Footnotes

The Tiv live on the eastern edges of the Lower Benue. The products of historic migrations from the south, Tiv-speaking peoples drove a wedge between the Jukun on the east and the Igala, Egbira, and the Idoma to the west, all of whom are believed to have shared strong cultural traditions.

Sidney Kasfir (in Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley, Los Angeles, 2011, pp.54-55) illustrated three figures identified as Tiv based on their group resemblance to Tiv Ihambe figures published by Akiga Sai and Rupert East (in 1929) and R.M. Downes (in 1971). The Ihambe-icigh figures sometimes called Twel after the circular mound they stand upon, form one part of a large class of protective objects known as Akombo. Prior to the onset of colonial administration, these figures stood guard outside the entrances to houses in which the wife had been taken in exchange marriage. A female Ihambe actually represents not the bride herself but the spirit of her husband's deceased mother, who was thought able to transmit her own fertility to the bride, to domestic animals, and to crops. British disapproval of exchange marriage caused the practice to fade, and the figures ceased to be made in this form (op.cit., pp.53-56).

Kasfir (op.cit., pp.47-53) highlights the difficulties in identifying the geographical origin of Benue River figure sculptures. He discusses an ekotame (meaning 'spirit with breasts') figure he himself saw in the Idoma village of Otukp'icho. It displayed features known to be of Tiv origin; mudfish scarification about the navel and the arc of raised lumps, or abaji scars, at the outer edge of the eye which are only seen on people born before circa 1915. It also wore the crested hairstyle, known as agbada, known to be favoured by both Tiv and Idoma. All these features appear on the present lot.