Lost Kingdoms of Africa-West Africa

BBC (2013)

Film Review

In this episode, art historian Dr Gus Caily-Hayford visits the Kingdom of Benin, attempting to trace the intricate West African sculptures of human faces decorated with snakes, leopards and crocodiles found in the British Museum.

The Kingdom of Benin (in modern day Nigeria) peaked in the 16th century, along with the neighboring Songhai and Mali empires. Undefined by clear boundaries or ethnic groups, each defined itself by the trade network they controlled. Benin’s capitol Benin City, extending 20,000 square miles home to a million people, was surrounded by a system of walls and water-filled trenches with a total circumference of 4,000 miles.

In 1400 the king of Mali, Mansa Musa was the richest man in the world and sent envoys to the European courts. Visiting the ancient Mali capitol Timbutu, Caily-Hayford learns its longstanding Islamic tradition (which forbids the artistic reproduction of human beings) rules it out as the source of the bronze sculptures in the British Museum.

In Djenne-Djeno on Mali’s southern border, the oldest city (founded 200 BC) in sub-Saharan Africa, he finds wood carvings (masks and figurines – some dating back to to 10,000 BC) similar to the Benin bronzes in the British Museum.  Archeologists and historians regard this distinctive style of carving and sculpture as an story telling technique and alternative method (as opposed to writing) of recording history. As in Benin, the masons of Djenne-Djeno belong to a heredity guild and still use a unique blend of mud, rice and charcoal that give its buildings the same distinctive appearance. Archeological finds indicate its artisans engaged in iron smelting beginning in 500 BC.

It appears the Dogons who founded Djenne-Deno originally migrated from the original Manding homeland in eastern Guinea Traditionally Dogon elders revered leopards and snakes and built elaborate artistically decorated structures to store grains from the rich muds of termite mounds. They also made headdresses, jewelry and ceramics. The pottery found in this region is from 9,400 BC, making it 8,000 years older than the earliest British pottery.*

In 1897 after Benin broke a trade agreement, a punitive British expedition razed Benin City to the ground. As Mali’s colonial ruler, in 1914 Britain restored the Benin monarchy and rebuilt the palace. The current Oba of the Benin region rules conjointly with the nation of Nigeria and local chiefs.

Modern Benin artisans still cast intricate bronze masks and statuettes as members of a hereditary bronze casters guild. The process begins by carving the figurine out of clay and covering it first with wax and then with soft mud. After heating melts the wax, molten bronze is poured into the mold that remains. Traditionally bronze casters made bronze by melting down North African copper bracelets they obtained from Portuguese traders. Now they melt down scrap metal.

*In 9,400 BC, Britain had yet to emerge from the last Ice Age.