Christian Missions and Uli Extinction

 The Italian regime in Ethiopia used urban design as a tactic for reconfiguring the society they ruled. From 1946-196, during the colonial policy of Benito Mussolini’s reign, the city of Gondar in Ethiopia expanded. The necessity to solve unemployment, produce agricultural goods and increase capital via the exportation of surplus goods also drove the planning and architectural designs. 

The choice of the city is due to its past imperial capital, which allowed for the goal of updating the city technologically. Topologically, the lower areas were used as commercial areas while the higher vantage points were saved for government and military towners. The military towers (see image 1), in particular, served as watchtowers at the heart of the city and inspired the castle typology, further emphasizing the separation of the “quotidian functions of the commercial district and the [more highly regarded] ceremonial functions of the governmental district.” the castle- Fasil Ghebbi– served as a barrier between city neighborhoods. Allowing for the north and west high elevation to serve the Italians and the south and east to serve the indigenous citizens.

This zoning technique was not the only way hierarchical divisions were made; the stylistic building design also emphasized this system. Within the fascist city rule, facilities for the state government, institutions, and private entities sought a distinctly Italian design style and unique architectural styles were created to express the status of the inhabitants. This played into the government’s stress of translating political power through the built environment. Further exemplified in the development of numerous master plans which imposed regimes that brought about hierarchy– whether through the centralization of specific amenities or superimposed grids. This fascist imperial policy was distinct from others in that the planning process changed the entire layout of the city. 

Its interesting to contrast this with Carlo Enrico Rava’s view in "Di un'architettura coloniale mo- derna-Parte second," detailing architectural intervention in Libya during the early 1900s. Rava viewed the indigenous techniques as “modern” in themselves because they both utilized the existing conditions of the area, and the area in North Africa still had traces of Roman aesthetics, which existed during the time of its colonization by the Romans. Thus, Italians within the Libyan colonies preceded that of Gondar and appropriate existing forms, rather than a somewhat tabula raza system as in the colony of Gondar. 

Comando Truppe (military command),

Gondar, 1936–37, (David Rifkind, Florida International University)

The European intervention in Nigeria, particularly South East, Igboland is not one of fascist rule, but imposed Christian values within the fabric of numerous Igbo societies, thus affecting traditional practices in art, design, and planning. 

The art of Uli has an unknown origin but is seen in the bronze castings and carved household items in the 9th century. The near extinction of bodily and wall surface expressions can be attributed to the introduction of Christianity to the area beginning in the 15th century with Augustinian and Capuchin monks. Still, more significantly, the English Church made an impression on the region in the mid-late 1800s. missions. Missions typically shifted the cosmological focus, which would be in contradiction to the single God revered by the Christian missions. The discouragement of art forms which paid tribute to multiple deities was at times forcefully eradicated or illegalized.

Chuu Krydz Ikwuemesi, in his writings on Eziafo Okaro, an uli woman painter, distinguishes this resistance to Christianity. The work of Eziafo exemplifies an inability to coexistence between traditional practices and Christianity. On the other side as well, newly Christian women termed the Uli are “occult,” “fetish,” or even “evil,” though it is true that some Christian missions adapted the traditions of the south in other ways. This intense disagreement between tradition and  religion is one I hope to explore more throughout my paper and future research.

Interestingly, other missions were also among those who encouraged the preservation of uli art. Several Ùlì pattern designs are preserved on paper due to commissions requested by missionaries fro Europe. For example, Scottish Missionary, Agnes Siddons Arnot around the 1930-40s. 

These two polarizing effects of mission work are expressed through “Visuality and Representation in Traditional Igbo Uli Body and Mud Wall Paintings.” Onwuakpa attributes the extinction of the art to neocolonialism (economic imperialism, globalization, or indirect political control) as well as the influence of Christianity.