Male tutelary divinity "alusi" with medicine pouch around the neck

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Description

wood, base

In some areas the various figures were brought together annually for display on a big festival, as it is reported by H. Cole on a photo from 1966 in Oreri. On this day some of the images were repainted, while others were dressed up. Offerings of chalk and kola nut were made and libations were poured; sometimes fowls, goats, or sheep were sacrificed. A festive meal was prepared from the “chaff”, the meat of the sacrificial animals; the blood, it is said, is the food preferred by the deities themselves.

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Comparing literature

Cole, Herbert M. & Chike C. Aniakor, Igbo Arts, Los Angeles 1984, 90 ff. Cole, Herbert M., Invention and Tradition, Munich, London, New York 2012, p. 54 ff.

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