InstructionsImagine that you are the Director of Health Informat

Instructions
Imagine that you are the Director of Health Information for a
large hospital. As Director, you sit on various institution-wide
committees which govern the organization’s policies. You have
seen issues arise that cause you to propose changes in policies,
procedures and operations across the hospital. Therefore, you
have decided
to create a proposal to the CEO and Board of Directors, which
you will develop in collaboration with committee teams. Please
follow the instructions below in completion of this assignment.
Welcome to the first day of our virtual
zoom classroom
31 March 2020
Ancient Mali: Archaeology and the Inland
Niger Delta Terracottas
Aerial photo of the town of Jenne
during the rainy season
Satellite photo of the
Inland Niger Delta
Sources of Information
for reconstructing the history of this region:

• Arabic and European Accounts: very
limited before the 19th century
• Oral traditions passed down from
generation to generation. These provide
some context and flavor with kernels of
truth woven in. Local oral traditions in
Jenne identified Jenne-jeno as the
ancestral home of its peoples
• Terracotta sculptures that began
appearing on the art market as early as
the 1970s, but little information about
their use or function (without
archaeology)
• Archaeological Investigations:
Excavations by the McIntoshes in 1977
and 1981 at the site of Jenne-jeno and
neighboring site of Hambarketolo
(remember the map quiz?)
INLAND NIGER DELTA
Jenne-jeno
250 BC - 1400 AD
Mali
archaeological site
12-17th century AD
Mali

terracotta sculptures
thermoluminescence
carbon 14
stratigraphy
terracotta
Roderick and
Susan McIntosh
Wagadu
The Inland Niger Delta is the name given to the region in
central Mali where the great Niger river
floods annually, making it an agriculturally rich region in the
midst of the Sahel. Just outside the present-
day city of Jenne lies the archaeological site of Jenne-jeno,
which was a multi-ethnic urban center well
before the arrival of Islam and trade across the Sahara,
inhabited by 250 BC.
Aerial photo of the site of Jenne-jeno
during the rainy season
(doesn’t look like much, right?)
on surface: ceramic pottery fragments and
funerary urns, evidence of house
foundations, and evidence of a city wall

Aerial photo of the present day town of
Jenne with Jenne-jeno in the background
Methods of dating (None of them super accurate, need
corroboration)
1) stratigraphy, essentially a sequence of layers that provide a
relative chronology (see below)
2) radio-carbon dating of organic materials, especially wood
and charcoal based on rate of decay
+/- years
3) thermoluminescence (google it) the minerals in clay store
energy, and when clay is fired, the
firing “cleans” the slate and the process of storing energy
renews, thus possible to approximate
the date an object was fired within a range of (hundreds) of
years.
Phase I: 250 BC-300 CE
circular house of bent poles and reed mats
suggests possible seasonal habitation
with semi-nomadic people (herders and
fishermen?) returning to the site every year.
Example of a temporary nomadic
structure set up on the edge of Timbuktu
that is similar to what the earliest Jenne-
jeno houses may have looked like

Phase II: 300 - 800 CE
included evidence of stacked mud
circular house foundations, indicates
that people lived here year-round
Note: The McIntoshes second excavation in 1981 was funded in
part by National Geographic. They
sent a couple of photographers to see what the McIntoshes were
doing, but the archaeological site
was pretty boring, so they brought this family out from Jenne to
“stage” the early house. The
problem is that lighting these fires in the excavation pit
destroyed the scientific value of this site,
because the fires would compromise any carbon-14 or
thermoluminescence testing.
Phase II: 300 - 800 CE
Massive city wall constructed from sun-dried mud
bricks, had to have been a major public works
project. People probably needed protection from
flooding, not conflict from outside
Phase II
burial urns: Large ceramic

pots in which they buried
their dead
In 2011, I visited the archaeologist Mamadou
Cisse (remember him from Caravans of Gold?)
when he was excavating a site just outside the
town of Jenne on the opposite side from of
Jenne-jeno. They discovered this intact funerary
urn. We were there to see them pull it from
the ground. See video posted on BlackBoard.
Phase III: 800-1000 AD
This time period was the height of
occupation at the site with as many as
20,000 inhabitants, with both round
and rectangular houses, and a
blacksmith workshop active during
this time period.
After 1000, the city declined and was
abandoned completely by 1400, when
the present day town of Jenne began
to be occupied.
Another National Geographic photo: They

decided to pay the herders to run a herd of
cattle up the hill and across the site so that
they would have a more interesting photo!
Phase I 250 BC-300 CE
imported stone beads
pottery sherds
iron and iron slags
earliest domesticated rice
fired clay figurines: possibly toys
Phase II 300 -800 CE
more to lives than just subsistence, evidence
of social stratification and diversity
iron working at the site
copper ornaments (copper from the Sahara)
gold earring (gold from southern gold mines)
fancy footed bowls and decorative pottery
Phase III 800 - 1000 CE
even more variety of goods, possibly as many
as 20,000 inhabitants = URBAN center with
satellite communities (Hambarketolo)
glass bead necklace from North Africa
terra cotta statuettes

Phase I: more than
100,000 pottery sherds
similar to pottery from
the Sahara several
centuries earlier,
suggests that the first
inhabitants came from
the north
The crew stayed in the town of
Jenne (The Great Mosque is in
the background). They went to
excavate early in the morning,
and in the afternoons they
sorted and washed pottery.
The black bit in the middle
is iron slag, the refuse from
smelting iron ore: evidence
of iron working at the site,
not just imported objects,
but no know local sources
of iron ore, so means trade
contacts and specialized
craftsmanship.
Reclining figure excavated in 1981 along with a head
that does not match the body, note amulets, lots of

jewelry and a knife strapped to the arm
Phase IV: 1000-1400 CE
gradual decline in population, abandoned
by 1400 CE
The terracotta statues and fragments the
McIntoshes excavated were all from this
last phase. The “Jenne terracottas”
represent a significant early sculptural
tradition, but here's the problem: More
than a thousand of these terracottas are in
museums and private collections in Europe
and the US, but only a few of them (maybe
10!) came from proper legal excavations.
With the exception of the reclining figure, the pieces found by
the
McIntoshes are not fabulous works of art, but they are important
because
their excavations provide the only information we have about
the use or
function or context of these terracottas. The vast majority of
these
sculptures in museum and private collections were probably
plundered or
looted from archaeological sites by local people hoping to earn
a few bucks
when they sell it to a middleman. They are smuggled out and

sold privately
for a lot more money.
This piece sold in 2019 for
more than $400,000.
It had been in a European
collection since the 1960s,
and thus before there were
laws in place that specifically
protected this tradition.
It is suggested that this piece
may represent Sogolan, the
mother of the so-called Lion
King Sundiata, founder of the
empire of Mali according to
oral traditions.
https://www.sothebys.com/
en/auctions/ecatalogue/2019/
coll-riviere-pf1928/lot.
51.html
Looters know to dig
where one can see
house foundations on
the surface

8 statues/fragments excavated by the McIntoshes
found in four different contexts:
1) figure with head and crossed arms placed in
round structure with several ceramic pots and
a round object with snakes deliberately
collapsed
2) two headless figures (below, male and female)
found eroding out of the surface next to a
house foundation under the floor
3) male / female pair, with figure fragments in a
niche in a house wall occupied by iron workers
associated with sandstone mortars, iron rods,
pots with snakes perhaps a rain making altar
4) reclining headless figure with head found in a
refuse pit
Possible functions:
1) as representations of ancestors that might
have been placed on altars within the home.
Most depict human forms (male and female
pairs, mother and child, etc.) And some seem
to be in positions of prayer. So, maybe this is
a reasonable explanation. But there are others
that represent bizarre diseased figures and
some animal forms, so these ones don’t fit
this explanation.

2) as spiritual offerings, such as the one places
inside a structure that was intentionally
collapsed, or the male and female pair found
embedded in the mud wall of a house. In fact,
there is an oral tradition collected from old
men in Jenne concerning offerings of
statuettes and grain as symbolic re-enactment
of legend of Tampama, a young virgin said to
have been buried alive in the walls of Jenne to
insure that the city walls would stand against
the floods.
3) Other … as you will see in the following
slides, there are other subjects for which
there is no archaeological explanation, just
speculation.
Some male and female
pairs, figures in positions
of prayer or mourning.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Seated Figure
13th century
Jenne peoples
This haunting figure huddles with its leg hugged to its
chest and its head dropped on its knee. It

simultaneously suggests the knotted tension of anxiety
and the sublime absorption of deep prayer. Created
over 700 years ago, in the Inland Niger Delta region of
present-day Mali, this elegant work's intense emotional
immediacy blurs the boundaries of time and place.
This terracotta sculpture comes from a site called
Jenne-jeno, the oldest known city in sub-Saharan Africa.
Jenne-jeno flourished in the ninth century A.D., but
declined and was abandoned by 1400. Items of cast
brass and forged iron, clay vessels, and figures like this
one survive. They testify to what scholars contend was
a richly varied and highly sophisticated urban society.
A few controlled archaeological digs provide only the
vaguest outlines of the original significance of the art
of this time and region. Recovered terracotta figures
are frequently quite detailed. They include jewelry,
clothing, and body ornaments such as the parallel
columns of bumps and circles on the back of this
work. Sometimes they cover the entire body and seem
to represent the pustules of some dreadful illness.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/314362
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?q=Jenne%2
0peoples&perPage=20&sortBy=Relevance&offset=0&pageSize=
0
Another type of figure are these equestrian warriors,
however none of these have been found archaeologically,
so we don’t know if they were displayed in groups, or
represented individual ancestors. We do know that the

Empire of Mali boasted a large and effective cavalry.
Motherhood theme: Childbirth
and (happy) mother and child,
but then we have an emaciated
pregnant woman (disturbing,
no?) and even more disturbing:
A woman giving birth to a
snake (lovely) with snakes
coming out of her ears (yikes).
Lots of snakes … Possible a
reference to oral traditions
about the Great Snake of
Wagadu (the local Soninke
name for what we call the
Empire of Ghana). The legend is
that the Great Snake provided
the empire with gold in return
for the sacrifice of a beautiful
virgin every year. But one year
the lover of the young woman
selected took a sword and
beheaded the snake, and the
head rolled south and did not
stop until it reached the edge

of the forests (where the gold
is still being mined today).
Ghana entered a seven year
period of drought and famine,
its gold reserves were depleted,
and the empire fell.
I could give you a creative writing
assignment about these two pieces.
What is going on here?
The large female figure has two wiggling
“children” on her lap, but one of them
has a beard, and they seem to be
pinching her ear with a pair of
blacksmith tongs … yikes.
The group below includes what appears
to be a man with a knife sneaking
around a large buffalo/cow with the
intent to attack a man minding his own
business and drinking some tea (?)
Finally, this piece represents

what appears to be a shrine with
two serpents coiled around the
outside and a human arm
reaching up the side of the
doorway. A CT scan revealed
that the human figure was a
headless pregnant woman (!!!)
and that the shrine
contained contained a bunch of
what seems to be other headless
women ... virtual human
sacrifice? female seclusion for
other ritual purposes? The Great
Snake of Wagadu?
https://noma.org/ct-scans-reveal-mysterious-
figures-in-malian-terracotta/
https://www.scantix.com/case-studies/
terracotta-statues/djenne-shrine/
https://www.scantix.com/case-studies/terracotta-statues/djenne-
shrine/
https://www.scantix.com/case-studies/terracotta-statues/djenne-
shrine/
Timbuktu
Mali

Jenne (Djenne)
Mali
Bobo-Dioulasso
Burkina Faso
Kong
Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Kawara
Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Larabanga
Ghana
adobe (banco) mud brick architecture
ARCHITECTURE OF ISLAM
14th century CE to present
Labelle Prussin
Practicing Architect and
Architectural Historian (later
went for a PhD)
Problems at the time (1968)
when she wrote the article:
1) lack of research, or research
too focused on a particular
area, not enough research
across the broad region
2) Lack of permanent

structures to study, mostly
mud-brick architecture, not
much stone (remember that
at Koumbi Saleh, the stone
mosque survived, but the
kings palace did not)
3) Lack of respect for African
architecture generally not
seen as Architecture (with
capitol A) but rather as
building technology
Note: So, the exhibition at the Met is called “Sahel: Art and
Empires of the Shores of the Sahara”. We are now
moving south into the region known as the Sudan. The term
Sudan refers to the region Arabs called the land of
the Blacks (Bilad-al-Sudan). Remember our discussion of the
trans-Saharan trade? Camel caravans made their
way across the desert in search of gold among other things. The
success of that trade depended on the fact that
there was already a thriving trade network across the Sudanic
region, connecting the (Guinean) forest zones
with the Sahel. The Berbers and Arabs brought the Islamic
faith with them, and it spread along trade routes
throughout this region. The traders were among the first to
adopt Islam and trade and Islamic learning went
hand in hand throughout this region. As more people adopted
Islam, there was a need for mosques to
accommodate the faithful. So who do you think built these
mosques?

What do you notice about the distribution of Sudanese mud
mosques in West Africa?
Timbuktu
Jenne
BoboDioulasso
Kong
Kawara
Larabanga
Prussin identifies 5 distinct types of Sudanese-style mosques
that correspond to five phases
of spread of this distinctive architectural style in West Africa
(read the article by Prussin!).
Timbuktu, M
Kawara, Cote d’IvoireKong, Cote d’Ivoire
Jenne, Mali
Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso
Djinguereber Mosque, Timbuktu, Mali
probably built in the 14th century,

possibly following Mansa Musa’s return
to Mali after his pilgrimage to Mecca.
There is a tradition that he brought an
architect with him
https://www.zamaniproject.org/site-mali-
timbuktu-djingareyber-
mosque.html#header5-a9
Check out this website with 3-D modeling
of the mosque (also posted on Blackboard)
Very cool. The only weird part is that the
model has no people and the mosque
seems to be out in the middle of nowhere.
https://www.zamaniproject.org/site-mali-timbuktu-djingareyber-
Sankore Mosque, Timbuktu, Mali
Above: photograph taken in the early 20th century.
The caption says the mosque was constructed in
the 11th century, but it was probably constructed
in the 14th century, around the same time as the

Djingereber mosque.
Right: a photograph I took in the middle of the day
when it was well over 100 degrees. The streets
were deserted except this young woman and the
goat. But when we returned to the city at 6 pm,
the streets and shops were packed. Noon was a
great time for pictures, but not for shopping.
Aerial photograph of a town along the Niger river during the
dry season. The dark spot in the center
of the town is the mosque, designed to resemble the Great
Mosque of Jenne, but smaller. The open
space near the mosque is the market place. You find the
mosque, you find the market, you find the
market, you find the mosque. Trade and Islam went hand in
hand.
The Great Mosque of Jenne, Mali on market day
Market day in Jenne, Mali

The Great Mosque of Jenne, Mali (1980s) on market day
The Great Mosque of Jenne, Mali (1980’s) the open place is
deserted except for this horseman
named Chokari. I had just interviewed him and returned back to
where I was staying for lunch
when I saw him riding across the square.
Jenne, Mali
https://www.zamaniproject.org/site-
mali-djenne-great-
mosque.html#header5-an
The Great mosque, Jenne, Mali
Massive pillars and arches on the
interior. Air and light vents on the
roof with ceramic caps.
The main mosque,
Bobo Dioulasso

Burkina Faso
Kong, Cote d’Ivoire
Kong, Cote d’Ivoire
Kawara, Cote d’Ivoire
Larabanga, Ghana
probably dates from the 17th century
(Wikipedia says 1421)
conserved in 2002 with help from the
World Monuments Fund, but hard to
maintain in this climate.
2011
2002
Sorobango, Cote d’Ivoire
Small Sudanese style mosque in a village in

southern Mali. It has been years since it was
re-plastered, because they built a new
mosque next to it out of cement.
An even smaller village mosque that is made of cement, but
still has that unmistakable Sudanese style
Traditional Sudanese-style mud brick
architecture, Jenne, Mali
French colonial architecture
Sudanese style in cement,
Dakar, Senegal
Train Station in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso
Community center built
in 1930 in the town of
Frejus, France (the
French Riviera). It was
built for West African
troops stationed in
France during the
Colonial period, and still
owned by the Ministry of

Defense
Main market building built by the French
in the center of Bamako
View of one of the main banks in
the capitol of Bamako
Mosques built today are usually of cement and follow a style
more familiar from Saudi Arabia
BAMANA
Mali
AD 1300 - present
Ciwara (Chiwara)
nyama=ritual power, the force that
animates all life, embodied in all living
things but also present in inanimate
materials (earth, clay, stone, iron)
nyamakalaw=those who handle nyama,
especially blacksmith-sculptors
boli=ritual object or altar
Stephen Wooten

Nyamakala: The Bamana recognize three groups of artists who
handle and transform nyama:
1) Griots (male and female oral artists, musicians,
traditional historians) speech is considered to have nyama, it is
powerful and potentially dangerous.
2) Leatherworkers, who transform the skins of animals into
leather
3) Blacksmith-sculptors who transform iron ore into iron, and
who
transform wood into beautiful sculptures, and whose wives are
potters, transforming clay into pottery, all by means of fire
Bamana sculpture of an exceptionally
powerful woman with child. Note the
headdress that represents the kind of
protective hat worn by hunters and
warriors, covered with powerful
amulets, medicinal packets stuffed into
horns and the knife strapped to the
upper arm, like the reclining terracottas
figure from Jenne-jeno
Bamana figures on display at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art carved by blacksmiths
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mother and Child
15th–20th century
Bamana peoples
Bamana notions of ideal beauty and character
are evoked in this figure of a mother and child.
The figure is part of a corpus of large, relatively
naturalistic sculptures whose rounded volumes
and variety of gestures depart from the angular
forms and stiff postures characteristic of many
other types of Bamana sculpture. These figures
are displayed at the annual ceremonies of "Jo", an
association of initiated Bamana men and women,
and at the rituals of "Gwan", a related society
whose purpose is to help women conceive and
bear children. Groups of sculptures which were
collectively owned by individual communities to
be publicly exhibited on such occasions, included
representations of a mother and child, a male
companion, and related attendant figures.
This figure depicts a woman of extraordinary
abilities, as shown by the amulet-laden hat she
wears and the knife strapped to her left arm,
both of which are conventionally associated with
the powers of male hunters. An even more vital
message conveyed by the sculpture is the
importance of motherhood in maintaining social
cohesion and continuity within Bamana society,
and elders' roles in passing on their skills,
powers, and values to future generations.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/
collection/search/312336?
searchField=All&sortBy=Rel
evance&where=Africa%7cM

ali&ft=Gwan&offset=0&
amp;rpp=20&pos=6
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?q=Bamana
%20peoples&perPage=20&sortBy=Relevance&offset=0&pageSi
ze=0
The term Ciwara (pronounced Chi-wara) refers to:
1) the mythical beast that taught the Bamana to
farm.
2) to the society that celebrates farming (see
Wooten article)
3) and to the antelope sculptures, wooden
headdresses that usually appear in pairs
What does Steven Wooten
say about these images?
Wooten describes a series of events
he witnessed while doing research
on agricultural practices among the
Bamana, including several ciwara
performances
This photograph was taken by a friend of mine who witnessed a
ciwara wonder-working

performance that included this man putting his hand into the
fire, grabbing a burning stick,
without getting burned (do not try this at home!)
There are three distinct styles of Ciwara headdresses:
vertical, composite and horizontal. All include elements of
antelopes, some anteaters, and abstract
elements that are not found in nature. Remember, these
represent a mythical beast.
Pangolin
eland antelope
bull sable antelope Aardvark
vertical style Ciwara
Verticle style ciwara
The male figures
are the most
elaborate with a
lot of creativity in

the abstract
patterns of the
mane
vertical style Ciwara
this vertical style Ciwara sold at
auction in 2012 for $130,000
Photograph taken before 1910 of a Banana ciwara performance
Composite style (often combining antelope with
anteater/aardvark/pangolin) Ciwara
horizontal style ciwara headdresses
This one has the tail of a
chameleon
boli (ritual altar)
mixed media (don’t ask!, okay, see the next slide with a
bolt and the description from the Met Museum)
Most boli are small, can be held in the hand and

danced with, but check this one out.
Met Museum
Power Object (Boli)
19th–first half of 20th century
Bamana peoples
A rough, cracked surface obscures exact identification of the
organic and inorganic
materials assembled to create the boli (pl.: boliw), or power
object, shown here. Such
objects play an essential role within Bamana spiritual life.
Boliw have attracted much
attention from Western observers due to their amorphous forms
and unusual
materials. The bulbous and amorphous shape is rather
idiosyncratic within the
repertoire of Bamana art. Boliw are composed of a wooden
armature "core" wrapped
in white cotton cloth, around which clay and sacrificial
materials are encrusted. This
boli has four short "legs" upon which it sits, as well as a single
hump rising from the
top. The creature that a boli represents is unidentifiable, but
many take on the loose
zoomorphic form suggested by this work, while others may be
anthropomorphic.
The primary function of a boli is to accumulate and control the
naturally occurring life
force called nyama for the spiritual benefit of the community.
The composition of the
encrusted patina varies, but all the ingredients possess this
inherent and important
spiritual energy. The encrustation may include the blood of

chickens or goats, chewed
and expectorated kola nuts, alcoholic beverages, honey, metal,
animal bones, vegetable
matter, and sometimes millet. Sometimes this added matter is so
extensive that it
obscures the original wooden form and takes on a shape all its
own. As the
encrustation cracks and hardens throughout the years, it gives
the impression that
these ingredients are tightly packed within the boli. As the
sacrificial materials
accumulate over time, each added layer affords the structure
greater spiritual power.
Boliw and their numerous ingredients have been interpreted in a
number of different
ways. It has been suggested that the disparate elements of which
boliw are composed
symbolize the various parts of the universe, so that the whole
can be read as a model
of Bamana cosmological belief. Such power objects are owned
by male associations
whose members progress through induction processes that span
decades. Over time,
they attain an esoteric knowledge of the natural and spiritual
world. Opaque and
mysterious to the uninitiated eye, boliw are safely handled only
by those association
members equipped with the most rarified expertise and
knowledge.
https://
www.metmuseum.or
g/art/collection/
search/312389

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?q=Bamana
%20peoples&perPage=20&sortBy=Relevance&offset=0&pageSi
ze=0
former West African Airline
Hotel in Bamako
Former Malian airline with ciwara logo
West African Research
Association (WARA)
Because of the graphic clarity
and elegance of the Bamana
chiwara sculptural design, the
headdress has inspired
countless commercial logos
African restaurant in Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Ciwara as the name of an award given
by the Malian state
ciwara wax cloth design
Chiwara as the name for a nonprofit organization in Michigan
that provides training and workshops

around issues of sustainability. The website is no longer active
(maybe the organization disbanded) but I
am curious as to where the founder got his idea to use Ciwara as
the inspiration for the organization
and for their design logo. Maybe he took an African art class
and learned about Ciwara there???
This is a film still from the Avengers: Infinity War (2018) when
Shuri heals Vision. While most of the
objects in Shuri’s high tech lab are shiny and new, here (out of
focus) you can see the unmistakeable
outlines of a vertical ciwara on a pedestal in the back ground.
Can anyone get me a better shot of this?
Lorenzo Pace,
Triumph of the Human Spirit, 2000,
black granite, Foley Square, Manhattan
In the mid-1990s I got a
phone call from artist Lorenzo
Pace. He was submitting a
design for a public art
commission for the African
Burial Ground project. He
knew that I had worked in
Mali with Bamana artists and

he wanted to ask me about
the ciwara tradition. He told
me his idea was to base the
massive sculpture on a female
ciwara headdress, and he was
concerned that his design
would not offend Bamana
sensibilities. When he told me
it would be a 20-30 foot high
stone, my first thought was to
say that a Banana farmer
would not recognize it. What
do you think?
https://www.nycgovparks.org/
parks/thomas-paine-park/
highlights/19692http://lorenzopace.com/triumph-of-the-human-
spirit/
Antelope Headdresses and Champion Farmers: Negotiating
Meaning and Identity
through the Bamana Ciwara Complex
Stephen R. Wooten
African Arts, Vol. 33, No. 2. (Summer, 2000), pp. 18-33+89-90.

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%3B2-3
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Pullo (Fulani) man
However, there is historical significance to the
Dogon including the Fulani as characters in their
masquerade. Pullo (or Peul or Fulani) refers to an
ethnic group that is found throughout Mali and in
fact across much of the Sahel/Savannah region of
West Africa. In the past they were herders who
moved with their cattle seasonally in search of
pastures for grazing. There is often a symbiotic
relationship between the Fulani and different farming
groups, they need each other, but there is also
tension when times are hard. The current political
crisis in Mali has inflamed tensions between the
Dogon and their Fulani neighbors.
Dieterlen identifies the “real name” of the
masquerade character known as Pullo as dyobi, or
as the runner. She says it represents the rebellious
Ogo before his transformation into the fox.
According to Dieterlen (seen here on the right), Ogo
lost the ability to speak when he was transformed into

a fox, but he is able to communicate through sand
divination. The diviner clears an area, creates a grid in
the sand, and marks it with sticks and pebbles. And he
leave a bit of bait to attract the fox (a descendant of
Ogo) who comes at night and disturbs the pattern in
ways that can be read by the diviner the next morning.
Sand divination (foot prints of the fox/Ogo)
Pullo (Fulani) women
Fulani women are known for their elaborate hairstyles and their
beauty, so it is not a
surprise that the Dogon would incorporate them into their
masquerade tradition. They
are part of the Dogon world, selling milk from their cattle in
local markets. Male Dogon
dancers wear bead, fiber, and cowrie shell headdresses that
emulate the traditional
crested hairstyle, and they wear pointy fake breasts, and they
dance on stilts.
This is a page from Griaule’s first book that presents his
documentation of
the walu mask: its name in the Dogon language, a description of
what it looks
like, the fact that he holds a stick that he paws the ground with
plant grain.

He is afraid of children who provoke him. Griaule provides the
song that is
sung, and the origin myth: about an antelope that killed some of
the sheep
and goats belonging to the villagers, and so they dug a hole and
trapped it.
Walu antelope mask
Walu antelope mask:
Dieterlen tells us that the walu antelope is a
character from the time of Amma’s creation of
the Earth, but Griaule’s documentation there is
also an origin story about a hunter who killed
the antelope and created the mask to honor the
spirit of the antelope. The question is, was the
character introduced to the masquerade
because of what happened to the hunter and
then identified with the Amma creation myth?
A walu antelope and rabbit masquerade he
photographed by Paul Lane performing
during a dama funeral performance.
Satimbe/Yasigi (mask with a
female character on top) said to
represent the first woman who

tried on the red fibers before the
young Dogon men took them
from her. She became the
“sister” of the masquerade, who
honors the women who provide
millet beer during a funeral.
Dieterlen says she represents the
female twin of Ogo known as
Yasigi, who was just as much or a
trouble maker as Ogo/Fox.
Rabbit (Hare)
Griaule documented some 65 different types of mask characters
including various
animals, birds, and both Dogon and non-Dogon characters or
personages
Monkey
Paul Lane is an archaeologist who went to Dogon country to do
ethnographic
research on the household goods and other kinds of material
culture. Below on
the left are ground floor plans of specific houses Lane chose to
document
because they help archaeologists understand what they find

when the excavate.
On the right is a page from Griaule’s first book when
he was documenting traditional Dogon culture, before
he became “obsessed” with cosmology.
Photo taken by Griaule in the 1930s. He
says that women rush to leave the open
plaza because the masqueraders are
about to arrive. While the women may
avoid direct contact with the masquerade,
they often watch from their rooftops and
are certainly aware of what is going on.
Photo taken by LIFE photographer Eliot
Elisofon in 1959 of a funeral ceremony.
The women stand back as men honor the
deceased by firing their guns. The
ceremony is to guide the soul of the
deceased to the afterlife.
The photograph (on the left) depicts men firing blank charges
during mock battles intended to guide
the spirit of the deceased onto the path to the afterlife. "The
Dogon believe that after death, the spirit
of the deceased is not immediately transformed into an ancestor.
It is when in this state that a person's

spirit can be most malevolent and dangerous. Funerals, bago
bundo, which are held several weeks, and
sometimes months, after burial, are public rites at which agnatic
and affinal kin venerate the life and
actions of the deceased." [Lane P., 1988: Settlement as History:
A Study of Space and Time among the
Dogon of Mali. University of Cambridge.]. During his trip to
Mali, Elisofon visited the Dogon people in
Sanga (Sangha), a group of thirteen villages lying east of
Bandiagara at the top of an escarpment. The
photograph depicts men firing blank charges during mock
battles intended to guide the spirit of the
deceased onto the path to the afterlife. This photograph was
taken when Eliot Elisofon was on
assignment for Life magazine and traveled to Africa from
August 18, 1959 to December 20, 1959.
Lane recorded this ceremony with firing of guns at a funeral in
1983.
While in Dogon country, Lane witnessed both ritual damas and
masked performances done for
tourists. Although other scholars have assumed that tourism is
harmful to traditional culture,
Lane suggests that the Dogon people understand the difference
between an elaborate ritual
ceremony (the dama) performed for a deceased elder and short
performances of the masks that
are done for tourists. He suggests that the two can and do co-
exist.

Dutch
anthropologist
Walter van Beek
who was
memorialized in
a new mask type
representing the
white
anthropologist
In the film (African Art video below) the narrator talks to
Samuel Sidibe who says that tourism has affected the kinds
of masks that perform even in ritual contexts — cultural
selection by tourism — because tourists want to see the
“traditional” like the kanaga. But she also mentions that
the Dogon have incorporated new types into their
repertoire, including “the white anthropologist.”
Dogon dancers posing for a group photo for
tourists, and tourists posing with masked dancers.
A sampling of Dogon masquerade dancers. Dieterlen says that
the only mask types that matter
are the ones that can be identified with Dogon cosmology (the
myths of origin described by
Ogotemmeli). She says the “new” types are temporary (and thus

not significant). But others
would argue that Dogon mask characters emerge out of
historical events and situations (like
white anthropologists coming to study them), and that as part of
the living culture of the
Dogon, it is inevitable that the characters will change and that
ritual beliefs with change.
In 2003 Mali was represented at the
Smithsonian Institutions’ Folklife Festival
that usually happens every summer on the
Mall in DC. There were artists, musicians,
and dance performances, including this
Dogon dancer, here casually strolling
among the tourists. They even brought
masons from Jenne to built a gateway in
traditional style in the middle of the Mall.
https://festival.si.edu/past-program/2003/mali-from-
timbuktu-to-washington
DOGON
Mali
15th -21st century AD
front speech

clear speech
Amma
Nommo
Ogo (fox/jackal)
Dama ceremony
kanaga mask
sirige mask
pullo
walu antelope mask
satimbe mask
Marcel Griaule
Ogotemmeli
Germaine Dieterlen
Paul Lane
falaise=cliffs
“Dogon country” or “Pays Dogon”
east of the Inland Niger Delta is a
very different environment. Instead
of rich flat farm land where rice fields
benefit with regular flooding, the
Bandiagara Cliffs that stretch between
the towns of Bandiagara and

Douentza are steep and dry.
Around the time of the Empire of
Ghana (11th-12th century) this region
was occupied by people archaeologists
called Tellem. They buried their dead in
caves in the cliffs. They had a basket and
pulley system to lift the corpse and
other funerary offerings up to the caves.
The Dogon arrived in this region
around the 15th century CE. They
sought refuge here from wars and the
slave-raiding cavalry of the Empire of
Mali and subsequent powerful states in
the region. They built their homes up
against the cliffs and farmed out on
the plains below.
What you see here are stone
and mud masonry granaries
(storage bins for grain) safely
tucked away up in the cliffs,

not easy to get to.
This is a page from Griaule’s first book (Masques Dogon) about
Dogon masquerade. Here he was documenting the movements
of the dancers on the 4th and 5th days of the sigui festival.
In the 1930s, the French
anthropologist Marcel Griaule
went to Dogon country to do
research on masquerade
traditions and beliefs. At first he
spent time simply documenting
what he saw, identifying the
different characters represented
by the masks, recording the
songs, recording the dance steps,
and the symbolism of the masks.
As Germain Dieterlen says in the article you are supposed to
read on Blackboard, the
information Griaule provided in that first book (Masques
Dogon) was what the Dogon call
“front speech,” information given to children and strangers.
Dieterlen was a student of
Griaule’s, and part of a team of scholars who spent a lot of time

studying with the Dogon.
Griaule had heard about an elderly blind hunter named
Ogotemmeli, who was known as a
diviner and knowledgeable elder. In the 1940s he began a
series of conversations with
Ogotemmeli to expand his understanding of Dogon religious
beliefs or cosmology, what
Dieterlen calls “clear speech.” This was published in a later
book that focuses on
cosmology called Conversations with Ogotemmeli (translated
from the French)
Germaine Dieterlen
Cosmology: Dogon Creation Myth
There are many variations of this myth (and Dieterlen
provides confusing details), but here are some key elements:
Creator God Amma brought the world into existence
including the Earth from a lump of clay. The first creatures he
created was Ogo who was born prematurely. In some versions
he is the result of an illicit sexual act between Amma and Earth
(rape), or the result of incest between Ogo and the Earth
(either way something that broke taboos). Ogo rebelled and
was transformed into a fox (or a jackal) and lost the ability to
speak. Amma then created four pairs of twins known as
Nommo, one of which was sacrificed when they were sent to

populate Earth. The surviving twins are said to be the mythical
ancestors of the present-day Dogon people.
These stools with pairs of bisexual twins represent the
creation myth visually, with the central post representing the
arc that Amma created and sent to Earth.
Other aspects of the myth include the origin of death among
the Dogon — a myth that provides an explanation for the
origin of death, the role of masquerade in accompanying the
deceased to the afterlife, and ritual roles for men and women.
The film we watched in class that is posted on Blackboard as
African Art video (watch the
part about the Dogon again … about halfway through) addresses
concerns that other
scholars have had about all of this research, saying that while it
may represent the very
esoteric beliefs of a small number of elders like Ogotemmeli, all
filtered through Griaule’s
own beliefs (and possibly leading questions during these
conversations), it does not
necessarily represent the beliefs of Dogon society at large then
or now.
The fact is that beliefs are complicated and they are understood
differently by individuals within
society. There is no one single TRUTH about what “The Dogon”
believe then or now. So read both

Dieterlen and Paul Lane, watch the films, and pay attention to
the kind of information they present.
Think about how they got their information, who they asked,
and imagine what you might want to
ask, if you were able to travel to Dogon country and conduct
research yourself.
In the film Samuel Sidibe (then Director of the
National Museum in Mali) suggests that foreign
researchers, especially Griaule and Dieterlen,
were obsessed with finding mythic origins, and
did not recognize that Dogon culture is a
“living” culture, like any other, that beliefs
change and evolve over time (and space).
Another myth has to do with the origin of death among
the Dogon, a myth that also explains something of the
importance of the masquerade. Again, there are different
versions of this, but in one version, a woman who
represents the descendants of Ogo (Andoumboulou)
discovered some blood stained red fibers (possibly a
reference to menstrual blood or childbirth) and put them
on to scare some Dogon men. At first they were
frightened (in mythic tradition, men are often petrified of
menstrual blood), but then they thought it would be fun
to put on these fiber costumes. According to
Ogotemmeli, death among the Dogon was originally a

transformation from human form to that of a snake, and
from speech to silence. In this tradition an elderly Dogon
man was in the process of transformation when he saw
the young men wearing these red fiber costumes and he
was horrified because of the danger. He cried out,
something that broke the taboo of transformation into a
snake, and he died immediately, and this was the origin of
death among the Dogon. In addition, this also explains the
importance of the red fibers that are a critical element of
Dogon masquerade costume, possible more important
that the individual masks. Every generation puts on those
red fibers to atone for the sins of those first young men,
and this then condemns them to death as well.
Great Mask = sigui (sigi)
Every 60 years, the
Dogon celebrate and
remember that first
ancestor who died with
a special performance
known as Sigui (Sigi).
The huge mask created
for this ceremony
represents a snake. The
French “discovered” the

remains of 9 such
masks in these sacred
caves where they were
stored. Do the math,
this would mean that
the first one was carved
and danced some 540
years earlier, that is,
about when the Dogon
arrived in the region in
the 15th century.
There is often some
historical truth in oral
traditions.
This is a photograph of some of
these sigui masks “collected” by
the French in the 1930s and
brought back to Paris where they
went into the collections of the
Trocadero Musee de l’Homme
(Anthropology Museum), now the
Musee du Quai Branly
A variety of Dogon masks on
display in a museum

Dogon masqueraders performing for a
dama, a funeral ceremony
SIRIGE: a tall checkerboard plank mask
• Stars in great numbers, infinite
galaxies in the universe
• Ogo’s journey to Earth
• the path of the Nommos’ ark
• many-storied family house
(reference to many generations)
above: a page from Griaule’s Masques
Dogons, that shows representations of
sirige masks on the walls of painted caves
KANAGA:
• Movement of Amma’s hand in
creating the world
• A bird (stork)
Compare these drawings of this kanaga
dancer to the movements of kanaga

dancers in the different films
Met Museum
Mask (Kanaga)
20th century
Dogon peoples
One of the most popular types of masks in the Sanga region is
the type known as
kanaga. Like other Dogon masks, kanaga masks are worn at
rituals called dama,
whose goal is to transport the souls of deceased family members
away from the
village and to enhance the prestige of the deceased and his
descendants by
magnificent masked performances and generous displays of
hospitality. In 1935,
French anthropologist Marcel Griaule witnessed a dama ritual in
which twenty-nine
out of a total of seventy-four masks were of the kanaga type.
These masks are
characterized by a wooden superstructure in the form of a
double-barred cross with
short vertical elements projecting from the tips of each
horizontal bar.
This kanaga mask was collected in Mali by Lester Wunderman,
complete with its
costume elements. When the mask is worn, the back of the
dancer's head is covered
with a hood of plaited fiber fringe at the bottom edge. The
dancer wears a vest made

of black strip-woven cloth and red broadcloth strips
embroidered with white
cowrie-shells; strands of glass and plastic beads dangle from i ts
edges. The kanaga
dancer also wears a pair of trousers made of indigo-dyed, strip-
woven cotton cloth,
over which he ties a long skirt of curly, loosely strung, black-
dyed sanseveria fibers
and short overskirts of straight red and yellow fibers. For a
traditional dama, the
preparation and dyeing of the fibers are undertaken with as
much secrecy and ritual
as the carving of the wooden mask.
During the time spent by Griaule among the Dogon studying
their complex belief
system, he was initially told that the kanaga mask represents a
bird with white wings
and black forehead, but he later came to see this literal
interpretation as
characteristic of the first level of knowledge, that of the
uninitiated. The deeper
meaning of the kanaga mask apparently pertains both to God,
the crossbars being his
arms and legs, and to the arrangement of the universe, with the
upper crossbar
representing the sky and the lower one the earth. The disparity
between these two
interpretations illustrates the gaps in our understanding of
Dogon art.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?q=Dogon%
20peoples&perPage=20&sortBy=Relevance&offset=0&pageSize
=0

Masks and Mythology among the Dogon
Germaine Dieterlen
African Arts, Vol. 22, No. 3. (May, 1989), pp. 34-43+87-88.
Stable URL:
9933%28198905%2922%3A3%3C34%3AMAMATD%3E2.0.CO
%3B2-M
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African Studies Center.
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The Architecture of Islam in West Africa
Author(s): Labelle Prussin
Source: African Arts, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Winter, 1968), pp. 32-
35+70-74
Published by: UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3334324
Accessed: 14-06-2019 17:17 UTC
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UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center is
collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to African Arts
This content downloaded from 129.49.5.35 on Fri, 14 Jun 2019
17:17:02 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

..... .......4.
-.k:4 7
Em'i
7A
(4) Mosque at Djenne: Interior
Labelle Prussin The mosque expresses
the crystallization in
three dimensions of the
unique synthesis between
Islamic cultural features
and the cultures of
indigenous West African
societies.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF
ISLAM
IN WEST AFRICA
L'architecture a et l'art le plus n~glig6 de l'Afrique: elle a 4t6
6tudiee par les anthropologues et les archbologues qui ne la
considerent
pas sous son aspect artistique.
A cette disaffection s'ajoute la supposition superficielle que
l'usage
de l'argile, parce qu'elle est une matiere qui manque de
permanence,

rend la construction trop 6phimere pour justifier des recherches
shrieuses.
Les mosquies de l'Afrique occidentale, en fait, d6ploient une
varit&6
de styles et de formes dont la parfaite harmonie entre la beaut6
struc-
turelle et la conception fonctionelle donne naissance A une
forme d'art
digne d'un grand int&ret.
Le d6veloppement de leurs styles peut tre suivi au travers de la
chronologie (par exemple, la penetration islamique) ou des
conditions
g6ographiques (par exemple, le climat). Il aboutit ' une
monumen-
talit6 qui est bien un caractere propre ~al 'architecture.
Labelle Prussin analyse la mosquie soudanaise qu'elle divise en
cinq
vari6tes: Timbouctou, Djenn6, Bobo Dioulasso, Kong, et
Kawara. Du
point de vue socio-politico-g,ographique, les caracteres
architecturaux
de chaque type reflftent les caracteres distinctifs de la r6gion.
En d6pit
des variations qui modifient I'aspect de la mosqu6e du nord au
sud,
on peut cependant ais6ment identifier son style. La mosqu6e
est une
expression concrete du symbolisme, le reflet d'une culture ' un
moment
particulier dans le temps-bref, tout ce qui contribue a d~finir
les
canons de l'architecture.

The presence of Islam is immediately demonstrated by the
mosques,
simple or elaborate, set against the skylines of many West
African
towns. Miss Prussin, an architect who has lived in Africa for
several
years, here analyzes the stylistic features characterizing these
buildings.
She argues for their importance both as an art form and as
evidence
of the synthesis which results when man seeks to achieve
monumentality
as a testimony of his faith.
Numbers within parentheses refer to illustrations.
O f all the arts of sub-Saharan
Africa, architecture has remained an
orphan child. Sculpture, music, the
dance, have come into their own, but
architecture has remained, with rare
exception, an unrecognized art, rel-
egated to the realm of anthropology
or archeology; even in these disci-
plines, references are in the nature of
fleeting glimpses, tangential to the
main focus of their concern. This lack
of attention to African architecture
cannot be surprising when one con-
siders the reasons which account for
such a lacuna in the African Arts.
First, perhaps, is the almost complete
absence of field studies with an archi-

tectural orientation. Ethnographic field-
work in Africa has been carried out
on a micro-level, anthropologically
oriented and geographically localized.
A researcher may see and record the
building activity of a particular ethnic
grouping in the area of his concentra-
tion, but either current disfavor to-
wards studies in material culture or
the researcher's own lack of architec-
tural perceptiveness will prevent him
from noting the subtleties which an-
nounce the presence of an architectural
motif. Ethnographic provincialism, the
result of in-depth study, has deprived
him of a spatial perspective. Not since
the aerial framework of Frobenius'
32 This content downloaded from 129.49.5.35 on Fri, 14 Jun
2019 17:17:02 UTC
(1) Sankore mosque at Timbucktoo
2 i .l
is
.
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... . . . : ... . '
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(2) Tomb of Askia Muhamed at Gao
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(,,o. ,. - . .,. ., . . ?~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~? r-':,.:..-.,.-:,::"... ,...,
(10) Mosque at Kawara
t 7
(3) Mosque at Djenne
slur
Akp.
li ''
33

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~Lluru(i?YLdjl~?Pl~i:
(7) Mosque at Bobo Dioulasso
Monumentality is
achieved through a sense

of verticality.
Kulturkreise, albeit theoretically un-
fashionable today, has consideration
been given to the geographic or sty-
listic extensiveness of architectural
forms in sub-Saharan Africa.
Secondly, the building technology
of sub-Saharan Africa is based on ma-
terials of short durability: the life-span
of building structures is comparatively
short. Mud is not considered a respect-
able architectural medium, since his-
torically, in the architectural perspec-
tive, monumentality is associated with
permanence. Stone construction is al-
most non-existent today, and what re-
mains of stone monuments from past
centuries has scarcely been uncovered
by the limited resources devoted to
African archeology.
Third, and perhaps most important
is the attitude, shared by architect and
layman alike, that building in sub-
Saharan Africa is not architecture at
all, but at most, building technology:
shelter is seen only in terms of the
techniques which its builder com-
mands, and not in terms of its aesthetic
value. The most generous critic will
award it the term Urarchitektur, the

less generous critic, the term primitive
(5) Mosque at Mopti
ii:. ?ci4$t.. 4p Nz I
Zifs
ts s
Nsfs
s, Wi
mm;;
Nii
.i::?.?:? ? IN
::is
11121EALiiil:i,. ?:
34
17:17:02 UTC
shelter. Such an attitude is reminiscent
of early approaches to African sculp-
ture. Imbued with an aesthetic sense

socially conditioned by Western philos-
ophy, the critic viewed the examples
of African sculpture which had found
their way to the ethnographic mu-
seums of Europe, as immature at-
tempts to represent nature. Failing to
realize that the bases of reference in
Africa differed greatly from those of
Europe, the critic failed to place these
examples in their proper perspective.
As a consequence, a penetrating anal-
ysis and study of African aesthetics
was, until recently, impossible. Un-
fortunately, such Victorian attitudes
still prevail with regard to African
architecture.
The savannah belt of West Africa,
an area paralleling the equator, travels
east to west and extends from the
ancient emporia strung out along the
bend of the Niger River to the pe-
riphery of the rainforest. Within this
belt, the Western Sudan and more
specifically the boucle du Niger and
the Voltaic Basin are of particular
concern to us here. This area is asso-
ciated with three important historical
sequences: the diaspora of the Mande-
speaking people, the northwestern
trade routes linking the Niger emporia
to Kumasi and the Guinea Coast, and
the activities related to the jihad of

Samori in the late nineteenth century.
It is here that a particular type of
mosque abounds which Frobenius,
Marty, Trimingham, and others have
termed Sudanese, so called simply be-
cause it was found in the former
French Sudan. From an historical point
of view, this area is to be distinguished
from its eastern counterpart where
Hausa state formation, the Fulani
jihads, and the consequences of the
northeastern trans-Saharan trade routes
gave rise to a different kind of archi-
tectural expression.
In any savannah environment, and
the West African savannah is no ex-
ception, mud is used almost exclusively
as an indigenous building material by
sedentary peoples. But mud can be
used in many ways, and indigenous
building, diverse in both its forms and
in the functions it serves, evidences a
wide range of types. The circular
roundhouse clusters, capped by their
thatched roof bonnets and dispersed
over the arid landscape, are at one end
of the range. At the other end are the
flat-roofed, rectangular houses replete
with pierced parapet walls, crowded
into tightly nucleated villages which
appear in the distance as small, forti-
fied medieval towns. Intermingled with

this range of sedentary buildings are
the various nomadic .transient shelters
of thatch, woven mats, or skins, whose
Continued on p. 70

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"C'est
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Le Californien, journal frangais
de la c6te Pacifique
accueille avec enthousiasme

AFRICAN ARTS IARTS D'AFRIQUE
nouvelle revue bilingue consacr6e
aux Arts de l'Afrique
sous toutes leurs formes.
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AFRICAN ARTS I/ARTS D'AFRJQUE
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EN AFRIQUE ?
pourquoi ne pas faire un
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les exemplaires fournis en gros
b6n6ficieront de conditions spdciales.
Toute demande de renseignements
ou de tarifs de publicit6
peut &tre adress6e ~:
airican arts/arts d'afrique
Universit6 de Californie,
Los Angeles, California 90024
Continued from p. 35
occupants live in symbiotic relation-
ship with their sedentary mud-building
neighbors.
Whether this broad range of build-
ing types, each with its attendent tech-
nology, constitutes architecture, is still
open to question. However, the Su-
danese mosque, appearing as a singu-
lar, unified form throughout the area,
seems to evidence many of the cur-
rently prescribed canons of architec-
ture. It pervades the area, dominating

a wealth of ethnic building diversity.
Stylized and symbolic, it is immediately
identifiable visually. While some degree
of modification occurs in the form as
it disperses across the savannah belt,
the basic form remains, recognizable
and distinctive.
When discussing almost any topic
relating to the Western Sudan, one fact
must be kept in mind: the presence of
Islam-a force which pervades all as-
pects of the community in which it is
found. It is Islam as a force that gave
rise to the mosques, palaces, and tombs
found there. In recent years, what can
be referred to as the Architecture of
Islam has been studied in great detail
by such authorities as Creswell, Ter-
rasse, and others; however, their ex-
tensive fieldwork was concerned with
the Near East, North Africa, and
southern Spain, not with sub-Saharan
Africa. A scholar interested in the archi-
tecture of Islam in this part of the
world must comb through available
material contained in Arabic sources,
in accounts by eighteenth and nine-
teenth century explorers and travelers,
in archeological reports, and in micro-
ethnographic descriptions. Further, in
order to understand the Islamic archi-
tecture of the Western Sudan, it is

necessary to become familiar with the
history of Islamic penetration into
West Africa, i.e., the processes of syn-
thesis which took place between the
evangelists of Islam and the indigenous
cultures they encountered, as well as
with the nature of the cultures them-
selves. Only then does it become pos-
sible to comprehend architecturally not
only the mosque, but the tomb and
the palace. Only then is it possible to
trace the impact of Islam on indige-
nous building forms.
While the architecture of the Su-
danese mosque derives from North
Africa, Islamic architecture in West
Africa is nevertheless unique. It is a
corruption of neither Egyptian nor
North African form but expresses in
its essence the adjustments and modi-
fications to the highly ritualized char-
acter of Islam, which specifically pre-
scribes both the floor plan of a mosque
and the activities relevant to its use.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF ISLAM
Although elsewhere Islamic archi-
tecture generally includes palaces and
tombs as well as mosques, in West
Africa it is the mosque which embodies
Islam. Palaces and tombs are promi-
nent only during the span of the Is-

lamic empires of Ghana, Mali, and
Songhai. They appeared only when
commercial development fostered the
growth of urban centers and generated
the emergence of class groupings.
These in turn subsumed the preceding
network of kinship relationships and
permitted the establishment of an in-
cipient state structure, at whose seats
in the urban centers the sites of pal-
aces and tombs were to be found. On
the other hand, the mosque as an
architectural feature is omnipresent,
both spatially and temporally, despite
the formal variations which may occur
in its diaspora from north to south.
The spread of Islam into the west-
ern savannah falls into a number of
historical phases. These phases each
represent, in turn, a new cultural
pattern, varying with the process of
acculturation to Islam. If an architec-
tural style is a manifestation of a cul-
ture as a whole, representing the crys-
tallization of a number of cultural
dimensions-not only those of environ-
ment and technology, but those of so-
cial, political, and economic spheres as
well-it should be possible to relate
the qualitative variables, which the
mosque evidences, to the historical

phases through which Islam passed. It
is, in fact, this interplay between the
various cultural dimensions, changing
over time and space in their physical
expression, that constitutes the fabric
of architectural history.
Formal modifications, which take
place in the mosque as it travels from
north to south, pertain to size and scale,
structure itself, finesse of construction
and detail, definition of plane surfaces
and the degree of verticality, as well
as to the deviations from the prescribed
plan layout which Islamic orthodoxy
demands. This gradual formal trans-
formation results from many factors,
of which the changes in climatic con-
ditions, the present and available build-
ing materials, and the techniques and
skills of construction are but a few.
Equally important are the location of
the mosque in an urban or rural milieu,
the method by which it was estab-
lished in the area-whether by a single
marabout, by a migrant people, or the
result of state-building activity-and
the degree of acceptance or rejection
of Islam and the related cultural at-
tributes of Islam by a host group.
The architecture of the Sudanese
mosque is, like its substrata of savan-

70
17:17:02 UTC
nah building technology, essentially
mud architecture. While mud as a
building material permits great flexi-
bility and fluidity in the treatment of
plane surfaces, it imposes great limita-
tions upon potential structural form.
Thus, within the discipline of the ma-
terial, a number of basic variations
emerge. These variations group them-
selves into five categories: the Tim-
bucktu, Djenne, Bobo Dioulasso, Kong,
and Kawara types. This classification
relates not only to alteration in the
formal arrangement of minarets, stairs,
and inner courtyards, which are the
result of deviation from prescribed
practice and politics of orthodox Islam,
but to stylistic and qualitative dimen-
sions as well. In turn, these five types
find correlation with the historical pe-
riods of Islam's penetration into West
Africa and with the changing cultural
character of each period.
The first phase in the spread of Islam
into the Western Sudan began with
the influx of Arabized Berber traders

and clerics from Mauretania, reaching
its apex in the adoption of Islam as
an imperial cult. This expansion, per-
sonified in the fame of Mansa Musa
and Askia Muhamed I, was centered
in the great urban trading capitals of
first, Timbucktu (see Illustration 1) and
then, Gao. Islam as an imperial cult
was an urban phenomenon, limited to
the immediate trading community.
Here it existed side by side with a
mosaic of indigenous African religions.
The lack of both a rural base and con-
flict with traditional rule lent a dualist
character to Islam. It is to this phase
of Islamic history that the Timbucktu
type, exemplified in both the Djingue-
reber and the Sankore mosques, as
well as in the tomb of Askia Muhamed
at Gao (2), corresponds.
Its appearance is limited to a few
major urban centers, at that time entre-
pots of trans-Saharan trade and the
seats of precarious empires. The massive
scale and the pyramidal minarets gen-
erate an extreme feeling of heaviness, a
heaviness further accentuated by the
lack of plane definition. The minarets
are built up solidly of mud, permitting
only a shaft-like access to their roofs.
The exterior surface of the minarets
are pierced by projecting timbers
which, while appearing haphazard,
nevertheless provide permanent scaf-
folding for the maintenance of mud

wall surfaces-a requirement imposed
by climatic conditions. They also trans-
mit the stresses which are set up when
a mass of mud is subjected to rapid
changes in humidity and temperature.
The timbers thus serve to concentrate
the resultant cracking along prescribed
lines.
Tradition credits the introduction of
the Sudanese building style as a whole,
and the Timbucktu type in particular,
to an Andalusian poet, Es-Saheli, who
was brought back by Mansa Musa on
his return from a grand pilgrimage to
Mecca. However, the tradition has
been questioned by a number of au-
thorities. Architectural style is rarely
set by a single designer functioning
out of his milieu. The adaptation of a
style requires a supporting technology
and skills derivative of the cultural set-
ting into which it is introduced, both
of which were lacking at Timbucktu.
Timbucktu never developed as a
center of Negro-Islamic learning, de-
spite the existence of a university center
there. It never became a true city-state,
and its peoples remained heterogene-
ous, never constituting a unified group.
The city was kept in a continual state
of insecurity by its own disunity and
by the continual harassment of no-
madic Tuareg tribes. Thus the architec-

ture of its mosques, while massive and
powerful in scale, remains heavy and
crude. Nonetheless, these Great
Mosques do represent the most ancient
prototype of Islamic architecture in
West Africa, a prototype which has
persisted in time. Although the recon-
struction of the Sankore mosque is of
recent date, it continues to embody
the earlier form.
Contrary to general impression, it
was Djenne rather than Timbucktu
which developed not only into a more
stable center of trade, but became the
intellectual seat of Negro-Islamic learn-
ing. As a city-state, Djenne was sup-
ported in its hinterland by a strong
agricultural foundation, and its posi-
tion on the Bani River protected it
with an admirable network of water-
ways. As a consequence, it was not
subject to the same ravages which be-
leaguered Timbucktu. Djenne marks a
second phase in Islamic history, a
phase in which Negro-Islamic culture
flourished over a number of centuries.
With the growth of a stable, urban
milieu, there developed the skilled
craftsmanship so essential for the
growth of an articulate architecture.
Djenne's cityscape is characterized by
a distinctive, carefully articulated ar-
chitectural flavor, a flavor which be-
comes crystallized in its mosque. Since
climatic restrictions placed upon mud

construction within the Niger flood
plains are no different than those fur-
ther north, contrast with the Timbucktu
type can only be explained culturally.
The Djenne type of mosque(3),
paralleling the apical role and position
of Djenne in West African history, ap-
pears as a quintessence of architectural
form. Formal elements are carefully
and sharply defined in the interplay of
wall surfaces, in parapet construction,
and through the use and placement of
wooden dentils obtained by cutting the
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in New York:
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in Auckland, New Zealand:
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P.O. Box 3576
in Brussels:
Le Livre Africain
40 rue du Champ de Mars
in Chicago:
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5210 S. Harper Avenue
in London:
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71
17:17:02 UTC
trunks of the fan palm. The symmetry
of its facade, composed of three major
minarets rhythmically interspersed
with absolutely vertical buttresses,
competes with the best traditions of
the Beaux Arts. Above all, it achieves
a sense of verticality--one of those
canons of architecture--unrivalled in
this part of the world. In contrast to
the Timbucktu type which possesses
only a feeling for mass, the Djenne
mosque achieves a remarkable sense
of spatial enclosure. The minarets are
not built up of a mass of solid material,
but rather enclose an ample set of
spiral mud stairs which leads upwards

to the roof from where the muezzin
calls the faithful to prayer: the mina-
rets are thus an expression of their
true function. The incorporation of the
minaret as an integral element of the
facade itself marks an innovation in
mosque design. The mosque interior
with its rhythmic definition of space
might, with a bit of imagination, easily
satisfy the criterion of loftiness with
which Gothic architecture endows the
cathedral(4). Its setting, conforming
to the classic tenets of urban design,
provides a formal approach which per-
mits the viewer to marvel at the mag-
nitude of its scale and structure, a
magnitude enhanced by the residual
architecture which serves as its back-
drop.
The Djenne prototype can be found
in a number of large towns bordering
the Niger flood plains, such as at
Mopti(5) and San(6). The mosques at
Mopti and San, although reputed to
have been built by Djenne craftsmen,
do not retain the qualitative level of
the Djenne mosque. The one at Mopti,
while retaining the finesse of detail and
an equally sharp delineation of surfaces
in its buttressing, is deprived of some
of its monumentality by both the ab-
sence of a plaza-type approach and the
lack of a strongly defined facade sym-
metry. The mosque at San, while very

much a replica of Djenne in regard to
symmetry and approach, suffers in the
articulation of its detail, the sharpness
of delineation, and in its verticality.
While the mosques at Timbucktu,
dating back many centuries, have been
continuously modified as a result of
annual maintenance, the mosque at
Djenne and its replicas are of recent
vintage, dating from the turn of this
century. It would seem that the per-
sistence of a constant form over such
a great span of time provides one of
the keys to an understanding of their
unique quality. They remain a testi-
mony to the early centuries of Islamic
penetration into West Africa, marking
a period of expansive state-building
activity.
The Djenne and Timbucktu types
eventually merge, giving rise centuries
later to two new variations: the Bobo
Dioulasso (7) and the Kong(8) types,
both found in the southerly savannah
reaches of the Western Sudan, in an
area encompassed by the activities rel-
evant to the Samori fihad. Both types
relate to the dispersion of and the col-
onization by Mande peoples moving
down from the northwest, a diaspora
initiated and led by their trading

classes. Although the Mande immi-
grants into the southern savannah
zones were pagan, the trading classes
among them were Muslims. It was the
Muslim Mande traders who, extending
their commercial activities over vast
areas of what is now the northern
Ivory Coast, northwestern Ghana, and
the southern Upper Volta, created the
commercial centers around which Mus-
lim communities grew. However, these
centers were in large measure autono-
mous, their solidarity reinforced through
isolation. Where their commercial ac-
tivity enabled them to increase their
influence over the surrounding pagan
communities, they were able to gain
political control and to form small
village-states. Thus, Bobo Dioulasso
and Kong types are an expression of a
politico-religious structure vested in a
village---in contrast to the earlier large
mosques which were symbolic of an
imperial organization. As a conse-
quence, they are much smaller in scale
and lack the monumentality which
characterize both the Timbucktu and
Djenne types. They appear as small,
modified scale models of their north-
ern counterparts. Distinctions between
the Bobo and Kong types rest primar-
ily on an adaptation to climatic condi-
tions, rather than on distinctions in

cultural tradition.
At Bobo Dioulasso, the vertical but-
tressing so sharply delineated at Djenne
is still discernible, as are the dominat-
ing minarets derivative of Timbucktu.
However, the flaring out and thicken-
ing of the buttress elements at their
base detracts from the quality of ver-
tical rhythm, a quality still evident but
rapidly disappearming under the on-
slaught of reduced scale and climatic
accommodation. Projecting timbers,
particularly from the two minarets,
still manage to retain a semblance of
regularity, but their multiplicity, cou-
pled with the introduction of horizontal
bracing between the dominant but-
tress forms, detracts further from ver-
ticality. Both innovations are a function
of the increased humidity of the south-
ern savannah. Despite these modifica-
tions, however, the classic mosque
floor plan with its enclosed prayer hall,
its mihrab, its interior courtyard, and
internal stair spiraling within the mina-
ret to the roof, all remain.
Kong, another one-time capital of a
village-state, was an important Muslim
Mande center of commerce, lying
much closer to the rainforest. Timber
here is both more …

Terracotta Statuettes from Mali
Author(s): Roderick J. McIntosh and Susan Keech McIntosh
Source: African Arts, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Feb., 1979), pp. 51-53+91
Published by: UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3335485
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This content downloaded from 129.49.5.35 on Tue, 28 Jan 2020
03:38:22 UTC

Terracotta Statuettes from Mali
'',a I' a :~ I : k! g ......
The first discovery of terracotta stat-
uary from the Inland Delta of Mali
was reported over thirty-five years ago
(Vieillard 1940). Fully fifteen statuettes in
related styles have subsequently been
described in print, all the result of chance
surface discoveries in the region stretch-
ing from Jenne' to Mopti, and at least
one hundred more are housed in Euro-
pean museums or private collections.
The importance of this group of terracot-
tas lies in the fact that they constitute one
of several major West African terracotta
traditions, including Nok, Ife and Sao,
which have been revealed primarily
through archaeological pursuits (legiti-
mate or otherwise!). Unfortunately, little
could be said, until recently, of the tem-
poral placement or cultural context of the
Inland Delta figures. In reviewing an
exhibition at which several of these ter-
racottas were displayed, Labelle Prussin
summed up the problem for the readers
of African Arts several years ago: "There
is . . . presently no basis on which to
establish any datings or provenance for
these so-called Djenne and Mopti terra
cottas .... Only a controlled archeolog-
ical investigation in the area may ulti-

mately reveal the nature and extent of terra
cotta art history in the area" (Prussin
1973:67). Such an archaeological project
was recently undertaken in the Inland
Niger Delta. In the course of it, a
statuette was recovered from a secure
archaeological context for which a
radiocarbon determination was sub-
sequently obtained (Fig. 4).
The excavations were carried out from
February to May, 1977, at the large
mound of Jenne-jeno, which rises above
the flood plain three kilometers south-
east of the present city of Jenne. Justly
famed for her pre-eminent position as a
trading entrep6t in the Middle Ages,
Jenne was intimately linked with Tim-
buktu in the commercial networks that
extended from the Akan forest region
across the Sahara Desert to North Africa.
Oral tradition claims Jennd-jeno (literally
"ancient Jenn&" in Songhai) to be the
ancestral site of the present town. The
archaeological richness of this vast site is
attested to by the thick scattering of sur-
face remains that blanket the 900-meter
length of Jenne-jeno. Hundreds of
mud-brick house foundations and

funerary urns have been exposed by ero-
sion, and segments of the city wall can be
traced at many points on the periphery
of the mound. Several 3 x 3 meter pits
were excavated, revealing 5 meters of
unbroken Iron Age deposits. Early
radiocarbon results indicate that the
mound of Jenne-jeno was built up dur-
ing the course of more than a millenium
of continuous human occupation, and
that abandonment of the site was in
progress by A.D. 1500. These dates im-
mediately imply that the urban dwellers
of Jenne-jeno witnessed, and possibly
contributed to, the rise of the great Em-
pire of Mali. Unlike the early forest civili-
zations of Ife and Benin, little is known of
the art produced by the succession of
Sudanic empires that held sway over the
Inland Niger Delta from the eighth to the
sixteenth century. For this reason, the
recovery of a terracotta statuette from
our final excavation unit constituted an
important art historical as well as ar-
chaeological discovery.
This final pit was sunk in a relatively
high section of the mound, in what ap-
peared to be a residential quarter. Sur-
face features in the area excavated in-

cluded the intersecting foundations of a
round and a square house (Fig. 1), and a
large, spherical painted pot, which was
unusual for the region. Excavation was
made difficult by the fact that both house
foundations were made of djennifre, the
mud bricks shaped into truncated cones
that were considered the trademark of
masons from Jenne. Surface erosion had
caused all bricks, those in walls as well as
those collapsed to the side, to merge in a
confused mass. Only patient excavation
and exposure of each individual brick
allowed us to trace the foundations.
It was at the eastern edge of the round
T il ll,? i 1
_A4,%**?"
4?1-:
A4-~?~~ga~~
MW" .,T :7.
Ak,:
1. STATUETTE AND ASSOCIATED POTTERY
IMMEDIATELY UPON EXPOSURE.
51

03:38:22 UTC
house that the terracotta statuette was
found, its base resting 0.875 meter below
the surface. Physically, the statuette was
in only fair condition; the base had bro-
ken and partially crumbled prior to ex-
posure, probably due to the extremely
coarse fabric of the terracotta and poor
firing. Stylistically, the statuette showed
strong affinities to the wide-eyed, prog-
nathic style that is well known from the
Inland Niger Delta. The figure is in a
kneeling posture with the legs forming
part of the rectangular base. The limbs
on several of the other statuettes from
the area are represented in a similar
two-dimensional style that was achieved
by incising the outlines of legs into the
modeled clay base (Malzy 1967:18; Monod
1943:11; Haselberger 1966:144). Some
kind of covering from the waist to just
above the knees is suggested by a series
of incised parallel lines. The arms are
crossed over the chest with hands rest-
ing on the shoulders, a statuette posture
reported by Szumowski (1955:67). A
large torque hangs about the neck, and a
number of deep incisions at the wrist and
lower arm undoubtedly represent

bracelets. The head is markedly prog-
nathous and flattened along the axis of
the chin. Bulging "cowrie shell" eyes are
found on the majority of the published
statuettes, although they are often more
exaggerated than those of the Jenn&-jeno
find. The terracotta was slipped a deep
reddish-brown.
The curious spherical pot, mentioned
earlier, which was found within both the
round and rectilinear foundations, had
lain immediately above the statuette. A
number of other ceramic objects were
found in direct association with the
statuette. To the immediate south and
west of the terracotta were a round object
with multiple serpent motifs in relief, a
deep, narrow pot with horizontal flanges
(similar pots are today used as water
beakers), a ceramic mortar and pestle
with traces of a red substance (ochre?),
and a large carinated bowl containing
carbonized rice (Oryza glaberrima) and
purslane (Portulaca oleracea). Several ob-
jects resembling these have been re-
ported in association with terracotta
statuettes at other sites in the Inland
Delta (Masson-Detourbet 1953:100-102).
At the same depth as the base of the
statuette and within the fill of the round

house, we collected a large sample of
charcoal. Radiocarbon dating of this
sample has given a result of A.D. 1150+
140 (Lab # RL 806: 830+ 140 B.P.), which
must be statistically interpreted as mean-
ing that there is a 66% probability that
the actual date of the charcoal falls be-
tween A.D. 1010 and A.D. 1290. The
statuette, therefore, was probably placed
in the position in which we found it
sometime between A.D. 1000-1300.
As far as we are able to tell, the
statuette was not placed in a pit and
buried. Rather, it appears that all the
ceramic pieces were placed together in a
round structure, the walls of which were
then deliberately collapsed so that what
remained was a pile of mud-brick rubble
about a meter high. The square wall and
unusual spherical pot may have
functioned to mark the site, but it is en-
tirely possible that their close spatial rela-
tionship to the statuette is purely coinci-
dental.
It may be that the statuette and as-
sociated pottery were deposited in the
course of a ritual directed toward ances-
tor worship. Ancestral cults continued to
flourish in Jenne as late as 1910, when

Monteil recorded their existence. At that
time, a small ancestral "altar" could be
found in the entryway of many Jenne
houses, consisting of a platform on
which was placed a human representa-
tion of the revered ancestor. Sacrifices
were made to the deceased through the
medium of the statuette (Monteil
1971:136-137). The use of human
figurines in ancestral cults is historically
and ethnographically documented over
a wide area in West Africa, including the
Akan region of Ghana, the Kissi of
Guinea and Sierra Leone, the Ibibio of
Nigeria and the Dogon of Mali. A
number of archaeologists have claimed
that terracottas recovered in excavation
once functioned in the rituals of ancestral
cults (e.g., Lebeuf 1950:120-141; 1966),
although it must be remembered that
conclusive proof of an artifact's pre-
sumed ritual function is extremely hard
to come by. Ritual use is often ascer-
tained by the simple lack of any other
available explanation for the presence
and context of an excavated object or
series of objects. The evidence for any
claim advanced for the ritual or religious
significance of an artifact should be criti-
cally examined. Statements elaborating
the precise type of ritual involved (an-
cestral worship, circumcision rites, etc.)

should be regarded with a particularly
jaundiced eye! In the case of the Jenn&-
jeno statuette, evidence supporting the
ancestral cult hypothesis includes
documented evidence of local tradition,
as well as the existence of a generalized
West African tradition involving the use
of human representation in such rituals.
There is, however, another equally
persuasive explanation for the context of
the terracotta. It will be remembered that
... ...;::: '" : .. . ..jq: . . . : : : :: . . . . .
: v:4-~:. ... A
......
i....
::..
....
2 & 3 FEMALE AND MALE STATUETTES FOUND IN THE
VICINITY OF JENNE
52
03:38:22 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/ter ms

..... .. ..
*4o
a . m
4. STATUETTE FROM JENNE. 22cm.
the statuette was discovered near the
base of the foundation of a round brick
structure. Old men living in Jenne today
claim that statuettes, along with grain
offerings, were placed in the founda-
tions of houses in the past as a symbolic
re-enactment of the legend of Tapama, a
young virgin who was long ago im-
mured, while still alive, in Jenne's city
wall to ensure that the mud-brick houses
of the city would remain standing.2
Higher than normal annual floodwaters
could easily threaten mud buildings, and
it is likely that the Tapama legend was an
earlier ritual response to such occasions.
To this day, young girls in the town are
kept indoors during months of unusu-
ally high flooding.
The recovery of two other statuettes
from wall foundation contexts would
appear to support this alternative expla-
nation (Figs. 2, 3). These terracottas were

discovered eroding out of the surface of a
site we have rather inelegantl y labeled
293-23-A, located to the northwest of
Jenne. The heads of both statuettes were
already missing, presumably knocked
off by passing herds of goats and sheep.
It was decided to excavate the statuettes
before further damage could be done.
The terracottas are a male/female pair,
similar in style to the statuette from
Jenne-jeno, although differing dramati-
cally in the surface treatment of the clay.
Here, dots of clay have been applied all
over the surface of the figures. The varia-
tion may have been purely stylistic, or it
may have been intended to indicate body
painting or even a disease, such as the
lesions of filariasis. Like the Jennd-jeno
figure, these two statuettes had been
placed immediately next to a house
foundation but were excavated from
under the hard layer that must have been
the house floor. At Jenne-jeno, however,
it appeared that house walls had been
toppled (with care) onto the statuette.
The significance of these differences in
the circumstances of statuette deposition
is unknown. Clearly, more terracottas
need to be excavated from secure ar-
chaeological contexts.
A great deal remains to be learned

about the various styles and functions of
terracottas in the Inland Niger Delta of
Mali. Future radiocarbon dates may
show that stylistic and contextual differ-
ences between statuettes are chronologi-
cal in nature. Although art historical and
archaeological studies of this area are in
their infancy, the discovery at Jenne-jeno
of a ritual terracotta in situ, dating to the
period immediately before the Empire of
Mali, provides a firm foundation for fu-
ture research. O
Notes, page 91
. . . .. . .
*AR
53
03:38:22 UTC
1. There are generally three Urhobo female age grades (otu)
although their names may vary in different areas. Otu emete
includes girls from birth to young teens. Their duties include
sweeping the compound and light communal labor. Otu
eweya is made up of all married women of child-bearing age.
In some areas this grade is further divided into women born
of a particular Urhobo group and women who married into
that group. Duties focus on farm, family, childbirth and re-
ated religious responsibilities. Otu okpako is made up of

women past child-bearing age. They settle quarrels among
women and see that ritual duties are met.
2. I refer to the operation as circumcision, as that is how the
Urhobo speak of it. During an operation I witnessed in 1971,
the tips of the labia minora were excised, but it is impossible
to say if the skin hood of the clitoris was cut off or if the
clitoris
itself was excised. It was my impression that only the hood
was excised. One woman's account while looking at dia-
grams of female genitalia supports this impression.
Onogirorhena Odeghe Ezieke, an oyanvwemete, told me the
operation was done to make a woman's genitals look less like
a man's. Welch tells of an Isoko man whose wife was uncir-
cumcised: ". . . the common gibe against him being 'I have a
penis and my wife has a penis' " (1937:110).
3. Formerly the wound was dressed with the leaves ofowzewe,
an unidentified plant. Iodine has replaced it. Several days
later, oil is used to soothe the taut skin.
4. If a girl is pregnant, the operation is performed in the
odd-numbered months (third, fifth and seventh) of preg-
nancy because it is said to be less dangerous. No woman
questioned knew if anyone who had delivered a child before
she had been circumcised; that was unthinkable.
5. The expenses for the celebration and incidentals in 1972
were $100-300 (200-500 Nairas). If the girl is betrothed, her
fiance negotiates his share of the costs. A rich man might foot
the bill, while a man of lesser means sends presents of cloth-
ing to his bride and her messengers.
6. Matweavers are usually from the Udu or Ughievwe
groups, though bridal mats are sold in distant markets. Bridal
mats, called ewhere opha, are used only at these celebrations.
For more information on these mats, see my article in African
Arts (1978).
7. Boys are circumcised at age seven or eight. During recup-

eration, they do not work, and camwood on their hands and
feet indicates unusual status. Boys, however, are not honored
with the extended privilege given girls at their circumcision
celebrations.
8. The Bini word for bride is oha (Melzian 1937:163). If bet-
rothed, a young man is addressed as opha when his bride is
honored. He rubs camwood on his hands and feet and, like a
bride, does not use the deferential salutation with elders.
9. Urhobo brides grow plump during their leisure. This is
encouraged as a sign of strength and health. The Urhobo
know of similar traditions among the Efik and prize photo-
graphs of brides from the area, who grow immense during
their seclusion, in full regalia; unlike the Efik, however, the
Urhobo emphasize strength, not obesity.
10. For a discussion of Urhobo kings see Ikime (1969: chap. 1).
11. These spirits, generically known asedjo, are considered in
more detail by Perkins Foss (1976:12-23).
12. Expressions linking opha to the king are frequent. Parents
often say, "I have circumcised my child, who is sitting down
like the king" ("Me vwo omo me kidia uvie"). If opha by
mistake
says "miguo" to her elders, she is addressed directly as a king:
"Greetings, King. Don't kneel down!" ("Oviedo, wo digwe!").
13. In Egwhu and other areas, the Ade society provides
protection for brides.
14. For a discussion of eshe see Perkins Foss (1976).
15. Camwood (isene) comes from Pterocarpus soyauxii. Opha's
mother glides a camwood block over a camwood stump in a
circular motion until a pile of red powder accumulates. She
must blend it properly with palm kernel oil, or oily red lines
will trickle down the body. Some prefer to use camwood on
the body only; for the face they use imisiawhe, which is made
by mixing the seeds of an unidentified plant (u musiahwe) with
pomade until it is the desired shade of red. Camwood is also
used by a newly delivered mother. Like opha, she is accorded

respect.
16. Previously, silver coins with a central hole were sewn to
the border of the cloth. Today, Christian families sometimes
use Catholic medals as decoration.
17. A 1949 photograph by K. C. Murray (Nigerian Archives,
11.98.6 and 7) of an Urhobo bride in silver crown was the first
recorded hint of rich bridal traditions in Urhobo areas.
18. These leaves, worn as well by mothers and their female
relatives to advertise a recent birth, are another link between
brides and new mothers.
19. Parallel bridal traditions exist among the Isoko, eastern
neighbors. Welch reports, "The special emphasis laid on...
the necessity of sleeping on a special bed (girls sleep on a mat
on the floor) raised from the ground, are all necessary to a
true circumcision, my informants said" (1937:112). Of special
interest is the reference Welch makes to the term esirogbo in a
different context: "The period of seven days following birth is
called ESIROGBO and is accompanied by many dangers and
therefore taboos . . ." (p. 62). When questioned about this,
Urhobo women were surprised. This period is not called
esirogbo; rather, a new mother is called omiovwon.
20. Customs vary regionally. At Ekiugbo, near Ughelli,
prayers are said as the bed is taken down.
21. This woman, known as okpako aeweya, is chosen from the
eldest age grade. Her duties include settling disputes, fulfil -
ling ritual obligations and informing the town of bridal celeb-
rations. She receives the largest share of any gift to the
town's women.
22. In return for his help he is given up to one Naira, a few
plantain, palm oil, a fish and drink.

23. Representatives of men's and women's groups receive
gifts, called emi emu r'epha ("collection of food from the
brides"). Two women just younger than okpako eweya are
given a small fish, plantain and a yam. Two male messengers
(the olokpa and the odibo) sent by the king receive two yams,
one bunch of plantain, and one fish. The food is collected
from all families of brides and is cooked and eaten at a sepa -
rate men's and women's feast. This tithe is not paid by the
bride who was sponsored by the king.
24. This mixture of red dye and oil is called oyibo isene, or
"white man's camwood."
25. Perkins Foss has discussed ivwri in more depth
(1975:133-143).
26. This means "cloth of house, hello hello," which may refer
to the move opha will soon make to her husband's house.
27. Accounts of traditions honoring girls as they become
women are frequently found in passing through a larger
work, such as Talbot's In the Shadow of the Bush (1912). There
are many articles reporting specific traditions. See Onuora
Nzekwu (1959:340-352); Malcolm (1925:113-14); A. J. Udo
Ema (1940:386-9). Welch describes Isoko traditions in depth
(1937). Only the Itsekiri, western neighbors of the Urhobo, do
not circumcise their daughters (see Lloyd 1957).
FOSS, Bibliography
Ema, A. J. Udo. 1940. "Fattening Girls in Oron, Calabar
Province," Nigeria 21.
Foss, Perkins. 1975. "Images of Aggression: Ivwri Sculpture
of the Urhobo," African Images: Essays in African Iconology,
edited by E. F. McCall and E. G. Bay. New York: Africana
Publishing Co.
Foss, Perkins. 1976. "Urhobo Statuary for Spirits and Ances-
tors," African Arts 10, 4.

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