Dance Staff for Sango
Yoruba Artist
Nigeria

Details
Title
Dance Staff for Sango
Artist/Maker
Yoruba Artist (Nigeria)
Date
early–mid twentieth century
Medium
Wood and pigment
Dimensions
20 1/2 inches
Credit
Fred and Rita Richman Collection
Accession #
72.40.107
Followers of Shango—the Yoruba thunder god and the deity associated with divine justice—carry dance staffs on ceremonial occasions. The kneeling female figure depicted on this dance staff represents a priestess or devotee of Shango. Shango is symbolized by the double-axe-blade motif, which refers to thunderstorms (Neolithic axe-heads are described as having being thrown down from the sky by the thunder deity).
More from this Artist
Browse Related Artwork

Head with Gold Tooth
Sulton Rogers

Pepper Mill
Earl Pardon

Parking Gratis, Ponce, Puerto Rico
Dawoud Bey

Arktype Sustenance #4
Tina Dunkley

Kin XXIX (Vincero)
Whitfield Lovell

Stand for Cleaning Materials
Unidentified Maker

The Brown Sisters, Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Nicholas Nixon

Ecclesiastes X, 17
William Majors

Grecian Couch
Unidentified Maker

Arabs on the Way to the Pastures of the Tell
Eugène Fromentin

Untitled
Roger Ballen