Rattle Staff (ukhuhre)
Unknown Artist
1900s
Medium
Wood, paint, cowrie shells, and plant fiber
Dimensions
149.5 × 7.5 × 8 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
African Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Phyllis Sloane in memory of Rose White
Accession Number
1998.85
About this artwork
Rattle staffs (ukhuhrẹ) are instruments of memory and sound. Though this staff represented a single elite man, it evokes the individuals in his lineage. Inspired by bamboo, it is divided into segments that link three carved men dressed in coral-beaded finery. Benin courtiers still carry these staffs during celebrations and rituals. By banging the staff on the ground, a rattling sound emanates from its open center, where a wooden cylinder rolls freely. The noise alerts ancestral spirits to prayer...