IDNO

N.13130.GIJ

Description

Part of the Ifogu Nkporo masquerade depicting two Nwanyioma masqueraders. The characters are wearing white female face masks and dressed in women’s blouses and necklaces. The masquerader on the left is wearing a white “humanised’ face mask with a carved diamond shaped protrusion at the top and black stylised hairstyle? and dressed in a cotton print blouse, wrapper (or skirt) and shoes, holding a whisk in one hand and in the other a piece of cloth with a large ivory? bracelet around the wrist. The other masquerader is wearing a white female mask with a protrusion, but encircled with feathers dressed in a print blouse, shorts and with nzu (chalk) v-shaped marks on the lower legs. In the background are bystanders, a thatched building, trees, and vegetation.

Physical Condition: Slight yellowing of 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.

Context: Jones writes in detail about the various characters in the Ifogu Nkporo masquerade. He mentions that Nkporo players wore part native and part European dress, and reduced the size of the masks till they covered part of the face only, leaving the lower jaw and chin exposed. In reference to the female characters he writes, “Two dancers came out, two strongly built men made up as girls with rattles on their ankles, coils of beads round their waists over very attenuated white shorts, tight short bodices covering the top half of their chests and with small white masks covering half 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 from side to side, taking off young girls admiring themselves... (Jones, 1939, pp. 119-121.)

Jones also discusses the relevance of the female face as “The actor is impersonating a fashion-conscious young woman and wears a tight-fitting cotton blouse and bead necklace (Jones, 1989, p.62, plate 55)

Bibliographical Reference: Jones, G.I. 1939 ‘Ifogu Nkporo’, Nigerian Field, Vol. VIII, pp.119-121; Jones, G.I. 1987. Ibo Art (Shire).

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 29/12/2007]