Ifá divination vessel (àgéré Ifá)
mid- late 1800s
- Medium
- Wood and colorant
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 31.7 x 15.7 x 15.9 cm (12 1/2 x 6 3/16 x 6 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, possibly Èkìtì State, Yorùbá-style carver
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, African Art
- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
The mother figure of this vessel from the Southern Ekiti region represents a devotee who kneels before the gods. The vessel once held the 16 sacred palm nuts essential to divination rituals. The object was used by a priest as a medium through which to communicate with the god of fate, Orunmila, in order to gain insight into an individual’s destiny or to understand the cause of misfortune.
