This attractive piece is a Shango wand � or Ose
Sango � from the Yoruba people of Nigeria. It is
essentially a platform with a polished wood handle
beneath, supporting a kneeling woman suckling a
pair of twins. Her body and face are reminiscent of
Ere Ibeji twin figures, with angular facial features,
triple cheek scars, reductivist modelling below the
neck, and a peaked hairstyle denoted by incised
lines. She is further adorned by a fan-shaped
eminence on the apex of her coiffure � this
triple-scar decorated object denotes the double-
headed axe that symbolises Shango, the god of
lightning. She is kneeling and leaning forward
slightly to allow the standing twins to breastfeed
� they have their arms wrapped around each
other and around her, to form a ring of continuous
contact between all three figures. She is wearing a
string of fine glass trade beads around her neck,
with a large tubular bead as a pendant, and
another string of fine beads in her left ear as an
earring. The handle is highly polished through
usage, and there is a small suspension loop carved
into the apex thereof.
The Yoruba peoples of Nigeria have what is
probably the longest extant artistic tradition in
Africa. The nation state is comprised of numerous
subsections that were joined historically by the rise
and collapse of the Ife (12th to 15th centuries) and
Benin (13th to 19th centuries) polities. Each of the
sub-kingdoms � including Oyo, Ijebu and smaller
units towards the west � had their heyday, and
are loosely united through language and culture,
although they still retain a measure of
independence in terms of their artistic traditions. It
is extremely hard to summarise the nature of
Yoruba society given the large area they cover and
the inevitable variability of their customs.
The Yoruba � being a large, complex society �
is sedentary, agriculturist and hierarchical. They
are ruled by hereditary kings known as Obas, and
their access to the supernatural world is supervised
by a very complex arrangement of priests (i.e.
Olowa) and spiritual intermediaries. Their
cosmology is arranged in terms of the tangible
realm of the living (aye) and the invisible realm of
the spirits and the hereafter (orun). Their
relationship is sometimes described as being that
of a gourd with tightly-interlocking upper and
lower halves, or as a divination board with a raised
rim and a depressed centre. The creator of the
world is Olodumare (or Odumare, Olorun, Eleda or
Eleemi, depending on the area), who is the source
of all ase � life force. Orun is populated by all
manner of spirits (iwin, ajogun, egbe and oro),
gods (orisa) and ancestors (ara orun), all of whom
influence the living. They can all be reached,
appealed to or appeased through human
intermediaries such as the babalawo (diviner). Most
Yoruban artistic heritage is designed to thwart evil
spirits, and to placate or honour those that bring
good fortune to the populace.
Shango (or Sango) was the fourth Yoruba king of
Oyo-Ile. He is said to have harnessed lightning to
defeat his enemies, and had numerous rather
colourful character traits that led to a mixed public
opinion. When forced to commit suicide, thunder
and lightning threatened to destroy the city; his
ex-subjects interpreted this as an act of retribution
and deified him as the god of thunder, hoping to
appease him and also to harness some of his
power. Latterly, Shango became associated with
twins (Nigeria has the world�s highest prevalence
of twin births), rainfall, and for punishing
miscreants with lightning strikes. His symbol is the
double-headed axe, although dogs, rams (his
preferred sacrificial animal) and kneeling women
holding offering bowls/cups are also strongly
associated with him. Finally, he is associated with
art, music and beautiful women, so it is perhaps
little surprise that he is such a popular deity
(orisha) in the Yoruba pantheon.
The woman is a worshipper of Shango, or perhaps
his favourite wife, Oya (goddess of tornadoes and
the River Niger), judging from her high coiffure.
Real-life devotees of Shango own dance wands
such as this that are carried in formal procession
by the cult group member who becomes possessed
with Shango's spirit. Iconography of these items is
typically formalised, but there are regionalisations
as well as personal diversity among carvers. Some
of the figures on these wands carry a pair of
merged thunderbolts (edan ara) on their heads,
surmounted by the double-headed axe that
symbolizes Shango himself. The polished wood
handle was gripped by the worshipper during a
dancing ritual to honour the god.
This figure is a rare form of the conventional Ose
Shango, as it is unusual for the central figure to be
portrayed with additional figures. However, it is
highly appropriate in consideration of Shango�s
association with twins, and it makes for an unusual
and highly appealing piece of African art.
