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Èjìwàpò: The Dialectics of Twoness in Yoruba Art and Culture

Author(s): Babatunde Lawal
Source: African Arts, Vol. 41, No. 1, Representations of Twins in African Art (Spring,
2008), pp. 24-39
Published by: UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20447870
Accessed: 02-11-2016 13:43 UTC

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 etlwaipe
The Dialectics of Twoness in Yoruba Art and Culture

Babatunde Lawal T he notion that reality has two aspects (i.e., spirit/mat
ter, visible/invisible, male/female, good/evil, essence/
existence) is a universal and ancient phenomenon.
However, its implications vary from one culture to
another. In some, the two aspects are thought to be
interdependent, as in the duality of twins or the pri
mordial couple whose union gave birth to humankind. In others,
the two may be viewed as complementary, as in Hinduism; mutu
ally independent and sometimes antagonistic, as in the eschato
logical dualism of the Zoroastrian, Manichaean, and Christian
Gnostic doctrines of good and evil, in which one is expected to
overcome the other in the end; or eternally coexistent as in the
Cartesian epistemological distinction between mind and body
(see Eliade 1969, Bianchi 1978, Lovejoy 1996). This paper exam
ines how the Yoruba of Nigeria and the Republic of Benin per
ceive and visualize this phenomenon.
The Yoruba regard the number two as sacred apparently because
of the duality or "twoness" (ejiwapo) apparent in nature, such as
day/night, sun/moon, life/death, hot/cold, wet/dry, right/left, and
male/female. Apart from associating the number with balance,
they expect it (especially in a ritual context) to influence the super
natural and bring about a desired result:

tji koko Iwori, Oluwo Isalorun! ...

Ki o ko reree temi wd dfn mi
tji koko lwori
Ki o gbe run gba a wd sile Aye
Bale bd le, afoqjf6orun
tji k6k6 Iwori
Sure tete wa koo wdfire temifun mi
tji-k66-ko6-koo, Iwori! (Adeniji 1982:96)'

iwori-The-Formidable-Two, Master Diviner of Heaven! ...

1 Closed gourd
Oyo, c. 19th century
Gourd, D: 24.1cm (93/4)
Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde, Munich
The Yoruba conceptualize the cosmos as a giant gourd with two halves.
The top signifies the male Sky and the bottom, the female Earth.
PHOTO: COURTESY STAATLICHES MUSEUM FUR VOLKERKUNDE, MUNICH
Bring me my blessings
iw6ri-The-Formidable-Two
Bring them [my blessings] from heaven to earth
When the night falls, Sleep takes over our eyes
iw6ri-The-Formidable-Two!
Move swiftly and bring me my blessings
Iwori-The-Formidable-Formidable-Formidable-Two! (my trans.)
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Yoruba are world famous
for their adoration of twins (ibeji), regarding them as wielding
spiritual powers with which they protect as well as attract good
fortune to their parents. This adoration easily explains why much

24 |irican arts SPRING 2008

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2 Interior of a shrine to Osumare. Ilara, near Meko, 1960.
PHOTO: KEVIN CARROLL
of the previous scholarship on the significance of twoness in Yor
uba art focused primarily on the rituals and images of twins. In
what follows, I broach the subject within the dialectics of Yoruba
cosmology, which explains the universe as an interface of oppos
ing yet interrelated elements.
lGsA WiA: THE COSMIC GOURD WITH TWO HALVES
The popular Yoruba saying "T'ako, t'abo, ejiwdpo" ("The male
and female in togetherness"; Lawal 1995:45) is loaded with mean
ing. In addition to hinting at the life-producing potential of the
couple-the source of the family-it recalls the Yoruba concep
tualization of the cosmos as a "big gourd with two halves" (Igba
nla meiji s'ojut de"ra won).2 The top half signifies maleness as well
as the sky/heaven-the realm of invisible spirits (Fig. 1). The bot
tom half represents femaleness and the primeval waters out of
which the physical world was later created. A mysterious power
called dse is thought to hold the gourd in space, enabling the sun
and moon to shine, wind to blow, fire to burn, rain to fall, rivers
to flow, and both living and nonliving things to exist. This power
emanates from a Supreme Deity known (among other names)
as Alase ('Owner of dse'), Ol6run ('Lord of the Sky') and Olodui
mare (the 'Eternal One and Source of All That Exists'). Assisting
Oloduimare in administering the universe is a host of lesser dei
ties or nature forces called orisd. Said to number four hundred
or more, each orisd personifies an dse associated with a natural
or cultural phenomenon. For example, Obatala represents artis
tic creativity; Oru'nmila, intelligence; Odfuduwa, divine kingship;
Yemoja/Olokun, water and motherhood; Osun, fertility and
beauty; and so on. The deity Esiu-Elegba occupies a special posi
tion among the orisd because of his role as the divine messenger
and the link between them and Olod'umare, on the one hand,
and between the orisd and humanity, on the other. He is regarded
as the custodian of dse. Unlike the Supreme Divinity in other
African cultures, Olod'umare seldom creates directly but does so
through the orisd. For example, on deciding to create land out of
the primeval waters, Oloduimare commissioned Odiuduwa to do
so. After that, Olodu'mare instructed the artist deity Obatala to
mold anthropomorphic images from clay, animated each image
with a life force (emi) and then asked the newly created humans
to go and inhabit the land below the sky. In short, these events,
among others, transformed the bottom half of the cosmic gourd,
also called Igba Iwa ('Gourd/Calabash of Existence'), into the
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material realm and domain of female Earth, Ile, one of whose
other names is Iya' Aye ('Mother of the World').
According to one creation story, the two halves of the cosmic
gourd fitted closely in the beginning, with Olodu'mare (male
Heaven, alias Ajalorun) ruling the top half and Ile (female Earth,
alias Ajalaye), the bottom half. But one day, they quarreled over
the only bush rat they caught while hunting together in the forest.
Ile insisted on keeping the rat because it came from her domain
and she was the "senior." Olod'umare gave up the catch, caused
the top half of Igba' Iwa to separate from the bottom, and pre
vented rain from falling from the sky, thus disrupting the repro
ductive cycle in the terrestrial world. This obliged 11e to give in
and acknowledge the apical position of Olod'umare as the head
of the cosmos, and life subsequently returned to normal in the
physical world (Idowu 1995:46-7, Abimbola 1975:261-91).
It may be asked: Since Olod'umare allegedly created Ile
(through Odiuduw'a), why should she claim to be the senior? The
answer probably lies in another version of the Yoruba creation
myth (collected by Samuel Ajayi Crowther, 1852:207) to the effect
that the Yoruba once regarded Oduiduwa as the Supreme God
dess, an embodiment of Heaven and Earth. According to J. Olu
mide Lucas, one of the pioneer scholars of Yoruba religion and
himself a Yoruba elder:
In the early myths she [Oduiduwa] is credited with the priority of
existence ... She is regarded as having independent existence, and
as co-eval with Ol6run [aka Ol6du'mare], the Supreme Deity with
whom she is associated in the work of creation ... Od'uduw'a is known
as lya Agbe-'Mother of the Gourd' or 'Mother of the closed cala
bash: She is [sometimes] represented in a sitting posture, nursing a
child. Hence prayers are often addressed to her by would-be mothers
(Lucas 1948:45).
D. Olarimiwa Epega, another Yoruba elder, makes a similar
point: "Oduiduai is the Self-Existent Being who created existence.
He is both male and female ... The word Oloduimare is a praise
title of Oduidua" (1971:13-14).3
SPRING 2008 ltrcanarl|t: 25
 3 Vessel with snake motifs
Excavated from Obalara's Land, l1-lf&
c. 14th century
Terracotta, H: 28.8cm (934")
University Art Museum, Obafemi
Awolowo University, 116-fe, Nigeria
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM FOR
AFRICAN ART, NEW YORK

4 Ritual bowl with python and

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~human figures
J . Location/affiliation, age unknown
Wood
Museum of Mankind, London
PHOTO: O THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH

1~ |
MUSEUM, LONDON

Other scholars have drawnAnd people began

attention to theto say: 'One wo
appearance
Pythonof
the word odu (chief) in the names bore
Ol-oduz-mare and O
And when the child grew up, she li
duw'a, suggesting that both apparently refer to one and the sa
He is the one whom all people are c
deity (Idowu 1994:22-7, 31-2; Bamgbose 1972/73:28-9).4 Indee
Python' (Oloduimare) until this v
Olodu'mare is also known as Eled'uw'a, which recalls the d
cited in Bamgbose 1971/72:27).
in Odiu-duwa. Thus the narrative attributing the creation of
The
terrestrial world to Odutduwa mayYoruba
very deity that immediate
well reflect a divine
whoOlo6dimare
of self-extension, identifying appears as the
as a rainbow
sexually an
bi
(ere).
Supreme Deity. In other words, Frequently
is Ile represented
an alter ego as a
of Olodu'ma
The reference to the bottompent
halfwith two
of the heads calabash/gou
cosmic (Fig. 2), Osu
as the "mother" (lya Agbe) isand prosperity. with
in consonance Curiously, the wo
the Yoruba i
tification of a container's lidor as eternal') appears
ide'ri ('cover') in both
or omori Os'
(lit. om
'child' + ori, 'on top'). This is 1994:30,
because a Bamgbose
container,1971/72:27,
usually the3
105).
ger, supports its smaller cover Onesame
in the folkway
explanation
a motherof t
carr
message
her child. Two questions then from
arise: Does Olodu'mare
Olodu'mare to h
hav
mother? Can the two halves underworld (Idowu
of Igba' Iwa also 1994:30).
double as a Mot
That a snake
and-(male) Child? This is not unlikely, givendeity might
the fact thathav
(as
mide Lucas noted) Oduiduwa nent
is sometimes portrayed
role in Yoruba as ain
religion motan
breast-feeding a child (Idowu apparent
1962:Fig. in the
3b). frequent
It is represen
interesting to
uba art. For
that a popular Yoruba folk etymology example,
derives a fourteent
Olod'umare's na
from Olodui-omo-ere, that is, Ile-Ife
'Ol6du',(Fig. 3) features
the child a bigpyth
of a female sna
be an abstraction
(Idowu 1994:32-3, Bamgbose 1971/72:28-9). Theof an altar div
following dis
naturalistic and the other two h
tion verse identifies him as such:

Ahere oko sisun nii mu' opolo to lu ni oru

snake at the back of the vessel (G
A ddfun ere also Drewal, Pemberton, and A
Ti o nfi ekun se irahuzn omo sis on the creature also in the ca
its
Nwon nf ki o rubo ki 6 l bi omo: headkan,
ewure on top of the
aso kijipa arafemale fi
re, ejilogu
O gbo, o ru head of the male figure-as if u
Ere Si loyutn, O Si bi omo seems to be watching over the c
Awon enid si bWresfi wipe 'l6du ni
to omo ti ere biyi'
humanity. As noted earlier, th
Nigbd ti omo naa si daagba, o si joba nl oji iyad re
is the keeper of a'se, mediating i
Oun ni gbogbo enid si npe ni Olo6dmare titi di oni.
Hence, as will be seen below, h
When we sleep in the farm hut,good
frogsand
jump on us
bad in the night.
tendencies. The c
Was the one who cast Ifa [performed divination]
his generous for Python
disposition by touc
When she was weeping and moaning for a child
note the snake on her head that p
They say she should sacrifice one she-goat, the homespun cloth she w
the snake reminds us of Esumare
wearing and eleven shillings so that she might be able to have a child
deity Osuimarre) and Edumare (a
She heard and made the sacrifice
And Python became pregnant, and sheOlod'umare;
Being gave birth toibid., p. 31). A
a child

26 j tI1NrltS SPRING 2008

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wellspring of existence in all its positive and negative aspects. 5 Esu-Elegba fig
ure with python motif
In any event, the view held by some Yoruba informants that 20th century
(a) Olod'umare has a mother, (b) s/he embodies the male and the Wood, 45.6cm (177/s")
female principles of the cosmos, and (c) s/he may have some Private collection, USA
PHOTO: A. PATRICK IRUE
thing to do with a celestial python, has parallels among the Fon of
the Republic of Benin, whose cosmology, many scholars believe, 6 Pair of figures
has been heavily influenced by that of their Yoruba neighbors (edan Ogb6ni)
Yoruba artist, Nigeria,
(Maupoil 1943, Verger 1957). For example, the Fon conceptual 19th-20th century
ize their Supreme Deity, Mawu-Lisa, as both male and female Brass and iron, 35.6cm
in essence. Its most sacred symbol is a closed calabash, like that x 24cm x 6.4cm (14" x
9V2" x 21/2")
of the Yoruba. The top half of the calabash symbolizes Lisa, the Collection of Bernard
male Heaven, associated with day, heat, fire, fatherhood, and and Patricia Wag
virility. The bottom half signifies Mawu, the female Earth, asso ner, promised gift to
High Museum of Art,
ciated with night, coolness, water, fertility, motherhood, gener Atlanta, 115.2007.38
osity, and nurture. Notwithstanding, the Fon often call the two PHOTO: RICHARD GOOD
BODY
aspects Mawu (Argyle 1966:179). As Melville and Frances Her
skovits put it,

Any discussion of the Great Gods with [the Fon] will make apparent
at once the importance of the Sky-God. When the ultimate control of
the Universe is referred to, Mawu is the god usually named. Yet when
one speaks to persons immediately connected with the Sky-God cult
..., the name given to this deity will be the hyphenated one of the two
principal members of the Sky pantheon, Mawu-Lisa ... It is generally
held that Mawu whose domain is in the moon, is female, and that
Lisa, who rules the sun is male. But mythological accounts vary. One
version we collected tells that Mawu is androgynous and that Lisa
is the son of Mawu... Another relates that Mawu and Lisa are two
beings in one, one-half a female whose eyes are the moon, the other a
male whose eyes are the sun. This version, it is claimed, explains the
meaning of the word Mawu (body-divided; 1933:11).

Furthermore, certain Fon oral traditions identify Mawu-Lisa

as the offspring of a Mother Goddess called Nana Buluku (Nana
Buruku or Nana Bukuu in Yoruba) who derives much of her powers
from a primordial python Dan or Dambala, who is associated with
the rainbow, wealth, and dynamism. Usually signified by a coiled
snake with its tail in its mouth to connote eternity, Dambala itself
is believed to have two aspects: Dambala-Wedo (male) and Aido
Wedo (female). These parallels seem to increase the possibility that,
before the impact of Islam and Christianity on Yoruba religion,
Olodfumare might have once had attributes similar in some respects
to those of the Fon's Mawu, Mawu-Lisa, or Nana Buluku.5
Another equally popular Yoruba creation narrative identifies
the top (male) half of the cosmic calabash/gourd (Igba Iwa) with
Obatala, the creativity deity, and the bottom half with Od uduwa
in her role as female Earth (Lucas 1948:95). Apart from casting liams 1964:250 n.2, Bay 1998:95) whom some scholars identify as
the two orisad in roles comparable to those of Oloduimare and Odfuduwa (Lucas 1948:96).
the Fon's Mawu-Lisa, this tradition makes Obatala the Supreme It may then be asked: How did Olod'umare displace Ob'ataila in
Deity, as implied in nicknames such as Orisa Nla ('Great Deity') many of the creation narratives, assuming that he was, as some
and Al'abalase ('The Wielder of Great ase'). Indeed, as Idowu suspect, the equivalent of Lisa (Argyle 1966:175-6, Bay 1998:95),
points out, "he is called by some of Olod'umare's significant appel the top half of the (Fon's) cosmic calabash? Did the names
lations. For instance, he is called Atererekay -'He who stretches Oloduimare, Odutduwa, and Obktala once refer to different attri
over the whole extent of the earth"' (1994:70). Some stories even butes of the same Supreme Deity before they became dissoci
identify Obaitala as the husband of the primordial python, men ated and then identified with different beings? Admittedly, the
tioned earlier, that allegedly gave birth to Oloduimare (Bascom answers to these questions must await the collection and close
1980:212-15). And a number of scholars of Fon culture suspect analysis of more oral traditions. Nonetheless, what is abundantly
that Mawu might derive from the Yoruba goddess Yeye Mowo, clear so far is that certain events in the Yoruba past would seem
one of the wives of Obaitala (Verger 1957:449, 552, Morton-Wil to have resulted in the modification of some aspects of their cos

SPRING 2008 lfrhClirs| 27

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7 Male and female altar figures (Oni'l6)
c. 19'th century
Copper alloy, H: 19cm (71/2)
Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal (Holland)
PHOTO: COURTESY OF AFRIKA MUSEUM, BERG EN DAL

8 Fe/male (Onile) altar figure

18th-19th century
Brass, H: 104.8cm (41 /4)
National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria
PHOTO: DIRK BAKKER
This figure's hornlike coiffure usually identifies women thought to have manlike attributes.

9 Pair of figures (edan Ogb6ni) with hermaphroditic features

Yoruba artist, Nigeria, 20th century
Brass, 43.2cm x 8.9cm x 5.7cm (17" x 3'/2" x 2/4")
Collection of Bernard and Patricia Wagner, promised gift to The Newark Museum, 115.2007.41
PHOTO: RICHARD GOODBODY

mology in order to accommodate new political developments.
As mentioned earlier, Odtuduw'a reportedly created the earth out
of the primeval waters. But one version of the creation narra
tive claims that Oloduimare first asked Obataila to do it, giving
him a hen and a bag of sacred sand. Unfortunately, Obataila got
drunk after receiving the sacred instruments of his commission
and fell asleep by the roadside. It was an opportune moment for
Oduiduwai: He picked up the sacred instruments, descended from
the sky and created the first land at Ile-Ife, the cultural capital of
the Yoruba. When Obatala woke up and discovered what had
happened, he challenged Odiuduwa and a fierce fight ensued.
Oloddu'mare later settled the rift and gave Obatala another task
to mold the image of the first human. Strangely enough, some
legends identify the same Odfuduw'a as a powerful warrior and
the leader of an immigrant group that invaded Ile-If in the first
millennium of the Christian era. After conquering the aboriginal
population headed by Obatala, Odfuduwa established himself as
a divine king in Ile-If, from where his descendants spread to
other parts of Yorubaland, founding new kingdoms, sometimes
peacefully and sometimes by force of arms. The resolution of the
Odiuduw'a-Obataila conflict in Ile-If led to the formation of a
government based on the rotation of the kingship between the
two warring parties. Initially, the descendants of Obataila took
charge of spiritual affairs, while those of Od'uduw'a controlled
the political realm (Johnson 1913-14, Beier n.d.:25-32, Stevens
1966:184-99, Adedeji 1972:321-29, Law 1973:207-22, Eluyemi
1985:20, Smith 1988:3-12,14-27, Adediran 1992:77-95, Adediran
and Arifalo 1992:305-17).
As Oduiduwa, the male warrior, gained the upper hand in the
dynastic conflict, why is he associated with the bottom/ female
half of the calabash and not the top? Or does the bottom half
represent the temporal powers of Odiuduw'a, the first divine king
of Il&Ife?6 I have been unable yet to elicit a categorical answer to
these questions from field informants. Suffice it to say that the
alleged conflict between the two orisa may very well explain why
Oduiduwa now has a double identity, being worshipped as a male
deity in much of eastern Yorubaland, but as another aspect of
11e, female Earth, in the western part. Oddly enough, those who
regard Oduiduwa as a male orisad still occasionally address him as
Iya' Imok ('Mother of the Divinities'; Idowu 1994:22-5). This con
fusion has given rise to two speculations: one, that Odfiduwa's
male (warrior) aspect might be a later development imposed by
a new dynasty to legitimize its hegemony (ibid., p. 26); and the
other, that there might have been more than one Odfuduwa in
the past (Euba 1985:11). Both speculations might suggest that the
original Odfuduwa-alias the 'Mother of the Gourd'-is not nec
essarily the same as the warrior now venerated as a male orisd
and the progenitor of the Yoruba.7 In sum, the metaphor of a

28 atican arts SPRING 2008

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cosmic gourd with male and female halves would seem to sug
gest that the Yoruba notion of a bipartite Supreme Being is much
older than the current one that identifies Olod'umare as a self
created Sky Father also called Olorun ('Lord of Heaven').
EDAN 6GB6NI: TWO ASPECTS OF FE/MALE EARTH
The metaphor of a bipartite omnipotent and omnipresent cos
mic power surfaces again in the edan Ogboni, a pair of male and
female brass figures usually joined at the top by an iron chain (Fig.
6). It is an insignia of membership of the Ogboni society, which
wielded considerable religious, political, and judicial powers
among the Yoruba in the past and, to some extent, still does today.8
Also known as Osfugbo, the society derives much of its author
ity from its role as the vital link between a given community and
Ile, who sustains it (Biobaku 1952, Morton-Williams 1960, Wil
liams 1964, Lawal 1995). The term edan has two principal mean
ings, referring at one level to the brass emblem of membership of
the Ogboni society and at another level to the goddess Edan, the
daughter and alter ego of Ile and the link between the latter and the
Ogboni society (Lawal 1995:41-3). As a result, both names, Ile and
Edan, may be used interchangeably to allude to the same female
Earth. Yet the altars dedicated to her inside most Ogboni lodges
usually feature two large male and female figures (Fig. 7) called
Onile ('Owner of the House') or Onile ('Owner of the Earth').
In view of the Yoruba conception of the cosmos as a gourd with
male/female halves, some scholars have suggested that the Onile
pair may represent the union of the male Heaven and female Earth
or the couple as the founders of human society (Williams 1964:142,
Witte 1988, Drewal 1989:161). These interpretations cannot be ruled
out altogether, given the recent attempts by some Yoruba to mod
ernize the Ogboni. In 1914 the society split into two factions, the
Aboriginal Ogboni Fraternity (AOF) and the Reformed Ogboni
Fraternity (ROF). While the AOF continues with many of the
old rituals and symbolism, the ROF has been modifying them to
attract new members, especially Christians and Muslims. This has
complicated the interpretation of Ogboni art because certain ROF
members now identify the Onile pair as the Yoruba equivalent of
the biblical Adam and Eve (Lawal 1995:37-49). Yet that the pair
does not represent two different characters is evident in the fact
that both the AOF and ROF factions refer to the two figures as Iya'
('mother'), treating them as one unit (Daramola and Jeje 1975:132
3, Ojo 1973:51). Besides, all members of the society metaphorically
regard themselves as Omo Iya' ('Children of Mother Earth'), not as
children of two parents, a father and a mother (Lawal 1995:43-9).
Some Onile figures are joined back to back to emphasize the one
ness of the pair. Certain altars have only a fe/male figure with two
heads, one representing the male and the other the female; one
example of this type is in the museum collection of the Obafemi
Awolowo University Museum, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. A fe/male altar fig
ure in the collection of the Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, Holland,
wears a hunter's hat to symbolize the maleness within her female
ness (Witte 2004:Fig. 73). Other fe/male figures are hermaphro
ditic, sporting beards, hornlike coiffures (Fig. 8), or other unusual
features, in allusion to the transcendence that enables Ile to sustain
different manifestations of life in the physical world (Lawal 1995).
These features reverberate in the edan Ogboni as well (Fig. 91).
Though this emphasis on androgyny in Ogboni iconography
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may reflect parity or male-female interdependence and the pre
eminence of motherhood in the physical world, it also explains
why Ile (fe/male Earth) is sometimes addressed as Obinrin
b'Okiunrin ('a manlike woman'; Adeoye 1989:336). Of special
importance here is how androgyny has been used by the Ogboni
to communicate the ambivalent character of female Earth. Her
kindness to humanity through agriculture is acknowledged in
the praise Ile Ogere, a f'oko yerf ("Earth, the mother goddess
who adorns/combs her hair with a hoe"). At the same time, she
is known to be cantankerous, taking life at will through differ
ent environmental hazards: Aldpo ikd. Arf ikun gbe' eniydn mi
("Owner of a bagful of evil, with a stomach big enough to engulf
human beings"; ibid., p. 359-60). She deals ruthlessly with liars
and traitors but rewards the righteous. And since the Yoruba
often associate femaleness with softness and coolness and male
ness with hardness or harshness, the female figures of the Onile/
edan pair evidently refers to the motherly disposition of the god
dess, and the male figures to her punitive or potentially dan
gerous tendencies. That is why the chained edan Ogboni brass
figures may be detached for sending coded messages. A male fig
ure connotes bad news and may be used to summon those who
have committed serious offences to appear before a special court.
The female figure, on the other hand, hints at good news, such
as being cleared by the court of a crime or selected to receive a
chieftaincy title. However, the significance of each figure varies
from one context to another. Some edan Ogboni are specially
made for healing purposes. When worn like a pendant, the male
figure is expected to energize the body, facilitating speedy recov
ery from illness. The female figure, on the other hand, may be
prescribed for relieving muscular pain and high blood pressure.
Above all, the juxtaposition of the male and female figures sends
clear signals about the interconnectedness of the opposite sex
10 Oppositional complementarity of Good/Evil, Right/Left and Male/Female
in the Yoruba cosmos
MALE SKY
SPIRIT WORLD
(Isalorun)
z
OTUN: Benevolent Right ,O OSI: Ma
(orisa and other agents of 7 (ajogun an
goodness) ' evil)
MALE (ako) FEMALE (abo)
(hardness, harshness, (softness, gentleness,
heat, war, etc.) coolness, peace, etc.)
FEMALE EARTH
MATERIAL WORLD
(Isalaye)
SPRING 2008 aflcanarts 29

C , w r ~~~~~~20Oth century
:7. r LS ? (opposite page)
_5 The Newark Museum, gift of Bernard and Patricia
in the perpetuation of life and preservation of the social order.
Needless to say, when worn in public, the edan Ogboni denotes
the male/female membership of the society (Lawal 1995:37-49).
tSU-EL9GBA AND 6RUNMiLA: RECONCILINGISTABILIZING
OPPOSING FORCES IN THE COSMOS
In the Zoroastrian, Manichaean, and Christian Gnostic tradi
tions, there is an attempt to trace the origin of Good and Evil
to two separate and antagonistic cosmic principles. This is not
the case with the Yoruba. That they regard both phenomena as
two sides of the same coin is evident in popular sayings such as
"Tibi t'ire la da'le aye" ("The physical world evolved out of Good
and Evil"; Lawal 1996:22, Akiwowo 1983:23) and "Butburu ati
rere ni o nrin po ("Bad and good things work together"; Lawal
1974:239-49, Allen 2003:57). In other words, the same Olod'u
mare created both Sop6ona, the dreaded smallpox orisa, and his
opposite Osanyin, the ori'sa' that cures diseases. He also created
creatures that prey on each other, making life a struggle for sur
vival (Abimbola 1997:3).
A close examination of Yoruba cosmology reveals two oppos
ing forces (Fig. lo). On the right side are the benevolent forces,
consisting mainly of the orisa and deified ancestors who watch
over the interest of humankind by virtue of their human essence.
On the left are the malevolent forces, known as ajogun ('war
riors'). They include Ikui (death), Arfin (disease), 0fb (loss), tgba
(paralysis), Oran (trouble), Ape (curse), and all the environmen
tal hazards militating against human existence and well-being. As
Wande Abimbola has observed, "there is no peaceful coexistence
between the two powers. They are always in conflict" (1997:3, see
also Abimbola 1976:151-94). Notwithstanding, they partake of
one another's characteristics, given the Yoruba belief that noth
ing is good without something bad in it, and vice versa. Hence
the following aphorisms: "Aigba ire, k'a ma gba ibi" ("Anything
30 IIMICII 11t SPRING 2008
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(this page, I-r)
11 Staff for Esu (Ogo E1egba)
Nigerian, Yoruba, Ekiti, Bamgboye of Odo-Owa
Wood, twine, 42.7cm x 8.2cm x 24.3cm (163/4" x
31/4" x 91/2,")
Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Katherine White and
the Boeing Company
PHOTO: PAUL MACAPIA
12 Paired male/female Esu-El6gba figures
worn around the neck
Mixed media
National Commission for Museums and Monu
ments, Nigeria
PHOTO: BABATUNDE LAWAL
13 Dance vestments with Esu/Elegba
Yoruba artist, lgb6mina, Nigeria, 19th-20
Wood, cowrie shells, leather, and pigmen
53.3cm x 22.9cm (21 " x 9)
Wagner, 2006, 2006.39.3, 116.2007.15
PHOTO: RICHARD GOODBODY
13a back view
PHOTO: BABATUNDE LAWAL
Good has some Evil in it") and "Ninu' ikoko duzduz ni ekofunfun
ti njade" ("The white porridge comes from a black pot/A good
thing may come from a bad one"; Lawal 1974:243). Similarly, the
right and left sides of the cosmos are not mutually exclusive in
terms of the benevolent and malevolent. For instance, the left
side (despite its association with the malevolent ajogun) has pos
itive aspects as well, being associated with femaleness and com
fort. Note the following prayer for a good festival:
K'odun nyiyabo...
Abo lala bo mo
Abo nii tura ...
Ki odun wa ma ya'ko.
Ako lo ni lile.
May this festival turn out to be female in nature,
It is in femaleness that peace is buried
It is the female that comforts ...
May our festival not turn out to be male,
For it is in the male that toughness lies (Apter 1992:111).
This prayer clearly shows that maleness can potentially be nega
tive, notwithstanding its association with the benevolent Right
side of the cosmos, to which many of the orisd belong. So, there
are elements of the right side on the left, and vice versa (Lawal
1995:43-4). In fact, the panegyrics of some of the 6risa portray
them as unpredictable. The creativity deity Obataila is a good
example. Although well known for his gentility, his nickname
A dd ni b'o ti ri ('He who creates us as he wishes'; Idowu 1994:72)
speaks volumes about his fickleness. Aside from commend
ing him as a great artist who enjoys a lot of creative freedom, it
reminds us of the drinking bouts that led him to create people
with deformities. In short, the Yoruba cosmos is a binary fusion
of opposites. There is no absolute good or absolute bad.
To enable humanity to cope with the dialectics of the existen
 n
e
c
n
v
u
t
i
t
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . o
h
r
t
I I

s
i
c
t
a
a
t
a
t
o
I
tia
t
or
a
sen
t
Ri
t
k
cee
tom
a 1
d
('T
a
('
ash
i
tr
o
of
k
low
as
1985:181-2).
19 In one word, Oru'nmila uses his divine intelligence to help
humanity and fellow orisa' to diagnose and find solutions to
Or
problems, offering advice and providing remedies to avert trou
to
ble and dissolve tension. He is consulted through the divination
be
system called Ifa whose most popular symbol is the opon Ifa
hi
18(divination tray; Fig. 14). By throwing sixteen sacred palm nuts
wifour times from one hand to the other and recording each throw
with one or two finger prints on the dust in the tray, a diviner
ila
to
creates a set of signs or figures (odu') associated with one of the
to
256 verses in the literary corpus called Od'u-Ifa. The diviner then
an
recites the relevant verse in which a problem similar to that of
Ththe client would be mentioned. In the end, the diviner advises
tio
the client to follow the solution recommended in the verse.
fr It is significant that each of the sixteen principal odu, from
which the others derive, is said to be both male and female and
sid
sen
therefore paired (Fig. 15), being identified as such: Ofun Meji
co(the Ofun pair), Ose Meji (the Ose pair), and so on. According to
pa
Daniel Epega and William Bascom, the marks on the right half
re
signify the male and those on the left, the female (Epega 1971:16,
Bascom 1969:40). The tight bond between the two halves is often
tai

SPRING 2008 NiMCan arts 31

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 14 Ifa Divination
ElI OGBE OYEKU MEJI IWORI MEJI IDI MEJI
Tray (op6n Ifa ribiti)
Yoruba Artist, Nigeria,
* 0 * 0 *0 0 *
20th century
Wood, 49.5cm x 8.9cm
(191/2" x31/2")
Collection of Bernard
and Patricia Wagner, IROSUN MEJI O
115.2007.17
PHOTO: RICHARD GOOD
BODY

15 The sixteen prin

cipal Odu-lfa 00 ~~~~~0 0 0000 00 0
OGUNDA MEJI O

0005 00 0000 ~~~~~~~~~~00 0

OTURA ME0I IRETE ME0I OSE ME0I OFUNMEJI

~~~~~~~~~~~~0* *0 0 *

invoked to bless marriages or settle disputes between lovers: Since he represents the unpred
his role as the divine messeng
Aji koni ro
Ajipani po tion of all the sacrifices offere
Ese kan Ogbe' ko ki i'se oroguzn. a particular problem. Thus, th
attempt to enlist the services
One who brings us together on awakening
life more predictable. Paired a
One who unites us on awakening
One half of Ogb6 (od'u-Ifa) does not quarrel [with the other] (Simp
patterns adorn many trays, hi
son 1980:87). of opposing forces in the cosm

Yet, as Wande Abimbola points out, OM SANG THE DOUBLE-AX ST

Each of the 256 Odu has its own character. Broadly speaking, one Odfu
This oppositional complem
may denote evil while another one denotes good. The same Odu may finds one of its most eloquent
also stand for both good and evil ... If a good Od'u appears ... it means double-ax ritual staff of the t
that the client can expect a good omen on the subject of inquiry ... staff stands for the polished s
and if an evil Od(u appears, it means that the client should expect evil ard) that this orisa allegedly h
(I976:30). thunderstorms. A collection o
an altar, alluding to the deity'
And whatever the outcome of a given consultation, Oru:nmila is ose Sango usually takes the fo
expected to advise the client on what to do in order to pave the way female-surmounted by a pair
for the predicted blessing or ward off the evil lurking in the dark. the interaction of heaven/eart
The divining tray on which the diviner fingerprints the odu has tion, etc., in the Yoruba cosm
three basic forms: circular, semicircular, and square/rectangular. spirit possession, through whi
The most common, the circular tray, evokes Igba' Iwa, the cosmic a devotee (Fig. 17). As Evan Zu
gourd. Human, animal, and mythological motifs carved in high of African religions, "the spa
relief frequently adorn the tray's border, leaving a recessed open lutely crucial for ritual. Relig
space in the middle (Fig. 14) called darin opon, the space for fin the spaces that ritual establish
gerprinting the odu signs. That this recessed space is the inter both male and female priests
section of heaven and earth and a stage for metaphysical theater the female body is considered
is evident in the popular saying "Aarin opon niita orun" ("The tion of a male devotee involve
middle of the tray connects with heaven"; Abimbola 2000:177). his body, which explains wh
A typical tray has a human face called oju' opon ('face of the tray') hairdos. In effect, the female
carved on the border, said to represent Esfu-Elegba, the divine virility-to the feminine princ
messenger who acts as a kind of "secret agent" for Oru'nmila. The Yemoja/Olokun, Ile, Oya, and
face is oriented to look at the priest during the divination exer Sango is known as A f'eduzn k
cise. Some trays may have two or more faces; in that case, the the thunderbolt to till the ea
one on top, looking directly at the diviner, becomes Esui-Elegba's. planting yams'), Akata yeriye

32 |AIMClcartS SPRING 2008

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 16 Dancewand for Sang6
Nigerian, Yoruba
Wood, metal, 32.2cm x 9.3cm x 6.2cm (123/4" x 33/4? x 2'/2")
Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
PHOTO: PAUL MACAPIA

17 Sang6 possession priest (elegun Sang6) during the annual

Sang6 festival, Oyo, Nigeria, 1972.
Note the combination of red/white and blue/white colors in his cos
tume.
PHOTO: BABATUNDE LAWAL

18 Male Sang6 priest (agb6na) with female hairdo carrying a pot of

fire during the annual Sang6 festival, Ede, Nigeria, 1987.
PHOTO: BABATUNDE LAWAL

the husband of the tornado deity called Oya'), and Baba wa ojo;
omo olomi ti ('je Yemoja ('Bringer of rain, the son of Yemoja, the
mother of the waters who gave birth to Osun'). S'ango's most
sacred color is red, symbolizing blood and fire-a color often
combined with blue and white, both sacred to the water goddess
Yemoja/Olkun.'0
In essence, the thunderstorm dramatizes the interrelatedness
of Heaven and Earth as well as male and female. The resulting
synergy is expected to regenerate the cosmos, making life more
abundant in the physical world. This imagery is apparent in the
Agbena, a priest carrying a pot of fire during the annual festi
val in honor of the deity (Fig. 18). He is male, but often wears a
female hairdo to signify his twoness. The fire connotes the male
ness of the lightning from the sky and the pot the femaleness of
the "Mother of the Gourd" containing the primordial waters out
of which habitable land emerged at creation. The same phenom
enon is evident in the arugba, the female caryatid figure (Fig. 19)
holding a bowl of thunderbolts on some Sango altars. The two
halves of the bowl recalls Igba lwia, the cosmic calabash, while
the kneeling female figure reinforces the sustaining power of the
bottom half-the "Mother of the Gourd."
The twoness of S'ango as a conflation of humanity and divin
ity also resonates in the ose's double-ax motif. Legend has it that
Siango once ruled as the fourth king of the ancient Yoruba king
dom of 0y6 some time in the fifteenth century. Because he had
a special charm for invoking the thunderstorm, he was deified
and identified with that phenomenon after his death. He is said
to have fathered many twins; hence his nickname Baba Ibeji
('Father of twins'; Thompson 1971a). Therefore, the double-ax
motif may reflect his association with twins as well. At the same
time, the motif epitomizes the paradoxical nature of the thunder
storm: The rainfall that fecundates the earth to benefit humanity
is frequently accompanied by violent gales and destructive light
ning strikes that may result in loss of life and property.
tNiYAN: THE SELF AS SPIRIT AND MATTER
The fact that the Yoruba trace the origin of the human body to
a piece of sculpture created by the artist deity Ob'ataila and then
animated with a life force clearly shows that an individual has
two aspects as well. The body represents the material self, and
the life-force, the spiritual self. Its bilateral symmetry is some
times said to reflect the contributions of one's parents to the self,
the right being identified with the father and the left with the
mother (Idowu 1994:183, Epega 1971:16). Different parts of the
body manifest this twoness as well: bone is identified as male
and flesh female; semen male and breast milk female. Even the
head is divided into an outer layer (ori ode) comprising the hair,
forehead, eyes, nose, cheek, mouth, chin, and ears; that is, those
features that physically identify a person. A naturalistic portrait
(Fig. 20) focuses on these details of the visible self, which may
also include the whole body. The inner head (orf inu), on the
other hand, refers to an inner, spiritual core which, to the Yor
uba, enshrines the ase on which depends one's success or failure
in life. The symbol of this inner core is called ibori ('altar to the
head'). Its abstract form hints at the mystical nature of the spir
itual self, though a stylized sculpture with an emphasis on the
head may also allude to the preeminence of the inner head. (Fig.
21; see Lawal 2000:93-109). The belief that the latter controls the
outer head is evident in the popular prayer: "Ki ori inu' mi ma ba
t'ode je" ("May my spiritual head not spoil the physical one"; Dre

SPRING 2008 atIlfCa |rt: 33

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L Museum of Antiquity, Ile-Ife
I
ix
wal, Pemberton, and Abiodun 1989:26, Olajubu 2003:33).11 Also,
the eye is thought to have two layers, the outer eye (oju ode),
which has to do with normal quotidian vision and the inner eye
or mind's eye (ojut inu'), associated with insight, intuition, medi
tation, critical analysis, etc. (Lawal 2001:516-17).
The Yoruba idea of beauty has two components as well: physi
cal beauty (ewd ode), referring to visual appeal, and inner beauty
(ewa' inui), character or moral worthiness (iwa). That they place
a premium on the latter can be discerned from the popular say
ing: "iwa' l'ewa" ("Character determines beauty"). The reason for
this is obvious: Physical beauty is a natural endowment. Since,
as noted earlier, Ob'ataila is "He who creates us as he wishes" (A
da ni b'o ti ri), to make external beauty the sole criterion for the
beautiful is tantamount to penalizing the physically unattractive
for a biological fact they could not have personally prevented.
The stress on character, on the other hand, affords everyone an
equal chance of living up to a moral ideal in order to be fully
admired. Self-discipline thus becomes the key to social mobility,
enabling an individual to make up for a physical deficiency or
maximize the potentials of a natural endowment (Lawal 2005).
In sum, since the inner head localizes the life force, it influences
not only one's character, but also one's self-consciousness, mind,
thought, conscience, wisdom, behavior, and physical power-all
manifested in the body (Abimbola 1971:73-89; Morakinyo and
Akiwowo 1981:19-38, Allen 2003:37-64). The latter then becomes a
kind of mask, through which the life force exerts one's presence in
the visible world. This interaction between the material self and its
spiritual Other differentiates the Yoruba notion of twoness from
the Cartesian identification of body and mind as two irreconcil
able absolutes (Morakinyo and Akiwowo 1981:28). As a popular
Yoruba proverb puts it: "T'oju', t'iye' laparo' fi nri iran" ("The bush
fowl surveys the land with both eyes and wings").12
34 111|C11 Ml SPRING 2008
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19 Caryatid altar figure for Sang6 (arugba)
20th century
Wood, pigment. H. approx. 109.2cm (43")
National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria
PHOTO: BABATUNDE LAWAL
20 Second-burial effigy (ipade) for Chief Akinyemi Oshogun
Taiwo Fadipe, lle-Ife, 1964
Wood, H: 101.6cm (40")
PHOTO: BABATUNDE LAWAL
A short stick nailed horizontally to the chest allowed the effigy
to be fitted with one of the clothes of the deceased.
jlRER: TWINS AS THE INSEPARABLE TWO
In addition to their notion of the two selves, the
Yoruba also believe that every living person has
a spirit-double in heaven called enikeji (Idowu
1994:182-3, Prince 1964:93, Abimbola 1987). Before
being born, an individual enters into an accord
with his or her spirit double, promising to achieve
certain goals on earth, observe certain taboos,
refrain from certain actions, and so on. As Mari
lyn Houlberg has observed:
In the case of twins, the spirit double has been born
on earth. Since there is no way of telling which is the heavenly being
and which is the mortal, both are treated as sacred from birth. As
one 45-year-old man from Ibadan commented: "We do not think of
each twin as having its own counterpart in heaven; they are the coun
terparts of each other." Thus, everything that is done for one must
be done for the other (1973:23; see also Thompson 1971, Lawal 1989,
Chemeche 2003).
In other words, the prenatal bond between an individual and
his/her spirit double was such that one could not leave the other
behind. As a result, both were born together; hence their name
ibeji ('double-birth') or ejire' ('the intimate, inseparable two').
And because of their association of the number two with good
luck, twins are expected to attract spiritual and material bless
ings to their parents:
Pjire 0kin Ara Isokun
Ile Alakisd l'oti ki won
Pjire so aldkisa di aldso
O so alagbe di olounje
O so otosi di oloro ... (Daramola and Jeje 1975:282).
Twins, beautiful egrets, native of tsokuin town
You entered the house of the poor
Twins turned the poor into the rich
You turned the beggar into somebody with food to eat
You turned the wretched into the wealthy ... (my trans.)
Legend has it that the Yoruba once abhorred twins partly
because multiple birth was associated with animals and partly
because of the fear that one of the pair was an enikeji and there
fore a bad omen for a given community. This resulted in the kill
ing of newborn twins and their mother. The practice reportedly
stopped when, some time in the fifteenth century, a powerful
king's wife gave birth to twins. Instead of having them killed,

the king ordered that the woman and her children be banished
to a remote part of the kingdom and regarded as dead. But,
miraculously, the twins survived in the wilderness and eventu
ally founded new settlements where they became kings (Johnson
1921:25).13 This encouraged ordinary citizens to retain their twins,
keeping their birth a secret from the general public. Some simply
went into exile and settled in areas where their twins survived to
become culture heroes (Chappel 1977, Abimbola 1988). In one
case, which is said to have occurred during the eighteenth cen
tury, a couple that had twins consulted a diviner about what to
do with them. The diviner advised them not to abandon or kill
the twins, provided certain rituals were performed. The couple
fulfilled all the instructions. The twins not only survived, their
parents became very rich. The news soon spread to other parts
of Yorubaland that the preserved twins had attracted good for
tune to their parents (Chappel 1977; see also Thompson 1971b:
Ch 13/2). Another legend locates the original Isokun at Oyo
Ile. There, one of the king's wives gave birth to twins six times
(Abimbola 1988).
To some Yoruba, the close bond between twins is due to the
fact that they share the same life force; others disagree, con
tending that they have separate souls and that the two are pre
ordained to stay together. Nonetheless, there is consensus that
though they are physically two, twins are spiritually one. Thus if
one of them should die, a memorial, ire ibeji, would be commis
sioned (Fig. 21) to localize the soul of the deceased and maintain
the spiritual bond between the living and the dead. If both twins
should die, another memorial would be commissioned and the
two statuettes treated like living children in the hope that they
be born again to the same mother. Tradition requires that the
carver give both memorials the same facial features to emphasiz
ing the oneness in their twoness, even if the deceased twins were
not identical (Fig. 22). The memorial is normally carved from
the wood of the West African rubber tree (Funtumia elastica).
Apparently because its sticky latex binds two surfaces together,
the wood of the rubber tree is believed to possess a high spiritual
sensitivity. In fact, the local name of the tree, ire', derives from
the root verb re, which means 'to unite, befriend, or reconcile'.
Note that the same verb occurs in e'jire, the synonym for twins
the inseparable two-which explains why different parts of the
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21 Memorial for
a deceased twin (ere
ibej-)
Wood, leather, cowrie
shells, H: 27.9cm (11")
Bernard and Patricia
Wagner Collection
PHOTO: BABATUNDE LAWAL
22 Commemorative
twin figures (Awon Ere
Ibeji)
Nigerian, Yoruba
Wood, pigment, beads,
nails, 24.5cm x 8.5cm x
9cm(9%"x3%"x3V2")
Seattle Art Museum,
Gift of Katherine White
and the Boeing Com
pany
PHOTO: PAUL MACAPIA
ire tree-leaves, bark, roots, etc.-are used in making charms or
articles aimed at bonding friends, lovers, and social organiza
tions. This notion is illustrated by the popular saying "Ire oko,
lo6n ki o wa ba mi re" ("The ire of the forest has asked you to
bond with me"; Lawal 1989). The same root verb re is implicated
in words such as ore ('friend') and irepo ('social harmony'). Thus,
to the Yoruba, twinship connotes a mutually beneficial relation
ship that infinitely doubles the dynamic that bonding generates
in time and space, stabilizing families, societies and nations.
GtLtDt: PERFORMING TWONESS
This dynamic is the focus of the Gelede mask (Fig. 23). Found
mainly in southwestern Nigeria, especially among the Ketu,
Egba'd6, Ohori, Anago, and Aw6ri Yoruba, the Gelede masking
society performs in a variety of social and religious contexts (i.e.,
to mark important events in the life cycle or to enlist the aid of
deities in times of crisis). Its ultimate goal is to promote peace
and happiness on earth. To this end, the society directs much of
its ritual and artistic activity toward the pacification of the mater
nal principle in nature personified as Iya' Nla. In some areas, she
is identified with Yemoja-Olokun or with Odua/Oduiduwa/Ile. In
other areas, she combines the attributes of all the female deities.
The frequent reference to lya' Nla as "My mother [the dreadful
bird] Osorong'a ... with the beautiful eyes ..." (Lawal 1996:74)
bespeaks the mixed feelings of the public towards her. For, as
mentioned earlier, the same "mother" who sustains humanity
through nature's abundance also destroys life through environ
mental hazards such as flood, drought, crop failure, infertility,
forest fires, epidemics, and snake bites. Simply put, she is benev
olent and malevolent at the same time. According to popular
belief, certain Yoruba women called ajce have direct links with Iya'
Nla and so are capable of harnessing her powers for positive or
negative purposes. These women are euphemistically addressed
as awon iya wa ("Our Mothers"), receiving special homage at the
beginning of most Gelede performances in order to encourage
them and females in general to let humanity benefit from their
special endowments, most especially their procreative powers.
In addition, the Gelede focus on the pacification of lyi Nla pro
vides a forum for appealing to all members of a given commu
nity, regardless of age, sex, rank, and status, to live in harmony
SPRING 2008 atflcaOfafs 35
 (top to boittom, l-r)
2 3 Male G6I6d6 mask and
' , ff > >; g M -, - p a female attendant (note the
'<ia baby sashes on the costume).
lIgbobi-Sabee, L

PHOTO: BABATUND

A , 24 Two female G6lcd6

~ i' , nnmasks dancing. Ijio, Nigeria,
PHOTO: DOIG SIM

25 Two senio
aries of the Ge
dancing. Ijio, N
PHOTO: DOIG SIM

26 Two wom
during G61lcd6
_"4*>;n ,= _ Nigeria, 1991.
PEEIF w PHOTO: BABATUNDE LAWAL

,X ,7

(irepo
mo
A ty
ces
cert
an
a mas
Ak
of Iy
tur
wome
izi
attir
tak
mask
tw
move
ug
virtu
Ak
nogra
th
men,
tio
the
ofb
herwac
as we
to
Altho
is

36 afr

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All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 (clockwise from upper left)
27 Double-faced Gelede headdress
associated with twins
20th century
Wood
Institute of African Studies Museum,
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
PHOTO: BABATUNDE LAWAL

28 Headdress with wrestlers (igi

Gel&d6 onqjakadi)
Yoruba, Republic of Benin, Idahin, mid
20th century
Wood, ploychrome, 52.2cm x 41.6cm x
28.3mc (201/2" x 161/3" x 1 1 l/8")
Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift of Alan
and Janet Wurtzburger, BMA 1954.32
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE BALTIMORE
MUSEUM OF ART
-'F
29 Gelede headdress featuring a
?Is1
fowl pecking on a snake,which in turn
seizes the fowl by the leg
20th century
Wood, pigment, H: 20.3cm (8")
National Commission for Museums and
Monuments, Nigeria
PHOTO: BABATUNDE LAWAL

vailed but later reconciled with Ob'ataila. Other contests reenact

'S
nineteenth century, when the French colonized that part of south
western Yorubaland and incorporated it into what is now known
as the People's Republic of Benin
This conflict seems to be partly responsible not only for the
emphasis on identical pairs in the Gelede dance (Figs. 25-26),
but also for the frequent references to twins on the carved head
dresses (Fig. 27). When asked about the emphasis on twoness in
Gelede, one informant declared, "It is because women give birth
to twins. That is why there are two masks" (Drewal and Drewal
1983:134). The headdress in Fig. 28, from the Baltimore Museum
of Art,14 is in the Ketu style-probably carved by Lagbite-so the
wrestling motif on it reminds us of the historic succession dis
pute between Akan and Edun. A close examination of the two
figures, however, reveals deeper levels of meaning. For instance,
they both sport the osu hairstyle worn by priests and royal mes
sengers, who sometimes participate in ritualized wrestling con
tests held during annual festivals in different parts of Yorubaland.
Some of the contests commemorate the aforementioned conflict
between Obataila and Odfuduwa after the creation of the earth as
well as the dynastic struggle in Ile-If in which Odfuduw'a pre
historical feuds between neighbors or between aboriginal and
immigrant groups. These festivals are intended to recall the past,
in addition to drawing moral lessons from the conflicts, espe
cially how they were resolved amicably (Lawal 2004:114-17.). As a
result, most Yoruba festivals begin with a major sacrifice to Esui
Elegba, the agent provocateur who, as mentioned earlier, often
instigates quarrels, if only to provide himself with an opportu
nity to settle them and thereby teach humanity.
The figure on the left returns the viewer's gaze with what
appears to be an uneasy calm on his face, recalling the Yoruba
proverb 'Adie bd l'okun; ara ko rokun; ara ko r'adie" ("A hen
perches on a rope; the rope feels uneasy, the hen feels uneasy, as
well"; Lawal 1996:248). This proverb is often quoted by Yoruba
elders when advising individuals or communities against the use
of force in resolving disputes that may ultimately result in inju
ries to both parties. The proverb is sometimes visualized in the
form of two creatures-usually a bird and a serpent-interlocked
in a mutually destructive combat (Fig. 29).
Thus the wrestling motif on this headdress (Fig. 28) seems to
warn the viewer of the negative consequences of violence, for
much more can be achieved through peaceful resolution of con
flicts and from being one another's keeper. That the pair is not
really fighting but miming the concept of togetherness becomes
evident when the mask begins to dance. As the mask moves or
swirls to the rhythm of music, the wrestling figures suddenly
cease looking like antagonists. Rather, they appear to be balanc
ing and holding on to one another in a precarious situation in
which their survival depends on ejiwwdp ('twoness, togetherness,
comradeship') and ejire ('bonding'; Lawal 2004:117).
By and large, the emphasis on "twoness" in Yoruba culture
reflects at the secular level, an attempt to educate the public about
the virtues of social living and the need for individuals to work

SPRING 2008 lIMCcImImt| 37

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 together for the good of all. As a popular Yoruba folksong puts it: always be on their side. Hence the emphasis on divination in the
past with a view to knowing the wishes of the 6risd and so mini
Ojt m4ji riran j'oj kan lo
Pse kan soso ko se e rin mize the risks of offending them.
Afrfr ow6 kan 6 gberu d'ori The consciousness that anything that lives will eventually die has
Otan we 6si, 6si we 6tun led the Yoruba to accept death as the price to be paid for living:
Ni ow6 m4j,jifi i nm6.
Gbese n' iku; gbogbo wa ni y6 san.
Two eyes see better than one Away4 aiUK 6 si
It is difficult to walk with one leg'5 Ohun a ntoro ni ire ow6, ire omo, ire dldfia ati emi gigun.'6
One hand cannot easily lift a heavy road to the head
Death is a debt; all of us must pay.
It is only when the right hand washes the left and the left washes the
There is nothing like living in this world without dying.
right
What we pray for are the blessings of wealth, children, good health,
That both hands become clean (my trans.).
and long life (my trans.).

At the religious level, however, this notion, also articulated
in popular sayings such as "Tibf t'ire la da'le aye" ("The physi
cal world evolved out of Good and Evil") and "Butburu ati rere
ni o nrin po ("Bad and good things work together"), reflects a
pragmatic worldview that life is not always a bed of roses. It is
full of inherent contradictions or oppositional complementari
ties that must be taken in their stride, as there is little human
ity can do (despite its technological advancements) to prevent
certain unfavorable events in nature. This "fatalistic resignation"
often expressed in the aphorism "Ise Olo6dmare, Awamaridi"
("Olod'umare's action is unfathomable"), has enabled the Yor
uba to carry on with the struggle of living in the hope that the
orisa, who administer the universe on behalf of Olod'umare, will
Nonetheless, a belief in the self as an interface of spirit and matter
has encouraged them not to accept death as the end of life. Instead,
they view it as a separation of the inner (spiritual) from the outer
(material) self, resulting in a translocation from physical to meta
physical existence-a kind of afterlife (Ehin-Iwa), where a demate
rialized soul may choose to stay forever or reincarnate as children
in the same family (Lawal 1977). To the Yoruba, this ability of the
soul to reincarnate in a new body-a work of art by the creativity
deity Ob'atala -reveals the divinity that abides in humanity.
BABATUNDE LAWAL is Professor of African and African Diaspora Art, Vir
ginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA and, in Spring 2008, the
Robert Sterling Clark Visiting Professor of Art History at Williams College,
Williamstown, MA. blawal@vcu.edu

Notes References cited

This article is a revised version of a paper first
presented at the 13th Triennial Symposium of the Arts
Council of the African Studies Association (ACAS A) held
at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, March
31-April 3, 2004.1 am grateful to Professors Akinsola Aki
wowo and Mark Wood for reading an early draft of this
article and making useful suggestions.
1 One text described The-Sacred-Two as "The one
who left home as a wretched person, but later returned
with good fortune" (Olatunji 1984:44).
2 Another saying describes the cosmos as "Igb?
nia m?ji, ? d? isi: aiy? ?ti sanm?" ("Two mighty cala
bashes, one on top of the other, representing earth and
sky"; Ojo 1967:196).
3 Od?duw? is sometimes pronounced "Od?du?"
or "O?du?."
4 It is worth mentioning that another creation
narrative identifies "Od?" as one of the senior female
?ris? who later married ?runmil?, the oris? of divina
tion (Adeoye 1989:360-61).
5 Pierre Verger has drawn attention to an ancient
Fon Supreme Deity known as Se/Segbo that he suspects
may have something to do with the Yoruba concept of
?se (enabling power'); see Verger 1966:19-40. Among
the Baga of Guinea, the Supreme Being is associated
with a celestial serpent; see Lamp 1996.
6 Some Yoruba and Benin oral traditions suggest
that the present-day city of If? might not be the same
as the one mentioned in the creation narratives. As a
result, archaeologists have been looking for the "origi
nal" If?, hoping to find it someday, if these traditions do
in fact contain some elements of truth. But the antiquity
7 The identity of that warrior is further com
plicated by a recent story from the Edo of Benin City
whose current ruling dynasty was reportedly founded
about the fourteenth century by one of Oduduwas sons.
According to the story, the name Od?duw? was the
title of a powerful ancient ruler whose extinct kingdom,
known as Uduwa, was once located near the River
Niger to the north of present-day Il?-If? and Benin City
(Omoregie 2004:1-9).
8 The ?gboni society is known as ?s?gbo among
the ijeb? and Egb? Yoruba. But since the term ?gboni
is more popular, I will use it throughout this essay to
refer to the ?s?gbo as well.
9 This shows that the ajogun are not engaged in
evil activities all the time.
10 While some Yoruba identify Yemoja as the
mother of Ol?kun, others claim that one is an alter ego
of another or that they are two distinct deities.
11 Thus, a person who fails to succeed in spite of
hard work is said to be troubled by his inner head (see
Idowu 1994:181-2).
12 I am grateful to Professor Akinsola Akiwowo for
bringing this proverb to my attention.
13 Another version of this legend identifies
Pupupu as the wife of Od?duw?, the first king of Ife, not
Ala?fin ?j?ka of Oy?-Il?; see Smith 1988:52, Olupona
1991:23-4, Abimbola 1988.
14 There is an identical headdress in the collection
of the Everhart Museum (Scranton, Pennsylvania) that
might have been carved by the same artist to pair up with
the BMAs piece during the performance.
15 ?sanyin, the one-legged oris? of herbal medicine
is said to be an exception because he has a special power
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