Archaeology Magazine - March/April 1990 - 67

graphic clues suggest that the figure
is a priest of Osanyin, the god of herbal medicine, or an Ifa diviner. In
everyday practice, the priests of
Osanyin are not only powerful herbalists but healers of the psyche as
well. Equally respected are the ritual
practitioners who seek to use supernatural wisdom on behalf of their
human clients, through the Ifa divination system.
Museums are often accused of being cultural charnel houses, full of
the remains of dead civilizations.
Sometimes there has been an element
of truth in the allegation. A museum's
uncritical emphasis on a traditional
culture and an aboriginal or precontact past can foster a sense of an
unchanging society. This is not always
easy to correct. The core of the collections at the Royal Ontario Museum is made up of objects amassed
in the last quarter of the nineteenth
century and the first quarter of our
own. As such, the collections are
historical, and it is impossible even
to suggest through these objects the
complexities of contemporary African
life at the end of the twentieth century. What one can do, however, is
realize that the lifeways of all peoples
change; no one lives in a collective
state of suspended animation.
A creative African response to
change, for example, can be seen in
a Mangbetu or Mamvu pot from
Zaire, which features a woman with
an elaborate coiffure. These peoples
considered an elongated skull a sign
of beauty, and it was produced by
binding the head soon after birth. Anthropomorphic vessels of this kind
were produced for a very short period, beginning about the same time
as Belgian colonial rule. The presence
of Europeans stimulated a demand
for particular kinds of objects, including figurative pots. They seem to have
functioned not only as prestige items
within Mangbetu society, but also as
chiefly gifts to foreigners. Some pots
may have been commissioned directly
by non-Africans from artists participating in the growing cash economy
in the area.
Museums also compete with each
other in their acquisitions, and as a
result collections often come to resem-

god of the sea.
The great skill required to cast the
plaques was recognized early on,
although it was sometimes erroneously attributed to non-African craftsmen. Easily understood, the subject
matter was made more compelling by
its exoticism and association with
what British newspapers reporting on
the punitive expedition called the
"City of Blood." Today the Benin
Bronzes are some of the most expensive African pieces offered for sale
on the international art market.
We can understand something of
the complexities of these encounters
by examining the motives that influenced the formation of museum
collections, the collections themselves
as cultural texts, and the "life histories" of particular objects. In the
same process, the intricacies of different cultures are revealed in objects
through which various African peoples have expressed not only their
individual artistry, but also their
deepest communal concerns. Finally,
by placing in context the relationBronze plaques from Benin City ships, however brief, problematic, and
documented triumphs of the empire . painful, that developed as Canadian
soldiers and missionaries traveled into
Benin City had for centuries been the heart of Africa, it has become clear
the capital of one of West Africa's that the past is part of the present.
most successful precolonial states.
Exhibition
Schedule
When it fell in 1897 to a British punitive expedition, much of the city
Royal Ontario Museum
and the huge wooden palace of the
Toronto, Ontario
oba, or king, was burned. After the
ThroughAugust 6,1990
capture of the town, several hundred
Canadian Museum of
leaded brass plaques were removed.
Civilization
Some were later sold to help recoup
Ottawa, Ontario
the costs of the campaign.
June 1991
Probably dating to the early sevenVancouver Museum
teenth century, these plaques were
Vancouver, British Columbia
originally attached to wooden pillars
October1991
in the palace, where they documented the triumphs of the oba's empire;
Natural History Museum of
or illustrated the complexities of daily
Los Angeles County
life at his court. Included in the exLos Angeles, CA
hibition is a plaque depicting what
February1992
is almost certainly a retainer in
Albuquerque Museum
that court. He wears a headdress or
Albuquerque, NM
beaded cap and a loincloth, has what
July 1992
may be a bell hanging from a sash
across his chest, and carries a sword
curatorofInto
tucked under his arm. Four stylized Jeanne
Cannizzo,
Heart
has
conducted
research
of Africa,
crocodile heads mark the corners of the
in
Leone
and
broadcasts
Sierra
the plaque. Symbols of power, they
regularly
for
the CanadianBroadcastingCorporation.
were the favorite sacrifice to Olokun,

ble one another as certain kinds of
artifacts, such as the famous metalwork from Benin become popular.
The Benin Bronzes, as they are collectively known, caused a public sensation when first seen in Europe at
the very end of the nineteenth century. Part of that interest was generated by the spectacular circumstances
in which the objects were acquired.

March/April1990 51

Archaeology Magazine - March/April 1990

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