Chieftan Statue

Geraldine McCullough created a seven-foot-tall bronze casting of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as an African fifteenth-century Benin chieftain, commissioned as a symbol of peace after the riots of 1968 that followed his assassination. She saw a similarity between King's facial features and those of the tribal group inhabiting ancient Benin in southern Nigeria and chose to portray him as a Bini ruler, drawing on Benin's famed bronze-casting tradition and its complex symbolism. The work expresses King's philosophy of nonviolence through a broken sword with a cross-shaped handle in one hand and a prayer wheel in the other, referring to universal prayer and Gandhi's philosophy of passive resistance. Its imagery also includes a tiger-tooth necklace signifying courage, side shields of the mask for one who shuns evil, a necklace of tigers' teeth worn by Bini royalty, the Nobel Peace Prize medallion awarded to King in 1964, a row of heads on the crown representing his followers, and a dove of peace above.

Chicago, Illinois · United States