IGBO/IBO - Nigeria

The Igbo people live in the northen part of the Nigeria River Delta, in an area of forest and swamps, and live primarily from farming. Their power is counter-balanced by secret societies.

Standing figure represent the numerous Igbo Alusi or agbara dieties. These dieties as children or deputies of the high god Chukwa, are accessible to human petition and sacrifice.  Overall the dieties and their cults are considered responsible for their health, prosperity and general well-being of the people and the productivity of field and stream; they uphold the moral, social and ecological order.  They would be grouped together in symbolic families and are kept in special houses where they are revered, then during annual festival and ceremonies these figures would be brought out and paraded through the villages.

Terracotta figures produced by women symbolize divination spirits and are kept on domestic altars.  Igbo masks are numerous and are used for initiation ceremonies and entertainement.

For the Ibo, wooden statuary is though to be an active representation of spirits, and are used as a means of communication with the spirit world.  Ikengashrines and figures, such as this one, signify male potency in the Ibo community. An ibo's right hand is thought to be the source of his prosperity and survival and it is in his right hand that he carries his weapons and implements of farming. Because of this, the Ibo consider the right hand in need of propitiation if one is succeeded in life.

Ikenga figures are kept in personal shrines by men and economically successful women.  THeir power is increased by elements connected with warfare, hunting and farming thatrefer to social, economic and spiritual wealth.  Customarily, Ikenga figures will be carved from harwoods, such as Ikoro or ojilis, both of which are associated with masculinity.  The sculptures are consecrated with offerings of yam, rooster blod and kola nuts.  The figure is privately worshipped and by appealing to the spirit it represents, the owner succeds in his ventures.  So personal is an Ikenga that when an owner dies, the figure is either split in two or discarded after the funeral rite or it is kept in the family as a reminder of the individual.Often depicted as humans with horns, ikenga figures are rendered in either abstract or highly figurative forms.

Igbo doors are normally carved of harwood, representing the masculinity, and the most embellised doors would be seen iat main entrancesportals of the domestic compound, typically those housing families of titled men and women.  Among the Igbo, as in most cultures, a decorated elaborat potal serves to signal elevated status, relative wealth and good taste, while separating the more profane world of the outside, the village, from the family sanctuary, the dwelling areas and shrines within.

Reference:

African Forms and Imagery - Detroit Collects - Detroit institute of Arts.  ISBN:089558-145-0

Africa: The Art of a Continent - Tom Phillips. ISBN:3-7913-2004-1

Tribal Art of African - Jean-Baptiste Baquart. ISBN:0-500-28231-5