Ohioma Ifounu Pogoson
Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan,
Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract
This paper interrogates a rare anthropological collection from Edo North gathered
together between 1908 and 1910 by Northcote W. Thomas, first colonial
government anthropologist in Nigeria. After collection, the objects have been
stored up, largely ignored, at the University of Cambridge, Museum for
Archaeology and Anthropology. The paper questions the resultant long time decontextualisation
and isolation of these objects that have, over the time, made it
remote to link these evidential materials and their producer culture and neighboring
cultures. In an attempt to re-contextualize the objects, a comparison is made, of
highly anthropomorphic Benin court art, which has for a long time, politically,
dominated Northern Edo land but its character is not represented in Northern Edo
art and selected anthropomorphic objects from the Thomas collection. The idea
underlying Benin artistic production is basically anthropomorphic, revolving
around the Benin king and hierarchy and hence a court art, whereas there is paucity
of human representations in Northern Edo land which intriguingly also doesn’t have
the political structure to support it. Using the older language age evidence of forms
of Edo language spoken in Northern Edo land, the paper queries the possibility of a
south-north movement to create the works under reference. Perhaps there had been
an earlier north-south movement and then a later south-north returnee movement
whereby the works in the Thomas collection would represent those of the earlier
northern Edo autochthons and ancestors of present day occupants. The Thomas
collection may be remnants of an earlier tradition before Benin suzerainty gained
full grounds in the 19th Century.