Sango Staff: Kneeling Female Figure (Ose Sango)

Onakunle Aribikona

20th century · Wood · Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

The ritual paraphernalia associated with worship of the god Sango was originally developed at the court of the kings of Oyo during the eighteenth century. The primary emblem of Sango's followers is the ose Sango, a wooden shaft with a double ax-head motif at the summit. Within the parameters of this artifact's basic form, the design of its shaft has been endlessly reinterpreted with great imagination by Yoruba artists. On the occasion of annual festivals, ose Sango are removed from the altars of shrines dedicated to Sango and carried as dance wands by devotees who sing his praises. While the imagery evoked in that form of oral poetry focuses upon Sango's hot temper and capricious behavior, the visual representation featured on the ose Sango presents his followers in attitudes of devotion, serenely balancing the god's twin thunderbolts upon their heads.

Artist

Onakunle Aribikona

Date

20th century

Medium

Wood

Culture

Yoruba peoples

Department

Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Credit line

Gift of Martin L. Schulman, M.D., 1983