Shrine figure

Human figure carved from a single piece of wood. It is wearing a top hat and and a necklace of blue beads. It holds a wooden machete attached with a nail. The figure probably represents the spirit of an ancestor. Gods and spirits were represented in material form to fix them in an earthly place where they could be worshipped. Subsequently, they might be replaced and thrown way or be neglected by their worshippers. The European hat was a symbol of high status worn by chiefs and the figure would also have been originally dressed in a fabric skirt.

The carving was captured when Little Fishtown (Ewoama) was destroyed on 24 February 1895 by a punitive expedition led by Rear Admiral Frederick G.D. Bedford (1838-1913), after a factory at Akassa, belonging to the Royal Niger Company was attacked on 28 January 1895, because the Nembe resented Company encroachment on their trade in palm oil with the lower Niger. The British burned the Nembe towns of Nembe and Okpoma during the same campaign.