A Priestess Presenting an Idol to Worshipper

Description

Mary Ann Serrett Barber wrote her book about the farming village, Osiele, to the east of Abeokuta. She never traveled to West Africa. She compiled her materials from the journals and letters of Henry Townsend, who was based at Abeokuta between 1846 and 1867; and Charles Andrew Gollmer who was based there between 1845 and 1861. They worked closely with Samuel Ajayi Crowther. This engraving is a depiction whereby the idol does not clearly represent any specific orisha.

See Barber, Mary Ann Serrett, d. 1864. Oshielle, Or, Village Life In the Yoruba Country: From the Journals And Letters of a Catechist There, Describing the Rise of a Christian Church In an African Village. London: J. Nisbet and co., 1857.

Citation

"A Priestess Presenting an Idol to Worshipper", Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, accessed May 31, 2023, http://yorubadiaspora.org/s/yorubadiaspora/item/3356
Mary Ann Serrett Barber wrote her book about the farming village, Osiele, to the east of Abeokuta. She never traveled to West Africa. She compiled her materials from the journals and letters of Henry Townsend, who was based at Abeokuta between 1846 and 1867; and Charles Andrew Gollmer who was based there between 1845 and 1861. They worked closely with Samuel Ajayi Crowther. This engraving is a depiction whereby the idol does not clearly represent any specific orisha. 

See Barber, Mary Ann Serrett, d. 1864. Oshielle, Or, Village Life In the Yoruba Country: From the Journals And Letters of a Catechist There, Describing the Rise of a Christian Church In an African Village. London: J. Nisbet and co., 1857.
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