Object Details
- Local Numbers
- I 2 YRB 3.4.3 EE 59
- General
- Title is provided by EEPA staff based on photographer's notes.
- Local Note
- 58482 78
- Frame value is 11.
- Slide No. I 2 YRB 3.4.3 EE 59
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Collection Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Place
- Africa
- Nigeria
- Topic
- Rites and ceremonies -- Africa
- Works of art in situ
- Animals in art
- Cultural landscapes
- Shrines
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Culture
- Yoruba (African people)
- See more items in
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection / Nigeria
- Extent
- 1 Slides (photographs) (col.)
- Date
- 1959
- Archival Repository
- Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
- Identifier
- EEPA.1973-001, Item EEPA EECL 7686
- Type
- Archival materials
- Slides (photographs)
- Color slides
- Collection Citation
- Eliot Elisofon Field Collection, EEPA 1973-001, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution
- Collection Rights
- Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
- Genre/Form
- Color slides
- Scope and Contents
- "A carving in a Shango shrine is not worshipped. Shango himself is practically never represented. The carvings are mostly identified as the gods' wives, priests, followers and initiates. In the case of the Ede shrine the original identity of the twenty-four figures has been lost and they are now vaguely described by the aged priestess as people killed by lightening. The purpose of the carvings is difficult to define. They are more than mere decoration. They are intended to create an atmosphere, a feeling of heightened reality which is conductive to worship. The purpose of worshipping Shango is not to become a perfect human being but to live a fuller, intensified live." [Ulli Beier: Shango Shrine of the Timi of Ede; Black Orpheus. no 4, Oct. 1958, pp. 30-35, Ibadan]. During his trip to Nigeria, Elisofon visited Ede, one of oldest towns of Yoruba people; founded by Timi Agbale to establish a settlement to protect the Oyo caravan route to Benin. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for Life magazine and traveled to Africa from August 18, 1959 to December 20, 1959.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
- Record ID
- ebl-1536870822481-1536871015633-4
