IDNO

N.13127.GIJ

Description

An Ogu masquerader who caricatures an old woman catching crayfish and putting them into a gourd container kneeling on the ground. The wooden mask is abstract in design, with three projecting cylinders surmounted by a knife-like crest, attached to the mask is woven material adorned with feathers on the top. The actor is wearing a white? short-sleeved shirt, printed wrapper around the waist, raffia bracelets and anklets. In one hand is a gourd filled with crayfish and a metal knife? next to the container. In the background are children and bystanders.

Physical Condition: Slight yellowing of negative.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Eastern Nigeria; Cross River; Obobia 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: Same image published on John McCall’s G.I. Jones website with the following information: [Source: www.siu.edu/~anthro/mccall/jones/, AF ]
1. Index to Nkporo Igbo
2. Mask, Caricatures an old woman catching crayfish and putting them into a gourd container, Boys initiation, Obohia (7th image).

Context: “G. I. Jones describes this specific masquerade in his article ‘Ifogu Nkporo’: “... After [the band] came two clowns, one of whom was a tall lanky scarecrow draped in raffia sacking, with a broken mask and carrying in one hand a rough wicker shield and in he other an iron bell. The other, also masked, represented an old woman and carried a knife, a sifting basket, and a small gourd container slung round his neck. This clown kept up an endless imitation of an old woman catching crayfish, or danced in an outlandish fashion that delighted the crowd.” (Jones.G.I.. 1939a: 120). In addition, he also describes the abstract Ogu masks as 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 Venetian gondola. (Jones, 1984, p.211)

Bibliographical Reference:
Jones, G.I. 1939, ‘Ifogu Nkporo’, Nigerian Field, Vol. VIIII, PP. 119-121.
Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press)

MAA Exhibition: This image is included in the G.I. Jones' slide show in the Nigerian case, Maudslay Gallery, with the following caption:
"Ifogu Nkporo (Boys’ Initiation) masquerader caricaturing an old woman catching crayfish.
A masked clown, carrying a knife, a sifting basket and a small gourd container, kept up an endless imitation of an old woman catching crayfish while dancing in an outlandish fashion that delighted the crowd.” [JD 5/8/2014]

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 29/10/2007]