staff
- Museum number
- Af1956,27.208
- Description
-
Staff of wood, leather and cowrie shells.
- Dimensions
-
Height: 38.50 centimetres
-
Width: 8.50 centimetres
-
Depth: 21.80 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Description from William Fagg, ‘The Webster Plass collection of African Art, an illustrated catalogue’, British Museum 1953, cat.60.
Wooden Yoruba staff in the form of a kneeling male bearded figure with an elaborate hairdress or headdress curving back from the head, and holding in the left hand a staff carved in similar form; attached to the leather collar are two long and two short strings of cowrie shells. Such staffs are used in the cult of Eshu Elegba [Esu Elegbara], the god or spirit of mischief and chance who is the ‘uncertainty principle’ in the Yoruba cosmology.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1956
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af1956,27.208
