Element of Asen - Fon - Benin

Altar Element ASEN FON - Ouidah - Benin.

10 x 8 cms
Brass, with a beautiful patina of use.

The asen is consecrated and installed in the ancestral shrine during ceremonies that mark the lifting of mourning. The deceased resides in this altar where they are offered "to drink": alcohol and libations.

Dahomean art possesses a remarkable originality: it has transmitted the history and traditions of the Fon people in the form of ideograms and rebuses.
The figures on the asen are supposed to refer to the person one wishes to commemorate. They generally directly represent the deceased's profession or their religious affiliation. The asen is decorated with symbols specific to each deceased.
That is why the Fon themselves say that the only people capable of fully understanding these symbols are the one who made the asen or the one who commissioned it.