The commemorative head, Uhunmwu Elao, of an Ọba placed at the king’s ancestral shrine could be made from bronze, wood or terra-cotta. The altar consists of a commemorative head that supported the carved ivory tusk. It could have a circular base or a rectangular-shaped base. However, they all have a unifying feature, which is the hole at the centre in which the tusk is placed.

Uhunmwu-Elao

Commemorative heads are placed on ancestral altars and shrines. They can be cast in brass, carved in wood or sculpted from clay and fired. Brass commemorative heads would only be cast to furnish a past Ọba’s ancestral shrine and, in a smaller number of cases, the Iy’Ọba. Wooden examples, sometimes with brass plate attached, would be made for titled chiefs. Terracotta heads would be used to furnish the ancestral altars of members of the Igun-Eronmwon, and it is understood that some terracotta heads date to the Ogiso period, predating the thirteenth century. Commemorative heads are not portraits of the deceased but memorials (Bradbury, 1973

Commemorative heads have been crucial in developing chronologies for Benin artworks. These studies have looked at the style and analysis of the copper-alloy composition as well as thermoluminescence dating. However, dating is still a matter of debate, with most scholars agreeing only that heads with flanges are more recent (eighteenth to nineteenth centuries), and those commemorative heads with low zinc percentages in the copper-alloy composition date from late fifteenth to early seventeenth century (for full discussion, see Junge, 2007

Commemorative Head

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Website

Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust

Internal Data (eng)

Stewart, F. 

Suggestion: The word juju in itself is not harmful in as much as it refers to the belief system. It can be used in a harmful or derogatory way and is context dependent. Please assess the context of this word as a user of the platform.

 more about the background of this statement here.

juju 

Suggestion: Replace with, “a person of short stature,” “little person” or "someone with dwarfism". (See 

Read more about the background of this statement here.

dwarf

Suggestion: Replace with First Nations, First people, or particular community name. (See 

aboriginal

Suggestion: Replace with the name of the particular community and delete where it is used to reference an already identified group, e.g Igbo ~~tribe.~~

tribe

This word was redacted from the catalogue as a derogatory racialised word.

DB_redacted_word

Suggestion: Be as specific as possible in terms of country, population etc. (See 

non-western

western-art

western museum

tribal

hofzwerg

For more information on this term and its violent and inherently harmful context to indigenous communities, see 

British Colonial Military Campaign on Benin, February 1897

expedition

exotic

negro

Suggestion: Replace with the word Africa.

Black Africa

Warning: This word is used in a historic context of a title for a book, exhibition, institution name or book description etc. We recognise the potential for the material to cause physical and mental distress as well as evoke strong emotions. The material within the catalogue does not represent Digital Benin’s views. Digital Benin maintains a strong anti-colonial, anti-racist position and affirms its support for centring the humanity of historically marginalised and disenfranchised communities.

Read more about the background of this statement here

primitive

Suggestion: Replace with traditional healer, spiritual healer, or specific name that particular communities use to define this role. (See 

medicine man

Suggestion: Replace in cases where it used to describe human beings, with the term indigenous communities, first people or particular community name.

Digital Benin linked field	Institution field	Value
object id	Acc/ID Number	WA503002
designation	Object Name	Memorial head; Uhumwelao
description	Description	A carved wooden Oba head from Benin with beard. It has been carved from solid tree trunk. Vertical slot at back with rounded holes at end for pole. Handles on both sides. Base of head is flat and there is a vertical projection on the left side.
description	Description/Acquisition Overview	Uhumwelao Mid Nineteenth Century A carved wooden Oba head from Benin with beard. It has been carved from solid tree trunk. Vertical slot at back with rounded holes at end for pole. Handles on both sides. Base of head is flat and there is a vertical projection on the left side.
material	Materials	Wood
dimensions	Measurements	whole: 410 x 225 mm
object type	Record Type	From Documentation
date made	Date Created	Mid 19th Century
production place	Place Created	Benin, West Africa, Africa
prior source	Credit Line
prior source	Donor	Anon
provenance	Collector	STEWART F.
provenance	Object (hi)story
date collected	Date Collected
place collected	Place Collected
ethnic attribution	Cultural Grp	Edo; Bini
department and institution	Department	World Art
accession date	Acquistion date	1973
notes	New research info 2022
exhibition history	Ext Exhib History
legal status	Legal Status	Permanent Collection
	Creator	Unrecorded
	Documentation Issues	The accession register entry describes two carved wooden heads obtained in 1897 during a punitive expeditionto Benin.
	History file contents
	Loan Allowed?
	Other no.	R1426/1 & E/10/73)

Ẹyo Otọ

Catalogue

Institutions

Provenance

Map

Oral History

Itan Edo

Archival Documents

Archival Institutions

Digital research tools

About the project