Head Skull - Igbo - Nigeria (No reserve price)

Bronze head from Nigeria. The Igbo, Jukun, Chamba and Mumuye are ethnies geographically close to one another. Small minority groups also orbit these well-known and recognized ethnies, geographically located in Taraba State, whose capital is Jalingo. Before the arrival of European colonizers, the Igbo were known for loving to work the land, with a tendency to extend their cultivable territories beyond the limits imposed on them. They eventually encroached on the lands of their Jukun neighbours, creating strong tensions. Initially, a happy conciliation was found: in exchange for a portion of their harvests, the Jukun accepted the inconvenience caused. But as the years passed, the new Igbo generations decided to “forget” this arrangement. Their numerical superiority allowed the spoliation of the Jukun to become generalized with no compensation. Fighting broke out... Another source claims that, in fact, the fault lay with the Jukun who one day refused to take their share of the cereals and demanded the return of the lands before a season of abundant harvests. Thus began a tribal war. Eventually the Jukun managed to drive the Igbo from their lands. But the Igbo who had buried their families on Jukun land could no longer repatriate the remains. They tried to negotiate to have the right to honor their dead on the Jukun lands, but the latter no longer wanted to see Igbo on their lands, even to organize mortuary ceremonies. Rumors insinuated that the Jukun desecrated the graves of their parents. Desperate, the Igbo consulted the sages and the diviners. They all gathered and were given a dream of revelation and a solution. The spirits told them that their buried parents there complained of being abandoned among their enemies, and that deep in their tombs they were angry with their descendants. Coincidentally, that year’s harvests were very poor due to an early drought, which was unusual. So they took the signs seriously, bracing for the worst. The Igbo people consulted the sages and the diviners again for advice on what to do to ease the anger of their ancestors. After another dream, the diviners ordered the entire Tiv people to make each a coffin and a miniature skeleton. They would bury it at home after performing the rites given to the dead, and they would organize a great funeral ceremony at the great market square of the time. That is how the idea of skeletal statues was born among the Tiv. And as time went by, they began to sculpt skeletons of increasing sizes. Each era had roughly its own size. Today size has a meaning and signifies that a man was born (small skeleton), a man grew (medium size), then a man lived (large size). The coffins deteriorate, but the statues eventually are resold. Other objects serve as supports, such as a Caryatid-like seat, for the skulls of the ancestors. It is possible that this cult spilled over to the Ibo who also have artifacts that are stylistically close.

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