ABSTRACT
Attention to form and inattention to content have characterized the approach of many scholars of twentieth-century art to African art. In the terms “energy” and “life force,” Fagg alerts the reader to a dimension of African aesthetic sensibilities that many scholars before him had failed to recognize. The concept of ase. has intrigued many scholars of Yoruba culture in both Africa and the African Diaspora. The invocation of and sending an ase. may be accompanied by the chewing of certain herbs, roots, or peppers. In summary, ase. is the religio-aesthetic essence in which physical materials as visual oriki and verbal oriki support and empower each other to activate, actualize, and direct sociopolitical, religious, and artistic processes and experiences.
