ART ON VIEW
of the sun, embers glow fi ercely in an African
blacksmith’s hearth. The cadence of his hammer
striking red-hot iron echoes the rhythm of the
beating human heart as it steadily pumps ironrich
blood, keeping us alive.
Technologies of iron smelting and forging,
which likely began on the African continent
around 2,500 years ago, were ardently sought
and protectively guarded. Their control could
promote a king’s ambition, enhance a soldier’s
fortune, and secure a community’s well-being.
Iron tools and weapons enabled Africans to forage,
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hunt, and till the soil, assuring prosperity
and protection. Indeed, the Iron Age revolutionized
Africa and forever altered human civilization
practically, symbolically, and cosmologically.
Nowhere else in the world are there more
diverse and accomplished forged iron forms
than in Africa, and the blacksmith’s production
and participation in community life is still indispensable
today.
SECTION II: Iron’s Material Transformation
Iron ore is one of the African continent’s most
plentiful natural resources, but one of the most
diffi cult to process into usable metal. For blacksmiths’
purposes, workable iron must be extracted
from iron-rich deposits through a refi ning
process known as smelting. Its purpose is to
remove impurities from a geologic matrix (iron
ore) by applying intense heat (2100°–2300°
FIG. 7 (right): Ewe
blacksmith Galbert Atakpa
and bellows operator
Hodenou Noglo forge small
production runs of musical
instruments and agricultural
implements during the dry
season.
Photo © Tom Joyce, Yohonou, Togo,
2008.
Effi cient production to supply local
demand during the months of
harvest and preparation for the next
growing season is dependent on a
well-arranged workspace. Here, the
lead smith sits in front of his anvil,
close enough to tend the fi re. Within
reach of his right hand are hammers,
cone mandrels made of wood and
iron, fi les, and salvaged pipe to be
used as starting stock (from which
to cold-chisel sections for forging).
On his left is material already cut
to length, a fi re poker, tongs, and
charcoal fuel. On the ground before
him appear single bells in process
with an accumulation of fresh scale
(fl akes of oxidized iron) around the
anvil.
FIG. 8 (right): Bellows.
Lele; DR Congo.
Early 20th century.
Wood, tin. H: 78.74 cm.
Jo De Buck Collection.
Photo by Frédéric Dehaen, 2017.
Courtesy Jo De Buck.
The two carved, hemispherical
chambers of this inventive bellows
are its lungs. They were once
covered with leather bags attached
to vertical sticks that would have
been grasped and pumped by the
blacksmith’s helper. Substantial
volumes of air were thus forced into
a charcoal-fueled fi re to effi ciently
heat large-scale works. Displayed
vertically here to draw attention
to the face of its commanding
female fi gure—associated with the
birthing metaphor of bringing iron
objects to life at the forge—this
bellows was designed, like other
African examples, to be positioned
horizontally on the ground when in
operation.
FIGS. 9a and b (left):
Hammers, otutu (left) and
owú (right).
Igbo (left) and Yorùbá
(right); Nigeria. 20th
century.
Forged iron. H: 33.5 and 26 cm.
Private collection.
Image © courtesy Fowler Museum at
UCLA. Photo: Don Cole, 2018.
Short-handled, single-piece iron
hammers are used throughout Africa
but vary in shape even among
neighboring peoples. They are
fashioned so that every face can
serve as a forging surface; some
hammers are designed to be driven
into the ground at their tapered
shank and these can function
alternatively as anvils for light
work. These utility-based shapes,
often phallic in form, reference the
procreative powers of blacksmiths in
bringing benefi cial objects into the
community.