IDNO

LS.52065.GIJ

Description

A documentation photograph of a wooden face mask for the Owu masquerade. The shape of the mask is rectangular at the forehead but rounded at the chin. The face of the mask consists of two large round, bulging, half lidded eyes, linear nose, and open mouth with teeth and folds around the mouth. The mask has two horns protruding from the top of the head downwards. In the centre of the head is a triangular shape in the middle between the horns. One horn has broken off.

Place

Africa; Nigeria

Cultural Affliation

Ijo

Named Person

Photographer

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Collector / Expedition

Date

circa 1930 - 1939

Collection Name

Jones Collection

Source

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

LS.52058.GIJ to LS.52066.GIJ were found with the piece of paper now numbered C247/5/ which was in wooden box formerly numbered 22. It has now been renumbered C247/ by the cataloguer.

The inscription on the box as well as a descriptive list of slides pasted on the inside lid of the box indicates that it originally contained lantern slides from the Fens and belonged to D.G. Reid.

However, the lantern slides are attributed to G.I. Jones because the handwriting on the papers found inside wooden box C246/ is similar to the handwriting on the papers found inside wooden box C247/.

Publication: Same image in Jones, 1984, p. 164, Figure 71, with the caption "Head Mask".

Context: Jones discusses the unique Niger Delta style, with particular reference to the masquerades. He writes, "The most important and prolific of the Delta local styles was that of the four Oil Rivers states of Nembe, Okrika, Bonny and Kalabari. These people are sometimes referred to as Eastern Ijo or more usually as Kalabari Ijo after their largest unit. The Kalabari were originally the dominant slave-trading state of the Niger Delta and indeed of the whole Bight of Biafra. They attached great importance to the drumming, miming and dancing of the masquerades of their Ekine secret society and, perhaps for this reason, the state of Bonny, which became dominant in the nineteenth century, laid little stress on these things. It had its Owu masquerades and some of the masks used in them were impressive (such as the object in the photograph), but it was the Kalabari who continued to develop these masquerades, who produced masks in this style, but the finest and most typical came from the Kalabari villages of Buguma, Abonnema and Bakana. (Jones, 1984, p.164)

Bibliographical Reference:
Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press)

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 23/1/2008]