One sunny morning in January 1938, bricklayers doing house building works at a place called Wumonije Compoud in Ile-Ife made a discovery that rubbished the existing understanding of African civilisation.
The workmen were digging the foundation of a house when they uncovered a cache of bronze heads depicting the personality of some of their Yoruba ancestors. 16 brass and copper heads, and the upper half of a brass figure were unearthed that day.
The discovery would become one of the most important chance finds in human history. The artefacts became known as the Ife Heads.
One of the objects particularly stood out from the rest because of it’s unmistakeable appeal of royalty and prosperity, it was identified as Ori Olokun (the head of the custodian of the seas, riches, and prosperity). The man depicted must have been royalty. 
Ori Olokun would later become a symbol of Yoruba identity and one of the symbols of black consciousness. When the University of Ife was established in 1961 the image was naturally adopted as the university’s logo.
It’s hard to ignore the beauty of these objects - take a moment to observe the pristine design of even the tiniest details; carbon dating put the date of construction around 800 A.D.
Archeologists believe that the art-historical importance of the Ife Heads lies in their highly developed and distinctive sculptural style, described alternately as “naturalistic, portraitlike, and humanistic”.
The technique used in the production was developed first in terracotta before it was then transferred to other materials like metal. Terracotta is a form of claywork and in Yoruba tradition, women are the clayworkers and may have been the creators of the Ife terracotta heads.
The production of the other bronze cast works, involving both terracotta and metalworking, may have been collaborative efforts with men.
The delicately rendered vertical lines on many of the sculptures is what tribal marks looked like back then; how were they able to mark such fine lines without bleeding to death? Facial striations was a status thing, which means that body arts/tattoo is a part of our culture!
Why were the Ife Heads constructed in the first place? Ori translates to mean head in the Yoruba language. According to Yoruba thought, a person is made up of three important elements: Ara (body), Emi (the soul) and Ori (spiritual head).
Ori is the indicator of one’s purpose in life, the bearer of destiny and also the essence of human personality which rules, control and guides the life and activities of the person.
The Ife Heads were constructed to imitate the journeys of the Ori of these ancient people and you can see some of the figures depicting crowned royalty & their attendants, images of diseased, deformed, or captive persons. It’s like making a 'photo collage' of someone’s ancestors
Yoruba thought is deep. For context, here’s an Ifa (the Yoruba system of divination) verse discussing Ori (the spiritual head):
Ignorant assumptions about cultures has led many to view these objects as elements of a heathen worships, pagan culture& bloody rituals. Reverence for ancestors is not worship of parents neither is the honour paid to them through construction of art works idol worshipping.
Our CRK/IRK teachers said dumb things and those Nollywood movies are stupid; no one worships terracotta heads or sculptures. Your ancestors were not idol worshippers.
When the colonisers first encountered the Ife Heads experts compared them to the highest achievements of ancient Roman or Greek art. Some ‘experts’ could not believe that Africa had ever had a civilisation capable of creating artefacts of this quality.
One of such experts was a moronic idiot named Leo Frobenius who was a German explorer studying race types and origins, and he explored the cultural region of the Yoruba.
When he encountered the first Ife Head, he equated Olokun with Poseidon the Greek god and rushed to tell the world that he has discovered the indisputable proofs of the existence of the lost continent of Atlantis 😂. 'A work of high artistic merit' he said.
Attempting to explain what was beyond his understanding, Frobenius offered his theory that loveliness of the object is “entirely devoid of Negro characteristics, and there is no doubt that it cannot have been constructed by locals”.
The unfortunate Frobenius told everyone that a colony of ancient Greeks established in Ile-Ife and they must have constructed the Ife Heads. Here’s a January 30, 1911 New York Times report of Frobenius’ discovery: timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1…
Many of the objects found in the Wunmonije Compound and neighbouring areas are now in the collections of museums in Europe and America where they’re are money-spinners, helping to attract millions of tourists – and their wallets.
How do you label something as ‘idol worship’, 'backward' and ‘fetish’, then you turn around to make millions with it?
Those artefacts (including the Benin heads etc.) were STOLEN from here. We’re all aware that the British Museum has offered to ‘loan’ some of the artefacts to Nigeria for a short period, which is ridiculous because how do you loan me my own property?
Extra: The British Museum attempted a feeble explanation of the significance of the heads in this short video: khanacademy.org/humanities/art…
