Ifá diviner's necklace (òdìgbà Ifá) (1900s): Art, History and Details

Ifá diviner's necklace (òdìgbà Ifá) (1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The use of colorful glass beads adds luster to the divination session and underlines the high status diviners enjoy in Yorùbá society. Like kings, diviners derive their authority from the otherworld, òrún. A beaded necklace with two beaded pouches is an accessory carried by the itinerant Yorùbá diviner. Substances sewn into the miniature bags protect the diviner and ensure his power.

Object facts

• Title: Ifá diviner's necklace (òdìgbà Ifá)
• Date: 1900s
• Culture: Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Yorùbá-style maker
• Type: Tools and Equipment
• Technique: Cloth, glass beads, cardboard, cotton, probably wool, and wood
• Dimensions: Overall: 49.5 cm (19 1/2 in.); Bag: 21.5 x 19.6 cm (8 7/16 x 7 11/16 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1995.23

A detail from the museum

Look closely at the minuscule beads used to make the complex patterns of this multicolored necklace containing two pouches with thin strands that are connected by rope-like cords. A Yoruba diviner would have communicated with the spirit world while wearing this accessory.

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Young-Sanchez, Margaret. "The Cleveland Museum of Art." African Arts 30, no.1 (1997): 66-71, p. 70
• Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.