Head of Oba

The commemorative heads seem to date back to the time of Ogiso, when the rulers of heaven ruled. These heads are a symbol of the continuity and permanence of royalty. They were meant to honor ancestors in family altars, while beautifying them. At first they were made of wood or clay, difficult to preserve throughout the times. The brass, or African bronze, in addition to enduring through the times, by its shining brightness had the virtue of turning away the forces from evil.

These heads representing the Oba were the replica of its owner's face, in a size equivalent to about two thirds of the original. From the wood or clay they passed to metal, bronze, actually brass with a significant proportion of zinc, with a central upper hole in which a finely sculpted elephant tusk was inserted. The glowing color of bronze or brass helped to keep the forces away from evil.

This great head commemorating an Oba or king of the Edo of Benin City is characteristic of the art of Benin at the beginning of the century XIX, 1816, the date on which the Oba Osemwede added the two side fins. The heads of Oba, from this date, are characterized by an excess of ornamentation and overload of details and by the immobilism that this kind of gola confers to the head. That gola, or enormously high necklace, was made up of twenty-six rows of pearls and the headdress formed by a fine network of coral beads adorned by erect coral rosettes and long side stripes of pearls. The side fins could represent the oba's sword of ceremonies, called "ada".

At its base stands out a kind of base with numerous representations of reptiles, symbol of power, of life, of agility, of cunning and of vigilance.

There was a time when the head of the deceased Oba was taken to the Oni de Ife, to whom sovereignty was owed, for burial in a place called Orun Oba Ado. Then the Oni sent to the new Oba the bronze melted head of his predecessor.

In addition to the heads of kings and queens mother, heads of dignitaries or foreign kings were also found bravely killed in combat and placed on the altar of the sovereign's ancestors. At this altar there was worship of the Head, the seat of the spiritual principle that confers strength and wisdom to humans and especially to the sovereign.