Dimensions
258 x 301 x 32mm
The worship of the orisha (god) Eshu continues to this day across the Black Atlantic in Brazil and the Caribbean, and statues of him can also be found in towns and cities across the Americas. In Brazil, Eshu is a national icon: every carnival begins with an offering to him; shrines, sculptures and gifts can be found in many places including public parks, museums, on seashores, in the middle of supermarkets and at crossroads. On the other side of the southern Atlantic Ocean, Eshu has evolved in different ways; a Yoruba god has been refashioned in the pantheon of Haitian Vodou and in the Lucumi/Santeria traditions of Cuba. This is the first book to combine studies of Eshu, past and present, with a large number of vibrant and captivating illustrations of the spirit in his different guises. AUTHOR: George Chemeche is an Israeli/American artist who has lived in New York City since 1971. In 2003 he published his book,Ibejis: The Cult of Yoruba Twins, which coincided with the show Doubly Blessed that he curated in The Museum of African Art in New York. His second book, 'The Horse Rider In African Art,' ISBN: 9781851496341 was published in 2011. He gives lectures about the art and cult of the Ibeji twin figures in museums and colleges. Donald Cosentino (ph.D.) has done extensive fieldwork in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Cuba and Los Angeles. He is the author of 'Defiant Maids and Stubborn Farmers: Tradition and Invention in Mende Story Performance' and 'Vodou Things: The Art of Pierrot Barra and Marie Cassais.' As a Guggenheim Fellow (2006), Cosentino completed fieldwork for 'Chasing the Dead' an ethnographic novel on Afro-Angeleno Spiritism. Vagner Gonçalves da Silva is Professor of Anthropology at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. He has written and edited various books and articles, including Metropolitan Orixás (1995); Candomblé and Umbanda Ways of Brazilian Devotion (2005, 2nd edn) and 'The Anthropologist and his Magic: Fieldwork and Ethnographic Text in the Anthropology of Afro-Brazilian Religions' (2000),Afro-Brazilian Memories (Three volumes) and 'Religious Intolerance' (2005). He was a member of the committee for the foundation of the Afro-Brasil Museum (São Paulo). 260 colour and 10 b/w illustrations
