Growing up in 1920s Salvador, in Brazil, Mestre Didi (1917–2013) sought to learn more about his heritage. His father, Arsenio dos Santos, was a tailor, and his mother, Maria Bibiana do Espírito Santo, was the high priestess, or ialorixá, of the local Candomblé temple, where worshippers honored Yoruba deities. By the time Didi visited West Africa, he had been crowned high priest of the Egungun cult; in 1946 he published the first-ever Yoruba-Portuguese dictionary. But his interests weren’t limited to scholarship. In the 1960s, Didi began assembling wood, leather, shells, and beads into totemic structures resembling ritual staffs. In Didi’s first exhibition in 25 years, 30 of these striking works are presented alongside artworks by his peers. —Elena Clavarino