Skull Head - Igbo - Nigeria (No reserve price)

Bronze head from Nigeria. The Igbo, Jukun, Chamba and Mumuye are ethnolinguistic groups geographically close to one another. Also orbiting around these well-known and recognized groups are small minority ethnicities located geographically in Taraba State, the capital Jalingo. Before the arrival of European colonizers, the Igbo were known to love working the land, with a tendency to extend their cultivable territories beyond the limits imposed on them. They ended up encroaching on the lands of their neighbors, the Jukun, thus generating strong tensions. At first, a fortunate conciliation was found: in exchange for a portion of their harvests, the Jukun accepted the nuisance caused. But as the years passed, the newer Igbo generations decided to “forget” this arrangement. Their numerical superiority allowed the widespread looting of the Jukun without any counterpart. Skirmishes broke out... Another source claims that the fault lay with the Jukun, who one day refused to take their share of cereals and demanded the return of the lands before a season of abundant harvests. This was the beginning of a tribal war. Eventually the Jukun managed to drive the Igbo from their lands. But the Igbo who had buried their families on the Jukun lands 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 for mortuary commemorative ceremonies. Rumors insinuated that the Jukun were desecrating the graves of their parents. Desperate, the Igbo consulted the sages and the diviners. All gathered and, in a dream, received revelation and a solution. The spirits told them that their buried ancestors there were complaining about being abandoned among their enemies and that, deep in their tombs, they were angry with their descendants. Coincidentally, harvests that year were very poor due to the onset of a drought, which was very unusual. So they took the signs seriously and prepared for the worst. The Igbo people consulted the sages and the diviners again for advice on what to do to soothe their parents’ anger. After another dream, the diviners ordered the entire Tiv people to make each a coffin and a miniature skeleton. It would be buried at home after performing the rites for the dead, and a grand funeral ceremony would be organized at the great market square of the time. Thus the idea of the skeleton statues was born among the Tiv. As time passed, they began carving skeletons that were increasingly large. Each era roughly had its own size. Today, size has meaning and signifies that a man was born (small skeleton), a man grew (medium height) and then a man lived (large size). The coffins degrade, but the statues eventually were resold. Other objects serve as supports, such as a Caryatid-like seat, to the skulls of the ancestors. It is possible that this cult spilled over to the Ibo, who also have artifacts stylistically close.

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