Editing Odinala (section)

====Mbari====
[[File:RAAI 645.3 (2).jpg|thumb|alt=An image of modelled figure in an mbari house|Scene in an mbari house, 1904]]
Among a small area of the Urata-Igbo cultural area, near [[Owerri]], there is a tradition of building votive monument houses called ''ḿbàrí'' primarily dedicated to the ''ágbàrà'' Àlà specific to the community and sometimes other community deities. The name joins the word ''ḿbà'' ('nation, town, society') + ''rí'' ('eat') in reference to the 'festival of life' held after its completion. These votive shrines are typically designed with four columns and a central volt, around the columns are modelled deities, spirits, and depictions of human life, the entire building built out of clay from termite mounds symbolically named ''jí'' ('yam') by the initiated spirit workers called ''ńdí m̀gbè''. Ndi mgbe are secluded from the community for a couple of months during the rites of building the mbari to a deity. Mbari are requested by a deity who the diviner tells the community feels neglected and cannot feel pride in the face of other deities in the spirit world. A string of unusual and unfortunate events befalling the community is linked to the aggrieved deity. An mbari is commissioned and artists are chosen. After the completion of the mbari the spirit workers are reincorporated into the community and a feast is held for the opening of the mbari house where elders and the community come to exhibit the critique the expensive mbari. The mbari house is not a source of worship and is left to dilapidate, being reabsorbed by nature in symbolic sense related to Ala.<ref name="cole1982"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Mabri: Art as Process in Igboland |first=Herbert M. |last=Cole |url=http://africa.uima.uiowa.edu/topic-essays/show/14 |publisher=University of Iowa Museum of Art |access-date=2015-03-28}}</ref>