Art and Oracle: A Scholarly Resource of African and Rituals of Divination | Explore & Learn

Enlarge image

12. Carved Calabash
Yoruba, Oyo, Nigeria
Calabash; Diam. 25 cm (9 7/8 in.)
19th century
Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, Munich
18-22-15

Description of this category

Next object in this category

Next category
Previous category

12. Carved Calabash

he object shown here serves as a metaphor for one culture's concept of the cosmos. This Yoruba calabash distills one of the most complex ideas conceived by the human imagination into a design of elegant understatement and simplicity. The medium is an ordinary gourd that has been cut in half, scraped out, and dried before being carved. The surface of this simple, bisected sphere is covered with a series of finely incised interlace and bird motifs framed by elaborate borders. Here, the universe is envisioned as an entity composed of two distinct symmetrical units. The upper half depicts orun, the invisible spiritual realm of the ancestors, gods, and spirits, while the bottom half symbolizes aye, the visible, tangible world of the living. Thus, the work expresses the Yoruba cosmos as a union of structurally equal, autonomous elements, found repeatedly as the guiding principle in other Yoruba sacred artifacts.1 (See part 4 of the Pemberton essay.)

Yoruba spiritual precepts conceive of existence as a cyclical trajectory, according to which individuals experience life in aye, depart to orun, and are reborn. Olodumare, the Yorubas' removed and distant creator god, acted as a prime mover, infusing both hemispheres and all that they contain—gods, ancestors, spirits, humans, animals, plants, rocks, rivers—with life force (ase). Ase is at once the essential ingredient necessary to spark existence, an equivalent of the Western "anima," and the catalyst that allows things to change.2 Ase is alluded to figuratively in the gourd's decorative motifs through bird imagery, associated with the mystical powers attributed to women and divine kings in Yoruba society.

The threshold between aye and orun, represented as the line that bisects and joins the two spherical units of the calabash, is presided over by Orunmila, the deity responsible for the Yoruba system of divination known as Ifa, and Esu (also called Elegba), the divine messenger and mediator. According to Yoruba oral tradition, Orunmila's presence at creation endowed him with knowledge of every human being's destiny. At one time Orunmila (also called Ifa)3 moved easily between the realms aye and orun. However, the boundary between those two realms became a nearly impassable chasm after he retired to the world of the gods. While on earth, Orunmila had had eight children, the youngest of whom, Olowo, became king of the Yoruba city-state of Owo. Orunmila's omniscience made him uniquely qualified to serve as a wise counsel to his children, and, in return, he expected to be honored by them. Olowo rebelled against doing so, precipitating Orunmila's departure for orun. After he abandoned his children, they petitioned him to return. Instead, Orunmila provided each one of them with sixteen palm nuts (ikin Ifa) as a means of addressing questions to him.4

Since that time, the ikin have facilitated dialogues between Orunmila and individuals seeking to clarify their destiny. Ifa is consulted at each important phase of one's life, as well as in times of crisis, through the intermediation of professional specialists (babalawo). During Ifa rituals, babalawo repeatedly cast the ikin so that they reveal odu—signs that correlate with ancient verses of poetry that expand on their significance. The diviner recites these and interprets their significance to suggest influences that are affecting one's life and actions that one might consider taking.5 Although one's personal destiny (ori inu) is defined before coming into the world, a significant degree of self-determination allows one to make decisions that enable one to fulfill that destiny.

Beyond its metaphysical significance, this prestige object served as a ritual container used in sacrifices to the gods and for divination.6 It was collected in Yorubaland by Leo Frobenius in 1918, and its design suggests that it was made in the province of Oyo.

1. Yoruba 1989, p. 16.

2. Ibid.

3. "Ifa, . . . a Yoruba system of divination, is presided over by Orunmila, its deified mythic founder, who is also sometimes called Ifa." Ibid., p. 15.

4. Rowland Abiodun in ibid., p. 93.

5. Henry John Drewal, "Art and Divination among the Yoruba: Design and Myth," Africana Journal 14, nos. 2–3 (1987), p. 140.

6. African Masterpieces 1987, p. 145.