PORTFOLIO 142 Chief S. O. Alonge: Photographer to the Royal Court of Benin, Nigeria By Amy J. Staples In September 2014, the National Museum of African Art celebrates the opening of an exhibition that showcases rare historic photographs and royal arts of the Benin kingdom, Chief S. O. Alonge: Photographer to the Royal Court of Benin, Nigeria. As the first official photographer to the royal court of Benin, Chief Solomon Osagie Alonge (1911–1994) (fig. 1) documented the traditional ceremonies and pageantry of the obas (kings) and of the Benin kingdom for nearly a half-century beginning in the 1930s. His photographic archive of more than 3,000 images (many as glass plate negatives) now in the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives provides substantial cultural and historical context for the display of Benin royal arts in the museum’s permanent collection. This includes carved ivory tusks, cast bronze heads, and plaques from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that once adorned the palace of the obas (fig. 2). Chief S. O. Alonge explores the intricate relationships between Benin arts and photography and coincides with Nigeria’s centennial as an amalgamated country (1914–2014). It is dedicated to the current king, Oba Erediauwa I (reign 1979–present), whose coronation Alonge photographed, and commemorates 100 years since the passing of Oba Ovonramwen (reigned 1888–1897, d. 1914), the last independent ruler of the Benin kingdom, who died in exile in Calabar during the colonial period. The Chief S. O. Alonge photographic collection spans five decades and represents a dynamic, visual record of both tradition and change in the royal court of Benin and the oba’s palace—sites that have been major political, religious, and administrative centers for more than eight hundred years. As royal photographer to Oba Akenzua II (reigned 1933–1978), Alonge documented the rituals and regalia of the oba and the court, chiefs and their retainers, and queens and royal women. Alonge’s privileged access to the palace as official photographer and, later, as a chief in the Iwebo palace society reflects a unique insider’s view of Benin royalty (fig. 3). As such, his photographic oeuvre preserves a unique and important historical record of Benin art and culture during the transition from British colonial rule to Nigerian independence in the 1950s and 1960s. Prominent in this are images of Benin social life, studio photography of local Bini residents, and visits of traditional rulers, political leaders, and foreign dignitaries including the Earl of Plymouth (1935) (fig. 4), Nmandi Azikiwe (c. 1937, later the first president of Nigeria), Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip (1956) (fig. 5), and Princess Alexandra (1960). The quality and condition of the glass plate negatives, 120 mm film, and hand-colored photographs testify to Alonge’s technological skills in photography and speak to his professionalism in keeping the images ordered and well preserved despite the heat, humidity, and tropical climate of Nigeria. Dr. Flora Kaplan, a leading ethnographer of Benin culture and professor emeritus at New York University, has FIG. 1 (left): Solomon Osagie Alonge, Benin City, Nigeria, c. 1942. Self-portrait by S. O. Alonge. Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. FIG. 2: Plaque. Benin kingdom court style, Edo peoples, Nigeria. Mid 16th–17th century. National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, inv. 82-5-3.
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