Background Information

Although most sacred objects in the Upper Benue are made of clay, a tradition of making ancestral representations in wood also existed. Large and imposing male figures (figs. 10.1–3) may have functioned as effigies of dead chiefs, erected during the post-burial funerary rites held by a cluster of related Eastern Gongola peoples—the ‘Bəna, Yungur, and Mboi. These rituals were held before the planting season so that the blessings of the deceased could be conferred. Although we know that these rituals were held, nothing resembling these rare and highly muscular male sculptures has been photographed in the Upper Benue region (nor is anything comparable known from the entire Benue River Valley).

The most compelling evidence for the identities of these figures survives in the ceramic vessels (fig. 10.4) made by the Yungur to contain the spirits of deceased chiefs. Notice the similarities in the contours of their heads, facial features, caps, and thick elongated necks. These wooden sculptures may constitute a remnant of an abandoned memorial tradition that was preserved in the more enduring medium of ceramic. While it is difficult to ascribe a specific ethnic attribution to the wooden figures, it seems plausible that the idea for such effigies circulated in the Eastern Gongola Valley where communities of speakers of closely related languages shared cultural practices and material symbols.

Background Information

Ceramic vessels are the focus of ritual activities across the Upper Benue region, in most cases conceived to “contain” various kinds of spirit forces.

The forming and firing of a new vessel was an important part of a healing process. Symptoms were drawn into the vessel and away from the person who was in need of healing. The disease-causing spirit entered the clay in its raw “uncooked” state, and health was conferred after the vessel is transformed by fire. As fire transformed the pot, so too, the disease was contained and controlled.

The most common use for “healing vessels” was to protect pregnant women, mothers, and children. One vessel, to shield infants from disease, was modeled as a woman with a baby on her back. Such vessels range from the relatively naturalistic to the highly stylized, taking full advantage of clay’s plastic potential.

In addition to the healing vessels concerned with protection from disease, in the western Gongola Valley figurative pottery was used in rituals to protect hunters (and formerly warriors) against the avenging spirits of animals (or people) killed in the hunt or in war. Other “spirit pots” were connected with bringing rain, fostering good crops, and punishing thieves. Variants among the Waja peoples include small vessels (about 2–6") that serve as personal amulets, again in various forms depending on the disease being treated, and among the Tangale peoples a singular large figurative piece was transformed into a “power” sculpture with the addition of bicycle chains, bundles of sticks, horn, ax blades, pipes, and other materials, making it useful to protect the people. At least twice a year offerings were made in the form of added materials to keep the spirit active.

Spirit vessels were an integral component of traditions that served the collective needs of a particular community as they also addressed the unique requirements of individuals. And although the rituals differ from one group to another, their practices typically involve calling upon spirits to facilitate positive shifts in human destiny.

Background Information

The use of metallurgy in Western Africa dates to about 1500 bce and in the region of the Benue River Valley evidence of blacksmiths’ work has been found from the sixth century bce. The earliest known civilization to possess the knowledge of the manufacture and use of iron in sub-Saharan Africa is that of the Nok culture (so named after the village where works of art in terracotta and metal were first found in 1944). The Nok area, in fact, is not far from the Benue Valley, northwest of the Niger/Benue confluence.

Across the region—historically and still today—the most powerful markers of ritual authority included forged iron rattles (fig. 6.1), spears (fig. 6.2), knives, and wands. Iron has provided the material for affirmations of regal status and power and it has been fashioned into essential tools of everyday living including weapons, hunting gear, and farming implements, most notably the hoe. Iron, with intrinsic supernatural power, serves as means of communication with powerful natural and ancestral forces.

Consequently blacksmiths, those who worked with iron, acquired a distinct position in society as they created such charged implements drawn from the raw materials of nature itself.Important members of their community, blacksmiths often moved into other areas where their skills were needed, and even though the iron pieces were produced by local or regional specialists, their very portability led to widespread distribution among neighboring groups. 

Throughout the Lower (and Middle Benue) regions, masquerades are performed to incarnate ancestors, enforce social codes, support royal and chiefly authority, celebrate warriors, or to entertain.Among those on view in the Lower Benue section of the Central Nigeria Unmasked exhibition are videos of “tall ghost” masks, as well as an impressive elephant mask, crest masks worn on the top of the head, and three imposing helmet masks that are used in masquerades to honor royalty among the Igala peoples.

The circumstances of war, migration, and resettlement since the nineteenth century have meant that masks were and continue to be highly mobile. They could be taken as war booty, bought and sold, adopted with or without accompanying rituals, and altered to suit aesthetic or social requirements of a new community. Reinterpreted by new owners, their meanings changed in response to different contexts and needs.

As cultural boundary crossers, masquerade traditions also retain some traces of where they have been. Their names, origin stories, accompanying musical instrumentation, idiosyncratic dance steps, or special adornments are all clues to their historical path.

The following curriculum connections explore masks familiar to the peoples in the Lower Benue region.

Most works in the exhibition Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley were created by artists whose names were not recorded or retained over time. Scholars have been able to document some works associated with particular artists (sometimes interviewing the artists themselves), so that we know more about their lives and the factors that contributed to their talents and expertise.

A small group of known Idoma and Igala carvers are included in the exhibition. Several were born around 1900 before British military patrols penetrated the region and were among the first generation to grow up under British colonial rule. They were mostly part-time specialist woodcarvers and fulltime yam farmers who lived in rural villages reachable only by footpaths or dry-season roads. According to scholar Sydney L. Kasfir, none of the artists from Idoma had traveled outside Idomaland, gone to school, spoken on the telephone, or learned how to read and write; yet they were experts at many now-forgotten skills such as hunting and brass casting, and were repositories of minute knowledge on every tree, plant, and bush animal.

Ochai, who died around 1950, remains one of the most famous Idoma artists. Unlike most, he was a fulltime sculptor and had commissions from many villages beyond his own. His pieces in the exhibition with whitened faces, frequently a feature of masks and figures of the region (fig. 2.1), reveal the influence of neighboring groups, especially the Igbo peoples of southeastern Nigeria. The faces display lines of small incisions along the sides of the face and down the center of the forehead that emulate patterns of facial scarification. Ochai’s works display a characteristically bold, expressive carving style.

Also living in Otobi was Oba who may have been mentored by Ochai. This would not have been typical, however, since no formal apprenticeship system existed among Idoma carvers. Although the Anjenu sculpture in fig. 2.2 is thought to be by Oba, it is said to lack the finesse of Ochai.

The artist Umale Oganegi lived and worked in Ukuaja village near the town of Dekina. When a child he fell from a tree and became seriously disabled. He took up woodcarving using wood that his younger brother would collect outside the village and cut for him. Eventually Umale became very well known in the Dekina area for the bold simplicity of his carvings of female shrine figures and animal-headed helmet masks. He also was known for figurative boxes with lids, which were made to hold cosmetics (fig. 2.3) or as frames for mirrors. 

The Idoma artist Oklenyi from nearby Okungaga spent time watching artists at work, and then practiced woodcarving in secret until he became a carver who was recognized for his talent by both Igala and Idoma clients. Oklenyi’s style is evident on his masks with multiple heads, each with a rounded mouth, neat rows of teeth, and scars curving upward from the edges of the mouth (fig. 2.4). Such multiheaded masks are carved throughout southeastern Nigeria.