The abstract body of this Mambila shrine figure is unusual. Most tadep figures have a fully articulated body, with a hand raised to the mouth in a gesture of respect. Here, the artist has dispensed with limbs and torso, creating instead a cylindrical base with a graduated column of discs to suggest the body. The folded disk at the center echoes the concave face, and the tilted head gives a sense of personal address. This sculpture is a phenomenal example of the form.



Tadep figures are no longer in use today, and most were purchased from Mambila families in the 1960s and 1970s by art dealers. In the past, however, they were kept in suaga shrines. These shrines hold the masks, costumes, and medicines used by the Suaga society, which continues to organize biannual performances to protect the village from harm and serves as a forum for arbitration of community disputes. The shrine is modeled on a granary, a structure raised off the ground on stilts to keep away pests and built with a steeply pitched roof to keep the interior dry, but shrines are easily distinguishable from actual granaries because they lack a fire pit. Larger shrines also have a mural on the outer wall depicting a man and woman standing under a rainbow. Before they fell out of favor, smaller wooden and raffia-pith figures were suspended in a net over the mural in male and female pairs. Smaller figures were visible to anyone visiting the family compound, but larger sculptures like this one were kept inside where only men could see them.

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