Yoruba Yoruba divination board from Nigeria. Piece over 50 years old.

Usual object of Vodoun cults and used in Fa Oracles.
The Fâ (Ifa, afa, whose origin is Ré-Ifé, the mother city of the Yoruba) is not a god but an oracle, a means of divination, of Vodoun geomancy.
The Fâ is the spokesperson for all the gods who will express themselves through him.

It is the soothsayer, the Babalawo, “the father who has the secret” who consults.
He uses a tray decorated with small scenes, on the banner of which there is always a representation of Esu.

Usual object of Vodoun cults and used in Fa Oracles.
The Fâ (Ifa, afa, whose origin is Ré-Ifé, the mother city of the Yoruba) is not a god but an oracle, a means of divination, of Vodoun geomancy.
The Fâ is the spokesperson for all the gods who will express themselves through him.

It is the soothsayer, the Babalawo, “the father who has the secret” who consults.
He uses a tray decorated with small scenes, on the banner of which there is always a representation of Esu.

The babalawo hits the board with a mallet or uses a bell; then he uses 16 palm nuts which he manipulates in his hands.
Depending on the position of the nuts in his left hand, he writes signs in the powder placed on the tray.
He then interprets the signs using an important literary corpus: the odu.