Part 1

For Your Information

This section of the web site offers readings, images, and maps that can help students to further understand course assignments, but which are not required reading. In other words, the readings on this page are for your Information (FYI). Links from the five sections of the course come here, and are marked thus: Optional (FYI) Reading.

From Wednesday March 21

Images illustrating colonial history


This ivory pendant mask is one of a pair of nearly identical works; its counterpart is in the British Museum in London. Although images of women are rare in Benin's courtly tradition, these two works have come to symbolize the legacy of a dynasty that continues to the present day. The pendant mask is believed to have been produced in the early sixteenth century for the Oba Esigie, the king of Benin, to honor his mother, Idia. The Oba may have worn it at rites commemorating his mother, although today such pendants are worn at annual ceremonies of spiritual renewal and purification. In Benin, ivory is related to the color white, a symbol of ritual purity that is associated with Olokun, god of the sea. As the source of extraordinary wealth and fertility, Olokun is the spiritual counterpart of the Oba. Ivory is central to the constellation of symbols surrounding Olokun and the Oba. Not only is it white, but it is itself Benin's principle commercial commodity and it helped attract the Portuguese traders who also brought wealth to Benin.	Thomas Gainsborough 1727-1788 British The Baillie Family circa 1784 Oil on canvas (Oc) support 2508mm x 2273mm painting Bequeathed by Alexander Baillie 1868 N00789	Palace door Artist: Olowe of Ise (c.1875-c.1938) Yoruba/Nigerian Wood, pigments 221.3 cm (87 1/8 in)


Sir Joshua Reynolds 1723-1792 British Admiral Viscount Keppel 1780 Oil on canvas (Oc) support 1245mm x 991mm painting	Staff (opa Osanyin or opa Erinle) Yoruba peoples, Nigeria Iron 71 cm (27 in)	John Singer Sargent 1856-1925 British Colonel Ian Hamilton, CB, DSO 1898 Oil on canvas (Oc) support 1384mm x 787mm painting signed Presented by Gen. Sir Ian Hamilton 1940