Minneapolis Institute of Art

Divination tray

Yoruba artist

Date

mid 20th century

Medium

Wood

Culture

Yoruba

Department

Arts of Global Africa

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Who doesn’t need help now and then deciding which way to go in life? The Yoruba people developed a complex system of divination (foretelling), called ifa, which relies on an extensive and constantly growing body of chanted texts. To determine which of the hundreds of verses are relevant to the case at hand, the diviner performs ifa using several instruments: a tapper to summon Orunmila, the divinity of wisdom, knowledge, and divination; a carved tray to be covered with a layer of dust in which signs are drawn; and, most importantly, a set of 16 sacred palm nuts (not shown here) used by the diviner to obtain numbers marked on the tray. Combinations of these numbers lead the diviner to a particular set of verses. Nigeria, Africa

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