Ritual staffs "edan oshugbo" ·  Nigeria, Yoruba · ID: 3038237

Description

brass, iron, seated figures, male/female, mounted on iron spike, the male one holding an oblong item, the female grasping her breasts, linked to each other by a chain, min. dam., small missing parts, traces of corrosion, base;
“edan oshugbo” staffs belong to individual “oshugbo” members who - after approval by an “oshugbo” official - the “apena” - take them home afer their initiation into the “oshugbo” cult. They are kept on the family shrine and they are danced on special occasions. The “edan” might be a single staff or a pair of bronze images male/female mounted on iron spikes and linked by an iron chain.

Comparing literature

Witte, Hans, Earth and the Ancestors, Ogboni Iconography, Amsterdam 1988, p. 54 f.