ClassificationsAfrican Art

Shrine Figure (Edjo Re Akare)

Place CreatedNigeria, Africa

CultureUrhobo

Datelate 19th-early 20th Century

MediumWood, pigment

Credit LineGift of William S. Arnett

Dimensions55 1/2 x 7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. (141 x 19.1 x 24.1 cm)

Object number1994.003.006

Label TextThe Urhobo people of the inland Niger Delta have two types of large-scale wooden figures. One (edjo) was carved to honor spirits of the water, land and atmosphere and the other (eshe) was made to venerate real as well as mythic founding ancestors of the town. A few examples appear to synthesize these two types, both of which focus on the militaristic qualities thought to typify powerful ancestors, heroes and spirits. The figure displayed here wears a number of the ritual accoutrements of both warfare and title-taking: the bead necklace of the men's title society, stylized as a round collar, as well as the single cylindrical bead (ophara) worn at the neck.

Because both arms are broken off it is impossible to know whether the hands once held the sword and cutlass associated with the spirit figures or the prestige objects held by ancestors. A small gourd containing protective medicines, now sheared in two, hangs in the middle of the elongated chest and overlaps the vertical lineage mark which extends from chest to navel. Below this is a prominent tubular "belt-for-war" with attached medicine bundles. In real life these were made of leather and stuffed with medicinal substances. The imported European hat bespeaks wealth derived through trade. All such figures found in shrine contexts are dressed in actual cotton waistcloths, but the covering for this collected example is now lost.
Exhibition HistoryThree Rivers of Nigeria: Art of the Lower Niger, Cross, and Benue from the Collection of William and Robert Arnett, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georiga, 1978
Art of Nigeria from the William S. Arnett Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, October 15, 1994 - January 2, 1995
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, September 1996 - July 1998
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, August 2004 - July 31, 2005
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, November 19, 2007 - December 2010
Divine Intervention: African Art and Religion, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 5 - December 4, 2011
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, December 6, 2011 - December 1, 2014
Published ReferencesMarcilene K. Wittmer and William Arnett, Three Rivers of Nigeria: Art of the Lower Niger, Cross and Benue (Atlanta: The High Museum of Art, 1978), 41, number 99.

ProvenanceEx coll. William Arnett, Atlanta (1939-2020), Atlanta, Georgia, from at least 1978.

Status

Not on view

Collections