IDNO

N.13145.GIJ

Description

Part of the Nkporo Ifogu masquerade.
Head and torso portrait of two masqueraders wearing small wooden face masks, shirts, and a cross-over neck and chest ?ornament. The face masks are rounded, The one on the left is “humanised”, with slit eyes, long nose and mouth and a small diagonal protrusion on the top; it is attached with twine to a cloth headscarf. The mask on the right is more abstract and is in the form of a parrot’s beak [see image N.13144.GIJ, Description, and Notes in the record for that image]. The eyes are large and circular and the protrusion on the top is double-diamond shaped with a circular object on the top. The masquerader is holding a wooden replica ?shot-gun on his shoulder. In the background are bystanders and trees.

Physical Condition: Slight yellowing of the negative

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Ibo [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.

The mask character at the right also appears in N.13141.GIJ.

Context: Jones writes about the Ifogu Nkporo masquerade and describes the performance and the various masquerade characters. In Unwana the costumes were made of local materials and none of the players’ bodies except the hands and feet were exposed. 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 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.
Jones. 1939, pp.119-120.

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)

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]