Eye Du Ke Esit Nyin Ke Nsinsi

I first met Ekpo Eyo (Fig. 1) in the 1960s during one of his visits to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where I was then an undergraduate and a studio major in the institution's Department of Fine Arts. He soon became a mentor and friend. Our frequent meetings at the National Museum in Lagos contributed significantly to my decision to become an art historian.1 I know of several other colleagues (black and white) who benefitted from his advice. Besides, he is world-famous for his outstanding professional and academic contributions to African archaeology, anthropology, art history, and museology, among others. Hence, despite his departure to the hereafter on May 28, 2011, Professor Ekpo Okpo Eyo's legacy lives on. As a popular eulogy in Efik (his mother tongue) would put it: Eye du ke esit nyin ke nsinsi (you will be in our hearts forever); obong (abasi) odu ye ago (wishing you God's blessings).Born on July 8, 1931 in Creek Town, near Calabar, the capital of what is now the Cross River State of Nigeria (then a British colony), Ekpo Okpo Eyo (hereafter identified simply as Ekpo Eyo) spent his early childhood in the area. After attending the Presbyterian Primary School in Creek Town and Duke Town Secondary School in Calabar, he moved to Lagos (former capital of Nigeria) in the 1950s, looking for greener pastures. His appointment in 1953 as an assistant in the Nigerian Department of Antiquities, headed by British-born Kenneth Murray (1908–1972), opened the door, enabling him to proceed to the United Kingdom in the late 1950s for postsecondary education. There, he studied and received diploma in archaeology from the University of London as well as an MA degree in archaeology and anthropology from Cambridge University. He returned to Nigeria in 1963 and was elevated to the rank of archaeologist/anthropologist in the Department of Antiquities. Roughly five years later (in 1968), he was appointed the first Nigerian-born director following the retirement of Kenneth Murray.2 Ekpo Eyo assumed the post at a critical point in the country's history—eight years after she gained political independence from Great Britain and when postcolonial nationalism instilled in many Nigerians a new sense of pride in their country's cultural and artistic heritage. It will be recalled that some Nigerians distanced themselves from indigenous art during the colonial period because colonial masters misinterpreted its emphasis on stylization as a failed attempt at naturalism and hence “primitive.” Although many naturalistic portrait heads in terracotta and brass turned up in the Yoruba town of Ifè (as early as 1910), they were dismissed as the works of foreigners. In fact, the German anthropologist Leo Frobenius, who first brought Ifè art to world attention, attributed the portrait heads to the ancient Greeks who, according to him, might have settled among the Yoruba before the Common Era (bce). He then speculated that if a full figure in the Ifè style were to be found in Ifè, it would almost certainly reflect proportions similar to those of ancient Greek art (Frobenius 1968 1:348). Fortunately, a full figure turned up during one of the excavations in the city in 1957 (Fig. 2a–b), to challenge Frobenius's assumption. For, despite the naturalistic rendering of its anatomical features, the figure's head constitutes about a quarter of the whole body, thus conforming to the artistic tradition found in other parts of Africa (Willett 1967:49–50; see also Willett 1973:2, 5, 7; and Lawal 2004:143–49). Besides, the figure, like several other naturalistic Ifè works, dates between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries ce—much later than Leo Frobenius had imagined. Paradoxically, these so-called primitive arts of Africa (including those from Nigeria) became a source of inspiration for European Modernism at the beginning of the twentieth century, thus sparking both academic and museum interests in indigenous African art. In order to acquire more knowledge and advanced research methods for interpreting the large number of antiquities being discovered in different parts of the country, Ekpo Eyo decided to enroll in the doctoral program of the University of Ìbàdàn in Nigeria from where he earned a PhD in Archaeology in 1974 (Eyo 1974b).Simply put, the Department of Antiquities grew so rapidly under his directorship that it was renamed the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NNCMM) in 1979. Through traveling exhibitions (both local and international), seminars, public lectures, publications, and community outreach programs (Eyo 2008:31–32), the NNCMM connected with the general public, in addition to popularizing art education in many schools. According to Alhaji Ibrahim Mahe, the permanent secretary of Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and National Orientation:Needless to say, I benefitted from that legacy as well. After receiving a PhD in art history from Indiana University (Bloomington), I returned to Nigeria in September 1970 to begin an academic career as a research fellow in the Institute of African Studies, University of Ifè. A few weeks later, I paid Ekpo Eyo a visit. So pleased to see me back in Nigeria, he introduced me to most of his senior administrative and professional staff and urged them to give me direct access to all the collections because of the importance of my field of specialization to the goals of the museum. In short, that introduction got me off to a good start, enabling me to use many of the museum's facilities for my research.In 1971, the University of Ifè (now called Obáfémi Awólówò University) appointed Professor Roy Sieber (1923–2001), my PhD dissertation supervisor at Indiana University, as a visiting faculty to allow him to continue with his research on Nigerian art as well as help lay the foundation for the creation of a future art department in the institution. The need for such a department had become necessary because of the university's location in Ifè, the city regarded by the Yoruba as the cradle of their culture and which had since become world famous for its antiquities.Shortly after Roy Sieber's arrival in Nigeria, I drove him to Lagos to meet Ekpo Eyo and the three of us teamed up, meeting periodically at the National Museum in Lagos and its local branch at Ifè. Our discussions expanded my research capabilities, while at the same time paving the way for many of Roy Sieber's doctoral students to do fieldwork in Nigeria. One of them, Robin Poynor (professor emeritus of African art at the University of Florida, Gainesville), decided to write his PhD dissertation on the art of Òwò after listening to a public lecture by Ekpo Eyo at Indiana University (Poynor 1978). In short, during his tenure as the Director General of the NNCMM, Ekpo Eyo endeared himself to visiting international students and scholars by welcoming them with open arms and facilitating their field research. As Dr. Deborah Stokes of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (Washington, D.C.) recalls:After his retirement from the NNCMM in 1986, Ekpo Eyo accepted a professorship in the Department of Art History and Archaeology, University of Maryland (College Park) and, for the next seventeen years, taught various courses on African art and archaeology. In addition, he supervised many MA theses and PhD dissertations (Fig. 3). During the same period, he conducted archaeological excavations in Nigeria which enabled some of his graduate students to acquire professional field experience (Figs. 4–5). According to one of them, Christopher Slogar (now an associate professor of art history at California State University Fullerton):In fact, I witnessed a similar reception for Ekpo Eyo by courtiers on his arrival at the palace in 1981 to pay a courtesy call on the new Oòni (king) of Ifè, the late Oba Òkunadé Síjúadé Olúbùse II (1930–2015). The reason for such a “joyous display of hospitality” can easily be traced to the zeal and empathy with which Ekpo Eyo had showcased the richness of Nigeria's antiquities and artistic heritage during his tenure of office as the director of the NNCMM. Even certain Muslim and Christian evangelists, who previously despised indigenous art, had a change of heart—a phenomenon also reflected in the fact that many of their converts now collect ancient and contemporary art for nationalistic, aesthetic, commercial, and other reasons.Despite his busy administrative schedule, Ekpo Eyo did extensive fieldwork in different parts of the country. He conducted one of his earliest archaeological excavations in 1969 at Láfogídò in Ifè. As Christopher Slogar noted above, Ekpo Eyo was obliged to abandon the Láfogídò excavation after the then Oòni, His Royal Highness, Oba Adésojí Adérèmí (1899–1980) pleaded with him to stop it. In the words of Ekpo Eyo himself:Notwithstanding its suspension, the excavation (Fig. 6) was an eye-opener. Previous archaeological discovery of animal motifs at burial sites and sacred groves in the city was thought to confirm popular rumors of animal sacrifice during the funeral rites of a deceased Oòni (see Willett 1967: Figs. 41–45; Drewal and Schildkrout 2009:106–107). Not much was known about the metaphysical implications of such sacrifices. At Láfogídò, the realistic portrayal on potlids of elaborately adorned animals such as the elephant (from an earlier rescue operation), hippopotamus, antelope, and ram with royal emblems (dated twelfth/fifteenth century ce) recalls the frequent use of animal metaphor in the ritual symbols, regalia, and praise-poems (oríkì) of the Ifè monarch. For example, the antelope (etu; ìgalà) is hailed in Yoruba folklore for its agility and sharp horns. No wonder, the animal features frequently in many sacrificial offerings to speed up the delivery of ritual messages, or the journey of the dead, to the spirit world.5 And such is the value attached to the penetrative power of the animal's sharp horns that they are often used for storing charms (àse) intended to potentiate prayers by Yoruba kings (oba) aimed at promoting the well-being of their subjects (see also Adepegba 1986:53). By the same token, the awesome power of a king is often likened to that of an elephant (erin) (Fig. 7); hence an heraldic symbol of the animal is on the façade of the Oòni's palace at Ifè and on some of his paraphernalia of office. That metaphor also resonates in the proclamation “Erin wó!” (An elephant has collapsed!), often used to notify the general public of an Oòni's death (see also Eluyemi 1980:60; Drewal and Schildkrout 2009:54; 124–25; Blier 2015:320–23).6 The royal emblem on the forehead of the hippopotamus (Fig. 8) alludes to the might of the Oòni as well, especially since the animal's name erinmi translates as “elephant of the water” in the Yoruba language. According to a popular Yoruba myth, there is a big river underground that the souls of the dead must cross to reach the Afterlife (Awolalu 1979:56–57; Lawal 2012:224). Hence the phrase eni tó kú ti re òkè odò, meaning “The deceased has gone to the other side of the river” (Idowu 1995:206). Besides, it is significant to note that in the Yoruba town of Òwò, which has strong ties with Ifè, a mystical hippopotamus (erinmi) is a deity associated with death (Abiodun 1989:93). As a result, the question arises: Was this hippopotamus motif also expected to serve as a royal escort during Oòni Láfogídò's voyage across the chthonic river connecting the worldly to the otherworldly? A similar question comes to mind with regard to the ram (àgbò) and the royal emblem on its forehead (Fig. 9). Given the animal's use of its horns (especially headbutt) for offense and defense, the Yoruba associate the ram with bravery and protection. Hence a popular folklore identifies the animal as one of the gate-keepers in heaven (Abimbola 1970:257–60; Lawal 1975:225–31). Moreover, the Yoruba often liken distant rumbles of thunder to the headbutts of celestial rams.To cut a long story short, the preliminary findings of Ekpo Eyo at Láfogídò have encouraged archaeologists and art historians to not only take a fresh look at Yoruba art in general and Ifè antiquities in particular, but also compare them to materials from other parts of Nigeria, most especially those from Igbo-Ukwu in eastern Nigeria where elephant and ram motifs (among others) have been found in a burial context dated to the ninth century ce (see for example Blier 2015:296–98, 322–26).Thanks to Ekpo Eyo's excavations at Ugbó ‘Lajà in the Yoruba town of Òwò from 1969 onward, archaeologists and art historians are now able to fill some of the gaps in the study of Nigerian art, most especially Ifè cultural and artistic relationship with Òwò, on the one hand, and between the latter and the neighboring Edo kingdom of Benin, on the other.Located about 90 miles southeast of Ifè, the Òwò kingdom is said to have been founded ca. twelfth century ce by immigrants from Ifè led by one Prince Ojúgbelu (a.ka. Asere), a descendant of Odùduwà, the first king of Ifè (Ashara 1951; Smith 1988:51–52; Akintoye 2010:102–103).7 Because of its location near some of the busiest trade routes in eastern Yorubaland, Òwò soon became the hub of cultural and economic activities in the area (Akintoye The that it might be by the Edo kingdom of miles to the led Òwò to a strong for offense and many to one (in the early fifteenth and Òwò for some but was later and by Òwò while to the during the of was more as the Òwò that was by in Smith both and that an Òwò who as a in the later returned after the death of his to the in the is said to have introduced to Òwò many cultural and artistic phenomenon in the of Òwò and to those of (Poynor as Smith has to from these is that the Òwò were able to independence for their capital and but that from time to time had to be paid to the other hand, Akintoye that the well reflect a or an of between the intended to the of Òwò in Benin, and It is that the Ifè of the in the between it and For, according to the a the in during the century led an to the Odùduwà, the and of Ifè, him to one of his to be their As a result, Prince to to and the which later introduced to many of Yoruba of Ifè art, especially during the of Oba for more on the see Lawal the story is a figure in the Ifè style found in the palace and dated ca. fifteenth century It is said to Oba one of the of the (Willett Eyo Ekpo Eyo's excavations at Ugbó ‘Lajà in Òwò have more on the artistic According to him, the might have as a the at The Ugbó ‘Lajà also an of and as well as the of a with terracotta of sacrifice and (Eyo and Willett As Ekpo Eyo from the naturalistic portrait and A of the works (Figs. not only with Ifè art but to art as there are also works that are in It is not the Òwò in Ifè style were brought or from Ifè or they were at (Eyo and Willett see also it to that the now a of for interpreting some of the in Òwò and and for a new look at different of the cultural and artistic between the the all the more as is its to such as the palace and one of the earliest Òwò thus that the brought with him to Òwò and from Ifè (Abiodun are Ekpo Eyo's archaeological in capital of the Cross River during the were intended to more about a number of ancient terracotta and that had turned up in the and during and as well as rescue in the the of the not be at the time Eyo's first excavations in the several terracotta and among other dated to about the ninth century ce (Eyo with the many of the are by their and among (Fig. The ritual of certain are in the motifs on their (Fig. His excavations at similar as well as a terracotta dated to about century while in at dated to about century ce (Eyo Slogar the Ekpo Eyo also returned to his of the ancient and on the of the Cross River to the The are said to dead (Figs. were first in by the British and later studied by who, on the of local dated them to the or century when with would to have an economic in the area (Eyo and to Ekpo Eyo's the excavations he conducted in the of and dates from to that some of the might be contemporary with or than many of the (Eyo see also Besides, certain motifs on the those on the as well as the a (Fig. from time by an by the Efik and or by the in different of Nigeria to not only among its but also between the and metaphysical (Eyo Slogar see also The also on the of the and as well as on the the or like a to in public (Figs. put, Ekpo Eyo's field research in and in the and is significant in the way it has to fill in some of the gaps in the of ancient Nigerian art. the art of the culture ce) was by that of Igbo-Ukwu The between the has now been by the ce) and In addition, the on the and of motifs to almost certainly the of the of its use to among it is not that the to the during the trade between the fifteenth and where some African might have it for a similar For in where the of from Nigeria now a of the both the and a have (Figs. in (see The of new archaeological from Ekpo Eyo's as well as the postcolonial cultural in the Cross River State and other parts of Nigeria, have since opened a new for both and for example, from the in with his major Ekpo Eyo has other and to the and of Nigerian as well as African art. Because of only of his will be the international of the exhibitions they are in Slogar Nigerian was in in with an of the same by Ekpo Eyo and in Lagos the same as the and African of and A to the of African Art and that in in a of from different parts of Africa and its as well as from the and the opened by the then Nigerian of General the to artistic in Nigeria from ca. to the early of the twentieth The African (from was so by and of the works on display that he urged the Nigerian to it to the United (Eyo the was renamed of of with a new by Ekpo Eyo and who had also conducted excavations at Ifè (Eyo and Willett The first opened in at Institute of and then to the of Museums of and the Museum of Art among others. was the of the works on that of the was moved to write in the of the fact, the reception of the in the United soon across the several European to the Nigerian National Museum for to it. As a result, the a world that in (Eyo Nigerians and of their artistic heritage. Not only the by some of the led Ekpo Eyo to a on Yoruba to which I was to a to Ekpo Eyo would be his to the museum He was one of the of the of Nigeria as well as the African In he on that the on the of In 1974 he was a of for of During and to their of In he was appointed one of the of the for to and he as the of for and in and, between and as of He was on the for the The Art of a in at the Royal of and in at the He also contributed to the of these exhibitions (Eyo Ekpo Eyo received many for to the As back as the Ministry of him the in of his to the In he was as a by the of Museums at its meeting in the same that the Nigerian him as an of the Federal In he was a by the Smithsonian And in at the on African Art by University, the Art of the African him with the (Fig. it is that Ekpo Okpo Eyo had become an international by the time of his death on May 28, In addition to other being to his the Museum in with the National Museum has an Ekpo Eyo in his Professor Ekpo Okpo Eye du ke esit nyin ke nsinsi (you will be in our hearts forever); obong (abasi) odu ye ago (wishing you God's

Art · Eulogy · Political science · Studio · Visual arts · White (mutation) · African history and culture studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Law

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