The Arts In Ile-Ife

Ile Ife people had many arts in their culture. They had dance, beadwork, sculpting, music, and storytelling. Their arts contributed to everyday life.

"Dance is one way that helps open communication between passed and present." That’s what the Yoruba people believed. Thus, dance was a big part of religion and arts in lle-lfe. They danced to honor people in the spirit world. In one of the dances they honored the ancestors. This was called an Egugun dance. Watch a video clip of a modern Egungun dance in Nigeria. As you can see costumes for the dance were elaborate often consisting of multi-layered cloth and monkey skulls.

Another dance they did was when they worshiped Osun, the goddess of the rivers. When they worshipped her they wore all white. The Ile-Ife way of worshipping gods and goddesses through dance spread to the Americans and is done today in Brazil as Candomble, in Cuba as Lukumi and in Puerto Rico as Santeria. Here's a video we made explaining this information more from our own perspective.

Another art they had was the sculptures which were later found by a German ethnographer in 1911. The sculptures found reflected images of people and animals and, according to the German ethnographer, they had a way of creating the sculptures that involved many steps and time. The people would first make a clay model that would have the shape of what they had in mind whether it was an animal or a person. After the clay dried, they would pour a thin layer of beeswax and then carve all the details into the sculpture. After completing that, they would put several more layers of clay on top of the beeswax so that they could bake it and harden it. They would create fire around in a circle and put the sculpture in the middle, letting it stay overnight until it completely hardened. Having that done, they took the following step of having the melted beeswax taken out of the sculpture and in there they would pour bronze. Finally, after the bronze dried up they would carefully crack the outer layer of clay revealing the true sculpture inside. It would be amazing the detail and time taken to create this. However, look at the results. Here's an example of a sculpture from Ile-Ife.








Another very important art was beadwork. Beadwork was used a lot in Ile-Ife. Making beadwork took a lot of time a skill. Beadwork usually had a lot of color, designs, and shapes. Beadwork was usually put on clothes, crowns, and jewelry. That’s why it was as expansive as it was. Not everyone could afford beads. Only kings, queens, rulers, judges, priests, and other powerful people could afford them.


Besides beadwork, in Ile-Ife music was a very important art form. So the musicians had specific jobs while playing each one of their instruments. For example, when a dancer performs there is a drummer present to help guide the dancer while he/she performs. When I say guide, I mean the rhythms the drummer play tell the dancer how to move. The key purpose is for the drummer to help guide the conversation between the dancer and the other world. In addition, there would be other musicians present playing other types of drums, basically backing up the lead drummer. Moreover, there are some connections on how music is viewed between today’s society and Ile-ife. For instance they believed the drummers helped guide the dancers as they perform, and in today’s society people believe that musicians in general help tell a story when someone is performing a piece. Another connection between Ile-Ife music and today's society, is that some of our most popular music got some of its rhythm from that society. Salsa is one for example. If you love salsa, click on this video clip of local salsa dancers.



Storytelling was one of their popular cultures. One reason why they told stories is to show kids lessons from doing wrong. These stories were told by the women. The reason is because the men were too busy to tell stories because they had other jobs.


In conclusion, ile-ife had many different art forms that are used in America today. The art forms included music, dance, sculpture, storytelling, and beadwork. In addition, Ife accomplished a lot with their artists. The artists created masterpieces with different materials; all of this was natural to them and was on the high lines of art. The Yoruba art form dancing inspired a new style of dance called salsa to come alive in other countries like Cuba, and other Latin countries. Then when it comes to music, Ife created their own unique sound that has just vocals and different types of percussion. Finally, their handcrafting has paved the way for technology to change and for there to be machines that can do what an artist can.



Sources (Lord Of The Dance Movie, Djenaba Kouyate, Roslyn Adele Walker)