Pair of Ritual Staffs (ẹdan Ògbóni)
1800s
- Medium
- Copper alloy and iron
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 15 cm (5 7/8 in.)
- Culture
- Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Yorùbá-style maker
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, African Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Drs. James, Gladys, Jay, Jeffrey, and Jamie Strain
- 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 chain connecting these two figures allows them to be worn in public by a member of the Ògbóni or Òṣùgbó association as authority emblems. The male on the right gives the association’s typical salute by clasping his left fist on the right one, while the female on the left holds her breasts as a sign of welcome and generosity. The use of copper alloy and iron expresses Ògbóni/Òṣùgbó's concerns with longevity and durability. Long iron spikes would have originally protruded from each figure's base.
