Male figure

Ijo artist · Mid-19th century

This figure is one of a group of male and female figures from the court of King Ockiya of Brass. Brass was a port in the Niger Delta and a center for the British trade in palm oil. Its name comes from the quantities of brass that were brought in as an important trade currency and commodity. Ockiya was the head of a trading house in the mid-19th century who became so weallthy that he used the title "king." So, he decided to imitate the court of the oba of Benin by commissioning figures in a more naturalistic style than traditionally used by his Ijo peoples. The style of the resulting figures may have been influenced by European ship figureheads. This figure, identified as Kagenga or Kakenga, was described as an ancestor figure. Photographs taken in 1877-1878, show the figure wearing a plant fiber skirt and a number of collar-form amulet necklaces and pendants.