IGALA MATERNITY FIGURE

The Igala maternity is a female figure sitting on a stool with a baby held in her hands. 
The female figure wears a crescent crest on an elaborate coiffure. The expressive facial features are similar to the carvings of various ethnic groups living around the Benue – Idoma, Afo and Okun. 

Maternity is held in high esteem and as such, forms an influential theme in African art. The different types of maternity statues depict the ideals of fertility and beauty and are usually symbolic of the unbreakable yoke between the mother and the child. Such statues could appear in the form of the child being strapped on the mother’s back or being held in the mother’s bosom.

The Igala kingdom also spelled as Igara, was a pre-colonial state at the eastern region of the confluence of River Niger and River Benue in present-day Kogi State, Nigeria. Despite the influence of colonisation, the Igala people still consider Ata – the name given to the King, as their national father and spiritual head. The kingdom is headquartered in Idah, a town in Kogi State.

The item has a worn dark patina with no visible signs of damage