Oju Ona - Dr. Jean-Marie Jullienne

OJU ONA Welcome to Oju Ona, the first in a series of books dedicated to the ever growing collection of the South African Museum of African M. At the time of publication this collection comprises of around 1600 pieces from all over Africa and includes objects from every facet of African life. This book is meant as a general overview of and introduction to this important collection and includes a sampling from as many of the countries, peoples and types of objects as it was possible to cover in 240 pages, boiling down in the end to 140 objects.

The name Oju Ona comes from the Edo language spoken by the Yoruba of Nigeria and can be interpreted roughly as design consciousness, This is the highest compliment that a Yoruba will give to an artist for his or her work. It is the acknowledgement that a piece has been made to the standards of the ancestors and is fit for the gods. The piece therefore shows consciousness in its design, an element essential to its utility in a world where even mundane objects are infused with symbolic meaning.

With Oju Ona we have endeavoured to give as honest an introduction to the objects and cultures as possible from the laypersons perspective. Once we began looking into the subject matter it became painfully obvious to us that this was an area of study that was much ignored or dismissed by the general population. To us it seemed as though African art has been relegated to the realm of artefact, and even there it is neglected. It seems that very little attention is given to the artistic heritage, not only of this country but of the continent. As the crucible of the human race the continent of Africa has the deepest and least understood history, yet it is one that is relevant to every person on earth.