IDNO

P.61296.GIJ

Description

An Ibo woman and baby covered in chalk (for medicinal purposes). The woman is seated on a wooden stool in front of the threshold of a house holding a baby in her lap. There is an object (s)inside the house but it is difficult to ascertain exactly what they are.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Northern Ibo

Cultural Affliation

Igbo {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

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

This negative was found in pocket 96 of the negative album now numbered C21/.

P.61280.GIJ to P.61354.GIJ were kept in box 1, now numbered C295/.

Publication: Same image published on John McCall’s G.I. Jones website with the following information: [Source: www.siu.edu/~anthro/mccall/jones/, AF ]
1. Index to Igbo music, shrines, architecture and other cultural artifacts
2. Other Igbo cultural items
3. Woman with baby (The baby is covered with chalk for medicinal purposes) (13th image).

Context: The chalk rubbed on the baby’s body is known in Igbo as
nzu and is associated has multiple spiritual associations and is believed to have healing properties. “Chalk is rubbed on a pregnant woman’s abdomen, for example, and later on the newborn child to make this most important of the God’s gifts radiant and thus to celebrate its arrival”.

Bibliographical Reference: Cole, H. & C. Aniakor, 1984, p.39, 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 4/10/2007]