Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nmvwc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-06T19:28:44.963Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Universal Cults and Intra-Diffusion: Igbo Ikenga in Cultural Retrospection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

E. Okechukwu Odita*
Affiliation:
African Art and Archaeology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Extract

The purpose of this investigation is to examine the problem of diffusion of Ikenga art form in geographically contiguous cultures. Although the concept of diffusion of cultural traits among contiguous cultures is well established among certain kinds of anthropologists, fresh theories of interpretation may be observed. First, I will try to develop the framework which would help to identify the strategic factors in the process of diffusion and facilitate the ordering of what is currently known about them. Second, since the establishment of a framework seldom includes anything but a model, Igbo Ikenga is focused upon to illustrate how deduction from art may lead to new factual conclusions.

Current anthropological concern about the diffusion of elements of culture in the Niger/Benue basin has attracted attention to the Ikenga art form because of the apparent widespread occurrence of the Ikenga cults among the Igbo, Benin, and Igala. Jeffreys (1954 pp. 25-40) traces the origin of the word “Ikenga,” and thus its cult, to the Kengawa (Hausa) people of Sokoto Province. Later, William Fagg (1960, “The Ibo Tribes”) explains the “universal cults of Ikenga” partly in terms of adaptability among contiguous ethnic groups, particularly as certain Igbo culture traits show similarity to those of their neighbours at the periphery. More recently, this notion of an “intra-diffusion” has been extended by Bradbury. Comparing diffusion processes between the Igbo and Benin Ikenga cults, Bradbury (1961, p. 138) attributes a greater possibility to one single Ikenga cult which later separated into the Igbo and Benin and mutually coexisted.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES CITED

Basden, G. T. Among the Ibos of Nigeria. London: Frank Cass, 1921.Google Scholar
Boston, J. S.Notes on Contact Between the Igala and the Ibo.” Historical Society of Nigeria, Vol. II (1960).Google Scholar
Bradbury, R. E.Ezomo's Ikengobo and the Benin Cult of the Hand.” Man, LXI (August 1961) 131138.Google Scholar
Clifford, G. M.The Chiefdom of Igala.” Unpublished Government Report, Vol. LVIII (1928).Google Scholar
Dixon, R. B. The Building of Cultures. New York, 1928.Google Scholar
Fagg, W. Nigerian Tribal Art. “The Ibo Tribes.” The Arts Council of Great Britain, 1960. Unpaged.Google Scholar
Fagg, W. African Tribal Images. Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968. Plate 156.Google Scholar
Fagg, W. and List, H.. Nigerian Images. New York: Praeger, 1963.Google Scholar
Forde, Daryl and Jones, G. I.. The Ibo and Ibibio-Speaking Peoples of South-Eastern Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press, 1950.Google Scholar
Hambly, W. D.The Ovimbundu of Angola.” Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago) Anthropology Series, Vol. XXI, No. 2 (1934).Google Scholar
Hirschberg, W.Review of W. D. Hambly: Ovimbundu of Angola.” Anthropos, xxx (1935), 914915.Google Scholar
Jeffreys, M. D. W.Ikenga: The Ibo Ram-Headed God.” African Studies, XIII, 1 (1954), 2540.Google Scholar
Leuzinger, E. Africa: The Art of the Negro People. New York: Crown, 1960.Google Scholar
Meek, C. K. Law and Authority in a Nigerian Tribe. London: Oxford University Press, 1937.Google Scholar
Mockler-Ferryman, . Narrative of Major Claude Macdonald's Mission to the Niger and Benue Rivers, West Africa. London, 1891.Google Scholar
Odita, E. Okechukwu. Igbo Masking Tradition: Its Types, Functions, and Interpretations. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1970.Google Scholar
Odita, E. Okechukwu Traditional African Art. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Schon, C. F. and Crowther, S.. The Niger Expedition: Schon and Crowther's Journey. London, 1842.Google Scholar
Sieber, Roy. The Sculpture of Northern Nigeria. New York: Museum of Primitive Art, 1961.Google Scholar
Talbot, P. A. Tribes of the Niger Delta. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1932.Google Scholar
Ukwu, U. I. and Hodder, B. W.. Markets in West Africa. Ibadan: Cambridge University Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Williams, D. Odu (Journal of African Studies, University of Ife, Nigeria), Vol. I, No. 2 (n.d.).Google Scholar