The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 7, 2025

Dark brown wood dance staff on which a wood block holds two thin poles that support the bases of two figures. These figures have strings of light beige cowry shells draped over their shoulders that hang down in three clusters, ending just above the lower block. The figures have angular faces, round eyes with the eyelids halfway closed and detailed with lines like eyelashes. They smile and wear cone caps.

Dance staff for Èṣù (Ògò Èlẹ́gba)

1800s
Wood, leather, cowrie shells, seeds, and natural fiber
62 cm (24 7/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2018.34
Location: 108C Akan & Yoruba

Did You Know?

If Eshu isn’t properly honored, trouble may befall the community or individual.

Description

Èṣù (also called Èḷégba) embodies the most complex deity in the Yorùbá pantheon of gods. The messenger of the Yorùbá gods, Èṣù is also the bearer of sacrifices, guardian of the ritual way of life, and is associated with highly significant places including crossroads, markets, and home entrances. As seen here, Èṣù's power is often visually represented in Ògò Èḷégba (dance staffs); in this example, the unusually paired man and woman reference his ability to switch between the two genders, turn death into life (through childbirth), and to overcome the tension between the sexes. The male character bears a ritual flute reserved for this god. The abundance of cowrie shells means that Èṣù brings wealth.
  • ?–1974
    (Lucien Van de Velde [1910–1996], Anvers, Belgium, sold to Dr. Marc Lorre)
    1974–2012
    Mrs. Marc Lorre, Antwerp, Belgium, sold to Christie’s
    2012
    (Christie’s, Paris, France, December 11, 2012, no. 59, sold to a private collector)
    2018
    Private collection, Paris, France, sold to Christie’s
    2018
    (Christie’s, Paris, France, April 8, 2018, Sale 16061 Arts d'Afrique, d'Océanie et d'Amérique, no. 58 sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2018–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Debbaut, Jan, Dominique Favart, and G. van Geertruyen. Utotombo: l'art d'Afrique noire dans les collections privées belges. Exh. Cat. Brussels: Société des Expositions du Palais des Beaux-Arts, March 25-June 5, 1988. Reproduced: p. 163, cat. 98
    Drewal, Henry John, John Pemberton, Rowland Abiodun, and Allen Wardwell. Yoruba: Nine centuries of African art and thought. New York: Center for African Art in association with H.N. Abrams, 1989.
    Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth. “Acquisitions 2018: African Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 59, no. 2 (March/April 2019): 8-9. Reproduced: P. 9; Mentioned: P. 8, 9.
  • African art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20, 2019-October 5, 2020).
    Utotombo: L'Art d'Afrique noire dans les collections privées belges. Société des Expositions du Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium (March 25 - June 5, 1988)
  • {{cite web|title=Dance staff for Èṣù (Ògò Èlẹ́gba)|url=https://www.clevelandart.org/print/art/2018.34|author=|year=1800s|access-date=07 April 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.34