Hannah Jurgens

Pd. 7

Compare/Contrast: Ikenga and Reliquary Guardian Figure

Wooden figures can serve many different purposes in different cultures, even when

those cultures are closely related to each other. This is the case for Ikenga figures versus the

Reliquary Guardian Figure. Both were used frequently around the 19th century and meant a

great deal to the people of their respective cultures.

However, their differences are far more vast than their similarities. As a tradition among

the Igbo people in Nigeria, Ikenga shrine figures served the much more personal purpose of

being a visual representation of all the accomplishments of a single patron. Often times, the

figure would be holding something in its right hand that symbolized strength and power, such as

a sword or a decapitated head. It could also be used as a shrine of sorts, and alluded to the

profession of the patron, like if they were a warrior or not. No two Ikenga shrine figures look

alike, as sometimes they can be abstract or naturalistic in their design. The Reliquary Guardian

Figure, in contrast, was created with the purpose to ward off evil or bring good luck to

whomever possesses it. It serves as a guard to reliquaries (boxes that contained the bones of

important members of the Fang society or sacred objects). The Reliquary Guardian Figure, as

opposed to Ikenga figures, can be seen as more human and less diverse. They lack the

personalized elements that Ikenga figures had and theyre similar in appearance to a person

with elongated, stylized proportions. They were also intended to be for high-status nobles as

opposed to being personal objects for common folk like Ikenga figures were. However,
Ikenga figures were arguably more exclusively for men than women, due to their masculine

and powerful nature. Reliquary Guardian Figure only had the limit of high class, not gender.