Inscription on the reverse reads:

To Emma and her husband –

Here’s with my wish to you both –
that you visit my country
Nigeria – the largest and the
most populous African Country -
and I hope you would find
NIGERIA a new and exciting Country
and you will want to return

Ben Enwonwu
London Sep 10^th 71

The present lot was painted in 1971, the same year that Enwonwu was appointed the first professor of Fine Art at the University of Ife. Assuming this position in the wake of the Biafran War (1967-1970), Enwonwu sought to expose his students to ideas of national reconstruction and reconciliation and the effect of this tense civil war on Nigeria’s post-colonial cultural identity.