The Lower Niger Bronzes

The Lower Niger Bronzes
Author: Philip M. Peek
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2020-07-27
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1000096912

This book demonstrates that copper-alloy casting was widespread in southern Nigeria and has been practiced for at least a millennium. Philip M. Peek’s research provides a critical context for the better-known casting traditions of Igbo-Ukwu, Ife, and Benin. Both the necessary ores and casting skills were widely available, contrary to previous scholarly assumptions. The majority of the Lower Niger Bronzes, which we know number in the thousands, are of subjects not found elsewhere, such as leopard skull replicas, grotesque bell heads, ritual objects, and humanoid figures. Important puzzle pieces are now in place to permit a more complete reconstruction of southern Nigerian history. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, African studies, African history, and anthropology.

The Lower Niger Bronzes

The Lower Niger Bronzes
Author: Philip M. Peek
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2020-07-27
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1000096874

This book demonstrates that copper-alloy casting was widespread in southern Nigeria and has been practiced for at least a millennium. Philip M. Peek’s research provides a critical context for the better-known casting traditions of Igbo-Ukwu, Ife, and Benin. Both the necessary ores and casting skills were widely available, contrary to previous scholarly assumptions. The majority of the Lower Niger Bronzes, which we know number in the thousands, are of subjects not found elsewhere, such as leopard skull replicas, grotesque bell heads, ritual objects, and humanoid figures. Important puzzle pieces are now in place to permit a more complete reconstruction of southern Nigerian history. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, African studies, African history, and anthropology.

Red Gold of Africa

Red Gold of Africa
Author: Eugenia W. Herbert
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 448
Release: 1984
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780299096045

The classic history of copper working and use throughout Africa. Researched with a depth of scholarship that will leave future historians green with envy.

The Literature and Arts of the Niger Delta

The Literature and Arts of the Niger Delta
Author: Tanure Ojaide
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2021-04-19
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1000379051

This book examines the depiction of the Delta region of Nigeria through literature and other cultural art forms. The Niger Delta has been thrust into the global limelight due to resource extraction and conflict, but it is also a region with a rich culture, environment, and heritage. The creative imagination of the area’s artists has been fuelled by the area’s pressing concerns of indigenous peoples, minority discourse, environmental degradation, climate change, multinational corporations' greed, dictatorship, and people’s struggle for control of their resources. Taking a holistic approach to the Niger Delta experience, this book showcases artistic responses from literature, visual arts, and performances (such as masquerades, dances, and festivals). Chapters cover authors, artists, and performers such as Ben Okri, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Isidore Okpewho, J.P. Clark, and Bruce Onobrakpeya, as well as topics like the famous Benin bronze figures and Urhobo Udje dance. Affirming the wealth and diversity of the region which continues to inspire creative artistic productions, The Literature and Arts of the Niger Delta will be of interest to researchers of African literature, arts, and other cultural productions.

Masterpieces of Nigerian Art

Masterpieces of Nigerian Art
Author: Ekpo Eyo
Publisher: Chinazor Onianwah
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2014-07-21
Genre: Art
ISBN:

The Federal Republic of Nigeria maintains a rich artistic legacy that is more than two thousand years old. As such, it provides some interesting counterpoints to Western art history. Nigeria's ancient Nok art, for example, predated the golden age of Greece, and the exquisite bronzes of lgbo Ukwu (9th-10th C), Ife (12th-15th C), and Benin (15th-19th C) compare favorably to European traditions. Furthermore, the art of Benin thrived under the patronage of a single, unbroken dynasty during a time when many European governments rose and fell.Yet, for many reasons, the Western world would not recognize this artistic heritage until modern times. In this volume, Ekpo Eyo explains the prirnitivist viewpoint that once dominated the Western perception of African art and recalls the efforts of certain more open-minded individuals from Nigeria's colonial past who, in their efforts to collect, preserve, and present important sculptures and other artworks, were instrumental in founding the country's first museums. Their successor, today's National Commission for Museums and Monuments, has collected many additional works from their original settings, placing them in the limelight of the world through publications and museum exhibitions, to which the author has contributed much throughout his career. Eyo therefore discusses Nigerian art in the broader context of the world's art history, arguing that the art of Nigeria is fundamentally a testament to universal human creativity. From Shrines to Showcases: Masterpieces of Nigerian Art includes examples selected from all major regions of the country, spanning the distant past to the modern age, which are to be considered amongst the greatest artistic achievements of humanity.

The Izon of the Niger Delta

The Izon of the Niger Delta
Author: Ebiegberi Joe Alagoa
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 872
Release: 2009-12-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 9788195423

The Izon of the Niger Delta is a global history of the Izon, Ijo, or Ijaw people from their homelands in the Niger Delta, through Nigeria, the West and Central African coastlands, and in the Africa diaspora into Europe, the America's and the Caribbean. It is a preliminary study which raises questions and opens ground for further research. The book provides chapters that take an overview of issues on the environment of the Niger Delta, an analysis of the Ijo population, the language, culture, resources, history and linkage to the rest of Nigeria and the world. In effect these chapters provide a synopsis of the Ijo in the past and their situation in the present.

General History of Africa

General History of Africa
Author: International Scientific Committee for the drafting of a General History of Africa
Publisher: UNESCO Publishing
Total Pages: 891
Release: 1988-12-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9231017098

One of UNESCO's most important publishing projects in the last thirty years, the General History of Africa marks a major breakthrough in the recognition of Africa's cultural heritage. Offering an internal perspective of Africa, the eight-volume work provides a comprehensive approach to the history of ideas, civilizations, societies and institutions of African history. The volumes also discuss historical relationships among Africans as well as multilateral interactions with other cultures and continents.

Art, Performance and Ritual in Benin City

Art, Performance and Ritual in Benin City
Author: Gore Charles Gore
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2019-07-30
Genre: Benin City (Nigeria)
ISBN: 1474468586

This book explores the roles of contemporary urban shrines and their visual traditions in Benin City. It focuses on the charismatic priests and priestesses who are possessed by a pantheon of deities, the communities of devotees, and the artists who make artifacts for their shrines. The visual arts are part of a wider configuration of practices that include song, dance, possession and healing. These practices provide the means for exploring the relationships of the visual to both the verbal and performance arts that feature at these shrines. The analysis in this book raises fundamental questions about how the art of Benin, and non-Western art histories more generally, are understood. The book throws critical light on the taken-for-granted assumptions which underpin current interpretations and presents an original and revisionist account of Benin art history.

The Benin Plaques

The Benin Plaques
Author: Kathryn Wysocki Gunsch
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2017-12-15
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1351254596

The 16th century bronze plaques from the kingdom of Benin are among the most recognized masterpieces of African art, and yet many details of their commission and installation in the palace in Benin City, Nigeria, are little understood. The Benin Plaques, A 16th Century Imperial Monument is a detailed analysis of a corpus of nearly 850 bronze plaques that were installed in the court of the Benin kingdom at the moment of its greatest political power and geographic reach. By examining European accounts, Benin oral histories, and the physical evidence of the extant plaques, Gunsch is the first to propose an installation pattern for the series.