Ewe ex-voto

Ex-voto –Bocio– of Ewé fishermen (Mono department, Republic of Benin)

Offerings are not strange among the Fon and Ewé peoples of Benin, Togo or Ghana. It's simple: the grateful parishioner offers, in exchange for a wish or a fulfilled promise, some object related to the desire.

In Black Market we have an Ewé Bocio offered by the fishermen of the town of Hévé, near the mouth of the Mono River, in exchange for good days of fishing. It is a gift in which two fishermen look into each other's eyes, while two others scan the horizon in a boat entrusted to Hevioso, the deity of thunder represented by two double-bladed axes located at the stern and bow, and to Mama Wata, the divine siren represented by two iron snakes. The boat carries its own portable altar to honor the ancestors. The objective of the votive offering is to calm the first to avoid the storm and please the second so that it allows a good fishing.

This Bocio is made of wood (hull of the boat and the four dagids), metal (symbols of Vodún and altar), cowries and cement (interior of the boat), and presents a patina that indicates that it has received offerings and sacrifices for quite some time.

Length: 31cm; Height: 15.0cm; Width: 10cm; Weight: 1.00 Kg