↗Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Ejagham-style maker · early 1900s
Headdress
Creator not recorded
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image: public domain (CC0) · Museum record & image source ↗
Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Yorùbá-style maker · 1900s
Ifá diviner's necklace (òdìgbà Ifá)
Creator not recorded by the museum
- Date
- 1900s
- Medium
- Cloth, glass beads, cardboard, cotton, probably wool, and wood
- Dimensions
- Overall: 49.5 cm (19 1/2 in.); Bag: 21.5 x 19.6 cm (8 7/16 x 7 11/16 in.)
- Country / context
- Nigeria
- Movement / tradition
- African sculpture
- Collection
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Pathway
- African sculpture ↗
FROM THE MUSEUM
The use of colorful glass beads adds luster to the divination session and underlines the high status diviners enjoy in Yorùbá society. Like kings, diviners derive their authority from the otherworld, òrún. A beaded necklace with two beaded pouches is an accessory carried by the itinerant Yorùbá diviner. Substances sewn into the miniature bags protect the diviner and ensure his power.
Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0A MOMENT TO LOOK
Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?
Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.
