2024/134: Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon — Wole Talabi

2024/134: Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon — Wole Talabi

...things like totems and relics and idols and masks and shrines were commonplace; just the background elements of existence, the rigorously religious tools of worship in the lives of men. They may have been made, charmed, used, broken, reclaimed, or forgotten, but they always mattered to someone. It was a certain kind of savagery to keep these once purposeful items for no other purpose than display, as trophies in memoriam of a colonizer’s self-given right to take. [p. 224]

A romantic tale of Shigidi (a former nightmare god, working for the Orisha Spirit Company) and Nneoma (a succubus, but also a fallen angel), who are recruited for a heist. The eponymous Brass Head is locked away with 50,000 other stolen treasures in a place protected by dark magicks. Why yes, it is the British Museum: and security is provided by Section Six, a special branch of the Royal British Spirit Bureau, who are rumoured to have ties to the very oldest spirits of the land.

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