Title: Odudua Statue

Artist: Lamidi Fakeye

Culture: Yoruba

Location: Obafemi Awololo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Materials: Wood

Size: 7 feet

Date: Late 20th century

According to Yoruba mythology, the great creator god and "Lord of the Sky" Olodumare sent his son Odudua to the earth to rule over the kingdom of Ile, and since ancient times, all Yoruba rulers have traced their ancestry back to this great founder king. 30 The Yoruba honor their national ancestors' legacies much the same as we pay tribute to our founding fathers by celebrating on holidays and erecting monuments of them. In this impressive statue, the artist Lamidi Fakeye captures the essential nature of the great royal ancestor to demonstrate the Yoruba aesthetic concept of "iwa l' ewa" or character is beauty. For example, to show the king's power, the monumental statue stands seven feet tall and is carved from a single Iroko tree, whose wood is harder than oak. Also, Odudua's smooth, luminous finish and his youthful appearance indicate his vigor and strength. According to the Yoruba aesthetic, the king's composed, inward-looking face signifies his integrity, wisdom, and control, and he wears the sacred crown to symbolize his office as king and to emphasize his head or ori, which is the seat of both his destiny and that of the nation that he leads. Also, the statue's symmetry gives the figure balance and enhances his majestic presence while the deeply carved details create a dramatic and beautiful play between light and shadow.

Fakeye's masterpiece symbolically recounts the Yoruba world creation story. For example, Odudua pours sand out of a carved gourd to create land on the primordial ocean. Near his feet, the sacred chicken scratches in the sand for food and spreads it out over the world to create the earth. At the statue's base rests the sacred chameleon that was sent to the earth to test the strength of the soil. Finally, Odudua wears a chain around his waste to show the viewer the way that he climbed down to the earth.

In Chokwe society, the mwana puo, "young woman," is an important mask that represents the feminine ideal and ensures fertility among the villagers. The artist models his work on the face of a beautiful woman whom he respects, and when the mask performs, it evokes the spirit of a female ancestor of fertility. 8 Traveling male dancers called akishi stage the masquerades in village squares on prestigious occasions like initiations and leadership rituals, but the masks are not officially linked to these events. The male performers wear costumes that give their bodies a female appearance, and their dances "teach women graceful manners and refined attitudes and gestures." 8 The mask represents a beautiful female ancestor who died in her youth, which explains the images sunken eye sockets and somewhat gaunt appearance. This theme of death is related to initiation ceremonies in which children symbolically "die" and are reborn as adults.

To evoke the ancestor's spirit and her powers of fertility, the mask is designed to demonstrate and celebrate the Chokwe's feminine ideal of beauty and integrity. For example, the symmetrical face with its thin, straight nose and high arched eyebrows has a smooth lustrous finish and youthful appearance to indicate beauty. The elaborately detailed hair and scarification patterns also add to the mask's presence. Mwana puo's face is composed to show her integrity and self control, and her "coffee bean" style eyes are inward looking to indicate spirituality. The metal around the eyes also marks the mask's other worldly nature as it shines dramatically in the sunlight when the mask is performed.

Title: Mwana pwo

Culture: Chokwe

Location: Angola

Materials: Wood, raffia, metal, kaolin

Title: Reliquary Figure

Culture: Kota

Location: Gabon

Materials: Wood, brass, copper

Size: About 20 inches

People around the world pay respect to their ancestors by creating beautiful objects to honor them. For example, America's Capital is filled with monuments that glorify the founding fathers. The Kota people, who live in Gabon, are no different, as they place magnificent reliquary figures like this one in shrines that have been erected to honor the ancestors. These objects represent the clan's founding ancestors and are placed on top of baskets that contain the deceased's bones. The Kota practice a system of ancestor worship and believe that the living can communicate with the spirit world through the reliquaries. 1 For this reason, people often leave offerings and sacrifices at the shrines before consulting the ancestors' spirits for advice. One should keep in mind, however, that the bones are far more important than the reliquary figures because they are irreplaceable, direct links to the deceased. During ceremonies, the spirits enter the lozenge shaped area at the base to communicate with the living. 1

These objects are highly stylized human figures that have a powerful spiritual presence which commands respect for the ancestors and serves to ward of evil spirits. Their abstract form possesses great symbolic meaning. For example, their wooden cores are covered with beaten brass and copper to give them a dramatic shining quality which indicates their spiritual nature. In addition, "the bright all-seeing eyes of the Kota reliquary figures represent the vigilance and protection of the ancestors." 29 Beautiful patterns and decorations are worked into the metal to honor their spirits. Also, the near perfect symmetry and balance of the piece add to its aesthetic appeal which glorifies the deceased with its beauty. This particular reliquary figure is of the ohamba style with its oval face, overhead crescent, and lateral pieces. 1 Other types produced in different areas of Gabon are often just the central portion, and some have concave faces.

Like all peoples, the Punu of Gabon admire both spiritual and physical beauty, and they use a mask type know as the mukudj to invoke the spirits of the ancestors and celebrate feminine beauty. These elegant masks are worn with elaborate costumes and danced by highly trained male performers during public celebrations and funerals. The maskers stand on six feet tall stilts and do a graceful, swirling dance whose movements and gestures teach the village youth important Punu values and traditions. A person can easily image the excitement and awe that such a performance must inspire in its viewers.

Mukudj masks like this one are among the most naturalistic works of African art, but their appearance is not designed to demonstrate only ideal physical features, but rather, they convey important ideas about spiritual beauty as well. In most African cultures, the word for "beautiful" and "good" is often the same, and the two concepts are closely linked in artistic forms. 29 For example, the mask's high forehead, elaborate hair, narrow face, and small chin are all marks of physical beauty in Punu culture, but on the mukudj's, face, these traits also signify spiritual and moral integrity. Also, the mask's white color indicates that it is not of the human realm, and its composed inward looking expression also shows its otherworldly nature. The nine diamond scarification pattern on the mask's forehead and temples holds symbolic meaning as it refers to and honors the nine ancestral clans of the Punu who settled in Gabon.

Title: Oyuki, mukudj

Culture: Punu

Location: Gabon

Materials: Wood

Size: About 12 inches

Title: Ancestor Couple

Culture: Dogon

Location: Mali

Materials: Wood

Size: 30 inches

The Dogon people of Mali have an extremely complex cosmological system that helps them understand the world. At the center of this belief system stands the supreme god Amma, who created the universe. Before humankind existed, Amma created supernatural beings called Nommo, and two of them descended to earth where they became the primordial couple who gave rise to the Dogon people. 21 In western culture, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden have a similar place in religious belief. This beautiful work depicts the ideal primordial couple, and through symbolism, the figures display balance and harmony between male and female, which is an important African value. These statues are placed in shrines where offerings are made to honor the Dogon's Nommo ancestors and to seek their protection and blessings for the village. 23

The figures are quite frontal, and their bodies have been carved with geometric stylization. Through contrast, the artist has used their rigid appearance to emphasize the man's loving, affectionate gesture as he places his arm around the woman to indicate harmony and unity. This action also creates horizontal and vertical lines in the work that form a checkerboard pattern of solid areas and voids. 23 For the Dogon, this pattern symbolizes an ordered human existence. Numerology plays into the piece's design as the three, the male number, and four the female one, are apparent in the figures' linear bodies. Also, the number two which signifies the ideal couple and their unity and productivity can be seen in the piece. 23 The figures are calm and collected to indicate their spirituality and moral integrity. In addition, the couple is shown to be youthful and healthy with lustrous skin and firm bodies. For example, the male has a well developed upper chest for strength and the female has full breasts to indicate fertility. In addition, the composition demonstrates graceful balance and symmetry that enhance its beauty.