IDNO

N.13062.GIJ

Description

A dark wooden face mask with large oval eyes, long nose, a very pouted rounded mouth, a large forehead and two thick horns tapering towards the tips. The white chalk accentuates the eyes, diagonal cheek markings, and horns. There is a piece of twine attached to the mask. The mask is propped up on a mounded area.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Eastern Nigeria; Cross River

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Ada

Named Person

Photographer

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Collector / Expedition

Date

1932 - 1939

Collection Name

Jones Collection

Source

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Format

Film Negative Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

This negative was kept in a film storage album labelled “Masks & Plays - Nkporo.” by G. I. Jones, and numbered “C11/” by the cataloguer.

Publication: Same mask is shown in Jones, 1939, p.34, Figure 4. Jones identifies this mask as Akpagachi.
Publication: Same mask is shown in Jones, 1984, p.212. Figure 115 with the caption, “Horned mask”.

Context: Jones writes about different types of Ibo masks and says that this kind of mask is called Akpagachi and is worn in a play called Lugulu. He notes that all the masks from this area are polychrome, painted in black, white, yellow, and red. The black comes from a leaf-dye, the white from gypsum (native chalk), the yellow from a certain wood, and the red from camwood. The plays connected with these masks are only played on the native orie day (once every four or eight days) and only during the months of the dry season, November to March. They can only be worn by men who have completed their initiation ceremonies and have attained the mbe grade. All the masks illustrated (in this article, except one) are from Ngusu Ada, and were made by Ugwu Ocho of Elugu Ngusa, a man of middle age. He goes on to note, that, “ In the Onitsha Awka sub-tribe human faces with horns are one of the most common forms of masks” (Jones, 1939, pp.33-34).

Context: Ottenberg compares this mask collected and photographed by Jones with other horned masks. In the section on Mkpe (horned) masks among the Afikpo. He describes the mask, “It is a dark form with large oval eyes encircled by white, white cheek marks, a very pouted mouth, and a dark forehead. It has thick, heavy horns, tapering towards the tips. It is a heavier, less delicate mask than the Afikpo forms, with larger horns and a face style. I have never seen this Ngusu Edda type at Afikpo (Ottenberg, 1975, p.34).

Bibliographical Reference:
Jones, G.I. 1939. “On the Identity of Two Masks from S.R. Nigeria in the British Museum”, Man, Vol. 39, pp. 33-34.
Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press)
Ottenberg, S. 1975. Masked Rituals of Afikpo. (University of Washington Press)

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 5/2/2008]