Sango's Battle Axe

This painting titled "Sango's Battle Axe" translated into Yorùbá language as "Osée Sango Oba Kòso", portrays the battle axe of Sango who was a legend king of Oyo Empire in West Africa. He was so powerful and was elevated to become a deity; a Yorùbá deity of thunder, lightning, fire, and justice. He had power to conjure rain, lightning and thunder, and spit fire when he opened his mouth to speak. When he effected a thunder strike, a thunder stone was believed to be recoverable from the location of his targeted victims. His power garment was often dipped in red dye and embellished with cowry shells. The battle axe portrayed as yellow and being held bay a brown hand in the canvas is the focal point of the painting. At the upper left corner of the canvas is the white lightning bolt the reaching down from above and the resulting brown thunder stone(s) at the lower left corner. The white face of King Sango himself, with plaited hairdo is on the upper right corner while his ornamented reddish brown garment embellished with cowry shells is seen draping him at the lower right corner.