Ogboni Maternity Figure-Onile Low-poly 3D model

Title: Ogboni Maternity Figure

Culture: Yoruba (Ogboni Society), Southwest Nigeria

Period: Likely 19th century, possibly earlier

Material: Bronze (copper alloy), cast via lost-wax technique

Provenance: Oweh Art Gallery Benin City.

A finely cast bronze shrine figure depicting a kneeling female form nursing an infant. She stands atop a rectangular base embellished with intricate openwork and concentric-scarification patterns on the back, characteristic of high-status Yoruba female iconography. The figure’s elongated neck, stylized facial features—almond eyes, full lips—as well as the headdress and neck rings, firmly place it within the visual language of Ogboni ritual art. Used within the secretive Ogboni society as an altar object, this onílè (“owner of the earth”) represented the maternal aspect of the earth deity—symbolizing fertility, justice, and spiritual authority. Such figures were central to communal rites and symbolic of the union between male and female energies underpinning Yoruba cosmology