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.

Two pouches like half-ovals with white, pinks, and browns in striped and triangular patterns made of miniscule beads. Strands of predominantly pink, blue, and white beads hang down around the pouches. Beaded strands extending from either side of the flat edge of each pouch connect the pouches into a loop. The beaded swathes alternate between white, green-brown, and deep blue colors separated by geometric patterned, beaded cylinders.

(Pace Primitive, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

This bag was a powerful aid in divination. The color and design of the beading symbolizes the different Yoruba gods who reveal answers to the diviner's questions.

Powerful Pouch

For the Yoruba, diviners have the power to bridge the gap between the human world and the world of the gods. Those who practice divination, often with the aid of special objects like this bag, seek to foresee future events or discover hidden knowledge through the interpretation of omens and the aid of supernatural powers.

Divination

Wow, that's a lot of beads! The divination bag is completely covered in beads to add luster and emphasize the diviner's high status in Yoruba society. Arranged in specific colors and patterns that evoke the gods of divination, the beads also indicate the contents of the bag and its identity of its owner.

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Ifá diviner's necklace (òdìgbà Ifá)

Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Yorùbá-style maker

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