Standing male figure "ekpu" ·  Nigéria, Oron · ID: 3033807

Description

light brown wood, pear-shaped body, head with long beard and hat-like headgear, min. dam., fragmentary, strong traces of insect caused damage, traces of weathering, cracks, on wooden base;
ancestors were not only venerated by masquerades, but they were actually personified in carved images which were kept on ancestral shrines. On certain occasions they were sacrificed, because they were still members of the lineage. The style of their carving is unique and unparalleled anywhere else in the country.

Littérature comparée

Nicklin, Keith, Ekpu, London 1999, p. 84