Tunic,

late 19th–early 20th century

Among the Yoruba, the political and religious elite had the exclusive privilege of covering their bodies, regalia, and ritual artifacts with beads. The very materials used on this Yoruba king’s V-neck tunic, from the imported European glass beads to those of prized indigenous jasper, expressed wealth and position, identifying the wearer as a person of substance and authority. Beaded front and back in a range of colors and possessing a remarkable capacity to catch light, the tunic dramatically visualizes the presence of its wearer. It is the iconography, however, that indicates the tunic belonged to an <em>oba</em>, or king. The recurring use of the interlace pattern denotes royal attire as this specific design motif is found only on palace articles. Just below the neck and framed by fringed conical crowns, an appliquéd face symbolizes the continuity of the <em>oba</em>’s office from the founding of the Yoruba peoples by Oduduwa, the first king. The crowns (<em>adenla</em>) signify an <em>oba</em>’s sacred authority — only kings, not lesser chiefs, were allowed to wear a crown with a conical shape — while intricate three-dimensional birds placed to each side identify the tunic’s owner as a direct descendant of the first king. The birds are also expressions of the power of women, the "mothers," who play an important role in the maintenance of the well-being of the community and without whom no person could rule. Near the shoulders and nestled beneath the crowns, pairs of animal horns, represented as red cones with white centers, are thought to be filled with potent mate­rials that enable an <em>oba</em> to speak with authority: when he speaks with similar horns in front of his lips, his word is final. Most likely worn on ritual occasions, the tunic would have encircled the king’s body, demanding the attention of spectators.^{Inherently serial, beads have long connoted continuity, unity, and regeneration. This garment was painstakingly composed by a bead artist who first threaded strands of beads, then arranged the patterns by laying the strands onto a cloth foundation before they were finally attached. Numerous repairs suggest that the tunic was valued and cared for over an extended period; however, repairs can also make dating a particular challenge. For Yoruba beaded textiles, the prevailing understanding among experts is that beads became larger and brighter over time. Here, the presence around the neck of rare, locally produced jasper beads and the abundance of the tiniest seed beads signal an early creation date, probably the earliest part of the twentieth century, or, perhaps, as early as the late nineteenth century.}