IKENGA AFRICAN ALTER FIGURE - NIGERIA

Description

Ibo / Igbo Ikenga Altar Figure
Amongst the Igbo sculptures called Ikenga are used in male cults that address the powers, successes, and failures of an individual. These images are found in shrines of individual diviners and corporate tutelary cults as representatives of age grades and communities.
Personal Altars
Men among several ethnic groups commission (or used to commission) personal altars, to be dedicated and consecrated to their personal strength, success, and accomplishments, and sometimes as well to their protection. Warriors, farmers, traders, smiths, and others prayed and sacrificed to these altars before important undertakings, offering further gifts after meeting with success (or sometimes berating the altar after failure). The Igbo, who have the greatest numbers and most variable forms of personal altars, call them Ikenga, the Igala know them as okega,
and among the Edo of Benin the term is ikengobo. That these names are cognate virtually proves a historical relationship, even if scholars are
uncertain which of the three groups originated the idea.
Personal altars among these three groups are dedicated to the hand, specifically the right hand (and arm) among the Igbo and the Igala. Strong hands and arms are agents of physical prowess, necessary for success in such activities as hunting, farming, and warfare. The iconography of many altars reflects these associations. Igbo Ikenga, for instance, typically show a horned warrior holding a knife in his right hand and a human trophy head in his left, symbols probably established long ago when the Igbo were active head hunters.
Sharp horns are the most essential feature of Igbo and Igala altars to the hand. Some are straight, others are spiral, yet still others are fancifully curved and elaborated with perching animals. All are commonly referred to as ram horns, even though they often do not resemble them. Yet since virtually all animal horns are power symbols, an identification with a specific animal hardly seems imperative for it is animalistic aggression in general that is evoked.
This fine example measures 15 inches tall and 2.75 inches wide.