Transcript African Culture - Hawaii Community College

• Olorun (OH-low-run), the sky god, lowered a great chain from the
heavens to the ancient waters.
•
Down climbed Oduduwa, Olorun's son.
• Oduduwa brought with him a handful of dirt, a special five-toed
chicken, and a palm nut.
• He threw the dirt upon the ancient waters and set the chicken on the
dirt.
• The chicken busily scratched and scattered the dirt until it formed the
first dry earth.
•
In the center of this new world, Oduduwa created the magnificent Ife
(EE-fay) kingdom.
• He planted the palm nut, which grew into a proud tree with 16
branches, symbolizing the 16 sons and grandsons of Oduduwa.
• Oduduwa was the first ruler of the kingdom and the father of all
Yoruba. Over time he crowned his 16 sons and grandsons and sent
them off to establish their own great Yoruba kingdoms.
Background:The Yoruba
• The Yoruba peoples of West Africa have
lived in the southwestern area of what are
now Nigeria and the Republic of Benin
• The earliest Yoruba kingdoms of Ife and
Oyo (oh-YO) spread over vast territories.
Divine kings, descendants of Oduduwa,
ruled these kingdoms, advised by
councils of elders and chiefs.
• As part of their royal REGALIA, kings
wore distinctive beaded veiled crowns.
adenla ("great crown")
• The beaded veiled crown, called
adenla ("great crown"), is more
than a symbol of kingship.
•
embodies ideals of political and
personal stability, refuge for the
oppressed, salvation, and much
more.
• Worn only on ceremonial
occasions, the crown gave the
king the power to communicate
with his spirit ancestors in order
to benefit his people.
• crowns hold so much power,
they are among the most sacred
Yoruba objects.
Elements of the African Art
• Resemblance to a human being:
African artists praise a carved figure by saying that it "looks
like a human being”
• Luminosity:
The lustrously smooth surface of most African figural
sculpture, often embellished with decorative scarification,
indicates beautifully shining, healthy skin.
• Self-composure:
The person who is composed behaves in a measured and
rational way
• Youthfulness:
A youthful appearance shows vigor, productiveness, fertility,
and an ability to labor to work
• Clarity of form and detail, complexity of composition, balance
and symmetry, smoothness of finish:
SOWEI MASK
• Mende, Sierre Leone and Liberia
• This mask is worn over the head
of a female elder who dances for
the Sande women's society.
• The mask displays and celebrates
Mende ideals of female beauty and
virtue: elaborately braided hair
(cosmetic skills, sexuality); neck
creases (full-bodied, good health);
smooth, broad forehead (nobility,
intelligence); lowered eyes
(contemplativeness, restraint);
well shaped ears; small nose;
small mouth (not given to gossip);
composed expression (inner
serenity), smooth skin
(youthfulness).
• Bamana, Mali Republic
• To the Bamana people, farming
is the most important and
noblest profession.
• At planting time, men of the ChiWara association of farmers
dance with headresses like
these in the fields to honor ChiWara, the mythical "farming
animal" that taught agriculture
to the ancestors of the Bamana.
The headdresses, always
danced in male and female
pairs, depict the antelope-like
Chi-Wara and display the
process of successful
cultivation.
• Bamana, Mali Republic
• The "female" Chi-Wara
headdress, representing the
earth, always accompanies
the male headdress during
the harvest dances.
• The baby carried by the
female symbolizes baby
human beings.
• As in the male Chi-Wara
headdress, the long horns
stand for the desired growth
of tall millet.
• Asante, Ghana
• The akua'ba figure is
supposed to induce
pregnancy and ensure safe
delivery of a beautiful,
healthy infant.
• After being blessed by a
priest, a woman carries the
statuette around with her
and treats it like a real child;
she adorns it with beads
and earrings, "nurses" it,
and puts it to bed.
• Yoruba, Nigeria
• Among the Yoruba, twins (ibeji) are
special children whose birth can bless
their parents with good fortune.
• The Yoruba have one of the highest
rates of twin births in the world.
• If a twin dies, the mother commissions
a memorial figure (two if both twins die),
and the soul of the deceased twin is
transferred to it.
• The mother dresses the statuette in
cloth and adorns it with jewelry, and
keeps it near her bed. She also offers it
food and prayers weekly and performs
more elaborate rituals on the occasion
of birthdays and annual festivals.
• Baule, Ivory Coast
• The Baule believe that before people are
born into this world they have a spouse in
the other world, and that these spouses
occasionally become angry or jealous and
disturb the lives of their living partners.
• When this happens, a diviner recommends
that an altar be established where the spirit
may receive offerings and be appeased.
The carved figure of the "spirit spouse"
should be beautiful in order to please the
spirit and attract it to the shrine. .
• Makonde, Tanzania
• this piece depicts a
"tree of life" motif: the
members of an
extended family,
including past and
present generations,
gently supporting
each other, generation
after generation,
around the family
ancestor.
Areas of Traditional Religions
Yoruba Religion
• The religion of the Yoruba people in West
Africa, who live in Nigeria and Benin, is a
thousands of years-old tradition of nature
worship and ancestor reverance. In
addition to the worship of one God, named
Olodumare, the Yoruba worship dozens of
deities known as "Orishas" who are
personified aspects of nature and spirit.
The principal orishas include Eleggua,
Oggun, Ochosi, Obatala, Yemaya, Oshun,
Shango, Oya, Babalu Aiye, and Orula.
• Central features of the religion are its
drumming and dancing celebrations known
as tambors.
• At the tambors elaborate altars are created,
and then food is offered to the Orishas.
• Depending on the nature of the celebration,
percussionists and drummers (often playing
the sacred 3-piece bata drums) play precise
rhythms directed to specific Orishas while
those present sing call-and-response songs
in archaic Yoruba, causing the Orishas to
descend and possess initiated priests and
priestesses of the religion.
• The rhythms and forms of Yoruba
religion are said to be fundamental to
the development of many forms of
African American music from gospel to
blues and jazz, and to musical forms
such as Salsa and Latin Jazz.
• Carlos Santana, for example, has
incorporated Orisha-themes and
rhythms into several songs, including
"Hannibal," which includes a Yoruba
chant to Shango.
Eleggua
• The Orisha of the Crossroads.
• Eleggua is the Orisha honored at the beginning and end
of all ceremonies. He is said to be the force in nature
which makes communication possible between humans
and the orishas, and who brings magic into the realm of
the possible. He lives at the crossroads, and is honored
by devotees every Monday with offerings like rum and
cigars. He is meaning in coincidence.
• He is often depicted as a mischievous child, and has a
definite reputation as a trickster. Eleggua is one of the
three Warriors, Orishas who are received by devotees as
a prelude to full initiation into the mysteries of the
religion.
Yemaya
• The Orisha of the Oceans and
Motherhood.
• Yemaya is the great mother goddess
of Santeria; the maternal force of life
and creation.
• She is said to be the mother of many
other Orishas, and is believed to live
in the ocean.
• She has many aspects, one of them
being Yemaya Okute, a fierce warrior.
• In Brazil her devotees set up elaborate
beach front altars each New Year's
Eve, setting out food and candles to
be washed away by Yemaya (there
called Iemanja) with the morning
tides.
Obatala
• The Orisha of the Mountains and
Creativity.
• Obatala, which means "King of
the White Cloth" represents the
spiritual unity and
interrelationship of all things. He
is said to have many aspects,
many of them androgynous or
female.
• He is credited with creating
humanity, and while becoming
drunk on palm wine, is said to
have accidentally created the
crippled and deformed.
Yoruba Divination
• Divination is a process that allows the Yoruba
people to communicate with the deity, Ifa.
• Ifa, who was given "the power to speak for the
gods and communicate with human beings " by
Olorun, the sky God, is consulted by all Yoruba
people regardless of their faith.
• The intermediaries between Ifa and the Yoruba
are known as the babalawo.
•
Through these rituals, or divination, the parents
take information divined by Ositola and use it to
create a pathway of spiritual guidance on which
their children will travel as they grow.
• The parents, with the help of the diviner, are able
to provide their children with medicinal elements
as well as worldly advice.
• There are three different rituals important for
children
• The first ritual, stepping into the world usually takes
place the week after the child is born.
• This divination not only provides parents with
guidelines by which to raise their child, but it is both
a literal and metaphorical representation of the
child's first step into the world.
• To form this representation, the diviner takes the
feet of the child, who is only seven days old, and
places them on the divination tray in order to
symbolize his introduction into the physical world.
• This action allows the persona of the child to be
revealed and facilitates the successful rearing of the
child by his parents.
• At three months of age, the child will undergo a
second ritual entitled knowing the head, "This time
the objective is to learn the nature of the inner head
(ori inu)--or personality--that the animating spirit or
soul (emi) brought to the world, so the parents can
help the child coordinate the two"
• The information the diviner acquires allows for the
integration of the child's personality and soul, and
provides him with a foundation in the world of the
living.
• In this ritual, the child's second steps into the
physical world are taken as the diviner touches the
child's head to the to the ground and then to the
divination tray. These symbolic steps build upon
those taken by the child when he was only days old.
• From this second ritual, the path of the child's life
will become more definitive.
• There are ten paths indicative of Yoruba morals and
expectations which, when ritualistically split in half,
assume either negative or positive connotations.
• The diviners job is to relate the significance of the
path on which the child travels and to determine the
necessary sacrifices that will allow the child to stay
on the correct course throughout his life.
• The third ritual through which the child will pass is
the culmination of his initiation into Yoruba
adulthood. Known as Itefa or the establishment of
the self, this fourteen day ritual is complex due to
the child's heightened self-consciousness.
• The Itefa ritual focuses on developing the child's
personal identity and consequent social interaction.
• Instead of relying on parental guidance, the child is
equipped with vital texts and introspective tools so
that he may undergo self-examination.
• The steps taken by the child as he walks from the
village to the sacred grove, which again hold both
literal and metaphorical significance, are reflective of
the child's inner journey from a state of dependence
on his elders to a state of self-sufficiency
• The role of the diviner permeates numerous integral
segments of Yoruba life, as exemplified by the three
rituals of Yoruba childhood.
• Most importantly, diviners are responsible for the
progression of life and facilitate this progression
through the guidance they provide for children and
their parents.
African Women
•
Women are extremely valuable in the sight of
society.
• Not only do they bear life, but they nurse, they
cherish, they give warmth, they care for life since
all human life passes through their own bodies.
• For that reason the primary African proverb says
"A woman must not be killed, she is the mother of
life, and to kill the woman is to kill children, to kill
humanity itself.”
• The woman should be handled with respect and
not be treated as if she were a slave.
African Women
• In traditional African life women play a significant
role in the religious activities of society.
• One of the areas where this role is prominent, is
in offering prayers for their families in particular
and their communities in general.
• In many areas there were (and still are) women
priests (priestesses); almost everywhere in Africa
the mediums (who are so important in traditional
medical practice) are nearly always women; those
who experience spirit possession are in most
cases also women.
African Women
• Traditional healing is a profession of
both men and women and it is more
often the women practitioners who
handle children's and other women
medical needs.