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Yoruba Palace GardensAuthor(s): J. B. FaladeReviewed work(s):Source: Garden History, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Spring, 1990), pp. 47-56Published by: The Garden History SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1586979 .Accessed: 23/12/2011 22:15

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J. B. FALADE

YORUBA PALACE GARDENS

The Yoruba culture of south-west Nigeria, West Africa, began in about the eighth century A. D. Amongst its cultural achievements, too little known in Europe, can be listed extensive gardens surrounding the royal palaces. These are assessed here, with evidence taken from travellers' accounts, archaeological excavation and actual remains.

INTRODUCTION

There is, in some circles, a negative attitude to African traditional architecture, an attitude which has prompted others to argue that the traditional architecture of the African continent deserves more than passing consideration.1 Since many people narrowly conceive of architecture as the design of buildings, it has also become necessary to extend the same argument to the gardens.2 One can perhaps cite some examples. The most comprehensive book on Yoruba Palace architecture is that by Ojo,3 which provides some useful accounts of the buildings but erroneously refers to the gardens as 'forests' enclosed within the walls. Another example is the recent attempt to create replicas of some notable Nigerian palaces, mosques and shrines at the Jos Open Air Museum of Traditional Nigerian Architecture (MOTNA), in which the landscape character of gardens as settings for these buildings has been largely ignored.4 Such neglect reinforces the current disbelief in the existence of Nigerian garden styles and ideas. We need to redress the situation. Crowe has rightly concluded that 'Gardens are the link between men and the world in which they live, for men in every age have felt the need to reconcile themselves with their surroundings, and have created gardens to satisfy their ideals and aspirations'.5 Certainly, the Yoruba people of southern Nigeria attached great impor- tance to garden design as an art. It could be said that they were preoccupied with building elaborate gardens for their deities, kings and chiefs.6

The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the landscape character and the underlying concepts of Yoruba Palace gardens. Attempts to document the historical past of any aspect of African culture including those of Nigeria face a number of problems. One of the greatest tragedies for traditional African architecture is that the equivalents of the many great buildings and gardens around which the people in western countries can weave their local histories today have virtually disappeared in Africa. This is because

Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-lfe, Nigeria

YORUBA PALACE GARDENS

these buildings were constructed of mud7 and because gardens have proved even more ephemeral than the mud buildings they embellished. Another aspect of this problem has been the great lack of written accounts and records and the absence of plans. Therefore, except for the existing evidence, one has to rely on the very few surviving records and on oral accounts and archaeology. Thus, since many of these gardens have either vanished or been greatly altered, it is intended to study their various attributes from existing literature. In doing this one needs to free oneself from the bias of the authors whose works provide the research material. It is to the European explorers who had been curious enough in passing to describe some of the Nigerian historic gardens that much of the credit of this paper is due.

THE YORUBA PALACE

The royal palaces of Nigeria are the most important and dominant landscape elements of traditional settlements, being the largest residential units and the focal and nodal centres. Everything revolves around either the obas, emirs or shehus who live in them. The outstanding architectural quality of these palaces reflects the political, social and religious values attached to the traditional rulers. For example, Ojo in his study, Yoruba Palaces, described Yoruba obas as the political and spiritual heads of the people,8 regarded as the epitome of mankind and deserving the highest honour, privacy and comfort. The architecture of the oba's palace accords with his importance. The same can be said of other traditional rulers in Nigeria among the Hausa, Kanuri and Fulani.

The tradition of building elaborate aafins (palaces) among the Yoruba is probably as old as the earliest settlement at Ile-Ife. Although there is in fact no firm archaeological dating for the founding of Ile-Ife, it is generally believed today that the town has been occupied since the eighth century A. D. 9 Because of the importance attached to kingship and all that goes with it, this tradition was carried to other Yoruba towns. Just as Yoruba towns approximated to a model town plan, so did the palaces with their distinctive and similar architectural style. The most accomplished ones like that of Ile-Ife and Old Oyo became the set pattern for the later ones. For example, the first palace at Ilesa was said to have been laid out on Old Oyo's model with the help of one of the princes sent from Old Oyo.10

HISTORIC YORUBA PALACE GARDENS

The history of Old Oyo shows the evolutionary nature of the development of Yoruba palace architecture. Moreover, it seems that the essential attributes of the palace architecture were perfected here. Old Oyo or Katunga was the headquarters of an extensive and powerful empire which rose to prominence only after Ife had begun to decline. The palace of Old Oyo was built by Oranmiyan who had earlier pioneered the one at Ile-Ife. Both Fage and Aderibigbe11 affirm that Old Oyo State was founded by Oranmiyan, the Son of Oduduwa, who migrated from Ile-Ife. In particular Aderibigbe asserts that according to Benin tradition, the same Oranmiyan also founded a new dynasty at Benin. However, modern research has tentatively ascribed the beginning of this episode to somewhere between 1388 and I43I. Oranmiyan became the ancestral link

48

J. B. FALADE

between Ile-Ife, Old Oyo and Benin where he founded new dynasties. It is recorded by Johnson12 that the first palace at Old Oyo was completely razed to the ground by fire during the time of Sango, a misfortune and retribution caused by his own magical skill of emitting fire from his mouth. Therefore the task of building a new and more attractive palace fell on Sango's successor, Aganju, who was described as a sovereign of high taste and a lover of gardens and wildlife. According to Johnson, 'he greatly beautified the palace adding attractive squares front and back, with rows of brazen posts. He also originated the tradition of decorating the palace with (flower) hangings on state occasions'.13 The success he had in rebuilding the Old Oyo palace is remembered by the old Yoruba adage which says; 'Ile oba tojo esu ewa lose', meaning the goddess of beauty causes the palace to be burnt in order to ensure a higher architectural splendour.14 Oluaso, another king of Old Oyo, later constructed some I20 kobis, the imposing porch entrances to Yoruba palaces.15

The magnitude of the old Yoruba palaces and their landscape character can be visualized from the descriptions given by the nineteenth-century explorers and mission- aries. Generally, older Yoruba palaces had many impressive buildings that were surrounded by very high walls, while the gardens around were mostly maintained in their primeval landscape character. Of the royal palace at Old Oyo, Clapperton, a Scot,

?/ 'Figure I. j^C-lz~tJ) ~Old Oyo palace

* 7/ ) LEGEND

/"_ ,' ( [ I NUCLEUS OF OLD TOWN

" INSELBERGS

E TOWN WALL

GATES

(t ) ptJ 2 3M

A. PLAN OF OLD OYO PALACE:

SOURCE: KEAY,1947

B. THE PORCH ENTRANCES OF OLD OYO PALACE 1853. SOURCE: DENYER, 1978

49

YORUBA PALACE GARDENS

recorded that the king's palace, which covered some 226 hectares, was located on the south-facing slope of a hill (Ajaka hill). The king's residential quarters were built of clay and roofed with thatch. The posts which supported the verandahs and doors were carved in bas-relief figures depicting the boa killing either an antelope or a hog, and scenes of warriors in processions attended either by drummers or slaves.16 The Old Oyo palace had two large parks, one to the front and another facing the north. The former covered half of the total palace area and overlooked the main entrance door. To the left of this park was a fetish house, and further south were two attractive large blocks of granite outcrops (inselbergs) near which was a mature deciduous tree. In the centre of the park were two beautiful clumps of shade trees; and in the midst of them a tall fan palm (Hyphaene thebaica) which towered over the whole scene.

Barely a decade after Clapperton had described Old Oyo, it was attacked by the Fulani empire and crushed; and this led to its abandonment and the foundation of new Oyo in I837.17 Since I940 the site of Old Oyo has been designated as a Forest Reserve (Figure I). The site of the old palace is now largely overgrown with trees and saplings covered with many lianas.18

Of the royal palaces in Iwo and Ede, there is the account by Hinderer written in I858:

The King's compound [in Iwo] is quite a palace in native style, with those curious kind of towers [Kobi] peculiar to the Oyo palace. But the agbala [the palace ground], an extensive garden adjoining to it containing a variety of lofty and wide spreading trees was something .... [in Ede] the King's palace is the picture of neatness of a native building, and his agbala behind which is very large, would be a fine park if the walls were not in ruins. 19

The palace at Ile-Ife in 1912 (Figure 2) according to Frobenius: was the most impressive sight in the town, its massive walls being visible from whatever quarter one approached the town. Its front especially with the fine open square on which it stands makes an imposing effect in spite of all its ruin. The [enclosing] walls are mighty, over a yard at the base and some eighteen feet high [5 metres].20

The former Kobi of the Ooni's palace is said to have measured 92 m in length, 18 m in width and over 7 m in height.21 Frobenius also noted that Ooni's residential compound had 'three open courtyards, and a building which overlooked the largest one had a projected fore court like a baldachino, with a recessed entrance fitted with a well carved timber door and two mud steps that ran across its length'.

Frobenius also mentioned some of the wonderful baobabs, Adansonia digitata, that he saw in the courtyard gardens of the palace and in the market-places; these were the most southerly specimens of the tree he had seen. The existing Enuwa square was said to have been grassed in the past and used occasionally for the grazing of royal cattle. Furthermore, the palace had many other enclosures adorned with beautiful sculptures carefully worked in stone and iron. There was a small enclosure to the eastern part of the palace, which was adorned with many beautiful sculptures that he described as a 'monument park'.22 The sculptures in it were arranged in an interesting pattern, and included a fish head carved in stone, a block of quartz stone sculpture like a drum with five holes which was used for Ifa's worship, and in between them the anvil of Lade, a smooth bulbous or drupe-shaped iron block held to be the anvil of Ogun, the god of iron.

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J. B. FALADE

1 PALACE BUILDING

[ ENUWA SQUARE

W PALACE GARDENS

RESIDENTIAL COMPOUND

iJ TREE PLANTING

O 1 2 3M 1 L I I 1

Figure 2. Ooni's palace, I912 (source: Frobenius 1913)

Figure 3. Sculpture garden, Ooni's palace, I912. The object with a ridged

top Frobenius described as a /y-A Q~ l.^^d^~ _ ^~ ~'crocodile stone figure'. It is in

fact a mudfish (source: 'y ^il^

' _i^\.~~~ /Frobenius 1913)

Ogun, the son of Oduduwa, was a blacksmith who became deified by the Yoruba after his death and his anvil has been a symbol used to denote his presence. Another interesting feature in the midst of all these other objects was the crocodile stone figure (Figure 3).

Frobenius had comments to make about the dilapidated condition in which he found the palace. According to him:

poor Oni! poor Palace! How are the mighty fallen! Once a glorious edifice here reared itself aloft, built of bricks well burnt, brilliant with coloured tiles and sundry other orna- ment! ... Here the smoke of burning sacrifices rose into the air and here the breath of life exhaled from the many a human victim offered up, while this strange country's high priests chanted prayer. Other times other pictures! Let us see what the Oni is today; let us go to one of his audiences.23

Considering Frobenius' painstaking description, the Ooni's palace could be regarded as a perfect arcadia, even though it was in ruin at the time of his visit. The Ooni's palace was in such a state of ruin and neglect partly because of the protracted civil wars between the Modakeke and Ife people which led to the abandonment of the city twice during the

5I

YORUBA PALACE GARDENS

nineteenth century. Today, most Yoruba palace gardens have been altered substantially: only fragments of historic gardens are left in nearly all of them.

Since the beginning of this century two notable changes in the landscape character of Yoruba palaces have been identified by Falade.24 The first is the encroachment of buildings upon the palace gardens, leading to the shrinkage of the palace grounds. Ooni Aderemi asserted in 1966 that he had it on record that the present palace is a quarter the size of the original one.25 The second significant change has been the opening up of the wooded landscapes of Yoruba palaces, leading to the disappearance of majestic trees like the Adansonia digitata and their replacement with exotic trees and shrubs. Increasingly, the palace gardens begin to adopt the stereotyped grassed parklands of the English landscape style introduced by the colonial administrators. These are indicative of the changes which have taken place in the tastes and values of Yoruba kings, especially those associated with their political status and religious views.

THE YORUBA GARDEN CONCEPT

Generally, the Yoruba attach great importance to the garden as art. Their rich artistic culture attests this. The underlying idea of the Yoruba palace garden can be said to be summed up in the word ogba or agbala meaning 'an enclosed area, fenced off garden, or a yard'.26 To this end every Yoruba palace is enclosed with attractive and imposing walls. Between the walls and surrounding the palace buildings are the gardens (Figures 4 and 5).

The open spaces around the Yoruba palaces were extensive and served a number of functions. Olowo's Palace (44 ha) is the largest surviving example. In it were (and still

LEGEND

L ROADS

---I pATHS

LGARDENS

I BUILDINGS

0 100 2p0 3OOM I I 1 I Figure 4.

Olowo's palace, Owo, I976. This is one of the largest surviving traditional Yoruba palaces (based on aerial photograph)

52

J. B. FALADE

Figure 5. Aerial view of Owabokun's palace, Ilesa. The rectangular palace is framed by the

adjoining roads and enclosing walls. The palace building served as a focal point in the town. Behind it is the elaborate garden, which still has its medieval wooded landscape

are) different types of gardens both utilitarian and ornamental which include farm gardens, kitchen gardens, sacred gardens with temples, herb gardens, graveyards and wilderness landscape as a hunting park. The main man-made features of the garden were the walks paved with quartz stones and potsherds, the religious temples, monuments and statues, the carefully planted majestic and sacred trees like Ficus, Adansonia digitata, and Newboldia laevis, and the part of it preserved as wilderness and stocked with game. The value attached to the palace garden as a hunting ground is well corroborated by the need to designate a forest reserve for a similar purpose for the Alafin of Oyo whose palace had no parkland.27 These palace gardens were carefully maintained by the townspeople together with the market squares, roads, town squares and other public buildings.

The form of Yoruba palace grounds reflected cultural, environmental and religious needs. The generally hot and humid climatic conditions meant that it was imperative to create outdoor space for Yoruba kings for open air relaxation near the palace buildings. Culturally, Yoruba kings are generally held as the spiritual and political heads of the townspeople and surrounding villages. Until early this century, they were restricted to their palaces except on ceremonial occasions. There was also daily worship in temples and groves on behalf of the townspeople. Thus these palaces were developed as

53

YORUBA PALACE GARDENS

- *

B

Figure 6. Yoruba obelisks. A. Idi Ogun Esa obelisks on Itakpa Street, Ile-Ife, which might have been within the old palace compound before it was reduced in size. The triangle is a sundial. B. The obelisk at Idena Grove, Ile-Ife, 1912. C. The Oranmiyan Staff, Oranmiyan Grove, Ile-Ife. B and c are too far away from the old palace to have been included in its grounds (sources: Frobenius I9I3, Falade I984)

C

self-contained paradises or sanctuaries so that the kings could remain within them without feeling imprisoned. The immediate physical needs of the Yoruba kings were obviously partly met by the purely utilitarian gardens such as kitchen gardens, farm gardens, herb gardens, the wilderness stocked with game, and the grazing fields. Similarly, the king's spiritual needs were met by the religious temples, monoliths and statuettes erected in these gardens where open air worship often took place (Figure 6). Though Yoruba kings might have been restricted to their palaces their lives were not totally devoid of leisure pursuits.

An important landscape feature that was conspicuously absent in these historic gardens was water. Besides naturally occurring water in the garden such as streams or lakes or wells, water was represented in both abstract and symbolic forms such as the use of stone sculptures of water features like crocodile, boa and fish; some of these were described by Frobenius as the objects seen in the sculpture garden at the Ooni's palace. In addition, the impluvium (Yoruba: akodi) was originally a water garden in the courtyards of the Yoruba and the Benin compounds, of which the best examples are preserved in the palaces of the kings and compounds of the chiefs. The impluvium is a small open area in the centre of the compound purposely created to collect rain water. Hence it is sometimes referred to as a 'rain courtyard'. Usually, provision was made to

A

54

Figure 7. Courtyard paving

aho,lgca pattern, Ile-Ife. Double ivsgto inPX , hwf rows of potsherds were

laid in a herringbone pattern to form a square grid filled with

ole culure rmquartz pebbles. This

catch the water in large pots for storage but nowadays cement-plastered mud water tanks are used. Archaeological excavations at Ife revealed some impluvis paved with sherds of

can~broken pottery set onmn n rie yppbeen dated y p to the

pierced by a hole and forming a kind of funnel to avoid dampness and aerosion of the

d -\Obadjac fifteenth century

Whereas the Yoruba look to the east as the place of origin of their ancestors, archaeological evidence tends to discount this claim. For example, archaeological investigations in Ile-Ife have not only shown the antiquity of Ife culture but the modern view is that the sculpture of Ife and Benin could have evolved quite naturally out of the older Nok culture28 or might have been part of the same civilization. The Ife culture evidently drew much of its artistic tradition from that of Nok, or from an undiscovered common ancestor.29 In fact, the high standard of Yoruba arts such as the bronze and terracottas, which have been judged as among the most accomplished in the world,30 cannot be separated from other aspects of their civilization, including architecture and gardening. All flourished together. Obviously, the historic gardens described above were the creations of artists in that they existed both to house and exhibit important works of art such as sculptures and monoliths. All the major bronzes and stone sculpture treasured in museums were still in shrines and groves until they were brought into museums for safe keeping. Cordwell has rightly concluded that, among the Yoruba, elaborate architectural and artistic expression was closely associated with deities and kings.31 It could be argued that gardens were no exception.

J. B. FALADE 55

YORUBA PALACE GARDENS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to acknowledge the different authors whose works have been cited and especially permission to use Figures I and 2 which have been drawn from earlier publications by Willett (I967) and Keay (1947).

REFERENCES

I. S. Denyer, Traditional African Architecture (London, Heinemann, I978). See also B. A. Oruwari, 'Towards Evolution of Indigenous Architecture in Nigeria', NIA Journal, 3(2) (June I987), pp. 25-26. See other articles by S. Biobaku, A. Awotona in the same journal.

2. J. B. Falade, Nigeria's Urban Open Spaces: An Inquiry into their Evolution, Planning and Landscape Qualities. Ph.D Thesis, Department of Architecture Edinburgh University (1985). See chapter 8, 'Royal Gardens', pp. 307-45. 3. G. J. A. Ojo, Yoruba Palaces (London,

University Press I966). See also G. J. A. Ojo, 'Yoruba Palaces: An index of Yoruba Culture', Nigeria Magazine, 94 (1967), pp. 194-210.

4. J. B. Falade (I985), op. cit., pp. 167-70. 5. S. Crowe, Garden Design (Thomas Gibson

Publishing Ltd, I98I). 6. J. B. Falade, 'Yoruba Sacred Groves and

Squares', Edinburgh Architectural Research, I I, (1984), pp. 21-49. 7. See C. Graham, 'Some sketches of Katsina

from the past', The Nigerian Field, XXXIII, No. 2 (I968), pp. 88-90. 8. G. J. A. Ojo, op. cit. 9. G. J. A. Ojo, Yoruba Culture: A Geographical

Analysis (London University Press, I966), p. 167. See also M. D. Jeffreys, 'When was Ife founded', The Nigerian Field, xxIII No. I (I958). Io. S. Johnson, The History of the Yorubas (CMS Lagos, I92I), p. 150. Ozanne, basing his argument on the similarity between the architecture of town walls suggested that the style spread from Oyo to Ile-Ife. See Paul Ozanne, 'A new Archaeological Survey of Ife', Odu New Series No. I (April I969), pp. 28-45. I . J. D. Fage, A History of Africa (Hutchinson London, I978), chapter 4, 'The Development of States and Trades in Guinea', pp. 83-109. See also J. F. Ade Ajayi, and F. Espie, A Thousand Years of West African History (Ibadan University Press, 1965), p. 93.

12. S. Johnson (192I), op. cit. 13. S. Johnson (I92I), op. cit., pp. 9-Io and pp. 44-55. I4. G. J. A. Ojo (I966), op. cit., p. 64. I5. S. Johnson (I92I), op. cit., pp. I55-58. I6. H. Clapperton, Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa from the Bight of Benin to Soccatoo. (London, John Murray, 1828), pp. 53- 54. I7. J. D. Fage (I978), op. cit., J. F. Ade Ajayi (1972), op. cit. 18. R. W. J. Keay, 'Notes on the Vegetation of Old Oyo Forest Reserve', Farm and Forest, 8, No. I (June I947), pp. 36-47. I9. David Hinderer quoted in A. L. Mabogunje, Urbanisation in Nigeria (London, University of London Press, I968), p. 97. 20. L. Frobenius. The Voice of Africa: Being an account of the Travels of the German Inner African Expedition of the Years 1910-1912. 2 Vols (London, I9I3). Reprinted Benjamin Blom, I968. See Vol. I, pp. 270-77. 2I. G. J. A. Ojo (I966), op. cit., p. 57. 22. L. Frobenius (I913), op. cit., p. 309 of Vol. I. 23. Ibid., p. 277. 24. J. B. Falade (I985) op. cit., pp. 33I and 339. 25. Quoted in G. J. A. Ojo (I966). 26. Abrahams, Dictionary of Modern Yoruba (I958), P. 507. 27. G. J. A. Ojo (I966), op. cit. 28. J. D. Fage (1978), op. cit., p. 103. 29. F. Willett, Ife, in the History of West African Sculpture (London, Thames and Hudson, I967). See chapter ix, 'The origin of the Yoruba and of the Art of Ife', pp. II9-28.

30. See W. Bascom, African Art in Cultural perspective: An introduction (New York, I973). See also F. Willett (I967), op. cit., pp. 7-8. 31. J. M. Caldwell, Some Aesthetic aspects of Yoruba and Benin Cultures, Ph.D Thesis, North Western University (I952), p. 45.

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