Veranda posts installed in the reception courtyard of the Palace, Effon-Alaiye, Nigeria

"In the first quarter of the twentieth century, Efon-Alaiye was the center of carving in southern Ekiti. Its most famous workshop was in the compound of the Adesina family, which was widely known not only for its carvers but also for its beadworkers. The various images for mothers, hunters, warriors, and their gods express historical and cultural themes central to the development of Yoruba civilization. The equestrian figures evoke the impact of warfare in the formation of Yoruba kingdoms from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, while the maternity image signals one of the many roles of women. Women and men are the pillars, opo, of society, both literally and figuratively as seen in veranda posts. They sustain society and, at the same time, shape and re-create it through the efficacy of their actions and the power of their aesthetic visions." [Drewal H. J., Pemberton J. III, Rowland Abiodun, 1989: Yoruba. Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought; The Carvers of the Northeast. Harry N. Abrams Inc.]. This work may be attributed to a member of the Adesina family, probably the master carver Agbonbiofe, who died in 1945. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon traveled to Africa from March 17, 1970 to July 17, 1970.