Before he joined the ancestors, Arthur asked Fred O'Brien to forge a blade from bronze that had been struck by lightning, to carve an applewood handle, and to finish the piece with red and white beads and a hematite stone. The work, pictured at left, was completed in August 2000. Touched only by its maker, the double headed ax was presented to Wande Abimbola, Awise of Ife, when he was in Maine for A Legacy of Love, so that it might be carried to Africa as an emblem that Arthur was "well on his way to becoming a priest of Shango."

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