The Aesthetics of Color:
Yoruba Color Aesthetics
The
Yoruba, a West African people, who have a very rich philosophy of color.
The Yoruba are from the area of Africa which today we call Nigeria. There
sacred city is Ipec, and these people have spread throughout the world.
Now there are actually Yoruba colonies even in New York and South America.
This, for example, is an ancient bronze work by Yoruba people and this is
metal casting. Their religion is a polytheistic religion. In other words,
they worship multiple deities. Their deities are very much in tune with
nature. For example, they have a thunder god, and they've got river goddesses.
The Yoruba people are famous for their bead work. The images that follow are from a show that's traveling around the United States right now called "Bead, Body and Soul: Art in Life in the Yoruba Universe." But at any rate, the Yoruba people have a lot of rich symbolism they associate with color and also with beads themselves. I'd like you to think about what a bead is. Just think about the bead as a physical object. Basically, a bead is anything, usually a small object, that has a hole in it that you can string. A bead could be a little piece of glass or plastic with a hole in it you can string. Beads are often shells. Lots of things really could be a bead. For the Yoruba people, the bead has a rich symbolism.
Look at this example of a Yoruba armchair. It is in the style of a pretty
ordinary European style armchair, something you might even find in your
grandmother's house, which is maybe a little old fashioned ? The pillow
has been removed, but what makes it extraordinary is that it is a Yoruba
king's throne. What makes it a throne is that it has been ornamented with
beads. For the Yoruba people, beads are marks of distinction. They are
used to signify important people in their culture, important political
leaders, important religious leaders, and important marks of distinction.
This chair suddenly becomes a throne and all the colors you see here are
all done with beads. It is all done by hand. All the colors have meaning
for the Yoruba people, all the symbols have meaning, and there's even
a special design that has a very rich meaning. This is what's meant to
be the interlocking design, sometimes known as interlacing design. The
faces that you see here are all faces of various deities. They revere
nature, so of course all the beautiful plants that you see on there and
their colors are extremely important.
The Yoruba chromatic system is basically organized into three chromatic categories. First, there is the category is known as "fun fun." "Fun fun" can also be translated as "white," but "white" only scratches the surface of the meaning. "Fun fun" is any color including white that is icy or cold feeling, which would include turquoise, blue, silver, chrome, and other icy colors.
For the Yoruba people, each color category also has an emotional or psychological dimension. For the Yoruba people, "fun fun" also denotes in psychological terms a kind of cool personality, an aloof, sort of cold, kind of personality. For them, their gods and goddesses that are referred to using "fun fun" colors have that personality too. These would be deities that are rather cold. Also, "fun fun" can include a very analytical kinds of people as well as deities.
The next category is what is known as "pupa," which can be translated as "red." " Pupa" also encompasses any color that relates to hot, fiery characteristics, such as orange, dark yellow, gold. When you think of the colors of fire, these are "pupa" colors. "Pupa" has the psychological dimension of a hot personality, someone who is very passionate, who might get angry very easily or fall in love very easily, who is just very passionate and cares deeply about everything. So the "pupa" personality is very hot and the associated deities are passionate deities.
"Du du" is the last category, and can be translated as "black." "Du du" also includes any color that you might think of when you think of the earth, brown, and leafy dark greens and moss greens are also considered "du du." The psychological type is a down-to-earth, practical, earthy sort of personality. Those are the three chromatic categories.
Let's now survey some examples of the various uses of color in Yoruba art. Please click on the links below to view a slide/discussion of Yoruba color chromatics.
A Flask and discussion of the symbolism of the Yoruba interlacing design
It takes a great deal of work to produce one of these objects. For the Yoruba people, beading is a spiritual exercise. It's not a mindless activity. The Yoruba believe that the beads are symbolic of the spiritual side of life. Think for a moment now again about what a bead is. It's just this little object, pretty much nothing in itself. When you take a lot of beads and string them together, what you have is a beautiful design, a beautiful object. That's the way the Yoruba people look at life. They say every act of life that we do is just a separate act of life. It doesn't mean anything when you just look at it itself. It's when all the acts of life come together and join together, that's what makes the meaning of a life. All the different discreet acts a person does come together. For the Yoruba people then, the act of beading is a metaphor for life itself. As one puts the beads together, one brings these discreet objects together and makes something beautiful and significant out of them. In the same way, each and every act of your life comes together and you make something hopefully beautiful and significant. Also, the movement the hands make while beading, enacts interlacing. The act of beading itself is the act of weaving the two realms together.
copyright © Dr. Deborah Vess 1998-2001, Georgia College & State University and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. All rights reserved. Rights to chapters authored by contributing faculty members reserved to Georgia College & State University, to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at GC&SU, and to the individual faculty authors.