Esu Dance Staff (Ogo Elegbara)

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Mid–late 19th century

Attributed to an unidentified Ketu master (active mid-19th century)
Yoruba
Nigeria
Coastal West Africa

This dance staff for the deity Eshu depicts a warrior flanked by a bound captive and a nursing mother. This work was made during a turbulent period of civil war. The warrior’s cap is depicted as a crooked phallus, which is a symbol of Eshu—the divine messenger, facilitator, and provocateur—and allows for the staff to be hooked over the shoulder.

Status: On View, Gallery 137
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Yoruba
Title: Esu Dance Staff (Ogo Elegbara)
Place: Nigeria (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1825–1900
Medium: Wood
Dimensions: 25.4 × 12.7 × 12.7 cm (10 × 5 × 5 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Anne R. Whipple and Jay Whipple in memory of Anne's son, W. Philip McNulty III
Reference Number: 1991.396
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/117845/manifest.json

Justine M. Cordwell and Ronald Schwarz, eds., The Fabrics of Culture: The Anthropology of Clothing and Adornment (Paris: Mouton Publishers, 1979), pl. 27 (ill.).
Robert Plant Armstrong. The Powers of Presence: Consciousness, Myth, and Affecting Presence (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981), pl. 17 (ill.).
Yourba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, exh. cat. (The Center for African Art, New York, 1989), p. 216, fig. 249.
Moyo Okediji, “Art of the Yoruba,” Museum Studies, vol. 23, no. 2 (1997), pp. 177-178 (ill.).
Sarah Watson Parsons, “Interpreting Projections, Projecting Interpretations: A Reconsideration of the Phallus in Esu Iconography,” African Arts vol. 32, no. 2 (Summer, 1999), pp. 37 (ill.).
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 38, pp. 104-105 (ill.).

New York, Center for African Art, Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, Sept. 21, 1989–January 7, 1990, cat. 249; traveled to Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 10–Apr. 1, 1990, Washington D.C., National Museum of African Art, May 8–Aug. 26, 1990, Cleveland Museum of Art, Sept. 26–Dec. 9, 1990, New Orleans Museum of Art, Jan. 11–Mar. 24, 1991, Atlanta, High Museum, Apr. 23–June 16, 1991, Phoenix Art Museum, Sept. 4-Oct. 6, 1991.

Jay N. Whipple, Jr. (died 2018) and Anne Reisse Whipple, Lake Forest, Ill., by 1979 [see Cordwell and Schwarz, 1979, plate 27]; given to The Art Institute, 1991.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.