• Ga'anda, Nigeria

• Iron

• 20th century

• Dimensions: 21.625 in / 55 cm

This ritual staff, held aloft during ceremonies, combines the curvature of a sickle with the blade of an ax. In their visual references to tools of labor, such staffs symbolize hard work, as well as the contributions of the deceased to community welfare. The numerous spikes welded along the top give this staff the nickname “rooster iron.” The type of staff is often wrongly identified as an object of currency (Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers, curator of African Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art).

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