Additional information
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Community Ikenga Figure
Unlike personal warrior Ikenga figures, which typically hold a knife in the right hand and a severed human head in the other, this Ikenga holds a title staff in one and a vessel in the other. Community Ikenga figures represent community achievement and prestige, rather than that of the individual. Annually, males born in the previous twelve months are presented to community Ikenga as a means of community validation. This figure bears facial ritual scarifications; what appears to be a gourd is depicted at the figure’s back. The object was part of a cache of African wood carvings found in the rear of a Manhattan warehouse locker, where all the objects were wrapped in newspaper dated June 16, 1974. Other items in these boxes were similarly from southern Nigeria, areas caught up in the Biafran Civil War, 1967-1970. Ex Sidney and Gae Berman.
39″
