Benin Rattle Staff, Nigeria

ukhurhe

Eric Robertson, New York
Private Collection, acquired from the above

In the Benin Ekpo men's society, ukhurhe dance staffs are used in ceremonial dances honoring ancestors, representations of which incorporated into the column of the staff interspersed with fine relief carving.  The present example features a chamber containing a percussive clapper.  When not being used in dance, these staffs adorn family altars.  For a photograph of a related staff being used in situ, see African Arts (1984: cover illustration).  Another staff of related form, in bronze, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (inv. no. "1974.5").