Diviner's bag "apo ifa" · Nigeria, Yoruba · ID: 3042429
Description
cotton fabric, embroidered with strings of polychrome miniature glass beads, three mask faces (“eshu”) on blue ground, glazed/framed;
such bags are used by the “babalawo” (“father of the secrets”) priest of “ifa”, to carry his divination paraphernalia: the 16 palm nuts, a divination chain “opele”, an ivory or wooden tapper and a collection of objects such as shells, stones and small bones that are used to specify the oracle’s pronouncments in more detail.
The object Diviner’s bag “apo ifa” with the object ID 3042429 was last part of the auction 86th Tribal Art Auction at May 27, 2017 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 335.
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Comparing literature
Witte, Hans, A Closer Look, Berg en Dal 2004, p. 232