Pair of Staffs (Edan)
Yoruba (Ijebu, Nigeria; Coastal West Africa)
19th century or before
- Medium
- Ivory, iron, and string
- Classification
- Religious/Ritual Object
- Dimensions
- Longer One: 24.2 × 6.4 × 1.3 cm (9 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1/2 in.); Shorter One: 21 × 5.1 × 2 cm (8 1/4 × 2 × 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- Nigeria
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Africa
- Credit line
- Gift of Michael J. Faletti, the Faletti Family Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This pair of intricately sculpted ivory staffs (edan) is highly unusual in the corpus of Yoruba art. Typically cast in brass, edan are symbols of membership in the politically powerful Osugbo society. These may have been crafted in ivory for an Osugbo member who was a devotee of the creator god Obatala, who is strongly associated with the color white. Edan commonly depict a man and a woman who are symbolically joined by a chain. Likewise, the flanking birds, possibly woodpeckers, on these staffs evoke pairing. In Yoruba iconography, birds often represent the supernatural powers of women, upon which rulers must rely.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
