Igbo Shrine Figure (ikenga), Nigeria

Adama Keinde, Dakar
Omar Keinde, Dakar and New York, by descent from the above
James Willis, San Francisco, acquired from the above in the mid-1980s
Myron Kunin, Minneapolis, acquired from the above on September 22, 1992

Personal shrines called ikenga were at the center of Igbo ritual life. According to Cole and Aniakor (1984: 24), Igbo "success in material, social, even spiritual and political terms ultimately rests in moral determination and physical strength. The prevailing ideal has been an excellent yam farmer who accumulates wealth and prestige, titles, a large family, and finally, an honored place among prosperous and respected ancestors. This will to succeed is institutionalized in personal shrines, ikenga, maintained by men in most regions and only occasionally by women. 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. [...] The basic ikenga image is a human with horns, sometimes rendered very simply as an abstract head-and-horns-on-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."