Complex beaded bags are worn by a Yoruba diviner known as "father of the secret." He kept implements in it for use in consultations with Orunmila, the god of wisdom. Dense multicolored patterning is a visual signal of the presence of a man who is capable of reciting from a vast library of oral poetry known as Odu Ifa.
Cloth, string, glass beads
8 9/16 x 1 3/8 in. (21.7 x 3.5 cm)
L.: 11 1/16 in.
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.639
Now on view at the
Seattle Art Museum
Resources
Exhibition HistoryBellevue, Washington, Bellevue Art Museum, The Ubiquitous Bead, Sept. 5 - Oct. 25, 1987.
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, African Panoplies: Art for Rulers, Traders, Hunters, and Priests, Apr. 21 - Aug. 14, 1988.
New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, Bámigbóyè: A Master Sculptor of the Yorùbá Tradition, Sept. 9, 2022 - Jan. 8, 2023. No cat. no., p. 46, reproduced fig. 18.
Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.
