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Detail of carved wooden door panel, photographed
by Northcote Thomas |
Northcote Thomas visited the Esan (or Ishan) towns of Agbede, Irrua and Ubiaja in August 1909. At the royal palace in Ubiaja, Thomas photographed some remarkable carved doors and house-posts. 71 years later, in 1980, the art historian Carol Ann Lorenz conducted research in Esanland as part of her PhD project Ishan Sculpture: Nigerian Art at a Crossroads of Culture (Columbia University, 1995). In this article, we revisit Lorenz’s unpublished notes about the Ubiaja carvings in the light of our own research as part of the Entanglements project.
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| Detail of Northcote Thomas’s photograph of sculpted house-posts at ‘Obiria’s house’, Ubiaja palace, 1909 (NWT 1007; RAI 400.17390). |
Ubiaja
palace complex
Lorenz was unable to find any oral traditions about the carvings in Ubiaja. She did, however, learn from the ruling Onojie (king) of Ubiaja, HRH Abumhenre Ebhojie II, that a fire had destroyed the palace in 1902. Evidently unaware that Thomas visited Ubiaja seven years later, in 1909, Lorenz made the incorrect assumption that he had photographed the palace sculptures prior to their destruction in the conflagration. It appears, rather, that the house-posts that Thomas photographed were part of a new palace, built after 1902, or of buildings that had not been affected by the fire. Indeed, we know from Thomas’s photograph register that he photographed at least two different buildings within the palace complex.
When we visited Ubiaja as part of the
[Re:]Entanglements project, a brand new palace had recently been constructed
for the reigning Onojie, HRH Curtis Idedia Eidenojie. Adjacent to this
impressive new concrete structure are various generations of earlier earthen-walled
palace buildings, many in a ruinous state. It was not possible to say with
certainty if any of these were the remains of the palace that Thomas
photographed in 1909.
Thomas visited Ubiaja during the rule of
Elabor, who reigned between 1876 and 1921. By 1909, however, Elabor was elderly
and suffering from ill-health. In these circumstances, a power struggle existed
between a senior member of the royal household, Prince Obiyan, and Elabor’s
eldest son, Prince Ugbesia, over who should act as the Onojie’s regent. Thomas
photographed Elabor alongside a man he labelled ‘Obiria’. During our fieldwork
in Ubiaja, the name Obiria was not recognised and it was felt that this was an
incorrect transcription of Ugbesia. Some of the doorposts photographed by
Thomas and discussed by Lorenz are, according to Thomas’s photo register, from
‘Obiria’s house’.
Left: ‘King and Obiria’. The figure on the left, ‘Obiria’, is thought to be the king’s son, Ugbesia. The figure on the right is the Onojie (king), Elabor. Photograph by Northcote Thomas, Ubiaja, 1909 (NWT 999, RAI 400.17389). Right: ‘King and Obiria’. Elabor and Obiria (probably Ugbesia) sitting in front of sculpted house-posts at the palace. Photograph by Northcote Thomas, Ubiaja, 1909 (NWT 1000, RAI 400.17391).
House-posts
Lorenz provided descriptions of each of the
house-posts photographed by Thomas. Regarding the house-posts in the photograph
above right (NWT 1000), the sculpture on the left depicts two kneeling figures,
one above the other with a platform between them. Lorenz reported that this
configuration was unique in her survey of Esan sculptures, although it was
common in Yorubaland. The sculpture on the right depicts a figure carrying
a fowl or bird on a head tray, possibly representing an intended sacrifice.
The house-post in the photograph above left
(NWT 1002) is described as ‘depicting a female figure touching her breast with
one hand and her full belly with the other. Her abdomen is decorated with
incised patterns’. Lorenz described the house-posts in the photograph above
right (NWT 1003) as ‘depicting a painted snake image on a plank post, and a
three-dimensional trumpet blower’. While Lorenz identified all these sculptures
as belonging simply to ‘the palace in Ubiaja’, those in the photograph above
right (NWT 1003) can be identified in the photograph below, which Thomas’s
labelled ‘Obiria’s house’. Although not the main palace, it is likely that this
was located in the palace complex.
Lorenz described the sculptures in the
photograph of what we now know to be ‘Obiria’s house’ (NWT 1007) as depicting
(from left to right): ‘a naked male figure, a swordsman carrying a severed
head, a warrior with a shield and spear, a man with a pith helmet, a trumpet
player, and a seated king’. There is a strong formal consistency in the four
central carvings (the swordsman, warrior, man in pith helmet and trumpet
player), suggesting they were made together and were the work of a single
artist or workshop. They also appear to be relatively recently carved, due to
the lack of weathering or insect damage.
Although Lorenz did not comment on it, the post
on extreme left of this photograph – that depicting ‘a naked male figure’ – is
perhaps more interesting than it at first appears. Firstly, it has no head.
Instead of a head, the post continues merely as a flat ‘plank’ to the roof
joists. Could its head possibly be that held by the swordsman sculpted from the
adjacent pillar? Secondly, the figure appears to be shackled around its neck
and left leg to a pillar beside it. Pure speculation, but perhaps this figure
represents the body of a vanquished enemy? Stripped, shackled and finally
beheaded?
Although we cannot be absolutely sure that
Obiria is the king’s son, Ugbesia, it is interesting to note that Ugbesia was
known to be despotic and tyrannical. The Esan historian, Christopher Okojie,
writes that with the decline in Elabor’s powers, ‘the light of the Ruling House
of Ubiaja went out’ and was ‘replaced with darkness in which hatred, confusion,
suspicion and bipartisan warfare’ reigned. As noted above, at the time of
Thomas’s visit, there was conflict between Ugbesia and his competitor for the
regentship, Prince Obinyan. This quarrel evidently split Eguare (the palace
quarter) into two warring factions, which had a profound effect on the wider
Ubiaja community. In 1914 Ugbesia was formally recognized as regent, but the
following years were also spent embroiled in conflict until, in 1919, he died
in ‘mysterious circumstances’, predeceasing his incapacitated father by two
years.
In her notes on the above photograph of a
palace courtyard (NWT 994a), Lorenz describes the house-post figures as
depicting, from left to right, ‘a seated king, an ekpokin box bearer,
an ujie group, two swordbearers, and a female figure nursing a
child’. An ekpokin is a box used to carry gifts or tributes to the
king. Ujie is music/dance genre in Esanland associated with royalty.
According to Lorenz, these were common motifs in Esan sculpture.
Door
panels
In addition to house-posts, Thomas photographed
other sculptural forms in Ubiaja, including a number of carved doors and
an agbala stool. The door carvings are quite distinct from the styles
either of Benin or Igboland, of which Thomas photographed many
examples. Lorenz argues that they are strongly influenced by Nupe door
carving styles from the north, with discrete relief figures arranged in
vertical rows. The Nupe had invaded the region to the north of Esanland earlier
in the 19th century, and their influence extended to the Esan towns such as
Irrua, Agbede and Ubiaja that Thomas visited. Unlike Nupe doors, however, the
Esan examples include many representations of human figures, as well as the
more typical representations of animals and inanimate objects.
Lorenz interprets the figure at the top right
of the photograph above left (NWT 1025) as being a male noble (okpia) holding a segmented ukhure staff. He is positioned
above a female figure (okhuo), below
whose feet a horizontal female figure lies. Lorenz observes that this door appears
to have been repaired. The centre panel featuring a human figure, profile of a
monkey and a lizard, has, she suggests, been carved in a different style to the
two panels that flank it. She also observed that this and the left-hand panel
were placed upside down when the door was reassembled. The larger male figure
at bottom left should be at the top, holding the royal symbols of ada and eben aloft.
Thomas’s photograph above right (NWT 1027)
features scenes of violence, which Lorenz argues is a common theme in Esan
carving. At the bottom right is an equestrian figure (ohenakasi), depicted in profile, wielding a double-edged sword (agbada). The male figure at top left,
interpreted by Lorenz as a warrior, carries a grid-like shield, known as asa in Benin. The shield was made
of sticks or palm ribs, which, as Lorenz argues, ‘would not offer much physical
defence’. They were, however, ‘fortified with protective medicine (ukhumun), which enabled it to repel or
catch enemy weapons’. This door also features a leopard (bottom left,
recognizable from its tail which arches over its back), a crocodile eating
another animal (top right), and a ceremonial eben sword – all three
emblems are associated with royalty.
Agbala
stool
Lorenz devoted a whole chapter of her thesis to
a discussion of a type of courtly furniture, the agbala or stool of office. Like other items of regalia, the
stool illustrate both similarities and differences between Esan and Benin City,
where the equivalent stool is known as agba.
Lorenz argues that Esan elites ‘appear to have required a locally carved stool
of office which was similar enough to the Benin agba to retain its association with prestige and authority,
but divergent enough to be a distinctively Esan product’.
Such stools are used exclusively by the Onojie or other hereditary chiefs on ceremonial and ritual occasions. Lorenz notes that it is particularly forbidden for the owner’s senior son and heir to sit upon them. The stools are kept in the ancestral shrine room and often serve as a focus of offering to the ancestors. Thomas photographed one of these agbala stools in Ubiaja, and noted that they were equivalent to ukhure rattle-staffs, used to commemorate and honour the paternal ancestors.
Left: Agbala stool photographed by Northcote
Thomas in Ubiaja in 1909 (NWT 1039; RAI 400.17436). Right: Side panel of agbala
stool collected by Northcote Thomas in Irrua in 1909 (NWT 1-2564; MAA Z
12815).
Lorenz was able to locate nearly 30 examples of
Esan agbala stools and was
able to identify three distinct styles. The example photographed by Thomas in
Ubiaja is typical of what she terms the ‘ridged figural’ style, which feature
highly-geometricized caryatid figures, carved in relief on the stretchers,
often – as in this case – with arms upraised. The side panels also feature
relief carvings, with a semi-circle cut away at the base to form two legs. Unfortunately,
the design on the seat of the stool is not clear in the photograph.
Thomas did not photograph examples of wood
carving in the other Esan towns he visited. He did, however, collect the side
panel of another agbala stool in Irrua. This is an example of what
Lorenz defines as an ‘openwork’ style, associated with the town of Uromi.
Indeed, by comparing this panel with other complete stools, she argues that it
was likely made in Uromi, even though it was collected in Irrua.
Esanland
at a crossroads of culture.
Through her analysis of Esan sculpture,
including the examples documented by Northcote Thomas in Ubiaja in 1909,
Lorenz’s main thesis was that Esan culture was essentially hybrid in nature. It
was the mixture
of Benin, Nupe, Yoruba and Igbo traditions
that gave Esan art its unique character, as evidenced in these remarkable
sculptural house-posts, carved doors and stools of office. Alas, these arts are
no longer practised, and, due to the ephemeral nature of the materials,
susceptible to decay and insect damage, and to collectors (Northcote Thomas
included), very little of this sculpture has survived. We found not even a
memory of it at the palace in Ubiaja.
Perhaps a new generation of contemporary Esan
artists will one day discover Thomas’s photographs of these amazing sculptures
and revive – or reinterpret – the tradition?
Further
reading
- Lorenz, C. A. 1995. Ishan Sculpture: Nigerian Art at a
Crossroads of Culture, Unpublished PhD thesis, Columbia University.
- Okojie, C. G. 1960. Ishan Native Laws and Customs (Yaba:
Okwesa)
- Ukpan, J. A. 2010. History and Culture of Ubiaja (Benin
City: Obhio)
EsanPolitical Art- Architecture And Architectural Reliefs
