An Ethnographer’s casual look at Woodcraft in Lagos
Woodcraft or woodcarving- “the art of shaping figures, ornaments, furniture, and utensils out of wood by means of cutting tools and drills” (Charles H. F. Avery 2009) – has remained fashionable world over from the beginning of time. As stated by Albert Toft (1862), “Wood-carving perhaps covers a wider field of works than any other craft, embracing as it does furniture and architecture, both domestic and ecclesiastic, with all the hundred and one style ranging from Celtic, Moorish, Gothic, to the more refined styles of the Greeks and Romans, the lasting triumphs of the Renaissance, and the glorious style of eighteenth century France and the Empire” (Albert Toft, 1862:210)
Woodcarving is entrenched in Nigeria too, and wood seems the most native of sculptural mediums-our homes are made of wood, most of our furniture, utensils, gaming equipment, and gods are made of wood, and in the South West Nigeria we have great forests of beautiful woods. Indeed, it appears, to borrow John Rood’s (1950:19) words that, “sculpture in wood fits most readily in homes” in Nigeria. Nigerians are deeply religious so religion got richly imbedded in wood craft.
We looked at two major art studios in Lagos- Universal Studios of Art at National Theatre of Art and Okobaba Sawmill at Ebute Meta. Among carvers in Universal Studio of Art and Okobaba Sawmill there exist two major kinds of wood carving which include: traditional wood carving and contemporary wood carving.
Traditional wood carving as held in Universal Studios and Okobaba Sawmill are carvings done in motifs representing traditional styles or religious beliefs. Traditional carving according to Tunde at Universal Studios is: “What our forefathers did for a long time. It’s handed-down carving style-something somebody started. They kept doing it for a long time and handed it over to generations…Traditional carving started with Yoruba culture. Like when you say babalawo, meaning native doctor. Sometimes it tells story about the gods, for instance, Obaluwaye, Obatala or Sango. Those are ideas they portrayed in their own time”. So traditional carvings comes out most often in the form of ‘masquerades’ or fierce looking ancestral gods, or other general themes like Ibeji, twins that fulfil some social or religious roles. Traditional carvings appear unpopular these days, especially amongst carvers at Universal Studios. Tunde says the reasons: “In some homes when you say ‘traditional’, they believe it is fetish. They fear them. Those are the African mentality. But the Whiteman embrace our traditional works because traditional carving in Whiteman’s reckoning looks so different, so African. So they embrace them because of their features, the way they look”. Artists like Tunde learnt carving from masters who majored in traditional carving. So they would readily accept to do good traditional carvings when commissioned. But patronage or recognition these days rarely comes through traditional carvings. According to Tunde, “you have to do what people want. Most collectors we have now really want something modern-contemporary art”.
Wood carvers at Okobaba Sawmill have no such classification; a few of them are widely-known specialists in traditional carving. Baba, who resigned his job at Nigerian Textile Mill, Ikeja and joined his father’s studio fully as professional carver in 1970 is one of them. He receives commissions from Agents and collectors who come to check out his works or brings him photographs of works they need. He recalls, smiling broadly, “I learnt automobile electronics as a young man, but I learnt carving watching my father. Later I discovered that there was money in carving, so I came into carving fully. I joined my father in carving. Then Oyibo were many in Nigeria. We had very busy time carving, we will carve many and they will buy it all. They would come from Kingsway, Leventis, Peugeot and other places every day begging for supply. But the military
started killing the system, now it is dead”. Presently, Baba says he is suffering because he does not see a throng of Oyibo scrambling for his works in his workshop. But he has some art agents who come seeking specifically for his touch on traditional works. One of them is Lekan, a young art agent who trades in Brazil. He came in while interview with Baba was on, “That boy trades art works in Brazil. He sends some artwork to Brazil from here, but most times he goes there himself.
You know, some Brazilians like Yoruba traditions and religion. He booked for some works well over six months ago. He sent in money to me”. Most works in traditional carvers’ studios in Okobaba Sawmill are figures that look somewhat aberrant.
They are predominantly figures of mermaids-creatures of half human, half fish, young ladies with large and pointed breasts,bulging eyeballs and buttocks or old men with elongated necks and large skulls. Seeing them it tells clearly that these artists draw heavily from Yoruba myth. Most of their works are reproductions. The few animal motifs in these studios lack such abnormalities as can be seen in human figures. According to Baba Femi, another aged carver at Okobaba Sawmill, “Yoruba in the past didn’t like carving their figures in real human form- they made them abnormal. That’s why it’s called traditional art work. They could carve an image that resembles a real person and such image would be taken to the shrine of a witch doctor for malevolent purpose-to harm the person. It happens, even now”.
Traditional carving is waning because of themes rooted in traditional religion that it represented in the past. Today, most traditional carvers at Okobaba Sawmill are Christians; they do not believe that any element of power reside in the figures they carve. For them carving is a means of livelihood. They do not believe that objects they make turns out as gods. So when the researcher asked Baba James if he carves gods, he frowns and with a solemn voice declares, “You can make it to be your god. If you believe it is your god, then it becomes your god. Almighty God created the river, but some people go there to worship it. They will say ‘we are going to do our festival’. Some people even have shrines there. Some worship the sun-they say it is their god. We take so many burdens on ourselves. We accumulate things we are not supposed to accumulate. Most people that buy our works use them for decoration”. Foreign tourists seem to constitute major market for traditional objects in
Lagos. Christianity has done a great deal of injury to the industry since most Nigerians who could have supported the local market now see most figures done in this genre as instruments of diabolism or carriers of inimical powers.
Contemporary wood carving in these Lagos studios denotes new carving styles or fresh ideas generated and circulated by new generation of artists. It implies a deviation from traditionally established sculptural norms. It does not amount to a complete abandonment of learned old tradition but insightful improvement on them. Artists at Universal Studio of Art believe in freshness of styles built mainly around abstract sculpture. They deem an artist worth his intellectual salt should continually generate new ideas and express same aptly on modern-day motifs. So for Ademola at Universal Studios, “Contemporary art
is about creativity. You can create something unusual. It shouldn’t be something somebody had being doing in the past. You have to create many titles of your own works…In our time we render a woodwork and title it ‘Mother’ or ‘Dancer’ or
‘Acrobat’ or ‘Queen’ , like what you see here in the studio. Those are the modern titles”. So they term anyone who does same work twice or reproduces traditional or religious cult works as ‘craftsman’ or ‘street carver’, appellations a few people use for carvers at Okobaba Sawmill and others who may have greater dexterity and skill but failed to have experience of going through academic institutions and lack those foundational tenets derived from the knowledge of ‘basic art’-theories of art, art history, art psychology and others.
Jonathan U. Okereafor is an Assistant Chief Ethnographer at National Museum, Lagos.
