Uzo Egonu was a British artist of Nigerian descent. Born in the city of Onitsha, at the age of thirteen Egonu was sent to be educated in Britain; a common arrangement amongst middle-class Nigerian families. In the 1950s he studied at Camberwell School of Fine Arts and Crafts and St Martin’s School of Art. While Egonu returned only once to Nigeria he retained an enduring attachment to the country, which achieved independence in 1960, and to his Igbo heritage.

Egonu’s artwork has been described as combining a ‘European modernist frame of reference with an African palette and perspective’ but this is perhaps an oversimplification of an art practice which adopted aspects of Cubism, abstraction, caricature, photo-realism and typography. This etching and aquatint by him offers a birds-eye perspective over three white figures whose bodies criss-cross each other. One, to the left, holds the blade of a small knife to the throat of a cockerel. The sacrificial theme brings to mind Igbo religious practices yet the bold line-drawn figures and background palette of blue and yellow suggest the influence of Matisse.