Encyclopaedia of Igbo Artefacts

Encyclopaedia of Igbo Artefacts is a 502-page book published in October 2025. It is the first encyclopaedia devoted to Igbo objects, arranged in fifty chapters. Its studies include the Ikenga, Uli body art, the Nsibidi script, the bronze work of Igbo-Ukwu, and the terracotta figures of the Nok culture. The book also counts food, proverbs, rivers, and papers among its artefacts, with full chapters on the kola nut, palm wine, and the New Yam festival. Print details are listed on Amazon.

Later chapters deal with how the objects left Igboland and where they are now. The book names the museums that hold them, from the British Museum in London to the National Museum in Lagos, and gives full chapters to the Anglo-Aro War and the Royal Niger Company. It also records pieces that have come back, including an Ozo title staff returned in 2021 and a bronze snail returned by Cambridge in 2022. In its opening pages the author states his position plainly: the works belong to the descendants of the people who made them, and he gives no individual credit lines to the institutions that hold them.

Dandy Ahaoma Ahuruonye is a Nigerian-Irish writer based in Dublin who has written over forty books, including children's stories, technical guides, and cultural histories. His earlier reference work, THE WHISPERING POET: An Anthology of Igbo and Other Proverbs, is also listed on this site.