Ikenga: Reimagining an Iconography of Cultural Achievement
Abstract
The traditional concept and imaginary of ikenga encapsulates the Igbo essence of male good fortune, economic achievement, and sociocultural advancement. This paper explores ways that elements of Ada Uzoamaka Azodo’s “di-feminism,” with its focus on the Igbo concept of agu- nwaanyi, might be appropriated to signal a possible reimagining of ikenga. Through a critical reading of Azodo’s theory and re-reading of the scholarship on ikenga, the paper argues that while ikenga manifests the idea of wholeness (as the attainment and realization of one’s cherished aspirations) for a people whose worldview operates within a duality of ideas, objects, and existence, its gender-specific construction does not acknowledge and address the socioeconomic advancement of women within the Igbo society. To continue to exclude any gender from the reality and ambitions that ikenga represents would, therefore, amount to a diminishment rather than an enhancement of the Igbo person and the Igbo world.
Author(s): Chijioke Azuawusiefe
About the author(s)
Published: May 21, 2020
Journal: Igbo Studies Review (ISR)
Issue: 8
Pages: 38-57
Publisher: Goldline & Jacobs Publishing
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