Djenne POV
December 11, 2022 Leave a comment
At a 2016 auction of the Merton Simpson estate, several persons (including myself) spent hours trying to figure out the merits of the Djenne piece shown below.
I’m not kidding, it literally took me six years to come to a place of real appreciation for the piece. The following paragraph went a long way to settle this for me in framing a perspective of famine/drought, emaciation and prayer to serpent totems or shrines,
“A very large number of terracotta sculptures have been found in the Inland Delta of the Niger River area of Mali, which date from the last centuries of the first millennium A.D. through the 15th century.
The style is often referred to as the “Djenné” style, named after a city that rose to prominence in this area in approximately 500 A.D. and experienced great prosperity until the end of the 15th century.
Religion:
Oral histories have been examined, including the story of Wagadu Bida, the founder of the Wagadu, or Ghana Empire. The myth tells of the birth of a serpent from the first marriage of Dinga, the leader of the Soninké clan. The serpent, named Wagadu Bida, was the source of fertility and well being. Each year a virgin had to be sacrificed to secure the blessings of the serpent.
One year, a young Soninké man, distraught that the girl he loved was to be sacrificed, slaughtered the serpent. The devastating drought that followed resulted in the dispersal of the Soninké and the founding of the Djenné culture. It is possible that the images of figures covered with serpents that were created in great numbers by the artists of ancient Djenné illustrate this myth and a subsequent cult of serpents. The numerous figures that show evidence of disease may represent supplicants who prayed to the spirit embodied in the shrine for healing” (source).
Consider a similar perspective form Bernard de Grunne on Djenne-Jeno,
“As to the meaning of snakes, VanDyke has found at least 200 figurative works with herpetological symbolism (Disease and Serpent Imagery in Figurative Terra Cotta Sculpture from the Inland Niger Delta, of Mali). She suggests that some of these snakes could represent parasitic worms coming out of the mouth, ears, nose and even vagina of some figures. I have also underlined the ancient symbolism attached to snakes starting with the founding myth of Dinga, the first king of the Soninke Wagadu empire circa A.D. 800, who fathered many children and one large snake called Wagadu Bida. Snakes, thus, are connected to ancestor worship but could also relate to the treatment of diseases represented in the seated figure analyzed here. In the ancient oral histories of the Wagadu and Mali empires, illness was framed as a spiritual test and overcoming it, a mark of spiritual power for both the afflicted and their healers. Such beliefs persist into the present.”
The final nail that brought me around was purchasing a couple items that simply could not get the classic “Djenne” head right (see upper side profile). The concavity of the face, jutting chin, square lips, lozenge shaped eyes, and the thick neck are hard enough as it is, but for the Djenne artist it usually comes with a lean or glance to emphasize tolerance and/or perseverance.