Images(2)

Staff for Esu (Ogo Elegba)

Label TextWillful and irreverent, Esu's next move is unpredictable. This staff shows off a row of calabashes attached to his hair. In each, he would keep numerous charms to put people to sleep or to become invisible in one of his many acts to confuse the arrogant, deceive the careless, and trip the powerful. Thus, he adds his name to one of the oldest and most persistent patterns of cultural deliberation: Hermes, Prometheus, Anansi, Raven, Rabbit, Spider, Coyote, The Joker, etc. Esu Praise Poem Esu turns right into wrong, wrong into right. When he is angry, he hits a stone until it bleeds. When he is angry, he sits on the skin of an ant. When he is angry, he weeps tears of blood. Esu slept in the house-- but the house was too small for him. Esu slept on the veranda-- but the veranda was too small for him. Esu slept in a nut-- at last he could stretch himself. (Collected by Ulli Beier, 1971)

Object number81.17.592

Exhibition HistoryLos Angeles, California, Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, University of California, African Art in Motion: Icon and Act, Jan. 20 - Mar. 17, 1974 (Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, May 5 - Sept. 22, 1974). Text by Robert Farris Thompson. No cat. no., pp. 25-26, reproduced pl. 31 (as "elegba" staff). Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Indigo, May 9, 2003 - Oct. 19, 2003.

Credit LineGift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

Dimensions20 x 4 x 11 in. (50.8 x 10.2 x 28 cm)

MediumWood, hide, cowrie shells, twine, indigo, metal