The Last Guardians of Yoruba Door Carving

Yoruba carvers were once revered for their intricate spiritual and cultural door designs. The few carvers remaining today persevere against a world that increasingly overlooks the value of their art. 

Editor’s note: This essay is available in our print issue, Reimagining Nigerian Heritage. Buy the issue here.

Kasali Akangbe is resting on his wooden, handcrafted chair. His hands are clutched on his stomach as he stares into the wide expanse of space before his house in Sasa, a bustling neighbourhood in the city of Osogbo, the capital of Osun State. Akangbe’s home—unlike the other large houses in the area—is appropriately flanked by trees.

Trees are his beloved. The renowned 83-year-old woodcarver has just returned from his workshop, which sits just beside his home. In the workspace, logs of wood lie scattered, some skinned, some rotten. At a side is an uncompleted carved pole next to a giant carved mural of an unidentified traditional god holding two ase—small, wand-like staffs. The head of the mural utilises Akangbe’s signature style: elongated, lean faces with distinctive eyes. A style that made him one of the most celebrated artists of his generation.

Akangbe’s portfolio includes handcrafting most of the sculptures and poles in the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, the ancestral and spiritual forest through which the Osun River flows. In the Yoruba tradition, it is believed that the Osun River is home to Yemoja, the river goddess. In 2015, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization declared the grove a World Heritage Site. One of Akangbe’s most cherished works is the very door that leads to Yemoja’s shrine, where worshipers go to seek whatever they desire—from health and wealth to children and security. As well as Yemoja, the design on the door contains a craft of Arugba—a virgin maiden who carries the calabash during the Osun Osogbo festival—and other smaller gods. It took Akangbe about three months to complete the door, which included the final process of invoking it with ‘spiritual powers’ through incantations. ‘When carving, the Ifa [Yoruba divination system] will be consulted to understand the process of how to wield the tree with power,’ Akangbe says. ‘We use “Ewe Igbo” to...invite the spirit into it. If anyone [unwanted] knocks, a headache will kill the person. That is the spiritual power.’

For Yorubas, Akangbe adds, these specially carved doors were not simply considered as ordinary household items because, ‘they were not made by ordinary people,’ but by carvers who possessed a special mastery of both the physical and spiritual requirements...

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