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traditional
It's Traditional Yoruba
Bas Relief Sculpture
Our Kinara extends traditional Yoruba bas-relief sculpture to embrace Kwanzaa. A form of architectural sculpture used in decorating the doors and veranda posts of kings and chiefs (see example at left), traditional Yoruba bas-relief or low-relief sculpture depicts scenes of daily life and religious events. In this tradition, the Yoruba artist makes sculpture in a series of panels, each panel a self-contained vignette of domestic life.
In designing our Kinaras, we effectively divided the traditional series of panels into individual panels; a common practice in Yoruba sculpture. All other aspects of the art form were retained.
Thus, scenes from domestic life, highly stylized compositions, facial features characteristic of the form, and latticework border designs* framing the sculpture, are elements of our Kinaras. In this way, without altering traditional content, form or technique, we proudly extend Yoruba bas-relief sculpture to embrace Kwanzaa.
Each Yoruba master sculptor was asked to render an interpretation of the 7 principles of Kwanzaa in wood (African Mahogany). Indeed, the Kwanzaa principle NIA, or Purpose, is illustrated by a scene from Yoruba oral tradition: Oduduwa -- in Yoruba cosmogony, the single ancestor of all humanity -- on a divine mission to form the continents of the earth (see Nia kinara at left).
* Called "eleyofo" in the Yoruba language, each border design is identifiable to an individual sculptor, and serves as a kind of trademark.
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