Ṣàwárí

The smith and his god, the paired brass figures that carried the authority of the Ogboni society, the women who built pots without a wheel, the carved and burnt calabash, and the leather trades of Ilorin and Oyo.

Thirty-two Yorùbá proverbs on the blacksmith and his trade, the forge and its tools, iron as material, and Ògún as the power standing behind the craft, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.

Ògún is the Yoruba orisa of iron, metallurgy, hunting, warfare, tool-making, and pathways, serving as the cosmic pioneer and enforcer of covenants.