Replica of Anyanwu
Anyanwu, sometimes subtitled ‘The Awakening,’ is a sculpture cast in bronze and mounted on a marble base. The sculpture at the United Nation was commissioned by the Nigerian government in the 1960s. However, the original sculpture was made by artist Ben Enwonwu in 1954 – 1955 and stands in front of the National Museum in Lagos.
Anyanwu is the Sun deity from the Igbo pantheon. The sculpture can be interpreted as the rising sun and the dawn of a new nation. Because Anyanwu symbolizes the sun, the sculpture can have various aspects of the sun like the light of day, rebirth, a new day, hope, and awakening. Anyanwu is dressed in the royal regalia of the Bini people, a ‘chicken-beak’ headdress, coral necklaces and bracelets. She has a long neck, a clear indication of feminine beauty in Bini and Igbo cultures. However, the skinny limbs do not conform to traditional representations of female deities but resemble modern-day models. The artist decided to make the sculpture into a thin monolithic form to make it seem too light to give into gravity’s pull. Despite the thin figure, she has a menacing gaze to maintain her image as a powerful sun deity.
Artist Ben Enwonwu said, “my aim was to symbolize our rising nation. I have tried to combine materials, crafts, and tradition, to express a conception that is based on womanhood—woman, the mother and nourisher of man. In our rising nation, I see the forces embodied in womanhood; the beginning, and then, the development and flowering into the fullest stature of a nation—a people! This sculpture is spiritual in conception, rhythmic in movement, and three dimensional in its architectural setting—these qualities are characteristic of the sculptures of my ancestors.”
Enwonwu’s work includes historical views of the human body and African spirituality. Enwonwu was interested in the feminine form, dancing figures, and Igbo masked spirits. He fused the indigenous aesthetic traditions from his Edo-Onitsha heritage with Western techniques and modes of representation.
Ambassador of Nigeria Chief Simeon Olaosebikan Adebo presented the gift to Secretary-General U Thant at an event on 5 October 1966 in observance of the sixth anniversary of Nigeria’s independence. The gift was meant to symbolize the rise of Africa. The ambassador hoped the representation of the sun deity by Africa’s famous artist at the United Nations would be a symbol of international peace.