Eshu-Elegba is the messenger of the gods. He is the youngest, most
agile, and
quick witted. He causes trouble for those who neglect the other gods.
It is Eshu
who delivers the sacrifices that have been prescribed by the Ifa diviner
to Olorun,
the distant high god. Eshu and Ifa are therefore intimates in the
business of
manipulating the destinies of men. Eshu is the only deity acutally
portrayed in
Yoruba art. It is Eshu's face that is represented on many Ifa
divination boards
and occasionally on objects used by all the other cults. In
character
with his contradictory nature, Eshu dance staffs (ogo Elegba) are
frequently held
head downward.
Eshu's long, phallic hairstyle is regarded as the "sign" of his bond of friendship with Ifa, the god of divination. In one story, Ifa pretended he was dead in order to test the devotion of those around him. He was disappointed by everyone except Eshu. Even though the trickster god was in the process of shaving his head, he was so overcome by grief with the news that he rushed to Ifa's bedside with his hair half shaved. Ifa recognized his friend's faithfulness and asked Eshu to continue to let his hair grow in this half-shaved style forever.
Eshu figures are usually decorated with beads and cowries, but the god may also be symbolized by a simple chunk of uncarved stone. The Meyer Collection figurative stone sculpture depicted here may be an exceptionally rare shrine piece. It depicts Eshu seated on a stool. Carved in a terse, compact style, only half of its length is discolored, suggesting that it had once been buried in the ground.
The Ifa corpus is made up of several hundred figures, orodu, each
associated
with a large body of independent verses known as ese Ifa. The god, Ifa,
is called
to attention by the diviner (babalawo) with a conical tapper, sometimes
made of
ivory (iroke-Ifa). A
cup
(agere-Ifa) carved with a scene from one of these verses serves as a
"home" for
the sacred palm nuts. By throwing sixteen of these nuts
(ikin) on a
powdered divination board (opon Ifa) and studying the marks left in the
sawdust,
the diviner is able to determine which of the several hundred odu
should be
recited. He then begins to call out a series of verses from this
chapter, until the
client recognizes one as significant. After several throws a meaningful
text will
begin to coalesce. For example, the babalawo may piece together the
following
cluster of verses for a man whom he has divined will be honored:
The Ifa divination accessories are stored in a large bowl (opon igere)
with the
board itself sitting under it. To entice the spirit forces they
represent, bowls and
boards are frequently emblazoned with the face of Eshu, the trickster
god, or
they can be more elaborately carved with a series of panels often
representing
other major deities and spirit forces. The subjects of the relief panels
are not
narratively linked. They are essentially recognizable emblems that
summarize
overlapping concepts that continually reverberate throughout Yoruba
culture
the hunter, the supplicant, the bird, the warrior, the snake, the
chameleon, the act
of procreation. The number of relief panels will vary according to the
importance of the commission. The four-sided projection at the top of
some
bowls recalls the form of the royal crown worn by kings descended from
Oduduwa. In fact, royal beaded crowns are themselves revered as
"shrines to the
head."
The head is an important concept in Yoruba art and ritual. The verandah pole depicting an Ifa priest with his head half shaven recalls the story of the special bond of friendship between Eshu and Ifa. It also signifies that the priest is officiating at an initiation ceremony. The Yoruba customarily shave the head on ritual occasions, because the spirits are believed to enter and leave a person through his head. Every human being has been given a "head," or destiny, prior to birth that can only be foreseen and arbitrated through divination. However, each person also has the ability to tap the power of this "inner head" (ori inu) to achieve their full potential in life. One's character and personality are said to emanate from this inner head. Its physical manifestation is a small conical "shrine of the head" (ibori) that is kept in a larger, crown-like container, or "house of the head" (ile-ori). Both are non-figurative, made of leather, and strung with cowries. The more successful an individual is in life, the more cowries he will be able to embroider on his container. The "house of the head" of a king is, therefore, always very large and elaborate. At death, the whole sculpture will be dismantled and dispersed.
The verandah pole in the Meyer Collection depicts an Ifa priest
carrying a
divining staff (opa osun, orere), in his right hand and a prestige cane
in his left.
His special half-shaved hairstyle indicates that he is officiating over an
initiation and may be a reference to the story of the origin of
the friendship between Ifa and Eshu. A priest
brings out this special iron staff at large, community-oriented
functions. The
staff symbolizes the diviner's power over death and other destructive
forces, for
it is believed that if a cock is sacrificed to the staff, death will be
tricked into
taking the crying sound of the fowl in place of the human being. The
head,
wings, and feet of the cock are tied to the shaft as spiritual
nourishment for the
power of the staff. A lone metal bird perches at the top. It is welded
to a flat
disc which rests on the inverted bottom part of hollow, metallic cones
or bells.
Other sets of bells decorate the length of the staff. This
bird is a
symbolic link between the earth and sky. The sixteen birds that
surround another
staff, that of the Osanyin, the god of herbal medicine, represent
various
aggressive and malevolent spiritual forces with which man must cope.
But the lone bird of the Ifa staff is believed to represent a much
higher
power--the swift and decisive "soul" of divination, which
protects both the
diviner and his clients as they seek to probe the hidden wishes and
motives of the
gods.
Last updated 29 March 1995.