Here's a textual tour of the Fon People of Benin and their fascinating beliefs, culture and inspiration. The artwork can be found in the African Collection at Standard Bank Gallery

Some of the most elaborate court art in Africa comes from the country of Benin - home of the Fon People. Here brass plaques decorated palace walls, terracotta and wood, while brass figures representing male and female royal ancestors were placed in memorial shrines.

Iron-working was fundamental to the rise of these kingdoms, which attributed spiritual qualities to metal and to the objects forged from it. Highly skilled artisans, believed to have possessed supernatural powers, were admired and feared. They produced sculptural pieces made using the lost wax technique, where objects were moulded in wax and then cast as sculptures in iron or bronze.

Imagery such as leopards, crocodile and fish were used to portray royal power and to reinforce moral laws. After colonisation by the British, these symbols - especially the fish motif - were linked to Christianity, and became infused with personal meaning.

The Asen or staffs, and figure posts or Bocio, were originally displayed in royal compounds to affirm royal power and served to commemorate past rulers. Later two types of Bocio co-existed – those that served to protect the king and bolster his authority (royal Bocio) and those carved to serve the community (non-royal Bocio). Royal pieces were attractive, ornamental, refined, and decorative, in contrast, the bocio of commoners are disorderly, rough and incomplete and seem anti-aesthetic.

Bocio means “empowered” (bo) “cadaver”(cio) in the Fon language and were considered empowered objects working with the energies of the gods and spirits (vodun) to protect against evil, sorcery, illness and to provide power and success.

Empowering materials - metal, beads, bones, fur, feathers and blood - believed to be sacred, were selected for their physical and symbolic potency. Materials and techniques are deliberately revealed in these figures to make the object visually powerful. Shocking and astonishing grotesqueness become the objects’ strength. These sculptures did not represent specific spirits but were intended as a repository or decoy for a spiritual force. Fetishes featured prominently in the art of the Fon and were often used on altars and anointed with sacrifices. Freestanding sculptures of couples also feature in their art and represented spirits, ancestors or the primordial couple; these were placed in shrines and were treated with great respect.

Family or ancestor worship is central to Fon religious and cultural beliefs and even though many converted to Christianity after British colonisation, the majority continued to practise voodoo/vodun rituals (vodun means spirit/ancestor in Fon). The art objects made by the Fon reflected these beliefs and religious practices, which focused on revering ancestors. Today, as in the past, their benevolent protection is sought through yearly offerings made to bociod fetishes as well as family Asen, which continue to act as a symbolic ‘assembly point’ for the physical and spiritual world.