BRONZE CASTING AND NIGERIA

Although early travelers in Nigeria had made mention of its arts, it was not until 1897 that it became known in Europe that there existed here a Long history of bronze casting. In that year a British punitive expedition attacked Benin City and almost all her important bronze works were removed to Europe. In Europe, it was doubted whether the Benin people could have made these bronzes unaided and, because Portuguese soldiers were often represented in the works, it was considered that the latter must have introduced the technique of bronze casting at the end of the fifteenth century.
No one really knows when this technique was first developed in Nigeria for, as we have seen, it was not found in association with Nok art. Its first appearance in Igbo Ukwu represents the height of development in this technique. There are certain puzzling questions concerning the origin of the technique because no source of copper has yet been discovered in Nigeria. More research is needed before a final conclusion can be made on this. Perhaps the forest zone between Nigeria and the Congo, where copper is found in the Katanga District, was no barrier to the importation of copper into Nigeria. It has however been said that copper might have reached Nigeria from Darfur, Takedda, Sous or Ougarta within sub-Saharan Africa. If so, the opinion of some authorities that the Nigerian copper carne from North Africa and was taken down into the forest zone through the caravan routes across the Sahara desert requires substantiation.
On the other hand, tin and lead are available in Nigeria and these could have been used in alloying with copper. Tin in particular was exploited by the people of the Jos Plateau before it was discovered by Europeans in the early part of this century, but we have no evidence yet that it was exported to Igbo Ukwu, Ife or Benin.
The source of the other element, zinc, used in alloying with copper to produce brass, is still unknown in Nigeria. In the English edition of Heinrich Barth’s book, Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, Volume I, first published in 1857, it is reported that zinc was imported into Kano in the nineteenth century separately from copper. However, in the German edition, only copper was mentioned, so not much reliance can be placed on this information. However, if it is true that both zinc and copper were imported into Nigeria, we cannot say whether this was for the purpose of casting. Some archaeologists have expressed doubt that actual alloying of these materials was ever done in West Africa, but although today at the busiest brass casting center in Nigeria, i.e, at Igun Street in Benin City, copper alloys of whatever composition and source are being used in casting, it is no proof that this was the case in the past. It may simply indicate the use of available material, whereas in the past the metallurgists may have had to do their own alloying. The reverse cannot, however, be ruled out.

IGBO UKWU Culture