Pair of ritual staffs "eluku-oro" or "ikuku-oro" ·  Nigeria, Yoruba · ID: 3036555

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Description

bronze, each cast with two seated figures, one on top of the other, the male ones smoking a pipe resp. holding an item, the female ones grasping their breasts, eyelets provided with little bells (partly missing), min. dam., small missing parts, slight traces of corrosion, base;
according to William Fagg, the “oro society” was a much feared body which among other things served as executioners for the “ogboni”, and which held meetings in the bush at which the whirring sound of the bullroarer was heard. Their little-known brass equivalents for the “edan” of the “ogboni” are often even more sumptuous than the “edan”.

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Comparing literature

Dobbelmann, Th.A.H.M., Der Ogboni-Geheimbund, Berg en Dal 1976, ill. 56

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Publications

Galerie Schwarz-Weiss, München 1981, ill. 28

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