tour 3 of 15
Views from Africa
Brass figure of a Portuguese soldier
This figure is striking for its careful
observation of the equipment and dress of a European soldier. It
shows a Portuguese musketeer wearing early sixteenth-century
military clothing. The style of his musket, however, dates to the
late seventeenth or early eighteenth
century.
Images of
Europeans decorated the altars, walls and roof of the palace in
Benin City. The display of these figures symbolized the
Oba's (king's) monopoly of trade with the West and
expressed his own wealth and power, but may also have had
additional significance. Towards the end of the fifteenth century,
the Oba of Benin hired European mercenary soldiers as part of his
army. The people of Benin believed that the Portuguese were
messengers of Olokun, the white-faced god of the sea. According to
legend the Oba had defeated Olokun in battle and stripped him of
his great wealth. Brass figures such as this may have commemorated
the Oba's earlier victory over Olokun.