IDNO

P.71398.GIJ

Description

A close up view of an Ikem masquerader wearing a female head mask on top of a square frame covered in cloth. The mask is very naturalistic and shows refined features and black hair and an elaborate coiffure made of twisted or curved “horns”. The side profile of the face shows dark eyebrows, inset eyes, nose, and lips (outlined in a darker shade). The ears are carved with an earring. Next to the masquerader is the “attendant” of the masquerade. In the (blurred) background are buildings and people.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; South Eastern Nigeria; Umuahia

Cultural Affliation

Ibibio; Anang

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: Image reproduced in Jones, 1984, p. 185 as Figure 93. Also see Jones, 1989, Plate 5, p.14 which reproduces a drawing similar to style as in this photograph. The caption reads, “Ikem masquerade. Ohuhu Ibo or Anang Ibibio. Female head with the hair dressed into five curved ‘horns’. This is a modern carving painted in oils and varnished; in older carvings the face and neck were coved in skin. (Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. Drawing by Dr K.F. Campbell.)

A more contemporary photograph of a similar style is found in Plate 330 with the description, “The Igbo artist Obunyan Okpori of Amaokwe Item with an unfinished mask (yet to be covered with skin) for the Oiyima masqueeade in the “Cross River’” style. Photo by Keith Nicklin, 1977.

Context: “The Cross River masquerade called Ikem spread from Old Calabar to the Ibibio country in the early decades of the twentieth century and Anang carvers were producing by the early 1930s, if not well before this, skin-covered heads in this style equal to the best that had been made in the Ejagham country and in Old Calabar. There were certain minor differences that distinguished these Anang heads, the most obvious being their drooping upper eyelids. The Ikem masquerade and heads in this modified Cross River style diffused into the Umuahia area and as far north as Ozu Item. But the Ikem masquerade seems to have inspired the Akang to produce similar masquerades and their own variant of these heads in what was locally held to be a completely naturalistic style. The hair, eyes, and lips were painted with a clear varnish. The associated masquerade, which received different names in different areas, was spread widely to their Ibibio and Ibo neighbours. During the colonial period there was an increasing demand for Anang sculpture but primarily for masks, heads and figures in this modern naturalistic style. For it was a very successful compromise between the Traditional Anang(Ibibio) and the ‘traditional European’ style. meaning by the latter term Victorian naturalism and the classical Greek sculpture which inspired it.” (Jones 1984, pp.184-185)

Cole and Aniakor also provide the name of the masquerade that this type of headdress was used. “Analogous headdresses of “crocodiles” and females with fine, hornlike coiffures are used in Amaoke Item for the Oiyima masquerade. They also refer to the style that Jones had described as Cross River. “Quite similar headdresses were also made for the Ikem masquerades by the Efut Ejagham of Calabar, and Jones documented another example of a male type near Item. Jones’ designation of “Cross River Style” for these and other skin covered masks is understandable since the peoples of the region carved for one another in several substyles, traded dances and associations, and thus confounded any but the most broad classifications.” (Cole and Aniakor, 1984, p. 182)

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

Jones, G.I. 1989, Ibo Art (Shire).

Cole, H. & C. Aniakor, 1984. Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos (Museum of Cultural History, University of California)

Nicklin, K. 1974. “Nigerian Skin Covered Masks, “ African Arts 7(3):8-15, 67-68, 92.

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 7/11/2007]