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

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”.

The object Pair of ritual staffs “eluku-oro” or “ikuku-oro” with the object ID 3036555 was last part of the auction 76th tribal art auction at March 22, 2014 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 510 achieved a sales price of EUR 2,100.

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Comparing literature

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

Publications

Galerie Schwarz-Weiss, München 1981, ill. 28