The Wizard Called Bruce Onobrakpeya and the Wedding at Cana

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

The Wizard Called Bruce Onobrakpeya and the Wedding at Cana

Bruce Onobrakpeya's "Wedding at Cana"

        Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju 

                     Compcros 

I have on my study desk a print by the Nigerian artist Bruce Onobrakpeya.

It is a black and white rendition of a striking and much depicted moment in the Biblical life of Jesus, the founder of Christianity.

It is an image of the event in which Jesus Christ, later to be known for his miracles, performed his first miracle by transforming water into wine.

The traditional depiction of Jesus in Christian art, largely defined by Europe where Christianity became a world religion after travelling from Palestine, where it emerged, is of a classically handsome man with a pointed European nose, his hair sleek and flowing, almost with the elegance of a woman's carefully groomed tresses, calm, involved in the moment yet emotionally lifted above it, an image in keeping with the Christian understanding of Jesus as God, the creator of the universe, in human form.

The Christians took their religion all over the world, convinced they had the ultimate and to many of them, the only answer, to the meaning of life and existence as a whole, in the message of Jesus Christ.

Time is running out and as many people as possible need to hear or read the Good News, as it is called, before the end of time, in which the Last Judgement would harvest those for the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Hell, where God's former servant and now lifelong enemy and opponent, Satan, lives.

Christianity came to Africa and into the hands of a "heretic" called Bruce Onobrakpeya, a man from the Niger Delta who built on his father's craft of carving sacred images in Urhobo traditional religion.

 Bruce developed this artistic heritage in his own unique way, exploring, through various forms of visual art, the depths and dynamism of the sacred, at the intersection of Christianity, Urhobo, Yoruba, Edo, Fulani, Akan and other African arts.

What does Onobrakpeya do with the time honoured and much figured theme of the Wedding at Cana?

Does he, like Florentine Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci, in his globally impactful "Last Supper", his depiction of the symbolic last meal of Jesus with his disciples, concentrate on the dialogue of gesture and facial expression amongst the wedding guests, as they marvel at the miracle in which the transformed water becomes the best wine of the wedding feast?

Does he, like Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn, in his " Supper at Emmaus",  a quietly majestic print of the magical meeting where Jesus' disciples recognize the man they are dining with as their teacher risen from the dead after his execution by the colonial Roman authorities instigated by Jewish religious leaders he had angered with his criticism of them as hypocrites, so much so that the term "Pharisee", the name of the Jewish religious group he often criticized,  has become synonymous with hypocrisy, the Rembrandt print depicting Jesus quietly glowing with divine light as the disciples look on?

Perhaps Onobrakpeya would draw from such a venerable example as Rembrandt 's, one of history 's greatest artists, and picture the moment when Jesus turns water into wine, thereby demonstrating his divine power for the first time, as his amazed mother looks on, having requested her son's help with the wine which had run out as the wedding celebrations were still in full gear?

The rebellious African artist does none of this.

Putting aside the illustrious tradition of Christian iconography, its visual symbolism, ignoring or perhaps transcending Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphael Santi, Andrea Mantegna, Hieronymus Bosch, Salvadore Dali, and other masters of Western art whose Christian depictions have become iconic over the centuries, he depicts the Wedding at Cana as something like a solemn cult assembly, organized round a humanoid but non-human figure, possessing human dimensions but its face and total configuration more in keeping with some traditional African spirit depictions than anything Christian.

                      

                   

What has Onobrakpeya done? 

He has smuggled traditional African religion into Christian art.

Why?

Could he be representing Jesus's spiritual identity in terms of the unhandsome looks of that figure, alien and uncanny?

"The spirit blows where it wishes, and none knows where it comes from and where it goes" Jesus is described as stating in the Bible.

Is the Urhobo artist trying to domesticate the Christian spirit, dramatizing its universality in adaptation to various cultural contexts?

If so, why use the unlovely figure at the center of the quiet gathering?

Rudolph Otto argued that the essence of spirituality is something uncanny, far removed from conventional human experience and therefore inspiring dread but also deeply compelling for people, as calling to a need for something beyond the world as they know it.

As I gaze at Onobrakpeya's depiction of the iconic scene, the low, musical chirping of crickets shaping the enveloping sound space in the quiet before daybreak, I enter the mysterious world crafted by the Niger Delta master, rhythms of black and white in complexly symmetrical juxtapositions crafting the visual space, as abstract and human forms  conjoin, geometries and other shapes glow as the black shaped wedding guests look on, quiet participants in a sacred mystery.

Images here show the Onobrakpeya print on my desk. Thanks to Mudiare Onobrakpeya, Bruce Onobrakpeya's son, for the gift.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

The wizard indeed. Absolutely fascinating, although some of the elements in the print look Ethiopian to me, a déjà vu feeling. That must be part of the universality inherent in representations that are otherwise known as interpretations.

The figures at the table ( too many to be a depiction of the last supper) seem to be cut in wax, reminiscent of Olayinka Burney-Nicol’s specialisation 

You ask, “Could he be representing Jesus's spiritual identity in terms of the unhandsome looks of that figure, alien and uncanny?” “...why use the unlovely figure at the center of the quiet gathering?”   

Well, I’m not a Cardinal or a Christian apologist theologian but the forlorn figure that you’re asking about could be the wizard's artistic representation of “the suffering servant” that’s featured in Yeshayahu / Isaiah  53 

The Rabbis ( all of them) say that the suffering servant of Yeshayahu / Isaiah  53 is ISRAEL 

Please hold your fire 

N.B. 

The suffering servant 

Not the shuffering and shmiling servant

According to legend Jesus never smiled.  

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Great thanks Cornelius

Ill look up those references.

Toyin

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/f53520d4-6a90-49d2-aa79-07dfd0040fedn%40googlegroups.com.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Herr Adepoju,

According to the Islamic calendar today is 13 Rajab 1446 Hijri and on this auspicious day Imam Ali alaihi salaam’s birthday is being celebrated !

Concerning what we discussed earlier, about looks, with regard to Imam Ali - alaihi salaam ( https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Imam+Ali )

you could begin here : https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kH27AO_FWA0

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Imam+Ali%2C+his+looks+

Re - Bruce Onobrakpeya : Wedding at Cana

A great many thanks for blowing the  horn of this Nigerian national and international treasure. Somebody’s got to do it, somebody as credible and as competent as you, a connoisseur (not some hack writer, mercenary praise-singing son of a pee & bee or some soulless flatterer who can’t even poach an egg, masquerading as AI,  the rule of thumb being, and this goes for the imbecilic cockroach’s chicken shit ”poetry” too:  “It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)

First the commercial question ( collector psychology) not that I am one, but “a thing of beauty is a joy for ever”, not that one would like to “possess” the piece either and yet the question remains : This print that you have been gifted, is it possible for the less fortunate to get hold of a copy? 

Are there any prints  of “on sale” ? 

Any posters of the wizard’s creation/s?

Are all his creations cult pieces destined for the shrine only , or , like his soulmates that you’ve mentioned,” Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphael Santi, Andrea Mantegna, Hieronymus Bosch, Salvador Dali, and other masters of Western art” are some of Bruce Onobrakpeya’s masterpieces

also destined for art exhibitions, at art galleries and museums such as my old buddy’s George Nelson Preston , even Sotheby’s ?

These are important questions, and time is of the essence: William Shakespeare left for the hereafter at 52 years of age ! 

[ovde...@gmail.com]

Great thanks Cornelius for this rich response to my essay on a work by Onobrakpeya, a response I am only just seeing.

Onobrakpeya has made a point of making postcard sized prints of his work for sale. The one I was gifted would normally be sold.

Onobrakpeya's Christian art has been commissioned  by and displayed in their premises by Christian institutions, akin to the histories of such art by the Western masters I mentioned. Like theirs, the art is also appreciated as valid beyond its religious settings and so is also displayed in art exhibitions and museums.

The difference between Onobrakpeya and those Western artists , however, is they would typically produce one version of a work, which have been reproduced through prints, while the original commands the most acclaim.

Onobrakpeya, on the other hand, may create different versions of the same work, using the same composition, but different materials, or the same materials but with changes in the composition, as well as reproducing the work through postcard prints in black and white, and I am told, other colours. 

Onobrakpeya's greatest art, however, even though his themes are quite broad, involving the  sacred and the secular, is inspired primarily by classical African spiritualitues and their artistic expressions. I am not aware, though,  of these works being commissioned  by institutions or individuals commited to those spiritualities or displayed in the contexts where such spiritualities are practiced, except for two instances.

One of these is in  the shrine of Ochuko Moses, a practitioner  of various classical African religion deities  whom I met in Onobrakeya's  home community of Agbarha in the Niger Delta, in whose shrine  I saw a print of an Onobrakeya work , in relation to which  he expressed the view that the work could be used as a medium for the invocation of spirits.

The second is my own multi-spirituality shrine,  which  has pictures of Onobrakeya works for inspiration.

Onobrakeya is one of Africa's best known and most widely studied artists, exhibiting in various continents and active for 50 years and still working in his 90s at present.

To get those prints and discuss acquiring other works by him, one could contact the Bruce Onobrakpeya Foundation at

bofou...@gmail.com
in...@bofound.com
+2341-888-666-999

(+234) 806 079-5466

and through the Foundation's online contact page 

Great thanks.

toyin

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, 

Thanks. I’d like to acquire memorabilia from the wizard.

Other matters arising from your earlier posts, including this one  

This is where the learned Professor Alexander Osei Adum Kwapong would have come to the rescue most succinctly. On my part it’s probably a lingering Afrocentrism that’s partly at play here:  

The adjective “Classical” turns up regularly in some of your discourses, as a description or identifier of African spirituality, religion, wisdom, philosophy and art , to wit, “Classical African Spirituality”, “Classical African Religion”, “Classical African Philosophy”, “Classical African Art” in places were perhaps” traditional” could be a more suitable term that could be applied, without exaggeration or without awakening or evoking the inevitable comparisons or juxtapositions with Ancient Greece & Rome, China, India and Persia - not that in certain contexts the terms “traditional” and “Classical” cannot sometimes be interchangeable without a loss of meaning or intention. If you were to employ the term “Classical African Music”, what would you have in mind? I suppose I would have in mind something like Toumani Diabate’s The Mandé Variations; also Ballaké Sissoko and Toumani Diabaté’s New Ancient Strings and some of Koo Nimo’s repertoire. Classical West Africa Highlife, Juju, Fuji, Afrobeat, Rap, Jazz, etc should not cause any problems of course. 

About the great man Bruce Onobrakpeya, I suppose that unlike e.g. Salvador Dali he’s not an extrovert type or an exhibitionist, nor is he hungry for fame, and this means that we have to respect his need for privacy - even seclusion…some space , away from the public eye…In your case  - your reputation must have reached him perhaps even preceded you somebody has probably been bad-mouthing you as  an uninitiated apprentice wanting to illuminate his art , shine him to the outside world; somebody or somebodies have wrongly or wrongfully  informed him about you  and  that could have resulted in what you say :

 “I've been facing challenges on this project with information reaching me through a contact I asked to help me speak to Bruce Onobrakpeya that Onobrakpeya states he does not want to to continue with the project. This comes after he stopped taking my calls for no reason given to me.”

Many years ago, Bert Jansch one of my folk idols (here live at the 12 bar) played at  Kungsträdgården in Stockholm - before the concert started I went to the front of the stage to watch him tuning his guitar which he did  -to his satisfaction in about five minutes -he was aware of my presence but he did not look up once -he was very shy probably thought I wasables hobo from the Mississippi  - fact is that I had been his fan since 1970…his behaviour  tuning his guitar etc was very much in tune with this song : Walk Quietly By

I read this art review in The Spectator today : Inky beyonds

And this poem by Jonathan Steffen :The Dog 

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin,

Another good reason to be in Paris right now : David Hockney

In anticipation of your response…

How have Abiola Irele and Kwame Anthony Appiah addressed this issue?

What sayeth Doyen Chika Okeke-Agulu ?

In some of the discourses on indigenous matters, there are avoidable pitfalls and disputes, and all that hair-splitting ( tradition, continuation, “ modernity” / the Classical the Traditional) when we start operating outside the ambit of “The Establishment” the acquired professional English and French vocabularies, whether it’s philosophy, or discussing Literature, art, psychology, religion, in the latter, pinning equivalents for the numinous, looking for equivalent concepts in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Gnosticism as some kind of search for confirmation and legitimacy.

Forever, there’s the looming problem of translation

sometimes even speaking spontaneously

that’s what some of us have been doing

perhaps mechanically

like an AI machine

or it’s blues with

a feeling as in 

stay on the scene 

like a sex machine

from mother-tongue

thoughts to Bucking-

Ham Palace English.

For example, the word “witch” as occurs in Bible translations into English has caused a whole lotta trouble in Missionary Africa especially in Christian Missionary Africa. The greatest havoc is to be found in this one sentence that occurs in the Hebrew Bible : 

You shall not suffer a witch to live - which has caused zealous converts to Christianity trembling with holy fervour to embark on murder sprees, believing that they are thereby fulfilling a divine commandment…

In the case of Missionary Islam, the one word is “shirk” - the one crime /heinous sin that it is said Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not forgive.

A serious question to Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju 👍

Are you sure that you are sufficiently acquainted with the Classical / Traditional

IFA  to wanna reform it, to make a neo-Ifa out of it? 

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks Cornelius.

Thanks for reminding me of my earlier post about those challenges I mentioned.

 I have sent to the group a follow up post providing an update.I posted the update on Facebook where I had first made the earlier post but forgot to place the update here

The story of my relationship so far with Bruce Onobrakpeya is a very rich one which I am yet to share with this group because of time.

I have been working with him since 2023 but some complications emerged after I faced some difficulties in 2024   with a  couple of adherents of the Ekene spirituality of  Agbarha in Onobrakpeya's natal community in the Niger Delta who resisted my interest in Ekene affairs because I am not from Agbarha, one even threatening violence when I was at the Ekene festival in Agbarha-Otor on the 2nd of March last year.

Ekene is also very secretive, forbidding photography of its sacred spaces, possibly on pain of death to the offender, a delicate situation that some members of the Bruce Onobrakpeya Foundation can't understand why I would want to involve myself in it, though after the initial shock I've found the whole thing quite thrilling and have written an open access book on Ekene, shared on academia.edu,  but respecting their taboo on pictures, having been inspired by the warm welcome of almost all the participants in the spirituality whom I met.

I hope Onobrakpeya, myself and other members of the Foundation will be able to reach a maximally mutually helpful understanding on these issues.

Thanks 

Toyin 

On Tue, Apr 15, 2025, 5:30 PM Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Cornelius.

I have hoped to adequately address your seeing my correlation of African and non-African  thought as a means of seeking legitimacy for African thought in non-African thought.

I began my philosophical and spiritual journey from Western and Asian thought and see myself as a citizen of the world who is African or an African who is a global cultural citizen.

I understand the world's various spiritualities and philosophies as revolving on similar pivots, as illuminating each other.

I have written about African, Western and Asian thought in isolation and in relation to each other.

They are better appreciated that way, almost as the myriad  activity of a single intelligence.

I am also interested in demonstrating the inter-cultural and universally illuminating capacity of classical African thought.

I am currently reflecting on the significance of opon Ifa hermeneutics for biographical a nd auto-biogragical theory and practice.

As for Ifa, I would prefer to respond to a specific issue I address in which my approach is critically examined by someone else, enabling me to respond.

Would that not be more useful than my simply beating my chest and declaring my competence?

I prefer "classical African thought" because I want to highlight it's character as an inspirational template for what comes after it and as existing in the present as a contemporary activity.

"Traditional" does not satisfy me along such lines although it has its value.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/d650f09c-79d8-4183-8b83-1263b0b8b8b3n%40googlegroups.com.

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks Cornelius.

I have hoped to adequately address your seeing my correlation of African and non-African  thought as a means of seeking legitimacy for African thought in non-African thought.

I began my philosophical and spiritual journey from Western and Asian thought and see myself as a citizen of the world who is African or an African who is a global cultural citizen.

I understand the world's various spiritualities and philosophies as revolving on similar pivots, as illuminating each other.

I have written about African, Western and Asian thought in isolation and in relation to each other.

They are better appreciated that way, almost as the myriad  activity of a single intelligence.

I am also interested in demonstrating the inter-cultural and universally illuminating capacity of classical African thought.

I am currently reflecting on the significance of opon Ifa hermeneutics for biographical a nd auto-biogragical theory and practice.

As for Ifa, I would prefer to respond to a specific issue I address in which my approach is critically examined by someone else, enabling me to respond.

Would that not be more useful than my simply beating my chest and declaring my competence?

I prefer "classical African thought" because I want to highlight it's character as an inspirational template for what comes after it and as existing in the present as a contemporary activity.

"Traditional" does not satisfy me along such lines although it has its value.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/d650f09c-79d8-4183-8b83-1263b0b8b8b3n%40googlegroups.com.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin,

Someone ( I think it was Ram Das) suggests that if the Buddha was your therapist then at the conclusion of the treatment you should expect enlightenment  , I.e. to emerge as an enlightened being.

I suppose that if  he would extend the analogy to Christianity, at the end of the therapy with Jesus you'd get salvation, the Kingdom of Heaven instead of enlightenment. 

So what does IFA offer?

You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/usaafricadialogue/fPRm9Tm6_Ak/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGBtzfNeKbbPkR1PQvVNf2QWzLUas1E_CJx8t00uchzj_PiBEg%40mail.gmail.com.