ela - alternative christ figure
How's this for seasonal offering of a different kind this Christmas?
This is Ela, one of the many sculptures to be found in the Osun Grove in Osogbo. Ela is the equivalent of Jesus Christ in the Yoruba pantheon of the gods.
Jesus might have favoured aloincloth, but Ela as he stands in the Osun Grove, has a phallus that sticks straight out!
I tried and tried to get a camera angle that would show Ela in his full phallic glory, but I wasn't lucky. Oh well, there's always another day, another camera.
The Osun Grove is the site of the sacred river Osun on which the town of Osogbo (in Osun State, Nigeria) is founded. The grove is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. More pictures from Osogbo later...
posted by Wordsbody at 8:33 pm
2 Comments:
It also relates to the pagan origins of Christmas.
When you return to Nigeria, I'm sure, for strictly anthropological and comparative religion reasons, you'll capture the elusive phallic picture.
I better shut up now.
9-8-7-6-
You understand me so well, Renegade Eye!
I must, must return to Ela in Osogbo with a super-snooper camera - to capture that magnificient piece of erectile-penile-show on film. For purely, erm, how did you call it? Yeah, that's it; 'strictly anthropological and comparative religion reasons.'
Oh, but of course.
M
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