IDNO

N.13138.GIJ

Description

Ifogu Nkporo play showing a close up of the head and shoulders three quarters profile portrait of a masquerader wearing a small female face mask, a wool hat with a feather in it, a vest, and plant fibre striped neck-ornament. The mask is painted white with detail in a darker colour. The face of the mask is circled by white feathers, and from top of the face is a vertical protrusion with a smaller carved head and a rounded wooden finial on the top.I In the background are trees and buildings.

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 ]

Context: Jones describes this masquerade and the two characters. He writes: “Two dancers came out, two strongly built young 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. As a finale they circled round the arena, the band getting up and following them.” (Jones, 1939, pp.120-121.)

Bibliographical Reference: Jones, G.I. 1939, ‘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 24/10/2007]
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]