IDNO

N.13132.GIJ

Description

Part of the Nkporo Ifogu masquerade.
The Okpa masquerade showing the band seated on the ground playing slit gongs and membrane drums beside a thatched building. The band members wear raffia headdresses and palm frond skirts and short sleeved shirts. They are surrounded by crowds, including seated and standing masquerade characters, several characters wearing ‘Ogu’ masks, an “announcer” and a character wearing an all over raffia costume and feather headdress. To the right is a thatched building.

Physical Condition: Slight yellowing of negative.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Eastern Nigeria; Cross River; Elugu 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. Masquerade band Boys initiation, Elugu (14th image).

Context: The band is described by Jones 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.” (Jones.G.I,. 1939: 120).

Bibliographical Reference: Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press); Jones.G.I. 1989, Ibo Art, (Shire) pp. 64-65.; Jones, G.I. ‘Ifogu Nkporo’, Nigerian Field, Vol. VIII, pp.119-121.

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


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]