IDNO

N.13105.GIJ

Description

Part of the Nkporo Ifogu masquerade.
An Mba dancer performing in the Ifogu masquerade, wearing an Ogu mask, an abstract wooden face mask with a knife-like protrusion from the forehead, three cylindrical protrusions and slits for the eyes). He is wearing a black velvet hat with a cloth band into which two feathers are stuck, a tight jersey with two small disks representing ?breasts, ivory bracelets, and a goat fur arm-band. He is carrying an egg in one hand and a rattle in the other. The calves and feet appear to be designed in chalk (nzu)?
In the background are spectators and trees.

Physical Condition: Slight yellowing of buckling negative.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Eastern Nigeria; Cross River; Etitiama village

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Nkporo

Named Person

Photographer

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

Collector / Expedition

Date

1932 - 1938

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: This image is similar to the photograph reproduced in Jones’ book on Ibo Art. The caption under the photograph is “Ifogu masquerade. Nkporo tribe. Cross River Ibo. The Mba dancer wears a black felt hat. Scarlet singlet and cotton print skirt tied up in front to give freedom of action. An ivory bracelet is on his right arm, one of white goatskin on his left, and he carries a magic rattle. (Jones, 1989, p.13, Plate 4)

Context: In the Ada Ibo area there were specific styles of masks which were used in initiation masquerades. The style resembled the Lower Niger but the particular forms used were their own, and in the case of the abstract ones, unique. In reference to the abstract masks he notes that they were composed of a white, red. and black arrangement of an oval face with the features reduced to a vertical row of three projecting cylinders surmounted by a knifelike crest and suggestive of the prow of a Venetian gondola (Jones,1984, p.211)

This character, an Mba dancer, is one of the main dancers in the Ifogu masquerade. Jones describes this character ... Then came out two main dancers, a pair of strange creatures with scarlet jerseys, black velvet hats with a white ribbon around them, and terrifying masks with human eyes, a sword coming out of the forehead and three conical projections beneath it, the whole suggesting vaguely the prow of a Melanesian war canoe. Each carried an egg in one hand and cross between a vanity bag and a rattle in the other. They danced in turn like fencers, advancing and retreating and ending abruptly poised on one foot, and with the egg thrust towards the person at whom they were dancing. When they were not dancing they rested on two chairs beside the band. (Jones, 1939, p.120).

Bibliographical References: Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press); Jones, G.I. 1989, Ibo Art, (Shire); Jones , G.I. 1939, ‘Ifogu Nkporo’, Nigerian Field, Vol.VIII, pp.119-121.

Publication: The photograph has been digitised for the European Collected Library of Artistic Performance (ECLAP) and is accessible on the portal http://www.eclap.eu/drupal/. [SG 30/10/2012]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 30/10/2007]