Cleveland State University EngagedScholarship@CSU Department of Art and Design Faculty Publications Department of Art and Design Fall 1997 The Art of Fasting: Benin's Ague Ceremony Kathy Curnow Cleveland State University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clart_facpub Part of the African Languages and Societies Commons How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Publisher's Statement © 1997 James S. Coleman African Studies Center, UCLA Recommended Citation Curnow, Kathy. "The Art of Fasting: Benin's Ague Ceremony." African Arts 30, (September 1997): 46-53. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost. Web. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Art and Design at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Department of Art and Design Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Art of Fasting: Benin's Ague Ceremony KATHYCURNOW ~A ~gainst all advice, Acting Brit- hostile spirits (Melzian 1959:99) (Fig. 1). ish Consul-General James The fourth ceremony, a second Ague peri- R. Phillips insisted on visit- od known as Ague-Oghene, followed, ing Benin City in early Jan- ending the. agricultural year. By the 1930s uary 1897. The Oba had Ague-Ohene's activities were already ob- asked him to delay because scure (Melzian 1959), and the two Agues of Ague, a ritual requiring his complete are often confused and conflated today. isolation from visitors. Although the sub- Ague was a sober time.