Kigango is "a carved wooden

Wood carving

Wood carving is a form of working wood by means of a cutting tool in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation of a wooden object...

 memorial satute erected by the Mijikenda

Mijikenda

The Mijikenda are the nine ethnic groups along the coast of Kenya, from the border of Somalia in the north to the border of Tanzania in the south...

" peoples of north-eastern Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

. The vigango, which can be of stylized effigies humans and are placed vertically rising out of the earth, honor a dead member of the secret Gohu society. The traditional use-pattern of vigango is to allow them to stand until they naturally decompose. A substantial number of these cultural properties are now in U.S. museums, having been stolen

Looting

Looting —also referred to as sacking, plundering, despoiling, despoliation, and pillaging—is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting...

, though some have been returned. On the other hand, theft and reselling in the West continues to occur. Anthropologist Monica Udvardy of the University of Kentucky

University of Kentucky

The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...

has been particulary active in writing about the theft of vigango, and repatriation from US and European museums.