Nigeria and the Xenomorph?

Nathan Adler

Have you ever seen icons of the Yoruban Orisha, Eshu? 

If not, I’ve attached.

Do they not remind you of a certain creature made famous by Ridley Scott?

While we've all heard much made of H.R. Giger's influence for the iconography related to the Xenomorph a result of getting himself locked overnight in the Ancient Egyptian exhibit of his local museum/ art gallery when he was younger, might this deity have been the true inspiration of his Alien?

Ridley Scott had to be aware of this when you consider he cast the 7ft 2in Nigerian actor, Bolaji Badejo, in the role of the Alien in his 1979 film.hat is, the Yoruba people, who worship the Orisha (including Eshu), are an ethnic group of southwestern and north-central Nigeria.

What's betting Ridley specifically requested a Nigerian actor for the role?

Also worth noting is that Eshu governs the manifestations of the malevolent.

Linking a demon-infectant with Africans might seem racist when created by a Swiss (given their racist/ xenophobic history).  However, since WWII they have had a particular hand in African exploitation (through mining/ slavery) so I wonder if Giger was making a veiled political comment by picking a Yoruban god as taking revenge on white Western males by effectively raping them?

Kongzilla

Excellent research.

SuperAlien

Great find. Shape of the head and the big insect eyes reminds me of the early Giger design for the xenomorph.  He is also playing the flute, like his father (Ridley, you old trickster!).

ignorantGuy

In both cases there is a strong phallic symbolic symbolism going on (for Eshu, the Trickster god see https://yagbeonilu.com/eshu-elegbara-aflakete/). So the similarities could be quite coincidental. In any case, for Giger sex goes hand in hand with death, which is not the case for African cultures.

SuperAlien

About casting of Bolaji Badejo as the xenomorph,  I think that's the hand of Eshu.

dk

Nice presentation. Makes me wonder how deep into history HR and other artists really dug and were inspired by different cultures for their art.

BigDave

Great Find ;)

Certainly is possible that HR Giger had taken Inspiration from this and added it to his own Surreal Version of it.

I wonder if this implies the FLUTE is very Important ;)

Well i assume a FLUTE but maybe someone like HR Giger could interpret it as something else from them Carved Figurines LOL

dk

It doesn't seem much of a stretch for Giger to visually blur the distinction between a flute and phallus- that is Giger 101.

BigDave

I think while some of them look like Xenomorph's i think some of the less ELONGATED Head Figurines do look a little like some of the Engineer Concept Designs and so maybe we could see some other Race introduced who look kind of like these.

Ingeniero

Excellent research and comparison. I would not be surprised at all if the veiled political comment was Giger's design. Awesome Nathan Adler.

Nathan Adler

 Thanks Ingeniero.  Glad you appreciate and think so too:)