Iphri – Male Aggression (personality corrective)

COMMUNITY SHRINE FIGURE (IVRI)

URHOBO : I’ve found it fascinating that the Urhobo identified and addressed aggression as a separate, treatable ailment. The key factor being that it is identified at an early age, and the treatment was accepted within the village. In the Iphri aggression is depicted in placement at the stomach, and by representation as a fierce, vicious, and senseless entity. The following was taken from the Seattle Art Museum website.

“Being worried by hunger brings vexation.
Hunger makes you say what you do not understand”.

(From a praise poem for an “ivri”, 1971)

URHOBO – IPHRI/IVRI (Seattle Art Museum)

A hunger for aggression has overtaken this figure and turned it into a monstrous centaur. Instead of a body, an enormous mouth with crossing incisors opens wide. The Urhobo calls upon ivri to address the personal and collective force that human antagonisms can foster. If a man becomes persistently troublesome or argumentative, unwilling to adjust or share, an ivri could be commissioned for his use. Or he might visit one in a town meeting hall, where the figure served as a personality corrective.

RHOBO – IPHRI/IVRI (Seattle Art Museum)

Regular offerings of food were deposited in the ivri’s cavernous mouth. Offerings of yams, gin, chicken blood, and kola nuts have accumulated on this figure. During visits, people might recite lengthy praise poems, and consult the ivri about community problems. Through this action and recitation, the ivri provided the Urhobo with a metaphorical way of limiting excessive aggression.

Wood, camwood, chalk, nails, encrustation, 36 x 14 3/4 in. (91.5 x 37.5 cm) Diam.: 13 1/4 in., Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company, 81.17.532

Photos: Paul Macapia

Collecting African Tribal Art : Spiritual Energy of African Tribal Art

Plants typically absorb sunlight and convert the energy through photosynthesis to usable chemical energy while releasing oxygen. Humans convert food into chemical energy to support physical processes in the body. The physical process is part of an entire interconnected and balanced ecosystem. Beyond this however the human species possesses the faculty to create, comprehend and develop logic. This abstraction is the module within which the ‘African Tribal Spirit’ has been isolated and developed into a potent source of motivation, moderation, projection, control and self development. The purpose of the African Tribal Art in the ‘religious or protective’ (versus utilitarian) sense is to stimulate conditioned mechanisms via either an individual or on a collective basis, within the larger framework of a village or community.

Let’s take a look at a couple examples.

Bwa : Butterfly Mask
Wheelock Cat #139

This mask is attributed to the Bwa in Boni and Dossi. It represents “the butterflies that metamorphose and rise in clouds around the pools of water left by the first rains of spring. These masses of butterflies are a manifestation of the power of new life and the awesome power of the blessings of ‘God’…. This particular style [referring to a straight protuberance versus a hooked beak] , very long and decorated with a linear series of nested circles, is the only style correctly spoken of as a ‘butterfly’ or, more accurately, a spirit that takes this butterfly form.” The use of this mask in a ritual masquerade reinforces common ideals of beauty and respect for the environment held by the community. It may also play a part in developing the framework of a benevolent God-figure. On an individual level it may also act as a trigger in remembering an occasion where one may have witnessed a rabble of butterflies. This process is the ‘African Tribal Spirit’ – the mask itself while treasured and appreciated is not necessarily deified.

Buffalo Helmet
Private Collection

Toussian – Kable Helmet
Buffalo Helmets [Constantine Petrides]

The article (see link above) says “As a result of the animal’s cultural connotations, buffalo imagery is prevalent in the arts of many sub-Saharan cultures. Its behavior and anatomy have served as a special source of inspiration in many of the subcontinent’s masquerades. In Central Africa, in addition to the realistically rendered depictions of buffalo heads in the helmets of Tabwa people, one finds a large number of carved buffalo heads especially among the so-called Kwango cultural complex in southwestern Congo – including Yaka, Sulu, Pende, and Holo (see Bourgeois 1991).”

The Spiritual energy of African Tribal art is not limited to the imagery of animals but can also be established via behaviors, ideals (discipline, bravery, moderation of aggression) and the intangible framework of a specified cosmological framework, eg. Ikenga, and Egungun from the Igbo and Yoruba peoples respectively.

Mbra Conundrum

Humans are fascinating decision-makers, and when it comes to purchasing African Tribal Art anything will pretty much carry the day. Typically we think of discrete yes/no functions, or likes/dislikes based on two dimensional love hate continua. We rarely parse a decision in terms of multi pole, multi dimensional, random, rule based frameworks and yet this is exactly where most of our urges, and must-have bacon weaknesses emanate. This is the genesis of our ability to engage in concepts of love, hate, and the proxy of irreality that allows us to indulge in the pretense of free will (the caveat here requiring that ‘free will’ can only exist in an environment of de minimis constraint).

It should be clear that trying to analyze Christian ethos simply by looking at a crucified representation of a ‘white male’ is for all intents and purposes pretty stupid, yet people try to do it with Tribal African cultural objects all the time.

Baule Tribe : Mbra figure

The reason I liked this dual simian anthropomorphic Mbra figure was simply because the ‘head’ seemed mean, wild, and vicious enough to convey sufficient visual and psychological contrast to a mature (humble) human body awaiting the offering of an egg. Smiley Mbra doesn’t quite do the trick. The visual takeaway for me is threefold….

1. Mean and humble are not mutually exclusive and can come nicely wrapped in the same package.

2. Helping someone doesn’t make them any less mean or angry, and doesn’t change their intent….

3. Mbra reflects the duality within all people, myself as well, so simply from an esthetic perspective I think there’s a lot going on.

Culturally however, ethnographical research will assert that the figure would be used as an aid in trance divination practices by the Baule. The figure would be a receptacle for a ‘bush spirit’ which would better interpret and provide guidance and direction for certain aspects of village life. The process would be carried out by an experienced practitioner of the divining art.

If you’re still reading hold on….

Within African and Diasporic philosophy spirits may be treated in a multitude of ways and flavors. Commonly they are a simple proxy for feelings, or personal drivers which are abstracted, projected and ultimately modeled into useful societal aides. This framework may be extremely useful and broad-based enough to explain away temporary/recurring lapses in judgement and when adopted by a village or society, and further nurtured into a cohesive belief system may provide a nurturing environment for inclusive acceptance of people with extraordinary abilities as well as psychological and mental issues.

For the Baule Mbra spirits were used as a projection of a spiritual intermediary better suited to navigate the spirit world and provide guidance via the diviner (African Art Western Eyes p.41, p.193, p.224).

For the Urhobo “the Iphri alludes to two distinct aspects of aggression: it inspires a warrior to defend his homeland, but it also controls an aggressive individual” (Where Gods and Mortals meet, p.59).

For the Igbo “Ikenga is treated as a being, a spirit, mmuo, which will remain with it’s owner/guardian until his death. If devout, he will ‘feed’ it daily with kola and wine…. to induce the spirit to help him succeed and again later to thank it for achieved success” (Igbo Arts, Community & Cosmos p.26).