IDNO

P.71353.GIJ

Description

An Ogoni antelope mask consisting of a rounded shape with a square peg like projection at the mouth, arched nose, rounded hole for eye and two small horns.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria

Cultural Affliation

Ogoni

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

P.71320.GIJ to P.71399.GIJ were kept in box 3, now numbered C303/.

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 Ibibio, Ijo and Ogoni
2. Ogoni
3. Antelope Mask (2nd image).

Context: Jones writes about the different styles found in Eastern Nigeria and he discusses the unique characteristics of the Ogoni specific style. He notes, “The Ogoni are an obscure group of people who seem to have become isolated on the Delta margin between the Ijo, Ibibio and Ibo, where they developed their own culture and styles of carving. Little is known about them and no one has studied the masquerades and dramatic plays for which they were made. Their sculpture has been grouped by some with Ibibio, but their masks were very different and although some of the more stylised Anang figures are very similar to some Ogoni ones, most of the figures which I have seen were not. Ogoni masks representing human faces had their own specific, indeed unique style. They were small, covering only the upper part o the wearer’s face, and projecting forward from it. They were coloured white and had a hinged lower jaw and behind it a grille formed of strips of cane which represented the teeth. Some were carved in a bulging, rounded style and looked as though they were intended to be caricatures, others were more graceful and refined. Another form represented a goat or antelope and was carved without a separate lower jaw and designed to fit over the wearer’s face. Two very old ones collected by Murray were small with short horns and were carved in a rounded and highly stylised mode. Others carved more recently were large and in a naturalistic mode representing long-horned antelopes and coloured realistically with brown and white pigments. It is unusual to find antelope heads carved in the form of a face mask.” (Jones, 1984, pp.189-190).

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 14/1/2008]