Portrait of a Man with Carved Wooden Door

The carved wooden panels, known as mgbo ezi, were typically crafted from slabs of the sacred, termite-resistant oji tree, also known as African oak or iroko. According to Igbo Carved Doors: Long Lost Precolonial Relics of Ancient Igbo, these panels usually measured between 1 and 1.5 meters in height and nearly a meter in width. Multiple panels were often joined using local metalworks to serve as a gate at the entrance of a home.

These intricately carved doors served as symbols of status and honor, particularly for elders within the Ọzọ institution, which represents the highest spiritual and social stratum in Igboland. As detailed by Anonymous Igbo artist, Panel, "Mgbo Ezi", such panels provided the architectural focus for elaborate walled compounds housing several nuclear families. The geometric sophistication of these works is believed to have been influenced by other Igbo art forms, specifically ichi and uli.

The subject is associated with Isuochi, a community that traces its ancestry to a forebear named Ochi. As noted in Cultural Identity of Isuochi: Origins, Practices, Attractions, and Uri Body Art, Isuochi belongs to the Isu subgroup of the Igbo people.