Sexual Imagery in Igbo Mbari Houses

Author(s): Herbert M. Cole

Source: African Arts, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Feb., 1982), pp. 51-56+87
Published by: UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3335967
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Sexual
Imagery
in
Igbo
Mbari Houses
HERBERT M. COLE
The
mbari houses in the Owerri Igbo
area of southeastern
Nigeria (Imo
State)
are remarkable constellations of
painting,
relief, and
sculpture
in an
elaborate architectural
setting. 1
Made of
sun-dried mud and
clay, they
are con-
structed in secret
by
one or more
profes-
sional artists assisted
by
a
group
of local
people
who have been
symbolically
killed-to become
spirits.
Mbari are
created as sacrifices of
thanksgiving,
propitiation,
and/or
penance
to
impor-
tant local deities,
in
many
cases Ala,
goddess
of the earth, and its
personifica-
tion.
I am not concerned here with the
ritualized
process
of
building
an
mbari,
except
to note that there is one
(or more)
short occasion of sexual license before
construction
begins,
as well as an under-
current of
practical joking,
some of it
sexual,
during
the
building period.
These
may
be
indirectly
hinted at in the
sculptural program,
which,
in the sexual
realm, tends to focus
upon
other themes.
The fact remains that mbari rituals and
processes
at one time existed as a be-
havioral
backdrop
to the
explicit
sexual
imagery
of the
completed
monument. A
specific
brief
period,
a sort of mini-
festival, occurred
prior
to the actual for-
mal
building
of an mbari. At this time
sexual license was both sanctioned
spiritually
and
apparently mandatory.2
In
theory,
this saturnalia
immediately
preceded
the
highly
restrictive one- to
two-year period
of mbari
building, gov-
erned as it was
by
new laws
carrying
large penalties
if
breached,
laws that af-
fected the entire
community.
Sexual
activity during
construction
among
the initiated mbari builders was
allowed in some areas and
proscribed
in
others. Yet,
even in the latter instances,
joking relationships
existed between
men and women who
adopted
one
another as "husbands" and
"wives";
a
good
deal of sexual
wordplay
and in-
nuendo attended these liaisons, some of
it
quite possibly
erotic,
although
no firm
documentation exists on this to
my
knowledge.
Before I address the
topic
of sexual
mbari
imagery,
it is worthwhile to note
that
virtually anything
in real life, imagi-
nation, mythology,
or
history
is
accepta-
ble for the modeled mud
figures
and
paintings
found in mbari. These rich con-
structions can, and, I believe, should, be
interpreted
as multi-leveled cosmic
symbols, symbols
of
personal
and com-
munity
renewal. As such
they
are re-
minders of what this
part
of the
Igbo
world was once like, what it is like now,
and what it
might
be like in the future.
Despite
the fact that mbari are
certainly
spiritually inspired
structures, most of
the modeled and
painted subjects
are
from the secular realm, and
relatively
few in
any
one mbari have either overt or
covert sexual references. One wise in-
formant,
speaking
of the
array
of sub-
jects
modeled in mbari, said,
"You will
come to understand that
they put
four
things
into mbari:
very
fearful
things,
things
that are forbidden,
things
that are
good/beautiful,
and
things
that make
people laugh."
This is a most inclusive
statement;
little if
anything
falls outside
that
four-part
classification.
Indeed, the first sexual
image
I will in-
troduce could be seen to fall in all four
categories,
and this
possibility points up
the multivalent nature of much mbari im-
agery
as well as the
multiplicity
of mean-
ings
attached to the whole
phenomenon
of mbari. It is a
graphic
scene of the act of
giving
birth. This theme, first noticed in
the 1920s, is
quite
common
today.
One
version has a midwife
straddling
the
legs
of the mother, sometimes with
another attendant behind her. A more
recent one is in a clinic
setting
with uni-
formed nurses
(Fig. 1).
The two versions
share the
striking portrayal
of a
reclining
mother with a child's head
emerging
from between her
legs.
Such a
sculptural
group might
be fearful to a man whose
wife is about
ready
to
give
birth, and
perhaps terrifying
to the woman herself
had she
experienced difficulty
with her
last
delivery
The second
aspect
men-
tionedby my
informant,
the "forbidden"
aspect,
involves the
public display (in
an
mbari)
of what is a
private
act;
Igbo
men
do not see their own wives or other
women
giving
birth. The
good
or beauti-
ful
aspects
of the
image
are almost too
obvious to mention, for the birth of a
child is of course a most
joyful
and won-
derful
event;
Igbo people
have tradi-
tionally
been subsistence farmers, and
large
numbers of children are still de-
sired in most families.
Finally,
such a
group
causes
laughter among
some
mbari visitors because it is bold and
graphic, showing
the act of birth, which
is for women
only,
and because all im-
ages
that
depict normally
covered
body
parts
or refer in
any way
to sex tend to be
found
amusing. Among
traditional
Igbo
peoples,
the
graphic
details of
giving
birth or, indeed, discussions of human
sexuality
are not
topics
for mixed com-
pany.
Birth scenes are
manifestly
not erotic,
neither to us nor to the
Igbo. They
are not
even
sexy.
In
fact,
although
mbari houses
contain
decidedly
X-rated
images,
I have
some
problem
in
seeing any
of them as
erotic if we
go by
Webster's definition:
"tending
to arouse sexual love or de-
sire." I doubt that
any images
in mbari are
intended to arouse or
titillate,
except
maybe very indirectly.
The motivations
for them, and their
significance,
lie in dif-
ferent if
perhaps
related areas. That
problem
is resolved in this article's title,
which focuses on sexual
imagery
and
avoids eroticism.
Several
questions
are raised
by
sexual
themes: What is the incidence of these
images
in mbari houses? Are
they
recur-
rent or rare? How
many types
of
images
are there? What do
they
all mean? How
do
people respond
to these varied sexual
themes? What is the
meaning
of the en-
tire X-rated
corpus?
What are its overt
and latent functions in the context of
mbari, its
significance
in the
Igbo
value
1. BIRTH SCENE, WITH UNIFORMED NURSES IN ATTENDANCE. MBARI TO ALA AT UMUOFEKE AGWA, BY OFFURUM.
51
2. THE MYTHICAL APE-MAN OKPANGU. MBARI AT UMUOKEADA ISU OBIANGWU.
3. BIRD-LIKE CREATURE GIVING BIRTH TO A HUMAN.
MBARI TO ALA AT AWALA OBIKE, BY EZEM.
4. MGBEKENWAOKPERE.
MBARI TO AFOUKWU AT LAGWO,
BY EZEM AND AKALAZU.
52
system?
I
hope
to answer all of these in
the course of this discussion, or at least
give my interpretive
views, inasmuch as
hard data from fieldwork often are lack-
ing.
The first
question
is
easily
answered,
for in
any
medium- or
large-sized
mbari-one with
upwards
of
twenty
modeled
images-at
least one will be
overtly
sexual. Such
subjects
are cer-
tainly very
much a
part
of the
program;
they
are
recurrent,
not at all
rare,
and
people expect
to see them. In fact Owerri
Igbo
viewers of mbari are
disappointed
if
they
find no sexual
figures.
As one in-
formant said, "You see those bad [infer-
ence of
"dirty"] figures? They
are what
people
like and
they
flock to them."
Second,
how
many types
are there?
They
can be classified on two levels:
there is one
group composed
of several
very
common, conventional, and recur-
rent
types,
and there is a second
group
of
rare
figures
that have been observed
only
once or
possibly
twice.
A lot of data
exist for the former, in which five distinct
images
occur, and I will stress this
group.
The first of the five is the birth scene
discussed above
(Fig.
1).
The second
image
is a
mythical ape-man
called Ok-
pangu,
a rather dreadful creature whose
most dramatic characteristic is a dis-
tinctly frightful phallus
studded with
sharp
thorns
(Fig. 2).
The third
type
is a
group
called "Man is
goat,"
Madu bu
ewu,
in which a
goat-headed
man is connect-
ing, perhaps anally (this
is not
quite
clear),
with a
goat having
a woman's
head
(Fig.
6).
The fourth and fifth
types
are different
sculpturally, yet may
have
the same name or title:
Mgbekenwaok-
pere,
that is,
Mgbeke,
a common wom-
an's name,
plus nwaokpere,
which liter-
ally
means "child of
open legs."
The first
version of this
"Mgbeke
with
open legs"
is a woman on her
knees,
with head and
shoulders on the
ground, showing
off
her sexual
parts
to
passersby (Fig. 4).
The second has the woman
standing,
bent over
severely
at the
waist,
with a
man, sometimes a hunchback, connect-
ing
from behind
(Fig. 5).
These
images
have different names in different mbari
regions,
but the
nwaokpere part
is
fairly
constant.
I have seen at least three or four, and
sometimes ten or more, of each of these
five.
Clearly they
have all become con-
ventional
images,
stock items drawn
upon by many
mbari artists.
They
were
invented sometime in the
fairly
distant
past, probably
before the 1920s; in fact, I
do not believe it is
any longer possible
to
determine when
any
of these
images
first
appeared.
No one of them seems to
be much more
popular
than the others
except perhaps
the
mythical ape-man
Okpangu, present
in
nearly
all
larger
mbari houses.
Each of these five
types
has a constella-
tion of
meanings
and associations. Leav-
ing
aside the birth
scene,
I will sum-
marize informant
responses
to and
give
interpretations
of the other four. Ok-
pangu,
a character in folklore,
represents
what can
happen
to
people
who are
either
lazy
or foolish
(Fig. 2).
He is nor-
mally
considered an
evil-working spirit,
partially
human,
mostly chimpanzee,
given
this form
by god (Chineke)
as
punishment
to a
lazy, irresponsible
young
man who refused to work on his
father's farm.
Okpangu's evil-spirit
identity
is confirmed
by
the
widespread
West African convention of
having
his
feet on backwards. The result of the feet
reversal is that
you
never know where he
is-his
footprints
are lies.
Okpangu
is in
every way
bad or
evil, traits
symbolized
by
the overall blackness of his mbari im-
ages.
Like
night
and
mystery
and dark
medicine, his
qualities inspire
fear. As an
informant
said,
"Anywhere Okpangu
is
built it is never
good
at
all;
it is here to
complete
the
figures
[in mbari].
People
will come and
laugh
at this
ugly thing;
you
know that evil
usually goes along
with
good."
Like the
world, mbari houses
combine
beauty
with
ugliness, joy
with
fear. This informant in fact moves be-
yond
the context of mbari in
speaking
of
Okpangu, just
as mbari
imagery
em-
braces the world at
large.
The stories about
Okpangu
involve
stupid,
anti-social,
irresponsible
and
otherwise aberrant behavior on the
part
of men or women,
girls
or
boys.4
Ok-
pangu normally
besets incautious
people,
for
example
those taken in
by
the
kind words of
strangers,
or
lazy people
who
beg,
or women who leave children
alone in
potentially dangerous places.
Okpangu typically
deals with these dis-
sidents
by pelting
them
painfully
with
the rock-hard seeds
(ngu)
he carries at-
tached to his
body (his
name
literally
means
"seed carrier"),
or
by wresting
away
the
person's weapon
and
using
it
against
him. He is known to wrestle
men, whom he
invariably
beats. In some
stories he
gives
the woman he meets in
the forest a choice of
being raped
or hav-
ing
her hair
plaited. Having
chosen the
latter,
thinking Okpangu
is
being
kind or
at least lenient, the
girl
or woman is then
tied to a tree
by
him, with her
newly
plaited
hair, and then
raped.
She has, of
course,
only
been
given
a Hobson's
choice.
Okpangu
stories are basic les-
sons,
usually having very
little to do with
sexuality
or
promiscuity; only
a few of
the dozens of tales
involving
him deal
with these themes. Thus his oversized
spikey penis
is
only
an indirect
catalyst
in the recollection of such homilies as
"Everyone
must work for the
good
of the
family,"
"Never trust a
stranger,"
"Do
not ask for
something
in return for noth-
ing,"
and "Don't leave a child unat-
tended
by
a fire."
The "Man is
goat" group
has a much
more limited folklore, and its
origin
is
by
no means clear. I would
speculate
that
the
expression
or
proverb
"Man is
goat"
existed before an mbari
sculptor
first in-
terpreted
it in this rather unusual form,
which has been
repeated
a
great many
times since. Two versions exist. The first
and most common involves intercourse
between two creatures, each
part goat,
part
human
(Fig. 6);
the second is a sin-
gle figure
of the same
hybrid type.
These
composite
creatures are
again
consid-
ered
by
some to be evil
spirits, again
the
5. MGBEKENWAOKPERE. MBARI TO ALA
AT UMUOFEKE AGWA, BY OFFURUM.
6. MADU BU EWU (MAN IS GOAT).
MBARI TO ALA
AT UMUOFEKE AGWA, BY OFFURUM.
53
product
of
lazy
or
irresponsible
be-
havior. It is most
insulting
for an
Igbo
person
to be called a
goat; goats
are
thought
to be
very
dumb, coarse,
and
lecherous,
lacking any
moral sense. This
group
seems to stand as an admonition
against
lewd or foolish conduct. Both the
sexual
perversion
and the
human-goat
composite
are, however,
appropriate
to
the
epithet,
for an
implicit
result of
lechery
and
immorality,
in
Igbo thought,
is some kind of
physical abnormality;
in
this case,
people
take on characteris-
tics of
the goats
that
provide
the
negative
behavior-model. Whether or not tradi-
tional
Igbo
of the
mbari-building
area
ever
engaged
in
sodomy
is a moot
point.
Talbot
reports
it
among
the
Yoruba,
the
Kalabari Ijaw,
and the
Ekpahia Igbo (to
the southeast of the Owerri
area).
In
some cases it was an
aspect
of male initia-
tion,
in others, a stimulus to the
fertility
of man, animals, and the land
(1927:34-
37).
No firm evidence exists for
sodomy,
however, where mbari are built. Thus,
such mbari
images perhaps only point
to
the bizarre and indecent behavior of
"other
people"
who were often tradi-
tional enemies.
Mgbekenwaokpere, "Mgbeke,
child of
open legs,"
is an
analogous epithet,
of
course more
directly descriptive
than
"Man is
goat,"
and in one version,
any-
way,
more
specific
to female behavior
(Fig.
4).
The
open display
of
genitalia
is
unthinkable in
Igbo society.
Indeed, this
may
account for the fact that
Mgbeke
is
sometimes called a
prostitute
and some-
times a
crazy
woman, and that she is
normally
said to be a woman from a
community
different from the one build-
ing
the mbari. These identifications
place
her well outside the social norm in three
different
ways:
sexual
abnormality
is as-
sociated with others, with
people
who are
strange
or at least subnormal in
profes-
sion,
or with
people
who are
strange
or
subnormal in mental
capacity
Discretion
and
modesty
constitute
traditionally
cor-
rect
Igbo
behavior for both men and
women, with acts of elimination, sex,
and
dressing being private.
Even hus-
bands and wives are not meant to see
one another
completely
unclothed. And
on a more subtle level, the immodest
po-
sition of this "shameless woman" is a
negative
lesson in the
etiquette
of
pos-
ture. As Uchendu, the
Igbo
an-
thropologist, says,
"Good manners con-
stitute
beauty"
(1965:52).
Genital
display
surely
constitutes
ugly
behavior. Adul-
tery
was a
major
breach of moral laws
and a
pollution
of the Earth. Talbot lists
several
Igbo
sexual codes
including
an
injunction against
intercourse
during
the
daytime,
or even at
night
if a
light
is
burning (1927:32-33). The
open,
sunlit
depiction
of both
organs
and intercourse
is then, a blatant contravention of rather
strict sexual mores. In this latter
regard
a
curious fact about much mbari
imagery
is
notable:
sculptors
not
infrequently
model
genitalia
on
figures
that otherwise
have no overt sexual
meaning.
A diviner,
seated with his
implements,
has visible
male traits. A number of females,
clearly
shown as such
by having
breasts,
also
have a vulva even
though they
are wear-
ing
underclothes.
The second version of
Mgbeke images
includes
a male who is often
physically
deformed,
being
a hunchback
(Fig. 5).
His intercourse with
Mgbeke
takes
place
on the bare
ground,
in direct contraven-
tion of the moral laws of
Ala,
the earth
goddess,
who is thus defiled. Both
partners
are tainted and
strange,
both
are aberrations of normal humans and
correct behavior. Whether
physical
or
professional (the prostitute designation)
anomaly precedes
or follows sexual de-
pravity
seems
unimportant
here;
they
are tied
together
in a
single
didactic
sculptural
statement. The admonition
implied by
such
groups
is
again directly
sexual: men and women with over-
developed
sexual
appetites
will live to
regret
their incontinence.
The more rare,
one-time mbari sexual
images
are
pretty
much variations on the
themes
already
established,
and some
are
paintings occurring
on the
upper
walls of the house
(Fig. 8).
One is a
unique
birth scene,
the mother
being
an
odd,
bird-like creature
(Fig. 3). I
also en-
countered several
disparate renderings
of
hermaphrodites,
which
again
link
sexual and
physical
deviation, who are
often called evil
spirits
or, at the least,
creatures of the bush. Their facial fea-
tures and sometimes other
body parts
may
be distorted as if to reinforce their
odd
sexuality. They
are not
really
of this
world but are rather the inhabitants of
bad dreams or
mysterious
dark forests
away
from home. Another unusual im-
age,
a
dog copulating
with a woman,
was
photographed
in the 1930s
by
G.
I.
Jones,
the
British
anthropologist (Fig. 7).
He did not collect its name or
title;
perhaps
it is another version of
"Mgbeke
with
open legs."
It
may
also
be as-
sociated with a
contemptuous
insult
leveled at enemies or
strangers, "They
give
their
virgins
to
dogs,"
recorded
by
the
missionary
G.
T.
Basden
early
in this
century (1938:108). It would be hard to
coin a more
graphic
invective. Some of
the other
images
are
dirty jokes,
at once
serious and the cause of
perhaps nerv-
ous
laughter,
but here we have what can
only
be called a sick
dirty joke.
I have
probably
missed some one-time sexual
images,
but it is clear that these are out-
numbered by
the five stock themes al-
ready
discussed.
In
speaking
of Basden, one of the
early
writers on mbari, I would like to correct
what I believe to be a mistaken
interpre-
tation on his
part,
that
mbari
sexual im-
ages
"are crude
tangible replicas
of inde-
cent
photographs,
or modeled
reproduc-
tions of
seaport
and smokeroom stories
as
gleaned by
steward
boys
and others."
While this
may
have been true in occa-
sional
instances, most sexual
imagery
seems to be
firmly
rooted in traditional
thought.
Mbari houses are
planned
and over-
seen
by professional
artists who are also
responsible
for
modeling
most of the im-
ages.
These men are, of
course,
indi-
viduals with
particular biographies
and
psychologies,
and it is worthwhile to
note here, somewhat
parenthetically,
that certain
sculptors
have contributed
in rather
exceptional ways
to the
corpus
of mbari
imagery
because of their own
problems
and interests in life. The late
Ezem, one of the finest mbari masterbuil-
ders alive in the late 1960s, was childless
all his life in
spite
of
having
had two
wives
(one
of whom left
him).
I believe
psychologists
would have considered
him to be
abnormally
concerned with
sex; he told
me,
for
example,
that he had
paid
native doctors a
great
deal of
money
to correct his condition
(and/or
that of his
wives).
This interest
emerged
first in
conversations,
and later I observed it in
his mbari
sculpture.
I recorded several
unique examples by
Ezem of a more or
less overt sexual nature: the fanciful-
looking
bird-like creature in the act of
giving
birth
(Fig. 3),
the most
explicit
Mgbeke image
I recorded
(Fig. 4),
a male
figure
with an enormous
penis,
and a
hermaphrodite, among
others. Another
image perhaps deriving
from Ezem's
childlessness is of a man
pointing
a
gun
at a woman in the act of
giving
birth. He
explained
that the man was
intending
to
shoot his wife if she failed to
produce
a
male child, males
being preferred
in this
patrilineal
culture. Yet I wonder if he
made this
explanation up
on the
spot;
his
own frustration
may
have been the basic
(possibly
unconscious)
motivation for
the
image. My interpretation
of these
sex-related inventions is different from
that of Ezem. He claimed to have mod-
eled these
figures
"to beat the other art-
ists." A
spirit
of
competition certainly
prevails among
mbari
sculptors;
innova-
tion (not only
in sexual
subjects,
of
course) is not
only allowed, it is encour-
aged
as
long
as the entire
sculptural pro-
gram
is not too much of a
departure
from
the
expected
traditional mode. Ezem
never
transgressed
these unwritten
rules, for most of these
figures
are in dif-
ferent mbari. In fact, Ezem's
response
and
my
own
psychological interpreta-
tions are not at all
mutually exclusive, for
sexual images
are
openly recognized
as
an
important
dimension of the enter-
tainment
provided by
mbari tableaux.
How, then, do
people respond
to sex-
ual themes in mbari houses? I was re-
peatedly
told that these are the
magnets
54
drawing people
to mbari, that
they
are
funny,
and often the most
popular
im-
ages.
I think we have to take these com-
ments at face value. Sexual
subjects
are
funny
to some
people (although rape,
of
course,
is never
funny
to
anyone).
Cer-
tainly
a
major
overt function of these
themes is to cause
laughter,
to entertain
and amuse.
Okpangu
is an antic tricks-
ter,
however dreadful he
may
be, and
most sexual
representations
are
not
of
the
family
or friends of those in the
community
that built the mbari, but of
strangers
who, because of their
very
foreignness,
are often
laughable
in sev-
eral
ways apart
from their
sexuality
Be-
havioral and anatomical twists, rever-
sals,
and
surprises
"make fun" both
ways;
that is,
they
ridicule and
they
are
funny
Most
responses,
too, are
nonverbal,
whether an
image
is
sexually
oriented or
not.
Laughter
can mask a multitude of
feelings
and
meanings,
and it is not in
the nature of
Igbo people
to
explain
or
analyze
their
responses
to mbari
verbally
in
any
detail or
depth.
Some men told
me women are embarrassed and
ashamed
by
sexual
images,
but I had the
sense that the men are too, at least to
some extent,
although
the
possibility
exists that
my presence
caused some
embarrassment that the Owerri
people,
among
themselves, do not feel.
Laughter
of course
provides
a
great
release of ten-
sion, and the
tension-building
conflict
between the sexes is
certainly
sometimes
sexual conflict. But these
deeper
level re-
sponses
are more
problematic,
more la-
tent than manifest. No informant ever
broached this sort of
interpretation.
Cross-cultural research on abnormal
sexuality,
even on normal
sexuality,
is at
best
difficult,
and I admit that
my
re-
search methods were
probably
not re-
fined
enough
for
probing psychological
and emotional levels to
any significant
depth, although
I tried. Most of
my
in-
formants for such matters were males, so
at the outset
my
data have a male
skew.
Ideally
a female fieldworker
(preferably
an
Igbo)
should address
questions
to a
female
Igbo audience; regrettably,
I do
not have these data. Thus it is best for me
to leave the
question
of
Igbo response
on
this rather
superficial
level and move on
to an
interpretation
of the
place
of sexual
imagery
in the mbari context and in the
Igbo
value
system.
Because mbari is a
spiritual institution,
the
largest
sacrifice that can be offered to
any god,
it
may
seem odd that these de-
cidedly
irreverent
subjects
are
part
of its
program. Yet, as I have indicated, any-
thing
at all is fair
game.
The
process
of
building
an mbari is a
fundamentally
re-
ligious act, while its
sculptural program
embraces much that is not:
policemen,
hunters, animals, and countless
genre
scenes such as women at
sewing
7. DOG COPULATING WITH A WOMAN IN AN UNIDEN-
TIFIED MBARI. PHOTOGRAPHED BY G. I. JONES, 1936.
machines and men on
motorcycles.
Furthermore, the entire
phenomenon
of
mbari, both in
building process
and in
sculptural program, operates
within a
framework of
special
rules, some involv-
ing
ritual license.
Spirit
workers
undergo
silly
tests and
games; they joke
a
lot,
for
example,
in
making up playful
names or
activities for each other. Men and
women take on "mbari
spouses" among
themselves, alliances that
may
or
may
not involve sexual intercourse.5 Normal
sexual differentiation is left
aside,
as men
and women do the same
things,
wash
and eat
together,
and so forth. However
serious the
building activity
is, it is con-
ducted in the
spirit
of
abaraka, an
Igbo
word
connoting
bluff,
good
fun, show-
ing
off, and
joking.
Mbari is different
from real
life,
as an
Igbo masquerade
is
different. Both allow
exceptional,
ab-
normal behavior. Both are
plays, subject
to their own
rules, as much as
they
draw
upon
real life and hold it
up
to critical re-
view. Like a
festival, an mbari is both rec-
reation and a
re-creation,
playful
and
highly
serious.
Normal sexual relations have seldom
been rendered in mbari since
early
in the
century,
when
they
were
reported by
Talbot
(1927)
and Basden
(1938),
al-
though
normal
sexuality
is
implicit
in
more recent
depictions
of married
couples, pregnant
women,
suckling
babies, and women with older children.
There is thus at least an
implied
balance
in mbari between normal and deviant
sexual behavior. In
general,
sex, or at
least
procreation,
can be seen as a
logical
and even
major preoccupation
in an in-
stitution that has human
productivity
as
an
important goal.
Until
quite recently,
after
all,
Igboland
was a
region
of
high
rates of infant
mortality
and
relatively
8. WALL PAINTING OF MGBEKENWAOKPERE.
MBARI TO AFO AT UMUAHIAGU, BY AKAKPORO.
short
lifespans.
As one informant said,
"Mbari is for
giving
life and
giving
chil-
dren." The infractions of strict sexual
codes, as constructed in mbari, serve of
course to dramatize
proper
sexual be-
havior.
Sexual
imagery
is didactic on several
levels, even
though
it stands
silently,
even
though
its
meanings may
never be-
come
explicit
"birds and bees" lectures
between,
say,
a mother and
daughter.
Still, there are lessons in human
anatomy,
as if some of the
sculptures
were
saying,
"This is what sexual
organs
look like; this is what
people
do with
them"--or, more often, "This is what
must not be done with them."
Implicit
social control radiates from these
images;
improper
behavior and
etiquette
are
regulated bybeing
held
up
to
public
scrutiny, although
often the behavior
being
addressed has
nothing
whatever
to do with human
sexuality. Okpangu
stands for the most basic and
perhaps
most
important
level: that of sheer lazi-
ness and the refusal to contribute one's
rightful
share for the benefit of the
family
or social
group.
On a more
specific
level,
any boy
or
girl
has the
potential
of
being
sexually
loose or immoral, or
irresponsi-
ble in various other
ways, thereby bring-
ing
both social and
spiritual disgrace
upon
him or herself and
family.
Those
with
overly developed
sexual
appetites,
as well as adulterers, exhibitionists,
55
bisexuals, sodomists-indeed all
deviants-are ridiculed and satirized in
mbari.
Anmbari is an
open, highly descriptive
book;
people
of all
ages
have the
oppor-
tunity
of
seeing
the entire house. Its
messages
are received on countless and
varied levels, both
overtly
and in less
conscious
ways,
and it is safe to
say
that
images
are
interpreted differently by
people according
to their sex,
age,
and
experience.
Two of
my
best informants,
both mbari artists, were
explicit
about
leaving
some
images
unnamed and un-
explained
so that visitors will
interpret
them
"according
to what is in their own
mind,"
as one of them said. I
hope
it is
clear, too,
that
sexuality,
whether licit or
not,
is but a
single aspect
of the mul-
tidimensional message system
embraced
by any
of the
larger
mbari houses.
People
see
images
of evil
spirits,
which
are described as once
having
been nor-
mal humans whose
stupidity
or willful-
ness resulted in
deformity. Hermaphro-
dite
figures
seem to reinforce,
again by
negative example,
the
preferred
and tra-
ditionally prevailing
strict
separation
of
the sexes.
Bisexuality
and
homosexuality
are
simply
not
acceptable
states or be-
haviors;
men have certain
physical
characteristics and sexual and social
roles,
and women have different ones. I
think the mixture of sexual deviance,
physical abnormality,
evil
spirits,
and
general
foolishness or laziness are at
least on the subconscious or latent level
intended to
terrify people
into
acceptable
behavior of all kinds.
Perhaps
mbari sex-
ual
images
are
analogous
to the
Ameri-
can
experiment
shown in a TV documen-
tary
called "Scared
Straight,"
in which
juvenile delinquents
were bussed to
prisons
and told
very graphically by
hardcore criminals how awful
jail really
is.
Sylvia
Leith-Ross, who called these
sexual themes
"pleasant ribaldry,"
felt
that
they
were a
"legitimatized discharge
in
objective
form of the sexual
repres-
sions
imposed
on the
community by
tri-
bal law and custom"
(1939:149).
She
may
well be
right,
and no doubt other
psychological
factors are also involved.
What lies beneath the
laughter ofmbari
visitors requires finely
tuned fieldwork
that can
perhaps
still be done, preferably
by Igbo
scholars. It is difficult for me to
know how accurately
these interpreta-
tions reflect the true situation in Owerri,
but we can be fairly
sure that sexual im-
ages generate
a wide
spectrum
of
responses-social,
emotional and
psychological.
Amazed, amused, or em-
barrassed, the Owerri
person
cannot, I
think, remain unmoved in the
presence
of a
large
and imaginatively
conceived
mbari house, for it will invariably
contain
at least one overtly
sexual sculpture,
and
often two or three.
O3
Notes, page
87
Betises: Fon
Brass Genre
Figures
DANIEL J. CROWLEY
If
the
providing
of sexual favors for
pro-
fit is the world's oldest
profession,
and
the
reportage
of the event is the second
oldest,
then the
artist-pornographer
who immortalizes the event
may
well be
practicing
the world's third-oldest
pro-
fession. Based on the
analysis
of 32 Fon
specimens
from
Abomey
and Cotonou
collected between 1969 and 1971, this
paper
will
attempt
to summarize what
little is known about these
long-hidden
"pornographic"
brass
figures represent-
ing virtually every possible
(and
a few
impossible)
variation on the act of love.
Because the material,
technique,
and
style
are the same,
it seems safe to as-
sume that these
"pornographic" speci-
mens are
merely
variations on the com-
mon cast brass
genre figures
made
by
the
Fon.
All the
specimens
studied here are
recent and were
purchased
"under the
counter" at
shops,
kiosks,
or
forges
where similar
nonpornographic pieces
were available
openly displayed.
After
an informant told me of the existence of
such
figures
and the term for them, it
was a
simple
matter to find
examples
for
sale.
Although
I never was able to dis-
cover the
Fon
term for
pornography,
the
Francophonic
Fon
with a nice sense of
irony
use betise,
meaning "stupidness,"
"nonsense,"
or
"folly,"
with a further
root
implication
of "beastliness" or
"animality." Using
a French term also
serves to reiterate the oft-stated conten-
tion of Africans that
Europeans
intro-
duced licentiousness into their innocent
primal
societies. With the dramatic flair
characteristic of African traders, the little
statues were whisked out from under
counters and
displayed
with mock fur-
tiveness in
cupped
hands or in
open
boxes,
ostensibly
to shield them from in-
nocent or
unfriendly eyes,
the first of
women and children, the second of the
police.
The
bargaining
was thus
heightened,
as was the final
price, by
the
supposed
rareness and
illegality
of the
pieces
offered for sale.
Originally
the brass
figures
were made
as
symbolic
ornaments for the
tops
of
asen, iron staffs that served as
symbolic
altars dedicated to dead
kings.
The iron
rod, its
sharpened
end stuck into the
ground,
was surmounted by
an inverted
metallic cone with
pendants
in floral or
symbolic
forms
suspended
around the
edge.
On the flat
top
of the cone were
placed
miniature objects
such as drums
or
sculptures
of animals, human hands,
or
symbolic
forms made in
wrought iron,
carved wood covered with chased sheet
metal, sheet silver, and cast brass.
More important
for purposes
of this
paper,
the cast brass
figures
were also
made as ornaments for the
palaces
of the
Fon aristocracy and presented
to com-
moners and aliens to
signify royal
favor.
These
genre figures depicted every
as-
pect
of Dahomean life: men
wrestling,
hunters with their
dogs,
women
pound-
ing
mortars, drummers,
peasants
hoe-
ing,
and all kinds of
imaginatively
con-
ceived animals. Each is
sculpted
indi-
vidually
in wax, around which a
clay
mold is
placed
and fired,
and then the
molten brass cast;
the cast is broken off,
the brass
figure
cleaned and
polished,
chasing
and accoutrements added,
and if
needed, the
figure
is mounted on a
sheet-brass or wooden base. Interest-
ingly enough,
brasscasters
prefer
to
make two of
any design, explaining
that
the second wax
sculpture
is
easy
after the
first has been made. Of course the
buyer
is
urged
to invest in both identical exam-
ples,
rather like
buying
a
pair
in our
cul-
ture.
Complex
scenes
usually
termed tab-
leaux,
such as
chiefly processions,
festi-
val scenes,
religious
dances, and court-
room scenes, are also
made; they
are
marvelously complex
creations that
may
include as
many
as 36
separately
cast
fig-
ures on a wooden base or frame.
In
attempting
to date the
origin
ot the
"pornographic" brasses,
the
problem
is
to find
early examples.
Herskovits
(1938)
pointed
out how little is known about the
origin
of these
figures
but
quotes
Forbes
in 1849-50 and
Skertchly
in 1871 as de-
scribing
"silver ornaments" seen in
royal
processions,
but without
stating
if
they
were cast or constructed of sheet silver or
formed over wooden
sculptures. Objects
mentioned include a candelabrum in the
form of a tree,
"a six-foot stork,
a crow,
an immense silver skull,
. .. a
monkey
climbing
a tree,"
and
symbols
of the
kings,
such as an
elephant
with a
ship
on
its back
standing
amid trees,
and an an-
telope
with
young grazing
under a tree
in which birds are
building
nests. Obvi-
ously
the
genre
element
already
existed
over a
century ago, although
the two
final tableaux were
explained by
the
brasscasters as
symbolizing
the rela-
tionship
of the
king
to his
subjects.
A few
cast brass animal
figures
can also be
found on the
royal
asen in the Musee His-
torique, Abomey, which was formerly
the royal palace.
An extensive search of the literature
including
over 50 sources, among
them
most of the photographic anthologies
of
African art, turned
up only
a
very
few
pieces
of Dahomean cast metalwork, al-
though
the two famous, near-lifesize,
wrought-iron
statues of Gu, the god
of
war, are reproduced widely, as are
wooden figures covered with worked or
chased sheet silver or sheet brass. A
spectacular piece
is the 61-centimeter-
long elephant
constructed of sheet silver
in the d'Harnoncourt collection, thought
56
It is
necessary
to
say
a few words on the
connection between the Ori Olokun center at
Ife and the Mbari
Mbayo
center at
Oshogbo,
and its artists. Ori Olokun was established in
1968 with aims similar to those of Mbari
Mbayo.
It was also
planned
that in due course
Ori Olokun would act as a vital cultural link
between the
university community
and the
Ife
townspeople.
The Palm Tree Hotel was
leased and renovated,
its bar turned into an
art
gallery,
and its
backyard
into an
open-air
theater in the round. Here the acclaimed
pro-
ductions of Ola Rotimi and the Ife
university
theater were first
performed
before
audiences
composed
of the
university community
and
townspeople.
As
part
of the varied
program
of Ori Olokun,
Oshogbo
artists Rufus
Ogun-
dele, Jimoh Buraimoh, Adebisi Fabunmi, and
I were invited to assist Professor
Wangboje
(now
head of the Creative Arts
Department
at
the
University
of
Benin)
in
conducting
an ex-
perimental
art
workshop
similar to the ones
we had held at
Oshogbo.
The artists that
emerged
from this
workshop
were Rufus
Orisayomi,
Peter
Badejo,
Ademola Williams,
and Gbade Akintunde
(who
had worked
under Lamidi
Fakeye
as an
apprentice
wood-
carver.
Ironically, they
all came from
Oshogbo,
and
they
saw the establishment of
the Ife center as an
opportunity
for them to
train as artists in the
Oshogbo
manner. But
their dreams were not to come to
pass
because
the artwork and
workshop
at
Ori
Olokun
were short lived. The main, and
shortly
the
exclusive,
cultural
program
at
Ori
Olokun
was drama
productions,
and these artists
soon
dropped
the
plastic
arts for the
perform-
ing
arts. But
today, through
hard work, these
young
men are in
good positions. Orisayomi
is a
cinematographer
at Ahmadu Bello Uni-
versity,
Gbade Akintunde is a well-es-
tablished woodcarver, and Peter
Badejo
is a
choreographer
with a
degree
from UCLA.
After the
departure
of the Beiers and the
cessation of the work of the Mbari
Mbayo
committee,
the
Oshogbo
Artists Association
made a written
appeal
to the Federal
Ministry
of Education for funds, but it received no re-
ply.
We then wrote to
Adebayo
Okunola,
then
Commissioner for Home Affairs and Informa-
tion, to
help
finance a museum of
Oshogbo
contemporary
art. It would
permanently
dis-
play
and
preserve
some of the best Oshogbo
works, contributed by
the artists. The late
Ataoja
had
agreed
to make available to us a
piece
of land for this purpose.
The
response
from the ministry
was that our idea was great
and they
would take action on this
proposal.
That was in 1972, and it was the last we heard
from them.
I
hope
I have been able to shed some light
on the
emergence, growth,
and influence of
the Oshogbo
artists. The full critical evalua-
tion is the work of others. I
appeal
for
greater
understanding
and cooperation
from some of
our lettered colleagues.
Let us all work to-
gether. Oshogbo
art has come to
stay Only by
cooperation
and understanding
can we
further the
growth
of art and artists in our so-
ciety.
Muraina
Oyelami
Annandale, New South Wales
CONTRIBUTORS
ARTHUR P. BOURGEOIS is Professor of Art
History
at Governors State
University.
He received
his Ph.D. from Indiana
University.
EUGENE C. BURT is
Visiting
Lecturer at Tufts
University.
He received his Ph.D. in African Art
History
from the
University
of
Washington.
HERBERT M. COLE is Associate Professor of Art
History
at the
University
of
California, Santa
Barbara, and a member of the African Arts
consulting
editorial board.
DONALD J. COSENTINO is Assistant to the Director of the African Studies Center, UCLA, and
Executive
Secretary
of the African Studies Association. He collected and
analyzed
oral tradi-
tions from Sierra Leone and
Nigeria.
DANIEL J. CROWLEY,
Professor of
Anthropology
and Professor of Art at the
University
of Cali-
fornia, Davis, is a member of the African Arts
consulting
editorial board.
TIMOTHY F. GARRARD is a Ph.D. candidate in African
History
at the
University
of
California, Los
Angeles,
and has done fieldwork in Ghana.
BERLINGS KAUNDA, sculptor
and
poet,
was
formerly
Director of the National Museum of
Malawi.
PHILIP M. PEEK conducted research in
Nigeria
and is
teaching anthropology
and folklore at
Drew
University.
SUSAN VOGEL is Associate Curator at the
Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
87
BOURGEOIS, Notes, from page
50
1. The initiates
subsequently
tour
surrounding villages
in the
hopes
of
receiving generous gifts during
their dance
pre-
sentation. Masks used
by
the Northern Yaka include
kakungu, mbawa, mwelu, kambandzia, kholuka (mbala),
ndemba, miondo, and tsekedi (see Bourgeois 1979, 1980). Field
research on Yaka
masking
was conducted in 1976 in the
Popokabaka
Zone under the
auspices
of the Institut des
Mushes Nationaux du Za'ire and
partially
funded
by
the
Samuel H. Kress Foundation, NDEA Title VI, and Indiana
University
Graduate School Grant-in-Aid.
2. In
general,
the Yaka are
circumspect
if riot
prudish
concern-
ing
adult
nudity, particularly
in
regard
to
bathing.
3.
Contemporary examples
often
neglect
this convention and
have blackened features.
4. On headrests, it is
likely
that a shelter for cult
objects
(luumbu) is
represented
rather than the domestic
dwelling,
particularly
in
examples featuring
a structure raised on stilts,
a common
variety
of shelter for charm bundles. The
meaning
of a house above the carved head on a Yaka comb (MRAC
44750) is unknown but
may
be charm-associated as well.
5. A dried
tseye bird, for
example,
has ritual
importance
in the
paraphernalia
of
nganga ngombo diviners, giving
the
power
to
see
past
misconduct.
6. Devisch 1972:155 and
personal
communication.
7. The nose was removed from a ndemba mask. Dance masks
were
ritually destroyed
at the
burning
of the
nzofo
cabin at the
initiation site. Detachment and
burning
of the nose is consid-
ered a substitution for this ritual (Devisch 1972: 162-63).
Bibliography
Bourgeois,
Arthur P. 1979. "Nkanda Related
Sculpture
of the
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Arthur P. 1980.
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COLE, Notes, from page
56
1. See Cole 1969a, b, c, and also
my forthcoming book, Mbari:
Art and
Life among
the Owerri
Igbo (Indiana University
Press,
expected
late 1981).
A somewhat different version of this
paper
was delivered
at the 1980 African Studies Association
meeting
in Philadel-
phia
as
part
of Daniel
Crowley's panel
on "Eroticism in Afri-
can Arts."
2. This
period
is called
"eating yams"
and was a festival of
sorts in which human
beings rejoiced, along
with the
deity
for whom the
nmbari
was to be made. Because the
deity
ex-
pressed
her
joy
with wanton
"friendships"
with other
gods,
said informants, so must the
people.
3.
Clearly
the occurrence and
prevalence
of
any
theme is sub-
ject
both to the facts and to often
spotty
records made
by
ob-
servers since the first available records of mbari, in 1904. Good
record-keeping began
in the 1920s and '30s, and the fact that
some mbari constructed in the 1930s survived until the late
1960s, when I did
my
fieldwork, suggests
that these
interpre-
tations of "common" or "rare" are
reasonably
accurate.
4.
Okparocha (1976)
records varied folklore about this crea-
ture, including
the
possibility
that others
may
trick him, as he
tricks them.
Okpangu
should
probably
be seen as an ambiva-
lent character. Nevertheless, stories about him
invariably
have to do with socialization and education.
5. The data are not
absolutely
clear on the extent of the inter-
course between men and women of the same
exogamous
group, although many
informants said sex was common if
the
mbari-building community
was
endogamous.
With re-
spect
to the former case, some
people
claimed sex was
strictly
forbidden and never occurred, while others,
admitting
it was
improper,
said it nevertheless took
place.
I am inclined to be-
lieve both
groups,
for
pluralistic
rules and behaviors are
common within even the
fairly
small
region
in which inbari
are made.
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CROWLEY, Notes, from page
58
Earlier versions of this
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were read at the Fifth Trien-
nial
Symposium
on African Art, Atlanta,
April
16-19, 1980,
and at the
meetings
of the African Studies Association,
Philadelphia,
October 15-18, 1980.
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