It comprises someone's Chi (personal god), his Ndichie (ancestors), aka Ikenga (right hand), ike (power) as well as spiritual activation through prayer and sacrifice.

If the owner is devoted, he feeds his Ikenga on a daily basis with Kola and wine and periodically, especially before an important undertaking, he offers sacrificial blood of a cock or ram to induce the spirit to help him succeed.

[5] The most famous type of ikenga is probably the "warrior," depicting a well-developed human figure with horns and a fierce expression.

Owned by many of the younger members of the age grade, it depicts the ideal young man: robust, wearing the warrior's grass skirt, and holding a knife and a severed human head.

In recent times the overt violent element of the severed head and knife has been replaced by metaphorical way as symbols of aggression.

The Igbo proverb says, "The ram goes into a fight head first" (Ebune jị isi éjé ogụ); that is, one must plunge into a venture in order to succeed.

The staff indicates authority, and comes in a complex hierarchy, from a simple wooden one to a rod of forged iron with brass rings.

Most of the elaborate ikenga bear the ichi scarification pattern, consisting of parallel vertical lines on the forehead and temples.

Numerous ikenga, both the warrior and the titled person's types, have a row of pointed projections flanking the head, usually three or another odd number on each side.

[8] According to Ndi Ichie Akwa Mythology and Folklore Origins of the Igbos, Ikenga was the son of Ngwu, and was a bold warrior and fantastic wrestler.

Mermaids came to fight for the Edo people and many Ododo warriors rode on the backs of mammoth sharks and crocodiles.

Edo herbalists had the power to conjure large stones to fly and ram on the buildings of the Nkwo nations to destruction.

For the first time, the use of green foliage camouflage was introduced by Ikenga and his warriors so that they appeared as floating bushes on the seas, until they came close enough on their targets to rout the Edo and Ododo enemies.

When the Edo and Odo warriors saw that they were being defeated and were forced to retreat back to their territories they made a final desperate lunge to grab the only Ndi Ichi Akwa in Ngwu's possession.

Ajikwu akpu isi bellowed out his fearsome shriek which thundered through the jungle in repeated echos that the verdue quivered in ominous pulses.

The monster roused his fierce rage by scampering round his position as a means of revving up his momentum and sharpening a deadly attacking pulse.

Ikenga used his ekpeke shield and in a series of athletic diving and feigning withered the ferocious onslaught.

Ikenga sprang onto an overhead tree branch like a huge cat and somersaulted round it to suspend atop on his hands like an acrobatic gymnast.

Ikenga mustered the last gram of strength in a titanic muscle flex as he twisted the neck of the beast which broke with such nerve shattering crack.