This screen is attributed to a familial lineage of artisans in the eastern part of the river Niger's delta. This region was central to the African trade with Europeans, in which Kalabari traders played a strategic role for nearly five centuries.

The wooden frame of this once colorful assemblage us decorated with emblems of the trading house. Its central figure is the ancestor, flanked by family members or supporters. Their geometric forms and head-on, penetrating gazes are distinctly Kalabari Ijo in style.

Among the Ijo of the Kalabari, such screens were kept until the twentieth century by the patriarchal Ekine ruling society to honor deceased founders of trade houses, The screen would be made to house his spirit and the placed on a shrine.