Posting of Power
... Her slender body with its elongated features, echoed in the figure of the king, gives the impression of awe inspiring height and physicality as well as supernatural power. ... In line with the centuries old tradition of Yoruba courtly sculpture, Olowe’s work describes the nature of rule in Yoruba society and the prevailing views on kingship and female power. ... ” The Yoruba people were in awe of the power of the female to create and bring forth life. It was, as it were, this covert power residing in the interiority of women that bestowed upon the king the overt power to rule and the ability to extend the legacy of his father’s blood line. ... The ogoga’s power is certainly not derived from his imposing corporality; Olowe makes this perfectly clear. ... Perhaps even more importantly his work served in its own time as a cultural fortification and annunciation of the power, extent and tradition of the Yoruba ideal of government, family, and sacrosanct authority invested in the life-giving female.