Where Gods and Mortals Meet: continuity and renewal in Urhobo art

African Arts, Winter, 2003 by Perkins Foss

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Iphri, (7) works that commemorate aggression, evoke the control and focus of assertive, sometimes bellicose power (Figs. 3-6). Of the three basic types of personal images, the iphri is the most elaborately rendered. It alludes to broad qualities of male leadership, including those of a persuasive public speaker, a group leader, a powerful hunter and warrior. Iphri are also said to protect individuals from losing valuable possessions. These sculptures suggest forces that are quintessential to the Urhobo male personality: aggressive energy, forceful posturing, successful hunting, and powerful oratorical skills. The metaphor extends to all parts of Urhobo male society, and iphri are believed to both increase and, at the same time, control one's aggressive tendencies. While some images are massive and complex forms that exceed three feet in height, in 1971 I saw a four-year old boy--a "difficult child"--wearing a tiny iphri, no more than a half-inch tall, around his neck (Fig. 6). Iphri imagery typically includes one or more male figures standing atop or riding a quadruped whose face is dominated by multiple sets of large, threatening teeth. In different parts of Urhoboland, artists render iphri according to distinct substyles.

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Images of female beauty to honor brides, mothers, and elders

With statues and festival masks, Urhobo artists commemorate women at various stages of their lives. Young brides, called opha, soon to move to their husbands' households, are feted with extensive rites of passage. They parade through their village, their bodies decorated with elaborately prepared dyes, usually made from red camwood (pterocarpus) mixed with palm kernel oil (Fig. 7). As a permanent honor to these women, wooden statues (Fig. 8) and masks (Fig. 9) are carved to portray them in all their finery.

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Images of nursing mothers (oniemo), usually included within communal shrines, allude to the generations that have descended from the founding families of a community (Fig. 10). These appear as commemorative statues and also as masked visages in festival performances. Another image that appears in the form of both masks and figures is known as the original female ancestor, the eldest among elders, "the mother-of-us-all," inene-ode.

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Shrine statuary for spirits

Until well into the twentieth century, Urhobo communities maintained huge sculptural groups that were manifestations of spirit forces, the edjo. Nearly every community had one or more shrines that housed such images. According to local lore, when the Urhobo came together six centuries ago, they were constantly striving for land ownership. These figures represent the heroic founding families who, aided by the magical powers of the edjo, struggled to develop and maintain new communities.

The most powerful examples of Urhobo imagery are over-life-size statues, usually carved from huge pieces of hardwood perhaps more than three feet in diameter. (Figure 11 is an example of the very large version of these figures; Figure 12 illustrates a rare pair of male and female figures, on a smaller scale.) Looming in tightly enclosed shrines, these figures depict families of spirits that were the founding men and women of a community. They often have assorted additional accoutrements, including mirrors, skulls of animals that have been sacrificed at annual festivals, and staffs of high office (Fig. 13). For all but a few days of the year they are hidden from public view. The contradiction inherent in much of Urhobo art exists here: the edjo statues are held to be both fearsome (to mortals) and beautiful (to the spirit world).