IDNO

N.13128.GIJ

Description

Part of the Nkporo Ifogu masquerade.
The band members and two of the masquerade characters (impersonating young women) gathering in a group. The band wear palm frond skirts, raffia headdresses, ‘Ogu’ masks (see Jones.G.I. 1984: 213), and vests or tops. Some were rattles round their ankles, and others carry wooden slit-gongs. The two male dancers dressed as women wear small white face masks which only cover part of their faces. Sacking covers rest of the face, and a scarf and knitted hat cover the head. They wear small tight floral pattern tops, white shorts, neck and waist ornaments, and ankle rattles, and each carries a feather whisk and a hand mirror.
There is a thatched building in the background.

Physical Condition: Slight yellowing of buckling negative.

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Igbo {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.

Context: G. I. Jones describes the action of the masquerade which these characters later performed in in his article ‘Ifogu Nkporo’: “The band came first, with sweeping palm-leaf skirts, cotton singlets and great raffia headdresses which made them look like enormous maned baboons. Their faces were hidden behind black and white raffia bags and they played on slit drums, large and small, on wooden and iron gongs, and on a small membrane drum... Then the band was joined by some more drummers dressed in white and wearing the same masks as the red dancers. The bigger slit drums stopped and two clay pots and some lighter drums replaced them. The drumming grew more gentle and some of the band crooned a lilting song rather like a lullaby. Two dancers came out, two strongly built young men made up as girls, with rattles on their ankles, coils of beads round their waists and very attenuated white shorts, tight short bodices covering the top half of their chests and with small white masks covering half of their faces. Each carried a white plume in one hand, and a looking glass in the other. They took up position facing each other and danced very sedately and in perfect time together, their feet moving quite fast and the rest of their body swaying slowly and gracefully form side to side, taking off young girls admiring themselves.” (Jones.G.I.,1939a: 120-21).

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

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 29/10/2007]

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]