Description (Labels & Markings)
Written on base in pencil: '318'
Event Date
Author: Katrina Dring

Description (Physical description)
Carved wooden figure: a man's head with elaborate hairstyle on a cylindrical base. The figure is wearing some kind of collar. (To place on an altar?)

Event Date
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Black mark on the back of head ?from burning.
Event Date 25/5/2001
Author: Katrina Dring

Context (Related Documents)
See E 1910.118 and E 1913.3 records for further details about the Thomas Collection from Nigeria. [T.Cotterill]

Event Date 7/5/2001
Author: maa

Context (Related Documents)
It is unclear whether 318 is the Thomas Collection number. The 1st Thomas Catalogue notes for 318: "Euu of Ute". [R.Hand]
Event Date 22/8/2001
Author: Katrina Dring

Description (Physical description)
Wooden carving of a head on a stylised body. The head is wearing an elaborate hat or hairstyle and the face has scarification marks above the eyes. There is a triangular decoration below the face with diagonal incised lines at both the front and the back, possibly indicating a collar. There is a blackened hole in the forehead and another on the top of the head. There is also the remains of an insect.
Event Date 4/9/2018
Author: Katrina Dring

Context (Amendments / updates)
Record updated as part of the Museum Affordances project 2018-2020

Event Date 4/9/2018
Author: Katrina Dring

Loan (Exhibition)
Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London, 14/10/2020 to 19/12/2020, [Re:]Entanglements
[Loan cancelled]
Event Date 14/10/2020
Author: Katrina Dring

Conservation (Remedial)
CON.2020.4864 | Remedial
Event Date 3/11/2020
Author: Stefanie Mueller

Context (Display)
On display in [Re:]Entanglements: Colonial collections in decolonial times, LKS Gallery, MAA, 22 June 2021 – 20 April 2022,
Displayed as "Euu of Ute", third from left in the Ukhurhe staff case. The text noted:
'Ukhurhe
When an Edo man dies and passes into the world of the ancestors, his eldest son commissions an ukhurhe rattle staff in his honour and places it on the family altar. Such staffs are also used by community cults associated with particular deities.
During the 1909-10 survey of Edo-speaking communities, Northcote Thomas commissioned the Eholo N’Igbesamwan – the head of Benin’s wood and ivory carvers’ guild – to make 39 staffs featuring representations of the various Edo deities. He paid £25 for the staffs, a considerable sum, equivalent to over £3,000 today.
This story challenges the assumption that ethnographic museum collections were stolen or forcibly removed from their cultural contexts. The situation was more complex and ambiguous.
We, too, commissioned an ukhurhe staff to be made by a traditional carver in Benin City. The artist, Felix Ekhator, carved a representation of the anthropologist at the top. Some denounce Thomas as a colonialist, others celebrate his efforts to document African traditional culture. Is he an ancestor worthy of commemoration?

CAPTION
Names of the Edo deities (ebo) represented on the ukhurhe staffs in the display as recorded by Northcote Thomas. The staff in the centre of the display was carved by traditional carver Felix Ekhator for this exhibition. It features a representation of Northcote Thomas at the top.

LINK
https://re-entanglements.net/ukhurhe'

Event Date 22/6/2021
Author: rachel hand