Yoruba practice of image-making as exists, for example, in the case of the brass edan or the carved ere ibeji. These conditions would have been strongly affected by missionary activity and colonialism, which threatened the very survival of Ogboni, an institution of historically paramount importance in Abeokuta. Certainly the adoption of the missionary's wide-brimmed hat by Ogboni indexes a corresponding appropriation of power (or desire to appropriate it), but to what end? This point may seem overly esoteric, but the implications are important: Was the hat borrowed in allegiance to, or in defiance of, missionaries and their message?

Perhaps the situation was not, as it were, so black and white. David Doris notes that "Yoruba peoples have long demonstrated an extraordinary capacity for seeing both sides of an issue at once, and Ogboni's use of the missionary's hat may be an expression of that ability.... This unmistakable hat--like any crown--is greater than its wearer, yet it empowers his greatness" (personal communication, 2002). So how did what was once, more than a century-and-a-half ago, a truly foreign symbol come to represent such Yoruba power? I offer the following rather speculative remarks.

Let us assume that the hat was appropriated by Ogboni while the association still held dominance and Europeans were still a rare sight, say, circa 1850. In other words, confident that their position of power was not threatened, the missionary's hat was initially considered by Ogboni members to be an exotic and quite fashionable item. Ownership of such an object would have added to the prestige of its Ogboni wearer in the local community. Then, as an increasing number of missionaries gained allegiance and converts, Ogboni kept the hat, simultaneously identifying with and defiant of its now more powerful symbolic reference to an ever more visible, and vociferous, Christian presence. This presence, in fact, led to an uprising against the missionaries in 1867 (Ajisafe 1964:124-27). With the tables turning, Ogboni's very existence came under constant threat, yet it refused to go away despite the looming firestorm of colonialism that was sanctioned during the 1884 Berlin Conference, which granted British control over most of Yorubaland. In 1893 Abeokuta, the Egba capital, was made to sign a treaty with Britain, an action that effectively ended Egba independence (Ajisafe 1964). During the height of colonialism, Britain subsumed Ogboni's traditional political role and installed a king (1904), shelled Abeokuta (1915), and burned down its Ogboni houses (1918).

Amid these chaotic events, Oniyide was at the height of his artistic career-nearing forty years of age, a respected Ogboni member and the senior carver of the Adugbologe workshop (see Wolf 1985:118). I surmise that during this period, the missionary's hat and its image in art, like the chromolithographs of Catholic saints used by Haitian vodouistes, became a subversive device: outwardly fine, acceptable, and of the dominant ideology, but having undercurrents of something altogether quite different. In effect, the indigenous tradition continued under a colonial mask. Then, sometime after the main figure in the Maryland carving was completed (Fig. 9), the attendant figures dressed as Europeans were added, an act which at least gave the impression of increased status for the Oluwo depicted, and therefore Ogboni in general even if the society had in actuality lost a significant amount of real power in recent history. Continuing into the present day, the Ogboni society, having left the most immediate threat of colonialism in the past, still chooses to keep the distinctive hat as a time-honored symbol of status and leadership. It has become a conventional sign of Ogboni-ness rather than foreign-ness. Canonized in art, the missionary's hat remains a prestigious device and an easily recognized marker of Ogboni membership. Today, crown-like but not approaching the deified status of actual Yoruba crowns, the missionary's hat truly does represent something larger than the man. Over time it has gained stature such that it now "commands obeisance," as Doris so aptly put it (personal communication, 2002).

In trying to historicize one aspect of Ogboni iconography, I admit here to a certain amount of oversimplification, and until more is known about when and why the missionary's hat was adopted by Ogboni members in Abeokuta, and when its image became incorporated into local artistic practice, such an interpretation will necessarily remain speculative. Nevertheless, we should heed Babatunde Lawal, who has recognized an "urgent need to separate older from more recent layers of meanings in Ogboni rituals and symbols" (1995:40). Therefore, while the large carvings of Ogboni titled members are today primarily objects of status and prestige, it is conceivable that they have served more complex roles over the course of Abeokuta's rather tumultuous history.

[This article was accepted for publication in July 2002.]

(1.) Excerpted from the praise poetry (oriki) of the sculptor Ojerinde, called Adugbologe. Quoted in Wolff 1985:104.

(2.) Ijebu refers to a Yoruba group southeast of Abeokuta. Other Yoruba peoples mentioned in this article include Egba, Egbado, Owu, and Oyo.

(3.) Major contributions to the study of Ogboni brasses include the following: Morton-Williams 1960, 1964; Williams 1964, 1974; Thompson 1971; Dobbelman 1976; Roach-selk 1978; Brincard 1982; Wire 1988; Drewal 1989; Drewal, Pemberton III & Abiodun 1989; Gosline 1989, 1992; Lawal 1995.

(4.) For Osugbo doors from Ijebu, see, for example, Dobbelmann 1976: figs. 156-57 and Drewal, Pemberton III & Abiodun 1989:123.

(5.) Drewal cites Fagg photographs nos. 49-50/44/12, The Robert Goldwater Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. A duplicate set can be found at the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. I should note that I have seen the images; as Fagg indicated that the carvings were from IIa Orangun, they are quite different from the works under consideration here, in terms of not only style but iconography.

(6.) A related work is 87.R.234, apparently a more recent version of a standing Ogboni official in the style of the Adugbologe workshop in Abeokuta (H. 89cm).

(7.) This article is the result of research I began during a 1998 project while serving as a graduate curatorial assistant at the Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park. I want to thank the university's Department of Art History and Archaeology for sponsoring that position, and Terry Gips, then the Art Gallery's director, for overseeing it. I am indebted to the many kind individuals who so patiently offered their assistance, in particular Nath Mayo Adediran, Letty Bonnell, Timothy Chappel, Liesl Dana, Elizabeth Dell, David Doris, Rotimi Elufioye, Ekpo Eyo, Bryna Freyer, Christraud Geary, Scott Habes, U. Heijs-Voorhuis, Ken Ingels, Victoria James, Jack Keeve, Babatunde Lawal, Lily MacKinnon, Gabriel Oko, Tris Perkins, David Prince, Janet Stanley, Christine Stelzig, Katherine Sthreshley, Holger Stoecker, Hans Witte, Norma Wolff, Dorit Yaron, the African & Related Art Gallery, Amsterdam, and a private collector. I thank you all.

(8.) The sash is named itagbe in Ijebu and shaki among the Egba. See Aronson 1992:101, n. 29. Such cloths function as emblems of power and rank, particularly for chiefs and Ogboni or Osugbo members (Aronson 1992:53). The bird-surmounted hat is variously called fila, ate, or akete (Babatunde Lawal, personal communication, April 5, 2001). Henry Drewal uses the term ege to denote these wide-brimmed hats, which he relates to the headgear of sixteenth- or seventeenth-century Catholic (Iberian or Italian) clergy (see Drewal 1989:167).

(9.) Concerning this system of fashioning composite objects, Hans Witte also notes: "Not only were the figure-groups assembled from different statues, but many Egungun masks from Abeokuta are nothing but an assemblage of separate pieces nailed around the main figure. It suggests there was something of an Adugbologe carving factory where separate pieces were carved in advance, so that a mask could be put together according to the client's wishes. In these circumstances it becomes, of course, difficult to assign a mask to one carver" (personal communication, April 16, 2002).

(10.) On the Ogboni preference for the left, see Drewal, Pemberton III & Abiodun 1989:140, 142; Lawa 1995:43-44.

(11.) Although for the sake of convenience I refer to the "Adugbologe workshop" in the singular, there are in fact several distinct workshops within Adugbologe Compound. See Wolff 1985:142.

(12.) For details about the founding and history of the Adugbologe workshop, see Chappel 1972, 1981; Wolff 1985.

(13.) For other examples of Adugbologe workshop carvings, see among others Chappel 1972; Drewal 1980: nos. 9, 66, 137; Thompson 1971: figs. 13.27, 15.2-15.6, 15.8; Chappel 1981; Fagg, Pemberton III & Holcombe 1982: figs. 9, 34, 35; Wolff 1985; Abiodun, Drewal, & Pemberton III 1991:36-37; Drewal & Mason 1998:69, figs. 72a-b; Witte 1998.

(14.) On identifying works from the Adugbologe and Esubiyi workshops, see in particular Drewal 1980:13, 52-53, 79; Chappel 1981: passim; Fagg, Pemberton III & Holcombe 1982:16, 37, 104, 124.

(15.) For other works attributed to Oniyide, including a two-tiered palace sculpture now in the Barbier-Mueller Museum, see Wolff 1985:119.

(16.) Babatunde Lawal, personal communication, April 5, 2001. Lawal also notes that miniature versions of the same composition, cast in brass, can be found on altars.

(17.) Also Chappel, personal communication, July 17, 2001: "According to his grandson, Ayoola, Ojerinde established an Ogboni house in Itoko township some time before he finally took refuge in Abeokuta with the people of Aibo in 1851 or thereabouts. Indeed, Ayo went so far as to claim that it was Ojerinde who instructed the Egba in the 'real,' esoteric workings of the society."

(18.) Minutes of the Parent Committee on the Ogboni System, dated Nov. 23,1861; C. M. S. CA2/L3. Quoted from Ajayi 1969:110-11.

(19.) C. M. S. CA2/068 Maser to Henry Venn 10/9/1861. Quoted from Ajayi 1969:275.

(20.) On the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity, see Ayandele 1967; Anyebe 1989; Lawal 1995.

(21.) I thank Holger Stoecker, historian and Ph.D. candidate at the Humbolt University, Berlin, for providing the year in which Sydow visited west Africa (personal communication, April 8, 2002).

(22.) I was not able to locate the copyright holder for the images in Figures 14-16, and welcome any information concerning such rights.

(23.) On the significance of female imagery in Ogboni art, see in particular Drewal, Pemberton III & Abiodun 1989:130-31, 135-43; Lawal 1995.

(24.) Sydow writes, "... zwischen zwei Botenfiguren, ganz unten, zwei Mitglieder des Ogboni mit dem Zeichen der Handhaltung, an dem wir uns erkennen: die linke Faust mit eingeschlagenem Daumen uber der rechten Faust, beide Feiuste bewegt man in bestimmter Weise zur Begrussung" (Sydow 1943:30). My thanks to Lily MacKinnon for the following translation: " ... in between the two messenger figures, on the very bottom, there are two members of Ogboni with the symbol of holding their hands by which we recognize each other: the left fist with an inward-turned thumb over the right fist, both fists are moved in a certain way for the greeting."

(25.) This is the only photograph of such a woodcarving in situ that I am aware of, assuming of course that the object occupies its rightful place in the meeting house, i.e., that Sydow did not move it to make the composition of his image more interesting.

Concerning Chief Adilah's statement that the image represents their "last Oluwo" and thus might be considered a kind of portrait, see Lawal 2001.

(26.) The Adubi Rising resulted from the Native Administration's imposition of the Voluntary Tax of 1918 on the residents of Abeokuta, which included harsh fines and forced labor. For a description of these events, see Ajisafe 1964:198-204.

References cited

Abiodun, Rowland, Henry John Drewal, and John Pemberton III. 1991. Yoruba: Art and Aesthetics. New York and Zurich: The Center for African Art and the Rietberg Museum.

Ajayi, J. F. Ade. 1969. Christian Missions in Nigeria 1841-1891: The Making of a New Elite. Evanston (IL): Northwestern University Press.

Ajisafe, Ajayi Kolawole. 1964. History of Abeokuta. Rev. ed. Abeokuta: M. A. Ola, Fola Bookshops.

Anyebe, A. P. 1989. Ogboni: The Birth and Growth of the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity. Lagos: Sam Lao Publishers.

Aronson, Lisa. 1992. "Ijebu Yoruba Aso Olona," African Arts 25, 3:52-63, 101-2.

Asiwaju, A. I. 1976. Western Yorubaland under European Rule 1889-1945. New Jersey: Humanities Press.

Ayandele, E. A. 1967. The Missionary Impact on Modern Nigeria 1842-1914. New York: Humanities Press.

Ayandele, E. A. 1968. Introduction to Adventures and missionary labours in several countries of the interior of Africa from 1849 to 1856, by T. J. Bowen. Reprint, London: Frank Cass. Orig. pub. 1857.

Baudin, P. 1885. Fetichism and Fetich Worshippers. New York: Benziger Brothers.

Biobaku, S. O. 1956. "Ogboni, The Egba Senate," in Proceedings of the III International West African Conference, pp. 257-63. Lagos: Nigerian Museum.

Biobaku. S. O. 1957. The Egba and Their Neighbors 1842-1872. London: Oxford University Press.

Brincard, Marie-Therese. 1982. "Two Bracelets: Continuing Questions," in The Art of Metal in Africa, ed. M.-T. Brincard, pp. 63-86. New York: African American Institute.

Burton, Richard. 1863. Abeokuta and the Cameroons Mountains. London: Tinsley Brothers.

Chappel, Timothy. 1972. "Critical Carvers: A Case Study," Man n.s. 7, 2:296-307.

Chappel, Timothy. 1981. "A Woodcarving from Abeokuta," African Arts 15, 1:38-43, 86-87.

Dobbelman, A. H. M. 1976. Het Geheime Ogboni-genootschap. Berg en Dal, Netherlands: Afrika Museum.

Drewal, Henry John. 1980. African Artistry: Technique and Aesthetics in Yoruba Sculpture. Atlanta: The High Museum of Art.

Drewal, Henry John. 1989. "The Meaning of Oshugbo Art: A Reappraisal," in Man Does Not Go Naked, eds. B. Engelbrecht and B. Gardi, pp. 151-73. Basler Beitrage zur Ethnologie Band 30.

Drewal, Henry John and John Mason. 1998. Beads, Body, and Soul: Art and Light in the Yoruba Universe. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

Drewal, Henry John, John Pemberton III, and Rowland Abiodun. 1989. Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. New York: The Center for African Art in association with Harry N. Abrams Publishers.

Fagg, William, John Pemberton III, and Bryce Holcombe. 1982. Yoruba Sculpture of West Africa. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Gosline, Sheldon Lee. 1989. "Le Role cosmologique de l'Ogboni," Arts d'Afrique Noire 72 (Winter):32-43.

Gosline, Sheldon Lee. 1992. "Sky and Earth Reconciled: Ogboni Initiation," Arts d'Afrique Noire 82 (Summer):31-47.

Lawal, Babatunde. 1995. "A Ya Gbo, A Ya To: New Perspectives on Edan Ogboni," African Arts 28, 1:37-49, 98-100.

Lawal, Babatunde. 2001. Awbran: Representing the Self and Its Metaphysical Other in Yoruba Art," The Art Bulletin 83, 3:498-526.

Morton-Williams, Peter. 1960. "The Yoruba Ogboni Cult in Oyo," Africa 30, 4:362-74.

Morton-Williams, Peter. 1964. "An Outline of the Cosmology and Cult Organization of the Oyo Yoruba," Africa 34, 3:243-61.

Nitecki, Andre. 1971. African Art Speaks Yoruba. Syracuse: Syracuse University School of Art.

Ojo, J. R. O. 1973. "Ogboni Drums," African Arts 6, 3:50-52, 84.

Phillips, Tom (ed.). 1995. Africa: The Art of a Continent. New York and Munich: Prestel.

Roach-Selk, E. 1978. From the Womb of the Earth: An Appreciation of Yoruba Bronze Art. Washington, DC: University Press of America.

Sydow, Eckart von. 1943. Im Reiche Gottahnlicher Herrscher. Braunschweig: Gustav Wenzel & Son.

Thompson, Robert Farris. 1971. Black Gods and Kings: Yoruba Art at UCLA. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Willett, Frank. 1991. African Art. Reprint. New York: Thames & Hudson. Orig. pub. 1971.

Williams, Denis. 1964. "The Iconology of the Yoruba Edan Ogboni," Africa 34, 2:139-65.

Williams, Denis. 1974. Icon and Image. New York: New York University Press.

Witte, Hans. 1988. Earth and Ancestors: Ogboni Iconography. Amsterdam: Gallery Balolu.

Witte, Hans. 1998. "Kunst en kunstenaars uit Abeokuta," Vereniging Vrienden van Etnografica Nieuwsbrief, 63:33-54.

Wolff, Norma. 1985. "Adugbologe's Children: Continuity and Change in a Yoruba Woodcarving Industry." Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University.

CHRISTOPHER SLOGAR is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland, specializing in the arts of southern Nigeria. His dissertation, based on fieldwork conducted in the Calabar region focuses on a group of terracotta vessels and figurines recovered during archaeological investigations conducted jointly by the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments and the University of Maryland.

COPYRIGHT 2002 The Regents of the University of California
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group