FIG. 4-12). In the absence of contemporaneous written documents,
scholars can only guess at the use and meaning of a head like this
one, but it is noteworthy that animals appear only on those Lyden-
burg heads large enough to have served as helmet masks. The head,
therefore, probably had a ceremonial function.
Igbo Ukwu
By the 9th or 10th century CE, a West African bronze-casting tradi-
tion of great sophistication had developed in the Lower Niger area,
just east of that great river. Dozens of refined, varied objects in an
extremely intricate style have been unearthed at Igbo Ukwu. The ce-
ramic, copper, bronze, and iron artifacts include basins, bowls, altar
Prehistory and Early Cultures 397T
he relationships between leaders and
art forms are strong, complex, and
universal in Africa. Political, spiritual, and
social leaders—kings, chiefs, titled people,
and religious specialists—have the power
and wealth to command the best artists and
to require the most expensive and durable
materials to adorn themselves, furnish their
homes, and make visible the cultural and
religious organizations they lead. Leaders
also possess the power to dispense art or the
prerogative to use it.
Several formal or structural principles
characterize leaders’ arts and thus set them
off from the popular arts of ordinary
Africans. Leaders’ arts—for example, the
sumptuous and layered regalia of chiefs and
kings—tend to be durable and are often
made of costly materials, such as ivory,
beads, copper alloys, and other luxurious
metals. Some of the objects made specifically for African leaders,
such as stools or chairs (FIG. 34-5), ornate clothing (FIG. 34-21), and
special weaponry, draw attention to their superior status. Handheld
objects—for example, staffs, spears, knives, scepters, pipes, and fly
whisks (FIG. 15-5)—extend a leader’s reach and magnify his or her
gestures. Other objects associated with leaders, such as fans (FIG. I-15),
shields, and umbrellas, protect the leaders both physically and
spiritually. Sometimes the regalia and implements of an important
person are so heavy that they render the leader virtually immobile
(FIG. 34-21), suggesting that the temporary holder of an office is less
significant than the eternal office itself.
Although leaders’ arts are easy to recognize in centralized, hier-
archical societies, such as the Benin (FIGS. I-15, 15-12,and 15-13)
and Bamum (FIG. 34-5) kingdoms, leaders among less centralized
peoples are just as conversant with the power of art to move people
and effect change. For example, African leaders often establish and
run religious cults in which they may be less visible than the forms
they commission and manipulate: shrines, altars, festivals, and rites
of passage such as funerals, the last being especially elaborate and
festive in many parts of Africa. The arts that leaders control thus
help create pageantry, mystery, and spectacle, enriching and chang-
ing the lives of the people.Art and Leadership in Africa
ART AND SOCIETY15-5Equestrian
figure on fly-whisk
hilt, from Igbo Ukwu,
Nigeria, 9th to 10th
century ce.Copper-
alloy bronze, figure
6 ––– 163 high. National
Museum, Lagos.
The oldest known
African lost-wax cast
bronze is this fly-
whisk hilt, which a
leader used to extend
his reach and magnify
his gestures. The
artist exaggerated
the size of the ruler
compared with his
steed.1 in.stands, staffs, swords, scabbards, knives, and pendants. One grave
held numerous prestige objects—copper anklets, armlets, spiral or-
naments, a fan handle, and more than 100,000 beads, which may
have been used as a form of currency. The tomb also contained three
elephant tusks, a crown, and a bronze leopard’s skull. These items,
doubtless the regalia of a leader (see “Art and Leadership in Africa,”
above), whether secular or religious, are the earliest cast-metal ob-
jects known from regions south of the Sahara.EQUESTRIAN FLY WHISKA lost-wax cast bronze (FIG.
15-5), the earliest yet found in Africa, came from the same grave at
Igbo Ukwu. It depicts an equestrian figure on a fly-whisk handle.
The African artist made the handle using a casting method similar to15-5A Igbo-
Ukwu roped
water pot, 9th
to 10th century.