Home of Chief Isekhure: The Remodeling of a Traditional Chief's Home and its Destruction
The Oba's chief priest, educated in Canada, remodeled his traditional home in 1995. Stripped of his title in January, 2017 for offenses against the new monarch, Oba Ewuare II, parts of his house were reduced to rubble.
Text
Chief Nosa Isekhure, the hereditary chief priest of the Oba, belongs to the Ihogbe guild, the palace group that tends the royal ancestors. The Erimwi-Idu royal ancestral shrine was erected in his home for convenient prayer centuries ago, as was an altar to his own ancestors. Newly-made chiefs stopped at the royal shrine when celebrating their titles in a procession through the city.
In 1995, he gave his home a facelift, employing sculptors to add a figurative balustrade and adorn the roofline with relief sculpture. He incorporated his title, as well as an item associated with him--the ukhurhe, or ancestral staff, covered with red ododo cloth. Chief Isekhurhe held the staff in ceremonies when he prayed for the Oba.
When Oba Ewuare II was crowned in October of 2016, Isekhure refused to participate in some key rites and offended the monarch. Some months later, the Traditional Council carried out the Oba's will and stripped him of the privileges and responsibilities of his title. In January of 2017 the palace took control of the royal shrine, destroyed part of the facade, and sealed the front entrance to the home.
Files
Chief Isekhure's Home after its 1995 Renovation
Like many Benin chiefs, Chief Isekhure decided to give his traditional-style home an exterior face-lift in 1995. The interior remained a mix of traditional architecture, including shrines, and modern furniture and conveniences. | Date: 1995
Chief Isekhure's House, 1994
Before its exterior renovation, Chief Isekhure's house resembled traditional Benin mud-built architecture, except for its corrugated metal roof. | Date: 1994
Entrance to Chief Isekhure's Home
This traditional home entrance does not visually or spatially lead to a large room for entertaining, Rather, the entrance is somewhat maze-like, meant to confuse intruders. Like most Benin homes, framed photographs constitute a major form of interior wall decoration. The exterior walls are horizontally scored, a privilege reserved for the monarch and his chiefs. | Date: 1994
Front Facade of Chief Isekhurhe's Residence
The horizontal grooves that mark chiefs' homes are evident on both the facade and the house's pillars. | Date: 1994
Figurative balustrade, Chief Isekhure's Home
A gilded, figurative cement balustrade alternated the figures of Edo men and women dressed in traditional wrappers. Their body proportions are natural, unlike older sculpture, which emphasized the head, the seat of one's destiny. | Date: 1995
Medallion on the Roofline of Chief Isekhure's House
This architectural relief medallion includes an extension that represents the ukhurhe ododo, the red-wrapped royal ancestral staff Chief Isekhure wields when praying during palace ceremonies. While this ukhurhe appears on the royal altar at Chief Isehure's home, it or a duplicate is kept at the palace's royal ancestral compound. | Date: 1995
Central Roofline Medallion, Chief Isekhure's Remodeled Home
This large relief medallion shows the red ododo-wrapped ukhurhe staff that Chief Isekhure used to pray on behalf of the Oba. An ada and eben, two aristocratic ceremonial swords, flank it. The inscription refers to the chief being the servant of the ododo staff, for it represents the deceased royal ancestors. | Date: 1995
Roofline Relief Decoration, Chief Isekhurhe's Renovated Palace
This relief appears to represent a mystical trio floating in the otherworld. They are attired like Benin chiefs, and may represent the forebears of members of the hereditary Ihogbe guild. When the present dynasty established itself in Benin, three royal relations of its founder remained to look after the mother of the soon-to-be-born Oba Eweka I, and guided him to adulthood. The artist emphasized the musculature of the figures and abandoned the frontality and abstract proportions of earlier Benin work. His representation of a very Christian-looking dove above the central figure forcibly recalls the Catholic concept of Trinity. Chief Isekhure had his name emblazoned on the relief, its contrasting color allowing greater legibility. | Date: 1995
Roofline Segment, Chief Isekhure's Home
On the non-celestial side of the roofline relief, the artist depicted a chiefly procession. The umbrella marks and protects the aristocrat, while a cart filled with drums follows, the musicians playing as they walk. A lively crowd trails behind. The emphasis on movement and naturalistic anatomy and proportions did not become part of Benin art until the 20th century. Many artists who create architectural decorations of this sort graduated from fine arts programs at the University of Benin or from Auchi Polytechnic. | Date: 1995
Medicine Hung at the inside of Chief Isekhure's Front Door
Numerous prominent Edo men hang medicine over the lintel of the inner side of their front door. This is to prevent evildoers, such as thieves or enemies, from completing their tasks. Brooms, such as the one here, are often referred to when people tell stories of medicine used for property protection: "When the family woke up, they found the thief sweeping the floor." | Date: 1994
Altar to Chief Isekhure's Ancestors
This family ancestral altar is dedicated to the previous titleholders, who were all relations: the title devolves onto the oldest son. When an Isekhure dies, his son "plants" his altar and has a wooden ukhurhe staff carved in his memory. The staffs are leaned against when not in use, but the chief will hold them in prayer, calling upon the ancestors for blessings or curses. This altar is just inside the passage from the front door, positioned within a niche. The palm fiber fringe hung above is a screen to prevent the shrine's spiritual pollution, while the wooden chiefs' heads that flank the altar are for decoration. | Date: 1994
Wall Relief of Ofoe
This decorative wall relief is located to the right of Chief Isekhure's own ancestral altar. It represents Ofoe, the messenger of the god of death, Oguiwu, who does not deign to pick up his victims himself. Ofoe is composed only of essentials: his trunkless body consists only of a head and the limbs that emerge directly from it--legs for running towards the victim and arms for grabbing him. Ofoe imagery shows up on the Oba's altars as well, but here the artist has mixed in imagery usually associated with Osun, deity of medicine. Snakes representing supernatural powers emanate from his nostrils and he grips them, the latter trait new to this artist. Ofoe is depicted as a nobleman, wearing the beaded udahae headband of a titleholder. | Date: 1994
Drums Stored in the Shrine
Chief Isekhure's drums are kept in the shrine, which has several contemporary relief decorations. One is modeled after the so-called "FESTAC Mask", actually an ivory pendant that became the emblem of the 1977 international festival. It is flanked here by the eben and ada ceremonial swords. | Date: 1994
Royal Ancestral Shrine
In his role as the Oba's chief priest, the Isekhure prays not only at the palace itself, but at a shrine dedicated to the royal ancestors within his own home. Like the royal altars at the palace and the altars of those Enigie ("dukes") who descend from prior monarchs, it has a semi-circular shape that distinguishes it from all other Edo. A stool for the chief's use rests to the right. This shrine is now under direct royal control, and the chief's duties have devolved upon the Ihoma of Ihogbe. | Date: 1994
Royal Ancestral Shrine, Chief Isekhure's Home
Like the palace's royal altars, this one supports the ukhurhe that represent deceased ancestors, brass bells rung to draw their attention for prayers, and prehistoric stone axe heads, used to swear oaths upon and strengthen one's words. | Date: 1994
Ukhurhe Ododo
This royal ukhurhe, or ancestral staff, is wrapped in ododo, a red cloth first imported by the Portuguese and associated with royalty and the aristocracy. Next to it is a peeled wand or whip. | Date: 1994
Bell to Call the Ancestors
Brass quadrangular bells are kept on the royal altars to summon the royal ancestors when prayers are offered. | Date: 1994
Hornblower
The royal ancestral shrine at Chief Isekhure's home included several sculptural decorations. This 20th-century piece represents a member of the royal guild of ivory trumpeters. Although inspired by palace sculptures of the same subject--some of which date back to the 16th century--its proportions differ, and the horn itself has an exaggerated length. | Date: 1994
Shrine Decoration
The shrine to the royal ancestors housed in Chief Isekhure's house includes a pair of royal heads with ivory tusks protruding from the crown. Their material is difficult to determine, but they are 20th-century reinterpretations of the brass heads that stand on the palace's royal ancestral shrine. Here, however, "tusks" of the same material replace the actual carved ivory of the prototypes. | Date: 1994
Detail of the Tusk on an Altar Decoration
Although this tusk is not made from ivory, the artist attempted to imitate the low-relief carvings of actual royal tusks. The upper image is that of the "FESTAC mask", the ivory pendant that represents Oba Esigie's mother, whose ivory rep | Date: 1994