IDNO

LS.52068.GIJ

Description

A close up view of an Ekpe (Ibo) masquerader. The masquerader is wearing a large wooden face mask which consists of an oval face, high forehead with three facial markings, open slit eye, nose, and large open mouth. The mask is dark but painted in white spots and paint. Around the top of the mask is long fibrous hair and a beard made of fibre. The chest of the masquerader is bare and not covered. There are tree in the background.

Place

Africa; Nigeria

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]

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.52067.GIJ to LS.52076.GIJ were found inside a cardboard box now numbered C247/6/1/. This box was inside a paper bag now numbered C247/6/ 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/.

Context: Jones writes about the Ohuhu/Ngwa and their sculpture. He also explains the meaning of Ekpe. "This territory was peopled by the Ibo moving across the Imo river and absorbing the small Northern Ibibio settlements which they encountered in the north and centre, and eventually meeting and establishing a fighting frontier with the Anang Ibibio expanding northward and westward. The Ndokki tribe in the extreme south had Ijo connections and the founders of the Ijo trading state of Bonny are said to have come from one of their villages. Most of the Ohuhu or northern sector had the Ekpe (Egbo) type of secret society under the name Ekpe, Akang, Okonko together with their masquerades and their Egbo runner and other types of net costumes, and they borrowed and copied freely from the masks and masquerades of their Anang neighbours including the Cross River Ikem and its heads. I saw very few skin-covered heads in the 1930s, though I was told that they were more numerous in the past but had gone out of fashion. In some of the Ekpe (Egbo) masquerades the only characters which I saw were in the faceless tight-fitting or flowing net costumes in which the face of the actor was concealed beneath the net. In others these types of costume were combined with Traditional Anang (Ibibio) face masks. The masks were referred to as Isi Ekpo (Ekpo head) but the name of the masquerade was Ekpe. In other masquerades which were called Ekpo, the masks were Anang or local copies of Anang Ekpo masks, but the costumes were of imported cotton cloths and not the traditional raffia fringes and skirts of the Anang Ekpo. Thought they had masquerades called Ekpo they did not have any Ekpo secret societies and the masked characters behaved in a relatively benign fashion. They also copied the Anang dramatic masquerades of the Ekong and Ofiong types...The most impressive surviving examples of sculpture from this area, however, were the heads produced for their Ekpe (Ibo) play and the figures from their trophy or fertility dance called Ugbom."

In relation to the Ekpe (Ibo) sculpture Jones says that, "This masquerade had been fashionable ‘a long time ago’ according to Uhuhu informants. It had become defunct in this sector in the early part of the century and no one could tell Murray or myself much about it. Further south amongst the Ngwa there were said to be a few villages still playing it in 1920s. The masquerade consisted of the usual parade of a number of stately and fierce characters wearing heads which were carved in a remarkable number of different forms and styles. There were several styles:

1. Small heads, occasionally single, more usually with two or more faces or heads, sometimes surmounted with a bird or other embellishment and carved in the Lower Niger style.
2. Small to medium heads carved in a naturalistic mode .which emphasised the cheek-bones and chin but omitted the eyes and only indicated eyelids. Many of these were in pairs on a bar or bracket. This type was confined to Oboro and Olokoro tribes and to some of the Northern Ngwa.
3. Single heads carved in a stylised angular mode and in the Delta style. The eyes were either projecting cones, or were omitted and replaced by slitlike eyelids. The mouth was a rectangular box, the lower jaw was framed with a conventionaised beard and lines of keloids were represented vertically on the forehead and on each temple and diagonally across each cheek.
4. Single heads, medium to large in size in the Delta style.
5. Small to medium female heads with hair tied up in bunches or horns in a naturalistic Modern Anang Ibibio style found in Ibeku Ohuhu
6. Small to medium white faced female heads with crested or horned head-dresses and carved in the Lower Niger style (Jones, 1984, pp. 199-200.).

Context: Cole and Aniakor also write about the distinctive Ekpe masquerades. In their section on Ekpe (Ohuhu, Ngwa, Asa) They note that "The Ekpe dancers of the Ohuhu and Ngwa, largely defunct even in the 1930s when Jones and Murray conducted their surveys, employed a variety of headpieces (as distinct from face covering masks). The Ekpe festivals were usually year-end harvest celebrations thanking ancestors and Earth for abundant crops and children and honoring great warriors of the past. (Cole and Aniakor, 1984, p.176.)

Bibliographical Reference: Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press)
Cole, H. & C. Aniakor, 1984. Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos (Museum of Cultural History, University of California)

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 18/3/2008]