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<\/p>\nWalking into the Fleming Museum\u2019s Spirited Things: Sacred Arts of the Black Atlantic Exhibit, your eyes are inundated by radiant, intriguing, and esoteric objects of various Afro-Atlantic Religions. There are altars composed to honor various deities, plethoras of shining garments, beaded dolls, colorfully wrapped bottles, gorgeous tapestries with images of deities and mythical beings, gathered to express religious cultures. Families of objects line the walls and floors all telling a story of religious and cultural diversity of Yoruba Religions, Brazilian Candombl\u00e9, Santer\u00eda, Haitian Vodoun, and much more. <\/p>\n
To the left of me, in a large glass case surrounded by bottles of rum, cowrie shells, and dolls for wealth and prosperity, lies a strange wand-like object. This object, by reading the tag underneath, is known as the Ibir\u00ed Wand of the Goddess Na\u00f1a. By observation, this object is about 15-20 inches in length, and extends from a straight handle, into two pieces of straw that bend in opposite directions to create an oval shaped looped at the summit of the wand. The ibir\u00ed is made of Palha da Costa, or African straw, and is adorned with rows of blue, red, gold and white glass beads. Glass Beads, or any links of beads are said to, within the practice of Candombl\u00e9, after being washed in herbal baths or blood offerings, are said to take on the ashe of the deities they are used for, and become a connection or a literal \u201clink\u201d from user or practitioner to the divine. Along with the beads decorating the Ibir\u00ed, pearly white cowrie shells, which create an oceanic aspect of the wand, entrancing sections of leather ranging in color, drawing your eyes in all directions around the shape of the wand, are present. Beginning at the base of the handle, my eyes seemed to follow the colors as they changed starting with black, blue, green, yellow, white, and finishing with red. I had never seen an object quite like this, that could catch my eyes and draw them in so many different directions at once, I was eager to discover more about this mesmerizing entity of an object. In this essay, I will provide background information on both the Ibir\u00ed and its owner, Na\u00f1a Buruku. Also, my main question for this essay is how is the Ibir\u00ed wand is used, by practitioners of Na\u00f1a Buruku, within ritualistic practices? Also, I wished to introduce the history of Candombl\u00e9, and beliefs within this religion. I also will expand the concept of the spiritual importance that religious objects have. As religious objects can also possess a similar spiritual value as the owner of it, looking past its mundane origin. I will be relating this concept to one of our past readings, \u201cA Sorcerer\u2019s bottle\u201d by Elizabeth McAlister.<\/p>\n
To begin, Candombl\u00e9, a word who’s meaning \u201cdance in honor of the gods\u201d is \u201ca religion is a mixture of traditional Yoruba, Fon and Bantu beliefs which originated from different regions in Africa. These beliefs were transported within the hearts and souls of slaves during the slave trade. It has also incorporated some aspects of the catholic faith over time. These people, along with their indigenous religious beliefs and practices, were essentially stolen from Africa, and were transported to Brazil. Candombl\u00e9, is a hybrid, or a \u201csyncretic\u201d religious mixture of Traditional Yoruba, Fon, and Bantu religious beliefs, all origination from different regions of Africa. Music and Dance are the one of the primarily important aspects of Candombl\u00e9, within ceremonies, mainly. Practitioners of Candombl\u00e9, believe in one all powerful god, called Oludumar\u00e9. He is served by lesser deities called Orishas, whom one of which in Nana Buruku. <\/p>\n
\tContinuing along the introduction of the orisha, I would like to share a bit of history regarding Na\u00f1a Buruku. She is again, an orisha, or a lesser deity within the Brazilian religious practice of Candombl\u00e9. She is considered the Orisha of Death, Dance, Healing, Disease or Pestilence, and other aspects as well. She is considered a \u201cgrandmother\u201d of the Orisha\u2019s and is seen very much as a wise-woman within Candombl\u00e9. Two of her children, are Ogun, the orisha of metal or iron, and Obaluaiye, the orisha of smallpox and pestilence. Na\u00f1a is known amongst practitioners of Candombl\u00e9, as a powerful deity for asking for a pregnancy, to terminate a pregnancy, and for various types of healing. She is said to use a similar Ibir\u00ed wand to my object in the Fleming Museum, as a broom of sorts, or as a staff to guide her followers and her children to their highest potential, like a grandmother spirit would do. However, just as Na\u00f1a Buruku uses the Ibir\u00ed as a tool for helping her children, grandchildren, and devotees, the Orisha\u2019s tool has also been known as a weapon. With this malicious usage of the Ibir\u00ed, or the ileeshin, an alternative Yoruba word for the Ibir\u00ed reflects a side of the Grandmother spirit that is rather contradicting and darker. \u201cBut if a cruel and horrible person stands before her, she can take the ileeshin, thrust it out horizontally before her and strike its looped tip against the belly of the man\u201d (Thompson 1983, 71). This aspect of the Ibir\u00ed suggests an aspect of the Orisha that is just, and seeks to have justice against cruel or unjust people. This tells a sort of duality to Na\u00f1a Buruku, a balance between nurturing and healing with justice and dealing punishment to those who may deserve it. The Ibir\u00ed and Na\u00f1a both share a very balanced and equal power, dealing with both aspects of the world; that which is cruel and unjust, and that which is healing and has justice. The colors of blue, gold, white and green emphasize the healing and nurturing side of the Orisha, and her desire to watch and guide over her children, grandchildren, and worshippers. After feeling like I needed to understand the Orisha on a more personal and human level, I wished to learn more about the backstory of both the Ibir\u00ed and the Orisha, during her human experience.<\/p>\n
The Ibir\u00ed wand, was said to have been born with Na\u00f1a Buruku at the beginning of her life on Earth. \u201cNana has possessed a certain staff from the beginning of her life on earth. She was born with this staff; it was not given to her by anyone\u2026 when she was born the staff was embedded in the placenta\u201d (Thompson 1983, 71). This expresses that the history of Na\u00f1a Buruku and the Ibir\u00ed are intertwined and show the dependence both the object and the deity have on each other. The Ibir\u00ed, was also said to have been cut from the placenta after birth, and placed into the Earth. The Ibir\u00ed was then said to grow as the child grew. \u201c Then they cut it from the placenta and they put it inside the Earth. But surprisingly, as the infant grew, the staff grew, too\u201d (Thompson 1983, 71). This legend, in a sense emphasizes how Na\u00f1a Buruku\u2019s \u00e1she, or her divine powers, grew as she did within the Ibir\u00ed and also emphasizes the idea within Afro-Atlantic religions that one\u2019s \u00e1she, or divine influence, grows along with them in the world. Moving away from the history of the object itself, into another point of my essay which is how the reflection of Na\u00f1a Buruku\u2019s ashe, can be seen and acknowledged within the the ibiri, as a vessel of spiritual energy. This connection of energy can be found again, within \u201cA Sorcerer\u2019s Botle\u201d by Elizabeth Mcallister, a past. reading of ours.<\/p>\n
Within \u201cA Sorcerer\u2019s Bottle\u201d McAllister discussed how she discovered through a special bottle made for her by a Religious Sorcerer, that were existed so much more beyond the materiality of the object. This reading reminded me of the Ibir\u00ed, as the wand seemed to also have a spiritual \u201cmind of it\u2019s own\u201d as well the bottle. The Ibir\u00ed was used as a weapon to harm other people at one point. This fact, along with how the wand seemed to grow simultaneously with Nana Buruku, told me that wand had the similar energy as the bottle in the reading. McAllister describes the object as a piece of art, along with a magical entity, as well. \u201c The bottle was thus commissioned; I thought of it as my first piece of art. Or was it? Right before he gave it to me, the b\u00f2k\u00f2 turned it into a work of magic, a wanga\u201d (McAllister 1995, 305). This quote enforces my idea and additional point of this essay, of the equalized reflection of spiritual value inside an object, to the owner of it. The Ibir\u00ed\u2019s power, and its connection to Na\u00f1a Buruku, showed me the value far beyond the object that sat in front of me in the museum, I related to it\u2019s history and envisioned it\u2019s power and it\u2019s comparison to Na\u00f1a Buruku. Shifting again from discussing the orisha, to discussing her Ibir\u00ed. I\u2019d like to expand more on just what the Ibir\u00ed is, it\u2019s ritualistic and spiritual purposes within rituals, etc. <\/p>\n
\tThe Ibir\u00ed, along with being used by the Orisha herself as a broom, as a staff of guidance, as a weapon, etc. is seen heavily in Candombl\u00e9 imagery in the crook of Na\u00f1a Buruku\u2019s arms, as she is swaddling it like a child, again emphasizing her role as a grandmother spirit, a nurturer, and a healer. In one of my research questions, I wanted to discover more about the modern use of the Ibir\u00ed within ritualistic practices. This leaded me to discover that worshippers and devotees of Na\u00f1a Buruku use a form of dancing called Tidalectics, a style of dancing that includes a swaying motion parallel to the action of the oceans waves. Tidalectics, is seldom seen within any other ritual besides one simply worshipping Na\u00f1a Buruku alone. The Tidalectics style of dancing creates connection to the nature of the Orisha herself, as she has been said to be found near oceans, rivers, and streams. I did not, interestingly, discover much about the use of the object itself during rituals. However, it is still used outside of rituals, as a vessel for the stories of itself and Na\u00f1a Buruku. After discovering Tidalectics, and it\u2019s connection to the orisha, I began to search for more possible connections to the ocean. I discovered through more research about oceanic connections to the Ibir\u00ed and Na\u00f1a, about Cowrie Shells. These are white, pearly shells, which are naturally used as a representation of water, or of the ocean. The Cowrie shells used to embellish the Ibir\u00ed create a further connection between the orisha and to the ocean. The Tidalectics style of dancing also resembled the sweeping motion of a broom, which Na\u00f1a was said to perform using the Ibir\u00ed, to sweep away pestilence and disease. In the practice of Initiation into the practice of Na\u00f1a Buruku, practitioners will wear long dresses, usually of the color blue or gold, and take corners of their dresses, and sway them back and forth, mimicking the action of sweeping a broom. <\/p>\n
After discovering the existence of such an object, my mind has been objected to make many connections between a material object and the nature and personality of an incredibly wise and powerful deity. The Ibir\u00ed has allowed me to perceive the nature of an object far beyond just what materials, colors, and embellishments meet the eye. The Ibir\u00ed wand also allowed me to discover the existence of a foreign style of dancing I had never encountered before, and can be used to honor a deity who\u2019s uniqueness and respectability is as diverse and eclectic as the object that she has carried since birth. The practice of Candombl\u00e9 is one that can be perceived as radiant, diverse, and honorable as embodied in Na\u00f1a Buruku. The Ibir\u00ed wand is an object that\u2019s personality and backstory have transcended time itself and continues to live on in antiquity within the walls of the Fleming Museum, waiting their every day to meet all who are lucky to see it, and to teach them about itself and the history of a truly wise grandmother orisha.
\nBelow are photo\u2019s of both the wand itself on the Fleming Museum website on the exhibition and an Illustration of Na\u00f1a Buruku paired naturally with the Ibir\u00ed found via Internet. <\/p>\n
Bibliography: <\/p>\n
McAlister, Elizabeth. “A Sorcerer’s Bottle .” https:\/\/bb.uvm.edu\/bbcswebdav\/pid-2315560-dt-content-rid-10925763_1\/courses\/201709-95021\/rel298.mcallister.pdf.<\/p>\n
Sansi, Roger. \u201c4.\u201d Fetishes and Monuments: Afro-Brazilian Art and Culture in the Twentieth Century, Berghahn, 2010.
\nRoger Roca-Sansi: Fetishes and Monuments: Afro Brazilian Art and <\/p>\n
Griffith, Paul A. \u201cChapter 4 .\u201d Art and Ritual in the Black Diaspora: Archetypes of Transition, Lexington Books, 2017. <\/p>\n
Thompson, Robert Farris. \u201cChapter 1: Black Saints Go Marching in .\u201d Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy, Random House, 1983, pp. 68\u201372.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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