Descent

Name: Descent
Brand: Raknida
Price: 55.0 USD
Availability: InStock

Godwin Edet Munam

Illustration of a crowned baby glowing in a green vessel, cords linking it to three pink masked figures seated around it with their backs to it, one holding a spear, before a red patterned sun and dark leaves.

$55.00

A crowned child glows inside a green vessel while three masked ancestors sit with their backs to it, guarding it, praying for it and feeding it through cords of light. Godwin Edet Munam's picture shows a future generation born, and raised, as royalty. An African ancestral artwork for a family living room, study or gallery wall.

Descent is a Studio Edition: 20 museum-quality art prints in each size, each numbered in its white border. Every artwork comes with its Cultural Passport.

The Cultural Passport

Every order comes with the heritage documented.

Digital, emailed when your order ships: the work's story, the tradition it draws on and how it was made. 5 × 7 in (13 × 18 cm), ready to print and frame beside the work.

How it works →

Every child arrives carrying something. Godwin Edet Munam paints a crowned infant in a glowing vessel, fed through cords of light by the masked ancestors seated around it, backs turned to guard it: one holds a weapon, one raises his hands as if praying for the child, one rests a hand on his knee as he imparts his wisdom. One day we become the ancestors, and we owe the next generation not shame, but the means to rise as royalty. Godwin drew it in November 2021, beneath a great red sun burning with carved pattern. No one, the picture says, is born alone, and no one is born small.

The culture · Ancestral tradition, Africa. Across much of Africa, the ancestors are not gone but near: honoured with libations, remembered in children’s names and consulted through elders, they remain part of the family.

Motifs in this work

Crown on the unborn child: royalty given by lineage

Cords to three masked ancestors: knowledge, wisdom and lessons fed forward

Patterned red sun: a ceremonial halo over the inheritance

Edition: Edition of 20 in each size · 20 across all sizes. Further runs possible once a size sells out, each tagged (Run 2). Edition numbers count the works sold through Raknida; the artist may also sell their own editions of this work.
Numbering: Number, title and artist printed in the white border.
Printing: Museum-quality giclée with archival pigment inks on museum-grade cotton fine art paper.
Year: 2021
Includes: Your numbered artwork and its Cultural Passport.

Size	Sheet	Image	Museum-Quality Print only	Framed	Available
S	8 × 12 in	6½ × 9¼ in	$55	+$65	19

The artist

Godwin Edet Munam

Undeclared · Asaba, Nigeria · 3 works on Raknida

Godwin Edet Munam is an illustrator based in Asaba, Nigeria, who works as Gem Illustr8ed and signs each picture with a small boxed GEM monogram and the month it was finished. His subject is what cannot be seen: guardians, inner states, the spirit-self and the pull of ancestry, treated not as mystery but as an ordinary part of life. He draws in bold black line over flat, saturated colour, yellow, violet, night blue, and even at its most cosmic, the mood of his work is calm.

View full profile →All 3 works →