Primitives or Classicists? A Critical Look at the Work of Uli Women Painters of Nri

ABSTRACT

Uli is the body and wall painting tradition of the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria. It was popular and common across Igbo villages until recently. The decline of uli like many other such cultural resources results from nescience and devaluation of autochthonous cultural expressions that do not measure up to prescribed Western ideas of art in the postcolonial experience. As part of efforts to save uli from possible extinction, artists of Nsukka School have researched the uli creative idiom and also appropriated it in their work. However, this appropriation, while trying to prolong the tradition, has also subtly added to the shadow of primitivism cast on the work of uli classical women painters in scholarship as the two paradigms have existed along the lines of the traditional–contemporary binary championed by Western scholars of African art in the early 1990s and beyond. This paper studies the uli revivalist painting sessions organized by Obiora Udechukwu and Krydz Ikwuemesi in 2003 and 2004 and uses the process and outcome of the paintings to argue that the women are not primitives, but classicists, if classicism is to be seen as a multi-versal experience.

KEYWORDS:

• Uli
• classicists
• classical
• primitive
• creative idiom

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The uli botanical names include Rothmania Whitfieldi, Rothmania hispiole, Rothmania cuspica, and Rothmania urcelli. These species have the following Igbo names: Uli Oba, Uli Nkilisi, Uli Ed’eji, and Uli Okolobo.

2 This is part of a comment in an uli movie by Chuu Krydz Ikwuemes, with the title, The Rediscovery of Tradition: Uli and the Politics of Modernity: A Documentary on Igbo Traditional Body and Wall Painting and its Influence on Some Modern Nigerian Art.

3 The major theorists among the artists are Chike Aniakor and to some extent, Obiora Udechukwu. So-called intimate outsiders are cited in this article.

4 Experiment into the adaptation of uli to modern art began in the art studios at the University of Nigeria, in 1970 with the arrival on the scene of Uche Okeke and Chike Aniakor as teachers and Obiora Udechukwu and others as students. Although enormous graphic work and writing have emanated from this experiment over the years, the art of university men and women have not effectively saved the uli tradition from death.

5 A former uli woman artist said this to Chuu Krydz Ikwuemesi in December 2002 at the Eke Market in Nri when I was searching for artists to co-opt on the Iyi Azi painting project.

6 Spellings in the Igbo quotation are as they were written by the author. See Obiọra Udẹchukwu (1984, 57–60).

7 Washing blue is not part of the traditional uli palette, but some uli women use it, as was done by the Nri women on this occasion.

8 This exchange took place in the presence of Chuu Krydz Ikwuemesi during one of the painting sessions.

9 Extremis is a Latin word meaning “in the farthest reaches” or “at the point of death”. According to n Sacks (2000), the term can also be used in sociology to refer to the tendency among people to believe in the imminence of the end of history and to act in ways calculated to realize such an end.

10 In some Igbo communities, nni aja, beyond its traditional connotation of children’s play house, also has the pejorative meaning of “poor quality food” or it can be used to ascribe childishness to things and attitudes. Aja upa (earth or red sand) thus implies a poor value when associated with certain issues and phenomena. Using upa to describe uli, metaphorically could devalue its meaning and essence.

11 Although contemporary art continues to evolve in Nigeria, it is yet to be seen whether any other creative idiom would ever match the uli phenomenon in its resilience in creative and research circles for as long as four decades. In spite of apparent decline, modern uli remains the most original and enduring reaction against colonization in Nigeria’s art scene.

12 The Art Republic has pursued this econo-art agenda since 2009, but it seems that its efforts are hampered by dearth of funds.