Figure 3:

A picture of the shrine house of the Ogboni cult, who venerate the powers of the earth. Beier describes the artistic form of this shrine and its symbolism most evocatively: “Three enormous thatch roofs rise against the sky like three giant lizards”. The reptilian forms suggested by the sweep of the thatch huts as well as by the dynamic thrust of the elongated sculptural forms they contain “symbolize the forces that inhabited the earth before [humanity], already charged with magical forces, which [humankind] tries to filter and use in [their] rituals for Ile, the earth spirit…” (Beier, 1975, p.79-80). This idea of chthonic powers that predate humanity and yet with which he can relate is developed in another context in a manner that suggests its suggestive potency in Clifford Simak’s fantasy story “The Whistling Well” in which Parker encounters prehistoric creature who were worshiped by the dinosaurs who had swallowed small stones as expression of worship. As Parker tries to escape from the prehistoric creatures out of fear of their inhuman strangeness, they call to him, wanting to identify with him, but as insists on escaping from their desire to relate with him they let him go with the parting words: “Pass, strange one. For you carry with you the talisman we gave our people. You have with you the token of your faith’ alluding to the stone Parker recovered from the gizzard of one of the dinosaurs he discovered in his explorations of the landscape where the prehistoric creature have lain in the earth for ages. He responds in fearful denial that he has no relationship with them he says ‘Not my faith, not my talisman swallowed no gizzard stone” recalling the dinosaurs’ act of veneration but the creatures respond “but you are brother” they told him “to the one who did” thereby indicating their own understanding of his relationship to the dinosaurs as a fellow dweller on the same planet as them and therefore their brother, even though they are separated by the distance of ages. Parker’s concluding reflections suggest an aspect of the ecological significance of Wenger’s sculptural interpretation of Ogboni lore as represented in the architecture and art of the shrine house. Parker’s summative conclusions are: “Brother, he thought, they said brother to me. And indeed I am. All life on earth is brother and sister and each of us can carry, if we wish the token of our faith” (Simak, 1987, p.43-76). The resonance between Simak’s narrative and Wenger’s architectural and sculptural interpretation of Ogboni belief, suggests, therefore, that the shrine house represents the filial relationship shared by all beings that have ever dwelt on the earth, above or below ground, in the past as well as the present.