The House Was Too Small: Yorùbá Sacred Arts from Africa and Beyond

The first section of the exhibition examines the importance of arts related to the head; in all of these traditions, worship bears an inexorable link to the individual and betterment of the self. In traditional Yorùbá belief, the head (ori) is the site of a person's consciousness, individuality, and spiritual intuition. All divinities (orishas) and humans brought into being by Olodumare, the Supreme Creator, have both a visible head (ori-ode) and an inner spiritual one (ori-inu). Ori-inu is closely associated with the fulfilment of one's destiny; its caretaking is central to Yorùbá and Yorùbá-inspired religions. Through divination, offerings to ancestors and orishas, initiation, and other ritual practices, adherents seek to develop good character (iwa pele) and thus achieve spiritual harmony.

Two categories of Yorùbá sacred arts underscore the importance of the visible and the inner spiritual heads: crowns (adenla) worn on special occasions by kings and religious practitioners; and containers known as “house of the head” (ile ori) that enclose and protect objects (ibori) that symbolize one's inner head. Prestigious and often elaborately beaded, adenla encase and spiritually guard the physical head. Ile ori, frequently encrusted with cowrie shells, are costly to produce and require devoted ritual care. An ile ori is a testament to the owners’ self-respect and dedication to their good character.

The second section of the exhibition, by far its largest, features ten displays of iconic accoutrements dedicated to paramount orishas. Above these hang color-coded banners bearing the common spellings of each deity's name in the Yorùbá, Portuguese, Spanish, and English languages. Variously described as spirits, personified natural forces, or deified ancestors, orishas are entities that serve as the Supreme Being Olodumare's emissaries on earth. Mediators between terrestrial and spiritual realms, they act as moral role models and aid people in dealing with everyday realities. Humanlike in character and form, orishas are dynamic presences in the lives of worshipers. In some ceremonies, initiates become vessels for divine embodiment and temporarily personify deities through dress, dance, song, speech, and other actions.

The orishas are often categorized based on personality traits: those that are calm in demeanor are considered cool, or funfun; the more assertive ones are hot, or gbigbona. They may also be grouped by familial relationships or shared obligations and interests. Although the pantheon of orishas is large and ever-expanding, those commonly evoked in personal and public rites are relatively few. The organization of the orisha section in the exhibition reflect shared traits or special relationships that link specific orishas with one another. Thus, objects created for Ogun are adjacent to those made for Oshosi on account of their shared identity as warriors. Likewise, emblems of the divine consorts Shango and Oshun are placed in proximity. Crafted by artists and utilized by worshipers, these works materialize the spiritual energy (ashe) of the orishas.

The most ubiquitous of all orishas, Eshu mediates between human and spiritual realms and is a source of revelation. Accordingly, his sacred objects regularly feature cowrie shells of the type used in divination. Hailed as a “road maker,” he opens the way for all that happens—good or bad—and is invoked at the beginning and ending of ceremonies. Eshu may serve as a benign intercessor when properly honored, or sow chaos when ignored or angered. His icons are often stationed at crossroads, town gates, and entrances to sacred and profane spaces. For this reason, in his exhibition, works depicting him are located at every doorway and point of transition.

Inventor of the forge and patron of blacksmiths, Ogun personifies strength, ingenuity, single-minded determination, and the hardness of metal. His implements, primarily fashioned from iron, include weapons of war and tools of labor. Where his brother Eshu opens a path, Ogun uses his sword or machete to remove all obstacles that may appear. A strong-tempered warrior, protective father, and tireless worker for justice, he is one of the most widely worshiped Orishas within the Yorùbá Atlantic. In this gallery, ritual objects dedicated to him are placed near those of Oshosi and Eshu.

The son of Yemoja, goddess of the sea, Oshosi is an archetypal hunter and master fisherman. Praised as “the king of the forest,” he acts as protector of the natural environments in which he chases his quarry. Oshosi is also revered as a model of ethical behavior and a guardian of all who are unjustly imprisoned, persecuted, or pursued. With his bow and arrow, he hunts and fights alongside his sibling Ogun. Widely recounted sacred narratives emphasize their ability to work together on solving their own problems and those encountered by worshipers.

The younger brother of Orunmila, the god of wisdom, Ossain is the supreme herbalist in the pantheon of orishas. Envisioned as having an imperfect body—one eye, one arm, and one leg—he nonetheless has perfect knowledge of healing. Like Olodumare, Ossain is described as “one who sees everything,” and his devotees are carefully trained in traditional techniques of healing, with an encyclopedic knowledge of medicinal plants. His emblematic metal staff, which features a large bird, sometimes surrounded by a circle of smaller ones, emphasizes the heavenly vantage point from which he protects all of humanity.

In the Yorùbá language, Oshun's name means “source.” As with Yemoja, the cooling energy of freshwater flows from her. The epitome of beauty and sensuality, she is draped in gold and associated with fertility, love, prosperity, and healing. Her fan sweeps away negative elements and purifies the air around her and her adherents. Credited in sacred narratives as the favorite wife of Shango and mother of Eshu and the Ibeji, she is described as a “crowned woman” in recognition of her status among the first gods sent to earth by Olodumare.

Obatala, the first orisha created by the Supreme Being Olodumare, was assigned the task of fashioning the world. He and his younger brother Oduduwa are the architects of the terrestrial realm as we know it and the ones who gave physical form to humans. A wise and compassionate patriarch, Obatala is praised as the “king of the white cloth,” which implies purity and calmness. Accordingly, his sacred arts emphasize whiteness and regality. Priests of Obatala utilize prestige objects that mirror those of royalty, such as beaded conical crowns, staffs, and horsehair flywhisks, highlighting the orisha's position of regal authority.

In Yorùbáland, Yemoja (literally, Mother of Fish) is most closely associated with rivers, streams, springs, and other sources of fresh water, while in the diaspora, she is more often represented as the goddess of the ocean. Patron of women, especially those who are pregnant, she is an ideal maternal figure who, according to some mythological accounts, gave birth to all the orishas as well as the Sun and the Moon. Her emblems and ritual accoutrements highlight blue and pink colors, and are replete with aquatic, nautical, and celestial motifs.

The Yorùbá peoples have one of the highest rates of twin births in the world. In response to infant mortality, historically, carved wood figures of one or both twins (Ere Ibeji) memorialized the deceased and served as surrogates. As spiritual entities linked to the orishas Oshun and Shango, Ibeji are capable of bringing wealth to their families when honored or misfortune if forgotten. Accordingly, they are handled with great ritual care, including bathing, dressing, adorning, and feeding. In Yorùbáland, this materializing of departed children dates back to the mid-eighteenth century and became widespread by the mid-nineteenth century. More recently, and elsewhere in the Yorùbá Atlantic, handmade cloth dolls and mass-produced plastic ones have replaced sculpted wood Ibeji.

A fiercely masculine figure, Shango is believed to have been the fourth king of the Yorùbá kingdom of Oyo-Ile before his apotheosis as an orisha. He is remembered as a warlike, if not tyrannical, ruler who brought power and prosperity to an expanding empire. The divine Shango's character is shaped by the same intertwined destructive and creative energies. Lord of thunder, lightning, and fire, he personifies the power and unpredictably of those elemental forces. A punisher of transgressors, he is also viewed by devotees as a giver of children and is particularly associated with twins. His sacred colors are red and white, and his most notable symbol is the double-headed axe.

Oko (or commonly Orisha Oko) is a deity of agriculture and fertility of the land. According to traditional narratives, Oko was a farmer with great knowledge of leaves, herbs, and medicine who lived in the ancient Yorùbá village of Irawu. During a famine, he used his abilities to protect his neighbors from starvation. When they refused to honor their promise to make him king, he left them forever. As an orisha, he ensures the health of the land and a prodigious harvest. A primary emblem of Oko is a metal staff made of farmer's hoes that have been welded together.

The third section addresses the practice of divination with the help of three local diviners. Created by Orunmila, an orisha associated with intellectual growth and knowledge, Ifa divination is a central component of Yorùbá-based modes of worship in Africa and the Americas. Facilitated by Eshu, the divine messenger, the oracular system offers seekers insights into the circumstances of their lives and provides ethical and moral guidance. At the heart of Ifa divination is an expansive corpus of oracular texts (odu Ifa) whose verses are memorized by diviners (babalawos). Said to be the accumulated teachings of Orunmila, odu Ifa includes mythological narratives, proverbs, poems, and instructive accounts of human experience organized into 256 categories. In 2005, Ifa divination was added to the UNESCO list of “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.”

Using a set of ritual tools, including palm nuts (ikin Ifa), powder from the irosun tree (iyerosun), carved wooden trays (opon Ifa), tappers (iroke Ifa), and divining chains (opele) made of wood, metal, or ivory, babalawos employ a complex system of mathematical signs to access the wisdom of Orunmila. When divining with ikin Ifa, the oldest practice, babalawos hold sixteen nuts in their left hand and then pass all but one or two ikin to their right hand. Eight repetitions of this casting process will determine the appropriate verses of Odu Ifa that will address a supplicant's situation.

As part of our engagement with practitioners of Ifa, the Fowler Museum invited three babalawos who live in Southern California—Oluwo'Nla Irawoifa (Amos Dyson), Olowu Fakolade (Jahsun Edmonds), and Awo Falokun Fasegun (Earl White)—to utilize Ifa tools from the museum's collection for divination and demonstration. An accompanying video, filmed during those ritual and instructional sessions, illustrates key elements of the Ifa divination process.

The fourth section touches on how faith communities and individual practitioners throughout the Yorùbá Atlantic honor the dead and recognize ancestors as active participants in the everyday world. Olodumare, the Supreme Being who created existence, appointed Death (Iku) to recall to Heaven (Oran) those whose time on earth (Aye) has been fulfilled. While their bodies are buried in the ground, their spirits or souls enter the afterlife as ancestral forces (Egun or Egungun) who have the power to intercede in the realm of the living.

Beyond facilitating remembrance of the dead, sacred arts reinforce continuing relationships between the living and the deceased. In Yoràbáland, Egungun masqueraders, described as “Visitors from Heaven” (Ara-Orun), embody ancestors at festivals venerating the dead. In Brazil, costumed Egungun performances are more narrowly connected to select Afro- Brazilian religious communities, most notably those living on the island of Itaparica in the Bay of Todos os Santos in the state of Bahia.

Household shrines also serve as foci for interacting with ancestors. In the Yorùbá-inspired Cuban Lucumí religious tradition, for example, altars for the dead (Egun or Muertos) include staffs adorned with colorful strips of cloth that are reminiscent of Yorùbá Egungun costumes. Featuring serving dishes, glasses, candles, and offerings of food and drink, these ritual spaces are reminders that the homes of the living also belong to the ancestors.

In the fifth and final section of the exhibition, artist and abolitionist Patrisse Cullors presents a new multimedia installation entitled Free Us. Divided between two rooms, the work includes a screening space for a video titled They Are With Us in which the artist, dressed in elaborate crowns and costumes, embodies four orishas: Oshun, Yemaya, Obatala, and Oya. In the second section, four wall-mounted mixed-media artworks referencing Ifa divination are juxtaposed with four altars dedicated to the same orishas as in the video. The altars include offerings, a set of orisha crowns seen in the video, and objects from the Fowler Museum's collection. A soundscape (UnEarthing Altars) of rolling water and prayers chanted in multiple languages fills the room with echoes of worship.

Cullors reflects powerfully on expressions of human resilience and lived experiences of healing throughout the Yorùbá Atlantic, themes which members of our curatorial collective frequently emphasized in developing the exhibition. Concerning this, Cullors states,

The focus on wellbeing, empathy, and collective action, unites not only the fundamental concepts of this exhibition, but also the method of its curation. The collaborative approach to project development, the comparative mode of presenting sacred arts, and the hands-on engagement of community members with displayed objects, all provide, hopefully, the viewing public with a better sense of the dynamic histories— and futures—of Yorùbá and Yorùbá-inspired religions.