Mbari Is Life

Author(s): Herbert M. Cole

Source: African Arts , Spring, 1969, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Spring, 1969), pp. 8-17+87
Published by: UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3334390

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 Un mbari c'est la Vie. Cet article qui pr6sente les maisons
mbari des Ibo est le premier d'une serie de trois. Il montre
les aspects d'un mbari achev&: sa structure, son contenu
et sa signification dans la vie du peuple. A la fois temple
et maquette, un mbari resume la conception du monde
des Ibo et integre les nouveaux personnages et eblments
de la cosmogonie Ibo- l'homme blanc et le Christ, le
telephone et la machine ai coudre y figurent p&le-mele.
Le prochain article presentera la construction d'un mbari,
t&che qui requiert plusieurs annees. Il soulignera pour la
communaute l'importance de la ceremonie d inauguration
ou de devoilement du mbari. Le troisibme article, plus
general, traitera des probl'mes de creativitb et d'indi-
vidualite dans un mbari. La discussion sera elargie par
la presentation de deux autres institutions Ibo: les mas-
carades Okorosia, les cultes des dieux de la ville ou du
marche au nord du pays Ibo.
Ces articles sont dedies au peuple Owerri Ibo du Biafra.

SARI IS LIFE
HERBERT M. COLE

Despite the unsettling irony, mbari speaks a joyful

This article on the colorful mbari houses of the Ibo people
language of praise and hope, of peace and prosperity -
is the first in a series of three. It deals with some aspects
of the completed mbari, its structure, content, andcopious
signi-yam harvests, beneficent gods, mothers heavy
ficance in the lives of the people. The second article,
with child,to
proud hard-working villages. Yet the language
appear in the next issue of African Arts/Arts d'Afrique, is rich and the dialect deep, for single words are multi-
will outline the ritual, structural, and symbolic activities faceted; there are prayers, myths, and proverbs; there
of building mbari- tasks occupying many yearsare-puns and and jokes. Mbari is an edifice of symbols. One
will indicate the great importance of the ceremonial of the most complex formal structures in tropical Africa,
processes which unfold before an mbari is unveiled to still in meaning. Its languages defy the
mbari is richer
the community at large. The third, more generalunderstanding articleof those accustomed to discursive thought.
will address problems of creativity and individualitV in symbols of any people in any age mbari
Like great artistic
mbari, and will broaden the discussion of "process by proclaim the insufficiency of the written or
houses mutely
citing in addition to mbari, two other Ibo institutions: spoken word.
Okorosia masquerades; and cults of town or "market" The great deity in most Owerri towns is Ala, the Earth,
deities in north-central Iboland. Mother of all her people, and the generous giver of yams.
These articles are dedicated to the Owerri Ibo of Biafra. Splendid mbari houses are built for her by Owerri vil-
lagers to acknowledge her power as child-giver, life-taker,
Vibrant with color, alive with mud people, animals,
monsters, and myriad things in rich architectural tab-
peacemaker, and final arbiter in the affairs of men. "Mbari
is the crown of our god." Central, dominant, and larger
leaux, mbari houses speak out boldly in an eloquent than life, Queen Ala sits aloof and dignified on her mud
language, silent, intense, and meaningful.1 Mbari is life throne. The stable, symmetrical triangle composed by
and language: the daily life of action and thought encoded Ala and her two children is broken only by her symbolic
in mud, the symbolic language of ritual, proverb, and knife, held high in ambivalence as a warning and a
myth encrypted in color, the promises and hopes of a promise to her people. With it she will "peel yams for
people displayed in an elaborate two-story building her children," provide for them. With it she will "direct
erected as a monument to a powerful god. If, indeed, her crowds" and "guide her people." And with it "she
significant art forms speak to all men in all worlds, it is will kill her offenders, Bwim!! and swallow them up."
the intention of mbari to speak only of and to its own Her drooping breasts say that "she is old, a man among
world, to the men, spirits, and gods of a limited area of women, past childbearing," a strong elder's voice in the
Iboland, within a twenty-five mile radius of Owerri, a council of gods. Her leg bangles, intricate body painting,
town now under sad and heavy siege.2 and especially her elaborate hairdress show her a rich

8
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ALA, PERSONIFICATION OF THE EARTH. LIKE THE TWO FLANKING HER, ALL OWERRI PEOPLE ARE HER CHILDREN.
THIS IS OBIALA IN HER MBARI AT NDIAMA OBUBE. ARTIST: NNAJI.

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 titled woman, proud, ostentatious, and grand. Like many
rulers of the world, Ala must raise her feet above the
ground.
Other gods in the loosely organized Owerri pantheon
sit on other sides of the same house, or sometimes in mbari
dedicated to themselves alone. Chief among them is
Amadioha, god of thunder. As lord of the sky he is Ala's
celestial male counterpart. In the past thirty or forty
years he has been modeled in western clothes, symbols
of status, and always as a titled man with his attributes
of high rank--a belled staff, drinking horn, and ivory
trumpet. Amadioha, like the sky and lightning, is light
in color and in the old days took albinos as his slaves.
Ala, like the earth, is dark. Present, too, may be Ekwuno-
che, a river goddess proficient in assuring large families.
Another is Mamy Wata, a mysterious recently-introduced
deity who controls snakes as pets; she may bestow great
riches on man, or insanity, depending on how she is
treated. Like other gods she should not be offended or
she "will come to people with a fight." Owerri gods love
to "eat wealth"; they must be entertained and feasted
regularly.
These gods and others are good and bad simulta-
neously, or at least in turn. They may be vengeful and
terrible or protective and beneficent. They are guardians
of public ethics and private morality; they give and they
take away. People honor them not so much out of love
and respect as out of fear and hope. Without the demands
of these gods there would be no mbari.
If by scale and central position the supernaturals are
the most prominent inhabitants of mbari, and their ulti-
mate cause, they are clearly the least numerous. Other
spirits, some in monster form; human beings from life,
legend, and history; and various animals complete the
scene. Their bones are sticks, their fat and muscles sun-
dried mud, their flesh and clothing earth colors. Larger
mbari contain from thirty-five to a hundred or more
modeled images in an endless and bewildering variety

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 THE YELLOW AND RED IN THIS UP-TO-DATE WOMAN AT A SEWING
MACHINE ARE EUROPEAN ENAMELS, USED IN A FEW MORE RECENT
MBARI. THE BLUE IS WASHING BLUE, WHICH HAS BEEN USED FOR
YEARS. IN THE MBARI TO ALA AT UMUOFEKE AGWA. ARTIST: OF-
FURUM.

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THE GOD OF THUNDER, AMADIOHA. SHOWN WITH HIS FIRST

WIFE. BOTH WEAR STATUS SYMBOLS AND CARRY ATTRIBUTES
OF HIGH TITLE. THEY APPEAR ON A SUBSIDIARY SIDE OF THE
MBARI TO ALA IN UMUGOTE ORISHAEZE. ARTIST FOR AMADIO-
HA: NNAJI: FOR HIS WIFE: EZEM.

THE FRONT. OR "PUBLIC" AND FORMAL SIDE OF AN MBARI

HOUSE AS SEEN FROM THE ROAD. GIVES PROMINENCE TO THE
GODDESS OBIALA FOR WHOM THE STRUCTURE WAS BUILT IN
1956. IN NDIAMA VILLAGE IN THE TOWN OF OBUBE. ARTIST:
NNAJI.

11

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 .* ii ! di

PROUD MAMY WATA WITH HER LONG RINGED "RAINBOW" NECK,

I ; : ..
AN ATTRIBUTE OF BEAUTY AMONG OWERRI IBO. IT IS NOT INCON-
SISTENT FOR THIS TRADITIONAL GODDESS TO WEAR A CHRISTIAN
CROSS. IN THE MBARI TO ALA AT EGBELU OBUBE. ARTIST: NNAJI. <".i;-t4ae ~

'l "<" :<'

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PCi

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x:-

:....- .," . - ..? ,.. , . .,-," ...: .

THE WHITE MAN SEEN EMERGING, ACCORDING TO LEGEND, FROM

A HOLE IN THE GROUND, AS IF FROM A MANHOLE IN A CITY STREET.
IN THE CLOISTER TO THE MBARI FOR ALA IN UMUEDI OFEKELEM.
ARTIST: EZEM.

of shapes,
sizes, is poses,
deeply occup
embe
there rules and for any
cannot what be
asks the after
ever-analytic 1900). fieldw Af
classification. "What
many should
referen n
old informant held
well-dressed the key: m
said, "you will come
children to of unde m
included: things which
acitivities are and g
which terrify;tions which reflect cultural ethics of hard work and
forbidden th
laughter." He receptivity
went to change andon to
progress. On the say
leading
mutually exclusive:
of such productive, positive"Leopar
activities are scenes wh
but they are reach intovery
also the future with hope: a modem mater
beautifu
Mbari is an affirmation of
clinic; an entire complex of mbari buildings inclu
and general an "officewill,
good building", in addition
and to houses
mosfor Ala a
good-clean-pure-useful,
Amadioha, all wired for telephone, withidea
animated m
in the Igbo word nma.
operators relaying, For
so to speak, the th
dreams of the l
coloring is people.
light, including the
Light-colored Asor a frightening white thin
reflection of the supernatural forces
"of good heart,"
responsible foras opposed
mbari, on the other hand, are terrifying to
are obscure, ugly,
images from mythology, and dange
nature, and the underworld of

12
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spirits. Both the natural and the imaginative world are
troubled by dreadful, harmful creatures who strike swiftly
and without warning. Leopards and pythons, whether
seen in dreams or in reality, prophesy misfortune, and
sometimes death. Okpangu is a mysterious, devious spirit
- half-man, half-ape - who wanders out on black nights
in thick forests and places far from home. He pelts lonely
or ill-equipped travellers with the rock-like seeds he
carries; he likes to wrestle men and rape women. He
preys upon the foolish and insecure. Okpangu mythology
is a rich catalogue of native custom and morality, Okpan-
gu himself a living presence to Owerri people. When .::::

mbari visitors encounter ugly, black Okpangu with his

huge prickly penis they are inevitably reminded of stories,
amusing but instructive, that they heard from old men.
Mbari is reinforced as a school and morality play by ?i ::.o.4.i:?? ..r
the inclusion of forbidden things. Masqueraders brave
the clear light of day in mbari, where they are available ? ...:; ..
for close inspection by women and children, who normally
'.:"::' .". i,?:':: : ... '
see them only at great distances. A variety of openly
sexual imagery from myth and legend greets the Owerri ? .:.:. .. ... . .:. . .... ... . . . . . .
villager to whom even a veiled discussion of sex is impolite
if not forbidden. Women brazenly display their private
parts, and scenes of copulation include sodomy between
mythological man-beasts. Such references to forbidden or
indecent behavior speak the candid language of graphic
example, buttressedby proverbs and didactic stories with
strong moral overtones.
Erotic scenes, among others, are strong magnets in
mbari, amusing and entertaining the public, and pro-
viding them with relief from the arduous tedium of taking

OKPANGU, THE TERRIBLE APE-MAN SPIRIT, SEEN HERE APPREHENDED AND

SHACKLED BY A POLICEMAN. SUCH AN OCCURRENCE IS BUT WISHFUL THINKING:
OKPANGU IS TOO CLEVER AND TOO STRONG TO BE CAUGHT. IN THE MBARI AT
UMUGOTE ORISHAEZE. ARTIST: NNAJI.

iF w

i~?' :I~?i~ F~A~f ~ ow,.:?

=:; ....':; ;=:"

$ t -:=-::',, ' -- - --iiiC; if ;i ' ==.............
'&AR
IIIr
cc,
S. ..... .... ...
0.

t OR?

.........:,., :!:= ? = =;i

:~ls 10

BIRTH SCENE IN A MODERN MATERNITY CLINIC, COMPLETE WITH TELEPHONE APPARATUS AND UNI-
FORMED NURSES. IN THE CLOISTER OF THE MBARI TO ALA AT UMUOFEKE AGWA. ARTIST: OFFURUM.

A FANCIFUL HIPPOPOTAMUS GLORIFIED WITH ABSTRACT PATTERNS REMINISCENT OF

DESIGNS PAINTED ON WOMEN'S BODIES. IN THE MBARI TO AFO AT UMUAHIAGU.
ARTIST: AKAKPORO.

13

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 a meagre subsistence from unproductive soil. As on
mbari artist said, "When we want to play tricks we pu
figures in poses which excite laughter. Wherever the b
things are in mbari, that is where people flock. They ev
call them the most beautiful." Among the more amusin
themes is the stock of portrayals of the white man, fro
pre-1900 myths of his emergence out of a hole in the
ground, to bespectacled, gaudily clad horsemen wit
three parts in their hair and overlong, straight noses.
White men are seen alternately or simultaneously i
various ways. They are portrayed realistically in their
roles or exaggerated into caricature. Laughable and
often despised, the white man is nevertheless respecte
as a powerful harbinger of progress.
White men introduced the idea of two-story houses
with windows. When such grand residences becam
known to Owerri people they were quickly appropriat
as houses for the gods, who must have the first and be
of everything. White men are quite often seen in mbar
looking out of second-story windows. Mbari imag
of white men and Ibo alike change with time to incor-
porate the latest advances in houses, clothing, and tech
nology: hospitals, schoolboys in uniform, cars, radios,
and bottled beer. Ibo people seize the new and usefu
transforming it for their own religious and social purposes
Ironically, Christ-crucified appears on an mbari colum
and Mamy Wata wears a cross. All such things are cand
recognition of the apparent benefits of the "modern world
Mbari is a paradox. It mirrors and heralds the very kind

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MIN8?:a- i

i; .A ~ia d.; Y
r M

THE GODDESS EKWUNOCHE, PROVIDER OF LARGE FAMILIES,

SHOWN WITH FOUR OF HER PROGENY WHO CLAMBER OVER HER
IN A CAGE-LIKE CONSTRUCTION OF WOOD COVERED WITH SUN-
DRIED MUD. IN THE MBARI TO ALA AT UMUOFEKE AGWA. ARTIST:
OFFURUM.

A MOTHER AND HER SCHOOLBOY CHILD AFTER THIRTEEN YEARS

OF WEATHERING. NOTE THE REMARKABLE NATURALISM OF THE
MOTHER'S BREASTS AND LOWER TORSO. IN THE MBARI TO
OBIALA AT NDIAMA OBUBE. ARTIST: NNAJI.

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 DETAIL OF THE HEAD OF A "FORBIDDEN OKOROSIA MASKER IN THE CLOIS-
TER OF THE MBARI TO ALA AT UMUOFEKE AGWA. MASQUERADES ARE PER-
FORMED ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY ON THE FRINGE OF THE MBARI REGION,
WHERE THIS STRUCTURE IS FOUND. ARTIST: OFFURUM.

a_
4

Ir

I,??.
?.,

I;

?*

~i'

II ii;

'I~Jp? ,
;'C

'.';'

i??-?

::??.

~?: B

::? ?

.:j: :
:"
i.:
a
?;;?':'
*??.- ?'?
t .?:?.ii Ib r 91~;?2ii.?' ?-il'?
1
i i

?i?~

?:i: .??-
r-?r?

~
-"
..i

A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS MARRIAGE DEPICTED ON THE

FRONT SIDE OF THE MBARI TO OBIALA IN NDIAMA OBUBE.
ARTIST: NNAJI.

i::

o..

iT I

Ali " ". 7 i.; .

.. . . . . .. ? . . . '

...

THE DREADED APE-MAN OKPANGU, WITH A LEOPARD POSED ARTFULLY ATOP A CONVENTIONALIZED
LION. IN THE CLOISTER OF MBARI IN UMUOFEKE AGWA. ARTIST: OFFURUM.

15
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 of change - schooling, Christianity, a European economy a pair of stepped buttresses which, with the corner col-
-- which conspire to effect its downfall as a traditional umns, divide the space of each side into three niches.
monument to Owerri Ibo culture. Larger mbari may have smaller "outbuildings" and/or a
The orchestration of mbari is at once powerful and gallery surrounding the main house on three or four sides.
subtle. Modernity vies with mythology, the ugly with The most accessible side of every mbari houses the deity
the beautiful. Sculpture depends upon architecture butfor whom it was built, supported behind and on the sides
is set off from it, complementing with organic poses by hieratically posed "children." The front side is formal
and vibrant life the starker planes and angles of the and symmetrical with stiff frontal images ranked outward
background building. The essential plan of the house from the focal center. Other important local deities may
itself is a box enclosed by four mud walls rising two occupy
or central niches on other sides, but they are less
three times the height of a man. From each wall springs
formal in scale and posture, as if to prepare the stage for
Continued on page 87

.....:/" ^i~. bl " '"::-s: ? ......:,?.",.:<.,?;L~ 7 .f3 j : - rC uEl Al ~ ~ ~ ~ i?-""-"--- ?In ~ O ?:

P I ?I -

? : :: .

>
ij s, w~~.ii :,o-
~ ?? .:.;?
, :.... . ?i ;i;

*..
;i .... .- ' '?
.....r? .. i ..::i ????i ,.. :I '.:: . . . ....
..i"? <..._
., -,
?,.,' .:.<. .

A DRUMMER, LEFT, AND TWO XYLOPHONE PLAYERS

PROVIDE MUSIC FOR THREE ANIMATED DANCERS
IN THE CLOISTER OF THE MBARI TO ALA AT AGWA.
...... . ? .....
ARTIST: OFFURUM.
aa

h" :.:q:: ?H A t

INFORMALLY COMPOSED SUBSIDIARY SIDE OF THE

MBARI TO AROUKWU AT LAGWO INCLUDING IDEAL-
IZED FIGURES OF MEN AND WOMEN AND A "SHAME- ? ?i f : :i ::>. ?N..
Has .... .....
LESS WOMAN" EXPOSING HERSELF TO PASSERS-
BY ARTISTS: EZEM AND AKALAZU.

.... d != .: ..7

;gy::---
~:~d*r'* ui~i N
f ?: :"xtmi

. . ...... . .. ......::. -.

....... . .... ...

'6";x N-

?' .? ..~~':i~:"i: .
ii

. .. .. . ...?

'I~n~:ii i ir.;;r::?:?.??.;;a:::.........;::

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 HERE CHRIST IS TRANSPOSED TO AN MBARI COLUMN,
BUT WITHOUT HIS CROSS. A CEMENT CRUCIFIX IN A MIS-
SION COMPOUND PROBABLY INSPIRED THIS WORK IN
THE MBARI TO ALA IN OGBEKE OCHA. ARTIST: EZEM.

THE END WALL OF THE LARGE MBARI TO AMADIOHA IN UPE ULAKWO SHOWING THE
t i ' ..: "SECOND STORY," WITH WHITE MEN AT THE WINDOWS, CELESTIAL SYMBOLS, AN
OPEN UMBRELLA, FISH, A CLOTH, INSECTS, AND BIRDS. ARTIST: PROBABLY NNAJI.

i :::::

....: ..?
. :i : i:.
m~ m j :f~ ?;.,....
?~ ~ ~~~~~~~~' 'I , : ... :',=:... ?= . .... . .
"::-." " ii i N.,+

? ' .... .. ; % * . ..

': --? . ... . `:X

X.- .rr l ?*: c.j

N. ''
N ?, ?

N * I
Ms

-.2 N"i
-
:f's

ON4:

-4?
%I
i.:i N

N':

N N.s
;
:

r rr

N. di. s

III

SI~r

- I
-1
C'\

I ~ ~ ~ j I---'yyJ- --

---j

0 12
S111111111
FEET IIF
PLAN SHOWING THE PLACEMENT OF FIGURES AND VARIOUS KINDS OF ARCHITECTURAL SET-BACKS
EMPLOYED TO INCREASE THE ILLUSION OF SIZE. THE MBARI, WITH THIRTY-FOUR FIGURES INCLUDING THE
HEADS PEERING THROUGH WINDOWS (RIGHT SIDE NEAREST CENTER), IS OF AVERAGE SIZE. THE MBARI
TO OBIALA AT NDIAMA OBUBE. ARTIST: NNAJI.

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MBARI IS LIFE
continued from page 16
k,:. ............::
the informally posed figures and groups in the side niches
or in the gallery (called the "kitchen"). As in medieval
manuscript illumination, the more naturalistic figures
and life-like poses are found in marginal areas away from
the formal and ideological center of attention.
...........
b? i :?:~
The underlying architectural structure is illusory. The
central core is built of heavily packed thick mud walls,
yet their surfaces are painted in a variety of geometric
patterns which obliterate the solid mud volumes and WTI
transform them into flimsy stage sets. A series of minor
vertical and horizontal setbacks increases the scale of
the building, aided by figures of different sizes in various
positions. A large mbari is several times larger than any ? ~: -:,::-
other traditional Owerri building and its apparent ;**on
size
Alm..;
is greater still. The house, with four walls, windows, and
doors, has no useful interior space. Mbari images look A:

only outward to the observer who participates in the

"interior space" of scenes and niches only vicariously,
as he might view a diorama or a monument.
Lured closer by curious figures or bizarre scenes por-
trayed in flashing color, the mbari visitor peers up under
the prestigious tin roof to view painted objects or scenes
of different order ranged on the upper wall before him.
There are cloths, bicycles, lamps, fowls, umbrellas, curious
beasts, knives, perhaps a few women in a canoe. Such
things, from life, legend, or the imagination of artists
chosen partially for their ability to innovate, refer to
objects of prestige or ritual value, or stories and proverbs.
Some paintings, like some sculptures, have no apparent
GENERAL PEERING OUT OF A HIGH SECOND-STORY WINDOW IN THE MBARI TO ALA
"meaning" beyond their own shape and color, theirINeffect.
EGBELU AMALA OBIKE. NKWOCHOCHA, THE ARTIST, EMPLOYED A CLEVER
But paintings of crescents, circles, and doubleheaded
TRICK: THE NECK SPRINGS FROM THE WINDOW SILL BUT THE MEDAL-BEDECKED

arching pythons say more than their simple forms might

BLOUSE IS PAINTED DIRECTLY ON THE WALL BELOW.

suggest; they are celestial symbols: the moon, the sun,

the rainbow. Such simple motifs fuse the light sky-world
of Amadioha with the dark earth of Ala, the Great Mother.
What is mbari? Six Owerri men have six answers:
"Mbari is our god."
"Mbari is a dance for our god."
"Mbari is a piece of art work for our god."
"Mbari is a thing of pride."
"Mbari is the crown of our god."
"Mbari is life." I '
The good, the bad, the hoped-for, the entertaining,
the ambivalent, the forbidden, the ugly, the beautiful.
Mbari is life. Birth, growth, marriage, fecundity, old age,
death, reincarnation. Mbari is life. Gods, men, spirits,
monsters, natural forces, the sky and earth. Mbari is life. A
basket, a cloth, a knife, a yam, a drum, a song. Mbari is
PAINTINGS ON UPPER WALLS USUALLY INCLUDE AT LEAST ONE CLOTH; THIS ONE
life. The man, the family, the lineage, the village, the AN INDIAN IMPORT. FIVE WOMEN AND THREE TREES OCCUPY A
REPRESENTS
CANOE OVER THE CLOTH. IN THE MBARI TO EKETA IN UMUEKE IHITTE. ARTIST:
town, their world - the cosmos. Mbari is UGO.
life. ?
1.This article and its sequels draw on the author's fieldwork
2.Only with hesitance and mixed feelings can one prepare a
among Owerri Ibo peoples from October 1966 to July 1967, publication on the art and life of the Ibo peoples, now strug-
made possible by a Foreign Area Fellowship (Joint Committee
gling against heavy odds in a cruel war. The decision to publish
of ACLS and SSRC) and a William Bayard Cutting Travelling on mbari, which are themselves monuments to Ibo progress
Fellowship (Columbia University). The author gratefully and pledges to alleviate suffering, was made with the hop
acknowledges the generosity of these institutions. that out of greater public awareness of significant historical
These articles are set in an "ethnographic present" of about
efforts in Ibo thought and art may come greater public insis-
1935, before the majority of Ibo peoples came undertence
the that this war be stopped, and that all people and all
governments unite to alleviate suffering and starvation on
influence of Christianity, which is now the dominant religious
force in Ibo life. both sides of present battle lines.

87

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