IDNO

N.13140.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, a women’s blouse with a floral pattern, and plant fibre striped neck-ornament. The mask is painted white with detail in a darker colour, clearly delineating the eyes, mouth and facial marks on the cheek. Perched on top of the mask is a vertical protrusion with a smaller carved janus head (with similar facial markings as the face mask) and a rounded wooden finial on the top. In the background are bystanders, trees and buildings.

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 ]

Reproduced in Jones.G.I. 1989: 64, as Plate 55. The caption reads: “Ifogu masquerade, Nkporo tribe, Cross River Ibo. The actor is impersonating a fashion-conscious young woman and wears a tight-fitting cotton blouse and bead necklace.”

Context: Jones describes this masquerade and describes the costumes, “ In Unwana the costumes were made of local materials nd none of the players’ bodies except their hands and feet were exposed. Nkporo players wore part native and part European dress, and reduced the size of their masks till they covered part of the face only, leaving the lower jaw and chin expose.”... In reference to the characters portrayed in the photograph 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.)

Jones also writes mores specifically about the small masks which only covered part of the wearer’s face.... Jones, 1984, p.210.

Bibliographical References: 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 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]