Object Name: Rainmaking -snakes (taka)
Cultural Group: Mumuye peoples
Date: Before 1970
Materials Used: Iron
Credit line and Accession Number: Fowler Museum at UCLA. Gift of Jim and Jeanne Pieper. X86.2598, X86.2599
Collected by Arnold Rubin, Zinna District, 1970

Like others in the Middle Benue, Mumuye rainmakers were regarded with awe. They brought rains on time each year to assure the fertility of crops. Among their ritual instruments were forged iron wands in distinctive zigzag form, which represented a flash of lightning or the sudden strike of a snake, both harbingers of thunder and rain. The two “snakes” were conceived as a male-female pair—the longer one the male. Such regalia were kept in the ground inside shrines where offerings could be made. These wands could take elaborate forms, with several pointed iron elements bundled in clusters or inserted into small ceramic vessels.

Source: Gallery Wall Text, Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley, 2011