THE CONCEPT OF ÌWÀ IN YORÙBÁ AESTHETICS

Authors

  • Rowland Abiodun Amherst College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7443/problemata.v13i1.63351

Keywords:

Yoruba aesthetics, Ìwà, Character, Beauty, Existence

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the concept of ìwà, usually translated as “character”, and its possible implications for the study of Yoruba aesthetics. Starting from the Yoruba proverb that says “ìwà l'ẹwà”, that is, ìwà constitutes beauty, the text will seek to explain in what ways the category that was usually ethical, character (ìwà) was, in Yoruba thought and art, internally linked with the idea of ​​beauty (ẹwà). The relationship between the Yoruba concepts of character and existence will also be analyzed from the point of view of Yoruba art and perception of the orishas, deities with complex relationships with the realm of existence. The paper will also discuss the relationships between beauty and character in the context of a distinction between a microaesthetic and a macroaesthetic; useful ideas for understanding the production, criticism and enjoyment of art among the Yoruba. This approach is intended to contribute to the understanding of the links between ethics and aesthetics in Yoruba Philosophy of Arts.

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Author Biography

Rowland Abiodun, Amherst College

Rowland Abiodun is John C. Newton Professor of Art, the History of Art, and Black Studies at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. He is the author of Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art (2014), What Follows Six Is More than Seven: Understanding African Art (1995); co-author of Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought (1989), Yoruba Art and Aesthetics (1991), and Cloth Only Wears to Shreds: Yoruba Textiles and Photographs from the Beier Collection (2004); and co-editor of Ifá Divination: Knowledge, Power and Performance, 2016 and The Yoruba Artist: New Theoretical Perspectives on African Arts (1994). Abiodun is Advisory Board member, the National Museum of African Art; the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; and was a consultant for, and participant in, the Smithsonian World Film, Kindred Spirits: Contemporary Nigerian Art. A former member and chair of the Herskovits Book Award Committee of the African Studies Association, Abiodun has also served on the Board of Directors of the African Studies Association and as the President of the Arts Council of the African Studies Association. He chaired the Executive Board of the Five College African Scholars Program, Amherst, Massachusetts, and has been interviewed by the BBC World Service on the Art of Africa. In 2011, he received the Leadership Award of the Arts Council of the African Studies Association in recognition of his excellence, innovative contributions, and vision in the fields of African and Diasporic Arts.

References

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Published

2022-06-21

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1 (2022)

Section

Dossiê especial - ESTÉTICA E FILOSOFIA DA ARTE AFRICANA

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