Progressions in Ornamented Doors of Domestic Buildings in Yorubaland

Abstract

Doors are accompaniments of buildings and always the first point of contact by visitors to buildings. Because of this, doors especially the main doors “ilekun abawole,”are always elaborately embellished to make them aesthetically pleasing and welcoming. The imagery on doors among the Yoruba of Nigeria and the techniques of making them visually appealing, aesthetically functional and strong, differ with materials and periods of history. This paper studies the progression in the use and beautification of doors, in Osogbo, Yorubaland, with the view to revealing the forms at its inception as well as the changes in materials, forms, and motifs with time. The study concluded that the materials, forms, and motifs on doors evolved over periods in history, each giving way to new styles and images as the peoples’ exposure, experiences and socio-cultural values broaden.

Keywords: Advancement, Doors, Aesthetics, Domestic buildings, Yorubaland.

DOI: 10.7176/JCSD/55-01

Publication date: January 31^st 2020