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Seated Male Figure with Trophy Head Identified as Chief Mabana
Not on view
This commanding seated figure gazes up and beyond the viewer and supports a large trophy head on his left knee. His torso is narrow at the summit and expands to a rounded volume at the stomach. The subject has been identified as the sixteenth-century founder of the village of Mabana, who is remembered for the exemplary bravery he instilled in his warriors. Given that the work in question has been carbon-14 dated to 1785 +/- 35 years, this information is approximate at best. According to oral tradition, Mabana requested that his effigy be brought to Obubura, his people’s main town. Like the portrait of Chief Appia, this figure of exemplary courage may have been a freestanding sculpture or became venerated as an independent figure once the rest of its original ikoro decayed.
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