Additional information
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Fon Asen With Chameleon
The chameleon is considered a magically potent animal in many African cultures. For the Fon people of Benin the chameleon is a symbolic of transformity due to its ability to change color. This marvelously crafted altar staff was created in the early 20th century by a Fon blacksmith in Ouidah, the infamous slave port, for the practice of the region’s dominant religion Vodun. The staff features a bouquet of individually identifiable tools important to the Fon and the neighboring Yoruba. Within the tool cluster is a closed cone, understood by the Fon as a covered calabash- symbol of the world. Along with other asen this staff would have been placed in a family deho (altar) to Gu (from the Yoruba Ogun) a complex of spirits manifesting themselves in Vodun. 30″ tall.
