Divination bowl figure – Wood – Yoruba – Nigeria

Beautiful YORUBA divination bowl / maternity figure of Nigeria. One of the most famous
Divination (Ifa) is practiced to explain misfortunes and help to prevent them. The diviner, in consulting a diety, manipulates sixteen palm nuts, reads the patterns they form and marks the results on a divination board sprinkled with wood dust. The marks indicate verses that should be chanted as prayers. .The bowls are used to hold kola nuts as offerings of hospitality or as receptacles for the sixteen sacred palm nuts used in divination.

Good condition with a beautiful shiny aged patina of use. The figure is sitting on a stool carying a bowl in her hands with a baby on her back.

Provenance: Manfred Schäfer, former gallery owner from Ulm (Germany).