Mbari (art)

Mbari is a visual art form practiced by the Igbo people in southeast Nigeria consisting of a sacred two- story house constructed as a propitiatory rite.

[3] Other sculptures which could be included are of officials, craftsmen, foreigners (mainly Europeans), animals, legendary creatures and ancestors.

Mbari are public shrine galleries where complex characters of Igbo mythology, folklore, and society are fleshed out in termite earth.

It was performed by the community on command by its presiding deity, usually the Earth goddess, Ala, who combined two formidable roles in the Igbo pantheon as fountain of creativity in the world and custodian of the moral order in human society.

"[1] The Mbari Club — a cultural centre for writers and artists co-founded in 1961 by Ulli Beier and others in Ibadan — was so named at Achebe's suggestion.