IDNO

P.71450.GIJ

Description

Three wooden Ikenga figures; the central figure is the largest of the three. The male figure is seated on a stool and is holding a head in one hand and a cutlass in the other. The face of the
Ikenga is long with a high forehead with incised striations and adorned with the characteristic two horns which are curled at the top; one of the horns has twine wrapped around it. A side view of the other two figures is shown; the one on the left is seated on a stool with a large horn and drinking palm wine through a straw; the figure on the right is standing with knees slightly bent, the face has incised striations on the forehead and two horns. In front of the Ikenga is a wooden object. Behind the objects is a building.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; South Eastern Nigeria; Onitsha province; Nri Awka; Nimo [town]

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Nri Akwa

Named Person

Photographer

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Collector / Expedition

Date

circa 1930 - 1939

Collection Name

Jones collection

Source

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.71450.GIJ to P.71456.GIJ were wrapped in paper, now numbered C302/8/ and were presumed to have come from box 5, now numbered C302/.

Publication: Same photograph published in Jones, 1989, Plate 36, p. 42 with the caption: “Ikenga figures, Nimo Town, Nri-Akwa Ibo. The one in the centre has a cutlass and a human head; the one on the left is drinking palm wine through a straw. In addition, the figure of the central Ikenga sculpture is also published in Jones, 1984, Plate 51. p.143.

Publication: Same image published on John McCall’s G.I. Jones website with the following information: [Source: www.siu.edu/~anthro/mccall/jones/, AF ]
1. Index to Igbo music, shrines, architecture and other cultural artifacts
2. Ikenga
3. Three Ikenga Nimo, Nri-Awka Igbo (4th image).

Context: Jones writes that “ cult figures of tutelary deities were made principally among the Northern and Isuama Ibo.” In reference to Ikenga figures, he writes, “ The best known Ibo personal cult and the one that has given rise to the greatest number of carvings is that of Ikenga, a Lower Niger cult of a man’s right arm and of success associated with it, which the Edo shared with the Western, Northern, most of the Southern Ibo and with Igala groups. The Ohuhu-Ngwa, Cross River and Northeastern Ibo did not participate in it. Most Ibo and Edo had a small cylindrical object with some geometrical carving on it and ending in a pair of pointed horns. Some Western Ibo increased the size so that it looked more like a circular stool . Other Ibo and Edo added a head and some carved a whole figure. The Nri-Akwa Ibo produced the most elaborate cult objects and in the greatest number. Older examples carved by them elaborated the horns and the head, which was shown smoking a pipe. Later ones consisted of complete figures which were shown standing or more usually seated on a circular stool with a cutlass in one hand and a human head in the other or, alternatively, holding a tusk horn and an ornamental staff (Jones, 1989, p.40). Also, see Jones, 1984, pp. 141-142.

Context: Cole and Aniakor write in detail about Ikenga (see Chapter Two). They show that the concept of Ikenga reverberates throughout much of Igbo life . These images are found in the shrines of individual diviners and corporate tutelary cults and as representatives of age-grades and communities. ...They continue to describe that the basic Igbo Ikenga image is a human with horns, sometimes rendered very simply as an abstract head and horns base. Larger, more elaborate examples include fully realized males seated on stools, holding and wearing various symbols, and with more or less complex headdresses determined in part by horns and often including several other motifs (Cole and Aniakor, 1984, p.24).

Publications: Cole, H. & C. Aniakor, 1984. Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos (Museum of Cultural History, University of California)Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press)

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 13/11/2007]